ringing true - a mini ii story

chapter 3

I woke up groggily, barely aware of where I was, before noticing the clock on the wall. According to it, it was almost noon, which meant... Painty's party was about to start soon!

This revelation woke me up real quick, a little too quick in fact, because when I tried to spring up to my feet I hit my head directly on one of the shelves, knocking all of the Invisi-Bows down to the floor. I picked them all up, trying my best to neatly rearrange them the exact way they were, then took the green one I'd decided on taking the previous night, as well grabbing Painty's gift, hastily juggling both while making my way out of the lab.

Upon exiting the Dr. Fizz machine I covered my eyes, trying to not blind myself from the midday brightness of the sun. Still with my hand over my eyes, I shuffled towards the hotel, using the shade of the trees to not have to blind myself so much while walking.

After my eyes got used to the sunlight, I ran the rest of the distance to the hotel, leaving me exhausted and out of breath when I pushed through the front door. I could hear party-like noises going on in some nearby room, and started heading in that direction, but was stopped by a nearby "Hey, Test Tube."

I turned, seeing Pickle at the receptionist's desk. He was on his phone, feet propped up on the desk. "You goin' to the party?"
"Y-yeah..." I tried to hide the gift I had behind my back, though I was pretty sure Pickle had already noticed it.
"Cool, cool. I didn't wanna go, so OJ's makin' me be the receptionist for today. Just gotta-" Pickle grunted, shifting his feet off the table to slide a paper and a pen toward me, then continued, "-alright, yeah, just sign here and you should be good to go to the party."

I picked up the pen, and wrote my name in a box right below one that said "Fan", though my tiredness made it come out a bit more wobbly then my usual writing. I slid the pen back to Pickle, who shot some finger guns in my general direction while saying, "Alriiight, have a good time at the party!"
"You t- I mean, you have a good day-!" I quickly walked away, trying to hide my blush from Pickle. I navigated past a few rooms, until I found one labeled "Paintbrush's Birthday Party!!!" with doodles of flowers around it.

Now was the big moment, I just gotta walk in, and give them the gift, shouldn't be too hard, right? I straightened out my bowtie, made sure the ribbon was tied nicely on the gift, and opened the door.

Inside was a solid 20 people, all cramming themselves in different corners of the room, idly chatting with each other. There were the usual party things, like the room being dimmed in favor of letting a disco ball illuminate the room, or the table in the far corner with a massive bowl of fruit punch alongside other snacks. I couldn't see Painty amongst the crowd, though I did spot Fan going to the bowl of punch for a refill. I shimmied through to get to him, waving to get his attention.

"Oh, hey Test Tube! I'd say you're a little late but I myself only came in a few minutes ago..."
"D-do you know where Painty is?"
"Um, I haven't seen them yet but I would think they'd be in here, right? It is their party after all-"
"LIGHTBULB! I TOLD YOU NOT TO-" Both me and Fan went quiet, looking to where the sudden noise came from.
"Aw, Painty-brush, you look so pretty now!" Painty had walked into the room, and Lightbulb was still trying to place little flowers in their hair. They huffed and puffed, but still let Lightbulb slide a couple more flowers in.

The entire room erupted into a loud cacophony consisting primarily of people yelling "HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAINTBRUSH!", to which Fan joined in, yelling it so loud I almost thought I'd go deaf.

Everyone started giving their gifts to Painty, though just about every singly one had thought of just giving them either some kind of drawing or some more art supplies. While they took the gifts with joy, I could see they had expected a wider variety in the gifts they'd get. Soon almost everyone had given their gifts, everyone... but me.

By now everyone had seen the pretty little green box I held in my hands, as well as my awkward stance and wobbly legs, and had moved to the sides of the room, basically pushing me out next to Painty. I blushed, trying to explain, "Um.. hey Painty- so I um, noticed that you have some, um, problems with managing your emotions, so um, I made this thing for you, and um-"

Painty took the gift from my hands, carefully untying the ribbon, then ripping apart the wrapping, revealing the box on the inside. They blushed, figuring out what the gift was before having even opened it. They gently took the lid off, revealing the neatly placed ring inside, which caused Painty to blush even harder. They looked at me, then back at the ring. I took the lid of the box from their hand, so that they could take the ring, taking the box itself afterwards.

Painty examined the ring, seeing how the light reflected off it in interesting ways, noting the barely noticeable switch on the side. They clicked it, seeing how the color next to it switched from yellow, to blue, to red, as well as some others, each helpfully labelled with an emotion. They switched it back to yellow, then slid it onto their hand. Almost immediately after the smile on their face grew wider, their stance became much more open, their overall demeanor much more joyful.

In a swift motion, Painty moved over to me, gently putting their hands on either side of my face, pulling me in...

Our eyes locked, less than an inch away, our lips moments away from touching. Painty's eyes were reddish-orange, so similar to the flames they were known for. While I was lost in their eyes, Painty closed the gap between us, our lips finally connecting. I heard slight gasps from the people around us, barely audible murmurs talking about how unexpected this all was.

Our bodies touched, Painty's comfortable warmth felt so nice, and I closed my eyes, leaning into the kiss myself. I couldn't tell if this moment lasted seconds, minutes, or even hours, but the pure bliss of the here and now made me hope that I could be like this forever, embraced by the one I love most...

Finally, they pulled away, and the two of us giggled as we wiped slight bits of saliva off our faces, before Painty took my hands in theirs, saying simply, "I love you."

After the party was over, we were the talk of the hotel for much time to come, we'd even been caught walking out of the party holding each other's hands. Today went so much better than I'd ever thought it would, and I let my mind wander to many different places while Painty led me to their room.

When we got inside, Painty climbed into their bed, inviting me to come in. I closed the door behind me, and they beckoned for me to join them on the bed. I obliged, sitting closer to Painty's side of the bed. They took off the ring, their bright grin still on their face.

"Honestly, Testy, this thing is so great! But- why did you add those other emotions?"
"It was as a sort of, 'stabilization' is the right word I think? All emotions are good in balance, and sometimes staying purely joyful is a little unhealthy, I think, haha-"
"Ah, fair enough..."
"Don't worry, we're fine with being happy in this moment, we did just 'become a thing', after all."
We giggled to each other once again, and looking at the time we realized it was way past midnight by this point, and the two of us were clearly too tired to keep rambling to each other. We rubbed against each other, and Painty fell asleep pretty quickly.

I watched their chest gently rise and fall, so close to mine, which brought attention to my bowtie. I took it off, placing it on that weird nightstand shelf thing next to the framed photo. I saw their cute little flag in the cup, dragging my finger along its edge, trying my best to memorize the exact order the colors on the flag, before letting myself slide deeper into the bed.

I once again squeezed myself as close as I could to Painty, rubbing against their wooden handle, and I put a hand over their body in a hugging motion. My eyes could barely stay open, so I closed them myself, letting myself drift away into the wonderful world of dreams, excitedly awaiting tomorrow.