Feeling Blue: A Smurfs Fanfiction

Chapter Thirty

As far as Gargamel and Papa knew Brainy was dead.

He wasn't though. The blast had blinded Gargamel temporarily so Brainy just had time to avoid a fatal shot: it had snapped the edge off his glasses, ripped part of the knee off his trousers, and had burnt one arm and the side of his chest. He was alive. He was falling...mind swimming... thoughts blurring. What was happening? He groggily tried to recollect what was happening, to understand why the ground was rushing up to meet him. Pain. Burning pain. No wand... Then he heard Gutsy's panicked call of his name, having no doubt noticed his free-fall. Gutsy... His thoughts clicked into place as he remembered the hat trick they did last time they were going from a high place. Unfortunately he remembered so late that it only slowed the fall a bit and he still landed painfully near the bench Grace and the bag of smurfs were. The dizzy, pain-filled, brainiac cursed under his breath as he tried to stand. His glasses – having had their side broken – had fallen off his face so he could barely see.

"Brainy, you okay?" Grace asked, quickly picking up the injured smurf and his glasses, putting both in her bag so no one noticed him.
"Hm?" he asked, groggily, struggling to remain conscious. Putting his glasses on and holding them in place did nothing to lessen his quickly blurring vision.
"Ah jeez...Did you get hurt?" Gutsy asked, concerned. He got a lost, kind of vague look from Brainy. "How many fingers am I holding up?" He held them pretty close: Brainy stared blankly at them. It looked like ten but he knew that was impossible. Plus his vision was beginning to swirl even more and he was trying to not faint.
"What happened?" Star asked, the question finally being asked.
"Things went wrong...Don't even have the wand anymore..." he murmured. He winced, the pain in his head tightening like an elastic band.

"What do we do now then?" Star asked him. He wished she hadn't asked him that – more so he wished they weren't all relying on him to know what to do. He had been trying to put that bossy (probably worthless) version of himself in a metaphorical coffin. Plus how was he supposed to lead this kind of thing? Gutsy was the brave one! Papa was the one in cha- Although Papa admittedly couldn't do much at the present time...
"I-no idea..." he admitted, gnawing on his lip. He couldn't think and the headache wasn't helping. At all.

                                                --------------------------------------------------

It was a few hours until Brainy's dizziness subsided. There was still a deep headache and pain from the burn but it had at least lessened. With his newly-found energy he was pacing, muttering self-deprecating comments.
"Brainy, ya need to stop blaming yourself," Clumsy said, shrinking under the glare that Brainy shot his way.
"Why would you care?" Brainy snapped, the memory of Clumsy stopping being friends with him threatening to push its way to the forefront of his mind.
"Wh- Why wouldn't I?! Clumsy retorted. Brainy just shook his head and carried on pacing, considering ideas then rejecting them as he tried to think of some kind of way to save Papa. Grace and Patrick shot Gutsy a 'well?!' look. Gutsy sighed softly and stepped in the path of the pacing smurf.
"You need a break. How about a picnic on the balcony?" he suggested. Brainy hesitated: he wanted to spend time with Gutsy but his wants were hardly important when Papa was in such danger. "Oh, like a date."

Brainy froze, feeling colour rushing to his cheeks, barely registering the others 'awhs' at the situation. Had he expected his first ever date to be during a life or death situation? No. Did he, prior to Gutsy's confession the other day, expect to ever go on a date? Also no. He noticed Gutsy was starting to look worried and realised he hadn't answered yet.
"It sounds great," Brainy admitted. "But with the Papa situation-"
"Which we can't do anything about without a plan and you need to catch up on rest," Gutsy cut in. Brainy hesitated, glancing at Star for her suggestion on what to do. She nodded rapidly giving him a 'duh!' look.

The brainiac, with a smile, agreed. This may not have been the best time for a date but, bleakly, if things kept going badly it may be the only opportunity. It was bleak, he knew, but he couldn't bring himself to care.
"Yes!" Gutsy exclaimed, throwing his arms around the smaller smurf, nearly knocking him flying. He was quick to steady him though. "Sorry. I'm just a little excited."
"Seems to be more than a 'little' to me," Star teased: Gutsy shot her a glare to shut her up.
"I'll run to the shop to get you guys some food," Grace said, almost squealing at how cute it was. New romance... she remembered those days with Patrick.

Before long the two were outside, sat on a napkin as a picnic basket.
"What does one do on a date?" Brainy asked, tilting his head.
"Beats me," Gutsy said with a chuckle, adjusting his smurffriend's lopsided glasses. "I don't think there is any set rule though. Just talk?"
"Talking is good," Brainy murmured. "I like talking to you." Gutsy smiled, taking the other smurf's hand in his.
"Have I mentioned how lucky I am to have you?" Gutsy asked, smirking slightly when Brainy blushed.
"I'm the lucky one, Gutsy," Brainy corrected. "I'm glad it was you who decided to be nice to me."
"I'm glad too."

The two were silent for a moment, nibbling on some of the raspberries that Grace had brought.
"Whatever they are these are nice," Brainy commented.
"Not as nice as you," Gutsy replied. It was undeniably cheesy but it made the brainiac smile which was the intended outcome.
"That was so bad," he said with an eyeroll.
"Then why are you smiling?" Gutsy challenged, grinning cheekily. Brainy huffed, trying to come up with a not cheesy answer, and decided it was best to say nothing at all.

"I borrowed this from Patrick," Gutsy said once they had eaten. 'This' proved to be an MP3 player, plugged into a speaker. "I was wondering if you would maybe like to dance?"
"I'd love to," Brainy admitted. "I don't really know how to dance though."
"Neither do I," Gutsy replied. "But it's with you. I don't mind how daft I look." Gutsy got to his feet, offering a hand to the other. "May I have this dance?" Brainy paused but only for a second. He took the offered dance.
"You may."

Neither was good – and the staring into each other's eyes certainly wasn't helping – but neither was chronically bad either. Their hands remained locked together, both smiling. Gutsy's hands felt warm and safe and protective to Brainy. Safe. Safe even now when they were dimensions away from home on a rescue mission. Gutsy always seemed to do the impossible for Brainy though.

Eventually though they came to a stop, it slowly getting too dark to really dance properly. Matters turned more serious.
"So how are you holding up with them thinking you're dead?" Gutsy asked him. This was the first time someone else had said it aloud and hearing it put into words made Brainy's mind click into place. They thought he was dead. Gargamel thought he was dead. Slowly, as a plan came into motion, Brainy smiled.
"Gutsy, you're a genius!"
"Huh?" Now Gutsy was confused.
"I have an idea!"