Brothers Always Stick Together. || an Inanimate Insanity darkfic

Arguments.

Paintbrush stirred the sugar into their tea, bored out of their mind. It had nearly been a year since Yin-Yang had been reported missing. Mephone4 had randomly disappeared days after questioning, and the police were wondering if it really had been him. But, looking back at that note, it was obvious that it couldn't have. It was way too well written, professional and even with her name spelt correctly. That was something you definitely never saw in Mephone4; he was a dyslexic after all. Though, it didn't really make sense how he was, being a robot designed to work you'd think he would know all about that stuff, maybe even have some sort of advanced speech or whatever. But, it was still comforting having a silly, disorganized and predictable host, even if she was a bit stubborn or quick to swing between moods. Mephone4 was a good host. He wouldn't ever do such a thing, Paintbrush was certain.

Taking a sip of their sugared, iced tea, they held the cup with both hands as they leaned against the kitchen counter, stretching their legs one by one. Their bristles laid idly behind their wooden head, stained with the colors Lightbulb had used on them in order to make their most recent painting on the Hotel's fence. Their bandanna wrapped carefully around their "neck", giving them a chill, yet also prideful aura, especially with the customized color scheme they had been given. It was nice to wear your pride, or at least it was to them. A comforting feeling of acceptance and healing.

It was early in the morning, about 7 AM to be exact. The lighting outside was beautiful, so much that Paintbrush could very faintly see Trophy walking around taking pictures of the sky and other fascinating parts of nature in the backyard. Everything felt so peaceful, it was as if Yin-Yang had never left, as if all their worries were gone because of such a great awakening. But that only made them feel guilty. They were supposed to be worried, supposed to be crying over their missing partners. But apparently their mind had decided against that for the past few days.

It kind of just felt dull to them. Like no hope was left in their body after so many long weeks of praying to no one in particular for their partners to be safe. Lightbulb, on the other hand, was always so certain that they would show back up, without any scratches or any traumatizing story to tell. She'd been waiting with such a strong amount of false hope, hope she was so stuck on believing that it would come true. But it didn't, they never came back. At least, not for a long time. 

From the months after months of waiting that Paintbrush had to do to see them again, they weren't sure if they could wait any longer. It was too long of a wait, too agonizing. The small amount of crippling pain they felt from Yin-Yang's disappearance was no longer there, replaced by a numb, depressing feeling of coldness and fading. It scared Paintbrush greatly of course, they wanted to care and worry about the two boys they loved the most. But their mind wasn't letting them, and it was growing to infuriate them even worse day by day.

Lightbulb walked into the room, yawning and stretching her arms above her head, the light illuminating from her bulb giving her a bright, welcoming touch, her paws touching the soft fuzzy floor beneath her as she walked. Her eyes scanned the living room and the kitchen connected to it, not paying much attention until she'd caught notice of Paintbrush, her lips curling upward into a cheeky grin as she began to sneak over, thoughts about how good she could catch Paintbrush off guard flooded her mind, her legs crouching down slightly, her paws making silent contact with the counter separating the two of them, leaning against the counter just enough to get a close look without being able to clank her glass against the wood. She sat there, in an incredibly still position, waiting for the perfect time, before slamming her paws into Paintbrush's back, causing them to yelp and spill their tea all over the ground, whirling around and growling, their hair sparking and threatening to blow up into flames any second.

" Woops! Sorry, Painty! " Lightbulb giggling, jumping over the counter with ease, causing Paintbrush to back up just slightly as they picked up their now emptied tea mug, the only things left inside of it being a singular ice block and a few drops of their tea, the rest having escaped to the luckily smooth, sanded wooden floor of the kitchen, to which Paintbrush sighed and put their mug onto the counter top, grabbing a rag and getting onto their knees, cleaning the mess that Lightbulb had made with her harmless and playful ambush.