Rainbow Heart

Chapter 8

Red was learning the basics of education. He already knew how to read, his ABCs, and numbers. Barney still wasn't sure how he managed to pull that off. Apparently, according to Red, Orange was also very smart and an extremely quick learner. Orange was very important in helping Barney to teach them things.

"Okay, Orange. So basically addition is taking two groups of numbers and putting them together. So if you took the number two and counted three higher, what would you have?"

Orange looked down at his fingers, and took a minute to let his brain process. "Um... Five?"

"Yeah! You're doing great!" Barney exclaimed.

"I'm sorry." Orange said, hanging his head.

Barney was immediately concerned. "Why for?"

Orange fiddled a little, pulling at loose threads on his onesie. "Teaching me simple things is probably frustrating. It's like dealing with a man child." He sighed. "All I am is a liability."

"No, no!" Barney insisted. "Never! You were extremely disadvantaged in life. It's not your fault. If anything it's your parents fault. They're the ones who should've been educating their child."

"Exactly." Orange huffed. "Now you're stuck with my burden! You shouldn't have to worry about stupid stuff like this!"

Barney shook his head, pulling Orange's chin and making eye contact. "Listen, Orange." Barney said seriously. "You are not a liability. You are not a burden or a problem. You are my boyfriend. And I want the best for you. I want to help you achieve your goals and make you more self reliant. I'm going to help you learn math and you can't stop me, got it?"

Orange blushed, nodding. "Okay..." Soon, they returned to their lesson. Red wasn't lying when he said that Orange was a quick learner. He breezed through addition within the hour. Soon, Barney ran out of worksheets.

"Hey, look at that!" Barney said, excitement creeping into his tone. "You're a fucking pro!"

Orange grinned at him. "What can I say? I'm just the best."

"Hell yeah you are!" Barney shouted, high fiving him. "God, you should do math more often!"

Orange shook his head. "Hell no. That was exhausting. I think I'm going to take a nap. You wanna join?"

Barney shrugged. "Nah, I have some things to do. But I'll join you soon."

He nodded, getting up and walking to their bedroom. After Orange was out of sight, Barney went and grabbed the car keys. He had some things planned for the weekend. A nice weekend for him and whichever one of his many-colored boyfriends wanted to spend it with him. Hopefully, his plans would be good enough that it wouldn't be Blue or Purple.

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When he woke up, Orange was cuddled underneath a pile of blankets in Barney's arms. It was nice and Orange would've stayed there, but it was so hot he couldn't stand it. He kicked off the covers and went to the bathroom. For a minute, all he could do was examine his face in the mirror. A light dusting of freckles, pale orange skin, bright orange hair and eyes. He wasn't unattractive... Just... Strange. He hadn't had a large access to mirrors in his childhood and hasn't seen other humans very often. The humans he did see were always his parents and they had normal skin colors. Now that he was out and about and living amongst normal people, Orange realized just how strange his appearance was. He wondered privately how Barney had so easily accepted his affliction. Was it pity? Or has he genuinely liked Red when he met him? Did he like Red, almost a complete stranger, enough to accept him even after such a short period of time? Why? There were so many questions swirling through his head, he didn't even notice a certain emotion stirring deep within him.