miss federal beuro of investigation (color au)

2 : swatches

purple tights, red pinstriped skirt, hot pink blouse, green pumps and an orange bag.
this is amazing.
auburn hair and deep blue eyes. ivory skin and rosy cheeks. mirrors were now friend instead of foe. she had spent the night before at the hardware store, looking at paint swatches and familiarizing herself with the names of colors and the beautiful shades that matched them. she managed to take one of every swatch they had, and she taped them to her bedroom wall, scattered and unorganized, she was in awe. she had been missing out on a beautiful part of the world.

orange juice. why did they name a fruit after a color? which came first, the color or the fruit?

wow, strawberries, wow.

the sky, last night she fell in love with the sky. the sun set and the colors, though she didn't know the names when she saw them, she was mesmerized, by the angry colors and the sad colors mixing with the calm and gentle. the stars, still white as they were the night before but they twinkled a hundred times brighter. the moon was still gray. bland. boring. gray.

Cynthia, at the hardware store, collecting swatches, decided she could never fall in love with the color gray. there were hundreds of shades of the color, but it was simple. monotonous and full of grief, gray is cold.

stepping outside she was disappointed to find her car just as silver as it was yesterday. the interior the same dusty gray. her car was bland and boring. am I bland and boring too? but who knew grass was green, and the sky was blue? people were many shades and flowers could be rainbows? who knew the world could be so amazing?

-

she drove, only this time, she payed attention to every color and detail, attaching a name to each shade trying to memorize them all. red, stop. green, go. yellow, yield. trees, green. sun, yellow. dirt is brown-ish, was there a name for that?

-

paranoia swept over Cynthia as she entered the office.

and it hit her,
is seeing color because of a patient...breaking the rules?

does it matter?

finding out if it would didn't sound appealing. she needed this job.

just don't mention colors.

-

it wasn't surprising that the f.b.i. building was gray, every single part of it. even the paintings on the wall were gray, the nature ones, portraits, still life's, all gray. everyone there wore gray, a few prices of clothing colored but they probably weren't wearing color on purpose. she stood out. completely. in her bright clashing outfit, someone else who saw color would see her outfit and have to squint with how loud it is.

finding Jacob was a lot easier than avoiding him. he seemed to be everywhere all at once. Cynthia and Jacob had been friends since middle school, he was who hooked her up with this job in the first place. Cynthia  also didn't trust herself to keep quiet about her new found love, colors. so she tried so hard to avoid him as she walked to her cubicle.

7:52 a.m.

"Goodmorning Cynthia," Jacob startled the younger girl. "Jacob. Hi," avoiding eye contact, the paranoia grew.

oh god he already knows, I'm going to lose this job, he's the c.e.o.'s assistant. dear god. I'll be fired.

"do you want me to bring you some coffee? my guy doesn't wake until 9," his slight smile was charming.
"no, no I'm okay, thankyou though," his smile faded, it was sad.
"oh, okay, have a nice day, I'll see you at lunch then I guess?"
"yeah, yeah that'll work, see you then."

7:56 a.m.

she turned to look at Jacob walk away as she noticed, he was wearing all gray, except for his red socks. it was a nice look on him too.

-

Amanda led a simple life. she worked at a local resteraunt, if you could call it that, they mostly served coffee with the occasional sandwiches and chips. she loved it there though. she knew how to crochet and how to debate with any one over anything. t.v. was her best friend, she would watch an episode minimum every night from what Cynthia had seen.

Amanda was sad. lonely. all of her friends had found their color, married and in love they were happy. she knew how much they enjoyed colors, and how she wished she could see them too. in a way, Cyn felt bad for her, Amanda is her color, is she hers? at the same time there was nothing she could do about it. Amanda is in California, Cynthia is in Ohio. Cynthia is broke in Ohio with no money for. plane ticket and no want to move.

Amanda is pretty. Amanda is very pretty. with her freckles and petite frame. she knew what clothes looked best and which length skirt was long enough to feel comfortable in. she had small curves, her back, her stomach, she was happy in her body. she had no reason to hate it but even that doesn't stop most people. she looked so good in green. her friends made sure to tell her and help her find her favorite shirts in all the best shades she couldn't see so when her "prince charming sees you he'll see you in the best color possible," her prince charming isn't a prince, and they don't know that, does she, know that?

Cynthia didn't even know she had a princess charming rather than a prince. she didn't think she had any charming, she didn't find one more attractive than the other. sexuality didn't really matter in humans though, if they saw color they saw color.
scientist wondered, for a long time,  if animals did, and if it worked the same with them as it did with us. they never really found a way to experiment to find out. most humans didn't care to fund them either.

Amanda read many stories, of people finding their color in many odd ways. a few stories of people who didn't remember it, or who had started to see so young they didn't remember the gray tones and view. she read of people dying color blind, some caring, some not. she read of people who saw color and then their color died, and they found it again, that was very rare though.

Amanda was in love with colors, every aspect of it, without ever needing to see them.