Pigment (Millard Nullings X Reader)

Of Peculiar Talent

Miss Peregrine paced the classroom, and held her pipe in her right hand. In front of her was a huge black chalkboard with Chromokinesis written in large cursive letters across the board. At the desk I was sitting at, The Bird placed a brightly colored picture book, a little girl's dress (perhaps Claire's?) and a black and white newspaper. 

Apparently, the objective of today was to figure out how to manipulate my powers in more than just one way. Miss Peregrine wanted to experiment with what I was already able to do, as well as teach the basics about peculiarity in general.

"I would like to start this lesson off with a simple warm up," Miss Peregrine said. "Would you mind finding a page in that book, and change the color of one of the rabbits please?"

I flipped to a random page, to see two white rabbits having a picnic on top of long green grass. It slightly hurt my eyes to look at it on a general spectrum, but I made sure to focus on the first bunny. It had a little sweater vest and bow tie on, sitting casually on top of a blue checkerboard blanket. 

I put my finger on the rabbit's head, and imagined that it's white, fictional fur turned a soft brown. Almost immediately, the rabbit obeyed in a way, turning into a lovely shade of brown. 

"Good." Miss Peregrine seemed to smile, then she gestured to the black and white newspaper. "Now, can you reverse the colours of this to become white words and pictures on black paper, please?"

I did as I was told, with quick results. However, this time, I didn't feel a need to touch it, but instead I just looked at it with Miss Peregrine's idea in mind. My teacher gave me a polite applause, then went back over to the chalkboard.

"Chromokinesis is the ability to manipulate the colors and hues of whatever you choose. While this isn't necessarily a common ability, it has been seen enough to be catergorized into three different divisions."

With this, Miss Peregrine drew three bullet points on the board, and wrote down the three categories. The first was called Hue, the second being Saturation, and the third, Visibility.

"The first is the most common, where people can simply change the color of the object given to them. Normally, this comes along with the ability to change the saturation of an object, which can be explained in itself, I believe. Most people with your ability are able to do just these two, but now I believe you have officiated a new category."

She drew a line under the word Visibility. I suddenly became very scared of what was to come next. Did visibility mean the ability to befriend invisible people? I mean, I think Millard and I are good acquaintances, but maybe that was just it. So really, I was failing at even befriending invisible people, so in a way, I don't have that ability....

God, why was it that stupid humor was my way of keeping myself sane? I already knew what Miss Peregrine was going to say before she even said it. Perhaps I felt the need to find another strange and logical answer to my problems instead of looking them straight on. 

"Only three other peculiars have been reported with the ability to manipulate the visiblity of things. And while you may not know it yourself, I have reasons to believe that you can manipulate all three abilities that Chromokinesis offers. Miss (L/N), will you please pick up the dress in front of you?"

I did as she said, and The Bird described what she believed should happen if I were to make the object disappear. While the material would still be there, no one should be able to see it.

Key word being should.

"Think long and hard, Miss (L/N). You are so much stronger than you believe you are, and everything you have done thus far has led up to this," Miss Peregrine stated earnestly.

Hell, even I slowly became excited to see an end result. I wanted to have it disappear badly, so I focused on the material until my brain hurt. I knew the material, and rubbed it against my fingers. I wanted the pastel flowers printed on it to leave, so it would look like nothing was there.

Miss Peregrine gasped as the material slowly disappeared, but it only happened for a split second. It felt like a blood vessel in my hand popped, and I let go of the dress for it only to drop back onto the desk. I leaned back against my chair and closed my eyes.

My head was throbbing.

"I believe that we had a very successful first class, don't you, Miss (L/N)?" The Bird seemed a little more than just overjoyed. "I'd like see you in this classroom in another two weeks at this same time. You are now excused."

* * *

I took a bath afterwards, just to relieve me of my stress. In fact, I probably would have passed out in the tub if it wasn't for the fact that the water cooled down.

I changed into a simple outfit, and made my way downstairs. Apparently, my homework was to read The Tales of Peculiar Vol. 2, since there was a short story about an invisible man and his color-manipulating wife.

Goodness, you would think that being surrounded by peculiarness would make you feel normal. No matter how nice or funny the children were, I always knew that I would feel left out, just a bit. After all, I wasn't as charming as Heather was, and seemed to get a heavy amount of attention from The Bird publicly.

"How did your lesson with The Bird go?"

I snapped back into reality, and found Emma sitting next to me on the living room sofa. She had her hands folded in her lap, and she gave me a pretty smile. I guess when I felt alone, I would always have Emma!

"It went well," I said, hoping not to talk too much about it. "She gave me bloody homework to do, though."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Really? She's never done that to anyone else."

Huh, that was odd. I mean, it wasn't a hard task, but it was still strange.

"Okay, no," Emma added, "Millard is often given tasks to do. Miss Peregrine constantly gives him books to read, but I think it's to stop him from moping all the time."

"Millard being overdramatic?" I asked with fake sarcasm. "I would never have thought that!"

Emma just rolled her eyes and snorted. "Goodness, it's as if you two were made for each other!"

I didn't know what to say. What did she even mean by that?

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

She just shrugged. "You act just like him! You're both smart, weird, and always over the top."

"Is that a good thing?"

Emma gave me a bright smile, and said: "Of course! I wouldn't have it any other way. God knows we didn't need another Enoch."

"Bollocks!" I heard Enoch say from another room.

Emma just waved him away, and turned back towards me. "So, what does Miss P. want you to do, then?"

"Read some book called Tales of the Peculiar," I said with a shrug. "'Parently there's a character I'll relate to, or something."

"I know Millard would easily help you if you can't find the book," Emma said. "I think it would make his day if you visited him. He often locks himself in his room, reading. Well, either that or he disappears to the village. Don't know why, though."

"Visit Millard for help," I repeated, standing up. "Got it. I'm gonna go find that book now."

Emma waved me off, and I almost tripped over Enoch as I walked out of the dining room. He stuck his tongue out at me, and I did the same, walking off.

Library first, then go see Millard. What could go wrong?