Carlos' best white lab coat had been torn to shreds by the miniature militia's projectiles, so he was allowed to take a red flannel shirt from the lost and found which fit him perfectly. He waited in the Arby's on the trunk of his car, watching the sunset. Teddy hadn't been kidding when he said he'd missed most of the day. He didn't really mind. Sunsets had become his favourite part of the day. They filled the sky with colours. Fiery reds, dandelion yellows, marshmallow pinks, along with colours that shouldn't even been there like lavender purple. Above the Arby's mysterious lights danced and they were always at their most visible against the colourful backdrop. Nowhere in the world had sunsets like Night Vale.
"What is it? Wha– what danger are we in? What mystery needs to be explored?" Cecil panted. The poor man sounded like he'd run the whole way from the radio station, a good five-minute sprint. Perhaps he should have said a little more than 'Meet me in Arby's car park as soon as you can'.
"Nothing. After everything that happened...I just wanted to see you." Carlos said softly. The pair had never really met without pretence. There was always science to be done, league meetings to be discussed, paths accidentally crossed. This was the lie they both maintained.
"Oh?" Cecil's voice trembled as he joined him on the trunk of the car.
"I used to think the sun was setting at the wrong time." He sighed. "but then I realised that time doesn't work in Night Vale, and that none of the clocks are real. Sometimes things seem so strange, or malevolent, and then you find that, underneath, it was something else altogether. Something pure, and innocent."
"I know what you mean." Cecil replied, and Carlos knew in his heart that he did. So many outsiders, himself once included, thought Night Vale's strange traits made the town broken or dangerous. Maybe it was dangerous, in fact it definitely was, but it wasn't malicious and certainly wasn't broken. It was beautiful in its own way.
For a few moments, they sat in silence, watching the colours blend together like loose dye, creating combinations that Carlos could barely comprehend.
"I made you a trophy." Cecil said at last. "But in the hurry, I left it on my desk."
"Oh yeah?" Carlos laughed. "That's okay. You can give it to me some other time. Maybe over that coffee you were talking about?"
"Yeah...yeah I'd like that." Cecil nodded.
Since moving to Night Vale Carlos had seen 364 sunsets, but that night's was the first to paint the world a new. The few certainties he'd had were gone. Even his team were gone. That might have been for the best though. He needed a team that would want to explore and protect the town if they were to survive the storm that Strex Corp was bringing. He'd ask around, maybe pull a few strings with his new podcast loving interloper friends and build a team that was fit for Night Vale, rather than a team that wanted to make Night Vale for them.
But all that was in the future. All that mattered was that moment. He thought of the lights above him, working in a way which he somehow understood perfectly and yet not at all. He thought of Cecil, leaning on his shoulder, who worked much the same way. There were a thousand things he could have said in that moment, an entire year's worth of confessions, but those too were for the future. He leaned back, letting the warmth of the evening air wash over him, imagining the life that was about to start, and he fell in love instantly.
YOU ARE READING
An Entire Year of You
ФанфикEvery love story has two perspectives. Cecil has told his in great detail. But when Carlos first arrived in the small town of Night Vale he had no intention of falling in love. In fact, he had no intention of staying at all. In 2012, a stranger visi...
