Mucha Azucar Pt. 1

When we came to, we were both sitting on a planet that appeared to be covered in several tiny glowing balls that were sensitive to UV light. It was mostly dark, but those balls lit everything up for us. We were next to each other.

I looked at Luca and he did not look like he usually did but he was still ... attractive. His hair was blue, his eyes were golden-yellow, and he was over a foot taller than me. His skin was very dark indigo, almost completely black. I stared up at him as he flashed me a smile. He still had that perfect set of teeth on him.

"Woah," he said to me. His voice sounded deep and echoed far. I laughed. My voice was shrill but cute. We both laughed and continued to at our voices. Then, I glanced down at me. I could see that my hair was still quite long but neon-pink and my skin was dark blue. When I saw my hands, I smiled. They had four fingers, and not five. 

"How do I look?" I asked him, placing my hands on my hips.

"Beautiful," he said, softly. I smiled at him, and he grinned. "What about me?" he asked. It was one of the only times I had seen Luca behave timidly around me. 

"You're so very handsome, just like always," I mustered. His indigo mouth parted, and I could see his lime-green tongue. I gasped at first but then I smiled.

"What is it?" he asked. 

"Your tongue. It's green!" I said, in excited glee. He laughed deeply and I couldn't help but feel close to him. 

"Let's have a look, shall we?" he asked. I nodded and took his arm. We walked down the muddy road. The leaves on the trees were pink and the trunks were so very midnight black. I walked toward one to observe the bark. I reached out but he took my hand and pulled it back. 

"We haven't an idea about this world yet. We must be vigilant, yeah?" 

"You're right. But I just wanted to--"

With that, a blast of bubble gum-pink beam shot out of my hand. I gasped, turning my hand over. 

"No, love!" Quickly, Luca turned my hand over in time for me to blast the ground, demolishing the leaves around us. Cracking could be heard as we watched the brush ignite. "Bloody hell, we've been here not even five minutes and we're destroyin' things!" Luca gripped his sparkly medium blue hair, pulling on it. Just as he did, water poured over his head from his hand.

"Ah!" I exclaimed as he pointed his hands outwardly. He accidentally doused me in the process. 

"Yes!" he shouted and chased after all the burning leaves. Within moments everything was out. When he came back to me, I smiled.

"We're a team!" 

"We are! A bloody fine one, I'd wager."

"It's us. Of course, we are. So, what do you suppose we should do here?"

"Let's see if we can find your daft ex. It would be nice to explore here but we have such strong power. I'd fancy a journey in a place I'm used to, how about you?"

"Agreed. How about we continue down this trail?"

We nodded and continued down the road. The leaves fell at our feet in slow, lolling twists in the wind. Just as we noticed the wind, a strong smell of cinnamon and maple filled the air. We exchanged glances.

"That smells delicious, don't it?" Luca asked. I smiled and nodded. He took my hand, and we continued down the road until we got to a hill. I stared at the grass and was all the same color as Luca's skin--black/indigo. In front of the hill was a huge crater with white powder on it. 

I wasn't sure what came over me, but I flopped to the ground, sitting in the grass. I pulled Luca down with me. 

"Oh, this grass, or wha'ever it is--"

"Yes, it's like feathers!" I exclaimed. 

We both dropped to our backs and began to make snow angels in it. Unsure why we were doing that, we stopped questioning and just went with the feeling. Everything felt inviting and lovely. 

We laid together and stared at the sky. The clouds were similar to Earth clouds and the pink leaves continued to fall around us. I turned my head to look at him. Our eyes met and he gave me a smile. When he reached out to my face, I welcomed his touch but just as he was about to make contact, we heard someone shouting in the distance.

Sitting straight up, we scanned the horizon. It didn't appear that there was anyone else around. We heard the shouting again. As Luca stood, he pulled me up to my feet. I stood next to him as we both peered down the hill. In the middle of it was someone waving to us. 

"Eh, who's that you suppose?" Luca pointed and then crossed his arms, his stance wide as he rocked side to side.

"Probably my daft ex-husband."

He laughed when he heard me use his term. 

"Well, let's see for ourselves. Come on!"

Luca took off running down the hill around the spiral that would lead us into the crater. Repeatedly, I stared watched the person down in the middle of what appeared to be a black raspberry swamp. With every step we took it was like we were traveling faster and faster. 

I had half a mind to rise and fly, so that was exactly what I did! I walked to the edge of the crater and shouted to Luca. He turned around with his very golden-yellow eyes watching me intently. When he saw what I was about to do, he raced toward me, but I jumped.

As I flung myself over the side, I was able to pick up on the soft gusts of wind. I had light-pink wings that were like a common bat. I was able to control them separately from my arms. When I glanced back, Luca had run too close to the edge and began to fall.

Without hesitation, I raced to him and grabbed him from the sky. I gripped him tightly with my arms and floated down toward the black raspberry pool. I wrapped my wings around him and then set him down. 

"F*ckin' hell. Good thing you were there, eh?" He wiped his forehead. 

"Hey!" we heard the person shout. We both turned around and could see that it was a cat the size of a human. They were stuck in the raspberry goo. 

We both raced to the cat and began pulling him out of the jam. Slowly, we dragged him onto the white powder which was confectioner's sugar. The cat stood up, shaking the sticky gelatin off. 

"Ew! This is going to take forever for me to lick all of this off." The cat stared at us. "Where are my manners, thank you. Thank you for saving my life!" 

The cat reached out to us, and we shook hands. Their paws were shaped with human fingers but with pads on the palm and the fingertips. 

"I'm Janessa, and this is Luca," I said. 

"Oh, right, another thing I forgot. I'm Jones and, as you can see, I got caught in this pool of blackberry jam."

"Let's get out of here and go to the top so we can get you safe."

"Sounds good to me," Jones said. Suddenly, I whipped out my wings and with one in each hand, held onto Jones and Luca. I flew them up to the top of the hill. Once I set them down, Jones raced off. 

"Well, that was kind of rude," Luca said, brushing his indigo skin of the powdered sugar. 

"Maybe he had an emergency," I suggested. Luca glanced at me and gave me a half-smile. 

"I like it here. How 'bout you?"

"So far, but there is always some kind of danger lurking, eventually."

"I'm not so sure about this place. Here feels like ... perhaps it is some kind of heaven." 

"Heaven? We are in a simulation. In real life, I'm a robot and you are--"

"You guys coming or what?" Jones shouted from down the other side of the hill. We peered down at him. We could see him swimming in a beautifully crystal-clear sea. I spread my wings and grabbed Luca.

"Hey now!" he shouted at me. I landed and let him go. 

"What?"

"I don't want to just be lifted into the sky every time you've got the urge. Ask first, yeah?" 

"I'm sorry and yes, I will ask," I said. 

"Otherwise, you may melt me like you did the forest in there." He pointed to the leaves.

"Right." I bowed my head and pointed toward the woods. 

"Now that we've got that settled, c'mon!" Luca shouted and we raced through a field of flowers down the hill toward the water that looked like the Caribbean seas. Jones was swimming and washing the jam off him, leaving a purple trail in the water behind his orange fur. 

"Man, does that feel so much better!" he shouted. We joined him in the water, even though neither of us were nearly as dirty as him. Luca and I swam around the perfectly placid water. 

When Luca dunked underwater and then came up, he looked so cute. His hair was spiky from the water and his eyes seemed like they were glowing as the water dripped from his blue eyelashes. Jones was smiling and waved to us, motioning to join him on a nearby island. It looked like it was made of rock candy. Was this whole place edible?