Tough on Dirt, Gentle on Rainbows [Sienna - Maxwell]

It had been a trying few days for the maid and getting all twisted into a tizzy was much too exhausting right now. Even thinking about it was tiring. She didn't have the energy or the motivation for her postal rants right now. Besides she was just too relieved to even dredge up such thoughts. She just needed to get her teammate to bed where he could recover and she'd be perfectly fine. Speaking of which he was fidgeting. He hadn't outright said no and she understood his aversion to this place. She wasn't fond of them either.

Eventually his agitated in place shuffling stopped and he glanced to their joined hands. All the while she waited patiently beside him in silence. He gave in and she smiled a little as he predictably tugged her along with not that she'd needed any coercion to tag along. She wouldn't just leave him after all that anyhow. The walk back to his temporary place of rest was short lived and after placing his stuffed animal down onto the pillows and climbing on himself he turned his expectant gaze her way. Even going as far as to pat the sheets and smiled innocently. She regarded him quietly for a moment and then shifted her gaze to the empty space he was offering. It would be a bold faced lie if she said she didn't want to. She'd have been there all along if her own cowardice and apprehension hadn't kept her out. But there was one other issue here... they were hardly alone.

Suddenly the whole conversation since she'd come in replayed in her mind. Not that anyone looked to be awake but still... how embarrassing. But then if they had been privy to the exchange it would be silly to keep going on as if they hadn't. Whoever they were anyhow. And with that small factor mulled over she decided she didn't care one way or the other right now. Her teammate was alive and well who was she to turn down the chance to celebrate the small victory. With an odd giddy smile she quickly joined the Rainbow, seating herself and drawing her knees up to her chest so she didn't take up too much space from him.

Looking pleased she turned to face him with a small smile of her own though her eyes shined with contentment. She was happy to be here with him even if the circumstances leading up to it had been far from favorable.

Sienna had expected Maxwell to tear into the candy. That was what anyone would be expecting. The sugar fiend absorbing sweets with the ferocity of a twister. So when the box was opened she sat and watched patiently to see how many he'd eat or if certain flavor were more favorable. But instead of decimating them he pulled out two and closed the box, sliding it over to rest at her feet.

Wide gold eyes blinked in surprise at this surprising change of pace. Did he not like it? Her inner monologue was halted as he started scooting around until he stopped beside her, poignantly ruining her calculated move to give him plenty of space. He propped himself up somewhat on her for support killing any chance she might have taken to move. Her eye flicked over at the sleeping patients and then back to her teammate before settling on the sheets. He didn't look like he was in pain so she didn't heckle him about it. Instead she leaned in a bit to relax herself, giving in rather quickly and was rewarded with one of his other taffy pieces. Green so apple in flavor and thus delicious despite the general lack of anything really appley. She didn't eat it though and held it in her hand instead. She'd rather he not have given her any really but figured a small piece of candy couldn't hurt.

The bed wasn't the most uncomfortable thing ever, but maybe just being in this area itself made one restless. People came here to be healed or taken care of. The bandages on her own limbs were still present past her elbow but the rest had fallen off or were covered. Thank goodness they'd been horrendous colors. "Is it any good?" She asked after a moment or so had passed since he'd eaten the candy. She'd hate to have brought home something gross for him. Another question came unbidden to her mind just then as well.

"So... what's with you and my hair?" She asked casually her voice sounding relaxed, calm and a bit amused. "Does it tell jokes or something?" He was forever shoving his face into her untameable tresses and giggling like a moron. She felt she should know why something that seemed so boring could warrant such silly attention.

Sienna took the unspoken response to mean the candy was too tasty to bother saying so as that would make it hard to enjoy it. That was good. She wasn't the biggest candy fanatic herself. Unless it was sour of course. As her mostly silly question about her hair was answered she laughed softly. "I see well, I guess it's nice some part of me has a sense of humor." Because the rest of her certainly did not.

With the crisis averted and everything set right once more the maid had nothing to fret about at the moment allowing her to relax fully. Her friends were safe and everyone was healing or on the mend for the most part. Would it be wrong to take a quick nap? She hadn't slept much or done much eating either really. Her days had been spent mostly cleaning and keeping \her hands occupied to keep her mind from running away with her sanity. Her mouth parted slightly to ask if she could nap only to say nothing instead. He had just gotten comfortable she'd hate make him move with all that bandaging. An involuntary yawn bubbled up and escaped despite her best attempts to keep it down ans so she tried to play it off by adding a question. "What is muchness supposed to mean?' She'd been curious since he'd said and more so one Walter repeated it. Had she somehow missed learning a word?

A dead panned stare settled on Sienna's face at Maxwell's initial response. Really? He wasn't going to leave it at that was he? Just thinking about it made her right hand twitch involuntarily in anticipation of swatting him. But she kept her cool and threaded her fingers together to keep her limbs from seeking retribution out of her injured teammates hide. Thankfully her patience was rewarded with an actual answer.

The maid blinked a few times in rapid succession at his explanation. That was not as silly as she'd imagined it was going to be. If anything it was a rather thought provoking concept. She supposed another more familiar word might be spirit, or like guts or something. But in hindsight muchness sounded better with the way he used it. She just wasn't sure she had as much as he seemed to think she did. And what good was it if she was too weak to help? It hadn't helped keep him safe anyway. Her gaze flicked to his bandages at that thought. She felt better about it now but there was still an echo of guilt that would probably hang around for some time.

The movement on her shoulder snapped her out of her thoughts and she glanced down at him. The strangest urge to brush that wild hair out of his face came over her but it was ignored and she kept her rebellious fingers laced tightly together. "A book? Are there books here?" She asked looking around the area.

Of course. Somehow Sienna had known that would be his answer. She could only imagine... no she couldn't even imagine what madness he was going to have her go locate. Instead of asking though he pulled away making her wince slightly at how painful that must be. Her mouth opened to stop him but it was pointless and so she could only watch with concern as he pulled it out and returned with a rather large haphazard looking tome in his hands. Did she want to know what was inside? If she didn't that was too bad she was about to learn regardless of her wishes.

The return trip seemed equally agonizing as he scooted across the bed to return. He didn't make any attempt to go back to his earlier position and instead flopped his head in her lap earning him a small squeak of surprise that she muffled with a hand. This little... her though ended in a groan but she accepted the large, heavy laden book. She angled it so they both could see, her gold eyes flicking up and around at the still motionless room. This was most irregular but there was no going back now.

Clearing her throat she opened the book. Colors. Not uncommon for the first few pages to be that way. But fifteen or so pages in the maid realized that this was about all she was going to get. Occasionally there was a picture or some strange factoid that had no correlation to anything. She had been correct. She could never have imagined this would be what she'd have to work with. She'd never been much for stories. Not telling them anyhow. She had an imagination but it was generally used to mentally depict her struggles or all the ways she wanted to murder the man currently using her leg for a pillow.

"Ah um well.... this is um a series of small, but joined stories about... the mighty coalition of colors and how they came to be heroes of the Technicolor Nation." Utter absurdity. Madness. Complete and utter hogwash Where in the world was this tripe even coming from? She couldn't even begin to fathom the how's and why's and simply settled on winging it. Hopefully he'd lull off to sleep and her utter lack of creativity in this department wouldn't be too obvious.

Sienna hesitated continuing with her improv story as she waited to see what he'd say. Nothing was said really save him burrowing further causing her to bite her lip to keep from squeaking, again. Once he was settled she returned to the book and mulled over her limited options. flipping back she settled on a solid, every day red.

"Ah red, um it's uh he was born first yes. Eldest brother to er blue and their sister yellow. They uh grew up in their um... small hut on the edge of Technicolor Nation. They were orphans though." Made sense since they were primary colors and thus nothing could make them. "As they grew older the nation began having some problems. All the color was draining from the world. What once was a vibrant and colorful world was slowly fading to a pale, colorless white. No one could even tell who anyone was anymore. It made it hard to talk to your friends if everyone looked the same."

She turned the page a bit amused with this silly task she'd been giving. "But not the Primary siblings. They alone retained their hues and those who had lost their own shades became jealous and suspicious. Had the siblings done something to make them this way? Who would dare steal everyone's colors. But more importantly they alone might hold the secret to returning the vibrant pallets they were used to within themselves."

The page turned again and she seemed to have settled into her story as she kept right on telling her tale. "Of course not everyone in Technicolor Nation wished harm on the siblings. No, in fact some wished to help them and learned of the plot to rip them asunder and bathe in the pools that would be left in their wake. Maybe the colors might come back if they sacrificed them? Either way it was imperative that the siblings escape and maybe outside of their world they might find a way to fix the color situation. And so the siblings garbed themselves in a white shell to escape under cover of night through a secret passage and out past the walls of the only home they'd ever known." Such a ridiculous tale but it was.... oddly entertaining coming up with it as she went along.

Sienna paid no mind to Maxwell's odd tracing habit. It wasn't like she needed to see the pages after all. At some point he'd ceased the action and let his hand fall uselessly to her knee. She spotted him sucking on the plushie which earned him a disgusted grimace. How gross! She didn't get a chance to say anything though since he took that moment to interject with a slew of questions. It was an odd change of pace for the silly imp and she hesitated on answering him before deciding she wouldn't. He'd done nothing but drive her mad with what's and why's so why not have a little fun at his expense.

"Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. You'll have to wait to find out now won't you." She replied smoothly, her mouth twitching up into a smirk on one side in obvious amusement. His tugging on the pages only fueled her slightly devious mindset. Once he settled down and left her be she would continue the tale which she was genuinely interested in telling the rest of. The small break had given her time to collect her thoughts which was great as she moved on ahead with it.

"The Primaries traveled on, relying on one another to pass the terrain riddles trials they came upon. Traps and dangerous creatures. Having to survive outside the walls was a trial in itself. In the end they overcame them. It was hard and troublesome but they persevered. The trio grew weary though and had to stop to rest and happened upon a small hut where inside resided an older color wizard who was as white as their home town villager thus affirming that the plight was far spread. Had the entire world been engulfed in this curse? Would the colors ever return? And why had they been saved from this plight alone? These questions and more were tossed at the elder color. The faded old hue could only tell them of a dark prophecy. They were the chosen colors. And that this evil had a source. The prophetic tale ended with conquering this foe and bringing the colors back to the world but the how;s and whys were unknown."

The maid was rather engrossed in her story, occasionally she turned a page but despite there being nothing on them each one was stared at intently, as if there were words there to be read on the vacant pages. She knew now how it would end and the answers to most of them despite having made it up on the fly she was rather proud of this strange achievement. It was probably a one time deal though. She was much more a creature of logic and facts. This deviation from her usual habits was intriguing and she felt compelled to see it through. The story had taken on such a dark tone though, hardly a fitting bed time tale and she felt a bit bad that she was keeping him awake rather than getting him to sleep.

"The siblings valiantly agreed to take this quest and fulfill it. Color would be restored and they would be heroes! Think of how the Technicolor Nation would adore them. The orphaned colors would never want for anything ever again. The elder color gestured out the window to a large mountain in the distance. This was where the foe resided. Who it was they knew not but they rested and left in the morning to take this mysterious villain on."