Janet and Charlie: Both police officers stood at the entrance of the police station and waved off the two teenagers. Then they went back to the station boss's office. "So, it's Esmeralda, eh?" said Charlie. "This is going to be - interesting. Do we tell them that we, ah, sort of already know Esmeralda?" said Janet. "Hmm. Maybe not. When it comes to an Angel of Death's business, I really think it would be best not to make any such moves without her approval. And also, what happens when the contents of that form appears in the email in-trays of our superiors?" said Charlie. "At a guess, there will be a series of minor miracles, and, ah, nobody will notice anything out of the ordinary. Or something like that." said Janet. "And isn't it amazing how they tend to speak in relay like that. It's almost like they each know exactly what the other is thinking." said Charlie. The next day, Saturday, found the station boss and Charlie in the office of their friendly local forensic pathologist. "As requested, I have preformed a post mortem on the body." "And?" said Janet. "Well, it's all there in dry medical language in the report, currently being typed out by my assistant, however, if you want the condensed version..." "Ah, well, it's like someone hit his head with the full force of a heavy sledgehammer, only somehow the skin and skull was completely untouched." "It's just the brain that is, shall we say, completely disrupted. Although, curiously enough, only the higher centres, especially the pre-frontal cortex and related areas. You know, the areas that have the most to do with conscious thought and planning and memory." "In other words, the areas where the soul would most likely be - attached, or whatever?" said Barlow. "I didn't put that in the report, but, yeah, you could put it like that." The doctor raised his eyebrows as if asking a question. "Sorry, we can't help you any further..." said Janet. A little later, Charlie rang his wife. "Sorry, dear, but I won't be home for lunch, either. But at least this time it's not because of some gut wrenching tragedy." "Ok, see you at tea time. We hope." He drove his car to Rebecca's and conducted a short interview. But, as expected, Rebecca did not have much to add, and neither did her parents. Charlie knew better to even think about trying to interview a six-year-old child. He left, put in his report, and finally made it home. Blue: As soon as he had gone Rebecca's father had rung Blue. "We have heard the news, we don't know much of the actual details, but if you require any assistance, legal help, anything, we will do our best..." "Thanks. But, at the moment, we're Ok. The police let us go and we don't expect any trouble." said Blue. "Oh. Right, well, we're always here." On Sunday the weather was fine. Blue and Pink stayed at Pink's home. For lunch, they took a blanket outside, sat down under one of the trees and had a little picnic. The tree was on the edge of the yard behind Pink's house, with a view of a collection of other trees, the sand and gravel and patchy grass of the yard itself, and the surrounding fence. Blue lay down with his head in Pink's lap, and Pink stroked his hair. "So, we can start to work out our day to day lives together, get used to each other, work out just how we are going to spend our time together." said Blue. "Yes, dear. And things will settle down at school, well, once this current incident is over. We won't be the centre of attention all of the time." said Pink. Blue hitched his head a little higher, and they both watched two groups of small birds. They appeared to be having a territorial dispute. One group would fly around and dive bomb the other, then both groups would sit on the ground, alternatively keeping a warily lookout, and singing at the top of their voices. "They're sure getting excited, aren't they." said Pink. "Hmm, it's a serious matter for them..." At this point, there was a serious disruption. Fluffy sprang up from where he had been hiding, and sprinted for one of the birds. It escaped by mere centimetres. United, the former enemies now all took turns in mobbing the cat, but taking care to remain out of his claw range. Fluffy gave up the pursuit, and, seeing Pink and Blue, put up his tail and strolled over. He settled down for a nap on Blue's tummy. Giggles from Pink. "Well, at least the birds are cooperating now." Various students at the school: The police report released to the media could not avoid the major details. It mentioned that the man was kidnapping a girl, and that Pink and Blue had rescued the girl. And the man was dead soon after. With Rebecca filling in some details, the news was all over the school early Monday morning "That man could've ..." "But he didn't, thank God." "Blue and Pink saved Renee, again." "But, how did the man die?" "They must have killed him!" "But the police then let them go?" "Anyhow, do you really think Blue and Pink could kill anyone?" Having essentially zero information, the rumours became increasingly lurid and extravagant. Needless to say, Blue and Pink did not manage to merge into the background on this day, nor for the next few days. Blue: Blue informed his landlord that he was vacating his flat, and started the process of transferring his belongings to Pink's place. They continued to discover what their lives together with each other were going to be like. For a start, it was going to have a lot of hugs and holding hands. Blue, being starved of affection and attention, lapped this up with enthusiasm. Although, after a few days, we was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, too much of a good thing could become too much? The phrase 'all over him like a rash' did float through his mind a couple of times. Sleeping together, platonically, every night was warm and cosy and comforting. Having an occasional tickle fight was also wonderful. On one such night, shoulders leaning against each other, holding each other's hand, Blue had made the comment "You know, every teenager should do this. It would do wonders for the typical teenager angst..." "Ah, Blue, I think you are forgetting something..." "Ah, oops, I forgot, sorry, cancel that statement. We are no longer your typical teenagers." They walked to and from school, hand in hand, and ate lunch together, sitting shoulder to shoulder. By now, the other students accepted this as just another part of daily life at school. However, Blue and Pink did draw the line at holding hands in the class room. For a start, they still sat three desks away from each other. They walked along the river, together. And sat on Pink's second hand sofa, in close contact, and watched the latest internet news and any interesting movies they might have found. Sitting next to each other at the kitchen table, do some serious reading and some homework. This, Blue was finding, was perhaps a little too much. Hand in hand, walking to the door to take out the daily garbage. Definitely getting to be too much. "Pink, perhaps we don't have to hold hands all the time?" "But I like it!" "But, well, I'm finding it a bit much." Disappointment from Pink. "I thought that we were really getting along well..." They ended up reading each other's souls, again. It was actually a pretty good way of resolving an argument, assuming that the argument was based on a misunderstanding. There was also the radio link, which not only conveyed words but also their current emotions. Pink cheered up, and agreed to slightly less physical contact. But she gradually relapsed. The tipping point came when, after breakfast one day, Blue got up to walk to the toilet. Pink wrapped her arm around him and walked side by side with him to the door. Blue: "Pink, I'm only going to the toilet!" Pink: "That's all right; I'll leave you at the door." Blue: "But, I don't need to be hugged just because I'm walking five metres!" Pink: "Why not? It's nice! People hug each other all the time!" Blue: "Yes, they may, but not this much!" Pink: "I'm sure they do, if they are in a relationship!" Blue: "How would you know, you've never been in one!" Pink: "Well, nor have you!" Their voices were gradually getting louder and louder. Blue: "But at least I'm not a robot! I have some idea!" Pink: "That's right, rub it in! You've had parents and I never did! Stupid human, you wreck your planet with pollution, wreck your countries with war, and now you're wrecking our relationship!" There was an angry red glare in Pink's eyes. Fortunately, it was only metaphorical, not an Esmeralda induced real judgemental glare. Blue did his best to glare back. Blue: "Cool it! You're shouting. I don't need this!" he said, shouting himself. Pink: "And I don't need you! Get out of my house; I want to talk to Prime!" Blue turned and, stomping his feet on the floorboards with each step, burst out of the house, charged across the yard and came to stop under a tree. He was beginning to get a splitting headache – then it cleared. He took a breath. Another one. His blood pressure came down a bit. "What a mess." he mumbled to himself. Totally forgetting that he still needed to go to the toilet, he sat down with his back to the tree trunk. "Yeah, you both managed to have a fairly nasty argument there". This was Horatio, who had materialised himself, also sitting down, next to Blue. In his hand was a takeaway milkshake, straw sticking out ready for drinking. "Here, drink this; it'll help calm you down." Blue took the proffered milkshake and took a sip. Icy cold strawberry flavoured milk and ice cream. "This is all just an illusion, isn't it?" "That's right, a visual and auditory hallucination, with a bit of touch and taste thrown in for good measure. As long as you don't test it too much, it will hold." Sigh. "I hope Pink doesn't hate me now. And shouldn't you be inside, comforting PInk?" "I am inside the house, comforting Pink. My mind is considerably bigger than yours, you know. I can hold a dozen heart to hearts simultaneously. And, no, Pink doesn't hate you. But she is extremely upset right now." "Yeah, somehow I could tell. Is this, you know, normal? Having arguments. Especially since, after all, we have the radio link and know what each other is thinking. And we can read each other's soul. And we don't have all of that whole raging teenage hormones mess to deal with. And we still have screaming arguments?" "Afraid so. You humans are not all that efficient at maintaining deep relationships without strife, but it's what you have to deal with. And Pink's mind was designed to be human. All of that input from Esmeralda, and my recent adjustments, have made her even more so. But I must admit, a few mistakes I made are catching up with you." "Yeah, the lack of mothering thing. Can't you just adjust her mind a little and tone it down?" "I walk a fine line when it comes to altering Pink's mind. My species has very strong ethics when it comes to creating sentient beings. One of the rules is that you cannot just arbitrarily change a being's mind just because you want to. I have to respect what Pink is now. I can tweak some parameters, add new abilities, but existing mental traits, especially those at the core of her being, are generally inviolable. Just as it is with you. I have given you new abilities, but I am very cautious about changing any of your existing traits. Which is exactly as you would want it, isn't it?" "Yes, I guess so." Sigh. "But still, she needs to try and not let her desire for mothering overwhelm her attachment to me." "True, which is what Pink and I are talking about this very moment." Horatio hopped up, stood and stretched. "I think I shall leave you now. Just wait here and, hopefully, she will come out soon." With that, Horatio opened a door that was not there a moment ago, stepped through, and both he and the door disappeared. Blue finished his milkshake. Looked at the empty container. Wiped off a small milk moustache from his mouth. Then tossed the empty container and straw into the air. They vanished before they could hit the ground. "Now that's the way to get rid of rubbish! And absolutely no calories, either!" He waited, and did some thinking. Finally, PInk came out of the door, and walked straight towards his position. Naturally, she knew exactly where he was, Prime would have put the information into her memory. She sat down next to him, with a ten-centimetre gap between them. There was silence for a while. [Ah, Pink, I'm, err, I'm sorry that, ah, we ended up shouting at each other.] He said. Over their radio link, so that their emotions were also conveyed without any chance of error. [Yes, thanks. So am I.] [And, well,] Here Blue shuffled sideways so that they were in contact, and put his arm around her. [I do like being in contact with you.] Pink leant her head onto his shoulder. Her eyes were moist. [I had a talk with Prime. I was really worried that since I was a robot, I wasn't going to be any good for you, that our relationship wasn't going to work out. But he reassured me. My mind is human. Actually, he said that your mind is not quite standard human, after all you started off as an atypical nerd, and now you have Esmeralda's power, plus a full time radio link. And, he also said, the recent minor changes he has made to my mind actually match me more towards you, rather than the standard average human.] [In other words, you are made for me. And vice versa. Figures. After all, even Esmeralda hinted at that.] [Yes. I was really was worried for a while there. I didn't want to go back to what I had before.] They shifted their hold to a full hug. [You won't. We are stuck with each other for life. I'm sure we can work out something.] said Blue. There were some ants climbing up Pink's leg. Blue moved forward and flicked them off. "Go away, ants! Don't bite Pink." So one ant, no doubt irritated by being flicked off, returned and bit Blue. "Ouch!" Pink laughed. "You forgot, didn't you? I'm not the one that needs protecting from ants!" "Oh, ah, yes. I did forget." They spent another hour talking and hammering out an agreement. Prime kept quiet and let them work it out for themselves. Eventually they ran out of things to discuss. Blue looked around, and noticed how far the shadows under the trees had moved. “Golly, is it that late?” “Looks like it, let’s go in and have tea.” The next week at school, they were still the centre of attraction. The hint that Blue and Pink might have been involved in the death of that man certainly kept everybody interested. [Give a few weeks and things will, finally, be back to normal.] said Blue to Pink. Rebecca kept on supplying them with wonderful lunches. And she kept on sitting next to James. Teresa: And, unnoticed by anyone else, the girl who wished for a girlfriend found one. Teresa had noticed that a girl from another class generally sat alone for lunch. On a whim, she had gone over and introduced herself. "Oh, hi Teresa. My name's Jennifer. Sure, you can sit here and have lunch..." Things did not proceed with anywhere near the same rapidity as Pink and Blue's relationship, but they themselves were happy with the progress. They went to a movie, and in the darkness of the theatre held hands. They decided to keep their friendship a secret for the time being. "Wait until we know, ourselves, where we are going." said Jennifer. Jeffrey: Unfortunately, Jeffrey, a boy from Teresa's class, was also at the movie. He had been coerced into accompanying his younger cousin, since she wasn't yet allowed, by her parents, to go to see movies by herself. The movie was all about a bunch of mythical ponies and their friendships; in other words, it did not hold his attention at all. So his eyes had been roaming around, checking out any older girls he could see from his position. He stored away that little piece of information, and kept his eyes open for more. Next week he decided to make his move, to do a bit of stirring, cause a bit of trouble. Because that was the sort of person he currently was. He picked the gap between two lectures, when majority of the students remained in the same classroom, and he knew that the next teacher was always a little late. (The teacher was overweight and had to walk up three flights of stairs, that is why.) He had primed his two buddies, who were willing to go along with the caper, as long as they didn't have to start anything themselves. He stood up, and said loudly "Guess what, everyone, Teresa was seen at the movies holding the hand of another girl!" There were snickers from his two buddies, and they both also stood up, and one said "Yes! She's one of those!" Now, in truth, there were maybe three students, maximum, who really objected to such a thing. Subconsciously, Jeffrey was aware of this, but he was counting on the normal inertia of people in general, and the desire of teenagers not to stand out from the crowd in particular, to help him along. The noise level of the background conversations declined and the room was awash in sideways glances. Was anyone going to take any lead in countering this? Teresa had looked up at the sound of her name, then looked down at her desk top, face going bright red, hands clutching and beginning to crinkle the papers she had been holding. Having gotten the ball rolling, and established their lead, the three students made a few crude and coarse remarks. Teresa's face went even redder, and the papers in her hand began to be crumpled. Students were shifting their balances in their seats, and looking around while pretending not to look around, but no one made any counter move. Pink and Blue: And Pink and Blue were having a high speed conversation via their radio links. [Hey Blue! Who is this creepy creep?] said Pink. [He's the local petty bully. He picks on someone who doesn't have much connection with anyone else, and teases them. He's really good at judging his bullying to be less than the level that someone in the audience would start to protest. I know, I've been his target a few times. This is the first time he's tried anything with the whole class watching, though, which is probably why you didn't know about him.] said Blue. Pink and Blue were both acutely aware that, a month ago, they would not have intervened. They wouldn't have had the courage. But, you could say, things had changed. [If I can face a psychopathic monster and bring down supernatural judgement on him, then I can face a petty bully!] said Pink. [I going to make sure he realises that if he picks on Teresa, he's going to have to pick on me too!] [Go for it!] said Blue. Pink slapped her hands on her desk, and used them to push her weight up, scraping her chair backwards across the floor. She stood and faced Jeffrey, an angry, but non-Esmeralda, glare in her eyes. "Jeffrey, I really think it is not nice to tease people about who they pick as their friends. You should apologise to Teresa and sit down." she said, very politely. The class went perfectly silent. Pink, the quietest, most timid, most easily overlooked student in class, was taking a stand? Granted, the events of the last few weeks had put her in a different light, but still. Teresa looked at Pink in surprise, and so did many of the other students. Jeffery decided he had too much invested to back down. So instead he doubled down, and said "Oh, it's the pink robot! Speaking in a mo-no-tone vo-ice as u-su-al I see. Perhaps you want to join Teresa? Form a threesome group; I'm sure they will go for your baby pink hair!" Everybody went even more silent, and still, than before. And Blue went on a slow burn. He carefully and slowly stood up. [Esmeralda, if I may, could you give me a red glare, but minus the judgemental powers?] She must have been so inclined. His eyes glowed red, an angry red. The students who could see his face sat back in their chairs in extreme surprise and not a little horror. Jeffrey and his two friends recoiled in shock. "You are insulting my girlfriend. I don't care what you call her out of my earshot, but in public like this I most definitely take offense. And besides which, if I can date a pink robot, they why can't Teresa date a girl? After all, unlike me, at least she is dating within her species." said Blue, also in a polite voice. Pink giggled. Everyone else just listened in amazement. The second most inconsequential student, talking up like that? And making a joke? Jeffrey blinked his eyes in surprise. Things were definitely not going his way. He looked around for support, only to realise that his two so-called friends had sat down and were doing their best to pretend they had nothing to do with him. Being completely off balance, he made a stupid mistake and doubled down again. "Right! It's Blue! Voted the boy least likely to get a girlfriend. That must explain why you picked a total no-hoper like the Pink Robot!" Since this was sort of close to the truth, Blue decided not to refute it. So Jeffrey was emboldened to keep going. "You're nothing but a little shortie pip-squeak! He added a few vulgar insults about Blue and Pink's relationship. And now someone else stood up. Rebecca. Her face was contorted in rage, her eyes also glowed red. The students who could see her pushed themselves even further back in their chairs. Since Rebecca was generating this effect using nothing but her own innate human abilities, and not relying on any supernatural assistance, it was quite an accomplishment. Her voice was not the slightest bit polite. "Hey you filthy little boy! Blue is a man! A gentleman! He saved my Renee from certain death and almost lost his own life. You will not insult him in my presence! Otherwise, I shall take your collar and squeeze it so tight your face will turn purple!" "Huh" said Jeffrey. Before Jeffrey could make any more comments, James also stood up. "And don't start insulting Rebecca, either!" he said, going back to polite. "Ah" said Jeffrey. And now another boy was encouraged to stand up. He wanted to do his best to defuse the situation, and to also get back to the original issue. "Actually, I agree with Pink. Who Teresa goes out with is none of our business. And, besides which, if she has found someone she likes, then good luck to her! I wish I could find a girlfriend." This boy's best friend, sitting next to him, now stood up. "Yeah, I agree. Besides which," he turned to his friend, "you know I keep saying you're far too ugly to attract a girl, anyway!" Jeffrey had to admit defeat. He sat down and stared fixedly at the blackboard. The level of noise in the room climbed steadily as everyone else started talking amongst themselves. And right at this point the teacher, slightly out of breath from his three-floor stair ascent, walked into the room. He pretended not to notice any irregularity in seeing six students standing up like that. He clapped his hands. "If you could all sit, and I shall collect your assignments before starting." "Ah, sorry, teacher, but, ah, my assignment got a bit creased." said Teresa, as she made an attempt to smooth out her pieces of paper before handing them over. "That's fine, the pages are sill readable." said teacher. There was some muted laughter from other students. He looked a little puzzled, but then he moved right on and started his lecture. "Well, it looks like it isn't going to be this week that we finally get back to normal, either", said Pink to Blue as they walked home. Teresa: The next morning, as Pink and Blue walked into the school gates, they found two girls waiting for them. "Hi" said Teresa. "This is Jennifer." Introductions all round. "I didn't get a chance yesterday, but I would like to thank Pink, and Blue, for coming to my support." said Teresa. Both Pink and Blue noticed that the two girls were holding hands. "Yes, after much intense discussion, we finally decided that the only thing to do is to face this head on. If that creep is going to make a big issue of us holding hands, then screw him, we shall hold hands." said Jennifer. "Damn nuisance, still." said Teresa, "We don't know, ourselves, where we will be going with our friendship." Big sigh from both girls. Pink, with some contribution from Blue, commiserated with them for a while, before they split up and continued their own ways into the school. "You know, Pink is so much easier to talk to, since she has taken up with Blue." said Teresa. "For that matter, so is Blue."