I woke up with the sunlight in my eyes.

Sky must've left the curtains open when he got up to do his morning routine. Perhaps he was distracted or he saw a funny bird outside the window and ran outside to talk to it.

I left the bed after ten minutes of checking my phone for new messages and emails. Then I went downstairs to look for Sky.

He wasn't in the kitchen where he usually was during the morning, and he hadn't cooked any breakfast either. I checked his studio. He wasn't there, and it looked like someone hauled his stuff out of the room.

I decided to check the living room. I heard some rustling, clanking, and someone whistling, and on the way to the living room were glitters, paint tubes, and brushes. As if it was an obvious trail left by an artistic toddler.

I picked up the paint tubes and the brushes, and saw someone arranging boards and canvases on the couch and the chairs. Art materials were scattered on the coffee table and on the floor, papers full of sketches. The person arranging them was smiling and humming. His white shirt had paint splotches and glitters all over it, and his face, along with his blond hair was covered in blue paint.

But I knew this person was Sky, because he was humming our song. Blue Skies by Ella Fitzgerald. It's a little cheesy, but there's a lot of memory behind that song.

"Hey," I called his attention and placed the paint tubes and brushes I picked up along the way on the coffee table, together with his other materials.

"Blue!" He threw his arms up in the air, as if he hadn't seen me for a long time. He was giddy "Look, look! I've my sparkles back! And I, I was trying to do, uhm, stuff, but I got distracted and I did other stuff, but look! I've started painting again!"

"Ah, that's great!" I tousled his hair and regretted that decision right after getting my hand covered in paint. "What are you painting?"

He turned and lifted a canvas splashed and spewed with paint. The colours were random, but they harmonised and blended in just right. Just the right amount of aberration in Sky's style.

"I'll add us later." He tossed the canvas behind him, then he dived on the floor staring at his sketches with a satisfied smile. "I gotta pour the sparkles everywhere before they run out."

"Have you eaten breakfast?" I asked him, checking if the couch managed to survive the paint explosion.

"Mm-hmm, no." His eyes were glued on his work. "But I had coffee. It's probably somewhere there."

"And it's probably been disguising as paint water, don't you think?" I chuckled. "I'll make you a new one. I'll cook breakfast, you stay here and do your thing."

He nodded cheerfully, clutching his pencil.

"And be sure to get that paint off your hair."

He giggled before he replied, "If I didn't get rid of it, then we'd both have blue hair."

"This is one time. I'm not letting you dye my hair again." I grinned and shook my head, walking back to the kitchen.

Sky shouted teasingly as I turned my back on him, "At least you finally got to recognise yourself in pictures! You're Blue with the blue hair and the blue eyes!"

Such a weirdo (affectionate).

☁︎☁︎☁︎

Sky had convinced me to let him eat breakfast before cleaning up. Which meant instead of the usual culaccino on the table left by our morning coffee, I also had to wipe down paint and glitters off every surface Sky had touched.

He insisted he helped, but it was like receiving help from a golden retriever who was covered in mud. Then the golden retriever decided that it was the best revenge to hug me after I rejected his offer.

"You're getting glitters everywhere," I told him as I gently push him away from me. "Please take a shower and change your clothes first."

"Fiiine." He puffed his cheeks and pulled away from the hug, rolling his eyes.

Then he paused.

He blinked and tilted his head, as if he realised something. 

"Sky?" I held his arm. "You okay?"

"We need to get rid of the corpse in the bathtub."

I gave the table one last wipe. "Corpse? Are you hallucina—I mean, sure! I'll get rid of it for you."

"Thank you," he replied shakily. Then he walked listlessly towards the stairs.

I finished cleaning up in the kitchen and pulled out a rubbish bag from the drawers. Thinking I would be disposing much more than what I had in mind, I brought the entire roll with me, along with old rags to wipe and scrub the bathtub with.

I knew there was no corpse. It was just Sky's "art piece" that he treated as a "guest". It was just a bunch of paint and other stuff he threw in the bathtub.

I knew it's a hassle to deal with him sometimes, but it wouldn't help if I had told him outright that what he's seeing and what he's feeling wasn't real.

It's real to him, and I had to deal with his reality by using logic from my reality.

It's the only way we could make this work.

The bathroom was actually easier to clean than I was expecting. The paint had dried up and when scraped, had taken the dry leaves and wax with it. I threw everything in the rubbish bag and tied it up, thinking how I could dispose of it properly.

There's a waste collection facility nearby. I could also bring the rest of the containers I'd stored in our shed, along with other hazardous waste we've collected.

Sky's back on painting again so surely, our home will be once again filled with canisters and the smell of paint thinner. I should dispose of everything in the shed to make room for more.

I went upstairs and knocked at the bathroom door. "Sky, I'm going to dispose of your old paint cans and the mess in the bathroom," I said.

I heard him turning the shower off. "What?"

"I said I'm going to dispose of your old paint cans. The recycling facility's an hour away, at least. D'you wanna come with me?"

"No, I'm good!" He poked his head out of the bathroom door. "I don't wanna be in the same car as that corpse."

Sure, leave me with the corpse. "You want me to bring you back something?"

He shook his head. "Nothing. Just get home immediately." He smiled. "Please come back for me."

"Of course I will." I pressed a soft kiss on his lips before I went downstairs, hauled everything into the trunk of our car, and drove to the recycling facility.

☁︎☁︎☁︎

It was already 2 pm when I called Sky and told him I was on my way back. Then it took me another hour to drive home. Sky had called several times just to chat. He narrated what he was doing, what he was up to, and complained about not knowing how to draw a cat.

It was Sky's last call that made me step on the gas and drive home at 120 kph.

It was him letting out a blood-curdling scream: "BLUE, SOMEONE'S HERE!"

I got home as fast as I could, but when I got there, he was on the floor, holding his pencil up. He was calm, and the house was alright. Messy, but it didn't look like there was an intruder.

"What happened?"

I cleared a spot on the couch and sat there, catching my breath. "What's this now? I thought there was someone here?"

"I miss you."

"You mean you missed me." I took my jacket off and leaned back on the couch. "I'm here now."

He grasped the hem of my trousers. "You came back. Thank you."

Such a weirdo (affectionate).

"Of course I'd come back for you. You're staying with me forever."

It was a quiet afternoon, and we minded our own business. I nestled comfortably on the couch and decided to do some light editing works. Sky occupied the coffee table, the floor, every now and then my feet, and he'd laid down his art materials on chairs.

His scream bothered me earlier, but he could have been just hallucinating. Maybe we should visit his psychiatrist tomorrow and get her to up the dosage of his meds? Maybe he had been stressing out because of his "sparkles"?

Whatever it is, I should make sure that I'm here for him.

Time passed by quickly and soon it was a quiet twilight. And with the setting sun, Sky dropped his question.

"Why did you stay?"

"What do you mean, stay?"