Potentially Perfect Picture

Blue and Cloud didn’t fit. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t forced to try. Every day, their lives were intertwined and they were forced to attempt to work in harmony, and every day they would end up messing it up for everyone else.

Blue was part of the sky. He was part of a group of several pieces able to create the giant abyss above the earth. They were all necessary to create the entire picture and none were more or less important than the other. He's used to being able to be a part of something. Blue along with many others all contributed to creating something beautiful. Even though they can’t do that now, he knows that’s how it worked. That the way it worked before was the only way it could work. He didn’t want to waste his time trying to mend something impossible to fix and he was embarrassed that he was constantly forced to. 

Blue knew they didn’t fit. He knew it was impossible for him and Cloud to connect and was embarrassed by the fact that they constantly interrupted what could have been a picture-perfect moment. But he had no control. If he could, he would choose to disappear. He would choose to be anywhere but around the people he thought hated him for wasting their time, trying to mend something unmendable.

Cloud isn’t part of the sky, rather something in the sky. She’s a very intricate figure, specially crafted into a one of a kind image displayed openly in the sky. She’s a collection of several ice crystals that formed into something beautiful. Cloud knows her entire existence is based on a select and intricate design. That she was specially created and perfected. She was exactly where she was supposed to be. She knew the way it worked before was the only way people said it would. But now there’s a space between Cloud and Blue that she feels she needs to fill. Even if logic says she can’t.  She wished she were able to be part of something as she had been before the missing piece disappeared. Cloud knew they weren’t meant to fit. But she tried. She would adjust herself in an attempt to fit in with him, but would constantly fail.

Why were they constantly forced together, you may ask. Well, they weren’t in complete control of their own bodies. They were controlled by a figure much bigger than them. A figure they knew little about. But every time Cloud and Blue were put together, it was the figure’s doing. And every time, even though they wouldn’t connect, Cloud gave the figure hope. Cloud was the reason Blue thought the being came back. 

One day Blue tried to ask Cloud why she kept giving them hope. Why she constantly tried to fight against logic. Why she always seemed so positive, as if the next time they were forced together it would work.

Her response was unexpected to him. “Why do you hate me?”  She asked it, almost as if she didn’t care what his answer would be, even though she had waited to ask this for the longest time. Blue sat dumbfounded and confused while Cloud stared at him silently, waiting for his response. 

“W-why do I hate you?  I don’t-”

“Yes. You do,” She insisted. “Why do you?” 

“I don’t actually hate you! I just don’t get why you have to keep trying!”

“Why don’t you?” Cloud insisted. “Why don’t you want to be able to be part of a  perfect picture again? I do!” 

“You think I don’t think I want to. Of course, I do! I just--”

“You just what?” She demanded him. 

“I just wished you would leave me alone,” Blue sighed. “I wished you would leave everyone alone.”

“No! I can’t just leave everyone alone because when the being comes back, we’ll be forced together anyway! Why not just try?” She shouted. She wanted to motivate everyone to be as positive as her so that maybe the fact that they couldn’t connect wouldn’t even matter because they would still be connected.

Cloud used to be connected with the missing piece. The missing piece was a cloud too. But now the missing piece is gone. Now she’s all alone But she wished she wasn’t. She felt like she needed to try to be rejoined with everyone else and hated thinking she might be alone forever. 

“You think I hate you?” She shouted back. “Why do you hate me?”

“I don’t!”

“Well, then why do you act like you do? Why do you refuse to try? Why don’t you think that maybe we could fill in the space and turn back into the ‘picture-perfect moment’ you are always talking about?”

“Because the picture-perfect moment can’t exist anymore!” 

“Why not? Why won’t you try?”

“I do! I’m forced to all the time because you force me to! And every time you give me the slightest bit of hope it might work out--”

Cloud’s eye lit up before being crushed by the next sentence. 

“But it never does! And that hurts! It hurts every time!”

The hope scared Blue. And he always tried to ignore it, but it would creep up on him when it would almost work. But it never did. And every time the hope would disappear and turn into mountains of disappointment. 

“Why do you hate me?” Blue went on. His voice quivered and tears blurred his vision. “Why do you hate me? Why won’t you leave me alone? Why won’t you give up and just let me be!” 

Cloud couldn’t speak. She had never meant to hurt Blue like she did. She knew what loneliness felt like and she hated it. She wanted to make sure no one else did.

All she had wanted was not to be alone.

“I was just trying to help,” Cloud whispered. “I just...wanted to be connected with you. With anyone.” 

Blue looked at her sympathetically and said something neither one of them was expecting. “I do too.”

He didn’t want to admit it, but he wanted so badly for them to be able to connect. He wanted them to fit so they would finally have a perfect picture. So they could finally be connected But he knew they couldn’t. They both knew they couldn’t. 

In the end, all that mattered was that they were puzzle pieces. Puzzle pieces that didn’t fit.