Just as Jael stepped out of his bathroom in a bathrobe, his door was kicked open. He flinched despite himself, ready to bolt if that was what he needed to do.
A wide-eyed Rosie stood in his doorway, a raw panic in her eyes that made Jael take an instinctive step forward. "I turned blue," She announced in a surprisingly composed voice, considering how frantic she looked.
Jael froze, he wasn’t given a script, he didn’t know what he was supposed to do or say in this situation. It didn’t help that she was a very vivid shade of blue, the color clashing with her red hair.
Patty had picked the most mentally inflicting shade of blue possible, and she had been meticulous in her application. If Jael didn’t know that it was just food dye, he would have also been convinced.
"What?" He decided to play dumb, genuinely surprised to see how well Patty had carried out her prank.
Rosie stepped in and slammed the door behind her, "Patty... she said it yesterday... she said that I would turn blue, but I didn’t believe her..."
It was really easy for Jael to keep a straight face because his life depended on it, praying that Patty came walking through his door to spare him from having to deal with this.
"I-I can’t let Patty see this," Rosie had her back to the door like she was trying to keep everyone out. "She’ll never let me live it down, you have to hide me." She said desperately.
There was a knock on the door then, and Jael could practically see her heart stop, at least until a different person spoke from the other side.
"Jael, have you seen Rosie?" Caspian’s sweet voice spoke up, "I wanted to check in on her this morning and she’s not in her room..."
Rosie didn’t let him finish, opening the door and throwing herself in Caspian’s arms, genuine sobbing coming from her. "Cas, I turned blueee..." She reported herself, clinging to him. "My hair is red, it’ll clash, I’ll look like a freak."
Caspian instinctively held her, patting her hair to comfort her. His crystal blue eyes took in the sobbing Omega in his arms, who was most definitely completely blue, and looked into the room with alarmed eyes at Jael, who was still standing in front of his bathroom with a bathrobe.
Jael was just as confused, trying to convey to Caspian that Rosie wasn’t actually blue. Where was Patty when you needed her?
"Hey, hey, it’ll be okay," Caspian tried to comfort her, unable to make heads or tails of what Jael was signing to him. "I’m sure it’s only temporary, it’ll fade soon..."
He trailed off when Rosie pulled away with a sniffle to look at him, "You really think so?"
Caspian’s thoughts flatlined at the sight of her, her tears had tracked a path through the blue tint on her face, it was fake.
He was able to comprehend what Jael had been trying to tell him earlier, his alarm growing. It was so startling that he didn’t know how to begin to explain to Rosie that she actually hadn’t turned blue.
"Rosie?" A new voice joined the conversation, "Oh my God, what happened to you?" Patty put on a movie-worthy reaction despite seeing the evident signs of the blue shade being fake.
Rosie’s lips were turned down completely, her cheeks almost drooping from how miserable she looked. "I turned blue, Patty," She broke into a fresh round of tears as she approached her friend. "You might as well just make me into pie because I can’t live ."
Caspian turned to Jael with accusations in his eyes, some of the dye had even transferred to his shirt, as Rosie cried against him, but it was black, so it didn’t show.
Jael gestured aggressively, trying to explain that he had absolutely nothing to do with this. He was an unwilling accessory to a crime.
While they conversed silently with their eyes, Patty was fanning the flames as she patted her friend’s back. "You’d taste awful as pie filling, but you ate so many blueberries in such a short time that you might remain this way for a while."
Rosie’s wailing got louder, "But I still want to eat blueberries!"
Caspian couldn’t watch things escalate further, walking over. "I’m sure you can," He said in a soft but exasperated voice, taking her away from Patty to push her into Jael’s room.
Jael closed his eyes as Caspian led Rosie to a mirror, why did it have to be his room that the big reveal happened in? He expected an explosion, but none of that came, it made him open his eyes.
Rosie just stared at her reflection like she was slowly processing the meaning of the tracks on her face, then she turned to Caspian with a serious expression. "Can I eat blueberries for breakfas-"
"No," Caspian cut her off, wondering if he should have kept up the ruse for a while longer. Rosie didn’t even seem upset that she had clearly been pranked, more distraught by the fact that she couldn’t eat blueberries anymore. "Breakfast is going to be ready soon. Come down to the dining room." He said to the three of them, leaving.
He had wanted to hang back to play mediator, but Rosie was far from a victim, more like a blueberry murderer.
Rosie waited until Caspian left before she stumbled towards Jael, "Ow! Ow! It’s in my eyes," She complained, marching right over to him to wipe her face on his slightly damp towel.
Jael quietly let her with the patience of a saint, watching Rosie turn to Patty with a grin.
"Dyeing me blue? That was genius, Patty." She said excitedly to her friend, walking over to her after cleaning her face on Jael.
Patty had a smug look on her face as Rosie hung off her arm and praised her ingenuity.
Jael watched them leave, his face was still damp, so Rosie had left two bright blue handprints on each cheek. She had done that just for the fun of it because this entire time, she knew that it was Patty who had pranked her.
He turned around and headed back to the bathroom, if this was what he would have to deal with every day, he would gladly play third wheel.