How irritatingly beautiful pink can be!

There had been a time when pink had frustrated Anna-Liese.

She was so insanely sick of seeing anything with that color.

Or rather, she was sick of seeing a very certain person.

“So, like, are you, likeee… enjoying this stupid hero-stuff?”

​Anna-Liese forced a sigh when she heard that thick, valley-girl accent, but she didn’t turn around.

She continued looking at the city from the roof of the skyscraper she’d flown onto. It was…the same as it always was, beautiful and so very peaceful–unlike the battle she’d just left.

​Most of the buildings were the same shade of clean white as her dress, and if they weren’t, they were similar–even the sky itself was reminiscent of concrete.

​“Heyy, can you hear me, Annie?”

​She sighed and turned around, immediately getting hit by an assault of color. Hot pink decorated every part of The Doll from the bow on her blonde hair to her dress to her heels.

​It was nothing new. Every single one of the many, many, many times Anna-Liese had to see the woman, she was always dressed like this! It was annoying, and clashy, and hideously ugly.

So ugly, Anna-Liese was struggling to focus on anything else.

​“My beautiful little uh, highlighter, can you not call me by my real name?” She spoke in a pitch higher than her actual tone, examining her nails.

​“I mean like, I could, I guess.” The woman’s eye color shifts from blue to green for no real reason.

​"But shouldn’t you have like, deleted your beauty pageant records if you didn’t want me to know, or something?”

​She scoffed at the simple idea, even though she knew it would be best to do that.

Honestly, she was just surprised Doll hadn’t done more when she’d found out her real name.

Actually, that made her think….

​“What about you, baby? What’s your real name?” She batted her eyelashes, fluttering her wings--the only power she'd gotten.

"It’s not fair for only one of us to know something like this!”

​Doll giggled, pressing a hand against her mouth. Out of all the people stupid enough to answer this question, Anna-Liese thought, it would be her.

​“Like, as much as I’d love to tell you, it’s super boring,” She flipped her ponytail with a dramatic sigh, her eyes shifting to a dull gray.

​Well, she tried.

But she couldn’t help wondering now, genuinely, what the woman’s real name was. Anna-Liese had been around her for so many years; it bothered her that she didn’t know!

​Alise, maybe?

Lynette?

Regina?

No, no, no, none of those names sounded like her at all--

​“Anyways, I’m gonna get back to the whole point-thing that I was trying to talk about before you interrupted me super rudely!”

​Anna-Liese crossed her arms, the wind blowing through her dark hair, probably making it frizz up.

​“Is this about fighting?”

​“Don’t think so!”

​Anna-Liese let out a small breath of relief. She wasn’t very good at fighting, not that she really…practiced. She had the other heroes to protect her, after all.

​Doll’s eyes continued shifting colors into a whole rainbow, and Anna-Liese found herself unable to look away. It was pretty, if a completely useless ‘superpower’.

​“I’m just saying, if you don’t really feel the whole ‘being a hero’ thing, you could always, like, join the supervillains? It’s way more fun!”

​She couldn’t help letting out a small laugh, despite herself, which made Doll grin an even brighter smile.

​“And make money! Well, I mean, I don’t make a huge, huge amount of money, y-know? Still. We could pay a lot for a uh, flyer, I guess? What even is your powe–?”

​“Oh, honey,” Anna-Liese interrupted her. It had finally occurred to her that she should probably try and…catch the criminal.

​“Yeah-huh?”

​“I see, you just want to spend more time with someone like me?~" She gave a little spin, cupping her own face, then took a step closer, her heels bouncing against the flooring.

"You guys could really use a…looker on the team, couldn’t you?”

​“Why? They already got one.” Doll gestured at herself, and Anna-Liese smiled, this time genuinely.

​“Well, couldn’t you use a looker?”

​It had been a while since she’d used this little trick, but she didn’t know how else to get Doll distracted. Certainly not by fighting, the woman was a foot taller than Anna-Liese and had at least 100 pounds on her, after all!

Again, those eyes shifted, this time, to a firetruck red.

​“Oh! Flirty today, hm?”

​Anna-Liese slowly slid an electric buzzer into her hand, as unnoticeably as she could, one that would knock Doll out.

​“Flirty every day.”

​Doll looked shockingly normal up close. From here, Anna could see all the little freckles scattered across her entire face, and the scars littering her tan cheeks.

She reached out to throw her arms around Doll’s neck, but before she could, she grabbed Anna-Liese, holding her lightly in place.

​“You’re silly, dontcha think?”

​The buzzer was out of her hand in a moment, leaving her far too vulnerable for her liking.

And this was why Anna-Liese didn’t try to catch people!

She just wasn’t very good at it, unfortunately!

She just had to hope Doll didn’t fancy herself offended.

​“Angry?” She asked, cautiously.

​“Nope. Clever trick!” Doll let her arm go, and Anna-Liese took a quick step back.

​“But ya know, I do make that tech for everyone on my side! It’s like, superrr easy, if you just read a couple of those stupid books, so basically, I like, know when someone’s trying to use that!” Doll said it casually, waving her hands, as though she was talking about putting bread in the toaster.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were good at that kind of thing.”

Privately, Anna-Liese marveled at the idea that Doll was able to make anything like that.

​Come to think of it, all of the tasers she ever caught on those wack-jobs were always bright pink. Checked out.

​“Yep! I can!”

“That’s very clever," she said, impressed.

​“Thanks! Oh, also, you know you can like…just tell me if you want me to go? Unless I’m, like, doing something for my job or whatever. You don’t gotta try and flirt with me if you don't wanna."

​Anna-Liese blinked a few times. She was being hit with a few curveballs today.

​“Actually?”

​“Duh!"

​“Well…do you mind going right now? I wanted to look at the city.”

​“Course I don't! But wait! I got something for you!”​

​“Hm?”

​Anna-Liese hoped it wasn’t a bomb, but was too lazy to actually try to duck. It was probably something either incredibly stupid or very malicious–

​She very nearly had a heart attack when Doll bent forward and gave her a small kiss on the cheek.

But by the time she was able to process what was happening, Doll was gone in a flash of, of course, neon smoke. She swore she heard a giggle, though, and a whisper of: “You started it!”

​That bright pink lipstick stick stayed stained on her cheek.

Even when she wiped it off, she swore she still felt a bit of a buzz that the color could bring.

​

—

​

For months after, Anna-Liese found the color she noticed most was pink.

​It was in every nook and cranny.

​In the hues of a sunset, in flowers, in Valentine's cards, in dresses, hats, and jewelry.

​It was wrapped in envelopes snuck into her purse while she was fighting with Doll, and the pen she purposefully didn’t use to write back, instead opting for blue ink.

​It was in a bouquet of her favorite flowers thrown at her while she was trying to help stop a bank from being robbed.

It was in the frosting of a box of cookies she’d made in secret, all for one woman’s birthday.

​It was in the beautiful fireworks Doll had lit, telling her, “Why not just take a tiny break and watch it? I like, spent so much work to get them here right now!”

​It was in the cotton candy Anna-Liese had gotten Doll, because the mission happened to be at an abandoned fair, and in the new, painted taser she had been gifted the same day.

​It. Was. Everywhere.

And Anna-Liese...she couldn't help but glow brighter every single time she saw it.

​

–

Doll laughed, holding on tightly to Anna-Liese’s shirt as she flew them back and forth through the sky.

The giggle was sweet, so sweet in fact, it almost made her less annoyed with the fact that Doll had spent all day begging Anna-Liese to take her for a fly until she’d finally given in.

“This is so fun!” Doll squealed, her eyes shifting into a vibrant, beautiful yellow.

She wore a more casual outfit, which made it harder for people to tell who she was when she just looked like an average woman.

Anna-Liese probably should not have been staring at her, seeing that she needed to see where she was going, but they would live.

“For you maybe,” She panted.

The wind hit over her face, the sunshine reflecting over the two of them as she rushed up and around the buildings, making sure not to crash.

Sure, flying was easy. But flying while carrying someone?

​“Well, you do this like, all the time, but I’ve never gotten to fly, so obviously,” She drew out every syllable possible in the word. “It's more fun for me!”

Doll adjusts herself, nearly making Anna-Liese drop her. Well, if she did, it wouldn’t be her fault at all!

She sighed softly but wasn’t truly able to find it in her to be irritated. She was, however, able to find it in her to be exhausted.

So, for a moment, she stopped, her wings lightly flapping to keep her in mid-air, two hundred feet above the city.

From here, the buildings were a blur of monochrome. Everything was. All except the pop of color she–barely– held in her arms.

She expected Doll to get impatient, as she typically did. She expected to be urged to keep going, to fly faster, or higher.

But instead, Doll just looked at Anna-Liese with a soft, genuine smile on her face. A look that made something warm inside of her, made her cheeks grow hot.

“What is it?”

“You’re just sooo pretty, y-know that, Annie?”

​“Oh–I–um–oh! Um!”

How did she respond to that? How did she–?

Oh dear.

She felt as though her brain had shut off, making thoughts far more difficult than they should be!

Her face absolutely burned, her blood running with electricity like a live wire.

Doll cackled so loudly, her eyes turning to a brighter shade of pink, and it only made everything worse!

“Shush! Oh, oh, Ginny–” It still felt wrong to call Doll by her real name (one that she’d been made to guess for hours until she got the right answer), but it was the only way she could think to get Doll to stop laughing!

Especially when she was suddenly incapable of speech!

“I love you, Annie." Doll’s tone was the softest she had ever heard.

For just this moment, Anna-Liese was just a silly schoolgirl again faced with her crush, instead of a grown woman.

​“I-–I, um–I love you to–!”

​Flirting had always come insanely easy to Anna-Liese. But this? This was different.

Another chuckle from Doll.

“Yay! Now keep flying, pleaseee, gorgeous! Or else I will literally die of boredom!”

“Fine, fine, fine,” She nearly gasped out.

She was only able to fly for half an hour more, both because of her not being the strongest and because of the growing delight coiling in her chest that was getting harder and harder to ignore.

Finally, they were back on the ground, the sun setting into a soft twilight.

​But before she could go, Doll tugged at her sleeve.

“Hey, so this one is like, super special!” Doll said, her eyes a beautiful shade of rose. Then, she shoved an envelope into Anna-Liese’s hands with a wink.

“A bomb then, is it, baby?” She said, softly, her heart thrumming in her ears.

Doll let out a little giggle, twirling in her short skirt.

​“You’ll have to see!”

​And then, she was gone. Vanished in a smoke bomb as she was wont to do. Anna-Liese didn’t even have the time to be frustrated.

She ran despite how tired she was back to her apartment, laughing and smiling to herself like a lunatic, hoping beyond hope that this would be what she thought it was.

​The moment she was in the door, she was tearing open the letter with belated breath, and there were words, written in pretty pink glitter.

​

Do you want to date me?

—Yes

—No

​

And pink was the color of the paint Anna-Liese had used to check yes, without even the slightest hesitation.