Tink had been watching Peter and Slightly talking on one of her screens, so she was startled when she heard a knock on her door.
"Hi Tink, can I come in?"
"Sure."
Curly squeezed past her and cautiously sat down in her armchair. He seemed more timid than usual, which was odd since he'd been acting fairly familiar with her lately.
Curly looked around and then cleared his throat. "So, how have you been?"
Tink suppressed a laugh. "Fine. About the same as I was yesterday."
Curly nodded and looked around the room some more. He looked at her plants and her desk and her old avatar prototype and her lab. He looked at everything except for her. He did this for several more seconds until Tink became impatient.
"Curly?"
"Yep." He wiped his hands on his pants and stood up, then he sat down again. "I made something for you."
Tink looked at him expectantly, but he didn't move. "Well, how about you come back when you're ready to give it to me."
"No, I've got it right here," he said, finally reaching into his shirt pocket and pulling out a small package. He stood and shuffled over to Tink, dropped the package in her lap, then retreated back to the chair. Tink pulled apart the brown cloth with growing suspicion and found a pair of squarish, black rimmed glasses.
"So, you think I have bad eyesight?"
"No," Curly responded, becoming aggravated. "Just put them on."
Tink slipped the glasses over her ears and found that they fit perfectly on her face. She glanced around. Everything looked the same, except for Curly, who had faded so much she could hardly see him.
"Uh, that's pretty cool," Tink said, squinting to be able to see Curly, "but I still don't get the purpose of them."
Curly took a deep breath and stepped towards her. "Come here," he said, taking her hand and guiding her to the door. Tink stepped up to the threshold and peered outside. Her breath caught in her throat and she blinked rapidly, but the unbelievable scene didn't change. She turned back and looked in her small house, then out the door again. Everywhere she looked, she was greeted by the familiar view of her cozy room. She took a few tentative steps out the door and down the path, which she could only vaguely make out beneath the facade of her own stone floor. She held on to Curly's hand and let him lead her farther down the mountain. Every once in a while she would see the shadow of a tree or some stars glimmering in the sky, but as long as she didn't focus too hard on those features, she could almost believe she was still in central control.
"Curly, I can't believe... how did you make these?"
"I've had some extra time in the Imagination Tower," he responded. "Do you like them?"
"Like them? I love them! No one has ever done anything like this for me before! This is amazing! Why did you...?" She trailed off. Curly was standing in front of her, his face so close that she could see him clearly. He was smiling broadly and in that moment he looked so attractive, but something was bothering her. Yes, it was fantastic that he had spent all this time and gone out of his way to make these glasses for her, but why?
"Curly, why did you make these?" Tink asked, a sudden hardness coming into her voice.
Curly's face fell and he took a step back. "I... I thought maybe you'd like to leave central control."
"Oh really?" Tink huffed, turning around and heading unsteadily up the path. Suddenly the image of her house all around her made her dizzy, and she whipped off the glasses. She took a few steadying breaths as she regained her bearings, then ran back to her house.
"Tink! Wait!" Curly called, running after her. "I'm sorry! I just thought-"
"You thought I was a girl with issues who needed fixing!" Tink yelled back at him.
"No, Tink, you don't understand!" Curly replied, stopping just outside her door.
"Oh, I understand." Tink spat. "You can't just take me as I am, so you feel like you have to cure me. You feel like you have to help me be normal!"
"What? That's not it at all! You said you missed being out in the real world! I was trying to help you!"
"I don't need your help! I'm fine with the way I am, why aren't you?"
Curly threw up his hands. "I can't win with you! It's impossible to figure out what you want!"
"I want you to leave me alone!"
Curly stared at her for a moment and then dropped his head. "Fine. Goodbye, Tink," he muttered, turning around and heading down the path. Tink knew she should just let him go, but she was still full of fire.
"Peter would never do something like this," she called out. "Peter would never assume what I wanted."
Curly tensed, then turned around and marched back to her door. There was a determination in his expression she had rarely seen before.
"That's because Peter doesn't care about you, Tink!"
"Of course he does! He visits me all the time!"
"Yeah, to ask you for favors. He just uses you!"
"What do you know? Peter and I have a relationship that you'll never understand!"
"I understand completely! I know exactly how it feels to love someone when they're chasing someone else!"
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I love you, Tink! I always have!"
Tink opened her mouth, but no words came out. Curly ran his hands through his hair and plowed on.
"That night that you almost died, I didn't run over here to be a hero, I didn't save you so I could take advantage of you, I came because I didn't want to lose you!"
"You're lying," Tink said softly, frustrated that her words had no conviction.
"You can believe what you want, Tink, but if you keep pushing people away like this you'll end up miserable and alone."
Tink wanted to shut the door in his face, but he turned and left before she had the chance. She watched him walk away, wanting to shout a million insults at his back, but she couldn't bring herself to say any of them.