Chapter Text
It was sunny outside today. Yes, sunny. Very sunny. Dare I even say the nicest day that any of them had seen all year.
A perfect day to have a nice picnic, too perfect. Bugbo hadn't even been awake for longer than a minute before he was already shaking Gradient Joe, trying to jolt him awake. Gradient Joe 'blinked' awake, the white gradient fizzling back inti his face as he awoke, sitting up. His gaze moved over to Bugbo, he stretched, before tossing his hands up slightly and shaking his head as if to say 'what the hell?', he clearly wasn't happy with being woken up.
Bugbo had his usual smile, he sat for a moment, then spoke, "It's extra nice and lovely today. Wouldn't you say?"
Gradient Joe looked around, it was, very much so. Bugbo spoke again, "A picnic, today is perfect for a picnic."
Gradient Joe nodded, it was indeed. He glanced over at Gerbo, who was still asleep. He tried thinking about whether or not he should actually wake him, before he could decide, Bugbo put a hand on Joe's shoulder, making him look over.
"Shh, let him sleep. Sleep improves the mind. He needs that. .... We don't have food, what if we did some other kind of picnic instead?" Bugbo asked. Gradient Joe shrugged, the idea sounding absurd. That really didn't make much sense, like at all, but he rolled with it and tried to come up with something. Bugbo wasn't actually considering any ideas and was solely relying on Joe, and Joe knew that. Bugbo staring a hole into his soul. "So?" Bugbo asked again, his antennae twitching in anticipation.
Gradient Joe shrugged, he really wasn't sure. He made a mixing motion with his hands, then looked around and shrugged again. Truthfully, he didn't know what that meant, but hoped Bugbo would take the motion and run with it. And that he did.
"YES! I've got it, we can mix together lots of cool things and make some kind of new picnic drink! Then, we'll make a picnic and we can give it to Gerbo as wake up surprise." Bugbo rambled, nodding his head as if this had been the best idea ever. Gradient Joe nodded back, the idea was silly, but those types of activities had become regular as of recently. Gradient Joe wondered if Bugbo was running out of things to do. Hopefully not, he thought. The idea seemed unpleasant, but it did make sense. Either way, Joe didn't care about what they did, as long as everyone was content. Or someone, as long as at least someone was content. It wasn't like he was going to pay attention anyway, he never did.
Speaking of that.
"-and we'll combine anything interesting we find." Bugbo's voice faded back into Gradient Joe's hearing, "Did you get all that?"
Gradient Joe had not, not even close. However, he gave a thumbs up regardless. Bugbo gave one back, which was a little weird, he never usually did that. it made Gradient Joe feel slightly more content, he watched Bugbo walk away for a moment, before doing the same himself, in the other direction.
Joe mindlessly grabbed flowers and fruits from various places, anything that might potentially have flavor. Not that he knew anything about that, but he grabbed whatever seemed like it might. He looked at the cluster of plants, one orange, and small berries he had in his hands. Surely that was enough.
He walked back to where they had been before, unshockingly, Bugbo was already sitting there on a typical looking picnic blanket. He'd found just about the same cluster of things that Gradient Joe had, he wasn't looking at Joe though, for some reason. He was squinting, squinting forwards, at seemingly nothing at all. Probably clouds, Joe thought. He walked over and knelt down, setting down what he had found. Bugbo's gaze quickly turned back to Joe, as if startled, though nothing else about his mannerisms portrayed that he had been frightened in any way.
Joe waved, before gathering everything they'd collected into one pile and staring down at it for a moment. He looked back up at Bugbo.
Bugbo looked back, "I suppose we need to figure out how this is going to work."