(AN: MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE FINISHED "Let's Try This Again, Shall We?"
SERIOUSLY, MAJOR SPOILERS
Enjoy the Oneshot!)

"How does my hat look?"

"Pierre, it's already recording."

"It is?! How can you tell?!"

"See the blinking red light?"

"Oh. Heh, my bad."

The camera came into focus, revealing a smiling man who appeared to be in his early twenties. His skin was a grey color, his hair dark black, and his eyes bright blue. He wore a brown cowboy hat and behind him were cardboard cutouts of planets, stars, and aliens.

"Just do the thing," Bleck breathed from behind the camera, trying to hold in a laugh from how ridiculously silly this whole scene was.

______

Just a few days ago Merlon had left to attend some business in Flopside. So Pierre took this opportunity to do something fun. As soon as Merlon left, he found Bleck, and stated that he needed help. He claimed that he needed a job other than being Merlon's assistant and that he needed Bleck to help him come up with ideas. The Pixl, though confused at first, loved the idea of helping.

Before then, Pierre had always seemed kind of... distant. He was always with Merlon and was fairly quiet. He would wear his hood and cover his face a large majority of the time. The man avoided eye contact and seemed to overall just avoid interacting with the Pixl. Bleck was almost worried that he hated him or something, which was weird because he had only been around for two weeks tops at this point.

He honestly knew close to nothing about Pierre. He didn't know who he was or what his likes were. He literally knew nothing.

But as soon as Merlon left, Pierre just strolled up, acting as if he suddenly wanted to be friends.

"Hey Bleck!" Pierre called, running up to the Pixl and waving his hand as if they were old buddies. "I have a project for you!"

The Pixl, always eager to be of assistance, asked him what he needed. Pierre then went on to explain how he was going to look for another job. Something else to do with his life. But he wasn't sure what.

"Well... I'm not sure. I don't know much about you..." Bleck trailed off. "Uhh... you could go look for listings at the local mart, or you could be a teacher. Or maybe an actor-"

"I like that last one! Let's do that!" Pierre exclaimed, an excited glint in his eye. He then tapped his chin, in a thoughtful manner. "But what to audition for..."

Bleck frowned, then thought it over as well.

"Hmm... well, when I look at you I kinda get outer space vibes. Your glowing eyes remind me of the stars..." Bleck pointed out. "Maybe you could audition for a space movie."

"OOH! Good idea!" Pierre beamed, sitting down criss-cross and looking at Bleck eagerly. This made the Pixl lightly laugh.

"Alright... so it's gonna be a space movie. But what would I be doing in space...?" Pierre questioned.

"Fighting aliens. Obviously," Bleck replied as if that was a given.

"Fighting aliens? But why? Are they bad aliens?" Pierre asked.

Bleck lightly giggled, seeming to shrug. "Sure. Maybe they're like... alien bandits. And you gotta stop them from robbing a space station."

"OOH! Like some sort of space ranger?" Pierre beamed.

Bleck laughed some more, then fluttered onto Pierre's shoulder. "No, no. More like... a Space Cowboy."

______

The two then spent the next two days building a space background for the audition tape they were going to fill. Pierre took Bleck to the store and purchased a cowboy hat, briefly taking his hood off and looking at himself in the mirror. 

This was one of the first times Bleck got to see his face.

"Whoa... you have a face?!" Bleck asked as if the realization shocked him. He never was actually sure if ancients had faces, or if they just had two floating eyes.

"Huh?" Pierre muttered, suddenly getting quieter. He then quickly scrambled to take the hat off and put his hood back up, covering his face once again. "Oh, y-yeah. I forget that you haven't seen it yet..."

He almost looked self-conscious about it. Bleck wondered why. He knew that it was a regular ancient practice to wear a cloak and cast a shadow over their faces, but he always wondered why.

Bleck paused for a moment, then lightly laughed, turning and floating off. "Don't worry. You don't have to hide right now. I won't tell Merlon."

The Pixl then went to look for paint so they could make a background, missing the softened expression Pierre's eyes had.

He really didn't remember....

The cloaked man then shook his head and took his hood off, placing the hat on.

Then, he softly smiled.

When they got home, they spent a few more hours painting and creating all the cardboard aliens. Bleck giggled as Pierre got some blue paint onto his arms. 

Pierre laughed in return, dipping his whole right arm in a bucket of blue paint. He paused, briefly looking at his blue arm, then created handprints on a piece of scrap cardboard. "Bleck, look! I made a hand turkey!" Pierre exclaimed as the Pixl sat on his shoulder. The pixl nodded, then looked at his blue arm.

So THIS was what Pierre was. A silly goose! Bleck no longer felt very intimidated by him. There was nothing to really feel intimidated by! Maybe Pierre was just one of those people who need a few weeks to open up.

"You know... blue looks good on you. I mean... I like the grey color, but the blue matches your eyes!" Bleck pointed out.

Pierre's shoulders seemed to tense up, but he quickly smiled and laughed it off, muttering a small, "Thanks!"

______

"Just do the thing," Bleck breathed from behind the camera, trying to hold in a laugh from how ridiculously silly this whole scene was.

"Alright, alright," Pierre chuckled, taking out a fake space blaster from his belt and twirling it around. He was no longer wearing his cloak since Bleck stated that it didn't go with the western attire. He then pointed the blaster at a cardboard green alien. 

"Yee-haw! This town ain't big enough for the two of us,"

Bleck snorted as Pierre pulled the trigger, sending a small foam bullet at the cardboard alien. "Begone, space bandit! Pew pew pew!"

"You know you don't have to say, 'pew,' right-" Bleck started, when a small foam bullet suddenly hit him right where his forehead would logically be.

"Pew," Pierre said, smirking and twirling the blaster around his finger.

"Wh- hey!!" Bleck giggled. "You aren't supposed to shoot me-"

"YEE-HAW! Take that, alien!!" Pierre shouted, shooting more foam bullets at Bleck.

The pixl giggled, then set the camera down onto the floor so it was still recording. Then, he flew out, pretending to join the battle.

Pierre smirked and held the blaster in front of himself, pointing it at Bleck and standing still, as if he was in a dramatic anime scene. "Ah... a new challenger approaches. A duel between space Cowboy Pierre and Alien Pixl Bleck. Who will come out victorious?" He announced.

Bleck giggled then flew over and knocked Pierre's hat off. Pierre, acting as if this was a devastating attack, immediately dropped down to pick up his fallen hat, when Bleck fluttered onto his shoulder.

Pretending to be weighted down, Pierre slowly fell to the ground, until he was lying on his stomach. 

"Nooooo, I seem to have been defeated!" He cried. "I'm going into the light! Grandma? Is that you?"

Bleck continued laughing as Pierre continued to act dramatically. "My time is coming. I fought hard, but in the end, I was no match for the amazing, spectacular Space Alien Bandit Pixl Bleck!" He cried.

"Pfffft, Pierre. I knocked your hat off and sat on you." Bleck pointed out.

He couldn't believe that he thought Pierre was shy. This guy was just a flat-out weirdo! But not in a bad way or anything.

"AGONYYYY!" Pierre cried, staying in character. "AAAAND.... death!" He then shut his eyes and stuck his tongue out, pretending to have died. "Blehhhhhh..."

Bleck broke into a laughing fit as he sat atop Pierre when they both suddenly heard someone clear their throat. Pierre quickly sat up and Bleck moved to his shoulder. They both immediately fell silent when they saw Merlon standing there, behind the camera.

"Oh... h-hey Merlon!" Pierre stuttered, quickly scrambling up to his feet. He then rushed over to the camera and stopped recording.

"Pierre..." Merlon sighed. "Can I speak to you? Without Bleck?"

Pierre's face briefly scrunched up and his eyebrows furrowed as if he was afraid. But he smiled and shrugged off the fear, brushing Bleck off his shoulder and walking off to talk with Merlon.

The ancient pulled the man aside so Bleck couldn't hear, then lowered his voice to a whisper. He didn't sound harsh, but more firm than usual. 

"My friend, what are you doing?"

"Nothing, nothing. I'm just... hanging out with Blu." Pierre breathed, looking down as if he was a child in trouble.

"Pierre...."

"I know, I know," Pierre replied. "....That's not his name..."

"Where's your hood?" Merlon asked next. "You know how important it is that you blend in. What if people start to recognize you? What if HE recognizes you?"

"He doesn't. I promise," Pierre assured, looking up at Merlon. He yes, looked relieved that Bleck didn't recognize him, but there also was a hint of sadness hidden behind the relief. "I know we agreed that I wouldn't spend too much time with him. But he doesn't remember. And I don't think he's going to."

"But he could. What if he gets curious and uses his tattle ability on you?" Merlon pointed out. "My friend, I hate to be the bad guy here, but you made me promise you to-"

"I know, I know," Pierre breathed. "I know this was my idea. And I can't thank you enough for keeping me in line..."

Pierre then paused, remembering. Remembering how hard these first two weeks of his new life were. Remembering how hard it was to prevent himself from telling Bleck who he was. How hard it was to sit by and pretend to be a nobody. How hard it was to look out the window and see all those happy families.

"But... I don't know. I just... I just wanted to spend time with him. I see how other people are with their children... and I suppose I wanted to experience that. Just once." Pierre whispered, bowing his head as if he was ashamed.

Merlon's yellow eyes softened. The ancient looked down at the floor, then over at the space movie set that had been set up. He let out a long sigh, then looked back at Pierre's blue eyes.

Pierre had told him when this whole arrangement started to keep him in line. As soon as he found out that Bleck's memories would be no more, he made Merlon promise not to let him accidentally say something. He had wanted to start over. He didn't want to be who he used to be.

But... he shouldn't have had to give up the position he once had in Bleck's life to do so. "If you want to tell him... if you want to come clean... I won't stop you. But-"

"NO! I don't want to do that!" Pierre interrupted, suddenly frantic. He paused, then lowered his voice once again, regaining his composure. "I don't want you to stop keeping me in line. I just... don't want to be this distant from him. I want to be a friend. Not a nobody."

Merlon slowly nodded, understanding. Still, he couldn't imagine how hard it must have been, changing not only who he was, but not even allowing a fragment of his old life to shine through. Yes, Merlon was the one who kept Pierre in check, but Pierre was the one who was most worried about this arrangement. He was the one who wanted to be kept in check.

 "Alright. As you wish." Merlon sighed. The ancient then turned and walked off. "Just... don't show anyone that video. We can't have many seeing your face. It's not a common ancient practice, and people will get suspicious if it happens too often."

"Oh, I wasn't actually planning on showing anyone this," Pierre laughed. "Don't worry. I just wanted to spend time with him. Heh..."

_____

Bleck just floated there and watched as the two stepped away and spoke. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but about ten minutes later, Pierre returned. Smiling a slightly sad smile.

"SO... Funny story," Pierre laughed, though his laughter didn't seem quite genuine. "Uhhh, Merlon won't let me send in the tape because it shows my face."

A flat-out lie, but Bleck didn't seem to notice.

"Awww, really?!" Bleck exclaimed, disappointed. They had both spent days on this project! "But we worked so hard..."

"Yeah..." Pierre trailed off, noticing Bleck's disappointed tone and worrying that he did nothing more than waste the Pixl's time. "S-sorry I wasted your time there."

The man then turned away, slightly afraid that the Pixl wasn't really having fun and had viewed this whole thing as work instead of play, (which, to be fair, was how Pierre was presenting it. He was too afraid to actually approach Bleck and ask to hang out, so he went through all the effort of coming up with a fake scenario and making an excuse to spend time with him. How sad was that?!) "I gotta find my cloak and put it back on before anyone sees me now. I-I'll see you later."

Bleck watched as he walked off, almost feeling sad. Though he was unsure why.

He supposed he just felt bad for Pierre. Clearly, the guy was upset. In Bleck's mind, he had assumed that perhaps Pierre really had his heart set on this audition tape.

"... Well, I wouldn't say my time was wasted," Bleck said.

Pierre then froze and turned back, furrowing his eyebrows and glancing at the pixl, almost looking hopeful.

"H-Huh?" Pierre stuttered. 

"...I had fun," Bleck chimed, squinting his good eye as if he was smiling.

Pierre paused, then his expression slowly shifted to a smile. But it wasn't his usual smile. It wasn't the smile he always wore through his eyes. This smile was different. It was somewhat brighter, and though it was smaller, it felt more real. It felt more true.

"Me too," Pierre smiled. "Me too."

______

That night, after everyone else had long gone to sleep, Pierre sat alone, holding the camera and rewatching the video. Since he was alone, he had his hood off. There, he sat. Replaying the tape over and over, as if he was studying for a test on it. 

There were still speckles of blue paint on his arm from when he and Bleck painted the background for the scene. He would have to make sure to wash that off. 

He didn't like it. At the moment, he thought it would be fun to see the blue in his arm again, but he hated it. He hated that for a moment he wanted to look like that again.

But besides that, he thought the video turned out really well. It wasn't movie quality, but it wasn't meant to be. What it was meant to be was memory quality. He loved how happy he and Bleck seemed.

He loved the sound of Bleck's laugh.

He wished he could have made him laugh like that before.

"Pfffft, Pierre. I knocked your hat off and sat on you." Bleck pointed out in the video as Pierre dramatically lie down on the ground.

"AGONYYYY!" Pierre cried. "AAAAND.... Death! Blehhhhhh,"

Pierre softly laughed to himself, then paused. He took a deeper look at Bleck. 

Through the Pixl's one good eye, he could tell that he had been genuinely smiling.

But the other eye... it was still gone. Even in his Pixl form, Bleck's eye had still been hurt. 

Pierre's expression softened to a frown, as the memories came back. He remembered every moment. He remembered the fear, the pain, the crying. No matter how hard he tried to forget, the memories would always find ways to come back. 

He looked down, turned the camera off, then placed it in a drawer.

The room was dark. He didn't really like the dark anymore. It made him think of the way things used to be. He hated the way things used to be. He wished it could have been day all the time.

He then hugged himself, curling up on the ground and squeezing his eyes shut.

And he cried himself to sleep, allowing all the tears to flow so he could find the strength to smile when the next morning came.