Okay but what if those A and B characters that creators substitute for relationship dynamics are actors who volunteer to be placeholders
And what if A secretly resents B because A always has to be the cheery, sunny, character, who loves without limits and always plays the initiator
What if A is sick and tired of only being relevant in B's context because B somehow ends up consistently becoming the base for the fan favorite character while A just becomes the character shipped with them
What if under that resentment is jealousy, and under that jealousy is hurt, because A gets it, A gets why B is so loved, and A wants to be loved too but B is nothing but cold and distant towards them when they're working together
What if A secretly wonders if their capacity to constantly pour into someone is the reason B is so loved, and if the reason B never looks at A twice is because B doesn't want to acknowledge that
What if, for how cold B acts when they're posing with A, it's because they love A
What if B wants to turn around and dump all the love and gentleness and joy and safety that A has given them over the years back onto them, but they can't
What if B wants to make absolutely sure that their motives are pure, and is just waiting for a chance when they're not acting to do so because that's not something they want shared with an audience
What if B used to freeze up whenever those chances came along, and now they don't get those chances anymore because A decided the best thing for both of them was to show up, act, and leave
What if one day A and B show up, only to find out that the creator who booked them got art/writer's block and couldn't make it
What if B invites A back to their place and is surprised that A is surprised when they do
What if A goes along with B's request solely because it was so unexpected they just said "yes" and now they're wondering why they're willingly walking into a space that'll only tell them all over again how contextual and relative their importance is
What if B's living space has been transformed over time to be a safe haven from their many admirers
What if A had forgotten what it felt like to be safe
What if A and B start talking as B makes A's favorite drink order and casually calls them by their real name (which doesn't even start with A!)
What if B finally gets to show all the warm colors and nurturing nature and gentle smiles and initiation that they always have to hide under a blue-grey watercolor wash when they're on set
What if A's so lost at this point that they just -
What if all the burnished bronze of their golden retriever smile finally gets a break and all the yellows and oranges of their character start running off like paint bleeding down a soaked newspaper
What if B sits in quiet, cold horror as they finally realized that for all the details they noticed and care they held, they never saw A's pain
What if A does their best not to let too much out, but B is perceptive enough to realize that they're the reason the most beautiful thing in their life has been falling apart
What if A tells them it might've been their effect, but it wasn't their fault
What if B asks A to let them take care of them
What if A says that they don't want a caretaker, they want a friend
What if B calls out for both of them for the next few weeks and tells A they can stay in their safe space as long as they need to (work can wait, the creators love it when C and D show up to do their "idiot gremlins in love" act)
What if B spends the next week battling the heartache of finally having the connection they wanted in their grasp, only to realize they still needed to earn the privilege of having all that love and care accepted from the person they'd refused to interact with earlier
What if A spends the next week rediscovering what it means to trust someone and start accepting in return what they've been giving and giving and giving
And giving and giving and giving
What if one week in A finally asks if it's okay for them to take
What if B says yes, if A asks first and waits for permission
What if the first thing A asks for is to be held
What if it's one of the most awkward cuddles in the world, at first, because A's always been build for hugging and B's always been built to be hugged and B's arms aren't used to reaching out quite so expressively and A isn't used to curling up into a tiny ball for such a happy reason
What if they both start to wonder if this is what love actually feels like
