A/N: Inspired by the YP official art with several characters painting a wall
Shinkai is fairly certain Arakita has entirely avoided getting any paint on the wall they are ostensibly supposed to be working on. That is not a surprise in and of itself. His presence at all is something of a shock in the first place; Shinkai was sure the other boy was going to cancel up until this morning, when the redhead arrived with Usakichi in tow to find Arakita lounging against the wall with his coveralls half-on and looking the picture of a delinquent. The only thing missing is a cigarette, and Arakita more than makes up for it with the scowl he produces when Shinkai offers a polite, "Good morning Yasutomo."
"It's too fucking early," Arakita hissed, and if they had been alone Shinkai would have made the most of even a few minutes of privacy to see how that scowl feels against his skin, to taste the edge of the other boy's grimace. But Onoda is waving as he approaches with Naruko and Imaizumi behind him, and they don't have even a few minutes, so he contents himself with letting his gaze drop to Arakita's mouth and staring until the other boy starts to flush and growls, "You want something?"
"No," Shinkai says innocently, and then the others are there, just in time for him to turn and offer a greeting while Arakita seethes at him. Then Toudou arrives with the paint, and Makishima with the brushes, and they're all just starting to distribute the buckets and brushes when Manami comes up breathless and glowing with energy. Shinkai ends up down on the far corner with Usakichi in his box alongside him while Imaizumi paints carefully pristine letters over him and with no idea where Arakita is. He doesn't consciously track the other boy's movements, though he's a bit surprised every time he turns around to find Arakita still present at all, and the day is progressing on to afternoon when a shadow falls over Shinkai's corner of the wall and something cold hits the back of his neck. The redhead lifts a hand instinctively to his skin, touching against the liquid before he even looks up to see Arakita leaning in over him, offering a sharp grin and a brush still heavy with paint the same teal as the liquid smeared across Shinkai's fingers when he pulls them away.
"Did you just flick paint at me?" he asks, looking up at the grin that says yes before Arakita speaks.
"You're ignoring me." He lifts the brush again as if he's brandishing a weapon. "I could paint your goddamn bunny instead."
"No." Shinkai reaches up to grab at his wrist to stop the threat, but Arakita twists sideways and catches him across the cheek with the color instead. "Leave Usakichi out of this. You can do whatever you want to me."
Arakita blinks and Shinkai can see the shadow of innuendo settle behind his lashes before he pulls his face back into his more typical irritation. "You're no fun. How are you still doing this, it's so goddamn boring."
"You could try participating," Shinkai says steadily, reaching out to retrieve his brush from the bucket of orange paint beside him. He moves slowly, and Arakita's watching his face instead of his hand, so he gets the brush entirely free of the bucket without the other boy stopping him. "Judging us from a distance is a bit cowardly, isn't it?" He lunges out with the brush, catches Arakita solidly against his ankle before the other boy has realized what he's doing and jerked away. It leaves a stripe of orange against his skin and coveralls both, and Shinkai is smiling with victory even before Arakita hisses and drops to a knee in front of him.
"You got paint on me." He's reaching out with the brush, aiming for Shinkai's face again; the redhead turns away to dodge, grabs at Arakita's wrist to deflect so the brush hits his shoulder instead.
"You started it," he points out reasonably, swinging at Arakita's chest with his own brush while he's got him in range. Arakita tries to pull away but can't make it, with Shinkai holding his wrist; the redhead only gets one stripe in before Arakita is grabbing at his fingers, though, pulling until he drops the brush and the other boy can seize it.
"You were ignoring me," he hisses, swinging his hand across to stripe across the front of Shinkai's coveralls. The redhead is too close to laughing to try to stop him, and Arakita is pushing hard at his hold, the other brush shifting between them until there's another spray of blue-green paint against Arakita's dark hair and Shinkai's red both.
"I thought I'd save the attention I have in mind for later," Shinkai says, lets the words purr in his throat as he tips his chin down to look up at Arakita through the shadow of his hair. That gets Arakita to look at him, and for a moment the aggression hard at his jaw softens into the shocked heat Shinkai can sometimes win from him. His hand goes still against Shinkai's front, he stops fighting the redhead's hold, and for a brief insane moment Shinkai thinks about leaning in to kiss him. He doesn't even think Arakita would stop him, at least not right away.
"Stop flirting." Toudou's voice is startling, shrill like he sometimes gets when he's trying to be loud, and Arakita jumps like he's been shocked, jerks away and growls wordlessly in the other's direction. When Shinkai looks over Toudou's got his hands on his hips and his hair falling out of his headband, looking somewhere between amused and irritated. "What are you even doing?"
"Fuck off," Arakita snaps, glancing back at Shinkai as he moves to get his feet under him. Shinkai can see the horror sweep over his features, his eyes going wide with shock as he hisses with so much vehemence Shinkai looks down at whatever is drawing such a reaction from him. He barely has time to glimpse the pattern across his coverall before Arakita's hand swings over the orange, smearing the darker blue paint over the color until the lines are obscured. Then Toudou's coming closer, and Arakita's dropping the brushes and shoving to his feet to growl curses at the other boy, and Shinkai is left to unconsciously touch the paint staining the front of his coveralls as he watches Arakita storm back to the fringes of the group. It's impossible to see now - the orange is entirely lost under the cover of the blue - but Shinkai recognized the pattern he glimpsed before the other boy covered it.
He knows the shape of his boyfriend's name, after all.