Prompt: Sai + Sakura on the bank of a river.
The sun finally reached the perfect spot in the sky where it cast its light perfectly down the river, the shadows dancing on the water's surface, the golden glow lazily reflected in each ripple.
At last, Sai could begin to paint once more. His colour palette was all ready, he had arrived slightly too early today and had filled the time with preparation so there was no hesitation. There would only be 15 minutes before the sun would fall too low beneith the distant skyscraper and the moment would be lost until tomorrow.
He lost himself. The magic cast by the sun as it set was intoxicating, bringing back happy memories of the childhood friend he struggled to remember during any other time of day. Something about the warm colours on his skin. He couldn't bring any other memory back but the smile, and if he could describe the smile it would be this. The image he was trying to capture.
Moments like this were, what he assumed, people would call 'content', 'relaxed', even 'at home'. At home. He supposed he felt 'at home'.
"GET BACK HERE, GET BACK HERE ! NO !"
The moment was punctured somewhat.
He tried to ignore it, but the shrieks filled the air and eventually he had to concede a loss and turn around.
Of course it was a girl from his school. Sai didn't know her personally, but he knew she was loud. Although he could have assumed that from any moment at all in which he had encountered her. Loud. Even her hair was loud. From what he had assertained from eavesdropping during the previous week's biology class, she had attended a private school and was rebelling from strict dress code, and apparently her rebellion came dressed as pink hair dye.
At some point he realised he was staring at her - she seemed to have noticed and appeared to be addressing him.
"Are you some kind of pervert ?" she accused, but the way her eyebrow was raised implied she wasn't being entirely truthful in her accusation.
"No", Sai replied with honesty, "but you're being loud. I tried to drown you out but I think perhaps the sound of your voice is so annoying that I can't even do that."
He summised that to have not been a wise thing to say. Her face contorted, and once again her voice began to rise through the air and she continued to scream towards him for a long while.
The sun had cast a shadow down the river.
She was still shouting, but Sai wasn't sure she was shouting at him anymore. He had heard something about manners, him not knowing something, is he even listening, but perhaps he missed something vital. She dropped herself on the grass beside him. Finally silent.
Minutes passed. He wasn't sure where to look, but she had turned away from him and appeared to rub her eyes. Perhaps an insect had flown in there, which wasn't uncommon at this time of year and at this proximity to a body of water, Sai mused.
Her eyes briefly met his, then dropped to the grass before rising again and resting on his unfinished painting.
"It's... good... You're good." She said quietly.
Sai shrugged, and replied with a simple, "I know." He expected that this was probably the wrong thing to do. Maybe he should have acted humble, or told that lie his classmates tell when they're complimented, Oh, no it's nothing... Or perhaps - Really ? You think so ? Those were acceptable answers, apparently. Something about arrogance. As he was contemplating this, he heard a gentle giggle coming from his classmate.
He looked at her again. She was beaming at him. Perhaps that was the right response after-all.