painting

The room smelled just like an artist. The heaviest scent was paint, which splattered every surface that were not the walls and ceiling. Painting Instructor Burgh had a motto that the world and everything in it was his canvas, but since he was renting this space, it was not included in his painting world. Then underneath the paint was chalk and crayons. Burgh's next motto was that art was for all ages, from little toddlers to old people, which meant that except for the nude drawing classes and the sharp equipment classes, anyone was free to join in any form of expression. The only rule was to have fun.

Juniper pulled her paintbrush from the canvas and eyed her progress. While the only rule being fun was stress-free, she wished that there was just a little more…structure to these classes. Burgh was busy with Fennel entertaining some little kids with fingerpaint, and the only other person she could think about asking for help from was Elesa, who was in the midst of drawing Skyla into her fashion promos. Everyone seemed to be having fun with these classes, but this wasn't fun at all.

What did she want to do? Drive to Driftveil and work on some fossil research that Clay was helping her with by exploring Clay Tunnel. Or curl up in her favorite chair and go through Professor Rowan's most recent article about a possible new subspecies of Shellos. Or maybe…she didn't know, something along the lines of fixing this painting of an apple so it wouldn't suck enough so she could give it to her wife.

Her hands were covered in so much red it looked like she killed someone, and the canvas showed it. This apple looked absolutely nothing like an apple! It looked like some giant, red blob that cried and rolled under Colress's couch and stood there for three months. Fennel was the one to suggest to her to paint an apple, in order to destress, but Juniper could just feel the stress oozing from her red-drenched hands. She was not an art person. Science person? Yes. Archeologist? Yes. Welding and lawn operator? Most days. But not art. Never art.

But she had to try. For Fennel.

Sighing, Juniper switched for a thinner paintbrush and dipped it into the green paint cup. This wasn't over yet. She could salvage this. Making an oval shape on the side of the apple, she carefully outlined what was supposed to be a leaf. Yes, it looked like a great outline. Both the art and science communities would be proud of this. All that was left was to start filling in the leaf, and she could-

"WHOA, YOU'RE PRETTY GOOD AT THIS, JUNI!"

Skyla slapped her on the back, and she jolted forward, making a jagged, diagonal green line across the apple. It was no longer a salvaged apple; it was an abomination. It took Juniper all of her strength not to wipe her paintbrush across Skyla's face as she slowly placed her brush on the easel. "Gee, thanks for your support, Skyla," she mumbled. "Are you having fun?"

"Lots! Elesa keeps feeding me those Teddiursa crackers for every ten minutes I manage to sit still."

"And you're not gonna get one bothering other artists!" Elesa snapped, slamming her pencil on the table. "I told you to hold still."

Skyla cocked her head. "Why? You already have my basic pose down. How much longer must I suffer?"

"Your face. Your face! The pose means nothing without the face!"

Before Skyla could argue, Elesa pulled her by the collar and jerked her back into the seat. Gazing up at Juniper, she blushed and grimaced. "Sorry about that, Professor."

"It's…it's fine."

The girls went back to their drawing and posing, and Juniper blankly stared at the canvas. It really wasn't fine at all. She just wanted to break this canvas in half and use it for their fireplace. Maybe if she was quick enough, she could escape this artist haven and go back to the apartment and down a few before Fennel noticed she was gone. Everyone was having fun without her, anyway. It wouldn't take much effort to leave.

But instead she just sat there, kicking her legs back and forth against her stool, until Fennel finally pressed herself against her back, hugging her. "Aurie, dear, that's a lovely apple!" she chirped, kissing her on the top of her head. "It's so expressive, isn't it, Arti?"

"Quite so. See, I told you all you two needed was some art to help you relax!"

"Yes! Oh! I should've washed my hands before hugging you, Aurie! I'm so sorry!"

Juniper turned around, puzzled. Both Burgh and Fennel were dripping in paint, even more than her apple. She couldn't help but snort and raise an eyebrow at the sight. Even Fennel's glasses and face were smudged with brown, purple, and blue (or was it green?). "I'll put our clothes in the wash when we get home. What happened to you guys?"

Fennel puffed her cheeks. "Don't you even laugh. Our fingerpaint session turned into a fingerpaint murder mystery session on the floor. Kids are much more brutal these days!"

"Won't the janitors be pissed?"

Burgh sighed. "They're always pissed. But even at the cost of being evicted, making artists out of children is part of my job!"

"Uh, it looks like they made art out of you."

"So they did."

"But what lovely art from everyone!" Fennel cried, twirling once with stars in her eyes. "Elesa's sketches of Skyla are looking good, and the murder mystery managed to be solved with the fingerpainted corpse outline! But that apple! Aurie, we've got to frame it up in our bedroom!"

Juniper chuckled. "Whatever for? It's terrible."

"It is not! It's a great apple! And I'm sure every apple after this apple will be even better!"

"Ed, I'm not just gonna paint apples forever. I'll have to move up sooner or later."

"So we can come again next week? Can we? Can we?"

Shit.

Fennel hugged her again and squeezed her tighter, and all of the negative thoughts disappeared from her head. This wasn't over after all. She would have to move up to bigger and badder things sooner or later, but she wouldn't let the painted apples win. She'd live, think, and breathe apples until she'd make such a great apple that Fennel would mistake it for a real one. If there was a Nobel Prize for art, she would win it. Even better, it would be right alongside the greatest scientific achievements.

Grinning, she took Fennel's hands into her own red-drenched ones and squeezed them. What a time to be alive.

"Sure."

(Original notes: I was reading something and there was this scene where this guy gets decked by a bunch of paint cans falling on him so I was inspired. :U I honestly don't remember where I read this from. Pretty sure I know but I'm only 90% sure rip.)

Originally written January 10th, 2016 on tumblr. Doesn't feel that long ago honestly.