'Shave and a haircut, two bits!'

Nobody actually sang that – they were just supposed to knock. But if there was one surefire way to know that Aiichirou Nitori was at the door, it was stupid stuff like that.

"What is it?" Sei groaned from the floor, opening his eyes to stare at the ceiling.

"I'm coming inside."

"Please don't-" The door was already open. "You are inside."

"Yeah."

Seijuurou rolled his eyes, lolling over onto his side and curling up. "What do you need, Ai?"

"It's art stuff again."

"Noooooo," Sei proceeded to roll onto his face, spreading his arms and legs in defiance. "...ooooooo."

"Pretty please?"

Seijuurou nuzzled his face into the wood beneath him. "Why don't you just ask Rin? I know he's usually busy but what about when I'm busy?"

"First of all – you're laying on the floor. You aren't busy." Ai shook his head. "And secondly, I did ask Rin. I need both of you. He's helping."

"Rin's helping?" Sei's eyes snapped open, now meeting the floor instead of the ceiling.

"Yes, so come on."

Sei raised his head, finally looking at his teammate. Ai stood in the door, cheeks puffed out and brows lowered in defiance. It was precious, how he had his hands on his hips as though it made him look menacing, and he was crouched halfway over to try to make some sort of eye contact with his captain sprawled out across the floor.

"I'm comin', let's stay calm." Sei shrugged, pushing up off of the floor.

"Hurry up, hurry up." Ai huffed, grabbing his captain's hand.

Seijuurou grounded himself so that Ai couldn't drag him along. "When is this project due, again?"

"Definitely not in two days." Ai spat, staring Sei straight in the eye.

"Impressive. I didn't know the great Aiichirou Nitori could procrastinate."

"Oh, shut up." Ai groaned, pulling him out the door before opening his own.

"Not when his precious senpai is always on his back. Always steering him in the right direction! Always guiding him toward the light-"

"I did what?" Rin asked from where he'd been sitting at his desk, tossing an arm over the chair as he began to glare at Seijuurou the second he entered the room.

"Matsuoka." Sei winked at the younger student. "Your greetings are always so welcoming."

Rin feigned a laugh, staring the captain down the whole time. "Then I guess I need to try harder."

Sei waved the comment away and squeezed Ai's hand to get his attention. "So what is it today?"

"Another paint job." Ai shrugged, slowly taking his hand back. "But this one's going to be really intricate."

"My favourite." Seijuurou smiled as he pulled the chair from Ai's desk, sitting backwards in it. "And you need us to do what?"

"No shirt." Ai muttered, dragging his bag to the centre of the room.

Rin leaned back in his seat. "This isn't going to take too long, right? We've got practice today, remember."

"Yeah, so, the sooner we finish up here, the sooner we go." Ai nodded.

"I'm in charge of the practice." Sei turned to look at Rin. " Practice can't really start without me."

"Yes it can." Ai grabbed the selected paints from his bag before snapping his fingers at them. "Come on, come on, shirts off, lets get moving."

"Aggressive. I like it." Sei grinned, removing his shirt and 100% on purpose tossing it at Rin's face.

Rin caught the article with a growl, slowly unbuttoning his jacket before pulling his own shirt over his head. "Ai, you do know that I don't like him, right?"

Ai rolled his eyes, lugging the bag onto Rin's bed. "Yes, senpai, I know, senpai. You don't like him, senpai."

Sei chuckled. "He makes you sound like a whiny baby."

"Quit making me sound like a whiny baby!" Rin whined.

Ai gave him a stern, halfway bored look. Rin stared back at him. The air grew tense for a second. Ai raised his brows. Rin looked away.

Seijuurou gritted his teeth, breathing in as he leaned over to Rin. "I screw around with a lot of people, and Ai is not one of them."

"Thanks for the advice, buchou." Rin said sarcastically.

"You are welcome."

"Okay!"Ai called over to them. "Let's get started."

"What do I need to do?" Rin shut his notebook and dropped his pencil.

Ai shoved his tongue into his cheek. "You said you don't like Sei, right?"

"Right."

"Well," Ai shrugged. "I need you to put your chair as close to his as you possibly can. And stay there."

"What?" Rin was already standing, and Ai had already stolen his chair before he could protest any further.

"Sei." Ai called, setting the chair in the center of the room in front of the beds.

"I got you, babe." Sei replied, rising as he slid his own chair next to the one that Ai had placed.

Ai ignored the nickname and mentally placed where he wanted his teammates to sit. "Okay yeah, sit in the same chairs."

"But Ai, I don't like him." Rin complained, side-eying Sei as the older boy took his seat.

"Rin-senpai, are you helping me with this or not?"

"Of course I want to help. I mean – it annoys me that you always ask Mikoshiba to do these things with you instead of me, but I also don't like him, so -"

"Senpai." Ai huffed, gripping the back of the empty seat.

Another impromptu staring contest ensued. This one ended with Rin sighing, and rolling his eyes as he sat down with a huff.

"I'm only putting up with him because it's you."

"And that is so sweet." Ai smiled, poking Rin's cheek in an attempt to get him to smile

((It worked, but Rin was really good at acting unhappy anyway.))

Sei pushed his seat a little closer to Rin's, sitting down again. "Hello, dear."

"Don't talk to me."

"Guys, turn around in the chairs." Ai began to set out his paints. "I'm doing this whole thing on your backs."

The boys shifted, and Seijuurou purposely bumped his leg up against Rin's, and Rin shivered, and Seijuurou laughed, and Ai knew that this would be a really, really long couple of hours.

Much time and kryolan makeup later, Ai had finally finished his work.

It was this insanely gorgeous mountain landscape that spread across the two boys, with clouds and birds and trees and livestock and literally how did he do that in such a short amount of time.

"I don't understand how you do this shit." Rin tried to look over his shoulder at his back again.

"I'd prefer you didn't refer to it as 'shit'." Ai blew out a breath, but he was smiling. "But thank you. It took years of art classes and six practice sketches and paints."

Sei shook his head. "This is mad cool."

"Okay let's go outside." Ai stood up, stretching his back. "Go out into the hallway."

"Kay." Sei stood, heading for the door.

"O-Outside?" Rin asked, some sort of fear in his voice.

"...Yeah?" Aiichirou and Seijuurou said that in unison.

Rin shook his head. "We have mountains on our backs. People will see mountains on our backs."

"And?" Ai asked.

Sei was already taking strides toward Rin, and quickly grabbed his arm, pulling him up and to the door. "Welcome to my world."

Ai was attempting to wipe out the brushes, but resulted to just leaving them to soak in the sink for a while before he grabbed his camera and followed the older boys out into the hall. There, he'd set up a white backdrop, and stolen (with permission) one of the beige benches from the dorm lobby.

"Okay, so!" Ai said in his most commanding voice. "I just need you guys to sit there, just like you sat in the chairs.

They agreed without protest, sitting with Rin on the left, and Sei on the right.

"Good. Now, I know you're gonna hate this, but try to get as close to each other as possible. Just so there's no gap." Ai continued, raising his camera.

Rin refused to move, so it was up to Sei to press his shoulder to Rin's, laughing loudly as he did so.

Ai snapped a photo.

"Wait, I was laughing in that one." Sei said quickly, trying to warn the younger boy.

"No, it's good. I'm taking more than one." Ai replied, taking another picture. "Uhm... this time, try looking at each other."

"I don't think I'm comfortable with that." Rin said quickly.

"Rin-senpai." Ai whimpered at him.

And Rin was a sucker for that voice and he also couldn't help the blush on his face as he turned to look at Seijuurou over his right shoulder.

And knowing that Rin could make that cute of a face made Sei want to smile, but he also knew that it'd piss him off and he shouldn't let it happen. So, he bit the inside of his lip, making this sort of pinched face in an attempt to stop himself.

Ai took another photo before it got the chance to (surely) blow up.

"Are you laughing at me?" Rin spat, his body growing tense.

Click

"No! No! What? No. Not at all. No way. I wouldn't even dream of considering that." Sei shook his head quickly, turning away with that same pinched up face. "No."

Click

"Yes you are!" Rin grabbed his captain's face, forcing him to look at him. "You are laughing at me, you asshole!"

Click

This sudden outburst finally sent Sei over the edge, and he burst into laughter. "I could've kept it together if you hadn't done that!"

"I hate you."

"You had no business looking that cute!"

"FUCK OFF MIKOSHIBA."

Sei took this opportunity to grip both sides of Rin's face between his hands. "Ah, that was so cute, I could have kissed you."

"No." Rin screeched, trying to pry Sei's hands away with his own. "No you could not have."

Click, Click, Click

"Well the moment's over now."

"Ai!" Rin shouted, standing up quickly. "How do I get this paint off?"

Ai shrugged, taking one last photo. "You can just wash it off in the shower or whatever."

Rin groaned. "We only have a couple minutes before practice starts."

"We should wear it to practice." Sei butted in, his eyes lighting up.

"What?"

"What?"

"It'll come off in the water, won't it?" Sei asked, turning on the bench to look at Ai.

Ai was taken aback. "Y-yeah? I guess?"

Sei didn't even turn to Rin, but he somehow managed to snag his wrist before he could escape. "Rin. We're wearing this to practice."

"No."

"Then, we can match."

"No."

Sei sighed, releasing him. "Fine. You can rinse yours out. Everyone will just know that yet again, Ai spent his time painting me. Running his brushes along my body. Just mine." He looked off to the side 'innocently'. "Like last week when he painted my face, or the first time we did it and everyone could see the marks for three whole days-"

"Ai." Rin turned to him sternly. "I'm wearing this to swim practice."

"Senpai, you seriously don't need to-"

"Ai." Rin repeated, his tone more grave this time. "I am wearing this to swim practice."

Sei grinned, hopping up and ducking into his room to grab his bag. "Get your stuff, Matsuoka."

Rin looked at Sei, then the clock in the hallway, then back at Sei with narrowed eyes. "I'm getting it because I choose not to be late to practice. Not because you're telling me to."

"Yeah of course." Sei rolled his eyes as Rin hustled into his own room. Ai made eye contact with him, and they both began to laugh silently before Rin returned.

"Okay." Rin ran a hand through his hair. "Let's go."

"I'm not ready yet." Ai shook his head. "I've got to clean my stuff, and take all this stuff down."

"So you'll be late to practice?" Sei asked, sounding almost disappointed.

Ai shrugged. "If that's alright with you."

Seijuurou sighed, looking away from the shorter boy. "It's fine, but only because it's you."

"Thank you very much." Ai smiled before sauntering back into the dorm. "Please don't screw up the pool!"

"They're draining it tomorrow anyway!" Rin called. Then he ran into Seijuurou. Completely on purpose. "I already used that line, moron."

"Well coming from me it wasn't a line."

"Don't you dare try to use that against me."

"Why do I get this strong feeling that you are envious of my relationship with your roommate?"

"I've got no idea, seeing as he's my roommate and we're closer than you could ever be."

"He spends all his free time in my room."

"We sleep together."

Sei raised a brow.

"Not literally."

"Well we do. Literally."

"No you don't!"

"And how would you know?"

"Because my Ai wouldn't sleep with tanned scum like you."

"Wow." Seijuurou placed a hand over his heart. "I'm hurt. I didn't know that was how you felt."

"Shut up." Rin snapped, staring at Sei. Sei stared back. They were locked in a competition. This time, neither of them would look away.

"I'll race you to the pool." Sei said, still holding Rin's gaze.

"Whatever." Rin replied, narrowing his eyes.

"First one there gets to pull out of the water, glistening and wet, and pat Ai's head when he gets there."

Rin's stare intensified.

Sei grinned. "Still whatever?"

Rin did not reply. He simply took off running.

"YOU'RE PLAYING DIRTY, MATSUOKA."

"ALL'S FAIR IN LOVE AND WAR AND THIS IS BOTH."

"TO HELL WITH THAT."

"YOU SOUND LIKE A SORE LOSER."

Behind the closed door, Ai was laughing to himself. Because they were both really stupid. And really, really alike. And he couldn't tell which one he liked more.

But then again, if they kept fighting like this – he figured he'd never have to pick on his own. They'd sort things out themselves.