Blobs and Smudges
Summary: "Yellow suits you, Tsubaki!" Remind Tsubaki never to paint again-especially not with Shun'ō. Featuring two of our favourite characters, the Shun Shun Rikka! Because we desperately need more about them.
Pairings: Tsubaki/Shun'ō, if you want to see it as a pairing
Song listened to while writing: ALONES by Aqua Timez-6th Bleach opening that opens with Kon-awesome song-listen to it! Or else!
Warnings: Beware of deadly yellow paint. That's all I've got to say.
Disclaimer: Bleach does not belong to me. Neither do the inhabitants of Ioue-san's hairpins. At least, not yet…
Enjoy!
***
Tsubaki had been watching Shun'ō with mild interest, but only because there was nothing else to do. She had her back to him, and as yet had no idea he was even there.
Observing from the doorway, he looked on as the healer-fairy dipped the brush she was holding in her right hand onto the small palette, (he himself was left-handed) then applying it to the canvas.
Eyes drifting to her painting, he looked at it curiously, wondering what on earth it was. Certainly nothing he had ever seen before, though it was definitely something.
Stepping forward into the room, he strode noiselessly towards the girl. Treading like a cat, stealthy and silent, he said nothing, waiting until he was right behind her, when he said loudly, "What is that?"
Shun'ō, who had been in the process of emptying more yellow onto the canvas from a small glass jar, gasped in surprise and jumped about a foot in the air (relative to the spirit's size – they were, of course, all much smaller than a foot), flinging the jar backwards and almost losing her grip on it. It was inevitable that Tsubaki would get a bit of the paint on him.
As it turned out, it was more than just a bit. Tsubaki now had a huge blob of paint on him that covered his whole stomach. A yellow-bellied fairy.
"Tsubaki," she exclaimed in surprise, putting down the jar and picking up the brush again, "You startled me!" She then noticed the large quantity of paint now on Tsubaki.
"Shun'ō," he said coldly, "I really didn't need that."
Nodding sheepishly, she looked suitably ashamed, then suddenly perked up and said, "But, if I may say so, yellow suits you, Tsubaki!" She grinned as she said this, waving her brush around carelessly and flicking yet more paint onto her already colourful persona.
Seeing that Tsubaki still didn't look very pleased, she sighed and added, "It's just paint, Tsubaki. Look, I've got it all over myself as well."
"That's different," he protested, "You've got an apron on!"
"Actually, it's called a smock," muttered Shun'ō, barely managing to conceal her ever-widening grin.
Tsubaki looked like he was going to explode; he had to take several deep breaths before saying loudly, "What difference does it make? I'm still covered in paint!"
Shun'ō sighed and then, putting down the brush and palette, leaned forward to try and clean the yellow paint off, in an attempt that was doomed to fail. All she managed to do was smudge it around even more.
"Oh…" she said in disappointment, pulling her now-yellow hand back. "Well, it'll dry soon," she said reassuringly, "and then Ayame can wash it!" She smiled, pleased with her idea, but a certain someone was not so happy.
"Shun'ō," he said dully, "this is my only set of clothes. What am I going to wear while she washes it?" Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth he had a strange feeling about them. Suddenly realising what he had just said, he hastily added, "Actually, don't answer that question."
Resigning himself to her idea, he saw her smiling, and, eager to draw attention from himself for once, indicated to her painting and added, "What's that supposed to be?"
Her smirk faded to be replaced by a slight frown. "You mean you can't tell?" she asked despairingly.
He shook his head.
Disappointed, Shun'ō asked him, "You know the forest just out of town? With the river running through it?"
"Oh," said Tsubaki, comprehension dawning. "So that's what it is. I thought it was some sort of dying octopus," he said carelessly.
Shun'ō looked upset. Tsubaki was blatantly honest at the best of times, but still, she had been rather pleased with the painting so far.
Noticing her upset face, he added, "Well, it's not that bad. I could tell where the trees were." This was high praise coming from Tsubaki.
She smiled, then wondered. Tsubaki wasn't usually this nice. For certain, it won't last, she thought.
Sure enough, figuring that he had at least refrained from upsetting her, Tsubaki added, "Still, no offence, but you have no artistic talent whatsoever."
"None taken," replied a miffed Shun'ō. She would have been angry if she hadn't known it was true. "I'd like to see you do better, though."
Tsubaki raised his eyebrows. "Alright then, I will." To be perfectly honest, he had never even touched a paintbrush before-but then again, Shun'ō was doing it-how hard could it be?
Picking up a paintbrush, he spoke, "Well, for starters, you haven't made the river bank clear enough from the water." Dipping it in the blue, he drew a squiggle over where the stream was, suddenly making it much clearer.
"And, also," he went on, "The trees don't look realistic enough-the leaves are just an unfocused blob of green." Having said this, after dipping the paint in the green he jabbed lightly at the leaf area, immediately creating the effect of foliage.
Shun'ō was, there was no other word for it, impressed.
She hadn't thought of Tsubaki as an artist. There was something about the animated spirit that made you think he was more suited to kick-boxing. Yet, there he was, fixing Shun'ō's painting up as if his life depended on it.
Nodding contentedly as soon as he had finished creating a canopy of green, Tsubaki glanced around the picture until his keen eyes fell on some things that he had earlier dismissed as some odd flowers. Now, however, they seemed distinctly familiar. The first blob was coloured red and yellow, the next red and black.
"Shun'ō," he said slowly, "those two shapeless blobs there," he began, pointing to the coloured masses in question, "are they supposed to be us?"
She nodded, ignoring the insult. Looking at the picture again, she spoke, "Hinagiku and everyone are supposed to be there, but I haven't gotten around to drawing the-"
"-No, it's fine the way it is," Tsubaki interrupted, still gazing at the painting as if it held some sort of mystery.
Shun'ō was surprised, pleased and confused at the same time. As you can probably imagine, this was no easy task, so she settled with just being plain confused.
"Wha-at?" she asked, unsure of whether he was being sarcastic, or actually honest for once.
He glanced at her, and, realising the need to clarify, explained, "You've already drawn them. See?" he pointed to a few more shapeless blobs towards the other side of the painting.
Shun'ō was surprised. "But," she started, "those are just paint smudges. I didn't even notice them until now. They got on the painting when you surprised me," she said, examining the smudges more closely.
Tsubaki shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Use your imagination, woman. There-right there-it's Lily!" He smiled in a particularly annoying way as if he had just dealt successfully with a particularly annoying child.
Shun'ō was completely taken aback-not least because he, Tsubaki, had just told her to use her imagination. His self-righteous attitude was also starting to get on her nerves, but that was just the regular Tsubaki.
In fact, the more she looked at it, the more she could actually understand what Tsubaki was talking about, which in itself was rather scary. There was, indeed, a blob of red, yellow, pink and navy blue that reminded her distinctly of the female shielding spirit. Nearby was a blob of brown, white and black that beared a close resemblance to Baigon.
Just under the Lily-splodge was a pale blue globule mingled with navy blue that dripped down the picture from Lily, a yellow stripe and a handily placed red spot. It looked quite a bit like Hinagiku.
And to the very right of these three spirits was a large red smidge of paint, accompanied by a splash of pink. It reminded her a lot of her partner in healing, Ayame.
"Funny, isn't it?" said Tsubaki suddenly. Shun'ō jumped for the second time that day, though luckily for Tsubaki she was no longer holding anything that could colour him even more.
"I wish you would stop doing that," she muttered, even though she knew Tsubaki would hardly care. She glanced at him; again, he was looking at the painting as if it contained the answer to the mystery of life, except he was grinning now. "What?" she asked him, frowning and looking thoroughly annoyed. She certainly couldn't find anything particularly amusing.
"It's just that," he said, smirking, "It's funny that you paint better when you do things by accident than on purpose." Tsubaki could be extremely nasty when he wanted to be.
"Tsubaki!" Shun'ō shrieked, "You're so mean!" She knew that she was a hopeless painter at her best, but still, that didn't mean that Tsubaki had to be so rude!
Tsubaki merely grinned, and said gloatingly, "Well, it's the truth! And you can't get mad at me-you've already coloured me yellow!"
Shun'ō shrugged, relenting slightly. "It isn't my fault you're yellow. It was an accident-and hopefully it'll teach you not to go sneaking up on people." Turning back to the picture, she took one look at it, and confessed, "I have to admit, the painting does look better than it did before." She tried to make it as unflattering as possible, knowing that Tsubaki was not above going around the house gloating for days.
The fairy in question, however, simply nodded in a thoughtful way. "It is rather good, isn't it? I'm thinking of taking up painting as a hobby." Shun'ō laughed-the word 'hobby' sounded strange coming from Tsubaki. He didn't notice, however, and drifted out of the room, lost in thought.
"Hey! Tsubaki! Where do you think you're going?" Shun'ō rushed to the door after him. "You're not going to leave all the cleaning up to me are you?" No reply.
"Ah well…I suppose he's gone to see Ayame about washing his clothes…that's what I get for spilling yellow paint on him, I guess," she mumbled, vowing never to paint with her back to the door again. If she painted at all-she had just decided to give up on art and leave it to Tsubaki, who was obviously much more competent at it than her.
Passing the painting, she looked at it and smiled. The red-and-yellow blob and the red-and-black blob appeared to be fighting with each other.
Some things never change.
***
Well there you go! Hope you liked it, if you didn't fall asleep while reading. I really love the Shun Shun Rikka, and there really is not enough about them. If anyone feels the same way as me, please, PLEASE, write some SSR fanfiction! Ayame and Shun'ō beg you!
Have a nice day!
~~AC