I DON'T OWN ANY OF THE CHARCTERS IN THIS STORY, ALL RIGHTS GO TO MICHAEL GRANT
Life pretty much sucked. That was how Roger could sum up what had happened in his life since the Coming of the FAYZ. It was always some big fight between Caine and Sam or Drake had decided to come back to take another crack at the Townies but whatever happened there was always fighting and Roger just couldn't see the point of it, especially since meeting Justin.
Justin was just about the nicest thing to happen to him in a very long time as the little kid always had something funny to say or something interesting to do that was of course completely unrealistic or just stupid but being a kid Justin never really thought about the little things such as reality.
Today however, Justin had had one of his more practical ideas and decided to have roger paint the patio outside their tiny house on the edge of town as Roger hadn't let Justin go to a house in the centre of town, far too dangerous for one of the littles' to live so close to so much fighting, Roger just didn't think it was right.
Dusting himself down Roger set to work trying to figure out how to paint a fire breathing dragon on the moon fighting the chain chomps from the Mario games which was Justin's latest fixation, smiling indulgently as he knew that Justin would get bored of chain chomp fighting dragons within the next two days but would moan constantly until the painting was done. He himself loved painting, loved the way the colours all fitted together all trying to be the brightest colour, all jostling for the viewer's attention, trying to be the single thing that a person remembered seeing or at least that was how roger saw paintings. He blushed, reminding himself that thinking paintings talked was stupid and that he was just being weird.
It was very calming, kneeling on the ground letting his worries and concerns and fears flow out of him, the vibrant colours not letting his mind have enough room to focus on all the problems, convincing himself that they could be left until later and for the moment letting himself focus on trying to figure out whether or not chain chomps bled when bitten by dragons.
What felt like hours later Roger sat back a small smile on his face at how he had somehow been able to create the masterpiece before him but a small frown creased his forehead as he looked to the empty space where the dragons head should have been. On the one hand, he desperately wanted to finish the picture so that when Justin came back from his friend Sarah's house he would do that little squeak smile thing where his eyes would light up and he would simply grin shyly up at him but on the other hand, he was running very low on paints and finishing such a large painting would use up the last of his supply and he had already traded pretty much all his belongings to get the paints he had at the moment and he didn't know where he would-
A soft thump sounded behind Roger "Oh crap"
Roger whirled around wondering who on Earth would come to his house. Standing behind Roger, awkwardly shuffling his feet was a fairly tall boy with tanned skin and brown hair with deep chocolate eyes that had now flicked to the ground embarrassed at getting caught gently nudging a book under the table that he had clearly just knocked off the outside table.
Roger simply stared trying to figure out what to say (he was never very good with people, preferring to keep to his paints) and all he could think of was why this boy, Edilio Roger thought his name was, that guy with the gun that followed Sam around everywhere but Roger liked him as he always seemed to help people no matter how tired or busy he was. He'd even helped Justin out when he'd lost his limited edition Doctor who Tardis as Justin kept telling him every ten minutes despite needing to take a message to Sam, something about Drake being seen in the woods but of course that couldn't happen as Drake was dead, everyone knew that.
"Why are you here" Roger blurted out, unable to think of anything else to say and immediately cursing himself for being so blunt and for sounding so indignant.
"Oh, I just, I saw, and, sorry..." Edilio trailed off awkwardly shifting his weight to his other foot.
"No I don't mind it's just, why did you come here, no one ever comes here" again Roger mentally slapped his forehead with his hand for sounding so pathetic, why did he always have to sound so awkward around important people.
"I saw your painting and I wanted to see what it was", Edilio gave a small smile, his lips pulling up slightly at the corners, "I mean, everyone has seen a chain chomp fighting a dragon but its rare to see one on the moon"
"Oh no it's quite common; it's the ones on Venus that are really rare" Idiot. Why did he say that? What in hell could possibly have made him say something so stupid?
To his amazement, Edilio laughed "Of course" he said grinning now but frowning as he took in the empty space "why haven't you drawn the head in". Ah. That. Roger didn't want to tell Edilio that he couldn't afford to spend enough Berto's to get enough paint, it was just embarrassing to have to admit that he couldn't support himself to someone who had done so much to help the people of the FAYZ, it just seemed so stupid that he couldn't do this one thing when he was talking to someone who had done so much for everyone else.
"I don't think I can get it right" Roger replied hesitantly trying to avoid the question. "why not, you got the rest of it just right" why the hell was he blushing "I mean you got the chain chomps mouth just right" Roger willed the flush that was creeping up his neck not to reach his face, dam his pale skin "All you'd have to do is" Edilio broke off staring at Roger. "You're blushing" Edilio said tilting his head slightly.
"Oh" Roger quickly turned himself in vain to try and hide his face which had taken on the colour of a deep cherry red, busying himself with his brushes "It's just that I don't really talk to people about art, much less get compliments for it".
"Why not, your painting's wonderful" Rogers head jerked up and to his astonishment he saw the tips of Edilios cheeks turn a light red which Roger couldn't help noticing went brilliantly with his warm chestnut skin , contrasting with the blush which was now a riotous crimson and spreading rapidly over his face and-
"Er, you're, why are you staring so much" Edilio said, his voice wavering slightly at the end. "Sorry it's just your skin is a perfect chestnut hue, I've been trying to get that colour right in some of my other paintings for a while and" Oh why, why was he rambling on. He knew he got this way when he was nervous but did he really have to start talking about the colour of his skin. Guys don't do that. Guys get freaked out by other guys saying stuff like that.
"Huh", Edilio replied. He was looking right at Roger now, straight into Rogers eyes and he felt his palms begin to sweat, seriously he thought, who sweats simply when someone simply looks at them?
"I'll tell you what" Edilio said, shaking Roger out of his revere, "You think about how you're going to finish you're painting whilst I get you some more paints and when you've finished you can try and finish you're other paintings. After all if I'm there you'll easily get the colour right" Edilio winked, turned and left the house smiling leaving Roger to try and focus on keeping his breath steady and trying to slow his heartbeat down.