He worked in black and white. It was never colour. All his sketches were in plain pencil. He found his use of shadows much more effective than that silly colour wheel. And in the same way, he was all right and wrong, straight to the point. He could reach a conclusion very quickly, but he didn't take time to really look at what he had.
She was always colour. Always the Reds and blues and greens and yellows. The turquoise and the magenta and the crimson and such. She loved painting and colouring. It was very rare that she would use a pencil to sketch out her art first. Normally, she put brush to canvas and waited to see what happened. She even surprised herself with the results a lot of the time. But she was also indecisive, she saw the good and bad in everything. When presented with a problem she found it hard to reach a conclusion and in effect she was a bit of a pushover.
Neither had any idea what life was like on the other side of the colour spectrum. But neither wanted or needed to know, in their opinion.
To the students outside the art program at their High School, it wasn't a big surprise when they started dating.
"Seems fitting right? They're both art obsessed"
"Yeah, but they're so antisocial, especially that girl, when did they start hanging out?"
"I don't know and to be honest, I don't really care. It's not unnatural, they're both artists. They have a lot in common."
But those were only the distant classmates. To their friends, however, and the others in the art program, it seemed like the least likely thing to happen.
"But she's so...and he's like..."
"They couldn't be more different. He's so dreary and indifferent, and she's so colourful that even her hair is blue!"
"I'm pretty sure her hair is natural."
"How is that even possible?!"
.
.
Juvia and Gray sat at a table in the corner of the cafe. She loved this place, as well as a cafe, it sold pottery that you could paint on and they would bake it in the kiln for you and you could pick it up later. The blue-haired artist had become a regular here and the owner now knew her very well. Ever since Gray and her had started dating she had longed to bring him here. But he had always tried to avoid this place. She knew why, this was a place of colour. Pencil simply burnt off the pottery.
They had decided to take a medium sized ceramic skull between them. After him uncomfortably failing with the paints and her laughing as he spilled yellow on his pants, they decided that he would sketch out the design and she would paint it. He had drawn a rose, that seemed as if it was portruding out of the skull's eye and a lion's head facind sideways as it roared.
But she was the one who brought the drawings to life with her colour, she used several shades of pink, which Gray couldn't tell the difference between until they were put together on the rose, giving it such a three-dimensional look that he found it hard to believe it was a flat image on the ceramic. She blended golds and browns and oranges into the lion's mane, and proceeded blowing his mind as they continued. Him sketching and her painting.
Juvia wanted to say something. A lot of the time they were comfortable with each other's silence, but now she simply wanted to speak to him about anything. He was always so quiet and lost in thought. She painted a raincloud silently as she thought of this.
After a while, Gray had covered the ceramic completely in his little drawings, and he pulled out his sketchbook to draw while Juvia continued painting. They exchanged words but stayed silent most of the time. This was painful, he felt like an idiot. He knew that uncomfortable look of hers, he should say something but what? Speech was more her thing.
He looked down at his sketchbook and found he had subconsciously started drawing her. Smirking to himself, he carried on, catching her bouncy curls, smooth skin and soft smile in his sketch.
Juvia had always complained that he hardly used any colour in his drawings. She was wrong, he used no colour in his sketches. Colours confused him, he simply needed a piece of charcoal or a pencil or ink and he would be just fine. It kind of made him wonder how he starting going out with Juvia.
"Gray-sama?" Juvia suddenly broke the silence and his head snapped away from his art.
"Hmm?"
"What's your favourite colour?" Her eyes twinkled curiously, she was so cute sometimes.
"I don't have one." He sat back in his chair and crossed him arms. Juvia folded hers on the tabletop and cocked her head to the side quizzically.
"Everyone has a favourite colour, Gray-sama. You must like at least one."
Gray thought for a moment, finally coming to a conclusion.
"Blue." He made a point of looking directly into her azure eyes, and her face flushed pink.
"Oh? Why is that, Gray-sama?"
"Because every time I see something blue, I can't help but think about you." It sounded so dumb and cheesy and cliche to him, but that's exactly what Juvia brought out of him. She made him excrete this much cheesiness. "What about you? You're going to say something like 'cobalt' aren't you?" She never looked at two shades of colour as the same thing, no matter how similar they were. She had colour perception like no other.
Juvia shook her head. "Juvia doesn't have a favourite colour, Gray-sama."
"Huh? But you just said it yourself, 'everyone has a favourite colour'."
"Juvia doesn't mean it like that, Gray-sama. Juvia likes all colours. She can't pick just one. If she picks one, then the others would get neglected. And Juvia doesn't think she could ever favour one over the others." She sighed and looked out the window dreamily. Gray understood exactly what she meant. Her answer was different from his in the way that he didn't like any colour, while she couldn't simply pick one.
Glancing down at his sketch once again, he noticed that something was off about his drawing of Juvia. It was the eyes, they didn't hold the passion and sincerity that his Juvia had. Gray groaned, this always happened when he tried to draw her. The girl was so colourful that she looked so dreary and sad when she was drawn without colour.
"How about pink?"
Juvia pulled herself out of her trance and turned to look at her boyfriend, shooting him a questioning look.
"I mean, not light pink like that pyro idiot, Natsu, but you know, an elegant, darker pink."
"Magenta?" Juvia offered.
"Yeah." Gray couldn't name the different shades, it was all pink to him. "It's soft and loving, but also bright and cheery. Magenta couldn't possibly be a sad colour. Unless it's the colour of Natsu's hair, pink has always kinda cheered me up." Shit, he had no idea what he was saying but judging by the smile his girlfriend was giving him, he'd said something right.
"Alright, pink it is then." She giggled. And leaned over to see what Gray had been drawing throughout their conversation. "That's really good, Gray-sama,"
Gray scoffed, of course it was good.
"But it could use-"
"Some colour, I know." He looked up at her again and grinned at her widened eyes as he asked her to pass a paintbrush. Dipping it in the blue paint, he mixed the different shades until he was sure he had it, the colour of her eyes. The only colour he knew he could distinguish from fifty other shades of blue.
He painted her azure orbs and left it at that. There's only so much colour I would use in one drawing. Sitting back to look over his masterpiece, he had finally done it. He had captured her essence almost perfectly. Those two sapphire eyes stood out amongst the everlasting shade in his sketchbook. And he was pretty sure it was his best work yet.
"Juvia agrees," She said when he told her this, "it's been three months and I've gotten you to paint two eyes blue. But don't you think it's nice to have a bit of colour once in a while?"
He had always been closed off because everyone close to him had either drifted away or passed away. He had felt alone, and his whole life was seen in black and white. But she was here now, she could be his one splash of colour.
A/N: It's a little cheesy, I know. But I went to a similar cafe yesterday and saw a cute couple sharing a ceramic skull and they were pretty awesome at art. Although the girl was doing the drawing and the guy was painting but still. I was imagining what kind of conversation they would have if this was a fluffy fanfic and I got inspired.
I know, I should be writing the next chapter of 'I'll See You Again' but I've got writers block with that one.
reviews are very much appreciated, and if I get enough likes and reviews I may consider turning this into a series of one-shots eh? Tell me what you think ;)
As my paintbrush leaves the canvas,
~Alexa
