Painting
By SMYGO4EVA
"All right you two, stay close together and hold still, is that ok?"
Fai smiled as he saw Syaoran and Sakura, dressed in outfits fit for an artistic occasion. Syaoran was wearing a white tailored tuxedo with a blue tie to accompany the white overcoat that he was wearing, while Sakura was wearing a bright pink dress (as well as a bright pink headband to match) with white pearls adoring the outlines, as well as the hem. They were under a cherry blossom tree, watching the petals float to the ground as they held hands and posed for the portrait that the magician was going to paint just for them.
"That's all right, Fai." Syaoran nodded as he looked on to Sakura, who looked radiant in the dress she wore, bringing out her lovely emerald eyes.
"Yes, it's ok." Sakura smiled at Syaoran as she turned her head to see Fai wearing a cover over his clothes, a paintbrush in the magician's hand. "We're ready."
"Excellent."
And so the magician dipped the paintbrush into blue paint and began to place color onto the otherwise white canvas.
Kurogane, leaning against a tree behind him and with crossed arms, narrowed his eyes as he watched Fai color the blank canvas before, dipping colors as the two children posed gracefully for him.
Whether he knew it or not, the warrior enjoyed watching the magician paint. He had never practiced any kind of art himself, considering that he was from Nihon and he saw princess Tomoyo paint a couple times, but never took an interest into it.
Watching it was a different matter indeed.
This wasn't the first time that Fai had placed colors upon the empty canvas; sometimes the four of them (including the white furball) would sit on the cliffs overlooking the great sea and the magician would paint the calmness of the clouds and the quiet rage of the unforgiving sea as silence would fall into the air around them.
As he saw Fai add in more color with the swift motion of his hand, Kurogane wondered if the magician thought if he could paint, he would start over, as if he could create the world anew. When he would paint, if there was one error, he would always start over. But the real world, errors couldn't be erased just like that, but as he would recreate the world in rainbow colors, he wanted to become a part of it.
He knows that he never will though.
Like themselves, human were anchored to the earth, no matter how much they wanted to disappear from the world they come from. It wasn't in their nature.
All Kurogane could do was watch.
All Fai could do was paint.
After what seemed like an hour, Fai set aside his paintbrush and placed it in a cup of water, the paint dying the liquid into a mixture.
"It's finished!"
Syaoran and Sakura breathed a sigh of relief, put to ease that they didn't have to be still as statues any longer. They parted their hands and they dashed towards the artist. At that instant, as he saw Syaoran and Sakura fawn over Fai's newest creation, Kurogane shared their curiosity, but he chose to lag behind a bit; he didn't want the artist to notice anything different about him.
"Wow, Fai, this is amazing." The boy spoke as he stared at the portrait of Sakura and himself in awe, the amazing attention to detail and the bright vibrant colors were simply remarkable.
"This is beautiful." The princess was astounded by what the magician created, and it was pure perfection in her eyes.
Fai smiled his trademark smile at the adoration he was receiving for his painting, genuine happiness beginning to fill the void that he had inside for so long. "Why thank you, princess."
He turned his head to the warrior, who still leaned against the tree, and kept smiling. "What do you think, Kuro-puu?"
Kurogane grimaced at that nickname, but he swallowed his pride (only for a moment) and walked towards where the three were gathered, and took a long look at the painting. As he suspected, it was Syaoran and Sakura who lovingly held hands and smiled as they adorned fancy outfits and stood under a cherry blossom tree. Even though Kurogane didn't know much about the dynamics of art and painting, he could tell that the specificity of the painting was magnificent. It was almost as if he had taken a photo of the two, and not just painted them, their smiling images adorned and lingering for all time.
It was beautiful.
"Well, this is pretty good. Nice work, wizard."
The wizard in question took a sharp, short intake of breath, surprised at the compliment. As long as he had known the warrior, he had not known him to be one for compliments except in battle. He liked this side of him – it was endearing.
Fai smiled even more at Kurogane – it looks like he was a bit of a softie after all.
"Why, thank you, Kurger-burger."
Again annoyed at yet another nickname, the warrior couldn't help but smile a little; at least the magician was able to recreate a world of his own for now, for if the painting would be preserved, so would that very dream.