A/N: And here's the second one-shot of this series! I've looked over all the requests and most of them are actually A/B-centric save for one L/A friendship, so I shall now be filing this fic under A/B without any specified genres.

Prompt: A/B friendship.

To: OhMyGeePinkSucksAss. Happy birthday :D


Aesthetics


B's favorite subject had always been science. Never had he considered that art was also a science in itself, until L told him differently. There was even a whole branch of philosophy devoted to studying the nature of beauty and taste, symmetry and sentiment.

Linda wasn't the only artist at Wammy's. No, definitely not.

It was a well-known fact that Backup was excellent with his hands. He was particularly good at origami, the Japanese craft of paper-folding, as well as zhezhi, its Chinese predecessor. He had his dead mother to thank for that.

Not long after he had grasped the abilities to walk and talk, she'd taught him how to create all sorts of objects, such as flapping cranes and layered lotuses. Alternative particularly liked his paper mobiles; there was nothing more enchanting for her than a whole flock of wish-granting birds and puffy stars hovering overhead, especially if they were made from glow-in-the-dark or glitter paper. B constantly made it a point to bother Roger to buy some more the next time he went into town.

He was determined to give A the whole damn sky.

Though, if there was one thing about Alexandra that really annoyed the hell out of him, it was how she always had her head stuck in the proverbial clouds. Her young age was no excuse for her immaturity, no excuse for her childish preference to hang out with Nate River, Wammy's latest addition. Mihael, that lucky son of a bitch, would always get off scot-free from performing chores alongside his much-hated rival just because A wanted to spend a little more time with her new friend.

Not only was she disrupting the system of the Wammy's House Chore Chart, which paired its genius inhabitants accordingly by rank, A was embarrassing herself. She was way out of Near's league. How could she not see that the boy offered her nothing, whereas he could provide her with the entire world?

Alexandra's ignorance made him want to punch something, preferably River himself. However, he couldn't let jealousy get the best of him. It would be too obvious, and more importantly, too early. The humiliation would be unbearable. So instead, Backup channeled his anger into inanimate objects.

That was when he discovered knives – or, more accurately, his passion for sharp tools.

He had come across this talent when he and A were helping Wammy prepare a fruit salad for L one sweltering summer afternoon. Alexandra had mentioned to him in passing that her parents used to carve food for some of their clients, especially on wedding assignments. It was a highly cultivated art that only the most experienced and dedicated chefs could master.

B was neither, but the image had been so inspiring that it had spurred him on to fashion an apple into a rose right on the spot. He had nicked his finger, but hey

– the sparkle of joy in those wide hazel eyes had been wholly worth it.

He quickly progressed from apples and pears to tree trunks and walls. Backup became fond of engraving his and A's initials into the most discreet surfaces he could find, using fancy print to do so. Calligraphy, it was called. He liked to experiment with fonts. It pleased him, the sheer fact that no matter how elaborate the letters became, they essentially carried the same simple message:

A and B together, side by side for eternity.


A/N: Hmm, I'm not sure if that was quite friendship-ish enough. It was more like a one-sided (and slightly pedophilic) romance, but meh. Hope you liked it ^_^