Stormy Inspiration
Chapter 3 - Canvas Shopping

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He likes to watch the rain but it's almost an impossibility to draw. Unlike the clouds that meander and drift so slowly he can capture still shots of them, the rain is always flowing. He knows people can do it. Photos, paintings, drawings… But he's never been able to grasp it himself. It's so different from one moment to the next that a still-shot does it no justice at all.

Even people don't change so fast.

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Not many stores are open on a Sunday, since it's near the school and kids hang out there after hours. The game store is closed, for example, so Takato can't try his luck with the new booster packs (not that he'd planned to anyway; he's lucky he remembered his wallet at all!). Some of the cafes are closed too, but since his family owns a bakery, he hardly spends time there anyway. And they had plenty of buns for breakfast and brought a few for snacks if they got hungry.

The stationary and printing stores were closed as well, but the bookstore was open and they sold some stationary on the side. Less variety, but the quality was good. And, somehow, they wound up drifting in there before Takato had quite worded his request.

'I come here a lot,' Juri says, looking in the new releases section. 'Buying picture books for Masahiko, or novels for myself.'

'I come for art books and manga,' Takato admits, as Juri picks out a picture book and a slightly thicker paperback. 'and if I ever run out of pencils or a scrapbook when the stationary store is closed…or suddenly want to paint something.' He drifts over as he says that. 'What do you think?'

'About what?' Juri asks, following. 'I can't say I know much about what pencils and papers are good for stuff.'

Takato shakes his head. 'Not that. I promised a painting for Masahiko, didn't I?'

'Did you?' Juri tilts her head a little. 'I was imagining more of a large piece of paper, actually. A canvas…'

'Might be overkill.' And Takato droops a little, because while it probably is overkill, he's suddenly looking forward to it. Paint will have a better contrast and greater depth as well, and something about the canvas is just screaming out.

'Well, maybe,' hedges Juri, and she's blushing again. 'But I think Masahiko would love it. And it is rather flattering. Embarrassingly flattering, really.'

And now Takato is blushing as well, because he can see the point Juri is making.

Luckily, a salesperson chips in before their conversation can ground to a halt. 'Aww, don't the two of you make the sweetest couple?'

'We're not a couple,' they say together, before staring at each other, blushes still painted on their cheeks. And they trip over each other in the explanation too.

'We're friends.'

'She's my subject –'

' – my little brother –'

Laughing, the salesperson holds up their hands. 'Trying to decide on a good canvas size?'

Takato nods. Juri is still blushing too heavily to protest and they manage to settle on one that'll be a comfortable fit…hopefully. It still seemed expensive for the room of a little kid but Takato argues once again that he's painting her because he wants to and it's probably less embarrassing for the both of them if finished product (assuming they both approve of it) hangs on Masahiko's bedroom wall than stays with one of them.

They pay for their purchases. There's a little discussion again at the counters which ends in them splitting the cost of their joint purchases between them, and then they sigh at the rain.

It's only gotten worse in the time they've been in the bookstore, not better.

'Not heading out in that, I hope,' says the salesperson, now at the cashier ringing up their purchases.

'Definitely not,' they agree. Even with umbrellas. The rain wasn't falling straight anymore which meant there was a strong wind at play as well – and the swaying branches outside confirms it.

'Did you know there was supposed to be a storm today?' Takato asks.

Juri shakes her head. 'Tonight,' she says, 'but nobody said anything about today.'

'Figures.' Takato sighs. His muse is itching for some paint now that there's a canvas tucked under an arm and his sketch is itching for his colours, but his remaining tools are at home and he by no means has endless pocket money to buy replacements for them all for his impatience. 'Well, hang out here some more or check out the other shops?'

'Maybe read for a bit?' Juri asks in return. 'Heavy rain tends to not last too long. We can snack on the buns.'

'We can.' Takato grins. Sounds like a great idea to him and, luckily, the bookstore is used to students reading books off their shelves and buying perhaps a third of what they read. They've even got couches…which are pretty empty on a Sunday but overspilling on school evenings.

So they waited for a whole half-hour. Juri begins her new novel and Takato picks a manga off the shelves (and not the one Kenta's still reading otherwise he'll be insufferable on Monday) and they spread themselves over the couches with their buns on the table. They offer one to the salesperson when they realise the goods are from the Matsuda bakery – even if a sheepish Takato points out they're technically the rejects that are eaten by family and friends or sold cheap…and sometimes taken for the birds in the park.

Granted, those birds have probably found a nice wide tree to hide under with the storm outside. Thank goodness the shopping centre is undercover. They can move from shop to shop without having to brave the storm outside…and with the amount of paper between them, they probably wouldn't have risked it anyway.

But a half-hour later, the rain and wind are still both growing strong. Takato has put down his manga volume and has tried sketching the scene of rain plastered to the windowsill but even that is constantly shifting. And he has a bare impression by the time Juri sighed and closes her own novel, but is trying to work out how to get an adequate representation of the world reflected in those droplets and the glass of the windowpane before admitting he'd need a far larger paper for that…or pick a smaller area to sketch.

Maybe he'll try it out with Kenta's glasses one day. They always manage to get wet post-sport lessons and probably will continue to until he gets used to the fact that he wears glasses fulltime now and needs to take them off before washing his eyes.

But he can't do that right now and Juri is shifting restlessly on the couch with a marker tucked into her book and the sky's not opening back up to let them out from under it. He likes clouds and all, but not when he can't see them and not when they're keeping him stuck inside on one of the few days school or chores aren't…

'Time to go?' he asks.

Juri agrees. And they don't have a particular store in mind, but they do know that they've lingered in the bookstore for too long.