Bubbles and Brick were in her room, he was finishing the portrait of her from the kitchen. She was trying to stay still for him so he finish it properly. After half an hour, he finally stopped drawing.

"You can move you know..." He smirks at her, Bubbles cheeks instantly heat up.

"Is it finished?" Bubbles asked shyly, moving into a more comfortable position on the bed.

"Mostly... I have a habit of over analyzing my drawings..." Brick cracks his neck to release tension. She guessed that his neck became stiffer from drawing her. He was constantly moving his head during that whole time.

"But it looks really good..." Bubbles complements and another smirk comes on to his face.

"I know... I just like to achieve quality in my work to the highest degree..." He gets up to put away his sketchbook.

"Oh... I guess that makes sense..." She blushed fully. Brick sits on the bed and Zepher climbs into his lap and he started to pet the cat.

"You know... I don't want you to feel shy when I draw you..." He said more seriously.

"Oh... Um... I can't help it..." Bubbles looked away even more shyly.

"Why do you feel shy about your appearance?" Brick asked with that serious tone still there.

"I... I've never really felt like I was beautiful at all... I just don't see any appeal to me..." She felt his eyes on her so intensely that it made her look into them out of complete instinct. He looked like he was heavily contemplating his response to that revelation. He then grasps her chin and pulled her slightly closer to him.

"You need to give yourself more credit Blue... I don't usually find myself drawn to anyone's appearance... You are very beautiful... I as your friend will not let you beat down yourself to this degree..." He sounded like he was scolding her.

"You don't have to say that..." Bubbles blushed. She wasn't used to this at all.

"Looks like I should... You think I'm lying?" He raised a brow, he looked like he was daring her to answer that statement. For some reason his hidden fire made her body heat up, her eyes grew wide and she automatically moves to bite her pointer finger. His eyes lit up a little.

"No of course not... I know you're not..." She felt her legs start to shake a tiny bit, he puts his hands on them to stop it. She couldn't stop the audible gasp, her cheeks were blazing . She didn't mean to let him hear that.

"Come get me from my house on Wednesday... I will have everything I need by then for the portraits..." He was staring into her eyes, her breathing picked up quite a bit. She heard his become just the slightest bit heavier than normal.

"Okay..." She nods, he moved his hands and Bubbles brought her legs to her chest. He gets up from her bed and picks up everything he brought in there.

"I'm gonna go put my stuff away... By the way... Am I allowed to shower?" Brick asked and Bubbles nods.

"Why wouldn't I let you?" She blushed again. The thought of him showering was definitely not an unpleasant thing in her mind right now.

"I'm just being respectful..." He chuckled and Bubbles bit her lip nervously. She hated having those thoughts like that. She saw his eyes locked on her for a second before he rushed out of the room. She wondered why he did that. It was like there was this tiny bit of tension between the two of them.

Brick stayed off on his own for the rest of the night. He did actually come by to say good night at one point, she responded in kind. She saw something behind his eyes. She wanted to sleep next to him again, but she figured that was a one time thing. She wondered what would have happened if he did.

She actually managed to get to sleep at least.

(The next day)

Bubbles woke up and almost squealed in surprise, Brick was on her bed petting the cat again. "What time is it? And why do you keep doing that?! You keep scaring me!" She asked, steadying her heart rate. He was in a pair of black sweatpants.

"It's 7:00 in the morning... Your cat wouldn't shut up so I gave him what he wanted..." He smirks, it looked like he was amused.

"Is everyone else awake?" Bubbles sat up and Brick moves to sit next to her.

"No... They're far too lazy to get up at this time..." He chuckled. She wondered why he was actually in there with her. She didn't want to have him run off again, so she thought she should voice it,

"Oh... I guess that sounds about right... By the way... If you want to stay in here with me, at any time... You can... It's nice to have someone else to hang out with..." She offered shyly. He finally looked at her and raised a brow.

"Well... I guess it beats hanging out with a bunch of horny people... So... Okay... I'll stay..." Brick leans against her headboard and shrugs.

She gets up and goes to her closet, "I'm going to change my clothes, just wait there..." He nods and she shut the closet door. She remembers what he said about her in form fitting clothing. She unintentionally picked out a light blue form fitting cotton dress that she got from Buttercup for her birthday. She never wore it until this moment. She was always far too shy to pull it off.

When she exits her closet, she saw his eyes on her. "I see that you listened and took my words into consideration..." He commented, a small smile reaches his face.

"I did... This is actually the first time that I've actually worn this..." She admitted and he nods. She sits next to him.

"It brings out your eyes..." He said and Bubbles blushed. It was like he was forcing the confidence out of her and madeher actually find out things that made her feel decent about her own body. He spoke up again to her.

"By the way... You can voice anything wrong to me... It helps me figure you out more..." Brick says, it sounded more like he was telling her to and not just offering.

"The same goes for you..." She shrugs and saw his smirk return.

"Really..." He chuckled and stares at her with the look he gave her yesterday, it was like he was trying to intimidate her. Unfortunately for her it seemed to have the opposite effect. It seemed to attract her to him. She didn't know why his ability to command her in such a way made her like him more. She bit her lip unintentionally, this made him closed his eyes and sigh heavily. He looked like he was holding back from running off again.

"What's wrong?" Bubbles asked awkwardly. The longer they stay around each other, the more she noticed these things.

"I ask you not to do that please... It... Makes me highly uncomfortable..." He said with a small and quiet warning.

"Do what?" She asked curiously. What triggered that response? Why was he uncomfortable?

"What you were just doing..." He sighs in mild agitation. She saw his left hand twitching like before, but more uncontrollably, the other quickly grasps it to steady it.

"Oh... I'm sorry..." She wondered why he didn't like that.

"It's fine Blue... It wasn't on purpose..." He cracked his neck, he looked slightly more tense.

"Okay..." Bubbles pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them.

He put an arm around her and she had to stop herself from gasping like yesterday. "So what exactly did you plan on doing here?" Brick asked and Bubbles blushed.

"Hanging out with you..." She said timidly, she felt a heat in the pit of her stomach.

"You have no idea?... Do you?..." He chuckled at her.

"You're not very easy to read... I have no clue what you like to do..." She thought if they were friends, she had to be honest about that.

"Not the first time I've heard that... I hate watching television, because the fakeness is unamusing... Anything else I can tolerate..." Brick was very guarded, so this was very nice to figure out.

"I think I've got something you'd possibly enjoy..." She remembers that her mom left her watercolor set there and obviously forgot about it by now. Bubbles had two chairs at her desk, so she decided that the way to get Brick as a person, was to do something that he did effortlessly.

"Really?... I'm intrigued by that statement... What are you planning?..." He gave her that look again and Bubbles had to stop herself from biting her lip again.

She left the room and grabbed the water color paints and paper, when she returned he just looked at them with a raised eyebrow.

"Not a medium I work with often... But I actually would care to use them..." Brick responded, Bubbles grabbed his hand and pulled him to the desk.

"Have a seat... I thought that I could try to paint with you..." She hoped that he wouldn't judge her art skill. He was a very talented artist and he was also very blunt on his opinions of things.

"Hmm... You are the first person who has ever offered to do artistic shit with me... I'll do it..." Brick sat down and Bubbles followed with him.

When she was setting up everything, he looked at her hands the entire time. She knew that he was analyzing them, she just didn't know why. He spoke.

"You have the smallest hands I've ever seen..." He said with a small chuckle.

"You are the most observant person I've ever seen..." She counters and like yesterday he laughed a little.

"You're starting to let the shyness go..." He smirks. Bubbles noticed he wasn't as emotionless around her when he was alone with just her.

"And I'm starting to see some color in that personality..." She shrugs.

"I hope you realize that color is just light rays reflecting into your irises... Turn off the lights and everything is just Black and white..." He had the strangest analogies.

"Is that why you paint in those tones?" Bubbles asked curiously.

"I paint with them, because no matter what time of day, or how you look at it... My piece will never change or lose meaning just by a lack of colour... That way it's always pleasing to the eye..." He took the paint and pointed to each color.

"Red tones can be washed out fairly easy, something blue or darker can completely overtake the colour and make it nonexistent... Yellow and orange are slightly harder to cover because of their hue... Blue and violet are the colours with the most punch and can overtake the page... I work from black to white because both are complete opposites on the color wheel and can both hide and bring out each other's depth and shadow..." He explained and Bubbles was in awe, listening to his knowledge on colors was highly fascinating.

"How interesting..." Bubbles was watching closely.

"Painting is about control, if you lose it and then you don't have it, that's when something goes wrong..." He dipped one of the brushes in the water and picked up black.

Bubbles couldn't paint yet, because she was so caught up in watching him.

"You start black and white paintings with the lighest colors usually, but I actually do the opposite..." He shrugs.

"Why do you do that?" She wanted to know.

"I do that to challenge myself... After years of doing something, you start to get very good and you don't have the fun of a challenge anymore... I find ways to do that so I can always make sure my pieces have work put into them... It isn't fun if it's too easy, it just feels like a extension of your usual routine..." He was starting to paint a landscape.

Bubbles picked up her own brush and tried to replicate it. They were painting in silence for about an hour until he looked in her direction and cocked a brow. He leans closer and she jumped. His eyes were focused on something with her face. He then reached forward and she let out a tiny squeak of surprise. He used his thumb to wipe something off her face.

"You had something on your face... It was highly distracting, because your skin is so perfect... It really stood out..." He said before going back to painting.

She had to get used to the way he openly commented about her appearance. They painted like that for the rest of the morning.

-A gift from my brain!-