"I'm not sure why you think I'd be good at painting," Josh commented, watching her set up her easel in the community center art room, where her art teacher had given her permission to paint with Josh.

"There's no wrong answer with art," Maya shrugged, smiling a bit at Josh's nervousness. "No wrong way to do it. No 'bad at it'. Give it a chance."

She turned back to the shelves and grabbed a couple of brushes to put in a cup for him, and chose brushes for herself. Grabbing a paper plate, she poured red, yellow, orange, and pink paint in circles and made her way back towards her easel.

She nodded towards the shelves. "Paints are on the second from the top, choose whatever you like."

They spent the next half hour or so painting in mostly silence, both in their own worlds. Or at least, that's what they both believed of the other, because they only snuck glances at each other at alternating intervals. Neither knew that the other couldn't keep their eyes off of them.

After a while, Josh looked up from his painting of fallen petals from a tree down a stream to see Maya painting a dancer in a long flowing dress, covered in drops of different sunset-colored paints. She had been using a small brush to flick droplets at the canvas, and as Josh came up next to her she accidentally flicked a few red drops at him, hitting his cheek.

She turned and caught sight of him, her eyes widening. "Sorry! I didn't see you coming."

Josh smirked. "It's alright, just gotta-" He gathered some paint on his brush and flicked green towards her face. It hit her neck.

Her mouth fell open, curving into a smile. "You jerk!"

Josh laughed. "You know what goes good with green?"

She gathered yellow paint with her fingers and flicked it towards him. "Yellow?"

"White!" Josh flicked paint, hitting her forehead.

A few minutes later, they had begun to throw paint across the room at each other, using their easels as feeble shields. Josh was covered in the colors of sunset, and Maya was the whole rainbow. As she made a mad dash to the shelf to restock on paints, Josh gathered light blue paint and came up behind her, nearly covering her face with the color.

She gasped, stopping still. "Josh!" She sputtered, using the heels of her hands to wipe paint from her eyes.

"Sorry," Josh grinned sheepishly, and reached behind her to grab a paper towel. "Here, let me help."

As he wiped away the blue paint, her eyes blinked open to stare straight into his. They were inches apart, and he let his eyes travel down to her lips, once again. She was leaning closer, eyes downcast, and he felt heat explode in his chest as his lips brushed hers.

She moved again, and their lips met fully, the kiss leaving both teens breathless with goosebumps. Josh let the paper towel fall to the floor, paint forgotten as he slid his hand around her waist to pull her closer. Her hands slid up to hold him around the back of his neck, and their lips broke just for one breath, before meeting again. Her lips were soft and warm, and Josh could feel heat on his skin, rising in every part of him as her fingers roamed around the back of his neck and slid down my shoulders. She broke the kiss again to lean back a little and look Josh in the eyes with a little smile.

"We'd better clean up," he admitted, looking around. The walls were covered in paint, and paint littered the floor and easels as well.

"Yeah… maybe in a minute," Maya suggested, blush showing in her cheeks as she stood on her toes to meet his lips again.


A/N: Short but sweet chapter with some Joshaya fluff. Most of it in Josh's secondary pov which is new for this story, but I liked giving some insight on how in love Josh is with Maya too.

I thought about adding on some Rucas but I just wanted to post something here. It's been forever since I've updated Anecdoche.

Kisses,

C