February 2nd: Blush - Sparkling eyes peek through the door. Character blushes at the attention. And then...?

Tien squirmed out of Chiaotzu's arms, landing awkwardly on the floor and then grabbing his brother's hand.

"Chaozu, look. Look!"

Chiaotzu smiled and allowed himself to be pulled towards the bed. Tien fell to his knees, pulling Chiaotzu down with him, then started hunting under the bed. Chiaotzu's smile faded slightly as soon as the triclops was no longer looking at him. His stomach still felt a little queasy from the long journey and the tournament, and he could only keep a happy face on for so long.

Tien finally pulled back with a huge book in his hands. He leaned back on his heels and grinned, then started flipping through pages.

"Look! Shen!" He tapped one hand on the open page in front of him. A crude stick figure of the Crane Hermit was scribbled there, wearing an exaggerated frown that ran right off the edges of his face.

"Master Shen," Chiaotzu corrected automatically.

"Ma Shen…" Tien looked uncertainly at Chiaotzu. "Ma Shen?"

Chiaotzu nodded, smiled encouragingly. "That looks really good, Tien. You've been drawing, huh?"

"Uh-huh." Tien nodded. Almost lost his balance. Grabbed Chiaotzu's arm to keep upright. Chiaotzu put his hand over the toddler's.

"What else have you been drawing?"

"Chaozu," Tien said, and flipped a few more pages. There was a rough outline of Chiaotzu, red cheeks and eyes so big they almost filled his face. His portrait was not smiling, it was totally blank. The eyes seemed to sear into Chiaotzu's mind and he felt a cold thrill run up his back.

"Very good, Tien," he said gently. "Any others?"

Tien nodded again. Flipped another page. There was a picture of the two of them. Tien's third eye was huge now, taking up the whole of the top of his head, the rest of his face drawn in shaky uncertain lines as the triclops had tried to fit it all in. As it was the huge smile ran down over his stick-figure neck and up over his ears. Chiaotzu's eyes were a more normal size and he too had a smile that had taken over his cheeks and ears. Their stick arms were entwined, looping back and forth in a helix that crossed over five or six times.

"This is very good!" Chiaotzu put one arm around Tien's shoulder, jostling him slightly. "You're a good artist."

"Arts!" Tien agreed, smiling. "Chaozu arts?"

"No, Tien. I'm not an artist."

"Chaozu fight," Tien said grimly. His smile flattened. Chiaotzu felt blood rise in his cheeks and heat the tips of his ears. "Chaozu win."

Despite the flush of shame and embarrassment he pulled Tien closer to his side. "Show me some more of your drawings, okay?"

The boy brightened and started flipping through the pages again. None of the other drawings were as recognisable as his drawings of people but there was promise there. And Chiaotzu smiled and encouraged and made the appropriate noises of delight, trying to ignore the blush that still coloured his white cheeks.