Room 43// An Inanimate Insanity College AU

16- Hills to Die on (and to Sled off)

Paintbrush has chosen the photo they're going to do for their assignment. They checked all their photos several times, considering which one would work best for this particular assignment.

They chose the one Lightbulb took for them on the bus, what feels like an eternity ago; the whole world speeding past behind a rained-on and smudged window spoke to them in a way that was so ethereal they couldn't explain it, so they chose to paint it instead.

they drew everything out in pencil, a sketch of where everything would be in scale. They used the grid method that the teacher had shown the class in their last lesson, looking back and forth from the reference photo many a time.

They heard a slight groan from behind their canvas, and they peered over it curiously. There was Lightbulb, her hair a mess and face sleep-stricken, rubbing at her eyes and blinking blearily. Paintbrush had forgotten that she'd fallen asleep there.

"Morning," they said, despite it being well into the afternoon. "I'm painting, if you wanna chill in here for a bit."

Lightbulb just hummed in response, sitting on the work chair by Paintbrush's desk and watching them paint. "That's the picture I took," she said, looking at the printed-out picture being used as a reference right beside the canvas.

"Yup," Paintbrush said. "I'm trying to replicate the whole... zoom thing, it's got going on. I don't think I'm doing a very good job, though."

Lightbulb got up and walked toward the canvas. Her clothes were wrinkled; she'd fallen asleep in them, so they obviously would be. "It'll be easier to do it once you've got the paints out," she deducted with a grin. "You can't exactly blend blues and yellows with just grey."

Paintbrush laughed a short laugh, closer to a chuckle than anything. "I guess that's one way to put it," they said. "I think Fan ordered lunch, by the way. If you're hungry."

"Yeah, I could eat," Lightbulb said with a shrug. "Don't think I don't know this is just an excuse to get me out of here, though," she said with a smug smirk as she walked toward the door.

"That's not what this is at all!" Paintbrush said defensively.

"People like you make me sick," Lightbulb said jokingly, giving a thumbs-down and slamming the door closed before Paintbrush could throw a pillow at her.

They chuckled breathily to themselves, turning back to the canvas. You can't blend blues and yellows with just grey.

They didn't start painting, like they were planning to. They instead put the pencil down, zipped up their pencil case, and called it for that moment.

Instead of spending their time painting, they walked out of their room and joined the others in the lounge. Lightbulb was pouting on the couch, arms crossed and eyes slanted. Her mood immediately brightened when Paintbrush entered the room, though, smiling at them.

"Hey!" She said brightly. "Fan's saying there's no way it'll snow tomorrow; I said it totally is."

"I mean, it is winter," Paintbrush mused. "It very well could snow tomorrow."

Fan shook his head vigorously, pushing his phone into Paintbrush's face. On closer inspection, the Weather app was open. "It's not going to rain tomorrow!" He denied vehemently. "The news says so! See, 20% chance of rainfall!"

"First of all, that's for today," Paintbrush said, pointing at the date in the top-right hand corner of the application. Fan turned his phone back around to face him, and corrected his error with fumbling fingers. "And second of all, that's still a 20% chance. You never know."

"And that's for rainfall!" Lightbulb butted in. "Not snow!"

"They're the same thing!" Fan exclaimed.

"Nope, I disagree," Lightbulb said with many rapid shakes of her head. She lost one of her pigtails, one half of her hair up and the other half down.