Rhink One Shots

Vincent

Link Neal loved to live by himself. As an artist, he felt like nothing could beat that absolute freedom he had. No one was there to tell him to wash the million mugs filled with water dyed in colors, or to stop leaving his drawings all over the place. At least that was what his parents always annoyed him with for the first twenty one years of his life. And then he left, realizing it was the best decision he had ever made. No more judging, no more screaming, no more sounds of paper being tear apart as Link watched some of his creations being destroyed in his step-fathers hands. He didn't cry though, just watched it with a blank expression. His step-father's opinion didn't matter at all... And then, those unpleasant noises were replaced by birds singing in the early hours of the morning, the coffee maker preparing coffee and the amazing voice of his long time neighbor, Rhett McLaughlin.
Rhett moved into the building not long after Link. The dark haired still remembered that interesting chinstrap that later was replaced by a beard and the long nights listening to the blond man and his friends watching football and singing songs. Rhett had way more friends than Lincoln and was way more social. That was added to thousand more reasons why he was always enchanted by the giant human that lived at the apartment right in front of his.
Rhett was probably the person with who he was more familiar in the entire building. Years passed but the smiles the two men gave each other never seemed to simmer down. Rhett was a true gentleman. They'd hold the door for each other, stop the elevator from closing just to give the other extra seconds to jump in, help one another with groceries bags and other objects that seemed pretty heavy to be carried just by one person. Small gestures. Which always left Link grinning like an idiot after he closed the door to his little apartment. Getting lost in conversations was also a thing when both of them were lucky enough to be walking out at the same time. Rhett would talk about his guitar lessons. Link would happily mention from time to time that one of his drawings was sold. They'd congratulate each other with big smiles on their faces and that was already enough to brighten up the day.
Rhett invited Link for his 30th birthday party but when the dark haired noticed how many people were already filling up Rhett's apartment, he gave him a cheap excuse about not feeling too well. Link didn't want to, but he didn't know a single soul in there, and his introvert self-convinced him it was okay to just stay home. The music could be heard till late hours, but Link couldn't sleep anyways. It was 4am when he got up from the bed and decided to sit by the window of his living room, just stare at the full moon that beautiful shined that night.
He heard the door of the apartment in front of his being opened and then closed right after that. The curiosity took the best of him and the dark haired decided to peek through the peephole of his door. For his surprise, it was Rhett. Even though the blond decided not to turn on the light of the corridor, the moonlight passing through the small window above the stairs was enough to let Link figure out his features.
Link observed the guy sitting on the first step of the stairs, a quick rush of decisions passed through his body. Should he go out and ask what's wrong? Maybe nothing was wrong. Maybe he was waiting for somebody and Link would only make it awkward. Maybe Rhett was so drunk he didn't even know what he was doing. Before Link knew, he was opening the door.
- Oh crap, sorry... - Rhett muttered while quickly passing his hands through his face. - Did the music wake you up? I'll tell them to turn it down more.
- What's wrong? - Link asked, putting his hand on the other man's shoulder, preventing him from standing up. After that, he sat beside Rhett.
- Nothing much, why? - Rhett gave out a forced chuckle. His voice just completed Link's theory that he was crying. The dark haired said nothing, just tilted his head. Rhett sighed. - Macy, my girlfriend, - or ex-girlfriend - decided today was a good day to tell me she was in love with another guy. - he chuckled again.
Link raised his eyebrows. - What?
- Yeah... Apparently it was going on for a while now.
- What a jerk. - Link tried to ignore the butterflies in his stomach.
Rhett chuckled again, though this time it seemed more genuine. - Yeah... - he said. They stayed in silence for a moment, just looking at their hands and trying to figure out if anything else was worth saying. Link felt his butterflies even more excited when Rhett leaned his head on Link's shoulder and stayed there for some good minutes. From that second the dark haired promised himself to admire the taller man just from aside.
Time passed and Rhett started to give guitar lessons at his house. Link had learned the schedule at this point. Three times a week - Monday, Wednesday, Friday - for ninety minutes. The walls of the building were thinner than they looked, which made it easy for Link to hear almost everything while they were practicing. He enjoyed that. And he enjoyed even more how even after the students left, Rhett continued to play and sing for a little bit more time. He was amazed. The guy had a beautiful talent. Sometimes Link would just sit down on his sofa with a cup of tea in his hands and just listen to the muffled by walls melody, other times he'd put up a canvas on his easel and make a simple drawing. Most of them were drawings of night being washed in moonlight, just like the beautiful tragic one that happened seven years ago.
The years passed unexpectedly quickly. Link missed more of Rhett's birthdays, feeling guiltier and guiltier with every invitation. But he wasn't confident enough. The admiration from aside was enough for him. A painful enough from time to time, but enough. Rhett was a person that understood him easily.
It was a rainy Friday night when Link got up from his bed and walked to the window of his living room, where his easel was standing, waiting for another creation of his to be done. He put his tea on a small table beside it, near to the paints and brushes.
It had passed quite a long time since Link set up himself a challenge and made a drawing of something that he might've considered actually difficult. So, with the blond man saying goodbye to his students at the corridor, Link decided to draw a portrait of Rhett. But in the style of his favorite artist: Vincent Van Gogh.
Link was a huge admirer of Vincent. His paintings, his story, it fascinated him. Books about Vincent and his work lay all around Link's apartment, and the dark haired never got tired of them. And, in an amateur attempt, Link covered the entire wall of his living room with the remarkable painting of Gogh: Starry Night. It took him some good days and nights full of coffee to finish it, since the walls of his apartment were taller than in a usual house. It was more like a studio. That being one of many reasons Link had invested all of his savings on this flat. Of course it would never be as marvelous as the original painting, but Link was happy with the result. He considered it more of a landscape than a simple drawing.
The brush passed through the canvas in a soft nervous way, surprisingly in timing with Rhett's voice as it reached Link's room through the walls. He wasn't absolutely sure how he'd do this. Sure he had read a lot about Gogh's techniques, but reading is different from doing, and master is different from enthusiast. But Link didn't give up and continued spreading colors through the canvas, trying to put confidence in his brushes.  And the painting was somehow putting itself together, along with Rhett's soft voice.
Link didn't know how much time passed since he started, but his neighbor stopped singing some minutes ago and he felt his eyes burning from so much concentration, so Link decided to take a break. He looked at the clock, being surprised it was only 8:20pm. With a yawn leaving his mouth, he grabbed his wallet and keys, threw a denim jacket on his shoulders and walked to the exit door of his apartment.
The thought of having his regular home coffee wasn't pleasing at this moment. It felt too ordinary. He needed something fresher to awake his creativity. So, the dark haired decided to go and get some nice coffee from the coffee shop not too far from the building.
- Oh, hi. – a voice joined by a cough sounded behind Link, making the dark haired jump with the surprise, cursing under his breath as he heard his keys falling on the floor. Quickly, Link reached for them and turned around, facing his tall neighbor. – Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you...
- I... Uh... No... No problem. – Link smiled nervously, his eyes meeting the ground right after that. Suddenly, he felt too shy. For some reason, the thought of him, moments ago, painting a portrait of Rhett, made the dark haired bite his lip hardly as he felt his cheeks warm up.
- I hope we weren't too loud, during the class. A concert is coming and the kids are learning new songs, so they get a little too excited. – the blond softly chuckled.
- It's always a pleasure to hear you. – Link answered, this time gaining confidence and looked at the other man. – Your students, this is. – he nervously corrected himself with a half lie, his students were nice of course, but Rhett was a lot nicer.
- The lady upstairs doesn't have the same opinion. – Rhett made a face.
- Well I also don't enjoy hearing her TV programs at 1pm, so I guess we all have our issues. – Lincoln shrugged, not being able to hold back a smile when he heard Rhett laughing with the pretty stupid thing he had just said. He didn't intend it to be funny, it was just the annoying truth.
Rhett sighed after a pause of comfortable silence. – Anyways. Don't want to be holding you back. Were you going somewhere important?
- No. No, not really. – the dark haired looked at the other man. There they were, those butterflies, back again. – Just wanted to go grab a coffee. Mind joining me?
The blond smiled as Link's last question came out in a pretty soft shy way. – Sure. – he answered shortly, putting his hands in the pockets of his own jacket.
The night sky was clearing up. It had rained not long ago, washing the streets in a pretty peaceful smell. It was nice, to just walk like that, with no hurries, as they observed other people rushing through them. Some making their way home from work, some going from home to somewhere the two men could only wonder about, create speculations, play the guessing game.
- You've been painting? – Rhett asked as they grabbed their coffee cups, with a smile thanking the young man who served them, his hair curling in an adorable way with the humidity outside. It was clear that the guy wasn't too happy with it, passing his hand through his locks every five seconds, but it suited him well.
Lincoln looked down at his own hand, since Rhett had pointed at it. Just then he noticed how careless they looked since light blue colors had stuck to the tip of his fingers and the side of his hand. Link chuckled, bringing his free hand to his head as he remembered how he didn't even for a second thought through this walk outside.
- Yeah, started a thing today... - he confessed, sipping on his coffee carefully since it was still pretty hot.
Both men agreed to drink it on the way back. Though the coffee shop was nice, it was too filled up with people. People who weren't in mood to appreciate streets full of poodles and wet grass smell. The two guys didn't judge them. They just felt too good to just be sat in a corner of a filled with noise room.
- Really? What?
- Ahm... - Link chuckled again, this time nervously. He was tore apart between confessing and lying. What if Rhett thought he was some kind of stalker? Worse. What if Rhett saw it and didn't like it? – A portrait. – he simply answered, gaining some more time to battle with himself.
- Yours?
- No.
- C'mon man, who's?
The dark haired giggled with Rhett's impatience. – Yours. – he looked down at the floor, hoping the street lights wouldn't give out to Rhett his blushing cheeks.
Rhett stopped in the middle of the sidewalks, causing some confused and annoyed looks from people that were walking on the same side and now had to have the work of walking around him. – Are you serious?
Link had stopped a couple of steps ahead, looking back at the taller with a shy smile on his face. – Yes. This is really not a good plac-
- Can I see? – Rhett interrupted him.
The dark haired sighed, feeling his cheeks warm up even more. – Sure.
Rhett's eyes seemed to almost light up, a wide smile spreading across his face as he started to walk again.
They made their way back to their building, slowly sipping on the coffee that was now the perfect temperature to drink it without extra carefulness. Rhett talked about the upcoming concert his students had. The enthusiasm in his voice was almost impossible to just ignore, making Link realize he was probably smiling like an idiot the entire time, trying to convince himself that the butterflies inside his stomach were caused by Rhett's excitement. He seemed happy. Very happy.
As they entered into the apartment, Link put down his cup on the coffee table, after that telling Rhett to "feel like home".
- You're organized. – Rhett commented, looking around the living room. – Should give me some lessons on that. – he giggled.
Lincoln had always been like that. Organized. He didn't like to see mess, be in mess. Part of it was probably related to his small OCD behaviors. Of course, it was nothing major. He didn't even know if he could call it OCD. But it definitely triggered him from time to time. Keeping his stuff organized was just a small part of not letting those triggers hit him.
The dark haired shrugged. – I just... Like to find stuff how I left them.
- Admirable. – Rhett commented, slightly not paying attention to what or where Link was. He passed beside the Starry Night wall, looking at it carefully, passing his fingers through it ever so gently, almost like he was afraid to ruin it, as if the paint was still fresh. – Did you do this?
Link followed Rhett with his eyes, a small smile appearing on his face, not sure if the cause of it was his proudness on the creation, or Rhett's curious and admirable look. – Yeah. Took me some time, but it was kinda a dream of mine.
- And where's my masterpiece?
- Here. – Link pointed at the canvas turned to the window. Suddenly, he felt extremely nervous as Rhett slowly approached the drawing.
They stopped in front of it, the silence almost painful for the dark haired. He was behind Rhett, which made for him impossible to see the other man's expression.
- Van Gogh admirer? – Rhett made another question, this time looking back at the other man, just when Link opened his mouth to break the silence. Rhett's gaze suddenly felt too intimidating.
- Quite a big one, yeah. – Lincoln confessed, a shy chuckle leaving his lips as he looked at the floor. – It's not finished yet.
- Oh?
- Needs more details and stuff. – he shrugged and walked away, cursing with the fact that he was feeling his cheeks warm up once again. Why? – How about we order some pizza, for dinner? – he suggested, trying to change the subject.
Rhett smiled. – Sounds good.
The pizza didn't take much time to arrive, and the two guys settled comfortably on the sofa, letting the two boxes with food rest on the coffee table. At one point, the few slices left were already cold, which made the dark haired realize for how long they've been sat there, just talking, sharing opinions, telling about themselves, absolutely oblivious of what time even was.
He knew Rhett was a cultured person, of course, but a few minutes of talking in the corridor of the building could never compare to hours of comfortable conversation on Lincoln's grey sofa.
Rhett was too easy to talk with. Too interesting. Too, almost, flawless. The butterflies were back with all force. And Link couldn't care less at that point. He just fished they could stay like that for a lot longer than a couple of hours.
- Will you sell me the painting? – Rhett asked, suddenly coming back to the subject Lincoln had almost forgotten.
He looked over at the canvas, wondering if Rhett really liked it that much or was just being nice. – Yeah, sell it. – he answered in a slightly sarcastic voice, taking another bite of the cold pizza slice in his hand.
- For how much?
- Hmm... - the dark haired took his free hand to his chin, as he was actually pondering a price. – Ten thousand.
- Nah, still too cheap, Vincent. – the blond answered, making Link giggle in response. He threw his head back, leaning on the back of the sofa as he observed Rhett's soft smile. Damn him for being so pretty. Damn him for being so interesting. Damn him!
Link also noticed that his eyes had locked with Rhett's. Which was something Link had tried to avoid since the second they walked out of the building to make their way to the coffee shop. Rhett's eyes were hypnotizing, and Link was quick to let himself go. The color, the softness, they were almost like a trap, and Link got caught in it. Look somewhere else. Lips. Fuck.
- I should go. – Rhett spoke with a calm voice, finally awakening the dark haired from that trance. He swallowed loudly, suddenly feeling guilty. Did he make Rhett uncomfortable? Fuck!
- Oh, yeah, sure. – Link agreed, quickly standing up from the sofa and putting down the small bit of pizza he still had in his hand. – You have the concert on Sunday, right?
- Yap. And still quite a lot to prepare. – Rhett laughed as he stood up as well.
- I took your free time, sorry.
- I didn't complain. – the blond was quick to answer.
He walked Rhett to the door, hurrying to open it for the taller.  As the blond walked out of Link's apartment, he stopped a step away from the door, turning back to the dark haired.
- We should hang out more. – he suggested. – This was, nice.
Link couldn't help but smile. He leaned on the door frame, glad that Rhett was now more of a silhouette than his actual intimidating self. Link didn't dare to turn on the light of the corridor, and neither did Rhett. – Agreed.
- And let me know when you finish the painting. Will hurry up with those ten thousand.
The smaller giggled. – Will do.
There was a small pause filled with silence. The barking dog some floors above made the moment not as tense. Link heard Rhett sigh, his blue-ish silhouette making one step closer to the smaller, the front of his jacket touching Link's arms crossed on his chest. The dark haired battled between stop breathing or give out his loud nervous breaths. But he didn't even flinch with the other man's movement, hoping that he gave out rather a confident behavior.
Suddenly, Rhett leaned in, and Lincoln thought he would explode when Rhett's soft lips touched his. His beard slightly tickled his skin, and the dark haired was unable to hold back the smile, with which, Rhett backed away. The kiss was so quick and simple, Link almost had to force himself into thinking harder if it had actually happened or not. But the burning sensation on his lips and the uncontrollable butterflies in his stomach gave out the obvious answer.
- Goodnight. – Rhett almost whispered, his warm breath dancing on Link's lips.
- Goodnight. – the dark haired answered shyly, then watching Rhett step away and disappear into his own apartment.
Link's smile widened even more, making the dark haired roll his eyes at himself and his stupid reaction. He looked at the floor, happiness overflowing his head, giving his thoughts colorful tones.
For his surprise, just when the dark haired was getting into bed, Rhett's voice echoed from the other side of the wall. Link recognized the melody immediately. It was one of his favorite songs, no doubt. So he just sat down, looking at nothing, thinking about nothing, just listening to Rhett's beautiful voice singing along his guitar, the words leaving his mouth so naturally.
But I could've told you Vincent, the world was never made for one as beautiful as you.

A/N: I've had this idea in my head for such a long time and now it's finally here! I'm sorry if you guys find it boring or something.. I just thought the idea of passionate artists would be nice :) Also, I had asked a friend if she could do a vine edit for this, and she agreed! So I'll be posting it here when it's ready (hopefully very very soon)! Maybe she'll agree to do a couple more edits for some other series here! I think having more of a visual context here would be great. Hopefully you guys will like that too :D
I have thought about a possible cute part 2 for this, but I think it will all depend if the feedback is positive as it's seriously a small idea (but believe me, it's super cute!). So please please please vote/comment, tell me what you think. Your feedback is really important. All the love my babies!
P.S.: I'd also like to thank everyone who has been responding to my posts here and talking through direct messages. I'd love to have more interaction with you. Commenting on the episodes or on random life situations! So don't be shy and let's have a chat ^-^
P.P.S.: If you're interested, the idea for this story came mostly because of the song Vincent by Don McLean.