The (seemingly) Colorless World

2

Takumi walked into art class with Aishi, careful to not make contact with him again. What's wrong with me... he thought, as he took his seat in class. Aishi took the open seat next to him and let out a sigh as he got out his materials. Takumi knew he was probably being distant, so he attempted to start up a conversation with Aishi before class started.

"so uh.. you like writing?" he asked, hinting at when he saw him furiously jotting down things in the back of his science notebook. "ah- what? o-oh! yeah I d-do." he stuttered out for an answer. Aishi looked down at his hands.

Takumi realized he probably interrupted Aishi's thoughts​ and apologised. "oh, s-sorry if I disturbed you.. I just saw you writing a lot in first period is all..heh.." Aishi looked up to Takumi, relieved, and told him it was okay. "well, I do more than just writing ya know." Aishi added.

Takumi looked at Aishi and chuckled lightly. "like what?" Aishi raised his finger and began to state proudly, "well, I draw too. and I play piano, make music, and sometimes..." Aishi trailed off. "sometimes what?" Takumi asked. "well uh... sometimes I sing." Aishi looked embarrassed as he rubbed the back of his neck for a distraction.

Takumi began to think of what Aishi sounded like when he sang. But he already sounds adorable... wait no! stop thinking like that... I can't say that about him.. right? Takumi's​ thoughts were interuppted by a worried Aishi waving in front of his face. "you okay? your face is really dark.."

Takumi felt the heat in his cheeks and how hard his heart was pounding. He calmed himself down and tried convincing Aishi he was okay. The bell rang and student began to get settled. Takumi stared towards the front of the room, at the whiteboard to be exact.

His eyes skimmed over the objectives and saw that they had to take notes on perspective today. He lazily stood up and walked towards the sketchpad table and decided to grab Aishi's as well. He turned around and made his way back to the desks, sketchpads in hand, and handed Aishi's to him.

"thank you." he said. "no problem." Takumi smiled. Aishi smiled back and opened up the sketchpad to a new page. Takumi did the same and stared at the paper for a while, taking in the texture and thickness of it between his fingers, and how it moved over the binding or how, even though he only saw shades, the paper was lighter than most things he saw, and when he pressed his pencil onto the paper firmly or softly, a new, dark or light line would appear against the surface.

Takumi woke himself from his thoughts about paper and looked beside him. Aishi was doodling in the bottom corner of his paper. Takumi thought it looked really good. He hesitated to nudge Aishi's arm and instead, cleared his throat to get his attention.

Aishi looked at Takumi with drowsy eyes and smiled a little. "sup?" he whispered. "watchya drawin?" Takumi quietly asked, pointing to the doodle in the younger boy's sketchpad.

Takumi saw Aishi's face darken slightly, causing him to 'awe' inside of his head. Takumi didn't know why but he decided to just shrug it off instead of stopping his mind from thinking such things. "it's nothing really.." Aishi said, covering the drawing with his free hand. The other had a pencil in it. Takumi sighed and scooted Aishi's hand off the drawing with the eraser end of his pencil, causing Aishi to giggle. Takumi laughed as well.

"you don't need to cover it, it's really pretty." Takumi smiled. Aishi's face got darker again, and he smiled back at Takumi. "thank you, Takumi." Takumi giggled and replied, "you're welcome.", smiling back at Aishi.