the relation of art and pain | jotakak

ii

Kakyoin will be the first to admit that he is quick to grow attached. Though with Jotaro, it is downright infatuation that consumes him.

As they sit together and talk each day over the next weeks, he grows more and more fond of him. He does not talk very much, if at all, and that suits Kakyoin just fine. He is rather private and never says much about himself, but he has shared that he's majoring in marine biology and he likes to listen to R&B. Kakyoin also notes that he never wears colors apart from the gold in his hat, and his eyes look sunken.

He had been considering something a bit more serious than Jotaro's sleep schedule before he arrived today, though. As he takes a seat across from him, Kakyoin decides to put the feeling he has to the test and ask for his help.

"Jotaro." The man glances up and grunts, and Kakyoin takes it as a sign to continue talking. "I have another art project. I was wondering if you'd like to model for it."

He seems to consider it, relaxing back into his chair a little more. "What's it about?"

"I have to make a series of paintings," Kakyoin explains. He taps his pencil on the rings of his sketchbook as he talks, nerves setting in. They will have to be together an awful lot. "And they have to tell a story. It's more work, so it might take a few weeks."

Jotaro, who had been staring at Kakyoin's hand in annoyance, reaches over and lays the pencil down on the table. Kakyoin feels his face warm in embarrassment. The brush of their hands does nothing to help it. He mouths a sorry, but cannot find the breath to actually say it.

"I'll do it," Jotaro decides.

Kakyoin feels a tad excited. Though he is not one hundred percent sure, he feels that this could be the beginning of the end to an unfortunate dilemma.

"Do you know somewhere we could meet?"

"How's my place?"

"Your place?" Kakyoin asks.

"Need somewhere quiet to work, don't we? Not a lotta places like that 'round a college town," Jotaro points out. Under his breath, he adds, "Hell, my place is hardly quiet."

"You're right," he says. "It's not due for about a month, so whenever is fine for you."

Jotaro nods and engrosses himself in his work once again, leaving Kakyoin to slip into his own thoughts. He has done his warm-up sketches at this cafe since the beginning of his freshman year a few months ago, though he's known of it for far longer.

The people passing through offer good subjects for drawings more often than not. In the years that Kakyoin has frequented the spot, he cannot recall a week in which he did not see someone with interesting hair, clothes, or features. He attributes it to the fact that most of this city is rather young and experimental. The cafe, owned by a middle aged couple named William and Robert, is arguably the most peaceful place there is. Located near the edge, where the city begins to give way to suburban neighborhoods with sparser housing, it attracts a majority of the students going in and out of the university; as well as the younger kids making their ways home from middle school and the like. Kakyoin knows for a fact that Robert in particular likes to think he is the dad of every kid that wanders in.

He begins to rough out William's face shape on the paper. He thinks back to when he was part of the latter bunch, though he was never really part of a bunch. He would always frequent the cafe alone and he feels a dull pang in the scars across his eyes remembering it. But as he begins to sulk over his dreary childhood, a thinning face becomes chiseled, eyes droopy with age become disinterested slants — and he is drawing Jotaro yet again.