It was a beautiful day today, the sun slowly setting as a cool breeze traveled through the grass. The stars were beginning to appear as the sun reached lower and lower in the sky, the clouds were large and puffy, almost like cotton candy. For anyone, this would be a perfect day however for Paintbrush it might as well be the worst day of their life. They were stomping around near the beach, grumbling to themselves as they paced around. Their easel had been propped up near the coast with not a dot of paint placed onto the canvas. Paint covered the grass in various colors as the remains of what was their trusty pallet lay cracked on the ground. The tips of their long blonde hair had been charred to a crisp as their paint-covered hand balled up into fists. They continued to rant loudly, disturbing some of the contestants as they walked by.
“I can’t get anything right today!” They yelled loudly, part of their hair catching a flame before dying back down. Paintbrush looked at the sea for a moment, squinting their eyes before letting out a frustrated scream and continued to pace back and forth, a bit faster now.
You see, OJ had asked for a painting for the new hotel and decided to make it a competition. Best painting wins! A couple people had entered besides them, mainly Bot, Salt, Taco and Silver. They wanted to put their best foot forward, seeing as this painting thing was important to both OJ and Paper so they promised to bring something special, unfortunately art block had hit them like a truck and they were in a rut. Everything they painted looked like shit to them and they had painted the same sunset over and over again. They had changed the angle, changed the colors, changed the focus but every single time it turned out looking worse than how they imagined it. Eventually they got sick of it and stormed away, ranting on the coastline of the beach. It had been pretty silent for awhile with the only noise being Paintbrush’s whisper-yell conversation with themselves.
“Painty?” A familiar voice spoke, drawing Paintbrush’s attention away from their anger. Lightbulb stood by Paintbrush’s easel, staring at it carefully. “You know you can’t enter a white canvas, right?” Giggling slightly at their comment. Paintbrush just stood there, deadpan before a lightbulb went off in their head (haha, get it. alright I’ll leave).
“Lightbulb,” Paintbrush began, walking towards her slowly. “How would you like to be a model?” Blush rose to their cheeks slightly as they gazed at their friend. Lightbulb stared back, no reply from either of them until Lightbulb’s cheeks flushed and a small grin shined on her face.
“Yeah sure!” She grinned before she turned on her heel and began running back to the hotel, kicking up dirt behind her. “Wait a sec Painty, I’ll be back!” She yelled as she quickly sprinted away, leaving Paintbrush in the dust. Of course, this was very confusing. Where was she going? Why did she have to leave so fast? Paintbrush sighed before slumping back onto a stump and sitting there. As the minutes passed, Paintbrush was left alone with their thoughts and feelings began to bubble up in their mind. Did they have a crush on Lightbulb?
They had this feelings for quite some time now, but the frustration they felt towards their teammates smothered those attractions down into the pits of their mind. The stress of the competition also didn’t help with their mental state, putting a lot of pressure on themselves and others. It was a lot. When they set sail for the Island after elimination, it seemed like a well-deserved trip! No annoying teammates, no stress, just laying in the sun enjoying their company. At least that was until MePhone arrived and announced season 3. However, this did give them some time to think and a common person was Lightbulb. Sure she could be lazy and nonsensical at times but she was also funny and optimistic! She got the team’s hopes up when they were down and she tried her best to make people smile. Of course the crush came back and hit harder than ever. They couldn’t look her way without blushing, they couldn’t think about her with romantic thoughts popping up. Lightbulb…they loved her.
“Oh Painty!” Lightbulb called, snapping Paintbrush out their daydream. They ambled towards Paintbrush, carefully stepping over rocks in their flats. Their curly blonde hair bounced as they came closer to Paintbrush. The sun had already set at this point, blanketing the both of them in the pale moonlight. Lightbulb twirled around in her new dress, smiling at herself as she spun around. “I figured why not use this dress!” The dress she had put on was the same one she wore to OJ and Paper’s wedding, an A-line baby blue dress with lace around the neckline and hem. Paintbrush helped her pick it out the day before the wedding, when she accidentally stained the dress she was going to wear before. She looked even more gorgeous in it now than she did when she first tried it on. She walked over to the stump Paintbrush was sitting on, gazing lovingly at them. “How do I look?”
Paintbrush nodded silently, their face glowing red now. Lightbulb gasped and smiled ear to ear, twirling around again, the dress following her moments beautifully. Paintbrush stood up and carefully began to pose Lightbulb, telling her where to look and where her arms should be placed. After some careful consideration, a pose was decided on and Paintbrush ran back to their easel to begin. Picking up half of their pallet, they added new blobs of paint and began to paint.
They began to trace the outline of their subject, admiringly drawing the individual curls of her sunshine hair and the small wrinkles in her clothing as she sat. Every little freckle was meticulously placed on the canvas and the light in her eyes was reverently sketched. Her soft smile drew all of their attention away from anything else. The only thing they wanted to focus on was her. They collected their paints from their bag and began to squeeze colors out onto their palette, choosing which colors would be accurate was important.
“Does it look good so far?” Lightbulb inquired, tilting her head slightly. The gold of her earrings reflected on the moonlight bringing a small circle of light onto her face. Paintbrush squinted between her and the canvas before nodded their head.
“Yeah, I’m gonna add some color now.” They answered, their face still having a hint of red on it. Lightbulb yawned before stretching her limbs a bit. “Don’t move yet!” Paintbrush chided, carefully painting in the background.
“Aw, okay.” Lightbulb yawned again, trying to sit upright in her seat. Her eyelids were growing heavy but she tried her best to keep them open throughout the night. Paintbrush began to color in the sketch of Lightbulb, starting with her hair. They chose a bright flaxen color, a perfect shade for their subject. They began to fill in their hair, every stroke was drawn with precision and love. While for most, painting every single curl in someone’s hair seems pretty boring, at this moment for Paintbrush, every single strand was a different and wonderful piece of the painting. They soon grabbed an azure shade, mixing it together with white to match the color of the dress.
“So,” Lightbulb started, tiredness being heard through her sleepy tone. “What inspired you to enter the contest?” She curiously looked towards the artist, who raised an eyebrow in confusion.
“Huh? What do you mean?” Paintbrush replied, filling in Lightbulb’s dress with the blue they mixed from before.
“Well, after MePhone…y’know.” Her smile wavered as she reminded them both of that. “I thought you said you’d never do a competition again?” Paintbrush sighed, placing their brush down as they looked between their subject and their canvas.
“Yeah,” They added a bit of blue to Lightbulb’s eyes using a different brush. “I did, but…” They trailed off as they looked towards the moon, their eyes reflecting back the glimmer from the moon “Ever since MePhone left, we’ve been trying to rebuild. It’s been tough, don’t get me wrong but I also wanted to help.” They averted their eyes back to the canvas, every paint stroke placed in a way to tell a story. The story of her.
“Aw, Painty!” Lightbulb cooed, blush growing on her cheeks. Paintbrush tried to shrug it off but it was no use hiding things from Lightbulb. “Are you almost done?” Lightbulb asked, raising an eyebrow and yawning.
“Not yet.” They only just finished Lightbulb’s hair and dress, it was gonna take a little longer than an hour to finish this. “Just wait, okay?” Lightbulb nodded her head, struggling to keep her head up while falling asleep.
This continued on for awhile, with both of them engaging in exciting conversations about their lives. Lightbulb suggested getting another Crab so Baxter could have a sibling, Paintbrush thought about it before giving a “maybe, sorta” answer. Minutes turned into hours as they sat there underneath the sparkling stars of night. Eventually the painting was finished! The finishing touches were placed and the only thing left was for it to dry.
“Lightbulb wanna see?” Paintbrush admired their work, sure it wasn’t perfect but it didn’t need to
be! Lightbulb’s serene smile glowed through the painting, and her eyes were bright. “Lightbulb?” Paintbrush glanced over the easel to see her hunched over, sleeping. Quiet snores breaking the silence every couple of minutes. They softly smirked, color rushing to their cheeks. They began to carefully pack up their painting tools, bagging up the canvas so not to smear the colors. The easel was folded back and tossed into its respective carrying case. After all was said and done, they hiked the bag over their shoulder and began walking towards the sleeping Lightbulb. Was she always this cute when she was asleep? Sure they had sleepovers with Fan and Testtube and they saw them sleeping then but they never had this fluttery feelings in their chest back then. They used their hand to tuck a piece of Lightbulb’s hair out of her face. They suddenly felt the urge to get closer with her, maybe even lay their lips on hers. Of course they wouldn’t do it now, that would be weird. But maybe a forehead kiss would be fine? They leaned in closer carefully pecking their forehead before pulling away, their face growing red. Why did they do that???? They composed themselves quickly and picked up their sleeping model, careful not to wake her, as they walked back through the night to the glowing hearth of the hotel. It was fine! Just a simple kiss, right? Romantic thoughts swam through Paintbrush’s head as they walked back to the hotel, their face all red and a weird giddiness in their stomach. Lightbulb opened one of her eyes and smiled softly before going back to pretending to sleep.
“Now it’s time to reveal your paintings!” OJ announced, pointing to five covered canvases with each participant’s name on them. “The winner will get their painting placed here!” He pointed to Paper who drew an outline of where the painting would go. It was a nice location, placed in the first story hallway. The light from the windows shown like a spotlight onto the empty place. “Now, as much as I would like to hang up my dear Paper here since he is a work of art!”
“Aw, OJ!” Paper purred. “That’s so sweet!” OJ planted a kiss on Paper’s cheek before moving on with his speech. Silver Spoon rolled his eyes dramatically, and crossed his arms.
“Ew.” He sighed, looking at his nails admiringly. They were freshly painted blue and purple with gems on the edge.
“I’m surprised you even painted something. Considering how you don’t like to mess up your manicure” Paintbrush jabbed, earning Silver Spoon’s sudden gasp.
“Of course I did paint! I-uhm.” Silver struggled to find a retort to Paintbrush’s comment before a realization popped into his dastardly mind. “I heard you kissed Lightbulb last night.” Paintbrush immediately grew red and tried to ignore Silver as the edges of their hair crackled.
“How do you know that.” They whisper-yelled into Silver’s ear.
“I didn’t! You just confirmed it to me.” He slyly simpered, mocking Paintbrush with his posh laugh. Now Paintbrush really wanted to clock this guy but they would probably get kicked out and he didn’t really want the others to know yet.
“First up, Bot!” Paper grabbed the fabric and pulled it off revealing a simple painting of the hotel, with everyone drawn holding hands in front of the hotel. Bot sheepishly grinned as Paper complimented their hard work on the painting, ogling over the little drawing of him. “We’re off to a great start! Let’s move on to Taco’s!” He pulled off the cover, showing Taco’s painting. It was still life painting of the hotel during sunset, light pouring out of the windows and shadows of the residents through the windows.
“I, er-tried my best.” She admitted, scratching the back of her neck nervously. Paper loved it, giving kudos to Taco for her fine handiwork. Taco earnestly thanked Paper and OJ agreed with Paper’s testament, shaking her hand.
“Onto Silver Spoon!” OJ exclaimed, pulling off the fabric with a flourish. On the canvas was a self-portrait of Silver himself, he wore an extravagant white suit with lace around it. His cocky smile was as annoying as ever in the painting while swans surrounded him in the portrait. OJ and Paper silently looked at each other then the painting then to Silver then back to the painting.
“It’s uhm…” Paper began, a false smile growing on his face as he looked towards Silver
“It’s bad, Silver you’re disqualified.” OJ bluntly stated, looking deadpan at Silver as Silver fell onto the floor dramatically.
“WHYYYYYYY?!” Silver sadly looked before Candle led him out of the room. They could be heard in the other room, Candle calming down Silver.
“The theme was ‘The Hotel’ Silver, which means anything at the hotel besides yourself.” OJ sighed, readjusting his tie before moving on to the last. “Last painting of the day is Paintbrush’s, let’s see what they painted!” Paper removed the fabric, uncovering Paintbrush’s portrait. The whole room sat in silence, awaiting with bated breath as Paper and OJ looked at the painting.
“OMGA it’s me!” Lightbulb gasped as she walked into the room, still in her pajamas and a real bad case of bed head. Paintbrush could tell all the eyes on them, their heart feeling like it was going to explode from the anxiety. Silver giggle echoed from the other rook while Candle tried to quiet them down. Paper looked back to OJ and they left the room, telling everyone that they were going to judge the paintings to see the winner. Paintbrush walked over to the couch and sank into it, their hands over their face as the seconds droned on. Lightbulb skipped over and sat on the couch next to Paintbrush, leaning on their shoulder in silence.
“I thought it was great!” Lightbulb’s eyes twinkled. “It really looks like me!” Paintbrush removed one of their hands off their face and looked at Lightbulb, their face feeling hot once more. As they laid their hand onto the couch, Lightbulb laid her hand on top of it, earning the both of them to blush profusely. Before either of them could say a thing, Paper came out of the room to gather everyone back.
“We’ve decided on a winner!” Paper excitedly announced. “And the winner is….Taco!” Taco gasped, her eyes watering with the surprise. She ran up and shook Paper’s hand many times, thanking him very much. OJ carefully hung up the painting in the hallway while every clapped during this moment. Lightbulb nudged Paintbrush, smiling up at them.
“You did great! Don’t worry, I’m sure there’s gonna be another time!” Lightbulb exclaimed, both of them still holding each other's hand. Paintbrush nodded back, beaming with happiness. “Plus, I’m happy to be your model anytime.” She winked to them, teasing a bit. They continued to chat while the residents in the hotel admired the other paintings. While they watched the other people talk, Lightbulb turned to Paintbrush and gasped.
“What are you gonna do about the painting of me? I don’t have any space in my room to hang it.” Lightbulb was right, her room was an utter disaster with posters hung up everywhere and all of her clothes thrown across the floor. Paintbrush put their hand to their chin and thought a bit before an idea hit them.
“I’ll hang it in my room.” Paintbrush explained, Lightbulb agreed with that idea and the both of them grabbed the painting and hauled it up to the room Paintbrush and Fan shared together. Carefully making sure it didn’t drop or flake off. Other people who didn’t come looked very confused as the two of them ran around trying to get the painting up. Eventually they got to the room and unlocked it. Fan was sitting on his bed, scrolling on his laptop but his ears perked up when he heard the two of them enter the room.
“Oh, hey guys! Paintbrush what-” Fan pointed at the painting, before Lightbulb replied.
“It’s a painting of me!” Lightbulb turned around the canvas in excitement. “Painty made it for the art contest!” Fan looked a little confused but still helped the both of them hang up the new painting. They decided to hang it up near the closet the two of them shared since Fan didn’t want to tear down his posters yet. After all was said and done, Fan left to go see Test Tube, leaving the two inside the room, alone.
“Do you like it?” Paintbrush nervously asked, their palms a bit sweaty from this whole thing. Lightbulb glanced up at them, her face red as well. She grinned and shook her head up and down.
“I love it!”