#redraw of a old piece I didn’t quite like

[razs-archetype]

She could reach into my core

#gore #cw gore #tw gore #vivisection #tw vivisection #suggestive #ieytd3 #ieytd #agent phoenix #roxanna prism #clover draws #redraw of a old piece I didn’t quite like #happy with this now

[dokidoki-muffin]

BANANA FISH - ASH | SHORTER A lynx in a hood.

Another repost of an old fic as part of Tickletober (trapped) 🤭 Same as last time with a redraw ✨✍💖👌 I hope you enjoy it 🤭💖

___

Summary: Ash is staying over at Shorter’s place and gets his clothes mixed up. Shorter’s try to help his best friend quickly gets out of hand 😅

Notes: Beware ~ lots of tickles ahead 😉 (And cursy words 😂💥) It also contains a tiiiiiny hint of ShorAsh 🤭🙃 (Please excuse any mistakes, English is not my native language 😆) Another fic that is 3 years old! 😂🙈 And long af 😬🤣😲 But since a lot of you seemed to like the last Banana Fish fic I shared from the DokiDoki Timeportal I decided to revisit this one as well 🤗💪✨💖

Word Count: 4754

Shorter couldn't suppress a loud cackle as he turned around on the couch, placing his phone on the coffee table. 

"What on earth are you doing?" he asked the blonde teen, appearing in the doorway to the living room of Shorter's resident in Chinatown, swearing like a trooper. There he was, his genius best friend, who could indeed be impersonated grace, when he wanted to, bundled up in a hoodie that was just way too small, even for his slender frame.

"Well, what does it look like, moron?!" Ash snarled back, desperately trying to free himself from this tiny piece of clothing, looking very much like a lunatic in a straitjacket. He hated to admit it, but he was helplessly stuck.

Curiously approaching the adorable mess that stood in front of him, struggling to bring that hoodie back over his head, Shorter took a closer look.

"Oh..." he noted softly, eventually recognizing the red hoodie Ash was “wearing” as one of Sing's. They must have been mixed up in the laundry somehow. Knowing Ash’s morningly survival capabilities, it didn’t take a lot of deducting skills to visualize how one thing must have led to another.

Ash had been staying over for a few days now, after finally giving in to Shorter's continuous attempts to invite him to his place. To his own surprise, he had ended up enjoying it quite a lot. Somehow he just got swept along by the older boy's upbeat personality, making him feel like a normal fifteen-year-old boy once in a while. But even for a skinny fifteen-year-old boy, this hoodie was a hopeless case. 

"Need a hand?" Shorter asked his friend, who kept on squirming furiously. He even had to swallow down a giggle, seeing Ash blush slightly at these words, averting his eyes in embarrassment. The Blonde truly seemed to hate when he couldn't sort out his problems on his own. But in the end, he didn't have much choice. Displeased, he eventually agreed with a barely visible nod, frustration writ large in his face. 

"But for real now... How did you even manage to get into this thing?" Shorter grumbled in puzzlement as he tried to find a way to free his best friend from this misery, but as it turned out, the hoodie was a lot tighter than he had thought. 

"Trial and success, obviously!" was the sassy reply he received. 

"Pff... I wouldn't exactly call this a success." Shorter had to snicker at the Blonde's choice of words. He knew very well by now that Ash's extraordinary pride was nothing to be taken lightly, but given their situation, it was absolutely comical. 

"Fuck it... This isn't working..." he added after a while, "Put your arms up, they're in the way." Reluctantly following Shorter's call, Ash let out a mewl of discomfort as the Chinese finally managed to pull the hoodie partly over his shoulders, revealing a black sleeveless tank top. His upper body was free, but now he couldn't see, as the hoodie was covering his face, keeping his arms snuggly in place above his head.

Bending over in an attempt to see why Ash was still so perfectly stuck, Shorter ran his fingers along the edge of the hoodie. But his try to figure out where he could get a good grasp on it was suddenly interrupted by a very uncharacteristic squeal. 

"Sorry, did I hurt you?" the Chinese asked, startled by this unfamiliar sound. 

"N-no... Just... get me out of this thing, will ya..." he heard Ash's gaspy voice muffled by the fabric. Shrugging his shoulders, Shorter continued where he left off tracing the hoodie, letting his fingers slowly travel around Ash's stretched up arms. It was a matter of seconds before he was cut off by the next strangled whine that sounded even more pathetic than before, feeling Ash's body twitch away from his hands. 

Driven by almost childlike curiosity, Shorter rolled up the collar of the hoodie to uncover a deeply flustered face, immediately hissing at him on sight.  "What the heck are you doing?! Ouch! You're ripping out my hair!" 

On the one hand, Ash was thrilled to be able to breathe again properly, now that his face was freed. But on the other hand, he couldn't help feeling genuinely triggered looking at the dirty grin Shorter was bearing. Inquisitively analyzing Ash's agitated gaze through those tinted glasses, Shorter decided to drop his question. 

"Could it be... you're ticklish?"

Maybe Ash just felt particularly vulnerable, trapped with his arms up like this. Usually, he would have answered totally calm and collected, but something about Shorter's expression just made him blurt out a panicked, "NO!" 

Much to his disliking, Shorter's grin only grew wider, hearing his angsty little outbreak. 

Quickly trying to regain his composure, Ash put on the sweetest yet confident smile he could summon, elaborating his hasty answer, "I mean, don't be silly. Why would I be-AAHAH-!!" 

Before he could even finish his sentence, a sharp poke to the ribs made the teen jolt in surprise.

"You sure?" Shorter commented, highly amused by the Blonde's hilariously obvious reaction. 

Slowly retreating, staring wide-eyed at two hands eagerly wiggling their fingers in his direction, Ash clearly sensed that he was absolutely screwed. Not waiting for even a single second longer, he just started running. 

"Oooh, bad choice!" he heard Shorter sneer from behind, immediately picking up the chase. 

"Noho! Stay away from mehe!" Ash cried out, surprised by the squeaky sound of his own voice. Shorter wouldn't actually be so mean to use his helpless situation against him, right? He wouldn't actually tickle him now, would he?!

Desperately searching his genius brain for some damn good reason to argue his way out of this mess, Ash started to wonder if he was perhaps just overreacting to this whole situation. It had literally been years since his brother tickled him as a child. Maybe it wasn't even that bad after all this time. Maybe he had even grown out of it by now. 

But he still didn't feel like finding out! 

Especially now, while he was still trapped in that hoodie, limiting his defensive abilities tremendously. 

His heartbeat hammering against his chest, Ash made his way around the coffee table, hoping to bring some distance between him and the stupid idiot running after him, deviously smiling. His efforts were quickly put to waste, though, as Shorter just used the coffee table as a stepping stone to launch himself at the Blonde. 

Laughing at the almost girly shriek that must have echoed through the entire house, as he successfully caught his target, Shorter instantly wrapped his arms around Ash's skinny waist, hugging him tightly against his own body from behind. 

Flooded by a wave of adrenaline, Ash tried to wrestle himself out of Shorter's iron grip, even attempting to kick him in the groin, when he was suddenly distracted by a very unpleasant shiver rushing through his torso. Gasping in shock, he realized Shorter had started skittering his fingers up and down his side while keeping him trapped tightly with his other arm. 

Fuck.  So much for growing out of it. Cursing himself for believing in this wishful phantom even for a tiny little moment, Ash found himself squirming against Shorter's chest, trying to shake off the ticklish sensation that was slowly spreading through his body. Biting his lip to hold back the first giggles that were about to escape his mouth, Ash quickly understood that he was indeed still as ticklish as he had feared. Or was it actually even worse? 

Highly pleased with the reaction he was getting so far, Shorter let his hand travel a little higher, now gently digging his fingers into Ash's lower ribs. 

"Gah! Stohop ihit!!" the Blonde whined in response to that, still trying hard not to crack, but his shaky voice was probably not very convincing. 

"Hm? Why should I stop?" the Chinese asked in return, "Since you're not ticklish, this shouldn't bother you, amirite? :)"

"Or could it be…" Shorter dramatically faked an offended voice, "... that.. you.. lied.. to.. me?" 

Dragging out his sentence on purpose, Shorter accompanied every word with a squeeze from his other hand that was resting dangerously close to Ash's right hip, cracking the teen's facade at last. Involuntarily squeaking at every single touch on his waist, Ash just couldn't keep quiet any longer. Some more fingers gently clawing along his flat stomach eventually made him submit, breaking out into the most adorable giggle fit. 

Hearing this sweet, almost angelic sound for the first time, Shorter had to admit that it caught him completely off guard. He had expected Ash to be a lot more boisterous than that. Lucky for him, the Blonde was facing the other way, so the slight blush rising on those tanned cheeks stayed unnoticed for now. He had seen Ash smile every now and then since they had first met in reform school about a year ago, but hearing the usually rather stoic blonde genius actually laugh, was a first. He couldn't resist the urge to just keep going. 

Curious to find out how ticklish Ash really was, Shorter decided to finally use both hands to attack those vulnerable sides and ribs. Confronted with ten fingers at once now, Ash instantly collapsed back against Shorter's chest, almost knocking off the other's sunglasses with his elbow, his giggling growing louder and louder, slowly transforming into a bright, airy laugh.

"Oh... What's that?" Shorter kept teasing the smaller boy in his arms, "Given you're not ticklish, you sure are laughing a lot."

"Ahaha-! shihihit! Okahay! Lihisten!" Ash tried to argue now, as there was no way to get out of this with physical strength alone, "Youhu've prohoven your poihihint! I am tihicklihish! Nohow let mehe gohoho!" 

Giving an overacted sigh, Shorter pretended to think about Ash's proposal. Not without clawing his way further up the Blonde's torso though, drawing out more high pitched squeals as his fingers reached those clearly perceptible upper ribs. 

"Right you are..." the Chinese commented, faking to be lost in thought, "But on the other hand, you really did lie to me." 

"Ahaokahahahay! I lihihihied!!" Ash cried out in an utterly cute attempt to form coherent sentences through his laughter, "Buhuhut why wouhuld I say yehehehes?!" 

"Hm... Touchè", Shorter admitted snickering, "Worth a shot, but futile. I would have tickled you anyway." 

Not even giving Ash the chance to answer, he chose to suddenly vibrate his fingers against those highly sensitive upper ribs, causing the younger teen to let out a surprised shriek followed by loud squeaky laughter, "NAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA-!! STAHAHAHAPTHAHAHAT! NOHOHOHOHOHO!!" 

Ash was hopelessly overwhelmed by all those unfamiliar touches. Unlike the Chinese punk, who seemed to bring his big brother vibes everywhere he went, being rather used to things like tickle fights, especially with the younger ones in his gang, Ash knew nothing alike. True, Shorter had been the only person so far who was allowed to touch him, despite his efforts to avoid physical contact with other people, but this was completely different from everything he had expected.

Eventually losing the strength to keep himself upright, his knees started to give in on him. Feeling the sudden extra weight in his arms, Shorter just followed along, sinking down to the floor, letting Ash slip from his hug onto the wooden ground, still shaking and giggling.

Gasping for air, Ash rolled over to the side in a quite pitiful attempt to crawl away from those evil hands when he felt a firm grip on his ankle, pulling him backward. 

Squeaking in panic, as his body slid across the floor, his tank top riding up halfway in the process, he ended up being straddled by the taller boy, keeping him securely pinned to the ground lying on his side. 

"Let's see if your lower half can keep up," the Chinese chirped, smirking back over his shoulder, as he was facing Ash's legs now, lifting the one he was still holding a little upwards. 

Without further warning, he started squeezing and pinching the Blonde's thigh in search of new sensitive spots, causing Ash to explode with frantic laughter on the first touch. 

He couldn't even see what Shorter was doing down there. All he knew was that it tickled like hell. All of it. He felt those squeezing fingers wander up and down his entire leg, but there wasn't a single inch that was immune to these new tormenting sensations. 

"AHAHAHASHIHIHIT-! NAHAHA-!! WHAHAHATAREYOUHU-! FUHUHUCK!!"

Desperately winding his body, Ash tried to shake off Shorter's assaulting hand, slowly making its way to his inner thigh, kicking his legs as much as he could under the other's grappling hold, but he wasn't going anywhere. He could do nothing but submit to this maddening feeling, squirming and laughing his head off. 

Just when he thought it could not get any worse, Ash suddenly felt five nails scratching across the bare skin of his knee, half exposed by his signature ripped jeans, screaming out with a yet unreached pitch of ticklish laughter.

"Oha! Seems like I found a weak spot!" the Chinese declared in a sing-song voice, as he began pinching around the kneecap, even letting go of Ash's ankle to dig his remaining fingers into the back of the same knee. 

Failing miserably to curl himself into a ball of defense, Ash felt like combusting into flames. Every fiber of his body was screaming one single thing that soon found its way to his mouth, "GYAAAAHAHAH-! NOHOT THEHEHERE!! PLEHEHEHEAHASE!! NOHOHOTHEHEHEHEHEREHE!!"

"Holy shit...", Shorter commented this renewed outburst in awe, chuckling to himself. He almost got that knee, he was tormenting with so much ambition, shoved into his face, as the blonde gang leader was thrashing wilder than ever under his merciless attack. 

He had suspected Ash to be ticklish for quite a while now, but he was genuinely surprised by the Blonde's sensitivity. The only person he knew, who was even more ticklish than this, was the owner of that red hoodie, which had granted him such a precious opening.

Letting up on Ash's leg, Shorter turned back around, giving those delicate hips a few squeezes on the way, noting the exquisite reaction he got from that for the next time. 

Ash was panting heavily beneath him as he effortlessly flipped him over on his back, settling down on the Blonde's slender waist, beholding a most adorable sight. Two green eyes glistening with tears of laughter behind a few very messy strands of hair covering Ash's brightly flushed face.

"You... traitor…", Ash huffed, his chest still heaving up and down, his face forming an unwitting pout, "You… said… you would… help me! And this… is what I get?!" 

"Oh, I will help you, don't worry!" Shorter cooed sweetly in reply, gently poking two fingers up and down all over the Blonde's upper body, "But I just can't let such a perfect opportunity go to waste." 

"Oppohortuhunity myhyhy ahahass!" Ash hissed back before he dissolved again in squeaky giggles, desperately trying to hide his face in his arm.

Most likely, he could have freed himself from this accursed hoodie by now if it wasn't for these greedy hands that kept roaming across his body. Every time he felt like getting a grasp on it to work himself out of this miserable cloth prison, a new wave of ticklish sensation flooded his nerves, draining his limbs from every last ounce of strength.  

Digging in the younger teen's sweet laughing face, he could now actually see for the first time, Shorter took a brief moment to enjoy this precious view. Who would have thought that Ash's usually so pale face could light up with so much color. Or that his nose might scrunch up in such a cute way, as his eyes would squeeze shut almost entirely. 

Realizing that he should probably stop tormenting his best friend soon if he intended to keep their relationship alive, Shorter decided to move in for his final attack. Seeing Ash trapped below him in this totally helpless position, his mind kept circling around one single question. How ticklish might those bare armpits be. 

Quickly grasping what was about to befall him, Ash started to shake his head in panic, "No.. Oh hell no... Please! Anything but that!!" 

"I was wondering... Is this your most ticklish spot?" Shorter asked with an innocent tone, watching in amusement how those green eyes suddenly grew wide, while the Blonde's struggling intensified, as he kept lowering his wiggling fingers towards their new target.

"Nooononononowaaait! Pleeeahahahase! Noohohoho! I cahahan't! Stahahap!!" 

Shorter couldn't hold back a giggle of his own, his hands now hovering just a few centimeters above those wide open armpits, "Why are you laughing already? I'm not even touching you!" 

"Ihihi knohohohow! Fuhuhuck ohohohoff!" Ash whined back, shivering helplessly under this impending attack. This was truly humiliating. Not only was he actually still horribly ticklish, but his body would now even betray him in the most embarrassing way possible. Why did he feel so awfully vulnerable to a little teasing, giggling like an idiot every time those fingers dipped down so deceivingly, just to stop before actually touching him? 

Nearly bursting with curiosity now, Shorter wasn't able to hold back any longer as he finally connected his fingers with the soft skin of Ash's defenseless armpits. 

It was nothing more than a few gentle grazes meant to test him, but Ash was already gone. Arching his back, desperately squirming under Shorter's lightly scratching nails, he immediately descended into uncontrollable laughter mixed with more or less coherent pleas. 

"Oh dear…" the older teen kept teasing him with a sickeningly sweet tone, "I figured you'd be quite sensitive here... That's the spot that gave you away in the first place... But if you can't even handle that much, how're you gonna deal with this?" 

Applying more and more pressure, Shorter witnessed how Ash was just falling apart in his hands. 

"EYAAAAHAHAHAHAHAA-FUHUHUHUH-!! STAPSTAPSTAHAHAHAH-!! NAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

Eventually, kissing coherent words goodbye, Ash felt like going crazy. This was just pure evil. Neither could he defend himself against those tormenting fingers, nor could he escape this hellish sensation driving him to the brink of hysterics.

Shorter was torn. As much as he enjoyed all these sweet new sounds he was eliciting from his best friend, sending the blonde teen back and forth from childlike squeaking to panicky shrieks just by alternating the strength of his touch, he didn't fail to notice that Ash's voice became more and more wheezy. Not intending to torture the young genius into oblivion, he decided to back off, giving Ash the chance to come back from his ticklish subspace.    

Gently placing a few last pokes across his sides and stomach, Shorter finally retreated his hands, pulling the teen's black tank top back down on the way. 

Ash was dead beat. 

Gasping for much-needed air, he just kept lying there, a little stream of tears sitting on his bright red cheeks, his head feeling all giddy from laughing so much. He didn't even notice how Shorter used his exhausted state to free him from the red hoodie that had brought this calamity upon him until he received an affectionate ruffle through his messy hair. 

"Don't die on me, will ya?" Shorter commented on this utterly adorable sight. Swinging the tiny red hoodie over his shoulder, the Chinese left the room with a chuckle. 

Slowly opening his eyes again, beholding the artful wooden ornaments on the ceiling through his teary eyes, Ash couldn't tell if he had been lying there for just a few seconds or an eternity. With a tired mewl he slowly managed to raise himself from the floor. His body was still tingling all over as he dropped onto the couch, wiping the last remains of tears from his face, even a little amazed how hot his cheeks felt. They probably had the same shade of red right now as that stupid hoodie.

Still cursing the damn thing in his head, his trail of thought was suddenly interrupted by a piece of clothing dumped onto his head from behind, causing the teen to yelp in surprise. 

"That should be yours now," he heard Shorter's voice before he felt a weight settling down next to him on the couch, "Sorry for the mixup." 

Carefully inspecting the hoodie in his hands before pulling it over his head, Ash couldn't help grumbling out a silent complaint. This had been beyond embarrassing. He didn't even know what to say. 

Noticing the pout on Ash's face, who was clearly trying to avoid any eye contact as he kept staring off into no-man’s-land, Shorter let out a sigh. He had to confess to himself that he got carried away, hearing Ash laugh for the first time. He had learned a lot about the blonde gang leader within the last few days and he couldn't shake the feeling that Ash had really enjoyed being treated like a normal teenager once in a while. 

Yet again, it had taken months and a lot of work to gain Ash's trust and consent to be able to touch him. The longer he kept thinking about it, the more he could feel regret settling down on his chest. 

"You're not... mad at me now... Are you?" Shorter carefully asked, watching the younger teen bury himself deeper into his hoodie. 

Ash didn't say anything. His emerald eyes kept scanning the wooden floor, still trying hard not to look at this best friend. 

After a few more agonizing moments that definitely felt like ages, Shorter eventually perceived a softly mumbled "No..."

Sliding down even deeper against the backrest of the couch, Ash could feel the blush on his cheeks rise once again, a displeased whine escaping his mouth. 

"It's just... This.. is so embarrassing…" the Blonde continued after a while. "I... hate this feeling... When I lose control over my own body..."

"Right... Didn't think 'bout that..." Shorter muttered, a hint of rue finding its way into his voice.   "So..." he warily continued, "Do you... hate being tickled?"

Now looking at the ceiling, Ash took a moment to think about his best friend's assumption. True, he was not at all familiar with this kind of thing, and part way he had been thoroughly convinced that he would die right here on the wooden floor of Shorter's living room, yet it somehow felt like a weight had been lifted off him. Or maybe he was still dizzy from the lack of oxygen…

"I... don't think I really... hate it" Ash eventually concluded his thoughts, "I'm... just not used to it... that's all."

"I see..." Shorter replied with an ever so slight smile returning to his face, sliding a little closer to the blonde teen on his couch, "Then... you mind if I do it again?" 

Startled at the sound of those words, accompanied by a gentle pinch to the side, Ash spun around, his gaze finally meeting with Shorter's through his sunglasses. Once again this day, the Chinese had to swallow down a laugh seeing Ash's expression going from killer stare to annoyed little kitten within seconds.

"Nhg... Have it your way..." the younger teen grumbled at his best friend. Ending their mini staring contest by sharply pointing his index finger against Shorter's forehead, forcing the other to tilt his head back a little, "But I swear on this godforsaken hoodie... If you should ever dare to tell anyone about this, you're gonna go down in history as the ugliest corpse this world has ever seen!

"Fair enough," Shorter chuckled in amusement. Not that he planned on sharing his newly gained precious knowledge anyway.

"Now... About getting used to it..." he suddenly added after a few seconds, briefly enjoying the confusion rising on Ash's face, "... that can be arranged."

Watching with delight how the Blonde's mouth opened and closed without a sound, Shorter used his baffled state to quickly wrap his arms around the younger boy once more. Letting himself fall against the side rest of the couch, Shorter just dragged Ash along with him, eventually trapping the bewildered teen between his legs, with the back against his chest. Not giving him a chance for recovery, he started to scribble his fingers all over Ash's stomach and sides one more time. 

Gasping in response to this new, unexpected attack before dissolving into bubbly giggles, Ash couldn't help but facepalm internally on his level of idiocy. Shorter's intentions were just so obvious most of the time. And yet again somehow that stupid pineapple-head managed to make him lower his guard repeatedly.

"Whahahat the hehell are you dohohihihing?!" Ash whined, struggling to free himself. 

"Well, I asked if I can tickle you again," he heard the Chinese punk happily explain behind his back, "And you said yes."

"Ihihi didn't mehehean rihihigt nohohow!! Youhu jeheherk!!" Ash hissed back through his laughter, desperately trying to grab those tickling hands that kept gently poking and pinching their way across his middle. 

"Oh, sorry! Should I make an appointment then for next time?" Shorter cackled at his own joke while letting one hand travel underneath the red hoodie, now wiggling his fingers over any inch of bare skin he could reach, smiling along with the high pitched squeal he received for that. 

Ash felt like sinking to the very core of this planet. There he was again. Helplessly laughing because of his own damn sensitivity. But somehow, it felt a lot different from before. 

Less torturous. More playful.  Maybe even a tiny little bit enjoyable?  Still, he had more than enough for a single afternoon. 

Making use of his free hands, he mustered up all his remaining strength, gifting Shorter a deadly well-placed elbow to the ribs.

It proved astoundingly effective. 

Panting for air like a fish out of water, the chinese punk instantly sank back into the couch before emitting a pathetic whimper.

"Holy shit... have mercy..." he chuffed after finding his voice again, eagerly trying to rub the throbbing pain out of his ribcage. "That's not... how... a tickle fight works... you little brute!" the older punk wheezed out, frowning at the smaller boy who was still lying in his arms, panting likewise to catch his breath.

"Pah... serves you right!" Ash grumbled back in a devoted attempt to sound offended. But he wasn't able to hide that slight smirk forming on his face as he crossed his arms before his chest after pulling down his hoodie.

Throwing his head back against the side rest of the couch, Shorter let a few moments pass, waiting for his breath to fully return. His ribs were still hurting like hell. Ash sure possessed a lot of strength despite his slimsy look. 

Much to his surprise, though, the Blonde still hadn't moved an inch from this half-assed hug, originally meant to trap him. Shorter had freed him from his arms a while ago, but Ash didn't seem to bother getting up.

Fondly looking down on a head covered in messy golden hair, Ash's sweet laughing voice kept ringing inside his head.

"Jeez..." Shorter eventually let out a slightly melancholic sigh.

"You know..." he added after a while, notably unsure whether or not he should go on, "You're... making it damn hard for me not to crush on you..."

... 

Raising his eyebrows in astonishment, confronted with the non-existence of a much anticipated sassy reply, Shorter tilted his head to see what was going on. The Blonde was breathing peacefully, his head comfortably resting against the taller boy's shoulder.

It took him a few seconds to finally realize that Ash had indeed miraculously fallen asleep on him.

Feeling his face burn up at the speed of light, as he adjusted his sunglasses that were about to slide down his nose, Shorter kept staring down at the slender teen sleeping in his arms, in a wild mixture of bliss and bittersweet melancholy.

If only things could stay like this.  

If only they could just keep lying there, without a care for this cruel world, enjoying the first rays of afternoon sun that were flickering through the window.

Running his fingers through Ash's soft, slightly wavy hair, gently wiping those messy bangs from his face, Shorter eventually gave in to the call of his heart, hammering against his chest.

"You would probably not approve this... " he whispered almost silently as he bent his head down just a little, placing a most tender kiss along Ash's hairline, "but please... just bear with me for now..."

#banana fish #ash #shorter #tickling #art #tickle fic #tickletober2022 #lee!ash #ler!shorter

[ruija]

A trip down memory lane - TMNT 2003

So. The 20th anniversary of 2003 Ninja turtles was a little while ago, but I didn’t have time to draw anything for it 👉👈💦 BUT, I wanted to do SOMETHING for it, even a bit late. 

For context, TMNT 2003 was my introducion to the franchise. Back when it started airing, I was 9yo and was immediately hooked. I think it’s the series/fandom that has stuck with me the strongest across the years. Even if I’d have long periods, even couple year brakes from it, I always dip back at some point. Usually it’d happen by me suddenly having a dream about the turtles, and then going like “Oh, is it that time again? Guess I’ll go check some fanworks, then.” ANYWAY, I thought it’d be fun to dig up some old art and do some redrawing hehheh. Hopefully yall find these somewhat entertaining, I’ve been equal parts cackling and cringing lmao!

Here we have THE FIRST EVER Leonardo I’ve ever drawn! (Made when I was 9) I’m honestly very charmed and kinda impressed by it. Like, he looks really funky and dynamic! That pose and the way the bandanna tails are flying adds really nice movement and energy to the drawing! It was really fun to use it as a base, because the elements of it were already working well!

Also there’s Splinter I drew around that same time. He also has a lot of funny personality haha! (Sorry Splints for being too lazy to redraw you)

(More art and reminiscing under read more!)

BY THE WAY. I’m FUCKING DEVASTATED that I was not able to find a third drawing I remember from this period. It featured Splinter being drunk while Leo looks on horrified. Why? I don’t know. Little Ruija thought it was really funny I guess. Anyway, here’s an imitation piece for demonstration:

Truly shocking. Bad Parent Splinter AU? (I have a suspicion the original is MIA, because I got too embarrassed by it at some point. But I will not lose hope, maybe it’ll turn up someday🙏)

I think the next time I drew fanart of ninja nurtles was when I was 11-12yo and joined Devianart. The account I used to have doesn’t exist anymore, so I wasn’t able to recover files from that time. My only hope is to come across some originals in my old art folders  💦 💦 I have really fond memories from that time. Was quite active in the Sonic and TMNT fandom.

This was drawn when I was 13, I think. I’m sensing... a bit of a fictional crush there. And- Wait a minute. Is that...? ENHANCE

DONNIE?!

Biblically accurate recreation.

Karai from same time period. It’s probably a lesser known fact, that in several iterations, she’s usually among my fave characters.

Grumpy Raph my beloved! This is from when I was 14. Those thighs are tragically skinny! This obviously had to be rectified.

Somewhere in the 14-15yo range. I think I had already picked up a special fondness for Leo+Mikey dynamic <3

And then... I got kind of a whiplash when this piece jumped out from my folders:

What a weird experience. I guess this particular visual spoke to me even 13 years ago.

Well, here’s another one to the pile.

Last piece has a bit of a timeskip! It’s from 2013 ( I was 18yo) and the original post is actually on this blog!

I’ve actually been wanting to redraw this piece anyway, but with my HC of Donnie being really tall, haha. (I keep squinting at Leo and how he turned out very femme in this... Oh well, he/she’s just rocking some transswag)

--

PHEW! This was fun! Made me feel extremely fond, thinking about how excited my younger selves would be to see these redrawings haha.

Earlier I said I didn’t have any works archived from my old DA account, but surprisingly I had a couple screenshots like this:

Back then (2005-2007 in this case) personal websites were common, including ones dedicated to fandom-content. A Japanese tmnt fan going by Sakan-san also had one called FREAKfreak. (She was also on DA) Her art was gorgeous and I thought she was like the best and coolest tmnt artist ever. 

Her webpage had this PAINTchat on it and both Japanese and Western fans would gather there to draw together. Sakan-san would often post the collabs in her gallery afterwards. There were a couple times I was able to join a session with them too, which I was over the moon about! (In the screenshot the bottom right segment was mine lol). It was really cool, that they included a novice artist with extremely broken english amongst them.

Seeing these screenshorts made me remember how much I admired Sakan-san and wanted to draw like her. And then realizing, that now I can✨

--

Another memorable interaction from that time is when I was chatting with some older fans. By the time I got on DA, my country had only dubbed and aired the first two seasons of the 2003 series. I kept seeing fanart of Leo with his shellscar and got curious. I asked the others where he gets it.

They told me he put dynamite on it.

And then said it’s better if I go watch the episodes myself. Fortunately I was able to find and watch rest of the series after that, haha.

--

Maybe that’s enough reminiscing for now! Thanks for the company and all the lovely memories TMNT 2003 <3

I hope you all can also keep creating and having fun within this fandom, for years to come!  💙❤️💜🧡💚

#tmnt #tmnt 2003 #leonardo #michelangelo #master splinter #raphael #donatello #oroku karai #long post #redraw #old art

[randomwritingsfortheworld]

Old Art

When Steve was thawed from the ice and had some time to adjust to working for SHIELD, he spent time looking through the internet, hoping to catch up on current events and major events since he went under. What he wasn’t prepared for was how much of the internet there was. Sam gave him recommendations to look into online but Google was overwhelming in how much info it gave him. The most confusing for him was message forums that he ended up finding during his research because a poster would ask a question that he found interesting. That is how Steve ended up learning that he had no clue what half the internet slang was.

He learned that the meaning and usage of certain slang terms change quickly and frequently. Most people don’t use the term Vine anymore, now it’s Tiktok. Steve did like seeing emojis. They looked funny to him. Urban dictionary was a helpful resource for him but Steve quickly learned that the internet didn’t think that site was useful. Regardless he was glad it helped him figure out the meaning of slang and how to decipher texts that were mostly emojis. 

Steve found Wikipedia the most useful and the most distracting. Many nights he’d look up an article about a major event that Sam told him to look into and a few hours later, he’d be reading about something completely different. He’d end up telling Bucky in the middle of the night about what he found out, even though half the time Bucky wasn’t interested. Bucky had a suspicion Steve did it to help distract him when he woke up from his nightmares, but he wasn't going to burst his best friend's bubble by telling him it doesn't work. 

Once the battle of Thanos was resolved, Steve got back into art. With the help of Nat, Steve made an art page. She had to show him how to scan his work to post it digitally but once he started, the support exploded. Steve was taken aback at how many people looked at his artwork and complimented it. It did give him encouragement to do more. In the span of a few weeks, Steve had posted redraws of his old artwork that he made in the 30’s while attending college. The public ate it up which made Steve a bit proud of himself. 

“I had no idea you drew.” Sam hummed as he watched Steve upload the last piece he could remember drawing before going in the ice.

Steve shrugged. “Never asked.”

“I don’t go up to people and ask if they can draw.”

“You should.”

“It might work for you Captain but not me.” Sam lightly punched his arm as he laughed. “Where did you learn to draw?”

“Auburndale Art School.”

“I have no idea where that is.”

Bucky placed a drink in front of Steve before handing Sam his. “It’s in Brooklyn.”

“Did you go too?” Sam eyed Bucky curiously.

Bucky took a drink of his coffee. “We had the same classes.”

“Do you draw too?”

“I went for the ladies.” Bucky glanced at the computer screen. “Do you think Montgomery still has our projects?”

Steve chuckled. “I think she’s dead by now, Buck.”

“I feel like she’d try to outlive us all out of spite.”

Sam watched the exchange as he took a slow drink. “Was she a bad teacher?”

“She was the worst. Always saying my work was shit.”

“Well you never really tried to actually learn how to draw.”

Bucky gave Steve a glare. “I was a decent artist. It wasn’t perfect like she wanted it to be.” 

“She knew you were there just for the nude models.” 

“I turned in my work.” Bucky grumbled as Steve and Sam laughed.

“Why don’t you share your art?” Sam suggested.

Bucky frowned. “I don’t think any of it exists anymore.”

“You can redraw it like I am.” 

Bucky seemed to think it over. “But who would want to see it?”

"You do realize you have a fan base online right?" Sam took a drink as he gave Bucky a skeptical look.

Bucky studied Sam, not quite believing him. "I do?"

"Chicks like the troubled brooding guy now."

"I don't brood."

Steve and Sam gave him a doubtful look. "You do." Bucky scowled at Sam but before he could argue more, he cut him off. "Just give it a try and see where it goes. It doesn't hurt."

Bucky glanced between the two. "Fine."

A few days later, Bucky shared a random drawing on Steve's page and was bombarded with support. It reignited a spark in Bucky and it didn't take long for the team to find the two drawing together occasionally during downtime between missions.

#james buchanan barnes #sam wilson #steve rogers #marvel #mcu

[lumilasi]

EDIT: After staring at this for a moment this morning, I decided to try and adjust the lighting to make it pop out a bit more 

So since I couldn’t decide what I’d draw next for the digital painting, I decided to select one of my old art pieces I’d picked for a redraw and use that. I ended up with this kiss thing, which, they’re still difficult to draw meh. 

That aside, I do quite like how this came out TBH. The only thing I’m dissatisfied with is Dabi’s hand. The angle is off and kinda not realistic, but I didn’t notice that until after finishing this, so....I’m just gonna leave it 

original here

(the original is really old, I think I drew it even before my writing shenanigans truly kicked off lmao)

#lumi's art scribbles #shigadabi #bnha shigadabi #dabishiga #dabi x tomura #tomura x dabi #shigaraki tomura #tomura shigaraki #mha tomura #dabi bnha #mha dabi #tenko shimura #shimura tenko #bnha tenko #touya todoroki #league of villains #bnha #kisses are hard to draw #digital painting

[elliehase-blog]

It’s typical for me to set up a story or drabbles around my drawings, but I’m not always confident enough to share them with you due to my lack of knowledge in the English grammar.  This is a foreign language for me, therefore I still make a lot of mistakes and not noticing them.

For this redrawing of Crawly I wrote a little prelude for my story “Don’t Stop Me Now” on AO3. I have finished two new chapters already, but unfortunately my friend (who has corrected my stories in the past) is too busy with her work. If there’s anyone out there, who enjoys to proofread stories, please contact me! 

Prelude

It was lo-... something at first sight.

The angel of the Eastern Gate stood atop Eden’s outer wall, facing the deserted land with a concerned glance. His wavy fair hair reflected the setting sun, some soft rays gently embraced his contours. Gray clouds were piling over the garden. With his white robe and the dark atmosphere forming around him, he looked bright and shining like a star in the night sky.

He was the most fascinating thing Crawly had ever seen.

And Crawly had seen a lot of things in his immortal existence. In the old days he had been an angel himself, a builder of blazing stars and astonishing constellations. But none of his creations ever radiated in such a wonderful warm glow, giving him satisfaction and ease at once. There was something magical about the other man, which is why Crawly couldn't avert his gaze.

Strictly speaking, Crawly didn’t cross a line here. He wasn’t in close contact with the angel, staying at the apple tree most of the time, fulfilling his demonic duty. No one ever said he couldn’t sneak away occasionally and admire his new encounter from afar, though. Nothing wrong in it. At least until it became his favourite occupation of the day.

So the serpent observed the beautiful chubby angel quite a while. From a safe distance, of course. As a demon he had straight orders from Hell to cast some trouble in the Garden of Eden. It was highly inappropriate to reach out to the opposition by whatever means, he guessed, or even conveying interest in an angel in the first place. Probably it was forbidden as well. Something demons ought not to do.

He did anyway.

 Crawly watched the serene beauty and listened carefully to every word that emerged these rosy lips, straining to find out more about the angelic guard, trying to get the whole picture. Every piece of the puzzle dragged him closer each day. He liked the way the blond angel yielded his flaming sword when he was practicing some quite impressive combat moves. He liked the way how politely the other man was talking to God’s newest creations (especially the animals), just like he really cared. And he absolutely adored the way the angel’s name rolled off his tongue. Aziraphale... The demon whispered it a couple of times just to listen to the melodic sound.

After seven days Crawly came to the conclusion, that the angel of the Eastern Gate wasn't a threat or dangerous at all, only confirming his initial impression. In fact, there was something tragically lonesome about him. It was almost like looking into a mirror, finding someone as isolated as yourself. No other angel came to talk to him, even God never answered his prayers. That situation felt strangely familiar. Crawly wanted to get closer to the other man straightway, literally craved for a conversation with every fibre of his body. If there was the slightest chance, that the blond angel could truly understand how he feels, that they both are broken in some way, maybe they could feel wholesome again by being together.

They barely knew each other, but as they started talking, it felt like they had known each other for far longer than just a minute. Aziraphale treated him as equal, even though Crawly had revealed his black wings, openly showing his demonic nature. There was no loathing, no rolling eyes, no distrust in the angel’s voice. It was ... odd. Something, Crawly had never experienced before.

So Crawly had stood frozen in indecision for what seemed like forever, thinking of the right way to approach, the right words to say. A feeling of nervousness overwhelmed him. The first impression counted, after all.

And the foremost thing that popped into his mind was, “That one went down like a lead balloon.”

Well. Could have been worse, right?

From up close he could study the other man’s face even better. His far too cute button nose and his ridiculously bright blue eyes, just to name but a few. It completely captured the demon. The way Aziraphale smiled, chuckled in a warm tone as Crawly mentioned their possible misstep, finally tipped him over the edge. It seized his chest with something deeper than admiration.

When raindrops started to pour at the very first time on earth, the demon gazed insultingly upon the sky. It felt cold and wet and absolutely annoying on his skin. The snake-like part inside of him immediately wanted to curl away and hide somewhere safe and warm. The other part clearly wanted to stay right next to Aziraphale, cautiously coming closer. Without a second thought or expecting any kind of counter-performance, the blond man stretched his impressive white wing to shield Crawly.

And that was when the demon had fallen for the angel completely.

Crawly knew on the spur of the moment that he had met the kindest person in his godforsaken life. Cheesy but true. He remembered clearly what Heaven was like. Not as nice as everyone thought it would be, though. On the one hand, he was bored stiff all the time. No temptations or decent drinks, for instance. But worst of all were the conceited archangels and their stupid duties and expectations they placed on every low-ranking angel.

Curiosity and self-determination were two words that simply didn’t appear in Heaven’s vocabulary. As well as ‘Thank you for your hard work’ or ‘We really appreciated that you’ve done this whole crap without questioning it in the first place’ or just a simple ‘Your last nebula was mind-blowing, you incredibly talented angel’.

It’s not that Crawly was demanding or so. Really! But for some kind words you’d wait in vain.

To be fair and square, in Hell they won’t offer you cookies either (Crawly really tried to convince his fellow demons to put more effort into the right acquisition, but incomprehensibly it never fell on understanding ears). Demons don’t trust each other, they don’t even have a single feeling for one another except suspicion. You certainly don’t make friends in Hell. It is a place full of loneliness.

Aziraphale was the first person who ever cared about Crawly at all, noticing things no one noticed, really looking at him and not at the demonic shell. A pure angel as people believe angels should be, with kind and untainted affection. And that was truly something remarkable, because after six thousand years with a troublemaker like him, a demon, his hereditary enemy, Aziraphale never stopped caring.

Read the rest of the chapter here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29945739

#good omens #good omens fanart #good omens fanfiction #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable partners #ineffable husbands

[kakairu-rocks]

We are excited to introduce our next shining star for the Creator Spotlight… @rocketpunchhh​!

This is a member’s only activity where we reach out to one of the talented people in our community each month to find out all about them and their kakairu creations, and then show them off to the world!

We hope you enjoy learning about Ciça & her creations as much as we did. Please give her some love ❤️

Pronouns: She/ Her

Type of Creator: Artist

Where to find her:

Tumblr

Twitter

AO3

Read the exciting interview below the cut, or on the forum!

If you would like a chance to be in the spotlight too, the only thing you have to do is be a member of the kakairu rocks forum, and be a creator; and we will contact you, ourselves!

1. How long have you been creating KakaIru fanworks?

For around 9 months now. Which makes no sense, because I’ve been shipping them for SO LONG, but I used to be a fandom lurker only. Then the pandemic came around, I started binge watching Naruto again and my otp called to me, like a siren call or something. Not sure why it took me this long to actually draw them, but I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

2. What are you working on right now?

I’m working on a small comic for halloween and also on some collabs with friends.

3. What is your favourite trope to create for?

I’m an absolute sucker for found family, and also a firm believer that Kakashi and Iruka are both disaster idiots (as artsies once said, I believe they are a dumpster fire and a dumpster fire that is marginally better disguised), so I guess those two mixed are my favourite tropes to draw for.

4. Which of your creations is your favourite, and why?

The drawings I did for Bring Dog Treats, my Kakairu Big Bang 2021 piece with my partner in crime kageillusionz. They’re my favourite because not only did I have so much fun working on them with Kage, but they were my first “big art project” after I was forced to quit art for some years for health related reasons. So they are very special to me!

5. Do you have any WIPs you’re excited about?

Excited for the collabs I’m doing with friends, I hope you enjoy those when they come around!

6. Do you have any original characters? If so, tell us about them!

I have some original characters with friends from the good old tegaki-e days. It was this online drawing board where there were several different roleplay groups people could join in with an original character, and it was very fun to draw out all our ideas together. The end result was like a comic made by several people. As per my usual stuff, it was all more to the silly side.

7. What was your hardest piece to create, and why?

Probably this drawing I did for Laz for the Umino Hours server 90 minutes to gift event. I guess all of my 90 minutes to gift were the trickiest to create because I had to rush to finish but I still wanted it to be something that would be nice enough to gift to someone. I usually play around a lot with colours and ideas before I decide on something, so not having as much time for that made it very challenging for me.

8. Do you have any favourite scenes from something you’ve created?

I love the dumbass daydreaming duo I did for kageillusionz. (here and here).They both look so stupid, I remember having a lot of fun as I tried to make it as over the top shoujo as I could.

9. Where does your inspiration come from?

Mainly from random conversations and jokes with friends. We’re always making up new scenarios and that always inspires me to draw. Also memes, I’ve done so many meme redraws, especially the brazilian ones. Twitter is usually where I’ll post these. If I see a stupid idea, you can be sure I’ll draw it, even if I’m the only one who will enjoy it. I’m a very self-indulgent artist.

10. Which of your creations is the most meaningful to you, and why?

Oh I accidentally answered this already, didn’t I? As I mentioned before, all the Kakairu Big Bang 2021 drawings mean a lot to me, but also this fanart of Iruka I made for Callaina’s fic So Golden. This was the first time in years that I got to sit down to draw and make a finished, more polished drawing that wasn’t a quick sketch. I always look fondly at it, it was a big milestone for me.

#creator spotlight #kakairu.rocks #creator interview #talented creator #kakairu fanart #kakairu #kkir #kakashi x iruka #hatake kakashi #umino iruka

[almightyhamslice]

Some more painted sketchwork today, this time featuring my character, Lavender! She’s mostly the same as last time, except I made her horns bigger because I thought it’d look cool. Here she is showing off her effect, Puppet Hand, to detach and levitate parts of her body. She finds that the most useful parts to detach are her head and hands.

This image is actually a redraw of some very old pen drawings of Lavender I made years ago. Probably somewhere between late 2017 and early 2018, judging by my style at the time (and also how I clearly didn’t use construction shapes and just went straight into lineart)... It’s pretty bad LOL but hey, for posterity’s sake (and for comparison) here’s how the original looked!

As you can see, old Lavender looks quite different. This is partially because of her actual design being altered this year, but also partially because I drew this image of her from memory. See, Lavender was always meant to have a long tail and horns on her head, but I think I just forgot them in the bottom half of image. Somehow. The horns are missing on all of the sketches though. That’s actually kinda why I changed her to have a nose horn in her current iteration, because it’s more distinctive that way! If you’re familiar with the other characters under my BSA/Benny’s Strange Adventures tag, you may remember Lola, who has similar ear and horn shapes. That’s also why I changed Lavender’s teeth, to give her a more unique look.

The image above thee sketches I referenced for this piece is actually another image I redrew later! You can find the redrawn version of it HERE or by going under the Lavender tag on my blog. Adolpha, who features in the other drawing, was also drawn (quite poorly) from memory. She kind of looks like a moomin, if I’ll be honest (I’ve never watched moomins). Moral of the story is... don’t draw things from memory if your memory was never that good to begin with. Use references because otherwise you’ll miss important details!! Or I will, anyways. 

#im sorry if this was a textwall lmao #BSA #Benny's Strange Adventures #Lavender #Ourasozo #OC #Rodonoid #art #digital art #digital sketch #painted sketch #traditional art #old art #redraw #pen art #Adolpha

[shiroolynn]

Okayy so today I went through my old drawings, which I made mostly when I was like 10-14. I used to draw a lot, some say I was talented. My father used to draw when he was younger and was quite good, most possibly I got this skill from him. ( Beside all the other personality traits for example being stubborn, which is why we fight quite a lot with each other lol he says his opinion, I say mine, we can’t change each other’s opinion on something so it’s always a never ending fight jshsjf anyway ) SO I thought I would share some of it with y’all because there are some quite hilarious ones and some actually good ones.

I will start with the not so bad ones and I leave the worst ones at the end. So as you can see, I liked wolves since I was a child and what I liked, I drew. A lot. And by a lot I mean A LOT. For some reason I had this weird thing that I wrote what I drew with big f-ing letters above/next to/under the figure so in this case WOLVES just in case you didn’t notice the 4 wolves already. (I did this drawing in 2011. I was 11 years old )

I am still shocked by this huge 2 page drawing to be honest lmao. I did this when I was 10 years old !!! Wtf. Also I was in my horse phase most likely when I made this. Maybe. I am not sure but there are a few horses there which made me think that.

Self portrait thingy. There’s no date on it but as I remember I made this around late 2017, so I was 18. I took a picture of myself in Trondheim when I was in COC in September. I believe I did this for art class in school.

The Discobolus of Myron. I can’t explain but I always liked this sculpture. The form of it. Idk I just like it jsdhsk I wanna redraw this in the next days, I’m really curious how well can I manage, it’s been a while. (2010.11. the date when I drew, I was 11 years old.)

Ok here comes the fun stuff!! Skateboarding and roller skating elephants. Heck Yeahh!!!! AND !! Safety first. Look at them how safe they are. Name one safety equipment. Anything. These elephants got it. Very cool.

My name is not Virág.

My name is 🔥🐲VIRÁG🐲🔥

I wasn’t really a girly girl as you can tell.

This one has to be my favorite AHAHAHAHAAA

We had a hamster. We called him Höri. Höri unfortunately passed away 3 days before Easter. Being a child, me and my sister were absolutely devastated and cried like crazy because we lost our dearly loved pet. So to tribute Höri, I made a drawing of him and wrote a huge ass text there :

HÖRI DIED 2009 3 DAYS BEFORE EASTER

As I mentioned what/who I liked I draw. Well, this one is not really a drawing, more like a funky style of writing his name. I got into ski jumping in late 2010 and one of my first favorites was Adam Małysz. The flying mustache :,)

Don’t ask why I wrote LOL and XD there I have no ideaaa

aaaand hopefully I predicted my own future by drawing I am still flying high over 120 m. I mean c’mon, two people signed it. Me and my mom. This has to become true. Just to be clear towards anyone I wrote there : Virág (me)

I hope you enjoyed this long ass post just a little bit, I had fun for sure jshsgs This is just a very little piece of my early drawings. I have much more when I got older as well. Idk fun fact about me I guess??? Good evening everyone

#I dunno what to write in the tags #drawing #?? #Höri dead #3 days before Easter #ski jumping #good evening #fun fact #let me know if you want more #it’s off season I have time #jshshs #oh actually I have some drawings of a few ski jumpers #they are not so great but if u want I can share them

[boymeetsweevil]

in your court

Grouping: Reader x B-ball player!Jaehyun (feat. BFF!Hyuck)

Word Count: ~10.8k

Warnings/Themes: Two idiots in love, oc is scary when mad, hyuck is crafty always, jae is a bit intense but he’s just trying his best, gratuitous descriptions of dimples, a kiss!!! sfw!

Prompt: “awkward!oc with his basketball teammate jaehyun. Honestly anything with bff!haechan.”

“Make sure you don’t make it look shaky.”

Donghyuck puts the phone camera close to his face so he can better see your handiwork through the video call. He looks a bit like a fish, but you can’t see him because you’re focused on the mirror in front of you.

“Remind me why I’m being forced to do this?”

“Because I’m your best friend and I deserve a sign just as much as Jisung and Johnny.”

You have to stop yourself from rolling your eyes so you don’t mess up the number 14 you’re drawing carefully onto your cheek in eyeliner. Although you hate to see good makeup go to waste, you’re trying to be a better friend while also trying not to accidentally write the number backwards. It’s Donghyuck’s new number this season and he begged you to show some team spirit despite the fact that you normally mix with sports the same way oil mixes with water. The last time you showed up at practice was the first day of the season and you fell from the third courtside bleacher after Donghyuck called you over to introduce you to a cute new walk-on team member. If anything, just being around sports is dangerous for you.

A minute later, you sneeze while holding the pencil and draw a huge line straight through all your hard work. Donghyuck literally screams and you hang up the call to focus. When you finally finish redrawing on the side of your face, there’s half an hour left before the first home game of the spring season starts. You grab the matching construction paper sign you made earlier, complete with a huge gold glitter 14, and head out the door.  Taeyong is supposed to pick you up so you can make it to the gym on time. He’s the only other friend you have who is remotely associated with sports and that’s only because he’s dating one of the players, Doyoung.

The ticket Donghyuck gave you days ago places you near the court’s side with a near-perfect view. You settle in and wait for the game to begin. The team is already out on half of the court, doing some light warmup tosses and making the occasional mean eye at the visiting team practicing on the other half. You catch your best friend’s eye and he lights up when he sees the sign and eyeliner drawing.

“Check me out, Hyuck!” 

You turn to give him a full view of your profile, subtly proud of your skills.

“Look at you,” he drawls as he jogs over to you, “You know, I think this is the best your eyeliner has ever looked.”

“God, you’re so annoying.” 

You try your best to cast an elbow at him without disturbing the still slightly wet glitter on the sign. When you nearly take out the old man sitting directly in front of you, you settle for flipping him off.

“Wait,” Taeyong peers at the sign, “Aren’t you—”

“I think Doyoung said he was looking for you. Something about wanting a good luck kiss.”

Taeyong narrows his eyes but still stands up to go look for said boyfriend. Doyoung’s not the nervous type, but he’s also not the type to say no to some pre-game affection. You watch Taeyong disappear towards the locker room while Donghyuck steps over some of the fans already seated and takes the now open spot next to you.

“Hey,” he says with no trace of humor in his voice any longer. “Promise you’ll still be my friend after this game?”

You place the sign on your lap and turn to look at your friend. Lately the coach has been pushing him harder and you suppose it’s starting to wear down his usual confidence. With the hand that’s not covered in little golden glitter flecks, you reach down to rub his shoulder.

“Of course I will, Hyuck. And even if you guys don’t win tonight, I’m still taking you to get food after. My treat.”

It was supposed to be a rare moment of sincere friendliness. But this seems to distress him further because he looks down at your hand on his arm and then groans before covering his face in his hands. You’re confused but you don’t have any time to ask him what’s up. A few of his teammates walk over then.

“Sorry to break up the love fest, but Coach wants us to do some stretches before the whistle,” team captain Johnny says, gesturing to the other side of the gym where some other players are already contorting themselves. 

Behind Johnny stands that new walk-on. The one you fell on your face in front of. He takes in your temporary face tattoo and overly detailed sign and smirks, allowing a dimple to wink at you. You can only hope to every deity in the universe that he doesn’t remember the way you first met.

“Hey,” he smiles good-naturedly. “Glad to see you made it here in one piece.” 

“Thank you,” you say with way too much sincerity.

It’s enough to knock Donghyuck out of his bad mood and make him snort loudly beside you. The new guy smiles a bit wider, revealing a twin dimple. You look away.

“Don’t get too friendly, Jung,” Donghyuck says with fake menace in his voice. “There’s only room for one Dream Team member in her life, and that’s me.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you guys were—”

“We’re just friends,” you blurt out before looking down at the fascinating liver spots on the old man’s head in front of you.

“Yeah, she wishes.”

“I definitely don’t,” you snap.

He sticks his tongue out at you. “Well, I’m glad you don’t.” 

“Guys, come on!” Johnny calls a moment before the coach’s whistle blows to give a final warning.

As they walk over to the side of the gym you curse yourself for acting so weird in front of that Jung kid. If he didn’t think you were a dope when you tripped over nothing the first time you met, you’re certain he thinks you have the charms of a 13 year-old boy by now. The only thing that snaps you out of it is the fact that Donghyuck is in a time of distress and clearly needs his friend. 

With squared shoulders and a new sense of duty, you try your hardest to be the world’s best cheerleader. You’re not really sure how sports work, basketball included. The game itself turns out to be really fun. Even though you’re not quite sure what’s happening. Taeyong sends you a text with a picture of your own mildly confused face contorted into a pout as you raise your handmade sign a moment too late, after everyone has already sat back down. But eventually you figure it out after enough times of standing when people around you wearing school colors stand up first. You know enough to cheer every time Donghyuck takes the ball to the basket and boo loudly every time he gets knocked down or his shot misses. In fact, you get so into it that you catch yourself cheering for other players. You even make the mistake of cheering once for new kid Jung but immediately stop when he catches a glimpse of you in the stands and shoots you a beaming smile. 

They win by a small margin, thanks to a 3 pointer Johnny shot in the first half of the game. By the time that happens, you feel like you have a good feel for the game. You don’t have to wait for the other fans from your school to stand up when the last buzzer rings, and you instinctively run out onto the court with the rest of them as the final score settles. There’s adrenaline and joy pushing you into Donghyuck’s arms. He’s genuinely surprised but welcomes the greeting, spinning you lightly while he laughs.

“Congrats on the first win of the season,” you shout when you finally pull back. He lets you squish his cheeks in excitement. Doyoung ambles over then, looking for Taeyong. You offer him congratulations as well.

“Thanks,” he smirks a bit as he takes in your large sign and the slightly smudged 14 on your cheek. “Shouldn’t Jaehyun be the first to hear it, though?”

You raise a confused brow.

“Shouldn’t I be the first to hear what?”

You can’t help the way you stumble back against Donghyuck at the deep sound of Jung—no— Jaehyun’s voice. He looks pleased. Probably with the outcome of their first game.

“I was just saying you should get the first ‘congrats’,” Doyoung explains, nodding in your direction. Jaehyun blinks, but takes it in stride.

“I’d be glad to receive it,” he says with a grin. His dimples pop out even more than usual under the sheen of sweat and the glow from the fluorescents. “So, what’d you think? How’d I do?”

You have no idea why but your heart is beating like it’ll fly out of your chest. It takes everything in you to muster up a cool and natural response.

“You throw good.”

Donghyuck, the traitor that he is, gets sent into a cackling fit. If you listen carefully, between the gasps for air and the hyena-pitched giggles you can hear him calling you a dork. You’d turn to yell at him, but he’s right. Doyoung barely covers up his own laughter while leaning on Donghyuck’s shoulder to try to disguise the sound as a series of coughs. But Jaehyun merely smiles down at his shoes as if he’s somehow moved by your clunky words.

“Sorry,” you mumble.

“No, I feel like I did well today thanks to your little sign.”

“The sign? Oh. Actually, this is for—” 

In that moment you realize two things. The first is that Jaehyun’s jersey has a big 14 emblazoned on the front of it. Just like the one you spent 10 whole minutes drawing onto your right cheek. And the one you spent 2 hours glittering the night before. The second is that you aren’t nearly as observant as you thought you were. Then you realize a third thing: Donghyuck is slowly creeping away from you as it all clicks together in your head.

When you turn to face your friend, the color has already drained out of his neck. He can see the wheels turning in your head and he raises his hands in a placating gesture, but you cut him off before he can even start. Grabbing at his jersey you make him turn around until you can see the white number 6 emblazoned on the fabric. It’s the same number he had last season, and the season before that.

“Just to clarify,” you begin with an unsettlingly calm voice, “When you asked me earlier if I would still be your friend after the game, you were talking about this, right?”

Donghyuck’s eyes go wide and dart around anywhere but your face. “You know what? I think you’re thinking of my brother, Hyongduck. We look a lot alike, so it’s an honest mistake.”

The coach calling him over in that moment is the only thing that keeps you from eviscerating him on the court with so many witnesses. You let him go, but not without him having to un-pry your fingers from his jersey. Jaehyun watches on with amusement in his eyes and you remember that he saw you nearly Hulk out on your friend.

“So, you actually didn’t know my number was 14?”

You shake your head, “I thought it was Hyuck’s.”

“I see.”

He tilts his head again, with eyes narrowed he looks you over before looking past you to where Donghyuck has finally made it to locker room safety.

“Well,” he fiddles with the chain around his neck, “I’m kind of sad the sign isn’t actually mine.”

“Oh. I mean, you can keep it if you want.”

Jaehyun’s head ducks down a second time, shaking his head at the ground like he heard something funny that you couldn’t hear. He does take the sign out of your hands though. With slow hands, he wraps the construction paper up until all the remaining glitter is safely tucked away.

“What about that one?”

“What do you mean?”

He points at his own cheek to mirror yours. You had forgotten all about the 14 you drew on your face to go with the sign.

“I don’t—I don’t know if you can wrap this one up, you know” you laugh stiltedly.

“Yeah. But I could always take a bit for the road. May I?”

All you can do is let out an eloquent ‘huh’ before he’s reaching out then and swiping away at some of the eyeliner that had moved around during the game. The drag of the pad of his thumb across your cheek should be completely harmless. Donghyuck has been infinitely rougher with his handling of you; one of the privileges of close friendship. And yet it’s this soft touch that has your breath leaving you like he punched it out of you. You swear the corner of his mouth raises, but it could be a trick of the light.

“What are you doing after—”

“I gotta go, sorry. Good game,” you toss over your shoulder before pulling your phone up to your ear like you’re taking a sudden phone call. 

No one has to know that you spend the next few minutes dunking your head under one of the running faucets in an empty locker room to cool your heated face.

---

Nearly 20 minutes later, Donghyuck is tiptoeing out of the men’s locker room. He doesn’t notice the shadow waiting for him. When he deems the coast all clear, he opens up his messaging app and shoots you a text asking for your whereabouts.

“I’m right here.”

He jumps nearly 3 feet in the air before letting the scream that built in his throat turn into a whine. You’re just barely visible in the dark corner of the gym. If he squints you look a bit like his sleep paralysis demon.

“You scared me,” he says as he takes a step back only to hit a wall.

“Funny how that happens.”

You pull out your phone, stilling standing in the dark, and let the light from your phone cast eerie shadows across your face. Donghyuck gulps audibly as he watches you type slowly in response to his text. The sound of his phone notification moments later sounds deafening in the otherwise silent space.

You (21:39) - Run.

“Look, let’s talk this out like adults.” His hands come up, palms exposed like you’re a feral animal.

“I knew you weren’t number 14,” your voice is steady and devoid of emotion as you take a step towards him.

“Then you shouldn’t have fallen for it—shit. Wait!”

He trips in his haste to get away from you and falls. You foot lands dangerously close to his face as you come to stand in over him and he grimaces.

“Please don’t kill me, I’ll do anything.”

“Why did you tell me your number was Jaehyun’s number? Make it good and maybe I’ll let you live.”

“I just felt like it.”

“What the hell!”

“I’m serious.”

“Wrong answer, Hyuck.”

With that, you wriggle a foot free from one of your sneakers and shove your socked foot over his nose. You’ve been wearing the shoes all day and, because you forgot to do laundry the night before, the socks are recycled. The sound of Donghyuck’s cries for help make you slightly better and you smile softly to yourself.

You would think that Donghyuck would have learned his lesson about not causing chaos in your life after a face-full of foot. But you should know that it’s practically his job description after knowing him for as long as you have. Sometimes you love that about him and sometimes you kind of hate him for it. This time, you hate him for it. 

Donghyuck prefaces the outing as a way of apologizing for tricking you. Normally you would have been slightly more critical. The first thing to tip you off should have been the fact the “apology" in question was coming almost two and a half weeks after the fateful jersey swap accident. The second thing should have been that the “apology” was coming in the form of a trip to a very specific tea house you don’t frequent because you’re not a tea person. And Donghyuck knows this. Because he knows everything else about you. Like which sweatpants you wear when you’re feeling bloated or when you just need a hug. But mainly you should have known something was up because it was Donghyuck. When he feels like he should do something, there’s no stopping him.

“What do you want to order,” he asks while holding the front door open for you to pass through. 

“A smoothie.”

“It’s a damn tea house, order something normal.”

“A smoothie is normal.”

“Do you order hot dogs at seafood restaurants too,” he pins you with a tired glare. You mirror the glare and add crossed arms.

“If they don’t have a smoothie, then I don’t want anything.”

You take a look around at the interior of the shop. It’s the polar opposite of the shops you usually frequent, which are all trendy with their mixes of dark, unfinished woodwork and sleek minimalist furniture. This place is almost cottage-like in the ornateness of the older architecture and the collection of kitschy antique pieces. You’re not surprised to see that a good deal of the patrons are older, some verging on elderly. There’s only a handful of people who look like they could be your peers. One of them looks oddly familiar. You can’t put your finger on it, but there’s something familiar about the way he stands and the delicate gold links laying across the back of his neck.

“Jaehyun,” Donghyuck calls a bit too excitedly, “Hey, man is that you? What are you doing here”

“You told me to meet you—” Donghyuck cuts him off with a dramatic gasp and a glance at his bare wrist.

“Aw, would you look at the time. I actually have somewhere to be right now, so I can’t stick around.”

“But you drove us here,” you whip your head around to look at him, but he coughs suddenly and looks away.

“Yeah, sorry. No time to drop you back off at your place, so I guess you have to figure that out yourself. Jae drives though. Maybe you can figure something out.”

Neither of you really know what to say. You watch silently with your mouth open in disbelief as Donghyuck turns on his heel and struts out of the tea shop exit, whistling contentedly. You suppose that if you’re the god of chaos reincarnated, all of this would feel like a good day’s work. You berate yourself for recently washing your socks.

“Good to see you again,” Jaehyun says after a beat. He shoves his hands into his pockets. “Thought I had scared you off after...yeah.”

“Oh, right. That.”

The air feels both too thick and too thin at the same time. You want to leave, every fiber of your being is screaming at you to leave before you do something weird in front of him again. But you can’t move. So you stand there, 3 feet away and not saying anything as Jaehyun looks over the large chalkboard menu hanging above the head of the older woman who is manning the front counter.

“What are you getting?”

“Me? Uh, I don’t know. I’m not really a tea person.”

“Well, what kind of person are you?”

Given the context, it’s a harmless question. But there’s a sing-songy lilt to the way he asks the question. It’s so blatant that curiosity gets the best of you and you stop purposefully avoiding looking at him. One of his dimples is out and he’s very nearly poking the tip of his tongue out at you, like he knows you’re suffering and he thinks it's funny. Almost like he’s flirting. Almost.

“I’m a smoothie person,” you finally say. “But there’s no smoothies on the menu.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“But doesn’t it say ‘no customizations’?” 

There’s a sign on the edge of the counter that says just that. Despite the fact that it’s written in beautiful, looping cursive, there’s an ominous tone to the message. Like the little old lady behind the counter might actually make you into tea if you asked for a frappe or something. You’re a little worried for Jaehyun’s safety. He must sense some sort of hesitance because he brushes it off and gestures toward the rest of the shop.

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll take care of it, you can go grab us a table.”

The way he says ‘us’ so casually has you tripping slightly over nothing. He’s somehow there in the nick of time to grab at your elbow in a gentlemanly fashion to help steady you. Perhaps you yank yourself out of his proximity a little too quickly. But it’s only because you really want to find a good table and you can’t do that if Jaehyun is distracting you by grabbing at your limbs. 

In actuality, though, the tea shop is fairly vacant. There are a variety of tables with pressed white tablecloths and dainty tiered tea trays housing pastries. You pick one at random and sit down. Part of you really does wish you’d left when Donghyuck did. But the other part is curious to see what Jaehyun’s like when he’s away from his team and truly outside the context you usually find him in. So you compromise and watch as subtly as you can.

He seems fairly similar—all charming smiles and pretty hair while approaching the counter to talk with the lady you assume is the owner of the shop. She looks stern as she polishes some dainty bone china, but brightens when he comes to the counter. You watch in quiet awe as she reaches a hand up to pat fondly at the side of his face, most likely pinching a cheek from the angle you’re sitting at. You see him run a hand over the back of his neck which grows red after he says something to her that she must not like. Her brow grows heavy and her lips purse but he says something else then that has her directing her sharp gaze at you. You gulp and pretend you were merely admiring the tea sandwich tray on the table as opposed to spying. A wave of sudden embarrassment comes over you and you open up your phone to text Donghyuck

You (15:38) - this is a shit apology just so u know

You (15:38) - come get me plz

Hyuck (15:40) - sorry suddenly cant read dont know what that says :)

You place your phone face down onto the table and cross your arms with a huff. While trying to plan an escape that makes you look the least asshole-y possible, Jaehyun returns with the drinks. More specifically, he returns with a tall water glass in one hand that’s filled with a pale tea with fruit chunks and mint leaves sprinkled throughout. The other hand is encased in a floral appliqué oven mitt that holds the prettiest squat little teapot you’ve ever seen. It’s blue, so it doesn’t match the pastel green teacups organized on the tablecloth, but it’s still a lovely sight.

“What’s this,” you stir at the fruit in the glass with an elegant teaspoon.

“It’s a chilled fruit tea,” he explains while casually pouring himself a steaming cup of black tea. “I tried my hardest with Mrs. Li, but there was no way I was gonna get you a smoothie. This is the closest thing I could get.”

“You really didn’t have to go to all that trouble. I would have been fine with just a water. I don’t want to get you in trouble with the owner.”

“Don’t worry. I think my reputation is fine for now.”

It’s weirdly fascinating to watch him fix up his tea. As a member of a basketball team, you would have never thought he’d be a tea drinker. Let alone a tea drinker who takes heaping spoonfuls of sugar to go with a tiny splash of milk in his tea. He hums a little to himself as he stirs it all with a silver spoon that’s been crafted to look like roses are growing up the stem. When he looks up a moment later, he catches you staring at him. His eyes crinkle and they look like they did when he looked at you after shooting a 3 at the latest home game, full of quiet joy. Both then and now you’re not sure what the smile means or why it seems to be for you. You look down and realize his lips are moving.

“What?”

He chuckles at how far away you sound. “I said ‘how’s the tea?’”

“Oh, uh, I don’t know yet. I got distracted. I was...thinking.”

“Mhm.” There’s smugness practically oozing out of his thoughtful hum.

You take a sip to appease him and frantically search for something to say that won’t make it obvious that you aren’t a fan of tea, but then you stop yourself. It’s no smoothie, but it really is the next best thing. The tea is cold like a smoothie, providing the same reprieve from the sticky heat of Spring. The tea with all its macerated berries and mint leaves is sweet and thick much like a smoothie.

“This is amazing,” you peer down at the cup like you’re not sure where half the glass went.

A light weight lands on your shoulder then. “That’s very kind of you, dear. High praise coming from a non-tea-drinker.”

It takes a lot of effort not to scream and even then your eyes open comically wide and you jump in your seat. Jaehyun has to disguise his laughter at your reaction by turning away in his seat as you turn in yours to face the old lady who was at the counter.

“I’m sorry for any trouble you went to so you could make this, Mrs. Li, Ma’am. I told Jaehyun that I wanted a smoothie and he was just trying to make me feel comfortable.”

“Oh, I know. Jaehyun’s been coming to the shop since I opened it, so he should know all about my ban on requests.” Mrs. Li eyes Jaehyun as he takes an innocent sip of his tea. “He’s always been courteous about it, so I thought he must have a darn good reason for breaking my rule this time.”

Jaehyun’s hand slips while pouring a second cup, but he doesn’t say anything as Mrs. Li continues to expose him. 

“Now, that reminds me. Jaehyun, my boy, I’m sorry to tell you that Kevin won’t be coming to his sessions this week. He has a dentist appointment and it can’t be helped,” she sighs and waves her hands.

“That’s alright. As long as he practices a little every day he should be in good shape and we can pick up right where we stopped.”

She nods and for a moment the serious expression on her face morphs into something softer. Patting the back of his chair, she looks over the table and then at you.

“Alright. I hope everything is to your liking, but if something does come up do feel free to tell Jaehyun. He’s a very capable young man and he knows the shop like the back of his hand. I’d better get back to work now. The silver won’t polish itself.”

You wait a few beats to be respectful, but as soon as Mrs. Li returns to her post behind the counter you gulp down the rest of your tea and lean in. 

“Who’s Kevin?”

“Her 9 year old grandson. I teach him and his younger brother piano on the weekends.”

“Oh, that’s—that’s nice,” you nod coolly. At least, you hope it appears cool. Internally you’re scrambling.

Of course your best friend’s basketball teammate teaches piano to young kids. Of course he helps the elderly tea shop lady with her store. Of course he drinks sweet tea out of blue floral teacups. Of course.

He’s finally ready to go after a third cup. You’re not sure where he’s putting it all, but it seems to be a regular occurrence for him. He takes your glass from you before you can argue about your own ability to do it and walks back over to the counter. Now more than ever you wish you could read lips. He goes around the counter to wash the glass in the farmer’s sink in the back and then stops briefly to say something to Mrs. Li. She says something back with a smile that has his cheeks flaming. He leaves a bill on the counter and comes back mumbling about his tea being too hot when you stare at his face. You’re not sure how true that is given how fast he downed those cups.

When you emerge from the tea shop, the sun is shining from a different angle and the temperature has mellowed out.

“My car is a few blocks that way,” he points in the direction of the parking lot nearby. 

“You don’t have to—”

“I want to.” Even with his soft tone, his voice is firm and you don’t try to fight him on it.

But it’s strange walking with Jaehyun silently. It feels entirely too companionable despite the fact that you don’t even know him. 

“Do you...want to play 20 questions?”

He stops in his tracks, clearly not expecting you to talk without him coaxing you out of your shell. But after the initial shock fades, he nods.

“What’s your favorite color?”

“White,” he says immediately. “What’s your major?”

“Studio art. Do you play other sports?”

“Nah. Is Donghyuck your best friend?”

“Yeah, Hyuck’s my best friend.”

“Is he...protective?”

“Protective? Of what?”

“You, I guess.”

“Hyuck?” You let out a snort because the thought is just hilarious. “On the right day I’m pretty sure he’d sell me to Satan for a fresh order of sweet potato fries.”

“I see,” he purses his lips like he’s in deep thought before returning back to the present moments later. “You get two since I asked two.”

“Do you like it here, now that it’s been a while since you transferred?”

“Yeah,” he looks you in the eyes. “I like it here.”

You swallow a bit too audibly but power through and keep asking questions. It takes nearly half an hour to walk the two and a half blocks leading to the parking lot. Even after that, Jaehyun takes a scenic route back to the main campus. When he pulls up outside your dorm, you’re not sure what to say, but it feels like something should be said. The sun is near setting and he’s haloed by the dying rays as he leans on the steering wheel to make sure you make it inside.

After giving a little awkward nod, you drag yourself out of the cabin of his car. There’s only a few steps left until you reach the door when he calls out. You turn.

“So,” he trails off, drumming his hands on the steering wheel before adjusting the mirror even though he’s in park and no one is coming. “Donghyuck has, like, a million fans.”

“What?”

“I just mean that he’s been on the team for years, he has a fan base. But I’m just a transfer student, so I don’t have that. And, you know, it’s really nice to have someone to cheer for you.” He tests the waters and looks at you hesitantly before continuing. “I still have your poster.”

All you can do is blink as you realize what’s going on. Or, you think you know what’s going on. And it makes zero sense to you, but you have a habit of overthinking things anyway. You kick at a pebble near the toe of your shoe, taking some time to muster up the courage to be presumptuous in a way you’re not used to.

“I can...I can make you another sign. If you want. Or like wear your number.” He grins and in that moment it seems to outshine the fading sun. “So you don’t feel left out.”

“I’d like that.” He starts the car up then, still grinning as he looks down to shift gears and adjust all his mirrors yet again. “Tell Hyuck he doesn’t need to set aside tickets anymore.”

“Okay,” is your witty reply before turning once more with a too warm face.

He waves at your retreating back before putting the car into drive.

Everyone on the team knows that every once in a while Donghyuck likes to come to practice a lot earlier than is probably normal. It’s not strange to come in when there’s 30, 40, even 50 minutes before practice starts and find him practicing footwork or doing layups on the court alone. 

Jaehyun hedges a guess that he’ll find Donghyuck in the gym a good hour before practice starts one day and is pleased to find that his intuition was correct. There’s music blasting from a portable speaker and Donghyuck is doing some of the drills the coach likes to run, but done with his non-dominant hand.

When the ball rolls to a stop and Donghyuck moves to get some water, Jaehyun announces himself.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” 

“You quitting already?”

“Not yet,” Donghyuck takes in the serious set of Jaehyun’s jaw and shoulders. “We can do a 1-on-1. If you’re up for it.”

Jaehyun nods and sheds his outer layers on the sidelines. Donghyck wonders if he’s angry about something, perhaps that about practice a few days ago where he went a little too hard on Jaehyun and bashed his cheek with an elbow during a scrimmage. He braces himself for some incoming aggression, knowing he may deserve it a little.

They settle for leaving the ball on the ground in the paint since the equipment cabinet is still locked until the coach arrives. Both of them sprint from the freethrow line, with Jaehyun grabbing the ball first. Donghyuck moves into defense easily, having been in game mode for who knows how long. Jaehyun isn’t nearly as tough in his offense as Donghyck expected. In fact, he’s playing surprisingly light.

“What’s up with you,” Donghyuck says after the first basket.

Jaehyun catches the ball after it falls from the basket, jogging it back to the starting position. Donghyuck waits for him back at the freethrow line, brows raised but otherwise silent.

“Nothing’s up. Nothing big, I mean.”

“You’re a pretty bad liar.”

The words catch Jaehyun by surprise and he stumbles a bit coming off the line. Donghyuck uses the momentary shock to his advantage and steals the ball. The point comes easy as he basically runs a circle around his competitor.

“Since I won that point, why don’t you tell me what’s really bothering you?”

Donghyuck doesn’t bother going back to the freethrow line and instead goes back to dribbling practice. His rhythm is slow with his off hand, but steady. Better than Jaehyun’s with his off hand.

“Do you believe in bro code?”

Donghyuck snorts. “I guess. You’re not gonna ask me for my mom’s phone number, are you?”

“No. Not your mom’s,” Jaehyun trails off.

Instantly Donghyuck knows what this is about. Or who. Your face flashes in his mind and he has to bite his own cheek to keep from laughing. Being your best friend gives him exclusive access to just how awkward you can be. But the fact that Jaehyun resorted to all this buildup is kind of hilarious.

“Aw, you guys are cute.”

“What?” Jaehyun’s cheeks grow pink. “Why is this cute?” 

“Look, you don’t need to ask me first or do whatever this is. I’m not her keeper. And I’m not gonna sabotage you, either.” Jaehyun’s shoulders lose some of their squared off edge.

“Okay,” he nods. “Thanks, man.”

“I could use a favor, though.”

“Oh. What is it?”

“I have a meeting with Coach after practice today. But I also really need to pick something up at the stationery store before tomorrow. Can you go pick it up for me?”

“Sure, I guess.”

“Cool. I’ll text you the details later.”

---

Jaehyun arrives at the stationery store with his phone in hand. The note from Donghyuck mentions some special set of paints with a foreign-sounding name. As he walks through the aisles of the little store, Jaehyun wonders who the paints are for. The note also mentioned that they were a gift for someone, but it doesn’t say who the someone is.

It takes a few laps around the store, and by the time he spots the little nook for the brand, the store owner's voice had already sounded through the overhead speakers to say that the shop would be closing soon. He grabs the last box left and quietly rejoices. Donghyuck had bartered your number for the price of running the errand. If Jaehyun could get the paints, then he could get the number. The odd part was that Donghyuck had mentioned something about Jaehyun possibly not even needing to ask him for the number if he played his cards right. Originally he had shrugged the comment off, but it did raise the hairs on the back of his neck a bit. There’s something about Donghyuck that feels akin to a cartoon villain, but Jaehyun can’t put his finger on it.

“Checking out?”

“Yeah,” he hands the shop attendant the container of paints.

The attendant tries to scan the barcode, but a strange sound comes from the machine.

“I think something’s wrong with the barcode. If you can wait right here, I’ll go get another one to scan and give you that one instead.”

“Oh. That was actually the last one left.”

“I see.” The attendant presses some keys on the computer before nodding. “I think we should have a reference code in that backroom. I can go get that and punch it in manually if that’s okay.”

“If it’s not too much trouble, that would be great.”

The attendant assures him it’ll only be a moment before leaving the counter and disappearing into the back of the store. Jaehyun waits patiently while leaning on the counter when the bell to the front door of the shop rings. Another customer has come in right before closing, and the sound of their labored breathing makes it clear that they know they’re cutting it close. The footsteps fade out and then grow louder once more after a few minutes. He takes a glance over his shoulder to see you standing a little bit behind him.

“Oh. Hi. H-hey.”

“Hey, yourself.” Jaehyun turns completely and sets his phone on the counter. “What brings you here?”

“I’m just grabbing some paint. I ran out a few days ago and I have some big projects coming up.”

“That’s funny. I’m doing the same thing.”

“Do you paint,” your eyes grow a little bigger with the prospect. At the sight of your small smile, Jaehyun wishes he could paint for the first time ever.

“No, but I’d like to learn.” And it’s never been true before, but he means it in that moment.

“Well, I could—”

“Sorry for the delay,” the shop attendant comes jogging back from the backroom. “Another employee had the reference book, so I had to spend some time to hunt it down. But you should be all set now.”

Jaehyun sends an apologetic smile your way before turning back to finish checking out. Once he’s done, even though he’s on a tight schedule with this favor, he hangs back.

“—I’m sorry but we sold out of the Neo Color Technology paints. If you’d like, we can give you a call when the next shipment comes in, but there’s a two-week wait.”

“Ah, really? Okay.” 

You gnaw on the inside of your cheek as you think about what you’ll do now. The idea of continuing some of your projects with a new set of paints that could have a completely different set of hues makes you nervous. You just perfected the shade of green you needed at the base for your huge forest study. Now you’d have to start from scratch.

Jaehyun is trying his hardest not to eavesdrop, but the odd paint name catches his attention. It’s the same one he just bought, per Donghyuck’s request.

“You can have mine,” he blurts out. “I’m the one who bought the last ones. But I obviously don’t need them like you do.”

“Are you sure?”

“Please, take them.”

Jaehyun hands you the bag. The smile you offer him in return is brilliant.

“I’ll pay you back.”

“God, no. Don’t worry about it.”

“Then, let me buy you a tea or something at least.” You hand him your phone. “Here, put your number in and you can pick a day. I’ll pay.”

So Jaehyun takes your phone and inputs his number. A moment later he gets a text from you, clarifying that it’s you. He feels victorious for a moment and then confused. Here he is, getting your number without having to ask, just like Donghyuck himself had mentioned. He’s getting this number because he gave you, Donghyuck’s friend, some paints. Paints that Donghyuck asked him to buy, as a gift to a mysterious friend. 

Maybe Donghyuck is less like a villain and more like a twisted fairy godmother.  

This little dance you keep doing with Jaehyun is strange, to say the least. 

It felt odd to copy the number 14 onto your cheek for the first time knowing who it would really be for. And it felt weird to get so used to doing it that you can now copy the stencil in with practiced ease using the face paint you bought specifically for the occasion, no longer worrying about accidentally writing it backwards. All the while, you can barely make eye contact with him after a game, although you can practically feel the weight of his gaze when you make a beeline for Donghyuck after the last buzzer rings. And you can see the way his hand tugs at the gold chain around his neck as he approaches you cautiously. And you can hear the disappointment in his tone when he asks if you’re going to the house parties thrown by one of the players that typically follow the games only to hear you say no each time.

Another few weeks later finds you trying to make it through midterms. Donghyuck being a literature major means his midterms schedule is always different from yours. This time his midterms end much earlier, a few days earlier to be exact. You’re left to suffer through late night crunches to finish up paintings for one of your crits. Photoshopping some pieces for your digital art class leaves you so busy you don’t even register what’s going on around you.

“It’s my turn to host the post-game party,” he says after letting himself into your apartment one day. He drops the spare keyring reserved for him in the dish near the front door.

“Mhm.”

“But I feel like it would be a nice change to have it here.” When he makes a big show of dropping the takeout he brought you, you don’t even flinch at the sound of it hitting the table you’ve taken over.

“Sounds good,” is all you say as you try to find the one layer out of the 25 you had that you were looking for.

“Great, so I’ll probably stop by on Friday with stuff before the game to set up and then the team can just come through afterwards.”

“Sure.”

“Don’t hate me,” he places a kiss on the top of your head before wrinkling his nose when he smells your unwashed hair. “And don’t work yourself too hard, either.”

“Yeah...definitely.”

Friday comes by and you’re still working, so you have to skip the actual game itself. In the brief window of free time you had that morning, you wonder if you should text Jaehyun again so you can tell him you won’t be coming or bringing your little hand stenciled 14. But you decide against it. It’s a big game and he doesn’t need to be bogged down by unnecessary texts.

You’re actually away at your first crit when Donghyuck stops by again, this time with party supplies. When you come back, you barely register the mountain of beers and cheap wines sitting in your kitchen. All you want to do is sleep like the dead for a few hours. As you zombie walk to your room, you swear you hear him call to you to ask if he can store his balloons in the sink. With your last two brain cells you figure he must have said something else and you were just too tired to actually comprehend it.

Hours later, bass blaring through the thin walls of your place wakes you from your slumber. The details of your conversation with Donghyuck a few days prior come flooding back just as you pick up your pepper spray to drive out what you thought were home intruders. You leave your weapon behind and open your door just slightly. The music washes over you, louder now that the seal to your bedroom has been broken. 

There’s plenty of voices coming outside that accompany the music. Even a few errant screams make it inside and to your ears. Courtesy of Chenle, no doubt. A few more brave steps outside your room and a glance out of the hallway window lets you know that you didn’t mishear Donghyuck. You see several of the guys chucking water balloons at one another on the grass outside. The pile of little teardrop-shaped balloons is admirably large and it becomes clear that they’ll be doing this for a while.

You’re not in the mood to get soaked or get mosquito bites just so you can seem friendly. After all, the party is being hosted in your apartment complex. That’s friendly enough, you reason. Once you’ve done a quick sweep through the rest of the apartment to make sure nothing is stolen, stained, or broken, you return to your room to get ready for bed properly. It takes a while because you have to wash your hair on top of everything else after receiving a very strongly worded text from Donghyuck.

While in your bathroom, brushing your teeth and watching a video Taeyong sent you, there’s jumbled knocking on your door. Barely any time passes between the last knock and the creak of someone leaning on your door as they open it. You curse to yourself before spitting in the sink.

“Hey, the bathroom for guests is actually—”

Jaehyun stands in the middle of your room, squinting at the tapestry you have hanging over your bed. The sound of his teeth chattering despite it being the peak of Spring is actually alarming enough to stop you from being mad that Donghuck didn’t think to put a clear sign towards the bathroom for the general public.

“I always thought your room would have candles in it,” Jaehyun drawls. He looks around once more like he’s hoping a candle will jump out of a hiding spot. All his movements are slow and sleepy.

“Are you drunk?”

He grins with eyes that droop closed. “Yep.” 

“Great,” you mumble. When you take a step closer you realize the dark red sleeveless tank he’s wearing is actually dark from being saturated with water. “Why are you wet?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. We played water balloon tag. I lost the last round.”

Jaehyun places a clumsy finger to his lips and stage-whispers a loud “shh”. For some reason you mirror that back to him. He nods, satisfied with your reaction.

“Don’t tell the others, but I...” he hiccups “I got cold, so I came inside.”

“What’s wrong with telling them you’re cold.” He hangs his head in shame then. Clearly you’re missing something important.

“Hyuck says bad bitches never get cold.”

With his shoulders slumped forward in such a pitiful fashion, you actually feel bad for wanting to laugh. It’s surprising. Super surprising actually, considering Jaehyun’s presence in your room means Donghyuck forgot to do the one thing you ask of him when he hosts parties at your place—put clear signs for drunk people to follow to the guest bathroom. You usually don’t want to deal with drunk student athletes, but something about Jaehyun makes him exempt from that.

“You can warm up here.”

As soon as you say the words, you cringe. It sounds like the awful beginnings of a bad porno, but your intentions really are pure. There’s something too sad about watching him nearly doze off while standing up like a newborn colt. So you go and find the best hoodie that you have in your clean laundry and you risk going to the kitchen and getting hit with a runaway water balloon so you can put water on for tea. Hopefully it will warm him up while also sobering him up a little.

“Is this Hyuck’s shirt,” he asks as soon as you return with a steaming mug.

“Uh, I think so.” You take a moment to appraise the hoodie. “Yeah, it’s his. It’s from one of his basketball camps from when we were younger, I think.”

He purses his lips but gratefully takes the mug with swaying hands. After taking a large sip, he hums and lets his head loll back with a smile.

“This is Mrs. Li’s blend.”

“Yeah.” 

It doesn’t seem right to tell him that you’ve been back there a couple times now and have started trying to get into tea. You take the time to put some distance between him and you. You walk to your bed and fluff a pillow that doesn’t need fluffing. The thing is that Jaehyun being in your room feels...weird. He looks all too content and comfortable in the space. That’s not to say he doesn’t suit the environment well. Somehow he looks like he belongs in your room with his soaked tank top and damp hair. You fluff the pillow harder.

“You must be tired,” he says after a long silence. He’s finished his tea but his eyes are still glassy.

“What?”

“Donghyuck told me ‘bout all your projects. Told me you had to draw him for one.”

“Oh, yeah I did. People actually loved that piece the most. But it took me the shortest amount of time.”

“Next time,” he begins ambling across the room, coming to place the empty mug on your bedside table. “Next time, you can ask me to model. If you want.”

“I mean, I only asked Hyuck since he was watching TV and he was there. Plus I know his face so well that it doesn’t even matter if he talks while I paint. The company is kind of nice.”

“Well, you can do it with me next.”

He’s drunk, you remind yourself. He doesn’t realize how strange what he’s saying is. And yet, your face still heats up. The sound of his teeth chattering lightly again reminds you how he got to be in your room in the first place. Jaehyun hugs himself as he continues to check out your room with a small smile on his face. He looks content.

“Do you want to get in,” you offer before your brain can process what your mouth has just done. His eyes go wide.

“Excuse me?” 

“Not—I mean, you just...look really cold and tired. Plus I heard you guys lost the game tonight, so the coach had you hauling ass after.” At the sight of his mildly amused face, tongue nudged between his teeth you add, “I don’t mean you should stay the night. It could just be for a bit and then you could, like, get up and call a cab home. But I get it if you’d rather not. Actually, I can just go see if Hyuck is around. I think he brought his—”

“No, no, stay,” he replies quickly to keep you from jumping out of bed. “I could use the rest.”

He turns around to shrug off the wet tank and pull on the hoodie, mumbling something about ‘not wanting to get your sheets wet’. Internally you wonder if you’re being laughed at by the gods while staring politely at nothing in the other corner of the room. You scoot over from your position in the middle of the bed to the side opposite him. He rewards your kindness with a flash of a bright smile before moving to pull back the covers.

His face lands directly in one of your pillows and you panic when you realize your sheets aren’t fresh out the washer. Jaehyun doesn’t seem to mind and lets out a sigh before shivering a little. With the hood over his hair, you can barely make out his eyes but you can tell they’re trained on you.

“You sure this is okay,” he whispers. 

“Yeah.”

The bed shifts minutely as he turns a little to get more comfortable. It feels hot in the bed all of the sudden. Despite the fact that you have on weather appropriate pajamas and your most lightweight Spring bedding on. Despite the fact that you’re not laying close enough to him to be able to feel any body heat. Maybe it’s warmer outside than you thought. That’s probably it.

---

When you wake up several hours later, it’s to the sound of clanking in your living room. The other side of the bed is empty and you try not to read into it. It wasn’t supposed to be a full night over, after all. You swing your feet over the edge of the bed only to squeal when your foot hits something cold in the little rug you keep there.

“What is it!” Donghyuck crashes into the room while holding the trash bag he was collecting loose beer cans with. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I just—oh.”

You look down at the rug and see something shiny and metallic as opposed to something wet and slimy. With your index finger and thumb, you pick up a medium length golden chain. It shines even in the low lighting of your bedroom. You both squint at the jewelry, trying to place it.

Donghyuck’s eye grow wide and he looks around the room in disgust suddenly.

“Was he in here?”

“Uh, yeah,” you grumble as you rub your eyes.

“What for?”

When Donghyuck raises an inquisitive eyebrow, your mouth drops open.

“We just slept—”

“You slept together?”

“Hyuck, not like that! What’s your problem?”

“Still, why is he sleeping in here? You never have guys sleep in here.”

“You sleep in here all the time,” you point a finger at him.

“True,” he cedes immediately, pointing a finger back. “Well, you better return that. I think it’s his lucky charm or something.”

“Can’t you do it?” He laughs before returning to the living room. 

“He didn’t leave it in my bed.” 

“I–fine. I don’t need your help anyway.” 

At that, he snorts.

“You do, but I’ll let you keep thinking that you don’t, because I’m a good friend.”

“You’re annoying, that’s what you are.”

You pull on a sweater before coming out of your room with your phone in hand. There’s a companionable silence that falls over you two as you attempt to draft a text to Jaehyun about his chain while Donghyuck picks up the remaining trash from the party.

“How’d everything go,” you ask once the message is sent.

“It was fine. Jae was so gone that we thought he had flushed himself down the toilet for a while. But I guess that’s not what happened.”

Your face heats up at the teasing tone he uses.

“Hyuck, I have something to tell you.”

“God, what? Are you pregnant?”

“No! What the hell? Are you?” You try to swipe at his butt from the back of the couch.

“No! But...can you just say what you’re gonna say? You’re making me nervous.”

He even goes so far as to put the trash down and come around to sit with you on the sofa. You take a deep breath.

“I have a crush on Jaehyun. I just thought you should know.”

He stares at you, not blinking for a few seconds. He opens his mouth and then shakes his head to himself and closes it again.

“I see,” he finally says.

“It’s been going on a while, and I didn’t want to leave you in the dark.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You’re not mad?”

“Nope! I don’t mind being in the shadows. I do some of my best work there.”

“Do you think it could go anywhere?”

“What do you mean,” he throws another can into his bag.

“Like, do you think I have a chance with him?”

Donghyuck turns to stare at you, deadpan. “Do I think you have a chance with Jung Jaehyun? The man who slept in your bed a few hours ago?”

“Yeah.” Your face is completely open and imploring.

He sighs, “I think you might have a shot, sure.”

“Why, though?”

“I don’t know. Just a hunch.”

The next game of the season is a big one. The team coming in to play is an old school rival, so it draws a crowd that contains even the less sport-inclined students. You manage to get a ticket set away, but it’s still tough trying to find a spot to sit. It’s first come first serve with seats since the gym isn’t big enough to have labeled arena seating. 

Initially you had planned to use the extra time you had before the start to return Jaehyun’s chain, but it took you so long to make it from the parking lot to the gym and then to an open seat that there wasn’t any time left. Somewhere in between, you nearly get knocked over by the heavy current of fans from both teams flooding the space. The chain, once clutched in your hand, ends up around your neck out of fear that you lose it permanently.

You end up in the nosebleeds for the rest of the time. The players look like ants and if it weren’t for the large printed numbers on their jerseys, you might not be able to tell all of them apart. You text Donghyuck your location, and you see him looking towards the back rows at the beginning of the game, but he has to stay focused. You try your hardest to focus as well. At this point, you’re just about fluent in the sport that is basketball. But tonight’s game is hard to follow despite this. Jaehyun grabs your attention instead. He plays especially rough tonight, you note. He pushes hard across the court, even gets a couple warnings for defending like he’s on offense. There’s a fair amount of goals with his name on them as well. It’s exciting and you just wish your cheers could reach him.

More annoyance comes when the game finally ends. It’s a last minute shot by one of the other players who walked on this season that tips the game in your school’s favor. The crowd is deafening, even the ending buzzer is muted by their shouts. The bleachers shake under you with the force of fans running to meet their favorite players and generally gloat in front of the other team on the court. The shaking underneath you is terrifying enough to keep you seated until things have died down. There’s still probably a minimum of hundred people gathered on the floor, but you can at least step over empty concession bags as opposed to being stepped on by the supportive members of the hockey team.

It takes forever to find a single person you know. Of course it’s Donghyuck, who is in the middle of talking with some friends from off the team.

“Hyuck,” you begin to run over. When he sees you, you give him a big smile.

“No,” he responds simply as you get closer.

You slow down and let confusion wrinkle your brow. He offers no further verbal explanation but does give you a swift head nod in another direction. You follow the gesture and find Jaehyun at the end of the path. He looks a bit lost despite being with Doyoung and Johnny.

The fact that the others are there makes you freeze up at first, but the feeling of the chain laying delicately on your clavicle reminds you of what you need to do. Luckily, he sees you before the others do and he steps aside under the guise of getting a fresh towel. He waits for you to catch up once he’s out of their line of sight.

His voice is low, like he’s worried being too loud will make you change your mind about talking with him. But there’s an undercurrent of sincere happiness.

“There you are.”

“I was at the top row. I got here too late to sit where I normally do.”

“Ah. I thought maybe you couldn’t make it.”

“There’s no way I would be able to miss this one. Hyuck threatened to shave my head if I did.”

“That...sounds like him.”

“Yeah,” you chuckle. The nerves are getting to you a bit. You’ve never confessed your feelings to anyone before, and you’re not sure if Donghyuck was right about you having a shot.

“So, what are you doing—”

“I’ve been meaning to tell—”

You both start talking at once and then immediately clam up when you interrupt each other. 

He gives the floor to you. “You go first.”

“Okay.” 

You reach for the back of your neck and watch as his gaze follows the movement of your hands only for his eyes to light up in recognition.

“I wondered where that thing went.”

“You left it at my place. I put it on because I was scared I’d lose it for real. Sorry.”

He reaches out casually to thumb at the chain around your neck. “Don’t be. It looks good on you.”

“It looks better on you.”

The chain slides off cool against your skin and your fingers shake as you carry the chain over to him. Wordlessly, you reach up and loop your arms around his neck to reunite the chain with its rightful owner. Sweaty palms make it difficult to redo the clasp without being able to see it. It puts you right in his personal space for an awkwardly long time.

“I’m really sweaty,” he whispers.

“Uh, that’s nice?”

He laughs and it puffs off your temple.

“I don’t want to get you dirty, but I really want to kiss you right now.” The clasp finally snaps into place

“Oh.”

The way he leans in, the way his arms come to cage around your waist, the drip of the sweat from his temple down the hinge of his jaw. All of it is slow. As if to give you the space to withdraw if you wanted. But you surge forward into him. And for once it’s not awkward. You don’t know how long you stand there necking like hormonal high schoolers in a sea of people on the gym floor at a school dance, but—just like at the school dance—someone is bursting the gossamer thin ambiance just when Jaehyun’s fingers graze the back pocket of your jeans.

“If you look to your left, boys and girls, you can see two local horndogs engaged in a seasonal ritual” He karate chops a hand down the space between your faces, cutting the kiss off abruptly and nearly bruising Jaehyun’s nose. Meanwhile Taeyong snickers loudly from behind Doyoung.

“Do you have a death wish,” you turn to him with fire in your eyes. He backs up slightly, but attempts to stand his ground.

“Do you know how hard I’ve been working to set you two up?”

“What are you talking about?”

You turn to Jaehyun, who looks just as confused. The gears turning in your heads are practically visible as you and he put 2 and 2 together slowly. The random lies, the weird errands, the sudden party. The blank stares from Donghyuck every time the two of you were in the same room but refused to talk. It all adds up.

“You owe me sweet potato fries for the rest of your life. Maybe longer, I’m not sure yet.”

Donghyuck puts his arms around you and Jaehyun, pulling you with him as he heads out of the gym and towards the exit that leads toward the cafeteria.

“I can’t believe you...puppet-mastered us,” Jaehyun’s voice is airy with disbelief.

“I can’t believe you guys didn’t realize what was going on,” Taeyong snickers on the walk over. Doyoung snorts while lacing their fingers together.

“Yeah, the whole team was in on it.”

“You guys are one to talk.” Donghyuck turns back to give the two boys a humbling once over. “Don’t get me started on how hard it was to get you two losers together.”

Doyoung stops in his tracks, nearly tripping Taeyong in the process. 

“What?”

#nct fanfic #nct scenarios #nct imagines #jaehyun fanfic #jaehyun fluff #jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun imagines

[sanurasdoodles]

Hello! I'm back again, and hopefully with with enough content that I can go back to my uploading schedule! I just need to get back into the flow of it again, since this was suppose to be posted on Monday... Anyway double post today! So this was a piece that I finish last year essentially at the tail end of the year, and it was a doozy to finish! I had started it because I was in a rut at the time and I wanted to try painting again. I didn't have to many ideas so decide to redraw an old piece I made in 2020, you know to see progress and all. Little did I know that when I decide to start this piece that it would take about 4 to 6 months to complete! It gave me such a hard time I had to drop it multiple times! I even restarted it at one point and there is part of me that wanted to re-do it a second time!...but I told myself to just leave it be and finish what I had. Eventually I got to a point that I started really liking how it was looking and I'm quite happy with it's outcome! I have added a comparison of the 2020 version and the new one, and I feel like I really improved a lot! The new one may not be perfect but I love it, so I hope you enjoy it as well! Art drawn by Me Art, and Renni belongs to Me

Posted using PostyBirb

#furry #furry art #Renni #Dragon #dress #painted #female #purple #white

[zenithell]

My last attack of the year! The short story of this is: I drew Empress like this a couple years ago, and I was recently going to re-draw it because I love to redraw my old art sometimes to see how I've improved. Well, low and behold, I thought about it, and Phoenix Reborn, the gorgeous antelope herself, would fit better. Also, Babushka attacked me twice, and I had to of course come back twice as hard. GO WATCH HER. <3 I didn't have AS MUCH time as I would've liked to dedicate to this piece, but it still took quite a few hours and was fun! ******* ALTERNATE TEXT: This image features a full body, female anthro gemsbok (a species of antelope) lying on her side in front of a red curtain, facing ot her right, but your left. A spotlight is resting on her. She is wearing a tight fitting dress. ******* Time taken: 3 hours Tablet: XP-Pen Deco 1 Program: Painttool Sai 2.0 ******* Do you like my work? If you have the means to, and are interested, please consider supporting me on Patreon! Starting for only a $1, you can get access to WIPs of all my art work, early access to commissions, adoptables and YCHs, brushes and textures I use, tutorials, and even some art with some of the pledges! When you support me on Patreon, it helps me by letting me work less hours/overtime at my full time job, therefore giving me more time to work on art, while at the same time getting your own benefits! You could also buy me a Ko-fi to help me out, as well as commission me, but don't ever feel obligated to! LINKS: http://linktr.ee/empressrising ******* If you see this, it means I likely posted this art using PostyBirb, an app that lets you post art and updates to multiple sites at once. It's a great app that's helped me increase my reach. If you need anything from me, I am most active on DeviantArt and Twitter, and under that, FurAffinity, so those are the best places to contact me. Otherwise, I may take a while to respond to a note or message!

Posted using PostyBirb

#phoenix #reborn #antelope #anthro #furry #horns #gemsbok #dress #sexy #female #digital2d #painttoolsai #xppen

[mcrmadness]

Madness draws: Behind the Scenes of the latest Farin&Bela pencil drawing.

Aka the one that’s also my icon, even when that was a big risk to take because normally I start hating the photos I have once drawn, especially if I have failed miserably. This is how the drawing itself turned out:

ATTENTION: The original post about that drawing, with better image, behind this link.

This post is solely about the process itself with lots of pictures and also plenty of gifs, because I promised to do one if people would like to see that and I got some comments saying that they’re looking forward for that. So, here’s now that post!

For starters I have to apologize for the terrible quality that is the photos. I used my phone camera only and never thought about posting them, I just took them as a reference for myself and to show the progress to a friend and only after finishing the drawing I noticed that the angle of the camera causes a huge impact on the perspective of the drawing, so I sometimes might have done useless work when I thought some perspective was wrong when it was actually the photo that was wrong and not my work! I mean, take a look at these photos of the finished piece:

You see that? I realized this when I took maybe the second photo of the Farin sheet and looked at it and couldn’t believe my eyes because I didn’t remember drawing his torsto THAT small! And then I looked at the drawing and was like “wtf???” because it looked nothing like in the photo and then it hit me...

Also, another thing that I learn was that I might need to pay more attention to the perspective of the whole thing also because when I draw, I sit at the table so I am constantly seeing the drawing from my perspective instead of looking at it from above so that’s probably also going to affect the way I draw. I try to keep that in mind in the future so I can avoid redrawing things again and again just because my perspective is different than the reference photo’s.

Also the giant forehead of Farin’s in the photo on the right might have caused me to laugh a bit too much but anyway, let’s continue~ Or more like: let’s start for real this time.

Here’s the reference photo to y’all:

What I did in photoshop was to draw a line between them to see how I can divide the photo on two A4 papers. I had been thinking about this photo for some time already because it’s one of my favorites (but now I just feel cringy looking at it after I have drawn it... goddamnit!), and I got this idea that I could try drawing it on two papers in case I fuck up so I can start over or try again without having to do twice the work! Which was actually a good decision because this was the first version of Farin:

And it was awful. I also realized I had never drawn Farin’s face from he front. I have drawn him before from the side a few times but maybe once it came out actually good so that was why I decided to do the 2 paper method - because I knew it was not going to be an easy job! Bela is relatively easy to draw so I knew already that I would not have too many problems with that one.

I struggled with Farin’s eyes the most, at first.

It took me a while to figure out how to do that white line in his lower lid. Keep in mind that this was my first face portrait in over 10 years so I was very, very rusty and I just didn’t remember how to draw like anything anymore. (The photo is tilted because Bela’s face is a bit tilted and my hand can’t draw anything that is not straight [lol] so I have to rotate the photo in order to even draw the sketch of Bela’s eyes.)

So I took my sketchbook and tried to do some eyes...

I was still struggling so much here until I remembered about blending. And I didn’t have my hopes high but grabbed the eyeshadow applicators (my fave tool for blending) anyway, and switched to my other sketchbook in case the paper was the issue and:

Blending. It was all about blending! So with that in mind, I realized I can continue and I don’t need to do these in my old way, everything doesn’t have to have a lineart done but some of the job is done not with the pencils but with the eraser.

Anyhow, the previous Farin looked really bad and was too big as well so I just discarded that and started a new sheet because the old lines were not coming off properly anymore. I don’t remember if this is the old face or new but I think this might still be the old one:

Yes it definitely is the old because look at those lines! This is the new sheet:

And in the photo you can see one of my pencils - I use Derwent Graphic pencils, it’s a 12 pencil set with very soft pencils, starting with H, F and HB and ending to 9B. With this one I used F, HB, B, 2B, 5B, 7B and 9B. The white pencil is actually my new love aka the eraser pencil Koh-I-Noor Hardmuth. It’s amazing, I recommend! I just didn’t order 10 new ones this other day. I actually used about 1,5 full eraser pencils on this drawing alone so that’s why 10.

Here’s a “little” gif of the process on Farin:

I felt crazy when I went for the shirt, and I felt like I was going crazy MEANWHILE drawing it but in the end I did it and I’m super proud of it!

Below is the reference photo, it was pain in the ass to follow all those lines with my eyes and try to find what was I drawing and where was I but I think I did good. That was a fun challenge.

Okay so, when I was done with the new lineart, I decided to go for the shading and blending because that’s what really makes the drawings to pop. I started with the left (his right, my left) side of Farin’s face because I’m right-handed, and in the first photo I had done just the left (right) eye and mouth and nose, but in the second there’s also the other eye done already:

Keep in mind this was not the last time I drew the eyes. Not even close.

Something was off with the right (left) eye so I had to do that one again and I noticed that when you blend but haven’t erased and cleaned it yet, it looks like a black eye :DDD So here’s the before and after images of that cleaning. (Cleaning = I draw, blend, erase, draw and blend more when needed and then erase again, and repeat this as many times as I need until it starts to look ready to my eye.)

So here Farin was “finished” but if you still remember the final piece or compare it to it, you might notice it looks quite different. And you’re right. But more about that later, because at this point I started to work on Bela.

It actually started really well - I also had to do the whole lineart again because it did not match the size of “finished” Farin. I don’t remember if this is the first or second eye but when I had drawn his eye for the first time, I noticed it was not in line with Farin so I had to redraw it. A gif of the progress:

What’s that brown paper I’m using, you may ask? Well I noticed that people have some sort of paper on top of their art to keep it from smudging and I have no clue what that is so here’s my poor artist recommendation: baking paper! I tested it and it works (if you just remember to keep it under your hand, that is...) so that is, in fact, baking paper! :DD

I have drawn Bela’s face a few times before and he’s just so much easier to draw. In fact I used 4-5 days on Farin but I managed to start and finish (this version of) Bela just in one day. And that means that out of 12 hours (because I literally used the whole day for drawing) I used maybe like... 5h or something on Bela. That’s how much easier he really is to draw.

I don’t know wtf is wrong with Farin’s face but he’s extremely difficult to draw and I’m not the only one who has been saying this. I guess he just looks so regular but still unique enough to be difficult to draw. Bela then again has features that are very unique and very... caricature-like? I mean that just by drawing his nose or chin you can make a comic book Bela look exactly like himself, and with more realistic style his eyes already do a lot, but Farin’s really the opposite. My comic book version of Farin is literally the most basic version I can draw, it’s how I draw those characters and the only thing that makes him look himself is the hair, and his nose in a side profile. So I think that’s why it’s so difficult to draw him because he doesn’t look too regular but still regular enough to make is a very challenging task to do properly.

So yeah, the same day as I started working on Bela, I was also “finished” with the drawing:

Also look at how different it looks like from this perspective:

With the reference photo open in photoshop and I don’t understand how Bela looks more like himself in my drawing than in the photo. Also when I showed the WIP to my brother, he said that I somehow had succeeded at making Farin look more like Farin than what he does in the photo even. It’s weird.

But we were still far from finished. I was going to use the fixative on this soon but it just kept snowing the whole week so I couldn’t so every time I walked past the drawings, I stopped to fix this and that. For days I kept telling myself “I’m done, I can’t do more than this, I can’t do better than this.” and considered the drawing finished but still kept fixing things. Every time I was “done” with the other drawing, I saw something to fix in the other one and once that was done, I felt like the first one wasn’t as good and had to fix something from it too. And that led to a cycle where the other drawing was always better than the other and the worse one needed to be fixed. In the end I was hating the whole process and myself and my skills and I was already ready to abandon this whole thing and call it a day and never ever show it to anyone “because I cannot draw”. The photo above, here’s a list of things I redrew after that:

Bela’s eyes, the right (left) one at least twice.

Bela’s nose.

Bela’s mouth a couple of times.

Farin’s eyes x588045028520

And a list of things I kept fixing and fixing:

Bela’s chin.

Bela’s neck shadows.

Bela’s hairline.

Farin’s whole face was tilted so I tried to fix that.

Farin’s face was too wide, which meant also partially redrawing the ear.

Farin’s hair was too long and wide too.

Farin’s nose.

Farin’s mouth might be the only thing I drew only once and I’m actually still extremely proud of how it came to be. I did the lips solely with blending so that was super exciting to notice how I can use it for drawing and don’t need the pencils for everything!

During Bela’s eyes and nose and mouth especially I was hating myself so much and I felt like I was taking the risk of ruining the whole thing and a few times I was certain that was what I had just done too, until I somehow was able to save it again. But because of that, I wasn’t able to make Bela’s mouth any lighter anymore, the color wasn’t just coming off the paper so had to use what was there and make it look like it’s how it’s supposed to be, too.

Here’s a gif about those changes on Bela - the first one has the old eyes and nose, the others have minor changed on the nose and mouth:

(The blacks probably don’t get any blacker in reality, I did add more color to it all the time but mainly it’s just the lighting and my phone camera changing the brightness.)

I did the final details on his nose without even using the reference photo anymore. The photo didn’t seem to make any sense anymore at all so I was just using my mechanical pencil and the blending tool and eraser to make is look better. To my eye it looked more like a very flat nose with a big tip of the nose and he doesn’t have a flat nose and I tried to get rid of that illusion. I still feel like it makes him look bit weird but I’m not entirely sure how. Maybe it was because of my improvisation, idk...

So, Bela was then finally finished for the last time. In the Farin piece his left (right) eye had been bugging me the whole time and I didn’t want to touch it but still I felt like I have to do something about it because it was bugging me way too much. I then figured I could draw the eye line by line and take a photo of it each time to see if it looks right already or not, maybe I could then avoid doing all the phases before I was sure what to think about it. I mean, now the only way to see if it was correct was to draw e.g. an eye from start to finish, I couldn’t see from just the lineart or unblended eye if it was in the right spot etc. And here’s that progress on a gif:

The gif about only the eye would look so nice if Tumblr didn’t make the gifs so HUGE - this one is actually only 300px or 400px or something:

Apparently I also wasn’t happy with the other eye because:

But good thing is: I really enjoy drawing eyes. I love seeing them to “come alive”, my favorite part was to eraser a bit of the color on the iris to make them look like they are actually shiny! It feels like something so small to do and yet it makes a huge impact on the drawing!

And here’s yet another gif of the whole Farin sheet with all of the changes, including the last changes that made his head narrower, and less tilted and more in line. Look at the left side of his head especially to see that:

I can also see his nose changing between the first few photos. I keep forgetting about that but yeah, I also fixed that a little at some point.

And last but not least, the whole drawing in some sort of a timelapse gif:

Last two are the same but just a photo and the scan of the finished drawing. I still keep seeing things I would do differently but no can do, I already used fixative on it, also to keep myself from obsessing with it any more :D And to use it as a study of some sort. I have never been able to draw a perfect pencil drawing and this isn’t one either. I probably never can draw perfect drawings from references.

I do enjoy the whole shading and blending process, so much so that when I was editing these photos, I just wanted to start drawing something so bad but I also figured that I start to lose motivation when I get to the point where everything should be finished but I just can’t make it perfect. Like the current WIP I have, all I should do is to get the proportions and perspective and the lines of their faces correctly and I would be ready but it feels more like a superpower some people possess and I’m not one of those. I don’t know what is it but I just feel that I cannot see. I don’t know how to explain it, but I can’t see what I try to do and somehow keep drawing everything the wrong way. Just like in this post’s drawing too. There’s still things that are wrong and I know what it is but I don’t know how to solve it. My hands just don’t listen to me and they can’t do what I think they should. I also think the reason I cannot draw perfect copies of photos is because you can always see my “handprint” in them. If I copy a photo, it will look like a photo and not like a drawing made by me. So I believe that in my drawing there’s always a part of me visible and I’m not entirely sure if it’s a good thing or not. On bad days it’s not a good thing, obviously. On good days? Well I guess it’s good then because it just means I have my own style which I really should appreciate. But I wish I had my style only when I want it to be visible, but I can’t control it. Just like I cannot write text by hand that would look like it was written with a computer, so I guess I should just try to get used to it, no matter how much it’d bug me sometimes.

#mcrmadness draws #mcrmadness draws: behind the scenes #dä fanart #die ärzte

[pepijopa]

Hello lovely person, some time ago I tell you that you inspire me to start drawing and painting, traditional art, oils, watercolour, and pencil colours. In that time I told you I like your style, and when I feel blue I come here to feel happy. I want to thank you and ask you for an advice to keep drawing. Have a good day.

Hello! I think I remember that, I’m very happy you enjoy my work so much! I hope you are enjoying creating too! 

For advice to keep drawing; this may sound very cliche but just, draw what you want. Draw things you enjoy and make you excited, try new things and experiment if you aren’t sure on what you want or like. I almost quit art because I started to dread it so much, then I went back to drawing things I wanted to do when I first started- the reason I started drawing in the first place; creating fanart and anime OCs and silly oc x canon things. I draw things that make me happy even if often it’s not something others enjoy from me. Sometimes, I just doodle  things I talk about with my friends, solely for our entertainment. It really helped me going back to drawing what I wanted to all along, but never got around to it- or didn’t feel like I was good enough for it. I’m much happier now, and am enjoying drawing more than ever- and I think it really shows in my work. Though, we all have days where we are on low energies, and feel like we don’t want to draw- and I just think if you don’t feel like drawing in a moment simply don’t. Don’t stress yourself or force yourself so much, things will be just fine if you take a break for a bit.

Everyone is different, but I think the core of it all really is to just, draw things that excite you and that you enjoy. Though, it may also help learning new things- I know it makes me excited to draw more every time I learn something new that I like and try out something and it turns out good, it’s motivational. It also helps looking at improvement in your work, redraw some old pieces and see how far you came! I love comparing my work even from just a year ago to now! 

Sorry for the long reply! I hope this is helpful,, take care ♡

#ask #anon

[toastedbuckwheat]

Hello! May I ask how you draw? I'm currently learning how to myself and would be highly interested into a step to step process by you! Like from sketch to the done thing (no color necessary)

Hello there!

I dunno how I feel about showing how I work/giving advice to someone who’s learning (and I say it as a pro artist who went through years of traditional art education) because when I do the illustrations you see here on my tumblr I BREAK THE RULES you’d learn though life drawing routine, and give in to bad habits, and my methods are rather unplanned and chaotic which makes it difficult to pinpoint significant stages. But I used my portable potato to take some photos during working on my last piece, so I’ll throw it here with a bit of an explanation of what’s going on.

Before I begin - and because you’re about to look at a mess of a WIP - I’d like to give you some general advice that generally makes life easier when you draw (again, things that I learned in traditional arts education - another artist might advise you the complete opposite, dunno!)

Work holistically. Forget them satisfying-to-look-at clips on instagram showing someone produce a hyperrealistic portrait starting from an eye, with each and every element emerging being finished before they proceed to another part. It takes a lot of talent, yes, but these are ppl redrawing a photo in a kind of a mechanical manner. Most artists don’t work this way. Especially if you’re working without a reference, or if you’re doing a life drawing - your process will be layering and changing and finding what works best to give an impression of what you’re drawing rather than reproduce the exact image, and your artwork is likely to look messy most of the time.That said: don’t start with the details. Don’t spend too much time on a particular part while neglecting others. Your goal is to keep the whole piece at the same level of ‘finished’ (even though it’s unfinished - do I make sense?) before you’re confident that everything is where it should be and proceed to the details. So sketch out the composition first. See how things fit, what’s the dynamics. You’ll save yourself from limbs sticking out from the frame, odd proportions etc etc.

Because it’s a game of relationships between different parts of the picture/scene. I ask you not to worry about finishing a single element before laying out the rest because you’ll find that said element will look different once the other part appears! For instance - you might think that the colour you picked for a character’s hair is already very dark. But once you’re done with the night sky background, you’ll find that it’s in fact too light, and doesn’t work well with the cold palette. You’ll have to revisit different parts of the image as you go to balance these relationships and make the picture work as a whole.

Give an impression of something being there without actually drawing it ‘properly’- because details are hard, mate. You’ll see that my lineart usually has hardly any, and my colouring is large unrefined stains, but the finished thing looks convincing. Like, fuck, I can never focus on how Crowley’s eyes are really shaped. So I just turn them into large glowing yellow ellipses crossed by a line, and heard no protests so far.

Don’t panic if you messed up (you probably didn’t anyway). It might turn out to be a completely unnoticeable mistake - because, remember, things work together to balance each other, so another finished off prominent element will probably drown that badly placed line that looked so visible and out of place a second ago. 

It might not look good before it’s finished. I’m mostly immune to it after years of drawing, and my recent illustrations all follow a specific method (ykno, my sunset glow effects and all that) so I can kinda predict the next stage. But I do my linearts on a specially picked crap paper, I don’t bother erasing the smudged graphite, and it looks messy af until I make the background white in Photoshop. Conclusion: you might have a moment of doubt as you work through a piece, but try to break through it - I often suddenly start to like what I cursed a minute before! - and try to finish it even if it’s meant to be bad. This way, looking through your past pieces, you’ll see the progress. And trust me, I can’t even look at my art from literally three months ago. It’s normal.

Now, pics! The sketches are paler in real life, but I increased the contrast a little so you can see something.

1. Laying out the composition! 

I wanted to just show them kissing, but I got carried away due to some Art Nouveau inspiration. As you might have noticed, most of my illustrations are quite self-contained (ykno - they look like a sticker on a plain background). So I wanted a tight swirl bordered by Aziraphale’s wings creating a sort of rounded, yin-yang like bubble around them. Consequently I made the whole composition revolve around their heads. 

2. Adding more details to the sketch. It’s messy af. It will be messy until I’m done. It’s fine.

3. These are the fineliners I use for the linearts! They are made by Uni-ball and come in light and dark grey. I also sometimes use the guy on the left - ‘Touch’ sign pen by Pentel, when I want more brush-like, wider strokes. I work in grey because when I scan it and do my usual boring trick with sunlight highlights - which is an Overlay mode layer in Photoshop - the highlights ‘burn out’ the lines too and make them vanish a little, and the lighting effect gets more striking. I also like to use the light grey ones to make something look pencil-y without actually using pencil, because pencil fucking smudges.

4. It smudges! So because I am right handed, I start inking from the right hand side, no matter how tempted I am to do their faces first.

5. You can see the composition directions here. I made it intuitively, but ofc some ppl actually use grids etc to lay out their drawings.

6. See how pale ans thin the lineart was at first? I kept adjusting it as new inked parts were appearing. It starts to look nice and consistent now! 

7. Finished lineart? There are some mistakes which I later corrected in PS. Notice that Aziraphale’s face has hardly any details on it - I tried to make the drawing suggest his expression rather than risk overdoing it. 

8. Photoshop time!! You can totally do what I did here even if you don’t have a graphic tablet. I used Curves tool to enhance the lineart, then Quick Selection Tool to select the background around around my sticker-like piece and filled it white (on a new layer ofc). I keep this white layer on top of the layer order so it works as a mask as I colour. I decided I did not like the hatching shading underneath Aziraphale’s halo, so I erased it with a Stamp tool (because I wanna keep the textured grey fill my crap paper naturally gives me!). It’s done roughly but won’t be visible once the thing is coloured. 

9. And the reason why I keep the grey shade instead of easily getting rid of it by using Curves/Levels is because when I set this layer to Multiply mode and colour underneath, it gives me this nice desaturated look like from an old cheap paper comic page. It works as a natural filter! But of course I can’t do bright colours this way, so all my glowing highlights happen ABOVE the lineart layer - on a separate layer in Overlay mode! 

Finished thing here!

_____

Commission infoBuy Me a Coffee - help me with my transitioning expenses!Prints and stickers and things on my Redbubble!

#ask the buckwheat #long post #tutorial #drawing advice #drawing tutorial #good omens #ineffable husbands #good omens fanart #good omens art #my illustrations #doodles #toastedbuckwheat

[o0o0thorn0o0o]

I finished this piece a little while ago, and I originally wanted to post it after finishing all the current Kanzaki in Wonderland designs. Then I thought about it and realized that would take quite a bit of time, and I’d like to upload this while it’s still fresh. Ok, so I’ve always liked the idea of those “draw this again” challenges, and I have redrawn old art before. That being said, I love the idea of redrawing an annual picture. So that’s what I’m gonna do.  The rest is a bit of a read, so I’m just gonna go ahead and put in a “keep reading” here...

You know how I talked about me dressing Yukiko into Disney princess-inspired dresses in my first post? This is what I mean. I drew inspiration from mostly Belle and a little bit of Ariel. I’m telling you, I would absolutely die for those poofy sleeves. This is for another AU of mine in which Yukiko has a pretty small role in, but I’ve drawn her the most. And will continue to do so, I’m sure. I won’t really talk about it much currently, as that is one I’d really love to write one day, and I’d like the plot to be a surprise. Maybe I could trickle designs and story elements through art slowly by slowly. But I do wholeheartedly plan on writing it out. I will say, however, that Yukiko’s involvement with the story is primarily romance, and it’s a pretty rare pairing. Don’t expect her to be involved with someone she’s actually interacted with because, pshh, that’s ridiculous. Can you imagine shipping something that actually makes sense and is not purely and utterly fanon? Embarrassing. The older drawing is my first IbisPaint drawing, actually, so while this won’t be my progress in art from the beginning, it’ll at least be my progress through IbisPaint. That is, unless I switch to another program, which I don’t plan to. IbisPaint is great. The older one was actually one of my first complete digital drawings. It was all drawn on my glitchy iPhone 5s (not planning on replacing anytime soon) and my freaking finger. And I only did it ‘cause I wanted to see her dress colored and I didn’t want to ruin the traditional sketch. After that, I decided to try shading it, then highlighting, and, oh my God, did that take hours. I was most definitely procrastinating on something. Luckily, I now have my iPad and Logitech crayon. I’m still pretty slow at digital art, though—only managed to knock a couple or more hours off. But at least the process wasn’t as frustrating. I said complete, but, honestly, there was supposed to be a detailed background. While I did sketch it and start the coloring process, I never did finish it. And then I decided to redraw it, so I scrapped the background. I initially wanted the background of the new one to be blank, too, but then I felt the lighting could benefit from a visible source, at least. So, yeah, I think that’s all. I’m pretty pleased with my improvements, but I do feel I also declined in some aspects. I still have a ways to go with coloring, I feel. Overall, while I do think the newer one is better, the older one is still my favorite piece by far. Maybe it’s because of all that effort I put in. Can’t wait to redraw this next year.

#assassination classroom #ansatsu kyoushitsu #kanzaki yukiko #au #a brothers’ quarrel #draw this again #fanart #digital art #traditional to digital #i'm definitely going to draw her in more ball gowns #maybe each Disney-inspired? #we’ll see