Painting and Shit Like That [Open]

Die sat curled up on the small, soft chair in the corner of the recreational room. He had gotten in there early to claim the spot, not liking the hard chairs that made up most of the rest of the room and seriously needing to get out of his own room and his own head for a day. He'd started to feel a bit more caged in, claustrophobic... if he might say so, though he had never been as such before.

He flipped idly through the pages of the book he'd been loaned by Mori, speed-reading the pages just because he was bored of reading it the slow way. Around him, staff were moving things into shape for a painting class that Die was still debating if he wanted to give up his good spot to go to or not, as paints weren't allowed in this chair... for obvious reasons. He slid his lower lip into his mouth and sucked lightly on it, feeling somewhat impatient for things to either get started or quiet down, given he disliked the scraping sounds of the tables across the floor. But... he'd never say it. It just wasn't Die's way.

It was with a curious glance that I peered into the room, immediately scrunching my nose in distaste as metal scraped tile. I was too curious to turn away, though, and I stepped in, cocking my head and walking up to one of the attendants that was moving the chairs.

"What's... what's happening in here?" I asked, brows furrowed in slight confusion as the man simply pointed at some of the paints. I nodded in understanding, looking at them for a second before pursing my lips.

I was really bad at painting. I was really bad at art, at least the visual kind. But maybe this would keep my mind occupied. And maybe it would keep it just me, too.

Absently I looked over to the other people in the room, some that I didn't want to talk to and others that clearly didn't want to talk to me. So I just sighed, sitting down in a chair and still deciding if I wanted to do this in the first place as I offered the one person that didn't look completely out of it or angry a smile.

His chair looked comfortable. I could see why he was guarding it.

Die glanced up as someone else came into the room. Another man he hadn't seen around anywhere before. It was strange how few people Die still knew given how long he'd been in here already. But he didn't want to complain, honestly.

A few more moments and he looked down at his book again, eyes scanning the pages quickly. He reached the end of the chapter, inserted the piece of toilet paper he was using as a bookmark and then shut it just as the same person he'd noticed come in decided to come speak with him.

When he got a smile, he offered one in return, leaning back, the seat creaking a bit. He tapped the book lightly with long fingers and then licked his lips, nodding toward the painting stuff being set up. "You doing the class?"

I probably always seemed skittish these days - I was - and now was certainly no exception. I always have been bad when it came to talking to new people. The doctor had been an exception, though that was mostly out of necessity. Now this was a casual conversation and I didn't know what to do.

When I was spoken to I looked back at the supplies that were being set up, brows still furrowed as I tried to decide just what I was planning. I really was bad at this.

Then again, I suppose I had nothing better to do.

Finally I turned back to the man, nodding hesitantly as I shrugged. Where was the harm in attempting to learn a new skill? I couldn't be the worst in the class, could I?

"I think so... I'm really bad at painting, though," I admitted softly, smiling a bit sheepishly and looking down. "Are you?" I asked, glancing back up at him with slightly wide, curious eyes.

"You're not the only one," Die returned softly, giving the seemingly nervous man a smile. He was surprised he was more nervous than Die himself was, but... he supposed that was the risk in the end.

Settling forward, he gazed at the paints and then made his decision. "I was debating it, but yes, I think I will." He pursed his lips a little and then finally nodded. "Yes, for sure." He smiled a bit. "I think today's project was listed as paired up artworks, would you like to try together or did you have other plans?"

When I was offered a smile and a few words I grinned in return, looking down and knowing the dimples were apparent from the smile. Okay, so this man was nice. He seemed nice, at least. From interacting and watching people around here I knew that sometimes a first impression wasn't always accurate. For now, though, he seemed nice.

"I don't have any plans," I said softly, shrugging. I should probably have mentioned that it was because I rarely had the courage to actually talk to people, but that was beside the point.

"I'm... My name is Hongbin," I finally said after a bit of thought, trying to ignore the people that were still setting up around us.

Die offered his hand up to shake if the other wanted. He was nothing if not nice to the new people he tended to meet. And this one seemed slightly more chatty than Kyo had. Not a bad thing, he decided.

"I'm Die... or Dai, up to you which one you prefer to use. I know the first one sort of makes people slightly uncomfortable." He was still always enamored with how the slight variance in the way he said his name tended to turn people for or against things.

The people around them finished setting up and one of the nurses clapped their hands. "Time to come and sit for painting!" A few other random patients came toward the tables and Die pushed himself up, taking his book with him. "Well, come on then." He smiled at Hongbin.

I wasn't particularly used to actually being introduced to people. This was a very new development, but I took his hand in a gentle shake before he spoke again.

Die? Or Dai... Hm. There wasn't too much of a difference, but I could see what people would be concerned about. As of yet, I didn't know what would come more naturally. I guess I would just have to see what happened.

The clap actually startled me and I sat up straight, eyes wide as I looked around for the source. People were starting to move and I guess I'd been kind of distracted to notice the nurses finishing setting up. Regardless, I stood up and followed Die to take a seat next to him, the teeniest bit sad that we all couldn't paint in the comfy chairs.

"I'm mostly following you," I admitted softly, letting out a little chuckle and nibbling my lip as I looked closer at the supplies they'd set up. I didn't recognize much. This was going to be a tricky lesson.

Die took a seat at the table, pulling the chair in and leaning forward, inspecting the various paints. It seemed today was water color paint day. Probably best given how likely it was someone would do something stupid with it.

He pulled the paper closer and was happy to find it at least was the right sort of paper for it, not just crappy paper that would wrinkle and die from the water. Little plastic cups of water were being passed around, two on each place setting. Die smiled and then pointed. "One for cleaning your brush off, one for dipping before you choose the color you're going to use. They're water colors." He shrugged. "That's the most I know though."

The nurses bustled around, quietly explaining things to people who seemed to need it and Die just sat and stared at the paper in front of him. What did he want to attempt? Was there a required lesson or suggestion perhaps? He supposed he'd wait and see.

Whatever Die knew was way more than I did. I knew that I was looking at paper, and next to the paper was paint. There were some brushes. That was about the extent of my knowledge, so when Die spoke up I nodded in slight understanding, eyes narrowed as I picked up a brush and looked it over.

"I only remember watercolors from grade school," I mumbled, playing with the fibers at the end of the brush. If they had splurged on the actual watercolor paper, they hadn't on the brushes. They were the brightly colored ones, the ones that were usually five for twenty-five cents. I chuckled softly to myself, looking up at the nurse nearby.

"Is there... a thing we need to do?" I asked, blinking a few times. The nurse just looked at me and smiled.

"Just start by painting. We'll be doing a couple of things afterward, so first just paint what you feel," she said, and I blinked even more as I looked back down at the paper. She walked away before I looked back at Die, brows knit together.

"I'm really bad at this kind of thing," I admitted softly, shrugging and letting out an awkward chuckle.

Die listened to the nurse speak and then nodded, going about carefully using the brush to deposit water onto some of the paints, thinking maybe it'd be easier that way. Who knew... he could be being a moron about it, or he could be right. They'd probably never know unless someone corrected him.

He pursed his lips and then decided to paint a flower he'd seen once. A lily of the valley, only in shocking purple and blue tones with pink leaves and a yellow stem, he decided. "Just paint a flower or something to start with. I'm guessing they're going to make us trade up papers part-way through... I've seen them do that a few times when they say partners." He was quiet about it, not wanting to give it away to everyone. But it'd be easier if they were on the same wavelength to start with, even if not the same style.

He dragged his brush through the purple paint a few times and then brought it to the paper, sweeping out a rough sketch of the flower.

I watched quietly with my hands folded on the table until Die picked up a brush and started messing with the paints. When he spoke I nodded, watching him and pursing my lips as I thought about what kind of flower this was going to be.

I was really bad at this.

Finally I ended up deciding on a flower I was just going to make up as I went, trying to make it almost the same vibrancy as Die's but using different colors, warmer colors, reds and oranges. I bit my lip, seeing myself mess up and not sure how I was supposed to fix it.

"Do you know how to... fix mistakes?" I asked, glancing at Die and puffing my cheeks slightly. I pointed at the part that was clearly wrong, frowning a bit.

Die shook his head a little. "No, actually you just sort of... deal with it. There's no takes-backsies on paints unfortunately." He selected the blue and began to work with it as well, sort of amused with how he was going about getting the colors onto the paper. It was strange how colors blended with one another when they were watercolors. But he was sort of trying to struggle through working on it.

He'd just moved to the yellow when exactly what he'd anticipated came down on all of them, the nurse clapping her hands again. "Okay, everyone! Change drawings with your partner and pick up where they left off! Remember, keep your own style but blend it with theirs."

Die rinsed his brush and wiped it on the piece of paper towel, picking up his paper and sliding it over to Hongbin.

I wasn't a huge fan of 'deal with it'.

But painting was painting, and I guess I couldn't fix it. So instead I just continued on, until the nurse in charge told us to swap papers. I sighed, swapping mine with Die's and quirking a brow in confusion as I looked down.

How was a supposed to continue on a flower that was nearly done? I could add a sky, I guessed, but then I ran the risk of messing up the flower itself. He'd done a good job on it and I would feel awful. I guess I could just add little things around it...

I took a moment before adding a snake to the bottom, coiled up around the stem and clearly waiting for something. I smirked, keeping a close eye on what I was doing.

This was starting to be fun.

Die took an entirely different approach to the project. He continued on with the flower that Hongbin had started, changing his colors slightly from what he'd been using to things more suitable for Hongbin's flower, but still different. His style was definitely not the same and he found himself pleased with the result.

He began to move the paper around in circles as he swirled his brush over the exposed parts of the canvas, making patterns as he went, changing colors so that they bled into one another artfully as he worked.

This was stupid.
And I was late.

The door slammed open rather harshly (I tend to have a habit of making a lot of violent loud noises wherever I go) and as I stepped inside. I didn’t care for the eyes that were drawn to me, stunned in surprise. Instead I moved for one of the large single person recliners and sank into it with a huff, splayed out lazily.

Look, I’m here. Now I can get my ‘good patient’ points since they’d recommended an activity to keep myself ‘level headed’ o some shit after that hallway fight. Which wasn’t even my fault in the first place. I was doing a good deed, making sure Matthew didn’t kill Jiho. But fine, whatever. I’m the troubled, violent patient.
I could also get my brownie points from that Die kid since I told him I ‘might’ go to one of these dumb classes with him.

A nurse quickly came over and attempted to usher me to the tables but I refused, looking less than entertained. Eventually she gave in and bought me the supplies where I sat – away from most everyone else. I win.

I immediately shot my gaze away from the painting as the door slammed open, eyes narrowed at the newcomer. The way he plopped down, refused to move, refused to... well, do much of anything... Really got me irritated. If he was going to be in the damn class he could at least participate. Getting there on time wouldn't have been a bad idea either.

I must have turned too quickly because in my haste, my hand knocked over a glass of water I'd been using to dampen my brush. It poured over part of the painting, though it didn't seem to do much damage otherwise, except pour all over me. Lap thoroughly soaked, I stood up suddenly, eye twitching.

"Mother fuckin' piece of shit," I exclaimed loudly, brows knit together in frustration. The water had been cold, and now my entire body was.

It was clear in my change of mannerisms and demeanor that things were amiss, but I only looked up at the nurse expectantly, waiting for her to clean up the mess.

Die glanced up at the door as it banged open, his brush pausing between the brown and the painting. He smiled when he saw that it was Kyo. At least he hadn't been put on lockdown or something... not that Die even really knew how that sort of thing worked, but he had still been a bit worried.

He had just started to lift his hand to wave when Hongbin stood up quickly and started cursing. Die moved back a bit, noticing the water dripping to the floor between them now, he winced and used one of the paper towels to clean up the mess from the table. He knew better than to touch other patients at least.

Once he was done with the table and then used the last dry one to blot the paper a bit, he glanced back at Kyo, trying to offer him a soft smile.

My own dark chocolate orbs flickered lifelessly over the unfamiliar faces of most of the other patients, only two really ringing any bells though I only knew Die’s name. The other was the unknown whiner from outside. I’m so fucking… bitter in my own head.
Regardless once my supplies were brought to me I arched sharp brows, picking up the paintbrush and sticking it into the cup of water. Whoopee. And fuck this nonsense about pairing up with a partner; I didn’t need any of that. Hell, I wasn’t even a goddamn artist to begin with, who would want to even make sense of my scribbles? With a heavy sigh I scrubbed the cheap bristles into the tiny black oval of paint, bubbling up until I had a thick dark consistency. Black.

Before I could even start slathering some wet nonsense onto this blank piece of paper there was loud cursing coming from the center of the room, and I couldn’t help but smirk sadistically. Well that didn’t last long before something went wrong. My eyes flickered between the kid and Die, catching his tiny smile and in return I only lifted two digits and my brush in a half-hearted greeting salute, letting my attention return to the page at hand.

I should draw a big hairy dick.

I didn't care about this stupid class. Why had I even come here again? This place sucked, and I hated having to deal with the people here. The nurse wasn't helping either, thanks a fucking lot. So instead I flopped into my chair, apparently stuck here until the class was over.

It was barely a class anyway, so it was pretty much pointless.

I glanced at the guy in the corner, eyes narrowed. What the fuck was he even smirking about? Come to think of it, he was probably just as unimpressed with the whole shit as I was. Maybe he was alright. Who would know? I'd never met him before.

"This is fuckin' bullshit," I mumbled, picking up the nearest brush and twirling it around in my fingers.

Painting was fucking boring anyway.

So instead I leaned on the table, shooting a glance at the guy beside me and offering him a sigh and shaking my head. It looked like he was buying into the painting crap. Hmm.

It may not have been the biggest reaction, but Die was glad to have received something in return from Kyo. At least an offering of acknowledgement that the man remembered him from the cafeteria. That was something, he supposed.

He flagged down a nurse and quietly asked for more paper towels and a bit more water for Hongbin. She came back with the supplies rather quickly and Die carefully put them where he thought they'd be least likely to be in the way, handing over the paper towels so he could clean himself up a bit. "I'm sorry it spilled," he offered quietly, just wanting the other to know he had his sympathy on that.

After a moment, he went back to looking at the paper he currently had, seeing what he could do with it, debating between paints and finally selecting the green and going with that for some random background between the swirls.

Again my attention slowly lifted up from the blank paper sprawled out before me, quirking a slow brow at the boy’s loud, rash behavior. All over a tiny spill of water even. I shook my head slowly, dragging the black trodden brush down the paper and making a crooked, unstable line right down the center pointlessly. Look, art.

My hues then flickered to Die, who was still surprisingly somehow so tranquil even as he sat right next to this guy. Maybe he was on mellow drugs.

Dropping my gaze back to my paper I pursed pierced tiers together and started actually trying to make my line into something.
Like a middle finger, perfect.

I shot a side glance at the man beside me and took the paper towels with a wary smirk, patting my pants and shirt dry for a while before giving up and just tossing the towel somewhere beside me. I didn't care where they landed or if they were in anyone else's way. In fact, I didn't care about this whole thing.

"Not like you dumped it on me," I replied, rolling my eyes and looking back at the guy sitting in the chair in the corner. I tried to see what he was drawing but the angle was wrong so all I saw was the shadow on the page. Eyes narrowed, I leaned back on my chair.

"You gonna join the class or just sit in the corner?" I asked, lips pursed.

If he was just gonna sit in the corner and pretend to participate, why couldn't I? This wasn't exactly fair.

Die finished off what he felt like he wanted to do, ending with a few sports of yellow. He washed off his paint brush and then put it down on the table, glancing at the man next to him once again. Okay... so being next to him was sort of getting disconcerting. But what else had he expected? This was, after all, a mental institution.

He winced when Hongbin talked to Kyo like that, expecting some sort of snappy reply given how the other had responded to his mild-mannered banter in the cafeteria. He sighed and then pursed his lips a bit, peering down at the paper instead.

I myself was on some mood-stabilizing drugs since the last time I’d met with Die in the cafeteria, mainly because my doctor thought I had a quick, hot temper. I guess it was working. Save for that little explosion in the hallway where I finally broke down and let out all of my pent up rage. So I sat, scribbling pointlessly away as I slouched in a chair in the back of the room, distanced from the loud mouthed trouble maker and the shy, timid men, not to mention the rest of the patients and nurses.

I didn’t catch the sidelong glance at first, not until he spoke up. I could only assume it was in my direction since… well I’m the only one not participating with the rest of the goddamn group.
I answered sarcastically right back, giving a falsely sweet answer and a crooked smile to boot.

“I’m in the class… and I’m in the corner. So, both.” I used my left hand to make a careless gesture in a circle around me, as if it couldn’t be more openly obvious that I was doing exactly that. I’m fucking painting, and I’m sitting here. Duh. Quirking a single brow I simply shrugged and dropped my attention back to my paper pointlessly.