Author's Notes: My entry for my Pumpkin Equinox prompt, and at the same time, an exercise in working past a killer case of writer's block. Overall, a silly little character sketch (no pun intended), quite light on plot, to put it bluntly. Still, the idea just wouldn't stop pestering me, and it fits perfectly with the fall thing, I'd think. Hope you enjoy!

Work of Art

"Well... what if I catch something again, though? I'll have to move, then, won't I?"

Uttering an agitated groan, Julius Pasternak's brush came to a halt mere centimeters from the canvas, russet eyes narrowing as he peeped up over the top of the painting at his subject. "Well, then you'll warn me beforehand this time, won't you, so I don't make another screw-up. Back in profile, hmm?" he added, pointlessly twirling his index finger around to emphasize the request.

Laughing softly, Toby Nishimura turned his gaze back to the shimmering waters of the Castanet harbor, swinging his legs and humming happily as he watched the peaceful floating of his red-and-white bobber in the chilly October sunset. "Well, I did offer to let you paint me napping..."

"People shift too much in their sleep," Julius explained absently, preparing to tint a bit of dusky yellow onto the silver of Toby's hair. No... perhaps a little more orange, to play off the red of the lighthouse and the foliage... "It's involuntary. I'm sure you would be particularly bad about it, seeing as how you've been all over the place when you're awake. Besides," he continued dryly, "I was under the impression that you were a bit more sedentary than you've thus far turned out to be. Don't you fishermen ever keep still?"

"No."

Catching Julius's exasperated glare from the corner of his eye, Toby quietly laughed again, kicking his straw sandals together. After hours upon hours of sitting just so on the dock, butt going numb in the exact same clothes day in and day out as his friend transferred his essence into oils on canvas... well, he'd earned the right to pester Julius a little, hadn't he?

Never mind, of course, that he'd happily agreed to model for the painting from the word "go."

"Good lord, even Selena didn't give me this much crap," Julius sighed, shaking his head and tossing his messy purple braid over his shoulder. "No wonder you and Chase get along so well - aha! Here we go," he trumpeted happily, eyes flicking back and forth between his subject and the canvas, making sure he got the details just right - the autumn sunlight was illuminating Toby's face just so, casting a soft glow that worked perfectly with the rest of the piece. "Brilliant. Hold perfectly still, or I swear to Sephia, I'll push you into the ocean."

Resisting the urge to mess with Julius even further by pointing out that he could swim just fine, Toby nodded, and tensed up every muscle in his body, willing himself to not let the complete immobility start getting to him-

"...Not like that, you look constipated," Julius snapped, carefully touching up a spot by paint-Toby's oversized, royal-blue sweater. "Come now, this should be easy for you. You're usually the absolute portrait - if you'll excuse my dreadful pun - of relaxation. Loosen up some."

Heaving out a deep sigh, Toby let his body relax a bit, wrinkling his suddenly-itchy nose. "Uh oh. I think I need to sneeze..."

"Oh, for f... FINE. Fine. I think I need to touch up the water a bit, anyhow... gesundheit," the purple-haired man added off-handedly as the muffled noise sounded, eyes firmly fixed on the bottom of the canvas while he made the fix.

"Thanks. Gee... this sweater's getting kinda smelly," Toby added, lifting the collar up to his nose and cringing once more as he took another sniff. "Yuck. Guess I should've washed it at some point..."

Pulling a slight face at the over-sharing, Julius dabbed a bit more color onto the distant shape of Harmonica Town's lighthouse, humming in satisfaction. Truth be told, for all of his snapping at Toby to stay perfectly still, the bulk of the work was almost finished. On and off the canvas, a peaceful, gentle young fisherman relaxed on the rickety docks of a rustic seaside town, the vivid October sunset casting a soft and rather striking glow on his kind face and lending an almost ethereal illumination to his green eyes and silver hair. The brilliant orange sea sparkled before him as his straw sandals barely rippled against the surface, simple fishing pole cast out for the day's big catch, and the sky all around him was bursting with a dusky array of color.

All-in-all, it was a simple depiction, on paper. Yet, truly capturing the beauty of an idyllic fall sunset was no fool's task - and having the stroke of brilliance to use a subject whose natural coloring both played off of and popped out from that of the landscape had been a rather excellent call, if Julius did say so himself.

Go ahead and try to call this an amateur's work, Giorgio, Julius thought smugly, crossing his arms over his chest, tilting his head and squinting. If he dared toot his own horn - and why on Earth not? He knew he was fabulous - it was certainly one of his more exquisite works. Perhaps not quite requiring the same level of sheer elbow grease Selena's depiction had called for, and not as near and dear to his heart as another portrait he'd been working on. All the same, it necessitated its own painstaking attention to detail. A few more touches, matching every hue just so to keep it all in balance, and perhaps it would be just right. Yes, adding a bit of a wrinkle in the sweatshirt, maybe a slightly more pronounced glow in the lantern room of the lighthouse…

"Oh, wow! That looks fantastic."

"GAHHHH!" Whirling around on his stool and staring up at Toby, deep red eyes wide and looking rather like a frightened animal, Julius placed a hand over his heart. He could feel it pounding like crazy through the paint-stained fabric of his long-sleeved, white button-down. Could the boy teleport or something? "When - how - I didn't even-"

"It's really pretty," Toby went on, crouching down by Julius and peering curiously at the canvas, drumming his hands on the knees of his baggy black jeans and giving a satisfied nod in confirmation of his own opinion. "I wish I had talent like that."

"Well, thank you, but there's still a little touching up I need to attend to... oh, I wish you hadn't moved," Julius sighed dramatically, clearing his throat and tucking a stray lock of hair behind his double-pierced ear. "Good lord, I didn't even hear you! Come on, you need to get back in place - just for a moment, I promise - just so I can fix something... no, scootch forward some. Perfect! Here we go..."

Julius worked in silence, listening to the soft splashing of Toby's feet circling about in the water.

"So... do you think you'll be entering this one in the exhibition?"

"Mmmm? Oh!" Looking up, Julius shrugged, scratching behind his ear. "Well... it's a bit early to tell. Both you and Selena turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself. And I did another, recently, of a poker game at the inn... well, that was an absolute nightmare! Barbara's really all over the place - but it certainly got raves from everyone involved! Well worth the toil! Still... I suppose I'll have to get a good read on what the critics are looking for, first..."

Lug them all to Flower Bud, he thought with a slight twinge of annoyance. Perhaps he was a bit too good at this, if he was having trouble deciding between some of his best works to date. "Tranquility, or action... action seems a bit obvious, but... I'm worried a peaceful countryside scene, like this one, or the poker game... well, they're both marvelous, but they may be seen as being a bit... kitschy, you know? Not that they are," he defended hastily, shaking his head and sending his braid flapping about. "Still! In the world of art, perception is everything..."

Toby cocked his head to the side, blinking in confusion. "I dunno... if they're really nice, who minds if it's a little cheesy? But... I remember Shelly told me you were working on one at the tailor's, too... maybe you could enter that one, instead?"

Feeling his face grow warm at the mention of Sonata Tailoring, Julius shook his head again, waving his hands with the motion. "Oh, absolutely not. That… that one's a bit… off-limits for any competition. It's like how... how I make certain jewelry pieces, you see, with no intent to sell. Strictly on a personal level, for the recipients." As his heart fluttered slightly, he thought to that particularly important project of his, wondering if he'd given away too much. Toby seemed oblivious at the best of times, but the boy was startlingly perceptive, for as often as he spaced out.

And that damn knowing smirk of his told Julius that he had, indeed, over-shared just a touch.

"Breathe a word of what I just divulged, and I'll kill you," he added, half-jokingly. Rolling his eyes and reaching behind his head to fix his braid, he continued irritably, "And on the exhibition, Sephia knows that Giorgio will just submit some pale imitation of a Monet and have the gall to suggest I'm the one who needs to 'find his voice,' the utter goon. Yes, let's paint some more lilies, and ooh, they're blue this time. Why, fetch me my fan, I believe I may have the vapors," he sang in a breathy, venomously sarcastic falsetto, before his voice dropped back down to its usual prissy baritone. "Good thing the critics don't take him seriously..."

Leaning back on his hands and looking up as the sky began to darken further, Toby shrugged. "Hmm... maybe he just does it for fun?"

Clicking his tongue in disapproval, Julius set his brush and palette down in his lap, cocking his head thoughtfully at his work... his finished work? Not quite... but definitely by tomorrow, yes! "Well, that's all well and good - but if you're going to compete, put in a little effort, hmm? Otherwise, it insults the rest of us."

"I guess, but it's all in good fun at the end of the day," Toby countered, smiling lazily and rumpling his hair a bit. "Plus, doesn't it kind of up your chances a little if one of them phones it in?"

"Yes, well, of course I paint for fun, too," Julius pointed out, beginning to pack up his supplies as he finished taking in the details of the painting with a pleased look. "Still, if I'm going to win, I want to earn it against true talent. An equal, like that Regison girl from the islands... now she's certainly one to watch, quite exquisite! Oh, you and your stinky sweater can get up now, if you'd like," he added as an afterthought, smiling as the prospect of completion loomed overhead. "I believe I can hone the rest of the details from the warm and toasty comfort of my abode... and, of course, thank you once again for letting me paint you. You weren't too shabby a model, for all my bitching."

Yawning and stretching, Toby waited for the satisfying pop of his vertebrae before standing up and dusting tiny splinters off the back of his jeans. "Sure thing! Thanks for making me look so good, too." Crossing his arms, he gazed upwards, momentarily stuck deep in thought. "Say... you think you could do one of me in a fancy robe, with a pipe? That's a pretty sharp look, right?"

"Oh, you made yourself look good," Julius returned happily, standing up and stretching much the same as Toby had. "And, to that other thing - no. But I suppose I do have a knack for truly capturing the essence of everyone's beauty... hmm!" Shoving his hands in the pockets of his snug, paint-spattered blue jeans, he nodded, not noticing Toby shaking his head good-naturedly at the blatant lack of modesty. "Truth be told, I still prefer the thrill of crafting fine jewelry, at the end of the day... but this is a pretty exhilarating foray!"

As the pair finished packing up the supplies, making their way back towards Castanet proper, Toby let another thought slip freely into the gentle evening breeze:

"...So, have you ever painted any naked people?"

Julius stopped and turned towards him, mouth hanging open, and eyes narrowed in confusion. "What."

Toby shrugged, looking amused at the younger man's befuddlement. "Well, I just thought every artist did that stuff. So, that's a no?"

A firm nod. "And it's certainly not on the itinerary, so I hope that wasn't an offer."

After briefly imagining himself posing coyly on a bearskin rug, Toby suddenly shuddered in revulsion – not noticing that Julius had done much the same – as they stopped at the fishery door, enjoying the smell of sizzling crab cakes creeping out into the cold night air. "No," he agreed, scratching his jawline and chuckling sheepishly. "I think I'm good."

"Ah, that's certainly a relief… well, good evening, then," Julius finished with a slight bow, as Toby made to head into the fishery.

"Night! Oh… and have fun with your pet project," he added quickly, jerking his thumb in the direction of the distant, pink tailor shop and smiling mischievously.

By the time Julius had stopped sputtering long enough to choke out a flustered death threat, Toby had already slipped inside his house, snickering to himself.

Slumping back in his chair and heaving a loud sigh, Julius surveyed the completed work with satisfaction – yes, he was certainly on a roll! It was, he'd decided a while back, something about the spray of color afforded by fall – it set his blood pumping, raring to capture as much of Castanet's vivid beauty as he could while the weather was still comfortable.

The Flower Bud Art Exposition was only a few weeks away by this point, yet he felt confident that he could finish one more piece by the deadline. Still, of his contest-ready pieces, he had to admit that Toby's was currently shaping up to be a frontrunner, vibrant yet soothing. Repeatedly threatening the man had worked out alright, at the end of the day, even if he had made a bit of an ass of Julius after all was said and done.

To his left, in the dimly-lit corner of his bedroom, sat the other two entry candidates: Selena Kapule, the Brass Bar's curvaceous and alluring dancer, a graceful silhouette in her beloved spotlight; and two couples enjoying a chatty game of poker and a few glasses of wine at the Ocarina Inn. Barbara Kern was slamming her hand down with the delighted air of someone who had just been given a free puppy, while her husband looked on in dismay next to her, and the innkeepers fretted over their own cards in profile.

In retrospect, the seating hadn't been quite ideal for a poker game – Barbara could easily see Colleen's and Simon's hands, as she'd so often pointed out - but Julius had wanted faces, damn it. And he truly couldn't fault the end result, even in the absence of practicality.

Meanwhile, to his right sat two more paintings that wouldn't be making the trip to Flower Bud. In the first, his Aunt Mira played expertly on the old piano in her house, her posture elegant even in her fluffy pink bathrobe, and her smile wistful. Finely-crafted jewelry glinted tastefully at her ears and throat, and on the ring finger of her left hand.

Feeling a warm, fluttering sensation in his stomach, Julius's eyes roved over to the next picture, stifling a small snort. Candace Kozlowski lay on her back in her bed, ice-blue braids hanging over the edge as she eyed a book happily. Laying face-up on her sister's stomach and holding the book open above them was Luna, all pink curls, and flowery frills, and various other things that were just absurdly girly even by Julius's tastes. Both girls – one, normally self-conscious and meek, the other sassy and dour – looked completely content, with the petite Luna's head resting somewhere around Candace's collarbone.

Fighting back the urge to click his heels together and squeal like a cheerleader, he pictured the unabashed joy on Candace's lovely face – and Luna's face, too, why not – as he proudly presented his best work yet.

Looking around his house furtively, he shrugged, before the squealing, heel-clicking, and a small fit of excited clapping commenced. His masculinity levels had probably plummeted down well past Luna's at this point, but despite his earlier embarrassment, he found he didn't mind much.

Author's Notes Redux: There we have it! I'm not sure why, but the idea of Julius painting something with Toby as the subject (and painting something depicting Candace) latched onto me like a bear trap, and while the end result is fluffier than a cloud, I think it turned out alright. (It was partly kicked off by some of Julius's ToT/AP dialogue about how his parents are artists, and how fall is considered the season for art – he may craft jewelry, but I like to think he dabbles in paintings and such occasionally, too. Probably has Andy Warhol-style pop art of his head, or naked Medieval Europeans adorning his bedroom walls. Plus, Toby seems to exhibit the activity level of a Snorlax, so he should be easy to paint, right?)

So, if you're interested in the Pumpkin Equinox prompt, check it out at the forums – it's over at The Village Square. Entry and submission cut-off point is December 22 (as the winter solstice begins December 22), and the prompt is fairly simple: Write something set in fall.

Anyhow – even though fluff is still a bit unorthodox for me at this point, I hope everyone still enjoyed it, in the end. Feel free to leave feedback, if you'd like, and thanks for reading!