The Canvas

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"P'Fah tell me a story about P'Phayu from high school, please." Saifah laughs at this. Rain loves hearing Phayu stories from when they were younger. They can even be used as currency to bribe the younger man into doing something for you.

"Hmmm, I want to cook a special dinner for my girlfriend. If only someone and their boyfriend would be willing to stay overnight at the garage and let me use the house for once. If that were to happen I might be in the mood to share a story." Saifah says teasingly.

"I can arrange that." Rain says grinning, "but it better be a good story."

"Let's see, did I ever tell you about the time Phayu ran away and joined the circus because he was mad at our parents?" Saifah asks.

"No he didn't really? I didn't know people really did that." Rain is listening wide eyed trying to imagine a teenage Phayu running away.

Saifah nods, "It was a small traveling troupe, the type that has trained dogs and cats rather than elephants and lions. Phayu, 14 at the time, was with them a month before my parents found him and brought him home."

"What did he do there?" Rain asks breathlessly.

"He did their face painting for customers and some of the body art work for the performers. He was a very talented artist even then." Saifah says, trying not to laugh at Rain's awed expression. So what if he had actually stretched the truth slightly and Phayu won a few coolness points in the eyes of his boyfriend. It was a win-win if it gained Saifah the house for a night. Rain didn't need to know that Phayu had actually worked weekends at a carnival to pay off the windows he had broken being careless with a football.

Rain has no idea where he needs to go to get what he needs. He can order it online but then he will have to wait and he wants to try this idea as soon as possible. That morning he had pouted and acted as cute as possible until Phayu had finally given in and admitted that his favorite color was green like the sea where they had gone on vacation last summer.

Now Rain needs paint, but for what he has in mind it can't be just any paint. It has to be cosmetic paint. He had tried an art store with no luck. Now his only hope is that Sky will know. Luckily for Rain Sky does know.

"Rain you need to go to a specialty cosmetic store for makeup artists. There is one on the mall that caters to special effect artists. They will have what you need." Sky says. He doesn't know what Rain wants body paint for, and he doesn't want to know. Sky is sure he will find out eventually whether he wants to or not.

Rain picks up an entire spectrum of colors but foremost is the sea green that is P'Phayu's favorite color. He also picks up several sizes of brushes and sponges not knowing which ones he needs.

Once he is at P'Phayu's home he sets everything up in the spare room that currently acts as Rain's studio during the school year. Now he only hopes that P'Phayu likes and will agree to this idea.

As soon as P'Phayu walks through the door that night Rain excitedly pulls him to the spare room to show him what he bought, he doesn't even let P'Phayu set his things down or take off his jacket first.

"P'Phayu, P'Fah told me you used to do body painting for a carnival, will you paint something on me please? I've seen what some of the artists do on the internet and I've always wanted to have it done."

"Rain, I haven't done that in almost 10 years, I don't know if I remember how." P'Phayu says with a grimace.

"Please, P'Phayu. I just want to try it." Rain says.

"Okay, fine," P'Phayu says with a sigh, "I'll go get changed and you need to take off your shirt."

P'Phayu comes back with a straight back chair, "Sit here, sideways. You'll have to be very still, no fidgeting, can you do that good boy?"

Rain nods solemnly. P'Phayu picks up the sea green color and looks at it thoughtfully, "This really does look like the color of the water at that beach we went to, don't you think?" he said.

"That's what I thought too." Rain says with a grin.

"Okay I know what I want to paint. This will tickle, but you have to stay still okay?" P'Phayu says again.

"Okay," Rain agrees. He can't wait to see what P'Phayu paints.

It is very hard to stay still. The brushes tickle and the paint is cold, plus Rain doesn't stay still very well, but he manages as best as he can. It seems to take forever but Rain's excitement at the thought of the final product keeps him from fidgeting.

Finally P'Phayu says, "Done, you did very well, good boy. Ready to see it? Stand up carefully and don't brush up against anything; it could still be wet in places."

He leads Rain to the full length mirror in the bathroom and grabs a shaving mirror so Rain can see his back. Rain gasps, the result is absolutely stunning. It is a beach scene with sand leading into the ocean, the sun is just sinking into the water. The coloring is so amazing that it looks almost like a photograph. Rain has never realized how talented P'Phayu was with paints.

He wishes it could stay like this but has to settle for letting P'Phayu take several photos for him to post on his Instagram.

********

Notes:

Writing game prompt color

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