Charcoal: Perfection

by KatiKat

Something was going on, Heero Yuy was sure of that. He heard the girls giggle and point at him when they thought he wasn´t looking. And when he turned and glared at them, they just put their heads together, whispered and giggled even more. What was even worse, even the guys looked at him funny. Some laughed outwardly, others just raised their eyebrows, even others just clapped him on the back. And nobody wanted to tell him what was going on. He was getting pissed pretty quickly.

He was crossing the lawn and heading to the dorms on campus, when he heard the voice call him from behind: "Well, if that isn´t Heero Yuy, Perfection itself."

Heero rolled his eyes. Chang Wufei, the exchange student from Hong Kong, was his best friend but right now he would gladly wring his neck. He turned to him, and hoisted his backpack higher on his shoulder. "Not you too, Chang," he snapped at him with disgust.

The Chinese young man snickered. "What, you don´t like to be famous?" He reached his half Japanese friend, and they started walking to the dorms where they were sharing a room.

Heero threw his hands up. "Okay, I give up. What´s going on here?" he asked, annoyance clearly palpable in his voice.

Wufei moved the stack of books from one of his hands to the other and pushed his wire rimmed glasses back up his nose. "You don´t know?"

"Would I ask if I knew?" he snapped again. His patience was wearing thin. This day had gone wrong from the moment he got out of his bed. The one thing he didn´t need was a smartass  friend right now.

"You don´t visit the campus gallery often, do you?" Wufei asked as Heero opened the entrance door to their dorms, and held it open for his friend.

"I´m a computer science major, not some flower child artist!" Some of the guys hanging around the entrance hall snickered, but he just glared at them.

They took the stairs, seeing that the elevator was out of order once again. They had to push their way through the masses that floated up and down the narrow staircase so talking was out for the moment. When they arrived on the second floor, at door number 333, Heero pulled out his key and unlocked the door.

"I take it you don´t walk around that part of campus often, huh?" Wufei said as he passed through the open door. He walked to his table and with a relieved "uff" he set his books down.

Heero closed the door and threw his backpack on his bed. "No. I´m not that interested in art." He plopped down on his bed and leaned with his back against the wall.

Wufei turned to him. "Aha, that explains it."

Heero rolled his eyes again. "Wufei, if you don´t tell me what´s going on here right now, I swear Iwill hit you."

The Chinese man snickered. "You could try." Seeing his friend getting more annoyed by the minute, he raised his arms in surrender. "Okay, okay. I could explain it to you, but I think it would be better if you saw it with your own eyes. I don´t think you would believe me, you know."

Heero frowned. He really didn´t like how that sounded.

*-*-*-*-*-*

"I don´t believe this," Heero muttered to himself as he stood in the part of the campus student gallery that held the works entitled ´Perfection´.

Wufei chuckled. "Students from Mr. Khushrenada´s courses display their work here. I heard that last week they should portray how they imagine Perfection. Well, and that´s how one of them imagined it." He waved his hand toward one of the pictures.

There, in the middle of the gallery, a portrait of Heero Yuy hung. It was done with charcoal on a big white square. On the picture there he was, his legs spread lightly, arms crossed on his chest, an arrogant expression on his face. He was dressed in his usual jeans and tank top. It was a beautiful picture and it pissed off Heero majorly.

"I don´t believe this," he repeated with more heat in his voice. "Can they even do that without asking? I mean..."

"What are you so pissed about, Heero. It´s a great picture... even you, a neanderthal when it comes to art, must admit that it´s wonderfully done. The work of light and shadow is perfect." Wufei regarded the picture with the eye of somebody who studied the history of art.

"I don´t care about how the light works with shadow here. It´s me in that picture and the people are making fun of me because of it!" he almost yelled. He got even more pissed when some girls who were strolling around the gallery chuckled at his exclamation. He glared at them and they hurried off.

"Heero, I don´t understand you. There is a person on this campus who thinks you are Perfection on two legs and you can only think about some people making fun of you." Wufei shook his head.

That managed to stop Heero´s rant. Was there really someone who thought he was perfect? His eyes narrowed. Or was this some kind of joke?

As if reading his mind, Wufei rolled his eyes. "C'mon, Heero. Even you don´t believe not all the people out there are out to get you, do you? This is probably some girl who has a crush on you so she is idealizing you. She must be idealizing you, since I know you and you are NOT perfect so don´t let it get to your head."

Heero scowled at him, but then looked at the picture again. Okay, he admitted reluctantly. It was a beautifully done picture and the artist managed to catch his inner self perfectly. But still... He took a step closer, leaned forward and squinted to try and read the name of the artist. Maybe he should have a little talk with the girl and tell her to cool down her hormones a little. And the name was...

"Shinigami?" he said loud with surprise straightening suddenly.

Wufei, who was looking at some other pictures in this part of gallery, turned to him. "Huh?"

Heero waved his hand at the picture. "The name of the artist is Shinigami."

"The God of Death," Wufei said. "Well, Mr. Khushrenada does encourage the artists not to sign the pictures with their own names since people should make their opinion without being biased by friendship or other things."

Heero blinked in surprise. He didn´t know that. "But how should I contact the artist?"

Wufei raised his eyebrows. "And why would you want to do that?"

"To ask her to take it down. I won´t allow her to make me into a clown on campus."

Wufei sighed. "Heero, whoever made this put a lot of work into it. You work on a computer program, the artist worked on this. How would you feel if somebody wanted you to destroy one of the computers you are working on? This picture will be a part of her finals this semester. You wouldn´t want her to fail her course, would you?"

Heero gritted his teeth. Wufei was playing on his guilt. He hated him! "Maybe I could ask Mr.Khushrenada who this err... Shinigami is. I would just like to ask her not to do that again!"

Wufei sighed again. "Heero, I think at least half of the guys on campus are jealous of you."

"Yeah, there's a thing to be jealous of... for your portrait to hang next to a picture of a toaster," he said and waved his hand at the picture hanging next to the big white square.

"Just a minute ago, you didn´t like that they were making fun of you and now you don´t like that you are hanging next to a toaster?"

Heero fumed.

Wufei patted him on the shoulder. "Is it really that bad to be the portrait of Perfection for somebody?" he asked.

Heero sighed. This outburst was really atypical for him. "No," he admitted. "Just a bad day."

"See? You wouldn´t destroy this artist´s bright future just because you got out of the wrong side of the bed, would you?"

The guilt thing again. "No."

"Great."

"But I still think I should find out who..."

"Well, I´m sure this is a one time thing. Nothing else. In a week, they will take it down and everything will be as it was before. You will see." Wufei patted him on the shoulder again, as he steered him toward the exit.

Heero turned around and glanced at the portrait once again. Whoever this Shinigami was, he will find out. And then he will have a little talk with her, he thought to himself. This girl really managed to catch his attention.

It never occured to him that the girl could be a guy.

*-*-*-*-*

Duo Maxwell watched the two Oriental looking young men walk to the exit. He noticed the look Heero Yuy threw over his shoulder, looking at his own picture once again. He didn´t hear what they were talking about, but it didn´t matter. Hook, line and sinker, he chuckled to himself.

He chuckled again as Chang Wufei, his classmate and fellow conspirator, gave him the thumbs-up sign behind his best friend´s back. Their plan was working perfectly.

Hook, line and sinker indeed.

The End