Work Text:
Miu Iruma, the gorgeous girl genius and greatest inventor alive, was in a creative rut.
She didn’t get them often; normally, she only got them once in a blue moon, but they had been more frequent at Hope’s Peak. That was the fault of one Angie Yonaga.
Whenever the Ultimate Artist got artblock- which was once or twice every few months- so did the rest of the 79th class. It usually lasted a couple of days, in which the whole class would be off their game until Angie got inspired again. The phenomenon had since been dubbed the Creativity Curse.
Miu wasn’t entirely sure if this one was Angie’s doing. No one else had said anything, so it might have just been her. She pulled out her phone and opened the group chat.
— — — —
Class 69!!
piano man: who changed the chat name??
piano man: i promise i won’t be mad
maaagic: you are literally shaking with rage
piano man: i might be a little mad
clowning: are y’all two together rn???
sherlock homo: that is absolutely not the correct usage of y’all
sherlock homo: did you change my name again
clowning: maybeee
maaagic: we’re hanging out in the music room
Bottom: anyone else feelig like shit creativly
toaster: *feeling *creatively
Bottom: fuck off kiibs
Bottom: WHO CHNAGED MY NAME
toaster: Who changed MY name?!
Miu changed their name to XXX
XXX: anyways answer my question shitheads
piano man: i haven’t
maaagic: me neither
clowning: i’m doing great creatively
sherlock homo: that makes me nervous
clowning: good
XXX: ugh so it’s just me then
XXX: @angle you need to get artblock so the rest of you losers suffer with me
maaagic: the ‘you losers’ part was unnecessary
angle: unforchanaerlty angie is feeling very inspired
sherlock homo: do
sherlock homo: do you mean unfortunately
angle: that’s what angie said
XXX: UGH
angle: you can come to my lab if you want! i’m always happy to help when you need inspiration
XXX: might just take you up on that ange
— — — —
Miu slipped her phone in her pocket and gathered up her sketchbook. She left the tech lab, waving goodbye to Chihiro. She gave Kazuichi the middle finger.
She made her way to the Artist’s Circle, nearly getting run over by Tsumugi, who was running to the Performing Arts Hall with an armful of fabric. She apologized, but kept running. Miu rolled her eyes and continued to the Drawing and Painting Studio.
When she stepped inside, she saw Angie covered in paint, bent over a canvas. She looked up when Miu came in, and smiled at her. “Come in, come in!” she called.
Miu sat on a table near where Angie was painting on the floor. She watched as Angie mixed up some colors, humming as she did so. After a moment Angie spoke up.
“You were actually the inspiration for this painting! I’ve always wanted to do something in your color scheme, but I could never think of anything. Then the other day, Angie heard Gundam say that your hair was snake-like, and Angie started thinking about how pretty snakes that color would be! Next thing I knew, I had a whole sketch ready.” Angie picked up a sketchbook from beside her, and handed it to Miu.
It was a nice sketch. In the center, there was a large snake, curling around what looked like wires. There were gears and wires towards the background, with smaller snakes curling around them. Miu admired it for a moment, then handed the book back to Angie.
Angie started painting, using a large brush to start to form the center snake in pink on the black canvas. As she worked, Miu started thinking about how she mixed the paint. It had to be annoying; what if you wanted to use the same color? You would have to mix it all again. Even if you remembered the exact ratios, which Angie probably did, it would be annoying to mix them again.
She started sketching absentmindedly. Wouldn’t an automatic paint mixer be cool? She’d spotted empty paint tubes in the storage closet here once, maybe she could make it so the paint could be automatically tubed. And it would need a way to remember previous colors. Maybe it could analyze a sample and make the color it was given? It could have a suction function, to suck up excess paint into tubes. Oh, and an automatic brush cleaner! She had heard Angie complaining about having to clean her brushes more than once.
After a while, Angie scooted away from her canvas and flopped onto her back. Miu glanced up at the painting, and blinked. The snake she had painted was incredible. It was the same shade of pale pink as Miu’s hair, with gleaming blue eyes. It looked like she could reach into the painting and feel its scales.
“Not bad. You almost managed to capture the beauty and intelligence of yours truly, and you’re not even painting me.”
Angie laughed, sitting up. “I don’t think I could ever capture that. I’m just hoping people can get a sense of it from this painting. I wish I could just paint you, but I’m afraid I could never do you justice.”
The noise that came out of Miu’s mouth was between a squeak and a moan. Angie giggled.
“W-well, anyways, you did help. This is gonna be the best machine you’ve ever laid eyes on! When you see it, you’ll drop to your knees and start worshiping my boots!”
“Angie’s sure she will.” her eyes twinkled. “Before you go, Miu-”
She sprung up and threw her arms around Miu’s shoulders, pressing their lips together in a kiss. She stepped back and pushed her to the door. “Go make your machine! Angie can’t wait to see it!”
Miu was about halfway through building her machine when it finally hit her.
Oh shit. Angie just kissed me.