Work Text:
The idea started because Hanako found a sketchbook.
This was already a bad sign.
Nene knew this because Hanako only found things when the universe had decided she deserved a problem.
“Let’s draw,” he announced.
Nene looked up from her homework.
“…Why?”
“Because I’m bored.”
“Go haunt someone.”
“I am haunting someone.”
He pointed directly at her.
Nene sighed.
Five minutes later, they were sitting on the bathroom floor with a sketchbook between them.
“Okay,” Hanako said confidently. “We’ll draw each other.”
Nene immediately regretted agreeing.
“That sounds terrible.”
“Exactly. It’ll be fun.”
Hanako handed her a pencil.
Nene accepted it with the grim determination of someone volunteering for a disaster relief effort.
“Ready?”
“No.”
“Perfect.”
They began.
The bathroom was silent except for the scratching of pencils.
Hanako looked oddly focused.
Nene looked oddly concerned.
After a few minutes, Hanako announced, “Done.”
“Already?”
“I’m a genius.”
“That’s never a good sign.”
Hanako turned the sketchbook around.
Nene stared.
The drawing was…
Technically a human.
Probably.
There was a circle for a head.
Two dots for eyes.
Hair that looked like it had been attacked by a weed trimmer.
And legs that appeared to be different lengths.
“Hanako.”
“Yes?”
“Why do I have three arms?”
He squinted.
“…For balance.”
“That’s not how people work.”
“Maybe not for you.”
Nene closed her eyes.
Hanako looked extremely proud of himself.
“Your turn.”
Reluctantly, Nene revealed her drawing.
Hanako stared.
Then he stared longer.
“…Am I a potato?”
“You are not a potato.”
“Then why am I potato-shaped?”
Nene pointed at the page.
“That’s your hat.”
“Oh.”
A pause.
“…Then why am I two potatoes?”
She looked closer.
“…Okay, that’s fair.”
Hanako burst out laughing.
The kind of laugh that made him fold in on himself slightly.
Nene tried to look offended.
She failed.
Soon they were both laughing at the sketchbook.
Every drawing somehow got worse.
Hanako attempted to draw Mokke.
The Mokke ended up looking like a haunted marshmallow.
Nene tried to draw Kou.
The result resembled an angry traffic cone.
Hanako drew a cat.
Neither of them could identify it as a cat until he wrote “CAT” underneath it.
“You’re cheating,” Nene accused.
“It’s called labeling.”
“That’s not art.”
“It absolutely is.”
At some point, they started drawing on the same page.
Not competing.
Just adding things.
Nene drew flowers.
Hanako drew little ghosts hiding behind them.
Nene added clouds.
Hanako gave the clouds faces.
Nene drew a school building.
Hanako added a giant fish floating over it.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then why did you draw it?”
“Because it wanted to be here.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It is if you’re creative.”
The page slowly filled with nonsense.
A school.
Flowers.
Ghosts.
Stars.
Fish.
Random smiling objects.
None of it made sense.
All of it somehow fit together.
Eventually Nene found herself smiling as she added another tiny flower to the corner.
Hanako leaned over her shoulder.
“What’s that one?”
“A daisy.”
“It looks confused.”
“It’s doing its best.”
“Relatable.”
Nene laughed.
The bathroom grew quiet again.
Comfortably quiet.
Hanako rested his chin on the edge of the sketchbook.
Neither of them were drawing anymore.
Just looking.
The pages were full of terrible art.
Objectively terrible.
Museum curators would cry.
Art teachers would resign.
The fish alone was probably illegal.
And yet…
Nene kind of loved it.
“It looks awful,” she said.
“It really does.”
“We’re both bad at this.”
“Exceptionally.”
A pause.
Then Hanako pointed toward one corner.
Nene followed his finger.
Nestled among the flowers and stars was a tiny doodle she hadn’t noticed before.
Two stick figures.
One with a hat.
One with long hair.
Standing side by side.
Simple.
Small.
Easy to miss.
Nene looked at it for a second.
Then at Hanako.
Hanako was suddenly very interested in the ceiling.
“…You drew that.”
“No proof.”
“It’s literally your drawing style.”
“My drawing style is highly versatile.”
“You drew three-armed Nene.”
“An artistic choice.”
Nene shook her head, smiling despite herself.
When she looked back down, she quietly drew a tiny heart above the stick figures.
Not a big one.
Just a little doodled heart.
Small enough that she could pretend it wasn’t important.
Hanako noticed immediately.
Neither of them said anything.
The bathroom remained quiet.
The sketchbook stayed open between them.
