Art Class

This was a dream I had 4/27/2019


"Okay, I'm starting to see a trend here, Elly..." The gray haired professor beside her tapped the sketchpad resting on her easel. "We know you love this manga, but I asked for a portrait of someone real."

The twenty year old woman groaned dismally at her teacher's insistence. "It is real. That's my boyfriend." The class murmured amongst themselves excitedly as she blew at a strand of purple hair tickling her cheek. "I asked him to pose for me."

The older man looked first at the stunning portrait, a male around her age with dark hair, his back ripped both with muscles and intermittent scars. His eyes seemed to glow with a malevolent light as he stared over his shoulder, matching, as her teacher pointed now, at the man depicted on her coffee mug.

"He looks exactly like the character?"

"Yeah. Can you blame me?" She grinned slyly, tugging at the lumpy bandana she always wore.

"And his name is..?"

"What is this, fifty questions? Look. We live together off campus. He picks me up after class, I'll text him to stop by instead of wait by the car, okay?" She looked around woth a cheeky grin, seeing how the other students had perked up. "I know you're all dying to see what he really looks like."

"If we agree he's ah... nothing like the portraits you keep offering us, can we agree you'll stop submitting them and draw something - ah, someone -- real from then on?"

She snickered as she tapped on her phone. "He won't be wearing any makeup or a costume. You're in for a surprise."

Several hours later there was a diffident tapping on the door. Since no one usually entered at the end of class, everyone jumped, spinning around on their benches to see better. They knew who this must be. The professor walked calmly over and opened it.

The man standing there was dressed in all black, dark jeans and a turtleneck with long sleeves. As he stepped inside the room it was deadly silent except for the sound of Elly's sandals slapping on the floor as she bounded over for a hug. He blinked tiredly at her and slowly wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Thanks, Sho. I know you don't like to socialize, but the class insisted."

"Uh huh." His long, dark hair was tied back in a messy bun. He was the perfect image of the character depicted on half the things she owned and used in class. Everything was real: the dark hollows under his bloodshot eyes, one with a scar underneath. And though his turtleneck was baggy, he radiated such strength no one doubted he was as lean and muscled underneath as she had drawn. As if to prove this, he quite easily lifted her with one arm, grinning in an oddly disturbing manner.

Several people gasped audibly and she chuckled. "They didn't think you were real."

"If I had known I would receive such a warm welcome, I'd have fixed that perception sooner."

"We're done for today, right?" This was addressed to the professor.

The older man nodded, blinking rapidly as if he couldn't believe what he was watching unfold before his eyes. "Y - yes."

"Okay. See you in a couple, then - grab my bags, please, Sho?"

He nodded, scooped the somber leather portfolio and the neon splotched backpack in his other arm, noting again how at odds they were. "That it?"

"Yep! See ya, everyone." She giggled as he ducked, careful not to smack her on the doorframe as he walked out.

The door closing behind them seemed very loud. Students and teacher sat staring in bewilderment until someone broke the silence.

"Holy shit, did he look like him or what?!"

Several ran to the windows to watch the parking lot. "They'll come out there. C'mon, Let's follow them!"

"I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear that." The teacher sighed as the class rushed out into the hallway.

A quarter of an hour later some of the more unscrupulous people in the class were sitting in a car watching a certain apartment block. One of the women pointed.

"That's her apartment - on the bottom, there. I know, we went there once with a few friends. Her boyfriend wasn't there, but, you know, it's not like you could tell a guy lived there anyway." She paused, then added, "Unless you looked in the closet or bathroom drawer. Um. Which, hell yeah I did."

"What was in the -"

"Shh! There they are!"

The group watched as the couple, walking close together with the man's hand resting comfortably on her rear.

"I guess he likes big, lumpy butts."

"Eww!"

"Again, shut it! Look!"

The lights came on and they squinted, straining to look through the glass patio doors.

"That was interesting," Aizawa commented drily, flopping onto the couch.

"Fnf! Tell me about it." Elly reached up and pulled her bandanna off. "Ugh, I hate this thing." Two furry cat's ears perked up from her purple hair. She grunted, then dug down and removed the headband with two human ears on the sides she also wore. "I hate this, too."

"And you hate stuffing your tail into your pants. I know, my queen." He reached up as she turned around, delving inside her slacks to pull a striped tail with double-ended, white tips out.

"Yes." She swished it angrily as if to demonstrate.

"I know," he sighed. "They couldn't handle me, though. How do you think people would react to the real you?"

"I know. I just want to bitch a little."

He laughed, pulling her down to sit on his lap.

Outside in the car, her classmates were staring at each other in shock.

"I'm just going to pretend we never did this," the driver said firmly. "So we never saw that."

"It has to be a joke... right?"

"Don't care." He backed up and began the short drive to campus. "Let's just not bother thinking about it."

"Yeah..."