Chapter Text
Artistry yawned and hugged his stuffed lion closer to him. He was slacking off, watching the morning news, but not really paying any attention at the same time. He was wearing some pajamas with his favorite cartoon character, Hello Kitty.
It was his day off, and he didn't really have anything to keep him busy. He could try to rearrange his room, but that's too boring. And he had no hobbies to try and partake in, and no friends to hang out with. Well, that wasn't really true.
One of the benefits of being popular and famous is having fans. He was near certain that if he asked someone if they wanted to hang out with Artistry, they would say yes in a heartbeat. But fans and friends are something different, and the line was usually blurry when it came to deciding who he considered his bestest friend ever. Other than Orchestraful, of course.
Honestly, best friend is definitely an overstatement. It was more like Orchestraful tolerated Artistry. They didn't exactly get along, but whenever Artistry was upset, Orchestraful calmed him down. And Artistry would help Orchestraful with whatever he needed help with. Except now.
Artistry heard the kitchen door sliding open, and Orchestraful came out, holding a towel and drying his hands - his actual hands, not the magic ones - with it.
"Artistry, can you help me with the dishes?"
"And why should I?" Artistry adjusted his position so he was directly facing the man. "You've got your magical hands. Plus, it's my day off."
"You said that for 3 days in a row." Orchestraful put the towel on the armrest of the couch and walked over the Artistry now sinking into his pile of various stuffed animals. "Come on, get up." He held out his hand to Artistry, who promptly smacked it away. "Nuh uh."
"I am going to kill you."
"You'd never!"
"I would." Orchestraful sighed and retracted his hand. "If you won't help me with the dishes, can you do something other than being useless and staying on the couch for the entire day?"
Artistry peeped his head out of the toy pile. "Oh, of course!"
"Great. Start by, oh, I don't know, putting all your toys back in your room, and not the living room? Seriously, you're not a little kid anymore."
"No. This is my castle. I am not destroying my hard work, because you said so."
"Okay, you do you then." Orchestraful walked back into the kitchen, forgetting to pick up the towel.
"You're not even gonna try to argue?" No response.
Artistry looked at the towel, before looking at the now shut kitchen door, then back at the towel, before taking it and putting it next to him.
After a little bit of contemplating his life choices, Artistry stood up, making a few toys fall to the ground. He picked up the towel and went into the kitchen, where Orchestraful was reading a newspaper and taking a sip of coffee.
The kitchen smelt of coffee and something else, which Artistry hated. The smell of coffee is far too bitter for his taste. The dishwasher was running, and the sink was dripping a drop of water every few seconds. Artistry threw the towel on a random chair, then sat down next to Orchestraful, who took a sip of coffee. "What do you want," he said, not paying attention to Artistry.
"Wanna go shopping?"
"Is this your way of doing something resourceful?"
"Nah. I just wanna hang with you."
"I'm flattered." He set down his newspaper before looking at Artistry. "And why should I?"
Artistry narrowed his eyes in mock annoyance. "We're low on... stuff."
"No, we're not. You haven't even bothered to check anything."
"Have too!"
"Wrong." Orchestraful took another sip of coffee, then went to put his cup in the sink. "Tell you what. If I go out with you, you stop annoying me. And also stop taking 'days off.' Deal?"
"Fine."
"Say deal."
"Deal. There, happy?"
"Yes. Now, go change into something better than Hello Kitty PJs. I am not letting you out the house with that attire."
"But, I like wearing them! They're super comfy!"
"Not happening. Change out of them or I'm not going."
"You're just grumpy because you don't have cool pajamas like me."
"I am not."
"Are too!"
"Artistry. Come on."
"Fine, fine, I'm going."
Fast forward to sometime at the afternoon...
Artistry and Orchestraful were at a store called "Treasure Lands", mostly just looking around and occasionally putting some things inside their shopping cart, only because Artistry begged Orchestraful to get it. A majority of the items in the cart being various toys and the like. They did not bother to get anything useful. When Orchestraful questioned Artistry about this problem, he simply shrugged it off by saying he'd pay for it.
They were in the toy aisle when Artistry found a box that piqued his interest. He picked it up and examined it. Inside, there was a small rabbit toy - roughly about the size of Artistry's hand - and some accessories, most notable one being some kind of generator that was bright pink and had some decals on it. The rabbit was cream-brown, wearing a pink dress with light blue surrounding the edges of the dress. It was wearing a huge pink bow on its head, and some cyan bows were next to the ears.
On the front of the box, it read "Dolly's Factory: Cinnabun!" Artistry flipped it around and read on the back about how the plushies sold by this company are truly alive. He scoffed, there was no way something could be alive, unless it had actual magic in it. Definitely not like he knew anything about magic. Yep. That was not the case.
Artistry nudged Orchestraful on shoulder, but he ignored the poking. Annoyed, Artistry shoved the box in Orchestraful's face. "Hey, Ort, check this out! You think this box is telling the truth?"
""Ort"" grabbed the box from Artistry's hands and put it on a random shelf. "First of all, don't call me that. Second of all, there is no way I am letting you buy more toys to clutter up the apartment."
"Please?" Artistry gave his best attempts of puppy dog eyes to try and pursuade Orchestraful, but to no avail. "No, Artistry, I told you no, so, no."
Artistry hung his head dejectedly. Looking at the box, a mischieveous, most silly idea crossed his mind.
Just shoplift it.
Or pay for it when Orchestraful wasn't looking.
The former seemed more entertaining, but he wasn't planning on going to jail. Not yet anyway. So for now, he would have to choose the less interesting option.
The plan seemed simple, move the box discreetly whenever Orchestraful's attention was diverted, and take it to checkout to pay for it, and the plan would be complete. However, while it did sound simple on paper, Orchestraful was able to catch onto Artistry's silly tricks very quickly. One of the perks of living with an annoying little brat, Artistry guessed.
So while he was in the process in moving the toy, he had to position himself so his back was hiding the box. Orchestraful - thankfully - passed this off as Artistry casually looking around.
A bunch of walking and decent conversations later, they finally made it into checkout, Orchestraful not suspecting a thing. Perfect. Artistry helped Orchestraful put a few things on the conveyor belt.
"Do you want to pay using card or cash?" the cashier asked indifferently.
"Card," Artistry chirped. He dug into his back pocket to get out his wallet, but couldn't find it. Artistry glanced at Orchestraful who was putting the now bagged items into the cart. "Uh, can I have a moment?" The cashier made a hum of approval, and Artistry quickly pulled Orchestraful away from his task. "Ok, little problem. I forgot my wallet at home."
Orchestraful didn't say anything, only raised an eyebrow.
"You got any idea what do we do now?"
Orchestraful glanced at the items - now bagged and set aside in the cart - then back at Artistry. "Put them back?"
"Could you maybe possibly pretty please pay for them?" Artistry said quickly, not looking at Orchestraful. "I can- pay you back!"
"You just want me to buy you the stupid toy you've been bringing along this entire time, right?" Orchestraful asked matter-of-factly. "Don't think I haven't seen you putting it on the closest shelf every once in a while."
Artistry looked dumbfounded. And here he thought he'd made up the greatest strategy, but nope. Orchestraful really was a smart guy, no doubt of that.
"But I thought you said you didn't want me to get it!"
"If you really, really, really want me to buy it, I suppose I will. But you'd better pay me back."
"Yeah, of course!"
"Ok, give me the thing. You put back the stuff I bagged."
Artistry raised his hand in a mini salute to the other man. "Yes sir!"
Roughly twenty minutes later, Artistry sat down in the passenger seat, holding his new toy. Orchestraful slammed the car door, and started the car. Pulling out of the parking lot, he glanced at Artistry before switching his attention to the road ahead.
"Are you happy?"
"Yep!"
"You'd better leave me alone for atleast a week. Oh, and you've got to pay me back."