The ingredients to fine art is not well mixed paint or professionally designed brushes. Art comes from the heart and soul. As it is expressed many times before by a young artist and college student, Higama Kurunai.

He did small jobs, such as sculpt pottery and paint along street walls. Back at home, however, he had stacks and stacks of papers of drawings, drawers filled with tools. He had counted roughly about 349 pictures. All of female elves in elegant dresses and short blonde hair. With the pink, pointed ears and deep green eyes that matched the forest. But none satisfied him...

At the University, Higama was known as the kind, quiet boy who always sat in the back corner in class. He was very calm and quiet, even when alone, but always looked happy, because he was.

At the Ange Univeristy, Higama was studying hard, as usual in history class.... Or everyone thought he was...

'Just a little too fat...' He thought to himself, sketching an elf maiden in his notebook.

History class was always like this. He could recite the book forwards and back, he'd read the whole thing so that he would not need to study later on, which he found quite useful. The proffessor, however, knew, but never really interfered with him. Higama did well in class, and that was fine with her. When class was over, his favorite subject was next. Art.

He smiled brightly as the proffessors switched classes, he enjoyed art from a very early age, and immediately began mimmicking traveling artists. A male came into the room dressed in a white coat, with a bright smile. What is this? A substitute?

"Good afternoon, kids, my name is Prof. Haregami. I'll be your new proffessor from here on end." His smile was so warm and disarming. He placed a suitcase on the desk at the head of the class. "First, I'd like to get to know my students a little better..."

Higama raised his hand as Prof. Haregami answered politely.

"Yes, Mr. Kurunai?"

Higama hesitated, how did he know his name, if he's new to the class? "Um.. Well... If it's okay to ask..."

"Don't be shy, go on."

"What happened to Mrs. Darin?"

Prof. Haregami took on a serious expression, glancing around the room at the curious faces of the students. He smiled again, brushing dark brown bangs from his eyes, and staring at Higama squarely in the face, "Prof. Darin, had an... 'Unfortunate' accident."

Higama paled slightly, what exactly is this proffessor indicating? What 'unfortunate' accident? And the intense stare...

"Anything else, Mr. Kurunai?"

"N-no, sensei..."

The rest of the day went on as normal as it could go. And it did so throughout the entire week, until one Saturday afernoon Higama would label as, "strange."

For the past week, everyone had noticed that Prof. Haregami ALWAYS carried around that black suitcase. But what was inside? He had never opened it, and of course, rumors spread.

"I hear he's got drugs in there."

"But isn't that illegal?"

"It could be a gun he's hiding, and he doesn't like going anywhere without it."

Higama was polite to the people who spread such nonsense, though he never believed it. That Saturday afternoon, however, the proffessor had requested to see Higama afterclass. Everyone left, as Prof. Haregami closed the door and turned to face his student. The proffessor was a handsome man. Beautiful, infact, with short, dark brown hair, and violet eyes. He always wore that white coat for some unknown reason. Well, some people were strange that way.

Higama, on the other hand, was much shorter than the tall proffessor, but was of about average height for his age. He was a gentle looking thing, with short, black hair, which seemed to constantly try to blind his right eye. The school uniform suited him well, though he liked being in a cooking apron working in the kitchen...

"Thank you for your company."

"Your welcome, Prof. Haregami. Ano.... What did you want, i-if I may ask?"

Prof. Haregami smiled, "I've seen your drawings. They are impressive. Tell me... What are you working towards? With all of those pictures of gorgeous elven maidens, you must be reaching out for some high goal. What is it?"

Higama blushed at the compliment, and looked down toward his feet.

"Higama, please, look at me when you answer."

The boy obeyed immediately, having never been called by his given name before. "Y-yes sir. I.... It's a bit childish of me..."

He blushed again, struggling not to look away from the proffessor. Prof. Haregami walked from the door and towards his desk, where he took a seat. "You don't have anything to worry about. Come now, tell me."

The gaze made Higama shift from foot to foot uneasily, "Well.... A long time ago... When I was younger-in 5th grade, I think, I was playing with my friends... And... I saw someone painting on the wall..."

*Flash Back...*

Higama's Point of View:

I hadn't known much abou art up until then. The guy was by himself, so..... But nobody would talk to him. And... no one noticed. I thought he felt lonely....

"Higama-chan! Where are you going?"

"Come play with us!"

"Ano.... There's a strange man over there..."

"What man?"

"Hee hee, I think Higama-chan has gone crazy! "

No one saw him, and he was right there... Painting on the wall, there were pretty shades of green. I looked over his shoulder, I remember how I felt his silky silver hair against my cheek. It was silver... Then, he turned to me... He looked sad, so....

I hugged him, real tight, and wouldn't let go. He didn't let go. And then I decided...

*End of Flash Back*

"What did you decide on, Higama-kun?" The proffessor seemed quite amused at the tale.

"I decided I'd paint for him. He had pointed ears, and long, silver hair. It made me think of an elf, so I wanted to paint a friend for him."

Prof. Haregami plastered a serious frown on his face, as he rubbed his chin in deep thought. Looking now and then to Hagami, then to the window, then to Hagami again, she finally smiled. This of which Higama took as a good sign. "I'll tell you what..." He got up from his chair, and bent over to unlock his suitcase. Higama stiffened, Prof. Haregami opened his suitcase! What could be inside?

Prof. Haregami pulled out a rather long scrolled up paper, which was tied closed by a thin, red ribbon.

"U-uh, what is this?"

Prof. Haregami opened the boy's hand, and placed the paper in his palm. "You go and free your 'elf maiden.'"

Higama looked in puzzlement at his sensei, but before any questions could be raised, he was sent off home. Roughly about fifteen minutes later, he entered his room. His room mate was not there, yet again, which he was a bit thankful for. His room mate was a strange fellow, almost had the characteristics of a robot...

He shuffled through his bag of folders, which contained some of the "few" pictures he had brought with him from home. Setting the paper on he floor, he carefully removed the ribbon, unrolling the paper. Strange, it really did not hold any message of the sort. What was it? It had green leaf patterns, though they were very light, and had a beautiful forest scenery for the background of a well drawn out picture.

"Free my elf maiden..." He wondered to himself. All his years he thought that to draw the most beautiful elf maiden was the only way to bring back his child hood aquaintance. Maybe... Maybe he was going about this all wrong... Maybe a "maiden" was not the answer...

He seized his favorite pencil, which he only used on rare occassions, and began drawing the sharp eyes from his memory, which seemed to suddenly be flooding back to him. The strange green robes, he hadn't even noticed that color was forming on the picture he was drawing. He drew the long, silvery hair in great detail. The depressed expression, the crossed arms. Pointed nose and ears, every bang, ever eyelash, every shade of shadow, drawn out directly from his now vivid memory.

Soon, his picture was done... This was.... This was IT! This is the beautiful person he'd been trying and trying for so many years to rediscover.

Higama felt extremely pleased with himself, resisting the urge to hug his creation, lest he crumpled it. He soon realized how late it was, and placed his picture on the desk, taking one last glance before crawling into the bunk bed.

Closing his eyes wearily, sleep was drifting right above him..... That is.... When a slight rustle was heard. The room was dark, could it be his room mate, back at last? He peeked at a dark figure, which was standing at his bed side. "R-Ryu?" He called his room mate's name, but no reply. He sat up, and was now staring blindly at the figures face, his hand hand searching for the pull string on the lamp.

He found it, turned on the lights, and found himself staring into sharp green eyes.

"AH! You! You-re-"

"Isaerus."

~*~

I had had this idea for about almost a year now, but never really paid much mind to it. I hope you found it interesting, and a review in any form is welcome.