Stones within the wind

Yamada loved to teach sculpting in the open air, near the sculpting cabin and under the shade of an extended old roof structure. Weird at first but appreciated quickly by the students who are cooped up in classrooms and cabins.

With the occupied students, Ryu was sculpting as well, trying to emulate fabric fluidity on a stone like that one sculpture in the city museum.

He sat in the corner of the last row, far away from the teacher's eye so he wouldn't tell him that this is a very advanced technique and he should focus on the basics and blah blah. He felt the need for a side quest.

'Maybe my roommate is a bad influence?'

Yamada was checking every student one by one, at least he got a breezy spot.

"Carve deeper, you're grazing over the stone too lightly." The teacher told him.

He was tempted to throw the stone in his water bucket to start anew.

"No, no, continue with this one."

"It's messy thought."

"Yeah, make it messier, that's how toddlers learn, and we are big toddlers." He patted his shoulder.

He was about to go to another student.

"Ah, just don't get too busy and forget your assignment."

He showed him his finished work, an Antirrhinum calanrvioum plant in a pomegranate shaped pot. Totally not taking inspiration from roomie's kids.

The rest of the morning period was spent in quiet practice and one slightly pretentious, motivational speech by Yamada, which he kinda pulls off since he doesn't take himself too seriously.

School work and actual work were so similar yet so different at the same time. Instead of a predetermined deadline, one had to estimate how much time work would take, trying to change it if the customer needed it sooner.

You couldn't throw mistakes in the recycle bucket too, real materials had cost. The stakes were a little higher when repairing pre-existing work that had history and attachment to it.

In a town not too far away from the city, he and Mitsuki were working on some broken Qamaria, a category of stained glass known in the Yemenite culture.

The half-circle frame was usually above doors and windows. Glass pieces are separated by gypsum or other material instead of wire metal in most common stained glass.

'This's kinda embedded in the wall, we can't take it out and fix it like usual.' He noted as he inspected it curiously.

He watched as his mentor took the measurements of the missing piece then cut a new piece to the exact measurements.

As for the installation, she cut more of the surrounding gypsum, placed the new glass in its location and reapplied the gypsum between the glass pieces.

'It's a simple procedure, almost too simple however one mistake removing the old gypsum could damage the intact nearby pieces.'

He looked at the old walls of the building.

'Can't let that happen.'

He cut the new pieces and prepared the gypsum while Mitsuki did the main work till one window was down, which took more than it seemed.

"Watch a couple more times, then roll up and join me."

"Yes."

There always was a certain mesmerizing rush of starting a new project and touching a new material. The heaviness of it all.

She watched as the cautions slightly uncertain moves settled, establishing mental familiarity.

'His hands are stable as ever.'

Since gypsum needed to dry completely before breaking some more in the same window so they jumped around between windows, fixing a piece in each till the sun hovered near the horizon.

The golden rays hit the colorful glass while some entered the building unchanged, he counted with his eyes there were sixteen windows and three doors with Qamarias above them, in addition to a couple way high. almost touching the ceiling, which he tried to ignore, for now at least.

'And this is a four story building.'

He looked again at the walls, apparently this whole building was made out of clay. A special method they invented.

"This will take three weeks, give or take." She told the client.

"Also think about installing some protective glass on the outside." She looked at the remnants of the sandstorm inside the building.

"Wind can bring all sorts of stones with it."

They left the tools in the building and walked to the station.

"Will you be alright kid, with the studies and such? Asking too late though."

"Yup, the next assignment is not until next month, just got morning practicing classes."

Yamada was the kind that graded students on their progress in addition to assignments too.

"Maybe you should've played it safe with Andre and taken painting classes."

"That won't be safe, he makes us stay painting till night sometimes. Two electives with him would tank my grades in the mandatory class, it's a lose-lose with him."

'He also gives you assignments outside of any courses if he's your advisor.' He kept that to himself.

"Don't butt heads with him though, I wanna come to your graduation, kid."

"I don't know teach, I really don't."

"Didn't mean to press you, but kiddo... just don't let a broken man break what you could get."

"But... isn't pleasing him a first class ticket to becoming broken?"

In the apartment the washing machine was removing gypsum and faux stone residue from his clothes. He stepped out of the bathroom, drying his hair.

He caught a glimpse of himself in his roomie's mirror, gray veins visible.

A strong spasm ran through his guts, vision getting blurry.

"Maybe the lack of sleep is catching up to me." He lies down, falling asleep with eyes half open.

A jolt of stinging coldness woke him up. In the bathtub, with his pajamas on, submerged in water to the chin.

The water was sapphire blue like the healing gem in addition to purple star anise, yellow mint and other wild stuff.

He couldn't move but he saw Roxanne next to the bathtub, head and arms in her treasure box.

She emptied a bag of tiny doorknobs in the water and tried to distribute them with her hands but quickly ran to the kitchen and came back with a bonafide ladle to mix the ingredients.

He giggled while she was deep in focus she looked like she was making soup in a bathtub like her life depended on it.

She looked at him, face unreadable.

"I'mma drop the human formalities. One of your sides could die in the midst of your puberty. Also, there's a ten percent chance you could die completely. Also good evening, roomie."