So Stubborn

Perhaps the only thing puffing harder than Mickey himself was the wheezing tire at the bike's front. Even from her perch on the handlebars, or perhaps especially because she was sitting up there, Minnie could feel the tire deflating with every foot it crawled up the hill. The bike dug its nails into the hillside and dragged its limping metal frame upward, but would have otherwise refused to do so if Mickey hadn't been whipping it forward, pounding into those pedals more like he was marching to battle than manipulating a bicycle. She remembered something, all the way back at her front gate, about him declaring the ride together would be fun when he'd wrapped his hands around her waist and hoisted her up onto the handlebars, but Mickey didn't appear to be having a terribly fun time right now. His cheeks were flushed, a trickle of sweat leaked from his brow.

"I could get off and push, you know," Minnie offered helpfully.

"No," he grunted between throaty huffs.

"Or you could push," Minnie tried again, appealing to Mickey's philosophy that it was not a girl's place to labor if there was already a boy present to the job for her. Such a thing was not always favorable to Minnie when she was, say, trying to handle a task with a delicacy that bold Mickey was incapable of, but in this situation she thought he might take the bait.

"No," Mickey growled, followed quickly by a groan as he briefly gripped Minnie's arm to keep her from wobbling. "Gonna...do it...th'...urgh...gotta...notta man f'I don't..."

Not a man if he didn't? Didn't what, have a heart attack? Fall over dead from exhaustion from biking her up this hill? "My, that's awfully silly," Minnie told him plainly, because that was her job, setting Mickey straight when he behaved like this. "I'll bet there's a whole handful of men who haven't biked up this hill before. Or any hill this steep, even."

Mickey shot her a very unappreciative look, but Minnie saw right through it. He was thinking right now that it was both wonderful and terrible that she was trying to dissuade him, wonderful and terrible that she should take pity on his predicament and offer him more rational alternatives. Wonderful and terrible, that's what it was, having somebody around to tell you when you were acting like an outright fool. It was very romantic, and it made Minnie smile down at him.

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With apologies to Whisper of the Heart. One of those ideas you get but don't realize you're stealing from until much later. Adorable movie, though.

I've been very busy with school, but I wanted to do something quick, something I could finish (although I was supposed to be doing homework, shhhh). I wish I could have put the time into something more interesting, but alas. I was going for a more cutesy way of drawing the mice than usual, kinda this funky way I've been doodling them, but I still need to figure out how to push it further with their bodies. It's hard to distort characters you've been drawing for so many years.

Oh, and I forgot to put a bandage or a patch on the front bike tire, since it's all flat. xD The bike tires look pretty dreadful in general. Yay, rushing!

Right away I knew I wanted this to look dark, like it had been painted on an old piece of tin and then faded and chipped away. Unfortunately I'm not a painter, nor have I ever colored on top of a texture before.

Fortunately, though, I found a gorgeous texture right here: [link]

Very lovely, go check out her other stuff. :3 Without the texture this picture would basically be nothing.

The brushes were found here: [link]

M'kay, back to work!

Mickey and Minnie Mouse belong to Walt Disney.