awashlogs | (no subject)

[Hm. For a minute or so, he continues working, but then he pauses and, finally, stops. The charcoal is one of the messier things, but broad, smokey strokes felt appropriate for Bruce.

He turns the page in the notebook to a blank one, and in one hand, he offers it to Kisa while the other dirty one offers the stump of charcoal.]

You can try.

[ Wait, what? Is he sure?

She's staring at him for a good few seconds, before slowly reaching out to take the charcoal. The notebook takes a little while longer, and she's still staring at him uncertainly when she takes that one too.

It's really okay? ]

[Patiently, he waits for Kisa to get up the nerve to take both the chalk and the notebook. He releases it without issue, and now, it's hers to fill either left or right blank page with whatever she wanted.]

It's fine. Draw what you want.

[Will he keep them there forever? ....................yes.]

[ What she wants. She does, briefly, think of Tohru. Of her smile, her warmth, her kindness-- but she doesn't think she could draw her the way Damian can do so effortlessly, without a reference. And there's nothing in Chroma at the moment that she bears any strong attachment to, that she'd want to capture in Damian's notebook.

So for a good few minutes, Kisa doesn't move, clearly thinking hard about her options here. But then, slowly, she lifts her head and peeks at Damian. Then down at the notebook. Her eyebrow furrows, she risks another look at him-- and then her grip tightens on the charcoal and she gets to work.

Whatever it is, she seems to be taking it very seriously. ]

[By the time she looks up at him the second time, he has a gentle but strange expression to his face. Maybe a bit suspicious. He has no shame when it comes to keeping his eyes down around the notebook while she draws.

Is he trying to see and make out what it is? Heck yeah, he's Damian. But he doesn't say anything so he's not interrupting her work. She's at least giving it a shot? That's what mattered to begin with, that she had been willing to make an attempt.

What the heck is she up to...?]

[ She's doing her best! Though she's not a trained artist and she's going to mess up on a line every so often and what the heck is proportion and the more she bends over her work, the more her hair falls into her face, so she'll get a couple of charcoal smears there when she brushes it out of the way--

But! There's care and caution in what Kisa does, and she's a little too engrossed in her work to shy away when Damian starts taking peeks.

So really, it's his own fault, because she's drawing him. Roughly, but still. ]

[Oh my GOD.

The moment he gets enough of a view and realizes it's his portrait she's drawing, he quietly straightens up, stiff and awkward. Heat creeps up his neck and over his jaws, and he grits his teeth as if that'd stop it from happening.

The best thing he can do, if she's sneaking glances at him, is keep his eyes trained like a hawk on the notebook, on her hands, not her face or her eyes. Hopefully, she won't call him out for anything, not like Guren or Jon would do.

It's fine. This is fine.]

[ It's fine! Luckily for Damian, Kisa being focused means she's not immediately noticing that he's gone and stiffened up and that his face is gradually heating. And even if she did, she's not teasing or bratty enough to call him out on it.

It just means she'll draw him with his eyes facing downwards because for some reason, he's really staring at that notebook!!

At... himself...

That clicks, and Kisa jerks her head up suddenly, flapping a rather flustered and indignant hand at him. Damian! Don't look!! ]

[This disaster just snowballs out of control when Kisa realizes what he's being stupid about. His head snaps up at the waving, but he gets more embarrassed in regards to her knowing--in regards to her telling him not to look.

A surprise. HE RUINED IT being nosy. This is everything he hates and more.

Quickly, he jerks his head away as if to say he won't look anymore. It's too far at first, and all she can see is the back side of his head and neck, but, slowly, he eases it around to the front.

There, he isn't looking!!]

[ She's more embarrassed than anything, really. Because she'd seen enough, his diagrams, his sketches of his animals, and they'd all looked really, really good. In comparison, while it's not exactly a stick figure of someone wearing a vapid smile, it's still not... anywhere near as detailed or life-like. It's simply a sketch.

Kisa does keep an eye on him a little longer, warily, just to make sure he's not going to try and score another look, but then she finally returns to work. Carefully. It's still some time before she heaves a silent sigh and gently closes the notebook, then pokes Damian in the thigh with it. Mildly nervous, and also mildly pouting, but it's fine now. Here you go. ]

[He's patient while he waits for her to finish, both hands on the edge of the well by his legs, though the legs aren't swinging or moving. He has the stillness of a stone gargoyle.

The only thing he really does is breathe and blink. And wait.

When the notebook prods him, he lifts his head, peering first at it, then at Kisa to make sure she is truly giving it over. Carefully, he takes it and brings it across to his lap to open it.

Oh no...

It isn't a masterpiece from a prodigy, but it's clear she tried. Anyone who knows Damian can tell it's him, if anything. He tries not to smile; a bit of it leaks into the edge of his face. He is still embarrassed. He extends an arm out to her without looking, palm up.]

Charcoal.

[ Oh. Oh, right.

Kisa obediently presses the piece of charcoal into his hand, resting her own hands on the edge of the well. One of them is significantly blacker than the other, but she doesn't mind being a little messy. ]

[With the charcoal, somewhere near where she had drawn the portrait of him, he begins to draw something else. It isn't meant to be something to one-up her skills, and he doesn't exactly try to hide what he's doing.

The work is somewhat more sketchy at first. He doesn't take his time doing a lot of shading until he's already got the base down.

The soft, round-cheeked face of a young girl. The color is missing, but the eyes are big, and the hair has two long strands in the front, bangs, and a bob in the back. He's only seen her smile about once.

But she's smiling now.]

[ She's wondering if it's okay to look. He doesn't give her a warning glare or tell her not to, and she knows well enough by now to know he'd just tell her if he didn't want her to look.

But Kisa hadn't expected that. At all. It's easy enough to recognize herself, and her eyes grow wide, just as her face flushes pink. That's her. That's her!! ]

[It's her.

She doesn't have any kind of necklace on, but he gives her one anyway, just where the shoulders fade into nothing of the bust portrait. A thin chain with a stylized tiger pendant. He had said it was fine if she turned into a tiger. It's part of who she is, what makes her Kisa. He's okay with that.

When he's finished, he lifts the notebook by the spine and holds it up and out for her to see. The two of them are together on the page.

Because she had been happy they were "friends."]

[ They're... together. And that pendant...

It takes Kisa a moment, eyes stinging as she does her absolute best not to let those emotions overwhelm her-- of gratitude, of realization, of shock and surprise. That's how he sees her. A girl who's a tiger. His friend.

It takes a great deal of effort to do more than just stare, but she does finally lift her eyes from the picture to meet his gaze.

And she smiles. ]

[There. That's it. The smile is what he wanted.

It actually makes him smile just a little, too, though his own smile hurts his face probably more than her smile hurts hers. Damian doesn't smile very often, not genuinely.

He lowers the book back to himself so it's not shoved in her face. He doesn't close it yet.] I'll keep it here. If you want to see it, just ask.

Unless you want to keep it.

[ It's his notebook. And if she has it, it means Damian doesn't, and she thinks that out of the two of them...

She wants him to have it more. She got to see him smile, and that's the best thing she could have asked for.

So Kisa shakes her head with a more subdued smile. He can keep it. It's not a big town, she can find him if she needs to. ]

[Her not wanting to keep it doesn't seem to offend him. He puts the charcoal inside the page out of the way and closes the notebook then slides off the side of the well. Carefully, he puts the notebook down on the ground before walking around the other side to fetch the rickety draw bucket.

Attaching it and lowering it manually isn't difficult for him, and neither is heaving the bit of water back up to the top, pulling it over to them on the side.] Here.

You can wash your hands.

[Charcoal is messy and whatever.]

[ It sure is, and she shoots him a grateful look, having slipped off the edge properly to make sure she's not getting in the way. Sorry, well water, you're being used for a great purpose.

Although she's forgotten the smudges on her face, but it's fine, her hands will be clean. ]

[Ignore that for now. For the time being. For however long it takes for the two of them to wash their hands, Kisa first with Damian maneuvering the bucket. Thankfully, the charcoal comes off with some scrubbing, not leaving behind much more than a faint dusting if black if anything at all.

It might be easier for Damian. His hands are calloused, and scrubbing them isn't very different than using a wire brush.

He glances at her before getting the bucket for dumping. Oh. Really, he's tempted to let her go on like that. It's only charcoal. It'd be no different than when people don't tell you there's stuff between your teeth. Someone else better equipped would...

Dammit. It feels dirty.] Don't move. [He plunges his fist into the bucket but brings back out unfurled fingers. The other hand he puts on the crowned of her head without gripping to hold her still, and he goes in for the kill.

Well, using his thumb to try to rub away the spots of charcoal on her face anyway. Hope he doesn't scare the shit out of her.]

[ He very nearly scares the shit out of her. Kisa flinches, more instinctive than actually alarmed, eyes squeezing shut up until he presses his thumb to her face and starts... rubbing?

Oh.

One eye stays closed but she peers at him, silent but eyebrows furrowed in mild protest-- if just because he doesn't have to clean her off, she's perfectly capable of doing that on her own!

Of course, Damian's already got it, so at this point, she just has to endure it. ]

[Look, it's easier this way. She'd just smear it more probably, or miss it, and he can see where it is on her face, and he can get it without any kind of fudging around. It's better than brooding over the loss of his father.

There hadn't been much charcoal, so after a few swipes of his wet finger, he quits and steps back so he can wash his hands one more time in case of transfer.] There.

[He'll at least give her the option of drying her own face so he's not busting her personal bubble for long.] You don't have to hang around. I'm fine. [Rather than toss the water back into the well, he instead dumps it several feet away before returning the bucket and collecting the notebook.]

[ To that, Kisa gives him an uncertain look as she lifts one arm to blot her face dry with a sleeve. Look, Damian, she knows you're good at saying you're fine by now. She gets it. But she's not sure she believes it.

At the same time, if he wants to be left alone, she'll go. ]

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hey what the hell

i wasnt even finished either!! perish

WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS

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