Elements (Dare/Emilian)

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare felt that sudden hard look, and his hand paused against the paper, but by the time he'd looked up, cautiously, the warmth was already coming back to Emilian's eyes. Dare was silent a moment, trying to think back to what he'd said, and he decided yes, maybe he'd been a little too familiar, but that was about it. He wondered, but Emilian had let it go, so he let it go. "I'm not going to try to convince you," he said, turning his attention back to the drawing. "I'm not antisocial, but I'm not social either. I just take it as it comes."

[Emilian Sota]

"I'm definitely not antisocial," Emilian said, "I like being with people, but I won't go out of my way to make someone like me." Unless he wanted to be with that person, that was beside the point. There were certainly people he tried a bit harder for, and it showed in the small curve of one corner of his lips. "Although, there are exceptions to that." Like Adara.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"There are always exceptions," Dare said. "I don't go out of my way, either. If someone doesn't like me, it's their problem more than it is mine." Dare continued to marvel at the expressive qualities in Emilian's face. He hadn't seen Michael since the masquerade, and this was working out a lot of his need to draw portraits in the meantime.

[Emilian Sota]

Normally Emilian would have been just a tad more reserved in how much he let show in his face, but between Dare reminding him of Michael and his newly upbeat attitude, he didn't care so much. "It's a bit more of a problem for me, I suppose, need to keep business up and running. I guess I should start caring a bit more than I used to." He shrugged, didn't really think that it'd make him change at all, though he had noticed he was a bit more polite to customers.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

"Well, depends on if you want repeat customers," Dare said, flicking a quick glance up from his paper. "Whatever you sell, even if it's awesome, is only going to get the bare minimum in." He shrugged and looked back down as he drew. "I guess you'll get some in for the reputation too, but they won't come back unless they're getting something they aren't getting somewhere else." He paused, thinking. "You probably knew that. Just ignore me, when I get drawing and talking at the same time, only one gets my full attention."

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian grinned and nodded, "Michael can get like that." He was silent for a minute, he knew what Dare was talking about, he had already seen it first hand why people came into the shop, and why they came back. "So is your subject really that interesting, or are you like that with everything?" he asked, smirking, his eyes laughing.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare's lips quirked, and he threw a laughing glance up at Emilian. "I've really gotten into facial expressions lately," he said, not sidestepping the question so much as answering in a roundabout fashion. "You've got an expressive face." It was fascinating how such bright eyes could convey everything from coldness to warmth. Dare didn't offer to let Emilian see, not just yet, but neither did he angle his notebook away or give any other clues that he was keeping his work private.

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian arched an eyebrow at Dare, he had never really been told that he had an expressive face. He attributed it to Adara. He used her as the reason for a lot of the things he did now. "Is that a compliment?" he asked, grinning again, though he wasn't entirely sure he thought it a good or bad thing to have. He wasn't one to be interested in what people drew, other than Michael, but he was suddenly interested in Dare's interpretation of him.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare looked up again, smiling. "It is," he said. He looked at Emilian for a moment. "It's not so much that you're giving anything away," he said, observing, trying to put to words what it was. "It's just...emotion. The shift in the eyes that changes everything, the slight tensing of certain muscles and relax of others, and the way the light plays off the whole." He blinked, smiled again, and looked back down at his paper. "That's part of it, anyway." He made his hand move, adding a few more details more for the motion than anything else.

[Emilian Sota]

"Too bad Michael doesn't go for guys, I could see you two being artsy together," Emilian said, not knowing how close to the truth he was. Of course if Michael did go for guys, and Emilian wasn't with Adara, he knew who he'd want Michael to go for, and it wasn't Dare. "So are you going to horde that thing away or let me see it when you're done," Emilian asked, grinning.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare was infinitely glad he was already looking down at his page; it saved him the trouble of suddenly dropping his gaze. As it was, his head dropped just a bit farther, letting his hair swing into his face as he struggled to wipe the obvious thoughts from his face. He took one long breath, then another, only then realizing Emilian had asked him something. He cleared his throat, then handed the notebook over.

The one he'd been working on, the warm one, was on the current page. The next back was Michael overlaid with Emilian, and the one back from that Emilian as he'd been sitting near the windows.

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian took the book, closely examining the first picture. He wondered, faintly, if that was what Adara saw when she looked at him. After a minute he turned the page back and was surprised to see Michael looking up at him. He glanced up at Dare quickly before looking back down, taking a little more time with it than the first. Something about it was odd, and he couldn't quite place....and then it hit him, it was Michael, but he seemed to be at peace, more than Emilian could ever remember seeing him.

Michael had always had an air of tension around him and to see him, even just a drawing of him, like that, was almost a shock. When he finally moved his eyes over to the half of the drawing that was of him he felt a tad more comfortable, because that was him. He didn't spend much longer until he flipped it back to see the last, well, the first drawing Dare had done. He didn't often see himself like that, in that setting, and it hit a strange chord in his mind.

Emilian didn't spend as much time on it as he had even on the previous drawing of himself before turning back to look at Michael one more time and turning the pages back to their original position and handing the book back to Dare. "You're very talented," he said finally, contemplating mentioning how much he liked the drawing of Michael. After a moment he decided to say it, "The one of Michael is good, especially done from memory."

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare nodded as he took the sketchbook, but didn't look up just yet. "Thanks," he said. "He's...I've drawn him a lot, so it's easy now." His fingers itched to turn back to the picture, to stare at it a while, but resisted; he didn't want to give anything away. Deflecting the compliment was a reflex, but it felt needed now. "I've got a better one, back from when I'd just gotten to Hogwarts. It took a while longer, though." And Michael had been sitting for him, if unknowingly.

[Emilian Sota]

Emilian figured he was past the point of even attempting to be intimidating and so he just looked away when he asked his question, "So you're with him a lot?" Dare had been vague when talking about Michael beforehand, but if he knew him well enough to draw him a lot.... "Or do you just share his photographic memory?" He let his gaze flick back up to Dare.

[Dare Blackwood-Hardt]

Dare shrugged noncommittally. "I can draw from memory," he said, "it's just not as good as the real thing. He's only actually sat for me the once." He rather hoped Emilian hadn't noticed his complete avoidance of the first question he'd asked. The only answer he could think of was not nearly enough, though what time we do have is worth it. Why was he bothering? Why was he hiding all this? Why didn't he just give up the game and admit he had a thing for Michael? Because that's ours.