Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer is the rightful owner of Twilight.
~.~.~
The day was slow for Esme, every chore and cleaning were done during the night. The kids were at school for the day, as most of them were in college, Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper were studying at Columbia, while the others were in their senior year of high school once more. Walking into her studio, Esme grabbed her tablet and scrolled through her Pinterest account. She normally looked through it for decorating ideas around the house or inspiration for the exterior around their plenty houses that they owned.
As she scrolled through her feed, she paused at a picture that caught her attention. It was a picture of a person with art painted on their back. It was an intricate painting of the galaxy with the earth in the middle. Studying the picture, an idea popped into her head and kept scrolling though the many pictures under the tag.
Lost in the sea of pictures of many people's talents to paint such art into their friends or partners back, she didn't hear Carlisle's Mercedes pull up their driveway. Esme took inspiration from the few streets in the states that still were still cobblestone. She loved how they looked, as it reminded her of a couple hundred years in the past, something that Carlisle knew much more than she did, all she knew were from old photographs or painting that Carlisle still owned. There was a magic to cobblestone roads, it made her feel happy. So, there was no doubt that she implanted that small piece of magic into their driveway in their home back in Cooperstown in New York.
Carlisle was surprised that Esme hadn't come to greet him by the door as she always did. Always taking his medical bag from him or his doctors coat or scarf if he had it. Hooking his lab coat on the hooks by the door, he walked up the stairs, one step at a time. Esme had just remodeled it, stating that it was a bit outdated. However, it was one thing he admired about Esme; she was always upgrading their homes. No matter how much she worked on them, they never left their home feel. There was something comforting about their houses once you walked in through the front door.
While she tried to keep the original look of the Mediterranean style of the house, she added a more modern look, while adding the cobblestone driveway. The inside looked much like every one of their other homes, or something similar in that case.
Quickly dropping off his bag in his study, he wandered off into Esme's studio. The smell of watercolors, oils and acrylic paints flowing into his nostrils as he opened the door to her studio. There were paintbrushes soaking in some sort of solution in a mason jar off into one corner, while there was a pile of blueprints in one corner on her drafting desk off in front of the biggest window in the room.
His eyes wandered around the room as his wife was nowhere to be found, before he saw her emerging from the closet that she converted into her supply room. Where an abundance of paints, paintbrushes, canvases, anything and everything that has to do with her art and architect supplies. He saw that she was carrying a couple of brushes in a cup as she closed the door behind her. "Hi, my love." He startles her slightly, as he flitted over to her as she smiled at him, her eyes twinkling with delight.
"You're home." She breathed into his lips as they shared a kiss, one hand on the nape of his neck as her hand was still holding onto her jar of brushes.
"I'm home." He smiled as they pulled apart. "Are you working on a new painting?" He questioned, taking a brush from the jar and playing with the bristles.
Esme took the brush away from his hand and walked back to her regular desk and placed the cup on her desk, turning to face Carlisle with a smile on her face. Her dark tresses covering her face slightly. He still remembers when she went and dyed her hair after playing around with her hair once, she bleached it and was blonde for a couple a months before dying it a dark brown. It really made her look more exotic in his mind. "Sort of." Esme winked as she beckoned her husband to come over. "You're not doing anything important today, right?" Esme asked, a bit excited at the idea running in her head.
Intrigued by what she has planned, he walked over to her, wiping the few strands of hair out of her face before placing a kiss on her forehead. "Well, I was going to spend the next fourty-eight hours with my beautiful and amazing wife. Maybe I can move some things around." He winked at her as she turned around with a giggle, fumbling with her table.
"I saw these today a bit before you came in, and," she paused biting her lip before showing him the pictures she saved to her board. "I was wondering if I could try this on you?" Esme asked like a child trying to convince her parents for ice-cream.
Carlisle scrolled through her tablet, as Esme watched him with hopeful eyes. Hoping that he let her do this silly new experiment. He never denied her anything. There was no possible way that he could deny her anything that she wanted, except for the biggest thing she's ever wanted; a baby. If he could physically give her what she wanted, he would do so in a heartbeat.
"I don't see why not." He handed her back her tablet, grinning at her. Esme lunged at him throwing her arms around his neck. The simplest things made her happy, and when she was happy, so was he.
"Oh, thank you, darling!" Esme cried out with joy and excitement. "We can do it here, or in our room?" Esme offered, reaching for her paint palette and a couple of paint brushes.
"We can do it here, love." He said, unbuttoning his shirt before sliding it off his body.
"We can watch your favorite show, Greys Anatomy." She joked, before squirting paint onto her palette as she watched Carlisle lay on his stomach on the floor.
Carlisle scoffed as he lifted his arms, flexing his muscles slightly as he rested his cheeks onto his arms. "It's not my favorite show, Esme." He growled playfully lifting his head up slightly, catching a glimpse of her putting on the show anyway disregarding his protest.
"Oh, please, sweetie. It's your guilty pleasure." She mumbled kissing his shoulders before sitting back and dipping one of her paintbrushes onto the acrylic paint.
~.~.~
The feeling of the strokes with the paint on the bristles were comforting to Carlisle. With the show playing softly in the background, they were relatively quiet for a while.
Esme paused to get up and get more paint, she laughed as Carlisle groaned at the cheesiness of the show. "Stop acting like you don't secretly like the show, my love." Esme snorted before straddling his behind checking to see if the paint was dry. The base was a light blue for the majority of his back. She was painting the sandy beaches of her island. Her sanctuary, their safe place.
"We've watched the show so many times, Es. I wish we could skip over the Mark and Lexie awkward story line." He groaned, feeling Esme's paint brush on his back, as she added a beige color as it met the blue, blending it out to make it more seamless.
"Oh, reminds me, honey. We should go to the local theater." She gasped in a happy tone.
"Why, what's happening?" He mumbled against his arms, his fingers stroking her wooden floor.
Esme hummed a bit leaning back to observe her work. "They're having Mamma Mia the play in a week." She said while reaching for a thinner paintbrush, mixing a couple of the paints together to get the perfect mixture for the sand.
He smiled at the thought of her wanting to watch the play at their local theater. He knew it was a high school production at least, and she loved to support them. "The high school?"
"Yup." Popping the p at the end, blowing on the paint slightly to ensure that it dried a bit faster, not wanting to mess it up. "We don't have to go, I just thought it'd be nice to see how they did their version of the movie." Esme quickly blurted out.
"We'll go, opening night if you want." He assured her. "How much more to go?" He asked, pressing play on the next episode of the show.
Esme leaned back and gave it a once over before adding a couple of doves to her painting. "Almost, darling."
"You know, you should consider teaching at the middle school or high school." Carlisle commented; he knew how much attention to detail she was. Even if it was for fun, she needed it to be perfect.
Pursing her lips, Esme got off of him and laid next to him, being next to his face and offering a smile. "The local after school program needs someone to do art with the kids once a week, I was thinking of applying." Her voice soft, as if asking for permission.
"You should do it, you love kids." Carlisle encouraged kissing her nose.
"Maybe I will. You're all done, wait here while I go get Alice's mirror."
He watched her as she ran off human speed to go get their daughters full sized mirror, not a minute later she came back with her mirror. "Okay, stand up, handsome."
He stood up, stretching his body even though he didn't need too. He walked over to the mirror that was in the studio, and Esme walked over to him carrying the mirror over to him so he could look at his back. He admired her work, it was so intricate, the waves, the sun, the clouds, and even the sand. There were a few shells in the sand, as a couple of white doves flew into the sunset.
"Oh, wow. This is amazing. You're amazing." He praised his wife, as he saw her smile grow with pride and contentment. Esme went behind him and took a couple of pictures of his back with her phone, admiring the pictures so happy that she got to try this out.
"Come on, I can help you wash it off." Esme winked, taking his hand and leading him to their room.
Like I said, I like to think of Esme and Carlisle acting their physical age when they're alone. Perhaps, I'll create a series of one-shots of them doing so.
