Disclaimer & note: I do not own White Knight Chronicles just the words of the fiftieth WKC fic below. This is a bit of a rush job so sorry if it's not up to par with my other works (assuming I find out what my par is)
Hope you like & Happy Birthday Greywing44!
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Sighing in relief as the bell that signalled the end of class rang, Zai quickly gathered up all his sketches and carefully placed them into his folder before leaving the classroom this time remembering to duck down to avoid the top of the door frame- he could not help it that he was over six feet tall for a mere eighteen year old.
"Remember class, you have until Monday to finish your portfolio" The teacher called after him and the rest of his classmates flowing out the classroom behind him. "Failure to do so will mean failing the course"
Zai groaned in annoyance. Taking up a complete third of his Arts and Crafts grade, he had to put together a collection of hand drawn pieces of art. While the task itself sounded easy, it had a deadly catch. It was more like a scavenger hunt for artists where instead of searching for items, you were given a list of things to draw. Pictures were allowed in order to preserve the moment if time was of the essence but they would have to be drawn by hand at a later date.
Zai's list was pretty much complete having had help from his friends and mates at work who gave him pointers on where the best place for seeing the sunrise would be or even just posing for him to capture with his sketchpad where he would then transfer to a larger canvas when he returned to his apartment.
All he was missing was a picture of someone in a garden or forest setting. While any of his friends would have easily put up with sitting beside one of the flower gardens around the school grounds, he knew that it would not feel right that it was not their natural place.
Were it someone sitting at a computer desk typing away at something, his best friend Alastor could have fit the bill perfectly having caught the blue haired teen typing up a storm on his laptop every evening as he worked on the latest chapter on his first book while listening to some loud music through his headphones. The artistic giant had pondered on whether Cisna, Leonard's girlfriend, might be able to help out but dashed it as that girl had enough to do as is with all her own class work and the stuff she did to help out her father- how she managed to find the time to meet up with Leonard would remain a mystery.
No, Zai's heart told him that what he needed was someone else, a complete stranger, who could lend him maybe ten or fifteen minutes of their time so that he could sketch them maybe beside the trees outside or something just enough so that he could put it to canvas sometime over the weekend and finish his portfolio for Monday. The only problem now was who?
"You appear to be deep in thought" Someone beside him remarked causing Zai to pull out of his mental musings. "What's troubling you?"
"Just this project for my arts class. I need one more piece yet I can't find the right model for it" Zai explained to Alastor as the two left the building and walked out onto the school grounds.
"What's the task again?" Alastor inquired.
"A portrait of someone either in a forest or garden scene" Zai told him hoping his best friend could help him out of his artist block the same way he had helped him with his writer's block- not that Alastor would admit it.
"Then your best chance would be her" Alastor told him after a few seconds of pondering pointing over beside a nearby cluster of trees. "If that's not the perfect portrait of a forest girl, I don't know what is"
Looking in the direction his friend was pointing, Zai found himself quickly agreeing with what Alastor said. The girl Alastor was pointing to was probably a good head smaller than the blue haired teen yet the way she sat underneath the eaves of a large sycamore tree as she scribbled something on her notepad made her perfect for his task. There was just one, teeny-tiny problem with that though.
"Are you nuts?! That's Miu Dalam, the granddaughter of the Archduke of Faria!" Zai hissed at Alastor a mixture of nervousness and timidity in his voice.
"How's that a problem?" Alastor asked either oblivious or just plain ignoring the green haired girl's background.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe that her family's status is on par with Cisna's making her one of the wealthier students at this school?!" Zai quickly replied unnerved by how calm Alastor was being.
"I was supposed to be one of the scariest students of our year. Didn't stop Yulie from coming up to me and asking for my help or slugging me one when I mocked her height" The blue haired teen threw back.
Zai had to concede defeat on that one. That a sixteen year old actually walked up to Alastor, whose serious expression rarely seemed to leave his features, and ask him for his help on something was surprising enough. It paled in comparison to just seconds later when Alastor told the girl to leave not so kindly earning him a blow to his jaw he never saw coming.
"Point taken" Zai grumbled unable to come up with a reasonable argument against that memory just yet. "But still…"
"What's there to worry about? You need help and I'm sure she would be willing to help out" Alastor told him sounding exasperated at his friend's sudden bout of stubborn and nervousness. "Just go over there and ask" With that, Alastor gave his giant of a friend a shove towards the girl who was still too immersed in her book to notice anything else around her.
Plucking up whatever courage he could find within his tall frame, Zai made his way over to the young reader while mentally trying to figure out how to ask if he could sketch her. In a small corner of his mind, he could not believe he was being so nervous over asking someone about something like this. Then again, this was the first time he was asking a girl about something like this- a rather cute one, at that.
"Um…Excuse me, Miss?" He called out slightly timidly once he was close enough to speak to her without getting in her personal space.
Even despite his cautions, Miu still jumped as if electrocuted due to the fact that she had been practically in another world because of her reading focus.
"Ah! Forgive me!" She quickly apologised standing up so that she could bow in apologies for what she had assumed was someone being impatient with waiting for her. "I'm sorry if I did not hear you the first time"
"No, it's okay. I only just called out to you just now" Zai told her in the hopes of calming her down.
Almost immediately, Miu sighed with relief. Apparently this sort of thing was a natural occurrence with her making the times she heard people speaking to her the first time few and far between judging by what had just happened.
"Can I help you with something?" She asked still standing as if she were someone's servant rather than their mistress.
"Oh-right…Uh…Yeah…" Zai trailed off suddenly losing his nerve at the humble teen before him. "I was…just wondering…if…you'd let me…sketch you"
"Sketch?" Miu repeated having probably only heard one word in three due to Zai's quiet tone. "You wish to draw me?"
"More or less" Zai confirmed nodding his head slowly. "It's just that, I have this project to hand in on Monday and I need just one more piece to finish my portfolio"
"And you require me for this final piece?" Miu asked feeling her cheeks warm slightly upon finding out someone needed her help for something sending a warm, fuzzy feeling through her. "Very well, I shall help you"
Zai was suddenly grinning ear to ear as he took out his sketch pad and several drawing pencils.
"Perfect! If you could just go back to what you were doing before I interrupted, that would be great!" He told her only to receive a confused look from the girl. "Is there something wrong?"
"Would it not have been easier just to sketch me without my askance?" She asked curiously.
Mouth open in an attempt to answer her question, Zai found himself struggling for an answer which usually rolled right off the tongue. To him, it felt better asking if he could sketch people or take a picture of them so he could properly draw later on. It was just his way of doing things.
"…It's just a quirk of mine" He shrugged as he brought pencil to paper and began outlining her slender figure quickly finding himself having to reign in his suddenly wild imagination.
"May I ask why you have several pencils out? Does sketching take that much time?" Miu asked after a few minutes. She had been looking at the same page in her book but had barely been able to read one line because of the feeling of the artist's eyes on her and was just looking for a way to distract herself from it before she could no longer hold back her blush.
"They're actually different shades" Zai explained. "While I can usually alter the colour of the lead by how much pressure I put on the pad, it's sometimes easier just to use a different pencil"
"I…see" Miu replied clearly not understanding what was being said to her causing Zai to grimace.
"Sorry. Explaining things is kinda hard for me at times"
"It is alright. I will just have to take up the subject myself to understand it better" Miu told him with a soft smile. "Perhaps you could help me with it whenever I require assistance or…just to talk about things"
Had Zai's pencil still been dancing around on his sketch pad, he would have certainly ruined one of his most finest drawings at her words.
"I-um-ah-well-eh-sure" He finally managed to stammer. "So…what do you think?"
Flipping round the sketchpad, Miu could not help but gasp in surprise as she looked at the black, grey and white reflection of herself reading the book in her lap while sitting against the tree.
"This is…it's…I…" Words evidently failed to portray how amazed she was at his work.
"Not good?" Zai supplemented.
"Quite the opposite! I have never seen such an incredible picture before and it is only just a sketch!" Miu gush standing up quick enough that Zai almost dropped the sketchpad. "Will I be able to see the finished result before you hand it in?"
Zai was once again surprised by the young girl and was almost too slow to realise he had said yes to her query.
"Of course you can" He told her the words slipping off his tongue like it was natural. "My friends and I usually gather at the diner just down the road from here at lunchtime every Saturday. If you want, you can join us and I'll bring my portfolio around"
"Then I can hardly wait for tomorrow to come round!" Miu replied happily before hearing the familiar sound of her father's car horn coming from the parking lot. "I must go now but I shall see you and your friends tomorrow!"
"Right back at you!" Zai called after Miu's retreating back.
"See? That wasn't so hard"
Whipping round at the sound of the voice directly behind him, Zai was sure he had just gained a few years as he glared at Alastor.
"You know, I hate it when you do that" He grumbled before smiling as he looked back on what had happened before that. "But yeah, it really wasn't so bad after all"
Shaking his head at the dopey expression on his friend's face, Alastor just patted Zai on the shoulder as he passed him. As if shaken from his day dreams, Zai quickly packed away his pencils while keeping his sketchpad firmly in his hand a treasured item that was now worth more than its weight in gold.
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How's that for a three hour rush job? Average in my opinion, but I'll let you guys be the judge of that.
Review if possible & until next time
Watch this space, peace out & HAPPY BIRTHDAY GREYWING88