She bit back the tears; a beauty queen wasn't supposed to be weak, and yet one wasn't supposed to be imperfect either.
Staring at her reflection with the dark blue lipstick, all that she could see were the bags underneath her eyes, old tear tracks, and an imperfect chest, one mound larger than the other near flat one.
It felt like being broken though she remembers Nathanael's words, 'You're not broken, just a survivor, and survivors are beautiful in their own right.'
He'd hidden his old paintings of her and has started new ones, ones that are as imperfect as she feels, and yet so beautiful.
Aurore wasn't worthy of the attention that he lavished on her, and she still wasn't quite sure how he could catch her looking sexy as imperfect as she now is; his painting captures a side of her in one of her old, beautiful dresses that doesn't fit her quite right anymore, that she thought was long gone.
Nathanael is more to her than she'd ever expected to find, and he treats her less like a failed beauty queen and more like the beautiful woman that he sees, past the surgery that took so much and made her feel so weak.
She's never been weak to him, never been nothing less than the woman that he'd fallen in love with.
Aurore already finds her feet leaving the bathroom and taking her to the kitchen were Nathanael is sitting at the table, a half drawn sketch in his notebook, while his attention is on the coffee that he's drinking.
It's nearly domestic to see him sitting there in a baggy button up shirt that he'd bought sometime after her surgery just to assure her that if she finds him attractive in it that he can find her attractive in baggy clothes too; he looks gorgeous in those old khaki slacks that he's wearing underneath the baggy button up, and she wonders if he's just wearing it around the house or if he'll go out today in it.
He's handsome enough to make her lose her mind, attractive enough to earn a million kisses for being here for her in his own way, and she's crazy about him, even now when she isn't at her most beautiful or most perfect.
"Hey, Nathanael, do you want to head out today?" She's been itching to try on a button up blue dress that she bought a few months back, before the surgery, but she's unsure if she'll look even half way decent in it now; the months that followed the purchase had been so crazy and wild that she hadn't had the opportunity to try to look beautiful, and she wonders if he'll still find her beautiful in it despite what he says.
It's hard to convince her heart to be confident when she feels like so much less than what he sees.
"Sure," Nathanael smiles, and it lets her know somehow that he is planning on wearing that outfit out. Aurore both wants to hug and kiss him with a ferocity that surprises her; it's incredible to know how the simple things go straight to her heart.
"Alright," She smiles up at him, "I'll go get ready."
"You're beautiful." He murmurs softly, and she wishes that she could just take him up in her arms and cuddle him extra tight.
"Thank you," Her response is so heartfelt that she wonders if he can see all the way through her, and she hopes that she'll find the words one day to tell him that their life is changing yet again; she's pregnant and just hopes that she'll be a good mother despite how broken she feels she is right now.