Healing

Chapter Three

Serpents, Siblings and… Sketchbooks?

Creak…

The door to Lexa's 'den' opened and in stepped the darkly clad figure of Lexa's brother.

The curtains were thrown wide open to allow the morning light to pour into the room and flood its occupants senses. The smell of drying paint, new paper and cinnamon lingered in the air and D could hear the soft scratch, scratch of pencil against parchment as Lexa was bent over the parchment on the scrubbed, wooden table.

"Hello, D" Lexa absentmindedly threw over her shoulder, her gaze fixed on the piece of paper that had been unlucky enough to be placed under her disposal, one has to feel sorry for the many trees that she must've got through via her constant usage of paper.

"How did you know I was there?" asked D, though he sounded like he wasn't really that interested.

"The door creaks when people enter." Lexa said with a grin as she turned around in her seat to look at her twin after sitting up. "I deliberately installed a door with a creak because I would then know if someone entered. And what's with the face, or lack thereof."

"Why should I have 'a face' as you call it?" asked D, his voice bordering on monotone as he spoke.

"This is not the life of a hunter, D." said Lexa. "You have every right to show what you are thinking and feeling at any given time. You do not have to keep everything locked away all of the time. Live a little. You'll be a lot happier for it if you do."

"What were you doing?" asked D.

"Changing the subject, eh?" Lexa remarked slyly. "Oh, well, I'll let it slide just this once seeing as you are in one of those moods, tell me, is it that time of the month?"

"What?" asked D, confusion actually becoming recognisable upon his features.

"It's a joke D." replied Lexa. "But anyway, I was sketching."

"You sketch?"

"Would I be sketching if I didn't?" asked Lexa. D didn't answer. Lexa grinned. "Wanna try?"

"I… I haven't sketched since I was a child, Lexa. I… don't think that I'll be all that brilliant." D said.

Lexa raised her eyebrows and reached behind herself to swipe something from the desk. D found out exactly what it was a few seconds later.

A pencil.

She held it out to him and D was reluctant to take it from her. Lexa's right eyebrow rose slightly. D looked back at her uneasily and Lexa rolled her eyes. She then picked up D's hand in the hand that wasn't holding her pencil and then slapped the pencil into his hand before she wrapped his fingers around the pencil and kept a firm grip on his hand as she pulled him over to the desk and coaxed him into the chair and then slid another over and slipped into that seat herself. She pulled out a draw and quickly swiped two pieces of paper and set one down in front of D before setting one in front of herself.

"Just doodle away to your hearts content." said Lexa, flourishing her own pencil. "I don't even have to see it. There is nothing to worry about."

"I'm not worrying!" D burst out unexpectedly.

"No need to get defensive!" said Lexa, smiling. "It's just that the way you're acting! The pencil will not bite you!"

D raised his eyebrows. He lowered the pencil to the paper and it glided over the paper effortlessly. Lexa smiled and returned to her own paper, thought for a few seconds and then proceeded to allow her pencil to resume its previous dance across the surface of her fresh sheet of paper.

About three hours later and Lexa and D simultaneously leaned back from their work. Lexa's piece of paper portrayed a Hippocampus underwater, kelp plants rising around it whilst D's portrayed a black horse pausing under a night time forest scene with the ground dappled with moonlight and the horse standing in a bright patch of light. For black and white pictures, they were very good."Nice." commented Lexa. "Don't know why you stopped sketching, D. You are very good."

"Thank you." replied D. He looked around Lexa's 'Den'. It wasn't really a den. It was more of an overlarge cubby hole. It was actually Lexa's garden shed, which was the sort of thing that people generally use for sitting areas. The wooden walls that weren't occupied by shelves had various art and craft materials leaning against them were framed pieces and in front of the desk was an old board with paintings, sketches, drawings and photographs all over it. D's eyes trailed over the board. He found that there were no photographs of him (which was no surprise, he'd never had his picture taken), but there were plenty of sketches of him in various stages of his life, along with others that Lexa had obviously met over the long years of her life and plenty of things that were clearly made up. Animals were also adorning the board. Magnificent dragons surveying silent villages, the buildings lights twinkling in the gloom, kelpies rising up out of murky water to trick some unwary traveller and, yes, even kittens chasing balls of string around the kitchen table. He stood up to look more closely at a watercolour picture of two identical seven year olds. It was more of a two piece collage.

One child was standing on a little wooden stool wearing a little black dress with long sleeves and a high neckline. She had her hair up in a slightly ruffled ponytail as she raised her hand to wave at the person painting her. Another was of the identical boy, clutching a tattered old teddy in his little hands and smiling at something that an observer of the painting could not see. He was sat on a small wooden chair, his long hair caught by a strong gust of wind, tossing it this way and that.

D then looked at the barely legible signatures at the bottom of each part of the painting. Beneath the boy it said 'D by Lexa' and underneath the girl it said 'Lexa by D'. D reached his hand out to gently touch the painting, eyes misting over as he remembered painting his sister that moonlit night.

"Hurry up, D!" said Lexa, impatiently. "My arm is starting to ache."

"I'm almost done." replied D. "You know that you didn't have to do that pose, you could've just sat on the stool."

"True." replied Lexa.

"Done!" cried D, suddenly. Lexa immediately hopped down from her stool and ran over. She handed a pencil to D, who then signed his name underneath Lexa's portrait.

"Now we'll always be together." said Lexa.

"Yeah." replied D. "Forever in a memory."

D didn't even notice the tear that had sipped from his misty eyes, nor the fact that Lexa had pinned up his recently created picture with the one she'd drawn and that she was now watching him fondly.

D suddenly came out of his daze and wiped his tear away, before turning to Lexa with a small smile and embracing his sister tightly. She returned the gesture and then pulled away with a smile.

"Do you want to do that again?" asked Lexa. "Paint each others portraits, I mean."

"Only if you'll be quiet whilst I paint." replied D, jokingly.

"Do you doubt my ability to remain silent?' asked Lexa. D gave her a pointed look which told Lexa that D still remembered just how much complaining she'd gotten through when she'd been posing for him.

"Good point. Well made." Lexa said simply.

"I didn't say anything." replied D.

"You were thinking about it, though." replied Lexa mischievously, nudging her brother lightly in the ribs, jokingly. D jumped a little at the nudge and a small smile spread across his lips.

"I'll be glad of the day when you start grinning like a hyena again." said Lexa. "But smiling is a start." D's smile widened a little bit and Lexa started to weave around the 'shed', picking up various painting utensils as she went.

A few minuets later found D sitting on a windowsill, a small smile fixed on his face, silver eyes looking straight at Lexa, who smiled as she painted him. D's feet were drawn up so that they perched on the kitchen radiator and a quill hung from his limp grip as he leaned back lazily, his cloak pooling around him and his hat tilted back so that Lexa got a good look at D's face. Lexa had the feeling that D could fall asleep in that position if he wanted to, though he'd probably have a painful neck when he woke up again. The places D managed to fall asleep in still astounded Lexa to this day.

A couple of hours later they traded situations. D was at the easel and Lexa was sitting on the windowsill, ginning like a Cheshire cat as she leaned her back against the right hand side from her perspective, two books by her left foot and a half eaten apple in her right hand. Her hand rested in her lap and her left knee was drawn up to her chest as her right foot balanced on top of the radiator. Her leather jacked was tied about her waist and pooled around her, though it wasn't nearly as beautiful as the effect D's cloak gave. It was clear that D was a thing of beauty whilst Lexa was a thing of angst (as if Lexa's emerald tank top with chunky, apple white writing saying 'Cute is not my style' wasn't enough of a clue).

After a while, Lexa was allowed to move again and they once again signed their names. This time, though, they'd painted on a proper canvas and Lexa even had a frame to put the picture in. Lexa put the painting in the den to dry. D had a feeling that the wall above the mantelpiece would have a new painting to replace the portrait of an old bay horse that D was sure Lexa had just never got around to replacing, because it was of a messy style and not very interesting.

D walked over to the sink to clean off the paintbrushes. He got quite a shock when he looked into the basin of the sink and found about five or six live snakes in there. He jumped back with a yelp, wooden paintbrushes and pot clattering to the floor.

Lexa was in the room in an instant. She strode over to the sink, looked in it and then threw her head back.

"Alex!" she yelled at the highest volume her very healthy lungs could manage.

"Yes?" Alex poked his head out of one of the cabinets.

"What have I told you about having friends round?" asked Lexa.

"Whoops." said Alex.

"Busted!" cried the other snakes as one. By the sound of it they were all male.

"I shall have words with you Alex, the rest of you clear off!" Lexa said simply and the snakes immediately began to depart from the house at a rate of knots.

"Sorry about that D." said Lexa. "You alright?"

"They just surprised me." replied D. "I did not think that you were one to have five or six snakes in your kitchen sink."

"There are times when I don't have a choice." replied Lexa, exasperatedly. She saw movement out of the corner of her eye. " Nice try Alex, get back here now."

"I'll leave you to it." replied D, picking up the fallen brushes and water pot, deciding that cleaning them in the bathroom sink would be the best course of action for now. At least until Lexa had managed to get Alex to behave.

"You have got some serious explaining to do, young man!" D heard Lexa begin. Somehow, something told him that Alex would not get a reprieve anytime soon.

I do not own Vampire Hunter D. I make no profit from this piece