My Roommate is Multifaceted:
It's a very common and well-known rule that staring is impolite. Ludwig reasoned that he wasn't so much staring as analyzing. Something was off, he knew as he sliced into the half of onion and minced it into tiny pieces. An'na had asked him to help her chop vegetables for whatever she was making. That made him hesitate for two reasons. One, she could chop circles around his chopped vegetables. Two, she hated it when people came in the kitchen while she cooked. But Ludwig said nothing when she handed him a knife and cutting board.
He stole a glance at his silent roommate, surveying what he had already noticed. Her hands, well her nails actually were different, painted a powdery almost pastel pink. The color was a nice complement to her bronzed skin tone. Not too bright or overbearing like that loud highlighter hot pink he'd seen woman older than An'na wear. Her fingers were nimble, delicate and careful as she held the cucumber still and sliced into it with the other hand.
His eyes drifted from her fingers to her face that was fixed into a concentrated look. That was the second thing that made him apprehensive. She looked different without that small stud in her eyebrow. Not only that, things were highlighted, Ludwig noted. Like her cheekbones, which were really round and high and even though her brows were knitted together, he could imagine how they puffed out when she smiled. Which brought his attention to her lips. Those things, well, he'd had a person encounter with.
Ludwig felt the heat in his cheeks and looked back down at his onion, but not without making a mental note. They looked bigger than he remembered. Juicier would have been the right word. Due to the brown and extremely natural looking shimmer color she was wear. It gave her lips the appearance of looking wet, like she had just licked them though he knew she hadn't.
Then there were her eyes, which were highlighted with very subtle, barely noticeable make-up. Her lashes were already long enough on their own but were now extended, fluttering gracefully against her ebony cheeks every time she blinked. All in all, she looked very pretty to just be cooking dinner. In all fairness, she and Elizaveta had gone out earlier. Maybe that was why she had on the made-up. Ludwig turned the last bit of onion before chopping it into tiny pieces and pushing it to the edge of the cutting board.
"I need those," An'na finally spoke. She didn't wait for him to move but reached over to gather the finely minced vegetable. Her arm brushed against the light blond hairs of his forearm and tickled at his skin. The movement made whatever she was wearing, a spicy flower scent, fill his nostrils and Ludwig found himself inhaling it.
When he noticed what he was doing, he glanced at An'na who had stopped moving. Hand cradling the white food, they looked at each other for a half second maybe. She moved first, clearing her throat as she carried the pieces to the pot on the stove.
"And these cucumbers?" Ludwig asked finishing the work that she'd started while she stirred the pot.
"In the salad bowl," she responded and he did as instructed, both them completely ignoring the fact that they had just been staring into each other's eyes less than a minute ago.