Deej stared at her picture. She thought it was ready to show Garth, and see if anything needed changing. She stood up and walked into the next room, where Garth was hard at work on his next masterpiece. She tried to peek over his shoulder, and he quickly covered his picture. She always tried to steal a look, and he always hid it from her. Them being artists, that's just how it was. He looked up at her over his shoulder.
"It's ready," She said, holding up the picture. Garth smiled and took it and put it under better lighting and looked over it, mentally making notes to mention to her. Deej crouched down beside his chair and watched his face as he went over her picture. She liked to watch thoughts and emotions flicker over his handsome features. Garth tapped a forefinger on a couple of parts and Deej pursed her lips for a moment. She knew those would need fixing.
Once Garth was done, he turned to Deej and motioned upward. She stood so that she could see her picture better. Garth pointed out the little mistakes, and Deej nodded through it, making mental notes on the parts. Garth handed her the picture once he was done, and Deej took it back to her work station where her artist supplies were. She sat down and started erasing the light pencil marks and started on them again, trying to perfect it. Once she thought she had finished, she walked over to Garth's work area and tapped him on the shoulder lightly. He jumped and hurriedly went over his picture. Luckily, there was no damage.
"Sorry!" Deej apologized. She had thought that he had heard her come in. Garth smiled at her and forgave her.
"Ready again?" He asked. She nodded and handed it to him. He pointed out a couple of errors that were still there, and Deej thanked him again, then went back and started on them again. She stared at it, trying to imagine how he envisioned it. She erased it again, and started making light pencil marks.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she heard Garth's chair scoot backward and his footsteps falling toward her. He was standing behind her and she made a couple of last marks and then stared confused at the shadow over her. She turned and saw Garth, standing tall and sure over her, stealing a glance at her progress. He leaned over and shook his head. She tilted her head confused. She thought she had it right this time. Silently, Garth turned her back facing toward her picture and took up her pencil, which was still in her hand and guided it in the correct way across the paper. He leaned in closer until he was up against her back, his head was resting on her shoulder and his arm and hand were engulfing hers. His heat was intoxicating. He smelled like Pocky and paper and ink, almost like a new book. His hand over hers was comforting and filled her with warmth. He was muttering something, but she wasn't paying attention to the words. She was paying attention to the tones and sounds of his voice, which swept over her, making her think of forever being held and protected and cared for. Heat swept up to her cheeks, turning her cheeks pinker than they usually were.
Garth felt the heat of her rushing blood radiating off of her. He lifted his head and looked over at her. Her eyes were transfixed on his arm, eyes staring off into space, breathing slightly sped up. The heat he had felt was from her darkened cheeks. He chuckled and shook the arm he was holding slightly. She snapped out of it.
"Oh," She said softly, "Sorry, I zoned out for a moment," She said, looking over at him. He smiled and gave her a quick hug before standing straight up again.
"It's fine. I fixed it for you," He said, pointing to the picture. She glanced at it, then thanked him and watched him walk off, her heart thumping for him. Once he was out of sight, she returned her attention to her art. She lightly traced his reparations with a fingertip, then started in on some details.