Elijah's POV

I was sketching him in my notebook, as I often liked to do when he was doing his own thing, as he flipped rather mindlessly through the book that he was allegedly reading, something that he always found somehow endearing whenever he caught me doing it.

But, I mean, how could I resist, though? I certainly could never have asked for a more perfect muse.

—

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I made it about halfway through my drawing before I finally decided I had to say something.

"Hey, you know, I don't exactly have to have the kind of telepathy that works on you to figure out that you're not actually reading that book, you know….. Still thinking about earlier?"

His eyes peered, briefly, up at me before looking back down at the book.

"...Thinking about a lot of things…" He sighed. "...What happened with Leon might be among them."

"You wanna talk about them?"

He closed the book up and set it down, and a suspiciously amused smile crept across his face when he looked over and saw the half finished drawing that I hadn't even realized I'd laid down in my lap in a position that he could see it well enough in.

"...Well, what I wanna talk about his how amazing that drawing is turning out." He praised. "...though, I'm sensing that's not exactly included in what you meant."

"Well, thank you." I chuckled, picking the notebook up and propping it up against the back of my legs to keep it from distracting him any further. "..but, no. Not especially."

He chuckled at that, but then scoffed. "Yeah, the drawing never questioned who I was…...the drawing isn't gonna make a scene if I do go to that wedding."

"No, you're right...it's not." I smiled back at him. "...it only exists to be finished by the guy who started it and who absolutely adores the muse who inspired it, just the way he is."

—

"If he were a human, I bet those cheeks of his would be turning bright red right now.' I thought to myself, watching him light up even more at that.

—
"Why don't you tell me what you're thinking about all of this?" He finally suggested.

I sighed, "I'm thinking…...thaaaat this is the kind of thing that's not really up for anyone but you to decide. Not Leon, not Liz, not Collete, not your sister, not even me."

His little smile shifted into a smirk. "Well, maybe I'd at least like your opinion. How bout that?"

"Well, what do you want me to say, Nic?" I asked him. "You've barely even mentioned having a sister, and when you do talk about her, you get like this. And you want my thoughts on it? My thoughts on it are that I'm in on whatever you wanna do about it, alright? If you wanna just say screw her and hang out here, I'm all for it. You wanna go and stand up for yourself and try to have a good time, I'll be your plus one and support you. All the way."

"...Well, I-I'm definitely going to have to think about it some more, mull it over a little bit longer." He was grinning now, practically from ear to ear. "...but thanks." He glanced back over at the back of my notebook. "...you can go back to your drawing now."

I nodded as I picked my pencil back up, pausing again when a new thought occurred to me.

"Just one more thing…" I requested, just as he was starting to pick his book back up. "...something I am having thoughts about."

"And, what might that be?" He asked, curiously.

"If you do go to this wedding of hers…..what are you going to tell her about food? Or are you just going to request the blood of anyone who has something to say about you, when you RSVP?"

"Very funny…" He chuckled. "...but she does know I had Covid, at a point. I'll just tell her it effected me so that I still can't taste and that I just don't want her to waste any of her expensive food on me."

"That was, what? Over a year ago?" I pointed out. "You think she'll actually buy that?"

"It's not that far out there, Babe." He explained with another chuckle. "...it's not entirely unheard of for Covid to have long lasting effects like that."

"Yikes." I chuckled. "...is that what happened to you?"

As soon as I said it, though, I wondered if it had been a mistake to.

It had only really just occurred to me, right then, that that was another thing he didn't exactly ever really talk about…...I mean, besides that he had a pretty severe case of it, when he did have it. One that was severe enough for Leon to see enough reason to turn him, in the first place."

"No, god no…" He chuckled. "Luckily, I was somehow one of the less common handful whose taste wasn't really affected. It's just that Ainsley doesn't know that."

"Noted." I chuckled. "...more food for me, then."

This got another, genuine, laugh out of him. "Exactly. More food for you."

—

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I picked my pencil back up again and was just starting to get to work, finishing the detailing of his eyes, when he interrupted me.

"...Alright, now you've given me something to ask about." He chuckled. "...Sorry, I promise this is the last thing, and then you can really get back to what you were doing."

"It's alright." I chuckled, putting the pencil back down again. "You won't catch me complaining. What's up?"

"Well, it just occurred to me that, in all this time and knowing what you do know of my family, you've never once asked me about any of that, about the whole Covid part of all that. Are you not the least bit curious?"

I shrugged. "I mean, maybe a little, I guess. You just never really brought it up much, yourself, I guess Ijust figured that you'd tell me when and if you ever felt like it."

He nodded, accepting the answer. "Fair enough…..for the record though, I'm not particularly opposed to getting a little more into that. Just, when I don't have everything else that I do on my mind."

"..and that's more than fair." I agreed.

He smiled and began motioning with his hand for me to pick my pencil back up and get back to what I was doing again. "...you may continue now."

I chuckled at that, but did it anyway. "Yes, sir."

That got another chuckle out of hi, as he returned to his book.