Saturday, February 11, 2012
6:32pm

Summary:
AU. The day she began wearing makeup, he never did tell her to stop — Reds

It started with a brown pair of wings. She came to the library one day, eyes looking — different.

He was in fact so intrigued that he decided to graze past her table for a glance. When she motioned her eyes toward his figure briefly, he caught a glance of their enhanced shape—just barely—from their upper lids.

A pair of teeny wings, narrow, smooth, and short.

To his surprise, he turned away in a flash, breath suddenly strangled into his palm.

As he plopped onto his original seat, he agreed to himself that it was just the sandwich he had eaten along the way that made his stomach feel so odd.

Wings eventually grew feathers, he later realized.

A week or two later, he spotted her near his favorite section of novels, her weight swaying on one leg as she held open a book with thin, crinkled pages. He felt her blink suddenly, his attention straying to the flutter of long, thinly curled cocoa-lashes painted from their wings.

They rose, revealing a curious, interrupted pair of peaches.

He flinched, hand shooting forward to grab at a nearby book before throwing it open and "reading" over the pages sloppily.

When he felt her attention turn away from his own, he let out a silent exhale, quickly deciding that a nightly espresso would do him some good on his walk home.

Feathered wings wouldn't be feathered wings without their shimmer.

Grudgingly, he found himself staring in interest at the golden specks winking at him as she read a line in French to him before glancing forward to say something more. He froze when he met with the rosy gloss of her irises.

"Oh—shit," he muttered under his breath. "Sorry, what was that?"

She smiled, repeating herself.

He nodded, and she began reading another line.

Maybe this afternoon called for something stronger than his favorite espresso.

The day she waltzed over to his library table on her own, Brick found that he had met his match.

"Mind if I run over those French notes right now, rather than later today like we promised?" She paused, nearly finished pulling out the chair in front of him. "Turns out the Professor's making dinner earlier tonight, so I may have to leave sooner."

"Oh—sure!" he sputtered, finally slapping his consciousness back into place. "Whatever works best for you, Bloss."

She smiled before digging into her tote, and Brick nearly lost himself with his captured illustration of her in his head.

Before he could properly react, she began to quote another line they were assigned to investigate, her fluent French melting with the coon of her voice.

Word for word, Brick watched as the perfect mold of her lips, smeared with a mild strawberry sheen barely from their natural pigment, outlined their sound.

"So, in translation —"

"I'm sorry," he interrupted, expression restless and sincere. "But I just have to say: You look absolutely beautiful."

Blossom's words wavered, and she looked down bashfully.

Brick smiled, noting her final asset: The blush sprinkling itself over her cheeks, naturally.

Then, later as she waved goodbye to him before disappearing past the bookshelves narrowing in the distance, Brick silently admitted that her personal intentions succeeded.

That followed evening, she stared into her reflection before splashing a wave of sudsy water over her face. Skin fresh and naked, she flicked the switch, the light of the bathroom blinking into darkness.

Author's Note:

Hello everyone. I know it's been years since I've last posted on here, let alone written like I would in the past … This piece I present you guys with is (if you noted the date I included) from my old laptop's archives.

I can't believe I wrote this nearly 8 years ago, but I'm still really fond of it and thought it would be nice to share as a touch of something I call my own after being absent for varying reasons—the main being a lack of inspiration (or more simply put, the ever-dreaded Writer's Block I, and probably many others, have unfortunately been victim to).

To any long-term supporters and readers who still linger in their inboxes and recognize my pen name, hello again (: And to any new pairs of eyes that come to discover my previous works, including this one, hello and welcome.

I may continue to scavenge through my old files for the time being, and hopefully upload another work or two, given the time I free up in my day-to-day life outside of FF.

As for actually writing something more current, I'll leave that up for time to tell. Until next time!

Yvette