#gradients and blushes and shading are all so much fun

[zarvasace]

Should I be asleep? Probably. But the color demons sometimes win.

[icolo]

hi everyone!! my wrist is too sore to draw today, so instead i thought i'd share some of my favorite csp assets + how i like to use them! i also linked some procreate brushes at the end of the post!!

lineart brushes:

SU-Cream Pencil: i swear by this brush and i use it very often!! if you lower the pen density and use a gradient map over it when coloring your drawing, it has a nice effect. that's what i did in this drawing here! i also use this brush like i would draw on paper, so as a sketching tool. recently i've been enjoying blending it for shading. the pics below are drawn on one layer; left is more manga style while the one on the right is from a WIP of my singer sargent study, so it can be used for more realistic styles pretty well!

Found Pencil: another pencil brush that feels really nice to use, created by @/pigpenandpaper.

PS style brushes: a recreation of photoshop's (i believe) default brush. very versatile and also blends well!

analog wind variant pen: a nice pen that i like to use for lineart that is intended to have a bit of a sketch look.

zakutoro real g-pen: i used it for the lineart of this piece. although, it was drawn before i started using 600dpi in my works, so the lower resolution might make it look a bit unclear.

sets of rough pens: great for manga lineart with a rougher vibe; some of them have varying line weight.

coloring brushes:

zaku brushes: very nice and painterly mixing! i definitely recommend it for those who like to leave their colors a bit unblended.

softie marker: as the name implies, it's very soft! i like to use it for blush in chibi illustrations.

analog watercolor brushes: realistic-looking watercolor brushes. i recommend using it with csp's default paper textures, or those i linked below!

993 coloring pen: it's very soft and watery, though it can be made more solid by adjusting the paint density. i actually think it works very nicely for lineart too.

rock dog pen: another soft marker brush i like, that i once again also use for lineart and doodles.

thick coating brush set: recommended for paintings that show brush strokes.

cartoon cloud: don't let the name narrow your vision!! this has to be one of the BEST brushes for painting in my opinion, and of course it's great for clouds and explosions but so so much more!! and it's FREE try it try it!!

decoration/miscellaneous brushes:

neon pen

paper textures

symmetry move brush

close and fill without gaps

rope brush

sphere fisheye guide

flash balloon

speech bubble set: a lifesaving collection for comic artists!! dimensions and line weight can be adjusted by using the operation tool.

gradient map to use in color mode at 15% and another gradient map to use at 20%: the percentage refers to the opacity of the gradient map layer, but they are just the creator's recommendation and i tend to actually increase it. to use gradient map efficiently, i recommend putting all your colors (and lineart if you want) in a folder. then, right-click the folder, select "new correction layer" and then "gradient map". this allows you to modify the gradient map without worrying about affecting the original colors in case you decide not to use it in the end. to import a gradient map from your downloaded csp assets, click the wrench icon next to the name of the gradient set that's currently in use, then select "add gradient set".

you'll also notice that the creator recommends to use their gradients in "color mode". of course, this is also only a recommendation and i suggest trying as many layer modes as you like! to change a layer's mode, simply highlight the layer and click on "normal" (the default mode) and csp will display the available modes.

fruit ninja gradient map: fun to use if you want really drastic/vibrant colors! the names of the gradients are cute too, as you can see in the above screenshot!

BONUS: jeremy fenske's free photoshop brush pack: these aren't csp brushes per se, but they can be imported into the program! excellent for environments, i recommend watching fenske's video on how he uses the brushes to get a clearer picture since there are so many in this pack!!

BONUS 2: my good friend clem has a few brush packs for procreate that are ideal for painting,decorating drawings, and y2k-inspired illustrations, i definitely recommending checking out her shop!

in conclusion i hope this post can be helpful to you!! i tried to explain how to use the brushes as best as i could, but feel free to let me know if anything is unclear!! i hope you will enjoy using them! :D

[deedjre]

Day 28 - monster !!! i had this one all prepped 😈 and i RUSHED finishing it so i could work on that piece for the 23rd lmao so it's just gradient shaded. anyway i actually had a fantasy au of these two fuckers from a while back bc i get a feral urge when i think about mers and i was thinking about mers. and so i was like "what if i made john a mer" and then i realized. that would fix him. that would like take away most of his pain and strife. bc you can't smoke underwater. this eventually spiraled into me making him a siren and i honestly i had no other choice but to make colin a vampire do you know how many toxic love songs there are that use "vampire" as a metaphor? at least 2. and he is the vampire in both fr <3

(prompt list) RANTINGS BELOW beware of. worldbuilding lmao

originally gave john the wrong skin tone (and by that i mean blue. like his underwater skin tone is blue) 💀 so the colors of blush and eyebags and clothes might be a bit off but. oh well

anyway.

sirens are considered a subspecies of mers. i suppose. a slight genetic mutation, perhaps. also ignore the crotch part on the land form bit btw. i needed more differences LMAO i think it's mostly meant for a circumcision joke or something continuing on, it's primarily a visual allegory for autism. the feeding off of love part was mostly for john specifically though, to give him more parallels to Colin and for the relationship to be more in line with the uh "original" canon. original in quotes but ig that also fits for the actual original canon?? anyway. when touched with water, the land forms of both sirens and mers will start to change color in just that spot. hence his arm in the piece. also mers just eat fish. for simplicity.

when exiting the water, mers/sirens will typically wind up on the beach naked. so they have little lost and found shops on the shore to give them clothes and shit !! yippee. that's where john got his hoodie in this lore. btw.

some other things: this takes place in california instead of new york bc it was originally going to take place in california. not much difference, in all honesty. lot more temperate. john is a very willing food source to the point of having to get blood transfusions (the yaoi remains toxic). but at least colin feeds him back colin claims he's an elf quite frequently (his fangs aren't always out). which is a bit like saying you're old money. which he very much is NOT. he is still british though here's a doodle sheet i did while thumbnailing (most are thumbnails):

i have an unfinished rough draft of this version of the story and honestly history repeats itself bc i forgot i made the "nicknamed vamp bc he's bi" joke in it. i just thought of it a second time. oh another fun fact: vampires only need to eat like twice a month on average in this story. colin just eats him for fun most of the time. it's how he shows love <3 funnily enough i actually think their relationship is healthier in this au. they communicate like so much fucking more and john isn't AS possessive. i mean colin is actively killing him and john's letting it happen, but colin is also taking him to the hospital when he gets anemic. Even more fun fact!: colin's wearing his 60's au outfit. bc it has a poets shirt and that's more vampire than a button up. the uh chain being drawn/used correctly is just for this au though.

for an unknown reason john still uses ASL in this AU. i forgot why. but it's probably the stutter (though he didn't have one in that point of creation i don't think??? did i give him a stutter twice?? also it should've been mer sign language... bc he lived underwater. i just feel like they'd have another version due to that). he has a stutter btw have i ever said that? i decided it fairly recently. this month or any preceding month through july. uhm. here's some older art of them i might've posted here before:

[youtubeyouniversitytherapy]

Featuring the Beatles || Color Theory Therapy Exercise

Rosanna sat at her window, just taking in the sunset. The way the sky changed in vibrancy, the watercolors gradient and blending together. Her stomach warm and fuzzy, like the warmth of the tones streaking their paintbrush into the clouds, was setting happy little rays in her belly. She took in a slow, deep breath. Her hand cupping her face as she leaned on the windowsill.

The deep oranges taking her away for a minute, like memory captured on an old video recorder, the light behind her eyes blinking red as they played out the scene.

The Alpha rooftop, warm with the fading yellow of Summer reaching Dusk.

-"I'll tell you something, I think you'll understand, When I'll, say that something, I wanna hold your hand,”

As she sat on her bed, a familiar croon played a soft, drunken melody outside her window. Closing her book, her heart picked up pace. He was there, wobbling, stumbling forward.

Young, foolish smile, kind eyes, trimmed hair, stubbly face, crawling to the tempered pane of her room. 

That night was... full of emotions.

Exhilaration, together at a Greek row party, much like the ones that had been sprouting back up recently. Body shots. The taste of his skin, the slight salt of his sweat blending with the liquor as it danced on her tongue. 

As she remembers, blush tints her face, matching the pink of the clouds and the bits of light speckling rays from them, glinting in her eyes. Her skin hot like the sunburst background before her, like the sunburst background of her thoughts.

The coyness of flirting with each other, with the unknown of what was to come, the unnamed casualness of their endeavors thus far, 'just having fun'. 

Heat pooling in her neck now as the colors swirled in new warm patterns, creating shades of coral, peach, tangerine, and amber, all taking flight in present time. 

Lingering stares, the closeness of him just being a breath way, not knowing yet what his lips felt like, what his kiss tasted like, what kind of rapture they could leave her in, only assumption, all of which didn't even come close to the euphoria it assumed. 

That night they came close. So close to kissing, but also... so close to ending it all. All over body shots, drunken words, and a miscommunication. And jealously.

Her hands rung at the memory, clutching white knuckled on the thoughts of then, like the tiny bit of ivory left in the puffy clouds, sinking into crisp topaz and flakes of silver. Her grip not loosening. The thoughts of now.

-“I didn’t care that they drank off of you, Mark. That’s okay. It’s college.”

A flash snapshot from recently, dark grey-blue hues of the quad, peppers over the already playing scene.

--"You're allowed to have fun with your friends, Rosanna"

Then back to the Golden day, standing in her bedroom.

-“She just, kissed me a bunch.” A twisted feeling in her gut. Her chest feeling empty, ready to cave.

It was all scattered, missing pieces, but the ones that mattered laying thick against her third eyed.

-"I shouldn't even be upset... It's not like you're mine. Or we are something specifically."

-“Rosanna, are you not listening to me? Ever? Can’t you tell I’m crazy about you? I don’t hide it well"

And her heart was soaring, just as it soared then.

The delicate reds of the skies shadowing around the room, kissing the corners of his features, painting him like a romance novella's cover. His deep chocolate eyes, shining down with sureness, sadness, real emotion. So much passion, such intensity, thick with purpose. He was so sure and he needed to show her so.

Suddenly their bodies were together, pressed intimately yet innocently.

 The golden hour enrapturing the moments of her mind, feeling younger Ro glowing from the inside, melting in his arms. 

-“Besides ..... When I kiss you…. I want it to be perfect.”

She felt the moment pressing starry against her skin, her smile covered bashfully by her hand now, as if she was there, right now, all over again. Wanting so badly to feel him press against her, feather her bottom lip with his thumb, reassure her of her worth, of her place in his life.

-"Can you go back to being my Roboat now?”

-"Only if you sing again."

A burst of purple kisses the sky, her memory fading with the sunset into hues of indigo, blue, grey, and harsh amaranthine. He dissipates into nothingness, her gaze now back on the vacant rooftops, the oranges, pinks, reds and yellows all in the shadows of night now. The warmth going to a luke warm. A small shiver traces her spine, she rises to her feet, softly closing the curtains.

[faeriiess]

As has been requested by people here is a tutorial of how I colour mangas!! 

A quick disclaimer that I am really bad at explaining things so I’m sorry if anything is confusing. Also just because I colour this way doesn’t mean it’s the right way to colour and do things. As long as you’re having fun then however you colour is the right way!! This is just my process and style of colouring.

Tutorial under the cut:

Going to start with what programs and brushes I use. 

So I do all of my beginning editing and finishing editing in photoshop. Then I do the actual colouring in Firealpaca.

Considering this is a tutorial for my basic colouring style I’ll only be using four brushes/tools: a pen brush whilst cleaning line art, a watercolour brush for all of my main colouring (any kind of soft easily blendable brush will work), a textured watercolour brush for blush (any kind of easily blendable textured brush will work) and the eraser tool.

Step 1) I size my chosen panels to the dimensions I have picked in photoshop.

Step 2) Using the levels tool I fix the black to white levels of the panel and try to get rid of as much grey as I can without compromising the lineart

Step 3) Then I open the panel in Firealpaca go to ‘Filter’ and select ‘Extracting Lines’ so that I only have the line art to colour under (I use a mid-tone grey background to see colours better)

Step 4) Using the eraser and pen brush I clean up the panel getting rid of what I don’t want and cleaning up/redrawing any lines that need it

Step 5) I always colour (using the watercolour brush) the skin first and start with a base

Step 6) Taking a colour that is darker and warmer then the base I shade the skin around areas such as the eyes, nose, lips, neck and anywhere else shadow would be

Step 7) Using a textured watercolour brush I add blush which is often saturated red, pink or orange

Step 8) Still using the same brush I select the base skin colour and bled the blush out

Step 9) Going back to the watercolour brush I use a highly saturated red, pink or orange to colour the lips and around the eyes

Step 10) Then add whites on eyes and anything else that needs it

Step 11) When I colour eyes I essentially just create a gradient on the eye beginning with a base colour 

Step 12) Then add darker tones to the top of the iris 

Step 11) And lighter tones to the bottoms

Step 12) Finally I add white highlights

Step 13) After this I colour in the hair (and in this case Ginji’s tails too)

Step 14) And then the clothes or any extra elements in the panel

Step 15) Following this will be shading. I create a new layer which I clip to my colouring, I change the blending to multiply and the opacity to 24%

Step 16) Then using a purple colour I shade the entire colouring

Step 17) By creating a clipping mask above the line art I colour in certain sections of it. Such as using reds on the skin lines

Step 18) Then I just add my background colour and some doodles

Step 19) I make final colour adjustments in photoshop. This can be anything from fixing contrast, increasing the saturation of colours or even changing the hues of some of them. It’s different for every colouring

And then there it is!! A manga colouring!!

[velvetafterdark]

Your art style is really cute and very fun to look at! If you don't mind me asking, how did you come up with it? Do you have any particular art inspirations or maybe references you regularly use? I also adore the way how you draw stretch marks. May I ask for some tips on that, too, please? Thank you for sharing your beautiful content with us!

Aw thank you so much! I'm so glad to hear I'm doing a good job!! My artstyle takes cues from a lot of very simple but graphic media: s/u, kir/by, meg/aman cla/ssi/c, po/kem/on, m/l/p, in/fini/ty tr/ain, and sho/vel kn/ight are all examples of things that I'll look at and try to apply to my art. If you can, I also really recommend finding individual artists to look at the work of as well, since there can be a lot of variance within shows. Don't worry if they don't "match" your style. Fa/yren is a stunning artist who's work doesn't necessarily match my style, but I study the way she draws things because there's always something to learn from others' techniques. If something about an artstyle catches your eye, observe it; figure out what about it you like and try incorporating that into your art.

It's also worth asking yourself what your goal is with your art, and working towards developing your style with that in mind. My goal with art is not necessarily to make something representational or "realistic" looking, but for the viewer to instantly be able to recognize what's going on with relatively little effort on my part, while also making an image that's pleasant to look at. Being able to shorthand certain things and whip out a shape that easily communicates an idea is a skill I've taught myself over the years, and it's what enables me to churn out art like nuts. I love the look of more naturalistic art, but I'm usually very frustrated trying to create it (I like instant gratification, which is not a compatible mindset for the amount of rendering in most representational art XD), so I'd rather make something that takes relatively little time but has a lot of spirit in it.

Something I try to keep in mind with when using my style is that nothing is set in stone; my style is fluid. If I like the way something looks, I try it out, and see how I can fit it into my art.

Drawing Sta/rscre/am's hands as rectangles with sticks attached to them in simpler drawings is an example of this; I don't normally do that, but I thought it would be cool and communicate how I think his hands look better than my usual method.

Ahaha, stretch marks! One of the things I was hoping someone would ask about!

I happen to have some pretty sizeable stretchmarks in easy-to-reach places on my body, so I have a hands-on reference for them, but if you don't happen to have any of your own, there's a few things I do to quickly communicate them.

Stretchmarks are usually in the shapes of little lightning streaks, or branches. They form where the skin stretches after a rapid change in mass. Different things cause stretch marks, so it's worth knowing that not all stretch marks will look the same; you can get stretch marks from a pubescent growth spurt, pregnancy, going on HRT, bodybuilding, and of course, an increase in weight.

Of course, they don't just lie flat on the body; they follow the curves. Here's a (very) rough drawing showing how they tend to fall with the gain of weight, and a better view of the ones on Sta/rscr/eam:

With fresh ones, they tend to be red on people, but if you're drawing, say, a giant alien from another planet, consider using the color you would use to convey blood or blush.

On older stretchmarks, they tend to be lighter than the skin around them because of the way the scar tissue forms. They have a slightly satin quality compared to the matte skin around them. This is pretty easy to replicate in digital art, because you can use a screen or lighten layer to get that effect, but if you wanna go the extra mile, you can also ad a gradient to them. The ones Sta/rscr/eam has are tinted pink and blue. If the lighting was different, I might have used different colors.

For traditional art, what I'd probably do is either use a thinned down acrylic or gouache to block them in if I were painting, or create them in the negative space while shading. They can be pretty fiddly! I'm 100% sure there are skilled traditional artists who can whip them out without struggling (If not for kink, then for the sake of creating gorgeous renders to pay homage to the classical era of art), so don't be discouraged by my lack of advice!

[bakusprites]

Do you have any advice on sprite editing? I want to try it but I don’t know how or when to start 😔

oooh, i do have some advice, actually! 

well, first of all - you take your sprites from the danganronpa wiki. the dr1 and dr2 ones are small and bad quality, so when doing a half sprite edit of a dr&dr2 characters use sprites from the ultimate talent development plan instead!

if you want to do a full sprite edit with those characters, you either have to take it from tsumugi’s cosplays of the character (which limites your poses, and the characters have v3 in the eyes and theres white light and blah blah blah) oor you have to scale up the original sprites. both of those include re-drawing the whole sprite, even the things you dont want to change, soo...

actually, speaking of that. second bit of advice!

i personally re-draw the whole sprites. sometimes i could just, let the coloring of the skin stay, because its less work and stuff like that - but coloring the skin yourself is just more fun and it looks better! so, like, if youre for efficiency or dont have much time - you can let parts of the original sprite stay, or if you have time and energy you can redraw it even if you want it to be the same. (also add blush blush is cute)

wow, that whole bit sucked. i cant explain anything for the life of me. sorry ;(

third advice!

go and download some textures. textures help your sprite look more danganronpa-y and pretty and stuff like that. and even tho most danganronpa editors use only one texture for the hair and the clothes, i say that you should download a couple of textures and use them to texture different things! it looks better, creates a bit of variety, yanno....

aaanother one!

when you shade, use a dark color (i usually just go with dark red, pure black or darker version of the color im shading) and then lower its opacity. theres probably a more effective way to do that, but its just what im used to, lol.

ooh, and GRADIENTS!! when i color my sprites, i like doing very subtle gradients. like, on the skin, or on the clothes.... wait lemme show u an example

look at her hair! its darker on the lower part, because theres a subtle gradient yellow-to-kinda orange i guess?? and on the skin!! you can see on her forehead and on the collarbone, its like, darker where the shading is!!! so thats what im talking about. yea. sorry if i made no sense XDD

ALSO DO WRINKLES ON CLOTHES THEY ARE VERY IMPORTANT!!!!! even if u cant draw wrinkles on clothes!!! just do them, you will learn!!!

oh, and you dont need to follow any of these steps!! i bet a lot of people dont do them and theyre finee. its just what i do :p

so yeah thats it i think i guess

[a-ackermann]

Beach day with the Main 6?

I was scrolling through requests and just had to get to this one. It caught my eye and I had so many ideas bubbling throughout the last week or so, so here is my offering;

Asra:

- The beach you go to is a reasonably crowded and well known area, with a large quantity of sand and less rocks so you don’t hurt your feet walking to the water

- Asra, being the hippie magic person they are, brings a pair of those hiking sandals and wears a vibrant rainbow tie dye shirt with their swim trunks (that have little sharks on them btw)

- He always brings the best snacks AND the best snake!! (you were wrong if you thought Faust wasn’t tagging along)

- Your spot on the beach definitely cacthes other’s eyes with the giant rainbow umbrella and multicolored beach towels

- what’s this?? a tiny rainbow umbrella with a small beach towel??? and tiny, infant sized food?? perfect for a well known snake friend!

- Asra, being the talented magician that he is, hand made several sun hats for the three of you, yes even one for Faust. Especially one for Faust.

Nadia:

- There isn’t such thing as a beach day, Nadia only knows of beach holiday, meaning you two probably rent a private beach house for a week or two

- She brings a plethora of swim wear, but typically sticks to a gorgeous royal blue bikini with a sheer purple scarf resting on her shoulders (bonus, she brings so many pairs of sunglasses she wouldn’t notice if you stole any)

- Nadia goes all out with spending time at the beach, going as far as bringing a bottle of champagne and two glasses for you two to enjoy

- Nadia ensures to bring only the finest foods in a picnic basket, double wrapping them all in a cliché red and white plaid cloth so everything stays safe from the sand getting in the wicker basket

- She keeps her hair tied in a high bun so that sand doesn’t tamper with her lucious locks as she lays in the heat of the sun, simply relaxing and enjoying herself

- buuuut if you want her to do something a little more fun, all you have to do is nag her a bit and she’ll cave into going for a walk along the water in the afternoon

Julian:

- Now listen man, Julian has so many pairs of weird ass swim trunks that it was near impossible for him to choose. Patterned? Multicolored? Shorter? Longer?

- But you’ll never guess which ones he stuck with, and considering how pale he is, will later suffer the consequences of doing.

- Plaaaiiiin black baby!

- Once you two actually get to the beach, it’s pretty apparent Julian made a silly decision going for black swim trunks, because by the time you both are finished setting up, he’s already red from head to toe.

- The beach set up is kept simple, with a cooler full of “adult beverages”, with you keeping a close eye on how many Julian is downing considering you two are in public.

- The beach is a local, crowded beach, loaded with kids building sand castles, people who came just to sun bathe, and lots of rowdy rambunctious young adults. To which Julian of course, being the talkative one he is, always seems to find one person after another to chat with.

- Mid way through speaking though, you have to interrupt Julian with a quick reapplication of sunscreen to his face, back, chest, and arms, otherwise he’d be there til burnt to a crisp and would still be talking.

- He is the dramatic romantic sort though, and ensures to give you a taste of his romance with a drink on a more secluded area of the beach, watching the sun set as you two review the fun day together, and afterwards, a walk along the shoreline.

- Even after going through two tubes of sunscreen, Julian still gets burnt. But with some aloe vera and patience, he’ll be alright.

Portia:

- Bright blue bikini with cute flowers all over baby!! She is VIBING with warm weather!!!!

- The beach seems to be Portia’s element, with the sun setting aflame to her vibrant red hair. However despite how lovely the sun makes Portia look, the heat still beats down on her, and one thing she shares with her lovely older brother is pale, easily burnt, skin.

- The beach set up is cute and simple, with Portia insisting Pepi came along since she couldn’t “leave the baby at home”, meaning there’s small cat-sized stuff for Pepi too. (A small beach towel, a little water bowl, a little food bowl, and a little umbrella for shade)

- Portia is a very.. out there, person at the beach. She drags you to every game of volleyball with strangers, and pulls you to the water to actually swim rather than stay in a little sanctuary on the sand.

- Don’t worry about Pepi, that kitty stays in the shade under her little umbrella and knows how to defend herself if any unsupervised K-9s come rolling by.

- You and Portia have one hell of a day out in the sun, luckily the beach wasn’t nearly as crowded as you two expected so you got to be total goofballs together without the fear of some ancient elderly couple with nothing better to do complaining about you two acting like kids.

Muriel:

- He’s pretty skeptical about going to the beach. As long as you two stay in a much more secluded area with a lot less people, he’ll eventually cave into going.

- As long as the beach is notably clean, that is

- The beach set up is just two towels, and a beach bag loaded with snacks and drinks placed under the shade of a big tree

- His trunks are a dark to light green gradient, simple but fitting

- Muriel has to make the impossible choice of leaving Inanna at home so she doesn’t go buck wild in the sand and track all that sand back indoors

- He’s very skeptical to “go out there” and at first would much rather just lay in the sand, or perhaps wade in the shallow end, although the shallow end is more like the deep end for most

- Toward the end, when people start leaving, he won’t mind going and getting ice cream with you to make up for not being so energetic at the beach, even though you didn’t mind at all

- A simple smile, kiss on the cheek, and a “You don’t have to be sorry for anything you didn’t want to do” will quickly reassure this big guy

Lucio:

- The beach? How about HIS pool? Or why not just build a beach? Why do you two have to go and be around all those people and children?

- When you start firing up his ego, by saying he could go and bless everyone’s eyes with the sight of his chiseled, gorgeous body (with a gentle reminder that he’s still yours)

- He insists the beach set up must be high end, with a whole gazebo, folding chairs, and table for the cooler full of expensive beverages and the basket full of snacks and Lucio’s fancy foods (you still don’t understand why he insists on eating such high end on a day made for relaxing and enjoying yourselves)

- He certainly makes a statement with his red speedo, and doesn’t understand why you’re blushing the entire time, but does boast about it, saying you’re such a shy little dove despite seeing more of his body than this countless times before

- Just smack his chest and he’ll grin, but know to knock it off.. for now

- He spends most of his time tanning, without really paying much heed to how much time is passing... let’s just say he was as red as his speedo when you two were leaving

- With enough convincing as it gets dark, he’ll send you into the parlor to get him and yourself ice cream, (with his money seeing as he must be the one pampering YOU) while staying in the car to hide his “hideous burns”

- Be prepared to lather him in aloe vera the next few days...

[isthisthingeven0n]

rain and sunshine : d.k

another colour piece with everyone's favourite guy. and since you are all equally impatient bitches here is yellow with dima - thank you to my babe @vxlentinehood for the softest rebranded idea. 

fun fact: I almost used my book title for this piece but had a change of heart. also fun fact two, this is from my old blog as I knew it would be perfect so i’ve edited it and reworded it accordingly. 

hope you enjoy!

brief summary: dima had been sending you sunflowers for months in his absence, but their vivid colour couldn’t rise your dampened spirits.

* masterlist * 

They were the biggest contrast in my life. They were full of colour, screamed about life and excitement whilst I lacked both. 

At this point the majority of my salary is spent on maintaining them, ensuring their precious petals are secure. Sometimes I place odd ones into empty wine bottles knowing he has no idea how many of them there are at this point. It doesn’t matter how many bottles are empty, as there are always more flowers to find a home for. 

Walking into my living room they line the windows, the coffee table and one sits alone on my shelf, admiring the sea of yellow in the room. For something connoted with delicate, they are far from it, at this point they have more strength and life than I do. 

I know I have to keep them alive, keep them strong for him. All he wants is to come home to a bright happy environment, and maybe, just maybe the flowers will drown me out. 

Every few days, sometimes weeks a new bunch arrived at my door. They’d patiently wait for me, all perked up and full of life. They emit joy whilst I radiate despair but he doesn’t know that I’ve gotten good at my fake smiles. At this point, I’m unsure if I’m happy or merely faking it. 

Along with the flowers I receive a handwritten note, a quick scribble with a single kiss ‘be home soon, I miss you x’ that sort of note. At first, they touched me, I reflected over how heartfelt they seemed but now they all appear generic, that’s not his fault, I blame my empty soul.

Taking yet another withered bunch of flowers out of one vase, the one decorated with paint splats that my nephew did for me as a Christmas present I replace them with fresh, younger life. Take the old and replace it with the new, it’s easy, too easy. Focusing on the petals that linger on the surface as the body is now buried in the bin, along with other crap in my life I carefully pick the petals up, comparing the shades against the sunshine.

Dead and old.

Young and youthful.

What category can I place myself in whilst being surrounded by life?

Snapping out of my thoughts I wondered where he was exactly. Was he working? Possibly. Was he enjoying a two month trip to LA? Most definitely. How was I in the midst of this? I’m past having a response.

Picking up my phone the background lights up my eyes, causing me to squint at the cliché couple’s picture of us. Me, doing a bearing all teeth smile as I wear my yellow raincoat- the reason this began. Whilst during the dull day his eyes shone, they contrasted like my personality to these flowers. They illuminated through the heavy grey clouds of my mind, always finding a way through to show the light.

My fingertip hovers above the call button, already I can hear him voicing his concerns as his voice would grow louder as he parted from his friends, the ones I’d met various times but still felt estranged from. I can hear him laughing and it echoing in the silence of the flat, my only company slowly dying on me. Lifting my hand away I hold my fist close to my chest, my own breathing sounding too dense, too much noise breaking the silence that rests around me.

Walking out of the room I sit in the hallway, away from the colour, the life, the death, from the reminder that he isn’t here. I want to scream the sort of scream that leaves your throat raw, the one when you feel your body empty the toxins and are left feeling exhilarated. But that doesn’t happen when you scream, instead, you have neighbours who aren’t deaf or plugged into the internet knock on your door with concerns which are always short lived. No one wants to be nosey in person, we all do it in private instead.

I stare at the white wall that has been accidentally decorated with scrapes from our furniture when we moved in, the marks of alcohol from him dragging Ilya in during drunken events. We both fretted about that those stains to begin with, but the more marks that got added the less we both cared. Do we even care anymore about anything? Who knows.

Standing up I can see the colour out of the corner of my eye, the vibrancy requires sunglasses sometimes, especially at 5am when the morning sun breaks through the tainted glass. Stepping forward I hesitate to go back in there, the faint sound of laughter hangs heavy there sometimes, the forgotten memories.

Turning away I can almost hear him muttering my name, the sweet voice etched with exhaustion. Closing my eyes I whisper his in return, only to be greeted by the gentle lock of our door. Quick to face the door a large bag perched next to those scruffy shoes, my eyes dart up to see him. The actual him. Not a pixilated glitched version I’d admire through the screen or hear every few days through others conversations.

Standing my ground the variation of aged life stood between us. His stubble had grown into more of a beard whilst his hair was perfectly styled by simply being left alone. He wore that small uneasy smile, sensing my own attitude as my arms remain together.

 A gradient of colours leading to his black attire whilst I matched, how cliché. Analysing him I wasn’t sure what to do, physical contact - something I haven’t faced in shy of two months. 

Can I merely glue the pieces back together as always, pick up the flower petals and discard them like they were never there? Somehow I do this every time, but how much longer can I force myself in this game?

“Hi.” I shyly wave, as if we were strangers meeting for the first time.

To him I may as well be a stranger, usually, when he is gone for a long time I often lose myself. Who I’m meant to be that is. When I know he’s coming back I prepare myself, get back to the look that he knows and loves as opposed to a tired mess who cannot understand social interactions.

“Hey.” He said through a sigh. I tried finding his eyes but they remained out of view. “I didn’t realise how many I’d sent.” Motioning to the flowers that covered every available surface I let out a dry laugh.

“This is a third of what was.” Muttering to myself I forget how the quietest of words can be easily heard in a space like this.

Stepping forward the floorboards creaked as he etched closer, past the bright flowers and nearer the darker, the more flaccid of the bunch. His hand reached out cautiously towards mine, yet I stared at it like it were an alien. As my hands remained to my sides he quickly retracted his hand back to his side, a gentle blush crossing his cheeks. A new colour. Pink. Not yellow. Not black. Not white. But pink. The colour of love, the pure kind. Not passionate, not sexy, not dangerous. Innocent.

“Funny, isn’t it?” I spoke up, he didn’t react. “How yellow is supposed to be a happy colour?” More rhetorical questions followed by silence, as expected. “Yet it’s been claimed to be a depressing colour.” A dry laugh sounds from him, making a small smile form on my face.

“And here you are, surrounded by nothing but it.” He lifted his head, at last, the deep blue that shone through the clouds and darkness.

The blue, the pink, the grey all contrasting against the sunflowers. “It’s about time for a change.” Placing my hand on his I felt the easiness return. The innocent pink cross my own cheeks. “Welcome home, Dima.”

[dyde21]

Aquarium

So @mrk50​ and I decided to collaborate on a little project! I know it’s been a hot minute since I’ve written anything for Arkos but I was feeling up to it and it felt like a good opportunity. So here’s a one shot I wrote! Also: HERE is the song I listened to while writing it. xD 

XxXxXxXxX

Jaune paced back and forth in front of the aquarium, trying to calm the butterflies in his stomach. He had shown up fifteen minutes early, knowing he still had a bad habit of being a little late to appointments. This was much more important than any appointment so far though, he was on a date with Pyrrha. Just thinking those words made him stop pacing and he felt another wave of nerves wash over him. His scroll buzzed and he saw a message from Pyrrha.

P: I'm sorry! I'm on my way! Yang and Weiss kept fighting about my hair.

Jaune just smiled and sent her a thumbs up emoji in return. At least her delay would give him a chance to compose himself.

It was still hard for Jaune to believe that he was actually about to go on a date with his amazing teammate. It had taken a while, and a lot, a lot, of not so subtle hints from his teammates and friends before he finally started to get a clue. The dance had kinda helped him get over his crush on Weiss, and it was subtle, but he had started to look at his partner differently. Once his crush had passed, and after an honest talk with Yang and Pyrrha, he had even gone and apologized to Weiss for taking so long to get the hint and they were on good terms properly. Of course, this now meant that all those nerves were starting to blossom around his partner. But after an extremely awkward confession from both parties involved and one wonderful but confusing night, they were about to go on their first date.

Their friends had been extremely supportive, and apparently relieved that they were finally going out, and had kidnapped Pyrrha in order to help “prepare” her. This left Jaune alone, but Blake apparently had already thought about that since Ren wasn't exactly the best person to ask for advice on what to wear, and Sun and Neptune had shown up at a request from her. Soon enough Neptune had helped him pick out something that was “totally cool.”

Fidgeting the with the zipper on his zip up, he hoped he had been telling the truth. It wasn't too different from what he normally wore, jeans, high top shoes, and a zip up hoodie. Jaune had wanted to dress up in his dress shirt but Sun had just brushed off the idea, mentioning how “Pyrrha liked you for you, so don't try and be someone you're not.”

A part of Jaune reminded himself to make sure to make it up to them, they had really helped calm him a bit before his date.

“Jaune!” Pyrrha's voice called out from across the courtyard. Looking up, Jaune felt his face flush and his mouth suddenly felt very dry. Pyrrha was making her way towards him, an apologetic and worried smile on her face as she waved. Stopping a few feet in front of him, he saw her eyes trail up and down him once and her own face went a shade closer to her hair. “Sorry for being late! They wouldn't let me go, Ruby had to sneak me out to get them to stop bickering over what to do with my hair.”

“They did.. wow. You look won- beautiful. Just... wow.” He fumbled, wincing as he realized the very first chance he had to make a good impression on this date was blown. Most people couldn't blame him though.

Pyrrha was wearing a beautiful sundress that was a gradient from gold to white. Over it she wore a simple brown jacket and a red sash clipped by a pin of her emblem. Over a pair of stockings she was wearing a pair of high boots and Jaune could only really think of one way to describe her outfit. Cute.

Jaune felt his throat go a little dry as he met her eyes again, and she was just staring at him with a cute, curious smile, if not with a little blush on her cheeks. “Are you ready to go in?”

Jaune blinked and nodded, glad for an excuse to stop talking for a moment. I already got the tickets, so we can go straight in.” Pyrrha nodded and turned, starting to walk towards the doors. Taking a deep breath, Jaune put a hand on his chest. “You can do this.” He muttered to himself. He wasn't going to screw this up.

“Jaune?” Pyrrha called, confused as she noticed he wasn't at her side.

“Coming!” He called out as he quickly jogged to her side. Pyrrha just smiled and, thanking him as he held open the door for her. Immediately walking through the door, they both gasped as they looked around. Right in the center there was a massive towering aquarium filled with thousands of small, brightly colored fish. The scale of this aquarium was already impressive. “It's so pretty.” Jaune said after moment.

“Gorgeous.” Pyrrha agreed. Looking over, she saw Jaune stepping forward and she had to admit the childish look of awe on his face was unbearably cute.

Jaune rested a hand on the glass as he saw the myriad of colors swirling around in the water. His eyes were drawn to a slightly larger scarlet fish, which instantly reminded him of his partner. With a start he turned around, seeing Pyrrha watching him with a strange smile he couldn't quite place. “Uh... sorry. I got a little distracted...”

Pyrrha just smiled, walking next to him and brushing some bangs behind her ear. “Don't be. We're here to enjoy ourselves after all. I don't blame you, it's like it's own little world in there.” She said, her own eyes getting lost in the aquatic world. Jaune bit his lip as he looked at her, finding her look heartwarming.

After a moment they looked around. “This place sure is big.” He mumbled after a moment.

“Let's see... there should be...” Pyrrha said, scanning around. “There!” She said, quickly hurrying her way to a stand. Jaune saw her walk back a moment later, unfolding something. A map, apparently.

She leaned into him, showing him the map too so they could both get a good look. Jaune would be lying if he said half of his mind wasn't solely focused on the fact that Pyrrha was leaning into him so much, that her shampoo smelled like strawberries, and it was a little hard to focus until he saw one of her fingers point at an exhibit. “Otters!” She squealed excited, causing a smile to grace his lips again. He recognized that tone of voice, where the usually stoic but friendly Pyrrha was pushed aside from the easily excited girl that she usually kept repressed. “We have to see them.” She pleaded, her eyes shifting to his. He nodded quickly, trying not to get lost in them again. “Of course.”He said, scanning the page properly. “Penguins!” He exclaimed as he pointed, feeling Pyrrha shift slightly as she chuckled. “We'll make sure to see those too.” They spent a minute or so huddled together as they both pointed out exhibits they wanted to make sure to see and debated the best path to take.

Eventually they decided on a good path, making sure to time it so they can check out the Otter show, and started off. As they walked off, Pyrrha lead the way, commenting on the tropical section they were going to first. Jaune saw her hand dragging a bit behind her as she pointed with the other one. He was suddenly overcome by a desperate urge to hold her hand. Something that had been on his mind since their confession. Sure it had happened occasionally on a mission, or if leading someone somewhere from day to day but never in a romantic sense. It suddenly felt like a massive leap of faith. Hesitating, his hand inches from hers, he slowly pulled his hand back and caught up to her as they walked, checking out each of the tanks. They had gotten their rather early in the day, so they weren't really in any rush. They took their time enjoying the exhibits, and Jaune soon learned Pyrrha was actually very interested in the plaques that gave information. Her curiosity was adorable to him, and he found himself eagerly listening as she would read out facts she saw interesting.

A little further in, they had a mini aquarium with a little tunnel that you could climb through and pop your head up to look like you're in the center of the tank. Smiling, Pyrrha immediately started pushing him towards it. Jaune was a bit confused as to why she was trying so hard to get him in there.

Still, Jaune wasn't about to ruin her fun so he waited for the little kid to leave before he crawled through the small hole. When he poked his head up, he immediately two things. One, seeing fish swimming all around him was actually really cool. The second was he saw a distorted picture of Pyrrha on the other side, holding scroll up. It took him a moment to realize she was taking pictures, then what looked like a video. His eyes widened, before he offered her a small smile. After a moment, he climbed back out, joining her as he saw her scrolling through the photos, uploading a few.

Then he pulled out his scroll and Pyrrha stared him confused for a moment. “Your turn.” He offered plainly, and he saw her eyes widened before a blush creeped on her face and she nodded. Waiting patiently, and even letting another kid go first, she climbed through the tunnel and poked her head up. Jaune took a generous amount of photos, saving one especially where she through up a peace sign.

Pyrrha climbed back out and looked at them, blushing slightly.

That set them off though, soon they were taking photos everywhere.

It pretty much became a game between them. Every little plastic animal was posed next to, they both take turns posing in front of various tanks, and Pyrrha had even asked someone to take a photo of them two together. Once they had finished the second wing of the aquarium, they both decided they had been feeling a bit hungry.

As they pushed their away against the growing crowd to try and make it back to the food court, Jaune trailed a bit behind Pyrrha letting her part the crowd. He saw her hand trailing behind her a bit, and his eyes were locked on it as he bit his lip. He really wanted to reach out and hold it again, but it was still their first date. Was it too forward? Was he rushing things? He knew Pyrrha was as inexperienced as he was with relationships, and really didn't want to ruin the day for both of them. His hand hovered a few inches from hers, before he sighed and pulled it back. As he was moving his hand back, he felt Pyrrha's grab his wrist tightly as she looked at him with a smile, apparently unaware of the fact they were almost holding hands.

“Stay close, it's busy and we don't want to get separated.” She offered.

Jaune nodded, his gaze lingering on where she was holding his wrist. Eventually they breached through the crowd and managed to get in the food line, taking a deep breath.

“I'm glad we got here early, we had plenty time to see some of the exhibits before it got crowded.” She offered, before her gaze followed Jaune's down to where she was still holding his wrist. She quickly let go, holding her hands behind her back and she smiled at him, that dust of pink on her cheeks again.

Jaune just took a deep breath, forcing the nerves from his face. “We just have to make sure to get to the otter exhibit before the show with enough time to find seats. We-” He was cut off as his stomach let out a massive growl. He flushed, but Pyrrha just giggled. “We can worry about that after lunch, I'm starting to get hungry too.” They continued to chat idly about the exhibits they saw, checking out the photos they took. As they neared the end of the line, they both looked up at the board, debating what to get. Eventually their turn came up and they both looked at each other to go first, finally Jaune stepped forward. “I'll have a hot dog, a lemonade and... a chocolate muffin.” Pyrrha stepped up next, pausing. “I'll have... a BLT, a side of fries and...” Jaune noticed her gaze lingering on the desert section. He leaned over and whispered. “Do it.”

“A chocolate milkshake!” She blurted out suddenly, before covering her mouth like she had something scandalous.

Jaune just laughed and stepped forward, pulling out his wallet at the same time Pyrrha did. They met eyes for a moment while the guy working the counter just sighed at the lovey dovey antics the couple in front of him was going through, glancing up at the clock to figure out when his shift was over.

“Let me.” Jaune said, a challenging look in his eyes.

Pausing for a moment, Pyrrha stared at him and he honestly expected more a fight but she just smiled and put her purse away. “Thank you.”

Jaune smiled and handed him the Lien as they paid.

They got their number and waited off to the side for it to be called. Jaune's scroll buzzed and Jaune pulled it out for a moment, before he glanced at Pyrrha and put it away. Pyrrha just tilted her head curiously. Jaune's scroll then buzzed four more times in the next minute and he let out a frustrated sigh and punched his pocket as if to stop his scroll.

“Why don't you check it?” Pyrrha asked, her brows furrowed.

Jaune shrugged. “It's cause I'm on a d... date with you.” He said, only pausing for a moment when he actually said it out loud. “I don't want to be rude.”

Pyrrha looked at him with a smile that made his heart feel way too warm. “You're very considerate Jaune.” She said, resting a hand on his shoulder. “But it could be important, it's okay.”

Hesitating a moment, her words of course planted the seed of doubt in his mind and he had to check it. Opening his messages, he sighed and hurried typed up a reply.

“Everything all right?” Pyrrha asked.

Jaune just forced a smile to his face. “Yeah. My sisters are a little... eager to hear about how the dates going.”

This caused Pyrrha to laugh at his expression. “And what did you say?”

Jaune shrugged, ignoring another round of buzzes from his scroll. “That it's going amazing so far, and they're ruining it.”

His redheaded partner just giggled. “I'm sure we'll get just as many questions when we get back to the dorm as well.” Jaune nodded, before shrugging. “I'm in no rush to go back.”

This caught Pyrrha by surprise for some reason, confusing Jaune and slightly worrying him until he saw a smile creep onto her face. “Neither am I.” Their number was caused and Pyrrha glanced at him, a playful look on her face. “I think the date's going amazingly as well.” She offered with a wink, before she quickly walked off to get their food leaving a blushing Jaune behind.

Jaune followed her after a moment so she didn't have to juggle all the food herself, catching up and taking a tray and his drink. They made their way to a table after stopping for utensils and sat down. It was a small two person table, and while their proximity was very close, he had to admit he didn't mind. If they started to play footsie under the table after he kept accidentally bumping her knee while they ate, then their friends didn't need to know about that.

Their conversation fell into a comfortable lull as they both quickly devoured their food as they finally realized how hungry they actual were now that the pre-date nerves were settling. Jaune stole a fry as he listened to Pyrrha talk about one of her trips to an aquarium as a kid in Mistral. He loved hearing stories about Pyrrha growing up. While not all the stories were exactly pleasant, they all helped illuminate a little of the life that lead to the creation of the wonderful woman he was falling deeply in love with. Pyrrha just finished her story, before she glanced at her scroll. “We need to go! We'll be late!” She said, standing up quickly and piling their garbage onto the tray. Jaune joined her, tossing the trash as the ever-proper Pyrrha tidied up their table before they quickly hurried across the space. Jaune was a little lost, but Pyrrha must have planned it out earlier because she knew the way perfectly and hardly a minute later they were heading to a decent pair of seats for the show as they saw the trainer starting to get ready and prepare the otters.

Jaune could practically see the energy radiating from his partner. Her eyes were as wide as saucers as she looked at all the cute creatures swimming happily in the water. She had pulled out her scroll and was taking what could only be described as an alarming number of photos of them. Jaune just smiled, and even when the informative show started, Jaune had to admit he was too distracted to pay proper attention. In his opinion, his partner was far cuter than those critters.

The show wasn't too long, but Jaune did learn a lot about the creatures, and had even seen them preform some tricks. The crowd was leaving the seating area, but Pyrrha seemed interested in staying until the show was completely over and Jaune didn't mind. His main goal was to ensure she had the most fun she could after all. Eventually the creatures were herded back to their normal habitat and Pyrrha stood up, stretching out her back. “I take you enjoyed the show?” Jaune asked, unable to keep the smirk from his face. Pyrrha nodded, brushing some bangs back. “Yes, very much so. I'm sorry for being so distracted.”

Jaune just laughed. “It's fine, you were very cute.”

The compliment lingered in the air for a moment as they both realize what was said again. Jaune realized it would probably take them both a little getting used to open affection like that. Feeling the need to move the conversation along he coughed once. “I need to use the restroom so before we head to the penguins, we should stop somewhere.”

Pyrrha nodded. “I agree.”

They made their way off to the side of one of the main paths. They found a single person bathroom, and of course Jaune had insisted she go first, so Jaune waited outside, taking the chance to reply to the myriad of messages his sisters had sent him, ranging from encouragement, jokes, to advice, and even a request for a souvenir.

Before long Pyrrha emerged again and Jaune smile, before walking in.

XxXxXxXxX

Pyrrha took a deep breath as she sat on the bench, taking the brief moment she was away from her crush... boyfriend to calm her nerves. The date had just been... wonderful. She couldn't really think of any other words to describe it.

While Pyrrha had always tried to stop herself from being lost in childish dreams of “perfect dates” with a knight in Shining Armor, now that she was with Jaune, she had to admit it felt a lot like that. Only... more natural. While they both definitely still had some nerves, today felt like all the wonderful days she had spent around him, only more intense and... personal. Jaune was hers, the same way she was his. Their attention was on each other, for these few hours Grimm weren't their problem, they didn't have to deal with teasing friends, she didn't have to suffer through an unrequited love. They were just enjoying themselves, together.

Just thinking about it brought a smile to her face. After how long she had yearned for it, it was finally hers and it felt more satisfying than her shelf of trophies. Especially since her partner was someone she had come to admire so much, seeing him grow from a clumsy boy in way over his head as he slipped into beacon, into the man she saw work harder than everyone else to be the man she saw deep within him. Plus, she had to remember to have Blake thank Sun and Neptune for her. She always found Jaune cute, even hot sometimes, but today he looked even cuter than normal.

He had been behaving so sweetly too. Even with his dorkiness she had grown quite fond of, he still treated her with respect and acted like a gentleman. Not babying her, but she had to admit some part of her liked being treated like someone special by someone who cared for her, not because of her accolades but because of their bond.

She sent a quick response to Ruby assuring that the date was going well, knowing Yang and Nora were too risky to try and talk with at the moment.

Jaune emerged not long later, smiling that same goofy smile that caused her heart to skip a beat.

“Ready?” He asked.

Pyrrha nodded and followed him as he lead their way to the start of another path. Things were a bit more crowded so they had to be a little more patient in order to check out all the exhibits, but Pyrrha was just happy being there. They were both much less hesitant about taking photos by now so they were both giving into their more childish whims and taking photos of all the exhibits. As they made their way towards where the Penguin show would start in a bit, Pyrrha noticed a few life size statues of large penguins. Immediately she gasped and pointed, and Jaune followed her gesture, until he saw and understood the message she was trying to get across. Immediately he moved over towards them, getting place to pose with them. He was smiling, but Pyrrha pouted, shaking her head and staring at him challengingly. After a moment he seemed to get the hint, and pause for a moment before he leaned and straightened his body to look like he was waddling too. Pyrrha laughed and took a few pictures for good measure. She paused, quickly sending one to her mom, and another to Ruby, figuring she'd get a laugh out of it.

Jaune seemed to get the idea of what she was doing and rushed over, nearly tripping over a baby penguin statue on the way. “You didn't send those!” Pyrrha just laughed, covering her mouth. “I'm sorry! You just looked so cute.”

Jaune groaned, though the smile never left his face. “I look like a dork.”

Pyrrha saw him pout slightly and couldn't resist. She reached out, tussling his hair slightly. “Maybe, but you're my dork.”

This caused them both to blush, but she saw Jaune's smile grow and she decided it was worth it. Then Jaune pulled out his scroll and she decided fair was fair. Moving over, she posed next to the penguins as Jaune took a few photos. They heard an announcement over the intercom about the show starting soon, they quickly hurried over to the bleachers to get some good seats. They sat down, and this time Jaune was the one who was incredibly excited. He was taking some pictures of the penguins, and Pyrrha had to take one of him. It was a little unfair how cute she found him.

The show was brief, but interesting for sure. A lot of explanation of how Zoo's were important for animal research, and preserving wildlife that human and fannus expansion had threatened their habitat in conjunction with the Grimm. Plus seeing them waddle around was just adorable. Almost too soon, the lady leading the show bid them all good bye and soon the crowd was leaving. Jaune just looked at her, a smile resting on his face and Pyrrha was happy to see his unbridled joy.

While they had both obviously been enjoying their date, it was clear Jaune was carrying with him a sort of expectation of making this date great for her. She was just happy to be with him. She was afraid to confront him about it, worried she'd just make him more nervous.

Things were going well though, and she was sure she'd remember this day the rest of her life.

“That was the last of the events, right?” Jaune asked, pulling out the map and checking it. Pyrrha nodded, leaning over to check it with him. She may have leaned a little closer than she normally would, but she was pretty sure neither of them really minded. “One path left.” Jaune offered.

“Then let's go!” Pyrrha offered, smiling as she started to walk towards the start of it. While she was sad their day was starting to wind down, it had been a long day and she almost felt greedy with how many wonderful memories and photos had come from it. What almost felt overwhelming was the fact that there would be plenty of more days like this now that they were together.

They went through this last path a little slower than usual, but neither of them seemed too eager to change that. They took plenty of pictures, reading each of the plaques on the various creatures.

Near the end of the path there was a massive tank. They both slowly walked up to it, jaws dropping. It was massive, and there were a lot of species swimming around. The room was dim, so the light from the tank was bathing everything in a soft blue. A massive sting ray was swimming along the side of the tank and Pyrrha felt an overwhelming peace. She nearly jumped when she felt Jaune's hand snake into hers, gently squeezing it. Her face flushed red, but looking over she saw him looking at her with a worried expression. He was clearly nervous and asking for permission. Pyrrha just smiled and squeezed his hand in return, running a thumb reassuringly over his knuckles. They both realized things were fine. Even better than fine. Pyrrha leaned a bit closer to him as they both looked up at the massive sting ray swimming by. They were quiet for the first time in a while, neither of them really having anything to say. Just being around each other was enough for now.

They weren't exactly sure how long they had been watching the fish swim at that tank, but eventually they both realized they should be moving along. They both turned and started walking, and for a fearful moment Pyrrha was worried he was going to let go of her hand, but she seemed content on holding it, and she found she was getting greedy for his touch.

They paused by the center tank again, looking up at it. They just enjoyed each other's touch again, feeling like they were in their own little world but they knew they had to get back soon. They had been gone for quite a while, and life wouldn't stop for them to just enjoy their date forever. They made their way to the gift shop and Jaune released her hand, making her pout for a moment, but he looked at her with an understand smile. “I want to grab a souvenir for my sister.” Pyrrha nodded, and an idea of her own formed in her head. A few minutes later and they both met outside the gift shop, holding their own bags. When she walked up, Jaune was turned away, holding something.

“Jaune?”

Jaune turned around, and his face was red as he held out a little creature for her. It was a stuffed Otter. Her eyes went wide and she nearly dropped her own bags. “Is this for me?” She asked, slowly reaching for it. Jaune nodded.

“I know you love them, and I thought... maybe to remember today...” He offered, stumbling a bit over his words.

Pyrrha couldn't quite find the words to express the joy and warmth she felt in her chest. All she did was reach into her bag and hand him a stuffed penguin. “I was going to wrap it, but... I also wanted you to remember today.” Jaune stared at the penguin like it was gold, before he took it and smiled, hugging it. Pyrrha instantly wished her hands weren't full because she desperately wanted a picture of that, finding he was once again unfairly cute hugging the penguin.

Pyrrha just buried her face into the otter, already debating on names for it. “I will never forget today, I now it.”

Jaune just grinned at her. “I won't either.” He shifted his penguin to one hand so he could hold hands with Pyrrha as they walked away from the aquarium. Right before they reached the shuttle that would take them back, Pyrrha suddenly turned and lead them a bit off the path. Jaune looked at her confused, but she stepped forward and leaned up to kiss him quickly. Fueled by passion, the kick was quick, chaste, a little clumsy, but full of love before she pulled back.

“Sorry, I...”

Jaune just smiled, and leaned forward to quick for a quick kiss.”It's okay. I... really wanted to do that too.”

Pyrrha couldn't help the blush on her face so she buried her face into his neck until she could calm her heart. Jaune just laughed and wrapped an arm around her.

Eventually they had to get back on the shuttle to head home, but they were definitely closer together now, and if they had shared a kiss or two on the trip no one would blame them. They knew they both would have to field plenty of questions when they got back, but today was one of the best in Pyrrha's life, and she was glad she was finally with her partner, and judging by Jaune's look, he was feeling the same. Resting her head on his shoulder, Pyrrha smile and squeezed his hand. Things were good.

XxXxXxXxX

Thank you for reading! Make sure you check out their work! This was fun to write. I know I don’t post here as much any more but I hope you enjoy this old writer’s dip back into arkos for a moment!

[all-that-is-left-is-the-heart]

Sometimes life surprises us. And some people come into our lives always for a reason.

AO3

Chapter 19

It was past the time Robert agreed to pick her up at home and that was no sign of him yet. It only made Elizabeth more nervous than she already was. No, anxious, that was the word that described her better. Unlike lunch at Ellen's, she wasn’t nervous about this party. In fact, she was eager to know what Robert would think of her look. She could tell she was just getting ready for the occasion, but she would be lying. All the choices she made, from the shoe to her makeup weren't thinking about what others would think, but what he would think. It was the first time they were going to a formal event together as a couple, she as his date. Elizabeth was well accustomed to these parties, especially when there were some in the gallery, but it had been a long time since she had accompanied someone; as a girlfriend. It still made her laugh when she thought about what she and Robert were to each other, and wondered if he would introduce her this way to his friends and co-workers. But what other word could describe what they were of each other? She couldn't avoid using that term. She smiled.

The doorbell rang just as she finished putting her mascara.

“You're late,” she said flatly as soon as she opened the door and stepped aside to allow him entrance.

“Good evening to you too,” he joked and then his mouth dropped open as he looked her up and down. Elizabeth's dress was long in a gradient shade of gray, a V-neck on the back and front, and a band marking her waist. His eyes then were drawn to the neckline, he could see the curve of her breasts.

“Wow! You're absolutely ... gorgeous.” Robert could barely find a word to do her justice. She was absurdly beautiful.

“Thank you,” she said with a shy smile, but internally happy to have achieved her goal. Robert was looking at her as if he had never seen her before, and a desire in his eyes that made her cheeks flushed pink.

“And you're not bad either,” she teased as she reached him and placed her hands on his chest smoothing the fabric of his suit. Robert was always impeccably dressed and unlike other times he wasn't wearing a tie. His light blue shirt was matching elegantly with his black suit and Elizabeth loved the fact that he was wearing glasses. Sexy was the right word for him.

“No!” She admonish him when he tried to kiss her. “You're going to smudge my lipstick.” Robert pouted and then kissed her cheek and soon he was attracted by her perfume and dragged more kisses on her neck.

“Robert! We'll be late,” she warned him again, but made no move to step away from him, as much as she wanted him not to stop, they had a party to attend and she didn’t want to be late. Besides, the smell of his cologne was making her legs weak, and if she didn't stop him at that moment, they wouldn't leave the apartment that night.

“Are you sure we have to go?” He said seductively in her ear. This is not fair, she thought.

“It's an important celebration, so you tell me if we should attend or not.” Robert then reluctantly moved away from her.

“I'm just going to get my purse and then we can go,” Elizabeth said, and as she turned to go back to her bedroom, Robert pulled her to his body and gave her a soft but firm kiss on her lips.

“Sorry, but I couldn't go through all night without kissing you,” he said as he walked away and she just smiled at him before going to get her purse, and check her lipstick. Robert followed her with his eyes, then smirked, running his thumb over his lips. This night will be long.

The 32th Stuart & Associates' anniversary was being celebrated in one of the party halls in the building where the law firm was located. Charles Stuart and his associates have always made a point of celebrate every year of the firm they opened years ago in a small office in Brooklyn. The presence of its lawyers and their family were always required. The main subject would always be about their cases but everyone took the opportunity to relax and made small talk with their colleagues. Robert sometimes had his mother's company after his divorce but on most occasions he went alone.

This year however would be different.

He and Elizabeth arrived without attracting much attention to them, which was a relief to her, who thought they would be late, drawing everyone's attention. He noticed some people staring at them, and knew that the stares were actually all at Elizabeth, and how could he blame them? She looked stunning.

The taxi ride to 250 Vesey Street had been a torture to Robert. He wanted to touch or kiss Elizabeth and she would always push him away saying that he would smudge her lipstick or crumpled her dress. In fact, she was teasing him and he knew it, but in order not to draw the driver's attention even further into the back seat, he held back and managed to keep his hands off her. But still, he at one point wrapped an arm around her shoulder and inhaled the scent of her hair and finally she relaxed into his embrace and didn’t try to pull away.

They were soon spotted by his friend Michael, who smiled as approached them. Finally his best friend would meet Elizabeth and Robert just wished he would make a good impression and the two would get along.

“I thought you guys would never come. I couldn't stand this people anymore,” he joked as he hugged Robert.

“You probably love these people, since you attend all these parties and aren't even part of the office,” Robert teased.

“Now you hurt me, Robbie,” he put his hand on his chest, pretending to be hurt. “That's what he always does,” Michael told Elizabeth who was grinning at their taunts.

He was the same age as Robert, she guessed, but he had a more playful way than his friend, and it made him look younger. She hadn’t yet exchanged a word with him, but from everything Robert had told about him and seeing his jokes she could already see how a fun person he was, which contrasted with Robert's most serious manner; not that he wasn't fun because he definitely was.

“So we finally meet. I thought he would never allow it,” he joked and held out his hand to her.

Elizabeth smiled as he kissed her hand. “Nice to finally meet you, Michael. Robert talks a lot about you,” she said and then slipped her arm around Robert's back and he automatically did the same. She was still feeling insecure in that place, around unknown people to her but familiar to him and his touch was comforting.

“Oh, does he talk about me? This is a surprise because I imagined he'd never told you about my existence,” he continued teasing and she couldn't hold back a laugh. Robert smiled, watching her laugh. He loved that sound.

“But he talks a lot about you, too. That was why I was so eager to meet you, because Robert kept talking about you from the day he first met you.” She looked at Robert and smiled shyly.

“He even carries a photo of you in his wallet,” Michael continued and Elizabeth raised both brows at that.

“Is it true?” She asked incredulously, looking at Michael and then at Robert. She couldn't believe that besides having a picture of her and Annie at home he kept one in his wallet as well.

“He's just kidding. Remember those pictures in the park?” She nodded. “I showed him once on my phone.” So now she knew that besides Robert talked about her to his mother, he also talked about her with his best friend and showed him a picture of her. It meant that just like her, he hadn't stopped thinking about her since they first met.

“But there's a picture in his living room,” Michael said as if telling a secret and they both smiled.

“Very beautiful your daughter by the way.” He then said in all honesty. Robert squeezed her shoulder, knowing how she felt whenever they talked about Annie.

“Just like her mother,” he added.

“Thank you,” Elizabeth said proudly and then blushed at the compliment.

“I followed the case a lot through the conversations with Robbie, and I'm sorry she was taken away from you.” Robert gave her another squeeze and she responded by squeezing his waist to let him know she was okay. Michael didn't mean any harm, and she couldn't feel upset every time someone brought this into the conversation. This was something she would have to get used to.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” he said as soon as he noticed the exchange of looks between Robert and Elizabeth.

“I shouldn't have said that, it's just that I can imagine how difficult it is for you to stay away from your daughter, and that's not fair,” he finished and Elizabeth gave him a gentle smile. She knew about his children being away from him.

“It's okay, don't worry. And I'm sure I'll have her back,” she said with more confidence than she felt.

“I'm sure of that, too. Robbie isn't one to lose and I guarantee he will find a way to bring your daughter back,” Michael also said confidently and Robert felt like in his first cases when he had to show everyone that he was a good lawyer, especially with the way Elizabeth was looking at him. A mixture of pride and hope.

“I'll always do my best,” he said looking at her. Elizabeth gave a small smile and then tilted up her head toward his, Robert lowered his and kissed her lips. They forgot for a minute where they were.

“Lovebirds, I don't want to interrupt you, but there are people watching,” Michael teased and then the two pulled apart. Elizabeth turned red as she looked around and saw that some people were really looking toward them.

“Here is this way, Elizabeth, whatever you do, they look at.” Michael kept joking.

“Mike, if she runs away from here I swear I'll kill you.”

“I'm not going to run,” she said with a laugh.

“Oh, but I will,” Michael said looking the other way. “There he comes, Mr. Stuart. Now the subject will be just about the cases and more cases. Fun's over, guys,” he joked, and both Elizabeth and Robert looked back.

“Good evening, Robert,” Mr. Stuart said as he approached the three of them.

“Hi Charles, good evening,” he said and they greeted each other with a friendly pat on the back. "I want you to meet-”

“Elizabeth Mackenzie,” Charles cut him off. “I've heard so much about you.” It seemed like this was what she was going to hear most tonight.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Stuart,” she greeted him and like his son he kissed her hand.

“Please, just Charles. After all we're at a party,” he give her a nice smile. Charles Stuart was a tall man with gray hair and a serious-looking upon seeing him for the first time, but he seemed to know how to relax, and just as his son he had a sense of humor; when the occasion demanded of course.

“Elizabeth, you were lucky, because I only had the privilege of calling him Charles 18 years after meeting him,” Michael joked and the three of them laughed.

A waiter finally passed them, and they grabbed a glass of champagne from the tray. Elizabeth knew what it did to her, but she wasn't going to avoid drinking tonight, she wanted to enjoy the party and wanted to forget her problems.

“Robert, can we talk for a minute? If Elizabeth doesn't mind,” he said after a small talk.

“I told you,” Michael said in a conspiratorial tone. Elizabeth smiled and then looked at Robert. He didn't want to get away from her, but he knew that at some point Charles would eventually drag him into some conversation about some important case for the office.

“It's fine, I'm sure I can stay with Michael for a minute without him making me run away,” she then decided to joke and Robert saw she was already feeling comfortable at the party.

“Robbie, did I ever tell you that I adore your girlfriend?” Michael said and winked at his friend. He really was liking this woman who stole his friend's heart. She was totally different from the others girlfriends and especially from his ex-wife and he liked it very much.

Contrary to what she thought earlier, hearing the word girlfriend didn’t sound strange or funny as she had thought. It only felt natural to say that she was Robert's girlfriend.

“She'll be in good hands Robert, and I swear we’ll not be long,” Mr. Stuart said, patting his shoulder.

Robert reluctantly removed his hand from Elizabeth’s back and told her he would be back soon. He gave her a quick kiss on the lips and made her blush in front of Charles and Michael, then he looked at his friend and his glance clearly mean nothing of your stories. Michael gave a knowing nod, but Robert knew it was almost impossible for him to shut up, and as much as Elizabeth seemed at ease with him, Robert feared that he would say something that would annoy her. He could only hope he didn't. Taking one last look at her, he walked away with Charles and approached a group of lawyers who were already in a conversation. Probably this wouldn’t last for just a few minutes.

“Now we can talk about all of Robbie'’s secrets,” Michael teased but Elizabeth made a face and then he said it was just a joke.

“But I'm sure you have several interesting stories to tell, and I'd love to hear them,” she said and winked at him.

“Elizabeth, did I ever tell you I adored you?” He wondered where this woman was hiding that didn't come into his friend's life before.

Michael always supported his friend in his relationships but not every girlfriend Robert had he thought was ideal. And that wasn't because some of them didn't like him, but he jus didn't see a compatibility between them. But Elizabeth ... she was something else. He saw a gleam in his friend's eyes that he couldn't remember ever having seen one like that before. Whenever Robert talked about her, that gleam was there, sparkling in his eyes and now he could see it in both of them. Even though he had just met Elizabeth, he could see a special gleam in her eyes as she stared at Robert. Just seeing the two of them together he knew that they were meant to be.

He never liked a girlfriend of Robert as he was liking Elizabeth. Robert had asked a thousand times for him not make jokes that would make her uncomfortable and even before he walked away from them, the look Robert gave him told him to go easy on her. But that wouldn't be necessary, because talking to Elizabeth was nice and the same as talking to a friend.

Robert whenever he could, would look at direction and was surprised when he saw that Elizabeth practically laughed the whole time. His friend was probably being funny and telling her things about him, but by her reaction, it wasn't something that made her embarrassed or upset, as often happened to other women he introduced to Michael. He was really happy the two of them were getting along and what he most wanted was to join them instead of having the same conversations he had during the week in the office, but just because he was at a party didn't mean he would escape this. Robert sighed and turned his attention to the group around him. Elizabeth was in good company.

“I can't believe this,” Elizabeth said and burst into laughter. She and Michael were in their second glass of champagne and they knew they were laughing too loudly, but at that point they didn't even care if people were looking at them. They were having fun while the others probably just talked about who had the most complicated case.

“You can't believe what?” Robert asked as he reached behind her and bent down to kiss her shoulder, then sat down next to her.

“Robert, I can't believe you got so drunk that you confused your room,” Elizabeth said and started laughing again. He laughed and shook his head, remembering what story his friend had told her.

“I knew I shouldn't have left you two alone,” he joked and looked at his friend. Michael had told her the story when he drank so much at a college party that when he returned to the dormitory he spent 20 minutes trying to open the door with his key until the door opened and Robert asked the guy what he was doing in his bedroom. Obviously the other day it became news on campus and Robert became a joke until something else happened with another student.

“Come on Robbie, this isn’t so bad, there are worse ones,” Michael teased.

“And I'm looking forward to hear them all,” Elizabeth said with a smirk.

“Don't believe anything he tells, Liz,” he said in a serious tone but he could not help laughing with her. Michael then excused himself and left them alone.

“Sorry it took so long, but sometimes it's impossible to escape these conversations,” he said and took a sip of champagne.

“No problem, it was nice talking to Michael. He's not that awful,” she joked and he smiled. They got along really well and he couldn't have been more pleased.

“But... and Christine, huh” she said suddenly, and Robert was slow to understand what she was talking about. This was another story his friend always liked to remember of.

“Even this story I told him, he told you?” he said in disbelief.

“Oh Robert, that was cute,” Elizabeth said and sipped her last sip of champagne. She was already feeling dizzy but she still wasn't going to stop.

“You climbed up to her window just to give her her favorite chocolates. It was very romantic, and I confess... I'm jealous,” she teased and pouted.

“You don't have to be,” he stated, taking her hand and giving it a kiss. “Actually I took her chocolates because she was sick and I thought this would make her feel better.”

“And that's what makes this story cute,” she said leaning into him and giving a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

“You always thinking of others,” she said, stroking his cheek. Elizabeth was more and more enchanted by the person Robert was. She has seen this since she met him and after spending more time with him and talking to his mother and his friend, she could only see how wonderful this man was. And to know that he had always been like this, somehow it really got her.

Michael returned to the table minutes later and the three of them talked for a long time until Robert, feeling that Elizabeth was comfortable in the party, decided to introduce her to some of his colleagues. Soon she was introduced to a couple and she remembered that the woman was the same as she saw Robert talking in the park and she turned red when she remembered how jealous she got, for no reason, since they weren't yet involved.

The conversation with everyone she was introduced to was pleasant but as soon as they had a moment alone, she asked to return to the table, as she was feeling dizzy from the champagne. They sat down again with Michael and talked for a longer time until once again Robert was requested by a colleague and had to leave them.

“It's always like this, they say it's a party, but pretty much they only talk about work,” Michael complained. It was for this reason that he didn't like to come to these gatherings, but he never stopped going because of his father and Robert, he liked to show support for them. This year however, it was being enjoyable because of Elizabeth.

“Then all we can do is drink and you tell me more stories about Robert Parker,” she joked and brought the glass to her lips.

Elizabeth knew she was drinking too much and didn't really want to get drunk and somehow embarrass Robert and embarrass herself too. That was why she'd rather sit still, talking to Michael, who was also drinking heavily but didn't look drunk either. But she wanted to enjoy the evening, wanted to enjoy the first time she went out with Robert in something formal and wanted to enjoy the company of his friend, who was amusing her. And all this made her forget that she didn’t have her daughter with her. In fact, Elizabeth was using the drink to try to forget the pain she felt daily, even in her happy moments she couldn't forget that a part of her was missing, an important part, that she prayed every day to return to her.

She didn't want to forget Annie — she would never — she just wanted to forget the absence of her daughter. Even if it was only for a few moments. She just wanted to forget.

“Hey, I think you drank too much,” Robert said as he took the glass of champagne out of her hand.

Even in his conversations he was always looking at her from a distance and realized that she was drinking too much - at least compared to the times he had already seen her drink - and then thought it better to intervene. He didn't do it for fear of her getting too drunk and doing some scene at the party, he did it because he thought it was the best for her. He drank a little while he was talking, and it was enough to make him a little dizzy, so he imagined how she was since she drank more than he did. Michael used to get drunk during these parties but today, because he was keeping her company, he was drinking moderately. And he knew how bad people always left these parties, so no one cared who was overdoing the drink, since there were never any incidents, and it never happened. He had already decided that it was time for them to leave and seeing how dizzy she was, he thought it best to go at that moment.

“Rooobert,” she whined. “Please, just one more glass,” she pouted and putting both arms around his neck.

“It's time to go, darling,” he said affectionately and placed a kiss on her forehead. She looked sleepy and he was sure she would fall asleep on the way home.

“Just this one, huh? Mike is already wanting to go too, so we can all go out together and he doesn't have to stay here alone.” Mike, they really got along very well. He couldn't remember another girlfriend of his calling his friend like that.

“I'm sure he can take care of himself, but okay, let's stay some more,” he said and then handed her the glass but Elizabeth seemed more interested in his neck. He had to hold back not to reciprocate her caresses and get people's attention, although at that point of the party no one was paying attention to anyone else.

They stood just there, swaying along to the music.

A few minutes later they said goodbye to Michael and his father and took a taxi back home. And this time Elizabeth was letting Robert touch her and it was her hands that couldn’t get off him. The driver seemed not to mind about their actions in the backseat as if he'd already gotten used to this kind of thing at this time of night. It was a beautiful night by the way. NYC was a city that never sleeped, was always bright and bustling, but the sky still had its own brightness and could be seen through the window of the yellow cab as they made their way home.

The Big Apple never stopped, and neither did Elizabeth's hands.

When they got home, Robert thought she would go straight to bed, because he knew how much she had drunk and despite all the teasing she made during the trip, she looked tired.

“Hey, be careful,” he warned her as she nearly fell as she tried to take one of her heels off. She laughed, then leaned on his arm to balance herself.

“I... I think I drank too much,” she said with a laugh and finally got rid of the heels with his help.

“It's good that you agree with that,” he teased and laughed at the look she threw at him before heading toward the bedroom. He took off his suit, hungging it behind the door and and went into the kitchen.

While he drank water, he thought about the events of the night. He didn't really expect Elizabeth and Michael getting along, he wanted that but he didn't expect it, not least about her actually enjoying talking to him, just the two of them. It was always important to him that his girlfriends get along with his best friend, but that wasn't always possible. But with Elizabeth it was. The night had been great and all his colleagues and friends simply adored her. It couldn't be otherwise because she was a fascinating woman. He couldn't stop the smile that was forming on his lips.

He was making his way to the bedroom as Elizabeth was returning to the living room.

“I thought you had fallen into bed and were already dead to the world,” he said playfully.

“I don't want to sleep, not now,” and saying that she threw herself into Robert's arms and kissed him fiercely that it stunned him. She didn't look sleepy now, and was putting into practice all the teasing she'd done to him in the taxi. Elizabeth started unbuttoning his shirt in a hurry and at the same time was pulling him toward the bedroom but stumbled backward and almost dropped them down.

He held her by the arms to keep them from falling. “Liz ...” he began. He looked at her and all he could see was desire in her eyes.

“I don't think it's a good idea, you drank too much and-” He didn't think that they having sex in the state she was in was correct. She had clearly drunk a lot more than him and he didn't want to take advantage of her in this situation, they were together, but still he didn't want her to think later that he could have stopped her but he didn''t because his desire spoke louder than his reason. The right thing to do was to take her into the bedroom and help her get ready for bed without falling in the process. But Elizabeth seemed to have another idea of what the right thing was tonight.

“I know very well what I want, Robbie,” she teased when she said the nickname Michael still kept calling him but said with conviction and pulled him by the collar of his shirt back to her mouth for another breathtaking kiss. She was driving him crazy, acting like this.

Elizabeth then moved away from him and unzipping her dress, slipped it off her shoulders, and the elegant dress slid down her body, forming a pool of chiffon around her feet. She was completely naked in front of Robert and he didn't know what to do about the fact that she wasn't wearing panties, and he wondered if she was this way all night or took off her underwear when she went to the bedroom. Either way, she was breathtaking and had made him completely crazy and his cock was full alert now. She really had gotten what she wanted.

She stepped out of her dress and even staggering, Robert had never seen her as sexy as now. She wasn't embarrassed under his steady gaze, she was confident and it made her naturally sexy. Elizabeth steped close and he couldn't help himself, he pulled her to him. After seeing her naked he couldn't think straight and his only desire was to have all of her. She fumbled with his zipper but managed got it open and free his member from the squeeze that had become his pants. Robert bit her lip as she took him in her hand and pulled his hair, deepening the hungry kiss they were sharing.

“Robert, I want you now,” she said demandingly and with a quick movement jumped into his arms, wrapping her arms and legs around him. He lost his balance for a moment but remained steady on his feet. Despite the alcohol and the desire running through his veins, he wouldn't fall and neither would he knocked her down. He managed to reach the bedroom, with her never leaving his mouth and his neck.

Robert laid her on the bed and quickly got rid of his clothes and shoes and as he stared at the sight of her, lying naked, waiting for him with those dark eyes full of lust and a triumphant smile on her lips, he was immediately on top ofher, and passionately kissing her, he positioned himself to enter her.

“No!” She said and he froze, he knew she wasn't in condition to do that and he shouldn't have gone that far in her game.

“Not like that,” she clarified then, and he looked confused as she slipped out from under him and crawled up to the headboard, getting on her knees, her back facing him.

“I want it that way,” she said over her shoulder. Robert didn't really believe what he was seeing. They still had never tried this position.

“Liz, are yo-” He said as he emerged from his trance but was soon cut off by a hurried Elizabeth.

“Robert stop talking and just fuck me, please,” she said impatiently and clutched the headboard, preparing herself for when he would finally stop thinking and do what she was asking him to. Her head was spinning but she knew what she wanted. She couldn't stand to stay in that position for long, but all she wanted was to feel him inside her. She wanted it to be hard.

He was still surprised by her attitude, she was always free in bed, often making it clear what and how she wanted it, but she had never spoken in this way and neither demonstrated willingness to have sex in this position. He would do as he was told; he would stop thinking and fuck her the way she wanted him to.

When he entered her from behind — so slowly that she felt impatient but also made her sigh satisfied that he was finally inside her — he felt as if he were in paradise, it was a wonderful feeling to be inside her and he wanted to stay like this all night. But he knew she didn't want it slow, and by the moans she gave each time he moved faster, told him that she wanted it fast and rough. He had one foot on the floor and the other knee resting on the bed beside her leg, it gave him stability to keep his moves fast and his thrusts firm.

“Hard, hard,” Elizabeth said through sighs. She had both hands clutched at the headboard to prevent her from bumping into it or her body falling onto the bed. Robert took advantage of the fact that she was firm in her grip and took both hands from her waist; one going from her back to the nape of her neck, his fingers sliding on her sweaty skin, the other going straight to her breast, fingers playing with the hard nipple that perked up at his touch.

This was all too much for Elizabeth, who arched her back even further, changing the angle of penetration and squeezing his cock. This also seemed to affect Robert, but he was determined to hold out longer. Bended over her he sucked at the lobe of her ear making her moan even more. Her face was completely sweaty and red and he could see her expression, concentrated, wanting to orgasm soon. Seeing she was almost there, he kissed her shoulder and returned to his starting position with both hands at her waist. He accelerated his thrusts even more and knew that with just one touch, she would get lost in the explosion of a strong orgasm, and he would help her get there.

He finally paid attention to her neglected clit and it was only a few touches for her to completely lose herself and fall off the cliff she was holding. Elizabeth let go a hand from the headboard and held his arm so tightly that her fingernails would probably mark him. She buried her face in her other arm, and cried out his name. Her screams were so loud that he hoped her neighbors wouldn't listen. She had never been so loud. But then again, she had never acted like this before. A few more thrusts and then he stopped completely, holding her and letting her body rode the waves of her orgasm.

Robert propped his other leg on the bed, and without disconnecting their bodies he sat on his knees and pulling Elizabeth with him so she was sit on his lap. She was panting and clung to him as if he were a life preserver. He felt her inner walls still tightening around his cock. He held her until she stopped shaking and her body calmed down from her strong orgasm.

“You have not come yet,” she remarked, feeling him still hard inside her, he just nodded as he kept kissing her sweaty temple.

Elizabeth then slid out of him, them both moaned at the loss and then she lay down on her stomach, raised her ass toward him as an invitation, again, which he immediately accepted. Tonight had been the first time they'd been experiencing this position — and on her own initiative — and he'd be lying if he'd said he hadn't wanted to take her from behind, but he'd always hoped it was her decision. So he was enjoying that she was allowing it — for the second time on the same night — even though he knew it was probably alcohol's effect.

He slammed into her so hard that Elizabeth couldn't help but cry out of surprise. He thought of stopping, afraid he had hurt her, but as she was leaning further toward him, he knew she wanted more, so with all the strength he still had left, he moved in and out of her as fast as he could. She grabbed the pillow and stifled her screams at the soft material. Robert had never been so rough with her before, but she was enjoying it, and she was sure she would have another orgasm just by the force he was fucking her and by his hands tightening her hips, which she was sure would have marks in the morning.

Elizabeth’s hand snaked down to her center to help her reach another orgasm, but as Robert realized this, he took the lead and began to rub her clit in the same rhythm as his cock was pushing in and out of her. She grunted and bit the pillow.

“Fuuuuck,” she said through gritted teeth. Two more powerful thrusts and then she felt her body break again. She didn't have the strength to keep her body lifted and Robert grabbed her by the waist while he also climaxed, screaming her name and then falling on top of her, but keeping most of his weight off of her, propping himself on his forearms. They stayed like that for a few minutes, panting and breathing in the smell of sweat and sex, he placing gentle kisses along her nape and sweaty back. Eventually he rolled off her and lay beside Elizabeth who turned her face to look at him.

“I don't have the strength to get out of this bed,” she said lazily, closing her eyes, slumberous but with a satiated smile on her face. Robert brushed wet strands of hair from her face and stroked her cheek.

“And are you going to sleep without taking a shower?” He teased and smiled when she mumbled something he couldn't understand and buried her face in the pillow.

Still laughing, Robert got out of bed and went to the bathroom. He came back with a warm washcloth and began cleaning Elizabeth. She didn't move, but sighed gratefully as he wiped between her thighs. She always liked to shower after sex — though with Robert she often just nestled in his arms, their sweaty bodies and slept soundly — but this time she had no conditions at all to get out of bed. Her head was spinning and her body was completely limp, all she wanted to do was sleep.

“You're not even going to move to your side of the bed?” He asked as he finished wiping her skin.

“Every side of the bed is the same, so it doesn't matter which one I sleep in.” She grabbed the pillow and sighed wearily. Robert laughed again at her. Drunken-Elizabeth was funny and daring, he then wanted to find out what an hangover-Elizabeth was like. After covering her naked body with the sheet and giving a kiss on her head he returned to the bathroom to clean himself.

The sun was shining through the windows into the room when Robert returned with a tray of breakfast. It was late when he woke up and Elizabeth didn't seem wake up anytime soon, he then decided to make her coffee. He also searched for aspirin in her bathroom because he was sure she could need it as soon as she woke up. He wanted to let her sleep some more, but since it was past ten o'clock in the morning, he decided to wake her; she needed to drink and eat something.

“Wake up, sleeping beauty,” he said, kissing her cheek. “Time to get up.”

“Hrrmm,” she moaned and hid her face from the light.

“Timisit?” She mumbled, and then Robert got up to close the curtains.

“Almost 11 am,” he replied, returning to sit beside her on the bed. “Did you sleep well?” He asked as stroked her hip.

“It's that late?” He nodded. She couldn't believe she slept so much, but after the night she had, that was expected.

“I don't even need to say I sleep like a baby.” Elizabeth finally pulled the sheet from her face and looked at Robert, smiling at her. Her hair was all disheveled and her mascara was all blurred, and yet, she was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. He bent down to kiss her, but she turned her face away.

“No. I need to brush my teeth,” she protested.

“And take a shower,” Robert joked and got slapped in the arm in response. Elizabeth stretched her sore aching muscles and sat up slowly, clutching the sheet to her bare chest and then saw the tray on the bed.

“Is this for me?” She asked, smiling at the perfection of the tray. It was the first time he had brought her breakfast in bed and she couldn't remember when it had been the last time someone had done it for her.

Robert nodded. “I got up a little earlier and decided to bring you coffee in bed. I figured you'd be starving.” He said as he watched her try to straighten her hair that was real a mess, but he found her adorable her like this; a cute mess.

“That's sweet. Thank you.” She leaned in to kissed his cheek, but Robert turned his head and she ended up kissing his mouth. She gave him a reproving look, but she smiled.

“You have a headache?” She shook her head, incredibly she didn't wake up with a migraine.

“I got you some aspirin too, in case you needed it,” he waved at the glass of water and aspirin on the bedside table next to her. Elizabeth was touched by his attention, but she wasn’t surprised, after all this was the Robert she knew, always thoughtful. She took the glass, taking a sip of water because she was thirsty.

“Why did I sleep on this side of the bed?” She asked suddenly looking at him.

“Well, you said every sides of the bed were the same and it didn't matter which one you slept on,” Robert repeted what she had said the night before and laughed again. Elizabeth frowned at him, looking confused.

“Don't you remember saying that?” He was still laughing. Elizabeth kept looking serious, shook her head, and then he stopped laughing.

“But you remember last night, didn't you?” She shook her head again and Robert began to worry. What if she didn't remember anything of what happened? He would probably feel guilty.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “OK. What do you remember, Liz?” He then seriously concerned.

“Well, I remember coming home, and I was really feeling dizzy. And so I came to the bedroom, but... I don't remember you coming with me. And ...” She paused, as if attempting to remember something else. “And it's all just a blur. I don't remember anything after that.” She then looked down at herself wrapped in the sheet.

“Dammit,” Robert cursed, rubbing a hand over his face. He was now really feeling guilty about having sex with her drunk and she didn't even remember it.

“Look, I'm really sorry, Liz. At first I didn't want to... you know, having sex... but you seemed to be fine and ...” He stopped when she started to laugh. “What's it?”

“Sorry, but you should see your face right now.” Now he who was confused and frowning.

“I remember everything Robert, don't worry. I just didn't resist messing with you.” Elizabeth was still laughing, and so was he. He was relieved. He couldn't believe she'd gotten him that easy. And then he realized she was fun even with a hangover.

“I had you a big time, didn’t I?” She stated as their laughter subsided.

“Yeah, you certainly did,” Robert pulled her to him and tried to kiss her.

“Noo!” She protested, pushing him away from her. “I really need to brush my teeth and take a shower.”

“Um, I agree,” he teased as he sniffed her neck and again she slapped his arm.

“Oh, that one hurt,” he complained, rubbing his arm, pretending pain.

“You deserved it.” Elizabeth then decided to get the mug.

“God, I'm sore,” she moaned and then took a sip of coffee. Robert frowned and she knew he was worried that he'd hurt her and then reassured him.

“Not that I'm complaining,” she said over the rim of her coffee mug and then blushed at the grin on his face.

“You really didn't complain last night,” he said slyly and she blushed even more.

“By the way, you get very excited when you're under the influence of alcohol. I was quite amazed,” Robert remarked and also grabbed his coffee mug.

She smiled shyly. “That's what champagne does to me.”

“Does that mean we should always have champagne at home?” He joked and she kicked him.

“Stop before you knock it over,” Robert warned, holding her foot, preventing her from knocking the tray over the bed.

“You just said you think I'm better when I get drunk,” she pretended to be offended.

“No, that wasn't what I said,” Robert defended himself. “I just said that you get bolder, cut loose... but it just shows who you really are,” he smiled and stroked her leg.

“Um, I'm going to pretend this is true,” she said critically.

“But that's true,” he said, sitting next to her. “I know you don't need alcohol to repeat everything you did last night,” he whispered in her ear and winked at her so gave her a kiss on her shoulder. Elizabeth blushed again.

“Maybe I can say the same about you. You were pretty ... intense last night.” Now it was Robert's turn to blush.

“Well, that's what you do to me,” he used her earlier words and they both laughed.

They then started eating their breakfast, as they were both hungry. Besides he made her coffee the way she liked it; with cream and two sugars, he had also made toasts and scrambled eggs with bacon and there were also melon cut into cubes. A veritable feast. Usually she wouldn't eat all of this, but after the night they had had and for waking up late, Robert had really prepared an reinforced breakfast that would satisfy their hunger.

“You're going to stay here today, aren't you?” Elizabeth asked after taking a bite of toast.

“Yep. But I need to go home, to change and see how Duck is.” She nodded.

“I had thought about going while you were asleep, but I really didn't want you to wake up alone. I didn't know how you would be feeling, if you would need anything.” Always attentive. Elizabeth leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

“Bring him with you. It will be good to have him here with us.” Elizabeth said after another sip of coffee. Robert nodded.

“Thinking better... I could go with you instead of you having to come back here. What do you think?” Elizabeth almost always spent the weekends at Robert's, and it would have been more practical if they had left the party and gone straight to his apartament, so she would avoid leaving her apartament, which she didn't want to, but it would be better than him to go and come back.

“I think that's great. But are you sure? Maybe it would be more comfortable for you to stay here, I would go and come back quickly.”

“No, I'm fine, I just need a shower and then we can go,” she said and he nodded. If she wanted to go to his apartament he would love it even though he loved staying at her place.

It was a beautiful day out there, and as always, the city never stopped. People always moving as if life were always too fast for them to stop and just be. And if NY and the people never stopped, the noise never stopped as well, and that only made Elizabeth's headache worse. She was lucky to wake up feeling very well, but as soon as she got out of bed she felt the pangs and early signs of a headache, and even taking the aspirins Robert had took to her, the pain only increased on the way to his apartment.

“Feeling better?” Robert asked as Elizabeth returned to the living room. The headache had subsided a little bit, but it still hurt enough for her to wish she had stayed in her bed.

“A little better,” she replied and joined him on the couch again. Robert was lying down and she snuggled between his legs and resting her head on his chest. He began massaging her temple and the pain seemed to calm down gradually.

“Did I tell you my mom called me yesterday?” She shook her head. “She wanted to thanks for the vase we sent her.”

“Did she like it?” Elizabeth asked, she had chosen another vase to send to Ellen, not wanting to wait until she and Robert would visit his mother again.

“She loved it. She said she'll call you later. It was very kind of you to send her another one,” he said, sliding his fingers through her hair.

“I still can not believe what happened that day. Sending another vase was the least I could do.”

Robert laughed. “It's past, but the good thing is now we have a funny story to tell.”

“There's nothing funny about that,” she said annoyedly and he laughed again.

They stayed silent for a while, he continued to caress her hair and temple. Her headache seemed likely to disappear at any moment. They were very comfortable lying on the couch, Duck lying on the rug, also enjoying the pleasant silence in the room. It was a good way to spend a nice afternoon at home. Robert had said that he would take Duck for a walk in the late afternoon, and she said that if she were willing she would go with them, but what she really wanted was to continue the way she was at that moment.

“Robert?”

“Hmm?” He murmured, he was almost dozing though his hand never stopped its movements.

“Do you think I'm a good mother?” Elizabeth suddenly asked.

“What?” He opened his eyes to her unexpected question. He thought she was dozing too.

“Do you think I'm a good mother to Annie?” She asked again and raised her head to look at him, but the rapid movement made her feel twinge of pain; a sign that her headache hadn't yet improved as she thought. “Ouch,” she whimpered.

“Shh, be quiet or this pain will not pass,” Robert said and guided her head back to his chest and returned to massage her temple.

“You don’t answer my question.”

“Where did you get that from? Of course you're a great mother, Liz,” he had no idea why she asked that but he wouldn't let her feel she wasn’t.

“I don't know, sometimes I think I'm not the mother she should have or that I could be better. I feel that I fail her and that she is better with her grandparents. Maybe Mrs. Johnson is right to think I'm not a firm mother like I should be.” It hurt when she heard these things, but sometimes she thought it might be true.

“Liz, please, why would you think something like that?” He didn't like where her thoughts were going.

“I always let Annie learn things in her time, Robert, I encourage her but I always let her take her time.”

“And you do the right thing.” He always liked the way she raised the little girl, always respecting her time and not rushing her into anything. She did what was right, always encouraging her but never pushing her. He didn't understand why she was now in doubt as to her parenting skills.

“But look at the example of the diaper, Annie is over 2 and still wears diapers and she asks for a bottle, and I give it to her. She asks to sleep in my bed and I let her. If it continued like this, I could be hindering her development. Maybe ... maybe her grandmother has more-” Robert cut her off before she finished what she was going to say.

“You don't say that, okay?” He said and gently raised her head so she could look at him.

“Never think she's a better option than you to raising Annie, because she’s not, do you understand?” She nodded.

“She's an overbearing person, Liz, she was like that to Leigh and is now being to her granddaughter. She thinks she knows what's best for Annie, thinks she can raised her better than you, but she's wrong. Completely wrong. Because there is no one better than you to do this.” A small smile curved her lips at his words.

“What I said last night is true, I'll do my best and I'll bring Annie back to you. She'll come back to you, that's for sure. You're the perfect mother to her and her place is here with you. Do you understood?” She nodded again and a tear trickled down from her eye, Robert gently wiped it away with the pad of his thumb, kissed her forehead, and then guided her head back to his chest.

Elizabeth said nothing. She didn't have to. He said everything she needed to hear. Sometimes she had these doubts in her mind but she never said it to him, but today she decided to vent and was surprised by his reaction. Robert wouldn't let anyone doubt her ability to be Annie's mother. Not even her.

“Annie will come back to us, Liz,” he said after a moment and Elizabeth felt the meaning of what he had just said. To us.

Her headache might won't go away so soon, but her heart was warm.

[kirishii-gay]

pick a flower- Multiship

KiriBaku, KamiJirou, MiriTama, TodoDeku.

Word Count: 2.5k (exactly)

Summary: 

Flowers. They seemed to all perfectly grasp the feelings that grasped all of them. Love.

Growing. Some slowly, some gently. Some facing upwards towards a shining sun that further develops feelings, some only exposed to rain. Flowers may have thorns, and may attempt to hurt you if you get too close, but their touch is gentle. The petals are soft, the thorns dig into your with every attempt, like the constant reminder of the other half of love.

Love could grow into something breathtaking, something so beautiful, so out of this world. It could be small, requiring small baby steps. It could be wild, it could be beautiful. A thousand colours, a thousand options. A thousand paths of the heart, guided by blossoming feelings that swelled out of control, the blossom growing with the pound of a heart longing for another.

This was a part of @americana-ultra ‘s monthly discord challenge! Each fic has a sabotage. While this doesn’t include my sabotages (this is the fixed version), I’ll link it later on!

READ ON AO3 HERE -> https://archiveofourown.org/works/14861802

Bakugou scanned his eyes across the garden, his face kept in a low scowl. U.A’s garden was beautiful. Flowers scattered across the ground of every kind, plants crawling up the flower beds, towering fruit trees growing in corners. Flowers of every kind were found. Daisies, Lilies, Carnations, you name it. Bakugou didn’t even know how they got all of these flowers in Japan. He was used to cherry blossoms, but these were new to him.

Bakugou clicked his tongue and turned his head, the sickeningly sweet aroma of the flowers still lingered in the air. He didn’t like them. Not one little bit.

The flowers themselves were beautiful. Raindrops rested on the soft petals, the surface damp under the influence of the water. The petals were soft, the smell was candy-sweet, the flowers seemed to thrive and paint the garden in a gentle, happy tone.

Bakugou hated them.

Cause each fucking flower in this garden was red.

Red Carnations. Crimson Tulips. Rose Daisies. Maroon Begonia. Carmine Dahlias. You fucking name it.

Were they taunting him?! Trying to make fun of him? Did every error he’d make decide to take toll, did Karma decide to get him back and surround him in the one goddamn colour.

Bakugou’d loved the colour red, but now he hated it.

Red equals powerful, anger, danger. Red-hot flames that forever stayed alight amidst a dark sky, dark red blood that showed itself with the heat of battle. Strength, determination, war. That was what red meant for Bakugou.

Until Kirishima showed up.

Red hair, spiked and stupid, or hanging over his face in gentle bangs. Red eyes, wide and expressive, or carrying a fire-like intensity that shook you to the core. Red Riot was his name, red was the way he fought, with power and strength and determination, his aura burning. Everything about him was red, screaming red, and Bakugou loved it. Craved it. Hated it.

Bakugou plucked one of the flowers. A rose. It was a scarlet tone, like the rest. This shade, however, was slightly cooler. Calmer. The shade was slightly less vibrant than Kirishima’s hair, not holding the same warmth as Kirishima’s eyes.

That was the second meaning of red. Love.

Warmer, more vibrant. Passionate. Takes you by surprise, grasps you by the shoulders and Bakugou’s vision was filled with red. Red like the beating of his heart, the race when red eyes met red, the jump when Kirishima came close. He smiled, and all Bakugou could see was red. Red was the feeling Kirishima gave him, red was the blush that danced across his cheeks, red was the danger that blared in his mind as new feelings blossomed like a newly formed flower.

The red he loved now had a different meaning. Power and danger turned into passion and love, a mixture of countless meanings from countless shades of one colour, red.

Bakugou’s eyes went wide and he set off an explosion, letting the flower flutter down to the ground in defeat.

------------

Purple was an amazing colour.

Everything about it was just so...cool.

Luxurious and cool, relaxing. Sensitive, romantic. Alluring.

Kaminari loved it.

The sweet smell of lavender coated U.A’s outdoor seating area, and the colour scheme over here seemed to be purple. It was a nice smell, a gentle one. It contrasted from the colour itself, in a way. Well, not entirely. Purple..the thing Kaminari loved about purple was its potential.

Purple was badass.

A unique colour, a powerful one. The tone of purple could change the meaning all together, but it held the same fundamental meaning.

When Kaminari thought purple, he thought Jirou.

Purple wasn’t just the colour of her hair, it was the colour he heard when she strummed her guitar. Her high notes sung mauve, her fighting was lilac. Creative, mysterious, artistic. Everything about her was purple. Purple put itself last on the rainbow but was number one in his eyes. Purple was the mixture of two great things into something better, something new.

When Kaminari said he liked purple, maybe he was a little biased. Purple equaled Jirou. And he liked Jirou.

It was obvious that he did so. Jirou was alluring. Creative. She didn’t follow any of the typical girl behavior that caused his attraction to his previous crushes. She was different. And he loved it. That’s what made him like her even more.

The flower theme in this part of the school was cool. Lavender stood in proud bunches, coating the sidewalk in a light violet. Morning Glories sprouted from the flowerbed, as well as countless other flowers all shades of purple. Kaminari’s favourite was the Gloxinia. Smooth, graceful white petals, with an explode of dark purple and fuschia, a gradient to the beginning of each petal. Breathtakingly beautiful.

It was unlike Kaminari, waltzing around the footpath, just staring at the flowers and seeing a purple-haired girl with a nervous glare staring back at him. It was unlike him to crush this hard on someone, his crushes were usually easy come, easy go. Jirou was different. Kaminari was absolutely done for.

He seemed to trip over his own to feet more when she was there, even now in front of the lilac-themed flower beds Kaminari stumbled. It was new for Kaminari to behave like this, he was known as carefree, easy going guy. He’d never fallen for someone so hard, he’d never worried so much about another person that he starts to take care in his actions.

But what sold it, was her music.

The first time Jirou strummed her guitar and opened her mouth to sing, Kaminari swore he could smell the lavender in the air. She played, she sang, her notes rich and her voice husky. All Kaminari could see, hear, was purple. Kaminari was transfixed, amazed. His heart pounded in time with the music, and everyone around him seemed to disappear and all that was left was him, and her.

Kaminari plucks a small piece of lavender, and smiles.

-----------

Tamaki sits alone in his room, his back leaned against the wall, the comfort of the familiar space soothing him. His room is gentle, quiet. It smells of flowers, sweet, gentle. Various flowers decorated his room. A small pot in the corner of his room, a flower bed outside his window.

Sunflower was his favourite. Tulips quickly followed, and then roses. But they all had one thing in common.

They were all yellow.

A bright, shining yellow, the symbol of happiness. The shining colour that brightened up his day. The colour present in the sun shining endlessly above his head, the sun he once shined away too. The sun. The sun had forever been something he’d shied away from. It was too bright, too intense. It hurt his eyes if he so much as dares to hold it’s gaze for too long. It’s exposing and in your face, and Tamaki didn’t like it.

Yellow, however, was different.

Yellow was soft, gentle, brave. The kind smile that his sun gave him to him every time he was in need. The sun-like smile of his hero, Mirio.

Mirio had changed the meaning of the sun for him, too. Switched it, flipped it completely. He challenged Tamaki’s set opinion of the sun by saying “You are my sun, Tamaki!”. And slowly-slowly, Tamaki indeed started to notice the similarities between them all.

The sun was bright when it wanted to be, but hid behind dark grey thundering clouds when the agonizing rain fell. The sun was bright, but scared. Brave, but shied away. The sun was nothing to be afraid of. The sun was growing, and so was he.

Tamaki Amajiki, The Sun Eater.

The sunflower was his favourite for a reason. The way the flower stood tall, and grew and grew until it stemmed high among the rest. It was bright, happy, you could almost see the flower’s soothing smile. The petals were silky soft, their touch gentle, their yellow vibrant. Warm, like the sun, like Mirio. The flower held a special meaning to him, facing upward to the sun, his sun. Mirio.

Mirio, ever since they were kids, was the most important person to him. His best friend, the one who pushed him to do more, to accomplish more, who helped him grow more than he ever dreamed he could. All throughout U.A, Mirio’s gentle smile kept him going, made him determined enough to want to grow with him, to stand by his side.

While Tamaki was ‘Sun Eater’ to Mirio, Mirio was the sun for Tamaki. The sunflower kept its head held high, and in the light of the sun, grew more that it ever could have possibly dreamed of. With Mirio by his side, Tamaki knew he could do anything. With Mirio believing in him, he could conquer the word. Mirio’s goal may be to become Lemillion, the savior to millions and more, but he’s already saved one person. He’s already one person’s hero, and that will never change.

---------

Strangely, the blooming flowers were not what caught Todoroki’s eye in U.A. The flowers decorated every sidewalk, the garden was breathtaking. Each flower was beautiful, unique, special.

But the green is what Todoroki paid attention too.

The green surrounded you, even if you couldn’t see it. Take a look outside. Soft green grass, lush green trees down every street. Green bushes, trees, green leaves fluttering to the floor. Green supported everyone, everything.

The colour came in a thousand shades, lived in a million places. It stood proudly atop a tree, it supported a flower as it’s stem, willing to get picked if it meant appreciating the flower’s beauty. The shade was truly underappreciated, and that’s what made Shouto appreciate it more.

Green matched Midoriya.

Soft, plush green hair, bouncing across his head in gentle curls, wide green eyes, filled with kindness, determination, the fire of the battle. The shade of Midoriya’s hair, the colour of his eyes. A rich, warm green. The colour meant many things. Envy. Jealousy.  But Midoriya gave it its own meaning for Todoroki.

Todoroki ran his thumb over a stray leaf he’s picked up off the ground, his eyes thoughtful. Todoroki never expected to fall for Midoriya. His feelings grew slow, steady, like the blossoming of a flower. Midoriya’s quirk, his attitude, his ability was nothing like Shouto had ever seen him before.

Midoriya taught him to believe in himself. Midoriya was the one who’d softened the wounds of his past. Midoriya was the one who made him accept a part of himself he rejected all his life.

Green was the growth Midoriya helped Todoroki find, growing higher than any of the towering trees, green was the safety of Midoriya’s comforting words.

Todoroki was never one to be big on love. His entire life, the only love he’d seen was toxic. Todoroki bends down again, picking up another leaf, holding it next to the previous one in his hand. The texture of the leaf was smooth, gentle. The love Todoroki had seen all of his life was green. Toxic green. Jealous, spiteful. Greed. Todoroki was always wary of it, scared of it.

The love he felt around Midoriya was new, but strangely not as scary as he thought it would be.

Todoroki stayed calm, quiet, like the cool breeze brushing through the smiling green leaves that dances with every wave of the wind. He didn't say a word, he just continued to admire from afar. To somehow build up the words to properly say thank you to Midoriya. To say thank you for everything he’d done for Todoroki, for everyone else. Todoroki’s feelings were growing, the love he was slowly experiencing would take some getting used to, but he was fine with that.

Todoroki sits down carefully, staining his school pants as he sat among the damp, green grass, watching the wind happily swoop across the school, swirling leaves among the breeze. Flowers were beautiful, sure, but Todoroki found the leaves more to his liking.

---------------

He loves me, he loves me not. Bakugou pondered, the last petal falling to the ground. He clicks his tongue and lifts his heel, crushing down on the innocent flower.

Kaminari stuffs his pocket with lavender, the scent strong, too strong, but he can’t bring himself to care.

Tamaki gazed at the proud sunflower at his desk, his eyes going soft.

Todoroki leaned his head back and watched silently from the base of a tree, appreciating the beauty that surrounded him.

Flowers. They seemed to all perfectly grasp the feelings that grasped all of them. Love.

Growing. Some slowly, some gently. Some facing upwards towards a shining sun that further develops feelings, some only exposed to rain. Flowers may have thorns, and may attempt to hurt you if you get too close, but their touch is gentle. The petals are soft, the thorns dig into your with every attempt, like the constant reminder of the other half of love.

Love could grow into something breathtaking, something so beautiful, so out of this world. It could be small, requiring small baby steps. It could be wild, it could be beautiful. A thousand colours, a thousand options. A thousand paths of the heart, guided by blossoming feelings that swelled out of control, the blossom growing with the pound of a heart longing for another.

Yet, little did they know, that each of their loved ones had a flower of their own.

The redhead sat in a lone room, clutching a small, sunset-gold rose. The rose was overflowing in thorns, practically climbing up the entire surface. It would sting to hold, to touch. It was as if the rose was telling people not to touch it. And for that reason, that’s exactly what Kirishima did. He hardened the tips of his fingertips, immune to the thorns, and looked past its rough exterior and admired the rose’s beauty.

Jirou tucked a marigold behind her ear. Marigolds represent stupidity, and she couldn't help but laugh. It matches him perfectly.

Midoriya held two matching flowers, one white as now, the other crimson as blood. He held them side by side, running his fingers along a petal, before plucking one from each flower and placing them side by side.

Mirio’s favourite was the sunflower, too. The sunflower equals the sun, the sun equals Tamaki.

Kirishima’s the first to go back to his dorm, and he notices Bakugou’s door open. He lets out a gentle smile, the air faintly smelling of roses, and places the one he finds at Bakugou’s door. The gold rose, ridden with thorns.

Jirou keeps the marigold beside her bed, waters it daily, tries not to laugh at the thought of Kaminari’s stupid smile.

Midoriya pressed the flowers between Todoroki’s page in his hero journal, placing it under his pillow and let the happiness the feeling brought drift him to sleep.

Mirio returned to Tamaki’s room, wrapped his arms around Tamaki’s back and fell asleep with a sunflower of his own, in his arms.

[maurine07]

BREE!!! First of all, heyyy! How are you? It’s been a while lol (which I’m truly sorry for) but I’m back now!

Second of all, fjshhshajansj I’m in love with the idea of this series. Getting to see Ethan all hot and bothered about meeting Lilac’s exes?? Sign me up!! And the title for this series!!! I’m absolutely obsessed with Harry’s House, haven’t stopped playing it ever since it came out

Third of all, this was an absolute pleasure to read!! It was a great kick-start to this series. You already know that I love any and every Miami content, especially from you so this had me so excited.

The delicate gradient from orange to glittering violet of the Miami dusk was almost the most beautiful thing Ethan had ever seen. Its triumphant rival stood before him, cheeks flushed with color from the night’s excitement, eyes the loveliest shade of emerald. The thrill of their victory against Nash, however small, hummed between them, like the aftershock of iron bells.

I always say this but your opening paragraphs are always so good, it’s insane. I love love the way you describe dusk, it’s so so beautiful. Also, that “almost” jdhahsbjdjdd, the way he thinks Lilac is even more beautiful that the sunset, I can’t handle this

It was a small gesture, but his heart leapt to his throat, obnoxious and beyond his control.

(…)

In that sinful, midnight blue dress—glittering with the same allure of the sky—she was unlike anything Ethan had ever beheld.

The way he’s already so enamored by her. And this line “she was unlike anything Ethan had ever beheld” I’M CRYING THIS IS SO CUTE

A genuine blush lit up her beautiful face. Inexplicably, something unpleasant twisted in Ethan's stomach as he watched. He realized, belatedly, it was envy at the ease with which this man offered Lilac praise.

JEALOUS ETHAN YES YES YES!!!! I’m enjoying this way too much

“You think he will?” the other returned sarcastically. With a flourish, he gestured at his suit. “I wore my Sunday best hoping he would.”

Lilac laughed again. “You haven't changed a bit.”

Okay but their conversations flows so smoothly, I can totally see why they’d be together. One thing I’ll always admire about your writing, Bree, is how you show someone’s character and their dynamics with other characters even if they’re just being introduced, like how you did here with Burke, if that makes any sense

Her eyes widened as big as saucers and Ethan resisted the urge to laugh. Mouth slightly agape, as though she couldn't believe her ears, she glanced between the two men.

Even from the very beginning, Ethan loved teasing her way too much. Also, I bet she looked absolutely adorable here

The last addition sounded intimate, or perhaps it was Ethan's idiotic, besotted brain.

I would like to believe he also hoped she’d meant it in a less than professional way

“Now stop judging me with those eyes of yours or I'll report you for stealing.”

“No one will ever believe you,” he returned without missing a beat.

I know I say this ever single time I comment on anything related to these two but their banter is honestly one of my favorite things in this entire world

“You're right. Everyone knows you're too boring and old to swipe a bottle of wine.”

“It's the perfect crime.”

To accentuate that, he effortlessly twirled the bottle in his hand, catching it with ease. Lilac watched with an impressed arched brow. Unable to contain it any longer, she laughed.

I just know that had it been anyone else to say those words, they wouldn’t have seen the light of day ever again lol. I mean, someone other than Lilac calling him old and boring?? They must have a death wish. And I love how he’s so playful with her

In conclusion, this fic is an absolute gem. It made me so much more excited for the rest of the series, as if I already wasn’t excited enough. I love how you portrayed Lilac’s relationship with Burke here and ofc, I loved getting to see Ethan get jealous, it’s always so much fun. I loved this fic so so much and I absolutely cannot wait for the rest of the series. Hope you’re having a great day, Bree❤️❤️❤️

Also, on another totally unrelated note, I need to know your opinion on Harry’s House

As It Was (1/6)

Chapter 1: The Doctor

Pairing: Dr. Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Dr. Lilac Allende) Word count: 1.4K Warning: None Series: As It Was (aka Lilac’s Exes)

Series Premise: All the times Ethan meets her exes throughout the years.  Chapter Premise: After their win against Declan Nash in Miami, they run into someone from her past.

Context: Lilac dated Noah Burke in Med school but broke up since they mutually decided they were better as friends. His FC is Sebastian Stan. (Exes | Exes Timeline)

Year 1: Miami

Keep reading

[thebrothershardy]

(icon anon here) i just really like the ones you have of vintage nancy (/post/157628338961/) where she's against a colorful background, whether it's solid or gradient, whatever PSDs or filters or whatever you use on them just look really good!

oh that’s really pretty basic!! i’ll do my best here, and sorry if i explain a shit ton of stuff you already know how to do!!!

okay so i’ll try to basically redo a similar version of this icon:

i’m currently using ps elements so your screen might look a bit different but it shouldn’t be too radical! let’s start just with a blank square for the icon base and a book cover of your choice:

so for the icon base, i just picked a light shade of blue i liked, and then went in with pure white at a 40% opacity, and under the “soft light” mode, lightened up the bottom a bit (i only swiped over the layer twice but of course that all depends on the look you’re going for)

time to cut out nancy! i use the quick selection tool and roughly grab her shape (to be soon cleaned up) and click on “refine edge” before i drag her over to the icon. the settings i use for the refinement below:

let’s drag her over. right now she’s small and not properly cleaned up. if at this point, she’s way too big for your icon layer, delete her and ENLARGE YOUR ICON LAYER—otherwise you’ll have to make nancy smaller and end up pixelating her. it’s better to make her a bit bigger and then surface blur her/reduce noise if she’s fuzzy. BUT WE’LL GET TO THAT LATER. for now, let’s just go in with the eraser!

so let’s start with making her bigger. i played with the size a bit until i liked how much of the icon she took up.

then grab your eraser! i typically use a “soft round” instead of a “hard round” brush because it’s not quite as harsh with the clean-up. i’m at around 13 pixels here just so i can get really exact. the zoom function is your friend here!

so here’s what i end up with after erasing the unwanted bits. it doesn’t have to be perfect—ultimately, the icon will be seen at a lot smaller scale so a few mistakes won’t be seen all that easily!

now time for coloring nancy! she’s a bit dark and a bit oversaturated for me, so here’s what i did:brightness: +45midtone contrast: +15hue: +5you can also play with the tint/temperature/ambient light/etc. here’s what she looks like now:

now i’d like to change some specifics, like the color of her shirt/hair/lipstick. add another layer over nancy (create new layer is a tiny little square in the upper left of the layers box for me, or you can just press ctrl+j). let’s attach the layer to nancy’s layer (for my ps this is on the upper left, the tab called layer –> group with previous (ctrl+g will do this too)) and make sure it’s changed from “normal” to “color.” the screen should look like this:

(ps i rotated nancy a bit)

OKAY let’s start with her shirt! i grab the brush tool (opacity is currently at 100% but you can alter that whenever you’d like) for that, and since i’d like her shirt to match the background, i eyedropper the color for an exact match. and then we color! you don’t have to worry about painting outside the lines since you’d grouped layers with nancy’s layer, so HAVE FUN. (another plus of having the color as a second layer is that a) you can erase it easily whenever you’d like and b) you can change the saturation or hue of this layer whenever you’d like, so you can easily change her shirt to purple/yellow/green/whatever in case you’re making a bunch of icons in different colors.)

so here she is after i’ve changed her shirt. LOVELY. 

now i’d like her hair to be a bit blonder too since there are lots of greenish bits in there right now. i’m adding a separate layer for this just because i like to keep my colors separate, but if you like living on the wild side, go ahead and stay in the same layer you colored her shirt in. if you add another, make sure it’s still “grouped” with nancy’s and not just an independent layer.

so here’s the hair layer as of now:

it’s a bit too yellow for me right now, so i’m gonna change the hue (ctrl+u) and go a little bit more orange (-3 was all i needed here). this is another reason why separating your color layers is a plus! changing the hue of all the colors at once would’ve made the blue change a bit too). so here we go now:

i still don’t like how dark her hair is in certain places, so let’s change that. i’m gonna copy the same hair layer i just made (ctrl+j), but change the mode from “color” to “soft light.” here’s how it looks now:

at 100%, the light is too much, so i changed it to 55%. i also shuffled it under the color layer because the soft light layer will def change the shade, and we want the color to stay the same.

the last color i want to alter is the makeup. i’d like her lipstick to match her blush a bit more, so i add another layer and pick a shade of pink i like. i take the brush tool and basically redo what i just did with her hair, ending up with two soft light layers and one color layer on top of the others. at this point you could also do little things like brighten the blue of her eyes, add in some eyeshadow, lighten up her eyebrows, etc, etc, just by adding new layers and painting to your heart’s content. 

but i’m happy at this point! so let’s merge the layers into one giant layer. right click on any of the layers and choose “flatten image.” all your layers should now vanish—this is great for if you want to brighten the entire image as a whole, for instance. in this case, i want to make it a little less blurry.

i go to the upper left to: filter –> noise –> reduce noise. my settings for that are currently:strength: 6%preserve details: 10%reduce color noise: 6%

that’ll gently blur the “noise” on the icon and make it look a little better. that’s typically my final step.

and heeeere’s the final product!

obviously there’s a lot here that you can alter based on personal preference, but this is just a basic idea of what i go through when i make an icon in ps. your photoshop might also look different than mine just a bit, but i guarantee you, even if the buttons are in different places, they ARE there, just somewhere else or under a different name.

oh boy i hope this was even SOMEWHAT helpful. if you have any questions, please come back and let me know!!!

[mysticsparklewings]

Velvety Birthday Cake

As a little thank you for all the birthday wishes; here's some art from me to you! :3 And oh boy, was this a wild time to make!  I mentioned in my 2019 Art Summary! that I wanted to do another custom Shopkin drawing to celebrate my birthday as I did with Birthday Wishes last year, and I...half-way stuck to that idea  I ended up going with a Num Nom instead of a Shopkin, as just like with that other Shopkin, until now I had only ever drawn 1-2 Num Noms on a dry erase board for fun, and also looking through the different Shopkins I was considering, none of the ones I picked out felt quite right. Then it occurred to me since the Num Nomes are more strictly food (more specifically sweets) oriented than Shopkins, that to be sure there was at least one red velvet option to choose from (since once again my birthday cake is to be of the velvety and red kind ). I was right! And in fact, I had a couple of different options to choose from. I ended up going with the series 4 Num, Velvety Cake, and "borrowing" the candle from the Birthday Polish-it Nom. (Although it occurs to me just now that I kinda didn't have to "choose" between the candle and Velvety's berries because the whole point of some of the series 4 Nums is that they have holes in the top for the Polish-it Nom tops to stick out of... Lesson learned for next time?) The main customizing I did here was, naturally, the berries from Velvety's design got taken out, partially for the sake of simplicity and I thought those and the candle would be too crowded, and also because, frankly, I don't think I'd want berries on a red velvet cake.  Even raspberries, and I generally really like raspberries. I'm just not much of a mix-fruits-into-baked-goods person. The other custom thing was making the...I assume cream cheese frosting because that's was everyone else and their mother pairs with red velvet...into chocolate frosting because that's what I prefer. (And highly recommend if you've never tried it! Red velvet is a derivative/cousin of chocolate cake, so the flavor profiles go together very nicely!) The thing about this drawing from start to finish that held me up the most was figuring out the mediums/textures to get and use correctly. Originally, I thought I'd use much more of the Faber Castell gelatos for this, but 1. I didn't have nearly the color selection I needed, and 2. Even if I had, the tips of them are bit chunky and difficult to get in exact spaces. I learned the latter point first-hand at the end when I went back to darken up the lines/rough edges on the chocolate frosting with one. I managed in the end, but it was much trickier than I had even imagined it would be. Speaking of those "rough edges," they're honestly where a lot of the problems came from. In addition to not having great solutions for how to get just the right texture for them (crayons ended up being my main source on that after the gelatos didn't pan out so well), I also had a hard time getting the right colors. Like I side, I don't have a huge color selection for the gelatos, and the crayons...well, despite having the full Crayola 152 set, there actually wasn't a ton of variety over there either, mostly because a lot of the crayons color out more pastel than they look, so you get a lot that look pretty same-y and too light. So I did have to supplement slightly by using color pencils in the lines too. Ten years later once I had the lines figured out though, then it was time to move out to actually coloring the thing, and this went slightly smoother since I had better-ish ideas of how I wanted to go about it. I'd decided to use a watercolor base on the body (all the pinky-red you see), then use alcohol marker as a base everywhere else, and supplement any shading as necessary with colored pencils. When I went in with the watercolor I tried to get some shading in and get a little of a "cake" texture; dots/holes. However, whatever I managed to do for texture ended up getting lost under the pencil shading later because the watercolor shading needed some serious help. Fortunately, my colored pencils were able to mostly salvage that. For some reason, the two sections farthest to the left came out slightly more pinky/purple, but there wasn't much I could do to fix that. Other than that though, after I went in with the pencils I was pretty happy with how the body was looking, if a little pink for red velvet, but in my defense, the official artwork is too. So then I did marker bases and basic shading for the candle, flame, frosting, and her eyes and mouth. The candle and her face were pretty straight-forward, aside from the mouth being simple gradients. The frosting was a bit trickier, given the way the shading goes and how I had to blend it out. Still, even that ended up working out better and more quickly than I anticipated. I did have to go back over my thick lines for the face with one of my markers to get it back to the proper hue after my colored pencils and the surrounding watercolor paled out/wore off the original lines pretty noticeably. And I was so nervous the whole time because I was using the brush tip and concerned that at any moment I might apply just a little too much pressure and ruin everything. But fortunately, that's not what happened. Then I went back to add the shine on the frosting, which took more patience. I'd put pencil on, blend it out, and repeat several times over before the shine was exactly how I wanted it. Naturally, the white accents on her eyes and a teeny tiny bit on her nose were done with white gel pen...not much else to say about that. Then it was time to do some sort of background. After some thought, I wanted to go with my PanPastels. And while I really wanted to do pink and yellow, I went in telling myself no, that it had to only be yellow because I physically can't get my pink one separated from the little tower to use it. (All five colors I have screw together into one cylinder and you unscrew the little tower to get the one you want; at some point, the pink was twisted on way too tight and now I can't get it off to save my life.) But after I did just the yellow...It was missing something. Then I got an idea and went digging through my old makeup. I ended up using a little of an old pastel pink eyeshadow and a blush, neither of which I think I've used in the last 2-3 years (and probably shouldn't at this point because makeup does expire, usually within a year or so) and blended some pink into the yellow, mostly on the corners. Which created this nice glowing effect and a really pretty shade of peach/orange. It's an unconventional "mixed media" method, but I'm so glad I tried it; makes me want to get more cheap eyeshadow & blushes just to use them as pastels!  (Although I'm pretty sure for fine art/art you're seeling the original copy of that's probably not the best thing to do since it's not made for that, but if you really wanted to...!) I couldn't decide where to sign it, so I added my signature, subtlely, in-post on the computer. Which was way more difficult than it should've been because my tablet is out of commission and I'm using a completely different set up that doesn't work anywhere near as well. But it's there and it's done. (However, once I get...some solution sorted out...I may update this piece so it's all a bit nicer, we'll see.) Unfortunately, I discovered that apparently, I hit some pink/purple/dark reddish-maroon colors that my scanner (or maybe computers in general?) can't pick up accurately, much like on I'm Not Dead. And you know what the kicker is? It was on the lines and rough edges where that happened! The parts I worked the hardest on! BOO!! >:( (And the shading on the frosting wasn't quite right, but that was slightly less concerning.) I think I managed to mostly fix it with the overlay trick I used last time, but it's still not quite right. :P But hey, it's still pretty cute, it's done, and I can move on with my life now.   Thank you again to anyone that's sent me birthday wishes or been kind enough to help out with the tablet situation I’ve been dealing with; it really means a lot and I can't put into words just how much I appreciate it all! You all are bright lights in a sea of darkness.   ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[justhowmuchiloveit]

Tomorrow is American Independence Day, and to celebrate I decided to channel the red-white-and-blue through my makeup!

I wanted to create a look that I would actually wear out in public, so, before I even picked up a brush I knew I was going to finish off this look with a red lip – a matte one, in fact, so it wouldn’t slide around as I’m enjoying a family barbecue or watching fireworks light up the night sky!

The finished look! I’m calling it “The Blue Firework”

I began by prepping my skin – washing my face, then applying eye cream and moisturizer. My face-washing routine and favorite skin care products will be available on We Aim To Slay soon!

My day and night face washing routines are very similar, but differ because of one product!

After washing my face, I applied a generous amount of the “Formula 10.0.6 Seriously Shine Free Mattifying Oil-Free Moisturizer with aloe vera and bamboo.” Even though this is a moisturizer, I like to use it as a primer in the summer. The bamboo extract helps to minimize shine, while the aloe vera soothes and hydrates!

I had previously reviewed this product in a post about an Ulta haul, which is linked here! And, also coming soon, is a post where I’ll discuss the finite details of how I apply my favorite makeup products!

“Conceal, don’t feel, don’t let it show…”

Next it’s time to conceal the fact that I hardly ever sleep! Currently I’ve been using the “Clinique Beyond Perfecting Super Concealer” in shade Medium 18, which I blend using my ring fingers. 

Then I apply my favorite foundation: the “Urban Decay Naked Skin One & Done Hybrid Complexion Perfector” in shade Medium Dark.

With my main base applied, I begin the first round of an uncountable series of blending, starting with the Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge.

Blending may take forever, but it certainly does create a seamless look and finish!

Now I set these products with the “Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder” with a Morphe R2 brush. 

After I apply the powder all over my face, I use my blending sponge to bake my under eyes. I first mentioned the baking technique in my 2017 New Years Eve Get Ready With Me post. It’s not something that I do frequently, but every time I do I’m impressed. 

Next I applied the “Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush” in shade Quirky, and the “Urban Decay Naked Illuminated Shimmering Powder” in shade Aura as highlighter to finish off my base. 

On the right, my natural eyebrow. On the left, my eyebrow after filling in with powder and using a spoolie brush to comb the product through.

Moving to the eye – the focal point of this look – I started by sculpting my eyebrows. To do so I used the “Nyx Wicked Dreams” eyeshadow palette. 

Now the fun begins! To create this blue eyeshadow look I used two shadow palettes – “Kylie Cosmetics Blue Honey” and “Alamar Cosmetics Reina Del Caribe.”

    This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Step one – apply the shade “Raw” from the Kylie palette all over the eye area, from the lash line up under the brow bone. I used a fluffy eyeshadow brush, and it’s the brush I’ll be using for most of this look.

Next I applied the Kylie shade “Buzz Off” as my lid color. This is a shimmery silver color, which will help give the illusion of sparklers and fireworks – pretty festive, right?

On to the color of the hour: blue! I used the Alamar shade “Celia” to begin carving out my crease and outer corner. This shade is closer to a teal, but eye makeup is like an artist’s gradient scale – color should be built gradually to allow for a buildable depth and shadowy darkness.

Back to blending: this time I’ll be using a fluffy shadow blending brush to smooth the lines between shadow shades.

Then I added that shadow and depth by adding the Alamar shade “Varadero” on top of the shade “Celia”. I recommend tapping excess powder off of the brush before applying it to your eye. This will reduce powder fall out, but also allows you to deepen the color little by little for your desired effect. At this point I’ll blend again, and add another layer or two of “Varadero” until I reach my desired shade of blue, blending between layers.

Because I just spent so much time with a dark shade, I’m going to use a flat packing brush to apply another layer of “Buzz Off” to the inner third of my eye (from the inner corner to just over the curve of the eye). Using the same blending brush, I’ll use one side to blend from the inner corner to just over the curve, and then flip the brush and use the other side to blend from the outer corner in, just over the curve.

Using a Nyx B-18 eyebrow brush, I lined my bottom lash line in the shade “Varadero,” which I brought from the outer corner until my lashes stop being visible. To finish off the eyeshadow, I used the Alamar shade “El Malecon” to highlight my inner corner. I brought this shade out to meet the bottom liner shade.

To finish the eye, I applied the “Maybelline Master Precise All Day Liquid Liner” in black to the top liner, bringing the line out into a wing. And, I topped it off with the “Maybelline Lash Stiletto Ultimate Length” waterproof mascara in black.

To complete the look, I lined my lips with the “Urban Decay 24/7 Glide-On Lip Pencil” in shade Uptight, and went over that with the “NARS Velvet Matte Lip Crayon” in shade “Cruela.”

And there you have it, a fun and barbecue-approved, 4th of July makeup look! If you give this or a similar look a try, post it on Instagram with the hashtag #WeAimToSlay, so that I can see what you create! Happy Independence Day, and remember to SLAY!

  How to create an Independence Day-inspired makeup look, perfect for all of your 4th of July festivities! Tomorrow is American Independence Day, and to celebrate I decided to channel the red-white-and-blue through my makeup!