#i knowww they're a couple'a cuties

[cursedvessels]

Her brows twitch upward when he mutters to himself, a little surprised at the way his face lit up. Amusement paints her smile when he compliments her and she just shakes her head. "Well, thank you, but...it's just a sketch," she insists with a chuckle. "I'm...not sure, actually, I've been working on it since I got here..." And she'd lost track of time a long while ago--had nearly forgotten her tea she'd been so focused.

She hides laughter by biting down her lip when he agrees to sit, easily seeing the sudden brightness in his expression. It's cute, endearing, really, but she's trying not to show too much interest. The enthusiasm leaking from him is contagious, though. She brushes a hand across the sketchbook as she neatly shuts the cover to allow him her attention--for now, anyway. When he asks to see more, her eyes widen in a bit of surprise and she gives a shrug.

"I mean, I..." Fingertips tap a bit anxiously against the cover of the sketchbook, contemplating. "Go right ahead." She offers up the book, sliding it across to him. As far as she could remember, there were just some portraits and doodles, sketches of this place, her brother, fragments of dreams and memories, animals and strangers, a few people she knew... She'd sort of forgotten there's a series of sketches of him in there, drawn from her memory after they'd parted ways. For a while there, it was all she'd been drawing--not because she was obsessed, but because she was trying not to forget his face, holding the memory of their dance and the time they'd shared close and dear.

Head tilts and she rests her elbow on the table, her knuckles pressed to her temple, watching him patiently as she allows him to flip through the book, eventually moving to rest her chin against her palm in an almost timid gesture.

She placed the sketchbook down for him to see and his brows lifted in slight surprise when he instantly recognized the café, from the perspective of her corner. There was the counter and the barista, the little wooden tables on each side of the café, the plants hanging from the ceiling. There were even some of the patrons. Everything in black and white, of course, but very recognizable. Perhaps he shouldn't be surprised, he'd come to realize over the years that good artists were usually quite modest. Either way, he was impressed. "C'est incroyable", he mumbled, more so to himself than to her at first, but then he looked back at her. "It's really really good", he repeated, gesturing toward the art piece. "How long did this take you?" She must have been here for a while, he reckoned.

When she invited him to sit, he could not properly mask the excitement on his face. He would've left if she had asked him to, but of course he hoped she would not. Especially now that he knew she was a lot better at drawing than she let on. The way she had described it made it sound really more like a hobby but if she had shown him this and told him that she was an illustrator, he would have believed her. "Sure, yes", he agreed, trying not to sound too enthused. He'd never been great at that, at least not in his personal life. When he was around someone he liked, emotions seemed to leak out of his face a little bit, even if they were not exuberant in nature.

He took a seat across from her, placing his coffee on the table. "Do you have more?", he wondered aloud, because it looked like at least half of her sketchbook was full. "I mean, if you want to share. Showing people your work, I know it can be kind of..." Tiring, he wanted to say, because he also preferred to work on things in private to avoid unwanted feedback. "...difficult. I won't say anything, I'll just look." He showed her a faint smile, his mind briefly drifting back to the moment she had told him she liked drawing. He could still picture the way she was standing, the specific movement she made with her hand, mimicking a pencil, and in her other hand she'd held a wine glass. He quickly parked the memory, involuntary as it may be, because he was very determined on being appropriate. It was like she said...interacting with others could be so complicated.