sketchbook

Vaerion filled out his paperwork dutifully. When they arrived at his office in the Emberlight Holdings building, he had expected Asuriel to get bored quickly… but that wasn't the case. The moment they walked into his office, she had asked him if she could have a pen and an empty sketchbook, which he conjured for her without much thought about the request, and he got to work.

It had been nearly three hours since he sat at his desk, and she hadn't uttered a word – or barely made any sound at all. Silently and contentedly, she sat on a beanbag with pen and paper, sketching the entire time.

"I'm nearly done," he announced, glancing up from his desk to look at her. "We will be leaving soon. Darion is bringing some clothes for you to wear to the meeting."

Much to his surprise, she didn't even look up and answered distractedly, "Cool."

"The meeting place is a bit out of the way; it'll be around a thirty-minute drive, so we're going to eat before we leave," he continued, thrumming his fingers idly against the side of his chair.

"Alright," Asuriel said, still enraptured in… whatever she was doing, "sounds good."

"Is there anything in particular you'd like to eat?" Vaerion asked, his lips thinning into a line.

"Anything's good," she shrugged, then added after several long moments of silence, "I'm not picky."

The devil frowned. At first, he had appreciated that she was such easy company and allowed him to work in peace… but something about her attitude bothered him.

Why didn't she pay him any mind?

Not that he was upset, of course – Vaerion just disliked the lack of respect. He would never covet the attention of a mortal woman; that was beneath him… right? His fascination with her was purely because of her unique aura and physical attractiveness.

Yes, that was it.

Vaerion returned to finishing the last few papers, eager to leave the office. He usually did this type of work at the Lounge for the change of scenery, but due to their circumstances, he had decided to wrap everything up at his desk.

It only took a few minutes, and he was done. Vaerion opened a drawer, neatly filed each document in its proper folder, and stood up. Asuriel didn't seem to have noticed at all, so he decided to tease her a little.

He ran a hand through his hair and smirked mischievously. Vaerion used his magic to step silently behind her and leaned down to speak into her ear.

"What have you been working so diligently to draw?" he whispered.

Asuriel startled slightly and looked at him, their noses nearly colliding as she did. "You… you startled me."

"If you weren't so distracted, you would have noticed," Vaerion teased. "Anyway, show me what you've been working on."

"I've been drawing you," she answered honestly, flipped the pages back to the cover, and handed the sketchbook to him without shame.

Vaerion blinked once and furrowed his brows – he figured she wouldn't want him to see. Weren't most artists a little shy? He echoed with disbelief, "Me?"

"Go on, take a look," Asuriel encouraged. "Tell me what you think."

So, he did.

Vaerion looked at the first page and hummed thoughtfully. It was a sketch of him sitting in his booth at the Lounge; it was pretty good but nothing spectacular. He felt a bit disappointed – until he flipped to the next page.

It was a more refined sketch, this time of his side profile. She had captured each shadow and contour of his face perfectly. He made a 'hmm' of appreciation, then continued to the next piece.

This time, it was a sketch of him looking irritated, with one hand raised to his chin – an expression and movement he only made when alone. His face hardly ever betrayed his emotions in front of others. And, just as on the previous page, everything about him was drawn with expert grace, as if she had spent decades studying his face.

"You were facing away from me this entire time," he glanced at her, his golden eyes puzzled. "How could you possibly… portray me in so much detail?"

"You brushed it off when I told you before," Asuriel seemed a bit shy and uncertain as she answered, "but I really did draw you when I was a kid. It seems crazy, I know…"

Vaerion sighed and looked through the rest of the things she had drawn in the last three hours; there were nearly ten pages, each with very realistic ink versions of himself. The final drawing was of his forearm with his complicated infernal runes drawn to perfection.

"I…"

He found himself at a loss for words. Everything she had said to him up to that point was the truth, and there was no reason for her to lie about something like this, so the only answer was that she had indeed been drawing him for a long time… long before they had ever crossed paths, and before he had even moved to the mortal realm.

Asuriel didn't say anything, and her expression betrayed nothing. Vaerion stared at her for a while, falling victim to the trap that was her beautiful dark eyes… which almost seemed to have taken a violet tint that they didn't possess before.

He barely managed to pull himself away and anchor himself back in reality.

"…and you called these drawings of me, 'Jae?'" Vaerion's voice carried none of its typical frustration when mentioning the strange name she had given him.

"I didn't know who you were," she chuckled and shifted her weight, slightly uncomfortable. "But I had started to draw you when I was nine or ten, and after a year or so, I decided that I drew you so much that it was criminal not to give you a name."

"So, for fifteen years, you have been able to envision me in such detail?" Vaerion was stunned… and although it was a strange and somewhat frightening revelation, despite his logical judgment, he found it heartwarming.

Asuriel nodded with a self-deprecating expression. "Yeah... And I know it sounds ridiculous, but I promise it's the truth."

Vaerion shook his head and handed the sketchbook back to her. "It might be ridiculous, but I believe you."

"You seem… oddly okay with it," the woman observed. "Aren't you creeped out? I feel like it would scare me, at least a little if someone admitted something like this to me."

"I should be," he nodded, "but, for some reason, I actually find it… 'endearing,' I guess, is the word."

Asuriel looked as puzzled as he felt but shook it off quickly. Vaerion offered her a hand getting out of the bean bag, which she took gratefully.

She looked up at him with a devious smile when she got to her feet. "So, can I call you Jae?"

"Absolutely not."