[C] Braids

"This is great."

He looked around as he sat down, clocking all the things that he could sketch from his vantage point.

He settled into loosely sketching the closest flowerbed.

But it didn't take long for him to change his subject. He peered up discreetly to his sketching partner, as his pencil began stroking over the page.

His favorite thing about the garden was that it was never the same. The core things stayed in place - like the statue sprinkling water into the fountain - but everything else changed with the seasons. Trees became taller, the vines a little wilder, new flowers unexpectedly bloomed. His sketchbooks were a documentation of each change little change.

He drew with care and attention. The familiar look of concentration on his face; relaxed features with the exception of the lip pulled between his teeth.

Only when he was satisfied with the sketch did he catch Fleck glancing in his direction. Curling a loose strand behind his ear, he peered over to look at his boyfriend's journal.

"What are you drawing?"

"Not you any more, clearly," he replied dryly with a grin.

He turned his sketchbook for Dick to see. There was a basic observation sketch of Dick sketching in his own sketchbook. The details weren't amazing, but it was clearly him.

Above that sketch was a much more detailed render of one of Dick's eyes, and to the left of that, a study of the hand that Dick had been using to hold his sketchbook still.

Cheeks warm he returned the grin.

He leaned a further to inspect the small studies of himself. It was kind of strange seeing himself sketched out. Almost as the sculpted version of his face.

"They're lovely."

He leaned back down into his seat, shifting for he faced Fleck, pencil at the ready. He was a less subtle on what he intended to draw next.

"Pretend you haven't noticed me."

Fleck laughed.

"Bit difficult to do when I know you're going to be abusing that lip soon."

He scraped his lower lip between his teeth as if to demonstrate his point.

But he began searching for something to draw.

Something came strutting from behind a bush and Fleck blinked in shock. "Is that a peacock? You even have peacocks here? What the fuck."

"Oh."

His perspective shifted. Suddenly he understood why his habit got Fleck so riled up. It should be illegal for Fleck to do that.

He ducked his head and started doing a few quick, light sketches of his partner. Just getting a feel of him before he went on to do a more detailed drawing of him set in the environment.

His concentration broke at Fleck's noise of surprise. Looking up his eyes followed Fleck's line of sight.

"Not really. They come and go when they please... But I do think someone is feeding them since they've been appearing more often lately."

He shrugged.

He shook his head.

"This place is ridiculous."

He went about studying the peacock, though. Doing a few loose sketches of it as it moved around, before moving onto some details as it wandered closer to them.

Dick didn't pay any mind to the peacock as it wondered over. His attention was purely on Fleck.

Flipping the page he began the more detailed drawing. Capturing Fleck's looking of concentration and the details around him, creating an atmosphere.

He sketched the peacock and its little details over and over again.

He'd never been this close to one, and it moved in very interesting ways. He wished he had some colours with him. It'd make the sketching process much more interesting.

Dick made a disapproved noise and leaned back in the chair, blue eyes flicking between the sketch and Fleck.

There was something off about it. He just couldn't fathom what it was. No matter what he added it just didn't look right.

He placed his sketchbook on the table, giving it a break.

Instead, he just watched Fleck, the corners of his lips quirking up into an adoring smile.

"The dogs would love it here," he commented after a stretch of silence.

He could see them all rushing through the grounds. It was large enough that they could all have their space.

"You can bring them here sometime."

His attention turned to the grounds and the flowerbeds. A line was drawn between his brows.

"On second thought, you can take them to the fields. Or maybe the beach?"

They were good large open spaces to let dogs run loose.

"Don't want the puppies getting into the flowers?" he guessed.

It was like that in their own garden. Chai was very proud of her little section of the garden.

And the younger dogs were very fond of playing in it, much to her disgust.

"Rather not."

It was difficult enough maintaining a garden with the castles residence, even if things had simmered down considerably since it opened up.

His attention turned to the flowers of on Fleck's arm. Thoughts turning again to how much of a shame that they won't last. They will just wash away. Especially since it took him so long to do.

That and he was insanely proud of himself.

"We should take a photo of it - your arm," he clarified.

"We should."

His hand descended to his pocket, pulling out his phone and tossing it across the table.

"I don't want it to fade."

His fingers stroked down over the patterns on his bicep, before he stood and moved around the table to stand in a good place for Dick to take the pictures.

Dick took the phone from the table and switched it on. With painful slowness, he located the camera app and made a noise of disapproval. The unflattering image of his face scrunched up.

"How do I...? Oh, I see."

He set it to the back camera and turned to Fleck.

"Me too.," he said as he took the photos. "As I said, it looks good on you - really good."

His face heated from his own honestly.

Fleck angled his arm carefully so no detailed would be missed.

"It does doesn't it?"

He wanted to mention tattoos. He wanted to plant the idea, but he couldn't afford it. It would just be a fantasy.

When he felt he took enough, he passed the phone back to Fleck. Thinking over what he said he gnawed on the inside of his lip.

His hand fell on the top of his thigh, smoothing over the fabric.

"Well, there is one way you can have it not fade..."

He let the implication sink in. Embarrassed to actually voice his thoughts outright. He felt it would come across big-headed of him to just be like; "why not get that drawing I did on you permanently on your body for the rest of your life?"

"I couldn't afford it," he answered immediately.

Yes, he'd love it, but there was no way that he'd be able to afford getting a full sleeve tattoo.

Just the thought of the price tag on those sorts of tattoos made him cringe.

He gnawed on his lip some more before replying.

"But if you had the money?"

"Yeah."

His broad shoulders shrugged.

"But I don't. I'd rather not fall into that sort of trap. People make themselves miserable wanting things they wont be able to afford."

Dick hummed.

Thinking back, he could vaguely remember haveing a similar conversation with Fleck.

He gnawed on his lip some more, and idea forming in his head.

"Well, considering that someone," he gave Fleck a pointed look, "didn't tell me it was their birthday until the day would, maybe they would like a late birthday gift?"

He looked away from Fleck, taking interest in the peacock still strutting about.

"Not that you need to have that design. You can have whatever you want. I've been meaning to get you something, something you can keep, but I didn't want to get you anything too generic so..." He hesitated, glancing back to Fleck.

"I'm not letting you spend hundreds of euros on me for a late birthday present," Fleck snorted.

He shook his head slowly.

That was a lot of money to spend on him.

"Well, I want too," he insisted. "If I am going to spend that amount of money I want to spend it on you. Especially since it was your birthday... And it is something I know you want and will enjoy."

He wasn't bashful now, stubbornness was set in his eyes.

"Besides, it's not like I have much else to spend my money on."

His wealth had grown over the centuries he had lived. Even now it was growing working part time in a coffee shop. Yet there were only a couple of expensive things he ever needed to spend his money on; helping to get the mansion up and running, and some fake identification every few years.

Well, this was going to get messy if he didn't tread carefully.

Dick was an incredibly stubborn person, and denying him something he'd convinced himself would happen wasn't usually in Fleck's best interest.

"I don't want you to start acting like a sugar daddy." Being blunt with something he knew Dick wouldn't particularly enjoy being labelled as was the best way he could think to nip this in the bud.

"The tattoos gonna cost a couple hundred euros, easy. That's a lot of money, that I'm not going to be able to pay you back."