Chasing Ghosts | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 85: Painted Hearts

June 23, 2024

What they stepped into was a light, open space, perfect for painting with natural light. Not that big or high, but enough to make a circle of about nine easels with walking space around and in between. About half of them were already occupied by women of all ages, soft music playing in the background and their chatter just as muted. It felt so peaceful and soft that Katya immediately relaxed.

They were welcomed by a small, young woman with bright pink hair and a huge smile. She was exactly the type of artistic person one would see leading an art class. The earrings in her ear seemed to be self-made, and her arms were full of colorful bracelets. She handed them their aprons and told them to find a seat.

Katya gasped once she sat down on her stool and unrolled the white apron in her hands. Above the pocket on the chest stood her name, stitched in red. ''My name is on this,'' she breathed in excitement, missing how Natasha completely melted at her cuteness on the stool next to her. ''Help me tie it?''

Her hand ran over the stitching with amazement when the apron was tied around her waist, thinking how this was totally going to become her new cooking apron at home once the paint splatters dried. They had a boring black one they shared now.

''I'm so excited. What do you think we're going to paint?'' She asked once she sat down again.

''I have no idea.'' Natasha smiled adoringly, glad her risky idea for a date seemed to play out well. ''Fruit?''

But Katya was too busy taking it all in to talk to her wife, who was perfectly content with watching her in turn, twisting a small paintbrush between her fingers.

The engagement ring sparkled in the light whenever Katya reached up to brush a hair from her face, but her blue eyes possibly shone brighter than that. She looked like an angel in that dress, with that smile, and the lights reflecting off her tanned skin. How could someone not stare at that?

They should go out more and do more of these group activities, sign up for things. Always the two of them was fun, but this was just as much a date as walking through Central Park together, sipping a drink. And they got to take the paintings home at the end of the day, a reminder of a fun time. Natasha made a mental note of it, especially upon seeing how happy this made Katya.

''Good morning.'' The woman from before stepped into the circle, conversations dying out and reluctantly pulling Natasha out of her head. ''I'm happy to see everyone made it. My name is Cleo, I'm a last year art student, but I have been drawing and painting all my life. I specialize in botanicals, so today, we're painting this beautiful vase of flowers.'' She picked it up from the floor and put it on the small pillar beside her. It held a couple flowers of about every popular kind, and Natasha involuntarily smiled at the roses. ''Don't worry if you've never painted before. I will help you make something beautiful.''

''I love flowers,'' Katya whispered to herself, unknowingly sending Natasha's body into another warm state of affection, her insides melting.

You know when something is so sweet and cute and adorable that your instinct is to squish it to death? That's how Natasha's hands itched to hug her wife and kiss her face all over. Every time she got herself together, Katya did or said something that had her falling into the same helplessly in-love state.

''Until lunch, we'll focus on creating a sketch with pencil and starting with the base layers of paint. After the break, we'll continue with the details.''

In this moment, Katya blessed herself once again for her ambidextrousness. It may have been forced into her, and those teachings may have included broken fingers, but she could still write with whatever hand she wished, evenly well. Natasha knew this. Otherwise, she'd never picked this date. So the brunette picked up her pencil with left, scooted her stool a bit to the right so she could see the flowers better behind the easel, and went to drawing.