Sabre sat at his desk, carefully painting. He had received a set of watercolor and acrylic paints as well as a few canvases from the townspeople's gifts, and had decided to test it out by painting the view from his room's balcony. He sets down his paintbrush and looks at it for a while, looking at his piece and observing the quality.
There was a soft knock at the door, one Sabre knew. He let M in, but not before trying to hide his painting under the top half of the small box he got the canvas from.
"Good morning, Sabre!" M greets him with a smile. "I see you've finally gotten through all of the parcels the town sent you."
"Yeah, all of them are really nice gifts, too." Sabre replies. "One person sent me some amethyst crystals that are on a stand, and it has this glass thing that goes over it like a cover, and the stand has a light built into it that glows through the crystals."
Sabre points to the amethyst lamp, which is on the shelf.
"Oh, that's beautiful. From one of the mining families, I'm sure." M says. "Anyway, what are you doing today?"
Sabre shifts a little, glancing at the box on his desk.
"Oh, uh, nothing really. Just... being here."
M notices the box on his desk.
"What's that?"
"N-Nothing! Nothing."
M gives a slightly confused look. After a minute, Sabre sighs and lifts the box cover, picking up his painting and looking at it.
"I, uh... I got some watercolors and stuff from one of the gifts, and tried painting for the first time..." Sabre explains. "I don't know if it's any good..."
"Can I see? I'm sure it's not that bad." M asks.
Sabre hesitates for a moment, but turns the canvas around and shows the painting to M.
"Sabre, what do you mean 'you don't know if it's any good'? This is amazing!" M exclaims, stepping a little closer to admire the painting better. "And it's your first time using paints?! You did wonderfully, I mean, look at that! Hang on, hold it up next to the actual view."
M excitedly leads Sabre over to the balcony, and Sabre reluctantly holds up his painting next to the view of the kingdom. Seeing the comparison, M continues to compliment Sabre's artwork while Sabre stays nervously silent.
"It looks almost exactly the same! You did so well!" M says. "You even got the mountains way in the distance, and all of the houses and shops you can see up here, and all of the trees and the petals falling... this is wonderful, Sabre."
"Really? I'm... not too sure I did it right. I did okay on the buildings, but... everything else was really difficult." Sabre replies, handing the painting to M. "I kept messing up on making the tree branches, I just couldn't get them right... and I tried to make the flowers in the trees look more like roses, but they're just splotches with swirls in them-"
"Sabre. It is wonderful, really. You did great." M smiles.
M hands the painting back to Sabre and looks out towards the view, the sea of roses suspended in the air hanging over the town like rubellite clouds. The Red Steves of the kingdom went about their daily lives surrounded by blooming flowers of all kinds and rustic, homely architecture. The birds that lived in the surrounding trees sang their songs that the wind carries through the air.
"The thing about nature, is that there's always going to be imperfections no matter what you do. Whether it's as big as a tree that's twisted and gnarled, or as small as a mouse with a deformed tail, they're going to appear by nature's will and by nature's will alone. No one can really stop it. But the thing is, so much of nature is considered beautiful because of these imperfections. Four leaf clovers are a mutation, but they are considered good luck. Trees have countless uneven or strange branches, but they add to the charm of the tree itself. The mutation of albinism gives animals the appearance of being made of moonlight or snow. There are so many species of plants that were discovered simply because they stood out from the others around them. Anything and everything in nature as some sort of imperfection or something that makes it 'wrong', yet everything it is still so beautiful."
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The Grey Rose | A RQ AU
Fanfiction===================================== Just as he fought his way out of his own mind, he was abandoned by all he ever knew and cared for. Alone, afraid, and brokenhearted, he cowered in the ruins of a place that was once grand and beautiful, now dest...
