Catch me, I'm falling. (Lexa/you)

Chapter 10

Enjoy!!

Your POV.

There was something about the art classroom that fueled your creativity.

Maybe it was just the fumes from the paint, but either way, it was, without a doubt, your favorite time of day.

Callie Cartwright was an excellent teacher, and she doted on her students, and was a firm believer of painting from the soul, because art was a window to one's deepest, most personal thoughts. For that reason, she'd tasked them with painting an animal that they felt represented themselves.

Your canvas was a myriad of warm yellows and browns, each stroke precise and thoughtful. A lioness stared back at you, not yet finished, but amber eyes glinted from behind the curtain of tall grass, intended to make the viewer feel small, as though they were being hunted. You wanted it to look as real as possible, so you were taking your sweet time, carefully using increasingly smaller brushes to capture individual hairs of fur.

Lincoln was painting from a position on the floor, peering up through the skylight to try and capture the different hues of blue, the exact underlying purple in the clouds, face scrunched up in concentration as he carefully outlined his eagle, hands steady.

Across the room, you could see Costia dancing absentmindedly as she mixed hues on her palette, and resisted the urge to roll your eyes. The girl always seemed to be doing something other than painting when you looked, but you had to admit that Costia's swan was coming along well, though you would have personally chosen to paint the pond under the cover of moonlight, with dark purples and blues in the water as opposed to the different shades of lighter blue, but Costia had decided to make the scene sunny, much like her personality , as Callie would say gleefully.

While the majority of the class seemed to be striving for realism, Murphy, of course, had to swim against the current.

"Fuck realism," he'd declared once Callie had announced the project, earning him a stern look which he ignored completely, and then made a beeline for the watercolors. It suited him, though, the bright splashes of oranges and reds complementing the overall aesthetic of the fox.

You were touching up the eyes, as they needed more of a shine, more definition to their amber depths, when you felt someone approach you from behind.

"Whoa, (Y/l/n), this is really good."

You blinked owlishly a few times before turning, a confused smile on your face.

Was Costia Greene complimenting you?

That was certainly a first.

For as long as you could remember, you and Costia had always been the most competitive when it came to art, but you never stirred up trouble, fulfilled by the knowledge that you were the better of the two, in that way a child grins secretively, content in the knowledge that they are the favorite. You'd been in the same art classes since the dark ages of City of Light Nursery School, and Costia had never, not once, gone out of her way to compliment your art.

So, naturally, you were suspicious as all hell.

"Thanks, Greene," you said with a half-shrug, "it's nowhere near done yet, but it's coming along nicely." You nodded in the direction of Costia's swan. "Yours is looking good, too." Costia flashed you a toothy grin, eyes tracing the expanse of your work in great detail, even crouching down so that she was eye-level with the lioness, and she let out a long whistle.

"I almost feel like I'm being hunted," she commented, and you couldn't help the internal victory dance knowing that it had the desired effect, even though it was Costia who was complimenting you.