Checkmate ⚢

Chapter 38 Signature

A/N: Hello again! Only three chapters left and it's all done! And thank you for all the sweet comments they are what keep me motivated and I love them all to death!!!! You all are saints I stg :') <3
Please feel free to point out any mistakes you find, I edit as much as I can but I tend to miss things! I hope you all enjoy it!
Out of curiosity, who do you guys picture for the characters?

Hana stared out the window and counted the numbers of trees visibly when they got back to their room. Althea's sandwiches were good. It actually gave her satisfaction similar to the times she was young and back in Japan when she was sick and her parents would prepare her favorite meal.

Now that they were about to paint with some of the art materials Althea brought with them, a series of negative thoughts push against her skull so hard that it felt like her bones were cracking under their pressure.

A series of negative thoughts plundered her. What if she can't get to Althea's level? What if her art style sucks?

After she had pondered her life's universal questions, she caught Althea rummaging through Hana's luggage in search of a change of shirt. "Hana, did you draw this?"

"Oh?" she blushed when Althea stumbled upon sketches for her imagery plans for her future photography. "Oh yes. I did. I was sketching in class. I tend to do that when I'm bored and I can't wait to use my camera."

Althea fondly stared at the sketches, impressed as she flipped through the light brownish page one at a time. "You are not that bad."

"Eh?" she said, preoccupied with staring at her lover's unblemished face. "Umm thanks!"

Hana grabbed the clothes Althea momentarily forgot and changed out of her sweaty shirt and pants. "Hey Althea, What are we painting?"

"I already have something in mind." A smile crossed her features. "We might manage to go over the basics: still life, roses on a vase. Do you want to do the subject or the background?"

"I don't think I'm qualified for the background so roses it is."

"If you wish to," Althea said. She scrolled through the tunes on her phone before pressing play on a piece of certain orchestral music.

And so they start to paint. Althea worked on the background while Hana worked on the flowers. Both of them at the same time, and it proved to be a little difficult since the canvas is quite small.

Hana gave the roses a more abstract, messy style, which contrasted against the clear and linear shapes of the desk and the wall that Althea, was painting. She can't help but notice that Althea tried to make the shadows more abstract and fuzzy to complement her style.

And it worked.

Hana placed all her focus on not making any mistakes. The lovers didn't chatter much aside from the occasional stuff of what stroke or color must be used.

The classical music Althea played on her phone earlier somehow blended in with Hana's brushstrokes and made the painting better than it probably would have been. Althea painted the roses and the vase with ease, mixed different shades of red, careful not to blend her paint with Hana's.

Hana was so preoccupied with observing Althea that she made a mistake.

She had let her mind wander. She loosened the bounds on those pesky thoughts, and before she knew it, her hand has jerked and made a streak of green across the painting, green that was supposed to be only for stem and leaves of the roses, green that is now slightly streaked across the roses to the background. Hana gasped at it. She stared at it until the green streak grew and covered up every corner of her vision.