𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔, mileven✔️

until death do us part

✈︎

She was beautiful. Everything about her. Her golden curls framing the side of her face and small tendrils caressed the nape of her neck and the sides of her cheeks. Honey dew eyes stared back at her painting canvas, looking at the colors blended together with such concentration. Her eyes were squinted as she looked down at it, forming small wrinkles in between her eyebrows. Everything about El Hopper was simply perfect in Mike Wheeler's eyes.

Mike couldn't think of another time where El had looked so beautiful, the golden light cascading in the room in which they were situated in. El had to finish an art project for school and Mike agreed to stay with her after school to finish it. He would always do anything for her, even if it meant putting off most of his homework.

El was trying to create the piece of art that she would submit to Lorenzo de Medici, only one of the best art schools in Italy, to see if she could qualify as a student there. There mustn't be any mistakes within this piece, every precise movement of her hand and the paintbrush was crucial. Even one small microscopic dot could ruin her whole piece. That's why she needed Mike there, to help motivate her throughout the whole process.

They could be there for hours, but that didn't matter to Mike. This might as well be his excuse to stare at El without her even noticing. He definitely took advantage of that.

Her hand was loosely gripping the paint brush, he noticed that she never tensed her hand. If she did so, one swipe with the paintbrush could be too harsh and destroy her piece. She was biting on her bottom lip in full concentration, her small pearl white fang was peaking out of the side. Her posture was lightly slumped over, her back needing some sort of support after sitting on a stool for hours on end.

Mike thought maybe she should take a break, she'd been that way for at least 3 hours. "Don't you think you should take some sort of break, Picasso?" Mike asked, reluctantly reaching out to tap her arm before he retreated his hand quickly, not wanting to mess her up.

She mumbled something in response before grabbing a smaller and much thinner paint brush, dipping only the end in white paint before adding one dot to the canvas. She put the brush down carefully and looked at her canvas and then back at Mike.

"I'm almost done." She said with a smile. That smile got Mike every time, ever since 1st grade he's been completely in love with that smile. The smile where her small white fangs popped out of the side and how her top teeth slightly bit the bottom of her lip, her eyes squinting as she did so.

Mike glanced his dark eyes towards the canvas and back at his best friend. "It looks amazing." He said honestly, and it was. Mike never knew you could draw something so... realistic and so accurate just with a few paint brushes. Her task was to paint a scenery completely from her head with oil paint. El had always been artistically inclined but this was the toughest things she had to overcome. Nevertheless, it was incredible.

El sighed, "Thank you. Do you think it will get me in? I mean, at least for a summer program." She asked. There were a lot of talented people in the world, but to get into Lorenzo de Medici was only for the best.

"They would be completely insane to think that that's not good enough." Mike admitted, giving her a shy smile. "You're mini Picasso, how could they not want that?!" Mike teased. "Mike, wrong artist. Picasso was an abstract artist." El giggled. "Well I don't know any other artists and I'm not going to call you some random italian dude so, Picasso it is."

El laughed and Mike swore, every time she laughed his heart skipped a beat. "You're right," She glanced back at her canvas with a small turn of her head. "I'll let most of that dry and work on the rest of it tomorrow. Can we go home?" El asked as she walked over to the sink to wash her hands and arms.