Mati would have never guessed that she was somewhat a mystery to others. It was true that she stayed in her room for long hours at a time. She had friends, but with the disappearance of Ares Mati found that she had none in the pack, other then Cambria. They had not spoken much in the past, or at least at the point where Cambria could be seen as an adult. The details of her everyday life were not know, but Mati was finding out more and more about the other woman with each moment they spent together. To an outsider their last meeting would have seemed more informative. But Mati found that she learned much more now, simply by standing beside one another and sharing the static emotion that rang with each ticking second. She knew it was not enough, and if the painting took a week it would be too long. She could almost picture herself glancing down the hall in hopes of bumping into her, though why that vision came to her and how it made her feel would remain shadowed just like the rest of the things that still needed to be understood.
She was sweet, to not protest the wait and Mati smiled a bit brighter at the understanding. Though the artist would find that she stayed up night after night, painting by candle light in hopes of it always being perfect and finishing it as soon as she could. The look on Cambria’s face once she saw the finished product something that she yearned to see. It made hiding the work in progress important, and though she had not asked to see it Mati would like to keep it all a mystery.
Nodding softly Mati focused on the sliver three butterflied charm, wondering where she got it. She had been wearing it the week ago when she had bandaged Mati’s hand, but before that Mati could not remember. She wondered who had given it to her, and without being able to first explain why her heart jolted, her stomach knotted. Had there been someone else? Another that she had actually liked, and not just might liked. She pushed the thought from her mind, pushing the reason it matter so much to her away as well.
Her fingers touched it, the smooth metal in between the thumb that Cambi had healed and her pointer finger. Her sweet voice spoke, a single words and Mati took the closing step so that her arm was not extended. She didn’t let herself think of how it might have been stepping over the line, but Cambi had not flown away as Mati feared she might. Of course she needed to get a good look at it so that she replicated it perfectly in her painting, but Mati found that it was not the only thing that she focused on. This close her scent was all that she could inhale, the soft sound of her breathing playing in her ears right beside her own heartbeat.
“Where did you get it?” Mati asked, eyes looking back at it, her thumb running across the first butterfly and then onto the second. She held her breath in waiting, waiting to hear the tale of lust and love and pure happiness that Mati instantly concocted in her mind for the younger female. And fearing it would be true.
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