Sketches of You
Kael stopped in the doorway, his hand hovering over the light switch, and checked the room again. It was mostly dark, save for the flickering of flames from the fireplace, but something told him it wasn't empty. His eyes adjusted slowly to the dimness, and then he saw the figure sprawled on the rug in front of the fireplace.
He moved quietly across the room. As he rounded the armchair, he recognised the ringlet curls tangled and splayed out across the rug. Rafariel. The boy was laying facedown, his head turned away from the fire, his eyes closed.
Kael stopped next to him, looking down. The boy's long, thin legs were mostly bare, crossed delicately at the ankles; a dark, patterned kimono lay loose and rumpled over him, only half covering his torso; his bare shoulders were silky smooth, impossibly narrow; his slender arms and long-fingered hands were curled under his head to pillow it. Kael listened and heard his slow, rhythmic breathing.
He knelt on one knee next to the boy. Up this close, the long lashes that feathered against his pale cheeks came into focus, as well as the pert, luscious lips -- normally quirked in a frown in Kael's presence, but now slack with sleep. His hair, usually impeccably styled, was loose and mussed, tangled knots wisping against his cheek and getting caught up in his arms. Kael reached out a hand to smooth the hairs back from the boy's cheek, but something stopped him short. Something that was unwilling for his first touch of Rafariel's face to be when he was asleep and unaware of it.
Instead, he reached down to the boy's loose kimono, gently taking hold of the edges so as to draw it up over his shoulders more firmly. It was then that he noticed the black markings on his back, and his fingers froze, clutching the kimono hem.
Only a portion of Rafariel's back was bared, and all Kael could see was a black triangle, a twisting, curved pattern on the skin. He stared at it for a long moment. Of all the people he knew, Rafariel was the last one he would have expected to have a tattoo. Curiosity got the better of him, and he began to draw the kimono downwards instead, wanting to see what symbol a boy like this would like so much as to have permanently etched on his skin.
In a seeming whirlwind of movement, the kimono and Rafariel were gone. Kael looked up. Now the boy was sitting upright, his back to the fire, the kimono clutched convulsively about his shoulders. His expression was a cross of horror and anger, and his beautiful, mismatched eyes stared at Kael accusingly.
"Oh, you're awake," Kael spoke needlessly, keeping his tone light and amused. Rafariel's eyes narrowed.
"Don't you ever --" he cut himself off there, either too angry or too upset to finish his own sentence. Kael watched the play of emotions across his face -- confusion, anger, fear, shame -- and noted that the boy's knuckles were turning white, his grip on the kimono was so tight. He put that together with the knowledge about Rafariel's past that he'd gleaned from Raziel.
"You didn't choose to be tattooed," he guessed, and shock won the fight for possession of Rafariel's expression.
"You --" Rafariel swallowed heavily, and his gaze flickered away from Kael. "It's none of your business."
"I think I just made it my business," Kael countered, and Rafariel looked back at him, angry again.
"If you tell the others..." his implied threat hung in the air, but he must have known how useless it sounded; what could he possibly threaten Kael with? His lips thinned, and his eyes dropped.
"Why would I tell them?" Kael asked, keeping both his voice and his expression serious, and Rafariel's eyes jumped up to meet his again, widening slowly.
"You... because... you like playing with people. Because you find it fun to make my life more miserable."
Kael considered this for a moment. Of course he enjoyed playing with people, but he was surprised that Rafariel thought his only pleasure was in making him miserable. He thought it had been obvious from the start what his intentions really were. Then again, his methods weren't exactly direct, either. He liked to purposely make it a challenge for himself, because that made the end result so much more satisfying.
"You misunderstand my intentions. But so far, you seem to have misunderstood everything about me."
"...does that mean you won't tell the others?"
"If you don't want me to, then no. But why does it matter?"
"It matters to me." Rafariel shifted his grip, pulling the kimono tighter around his shoulders. The material inadvertently slid down in the front, revealing one of his nipples, pale pink against his ivory skin. Kael resisted the urge to lick his lips at the sight of it. Every little thing about Rafariel turned him on; he was determined that one day this skittish little colt would be his prize. And oh, how he would relish him.
Aloud, all he said was "One day I'd like to hear the story behind that." Rafariel stiffened, so he added, "but not today."
"I don't understand you," Rafariel's voice was soft.
"Very few people do," Kael said breezily. He watched as Rafariel's face puckered into a frown. "If you bothered to try to get to know me better, maybe you'd have some chance of understanding me better."
Rafariel fell silent. Kael waited, but the boy's eyes remained downcast, and his frown remained in place. Kael couldn't tell if he was thinking, or simply just wishing for him to go away. He sighed; the boy's tolerance level for him was still low, so it was better to keep their interactions short for the time being.
"Fine, I get it. Well, if you could just tell me if you happen to have seen my sketchbook or not, then I'll get out of your hair."
Rafariel's head jerked up at that, his eyes suddenly wide and staring at Kael as if he'd just said something blasphemous about the boy's mother or something. Kael blinked back at him, bemused.
Rafariel reached around behind him for a moment; his kimono slipped from his shoulder, baring almost all his torso now, but he ignored it. His hand reappeared, holding Kael's sketchbook. It was opened to one of the sketches he'd done of Rafariel, a pencil sketch of the boy as he played his violin. He'd spent ample time on it, focusing on Rafariel's serious, studied expression, on his graceful fingers, and on the wild disarray his long curls fell into as he played.
Now Kael understood. He smirked.
"Ahhh, so you've been hiding it all along."
"I just found it," Rafariel said instantly, defensively. "When I came in here to read."
"I see."
"...why did you draw me?" His voice was plaintive, confused.
"Because you're beautiful, and I like to draw beautiful things." That earned him an instant scowl. He'd gotten that same scowl the last time he'd commented on Rafariel's beauty. "You don't like being told you're beautiful, do you?"
Rafariel looked away. "I don't like being lied to."
"Beauty is not something that I'm prone to lying about."
The skittish gaze came back to focus on him again, then lowered to the drawing still held in his hand. His other hand let go of the kimono, letting it fall away completely, and came up to touch the sketch, fingers tracing along the lines that marked out his face.
He liked the drawing, Kael could see that. Liked it, because it made him look beautiful and graceful, even though he didn't feel that way. Though how someone could be as beautiful as Rafariel and not believe it, Kael didn't know.
"May I have my sketchbook back, please?" he asked pleasantly, knowing that Rafariel wouldn't want to part with the drawing so quickly.
Rafariel swallowed, then handed the book back to him. But as Kael closed his fingers over it, Rafariel tightened his grip on it, and spoke softly.
"May I... have the picture? Of me?"
Kael looked at him, putting on his best thoughtful expression. This was working out very well to his advantage. If he'd known Rafariel could be played this way, he would've left the sketchbook lying around much earlier than this.
"Alright," he said aloud, and Rafariel let go of the book. Kael carefully tore the page free from the binding. He held it out, but as soon as Rafariel's fingers closed around it, he spoke again. "But on one condition."
Rafariel looked up at him, eyes suddenly narrowed again, as if this was what he'd expected. "What?"
"You'll agree to pose for me so that I can draw a proper picture of you."
Rafariel's fingers let go of the sketch at once, as if it was suddenly scalding hot.
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because..." He trailed off, his face a mix of confused uncertainty.
"Because why? Because it would be vain? Because you wouldn't make a good topic for a picture? Because you don't like me?"
"...I don't like you." The words were hesitant, though. "And... I don't like being stared at. Especially by you."
"I promise not to think any lurid thoughts about you while I'm drawing you," he quipped, and that earned him a glare. But there was some amusement in the boy's expression as well, so he kept talking. He knew he could make this work.
"Look, it's not going to take that long. You don't have to talk to me while I'm doing it. And I'll be staring at the drawing more than I'll be staring at you."
Rafariel's expression wavered, and he continued to stare at Kael, but he didn't answer. Kael decided to call his bluff.
"Okay, fine then, forget I asked." He pulled back the sketch he'd been holding out and tucked it back into his sketchbook. He started to get to his feet, and Rafariel reached out and grabbed his arm.
"Wait."
"Yes?" He hovered in a half-crouch, amused that he'd finally gotten the boy to touch him, even though Rafariel wouldn't have consciously realised that that's what he was doing.
"...I'll do it."
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Well then, if you insist..." Kael held out the sketch again, and Rafariel snatched it from his fingers.
"...do you want to do it now?" he asked softly, staring at the picture.
Kael swallowed his first instinctive response to that, knowing that now was not the right time to be making sexual jokes at the boy's expense.
"No," he said instead. "I need to think about it for awhile first and decide what sort of drawing I want to do."
Rafariel nodded slowly, his eyes still on the drawing.
"I'll let you know when I want to do it."
"Alright."
Kael stood up, and gave him one last look, enjoying the pale, bared torso, the long legs curled under him, and the cherubic shape of his pretty little face, surrounded by the masses of long black hair. He smiled to himself.
"You might want to put your kimono back on before falling asleep again, just in case someone else comes in next time," he said, and Rafariel jumped, pulling the robe into place faster than Kael had thought anyone could.
He laughed softly and left the room, leaving the boy to ponder over the sketch as long as he wanted. Kael had gotten a lot more than he'd expected out of their exchange; he could hardly wait till their next meeting. Slowly and surely, he was going to reel the boy in, fighting hook and nail every inch of the way. And he was going to enjoy every second of it.