sanctuary || d. wayne

TEN

KING'S APARTMENT
OCTOBER 1st
15:08 p.m.

Friday finally arrived.

The week felt long as September came to an end. Noelle had two tests to study for while Robin slept on her couch. She barely had time to work on her art. But it's Friday, meaning she's got one chance to enjoy herself before she would be trapped with her family in their apartment all weekend.

All week she resisted the urge to talk to him about him, despite having permission to do so. She found herself wanting to know more about him. Rather than allowing him to sleep, she planned something that would help him relax just as much as a nap would.

"Hey," she greets, entering her apartment without looking him in the eye as she holds another canvas. She grins with excitement. "I got you something."

Robin, the bird sidekick raises a brow at the empty canvas. "You got me a canvas," he deadpans. Noelle looks him in the eye (well, mask) before shaking the canvas a little.

"Yeah, I figured we could spice up your relaxation time with a little painting," she offers. "I did research, and painting provides just as much relaxation as a nap would." She leans the canvas against the city-view window he crashed through what felt like forever ago. He looks at her with slight reluctance. "Come on," she pleads with a small smile, "I wanna try something new with you. If you don't like it, you can go back to napping."

He raises his chin slightly before nodding his head. "Alright. I accept."

"You 'accept?'" She repeats before chuckling, "I'm trying to help you relax, not get into an art competition."

She goes to her room to grab her station, allowing herself a few minutes to set everything up for the both of them. "Do you paint often or do you typically criticize others."

"Both," he admits, "though I haven't done either recently."

Noelle laughs but he only looks at her in confusion. Her laughter dies down at the sight of the confused look. Her brows furrow. "Oh...you're serious?"

"Why would I joke about that?"

Noelle shakes her head with a small before grabbing a brush. "Jesus, who are you, HomeWrecker?" His serious expression only made her sigh. "Relax, that was a joke." She makes a mental note of how he didn't argue about the nickname.

Noelle dips the brush into white paint before looking over at him. He hasn't bothered touching anything, making her sigh. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to," she reassures, "I won't be mad."

He shakes his head. "I'm not worried about that anyway."

"Yeah? Then what's wrong?"

She notices a pink flush creeping up his neck. If she didn't know any better, she's think he was flustered or even embarrassed.

"It's been a while," he admits, "I don't know where to start."

Noelle shrugs before gently stroking the canvas with the brush. "If you can't think of anything to paint, just paint what you see." He looks over at her before giving a small smile.

"You got a pencil?" Noelle points to the small tray of art supplies she's cultivated over the years. A small cup of sketching pencils sit at the edge. He grabs one before starting his sketch.

Noelle was too busy painting with painting the base coat of her woman to notice Robin look over at her every few seconds. She was captivated with her own work, it being the first time she's had all week to work on it.

For the next forty-five minutes, she didn't notice anything other than her canvas and the lo-fi beats she put on for them to "listen." Neither of them said a word until Noelle accidentally let out a sigh.