Work Text:
The paper sang a song of creation beneath her fingers, howling over the hum of distant conversation. Elindra watched her pencil sway. Each delicate line and mark turning into something new, like the growth of a flower, the sketch would bloom with each slow sweep. Violet eyes slowly flickered above the edges her parchment and onto the face of her newest inspiration- a woman with beautiful expressions; a single donut clutched between her elegant fingers. Elindra dared to capture the sight in the dimensions of a page.
“Watch it.” A man snarled from behind. The insult had not registered until the man shoved Elindra from her seat. Her coffee and belongings plummeted to the floor. Fear spiked against her heart as the man ripped the pages from her hand. A horrid sneer painted his pungent features. “Filthy knife-ear; your kind should not be allowed in this kind of establishment.”
Out of nervous habit, Elindra pushed stray hair behind an elongated ear before reaching for her sketch book. “I would like my book back, please.”
“And, I would like to have your filthy species out of our cities. I guess neither of us gets what we want.” With a snort, the man allowed the book to slip free of his fingers.
Elindra let out a strangled cry as she lunged for the pages of her life; desperate to save the emotions she managed to commit to paper. She found herself caught in the arms of the hideous human; whom laughed at her misfortune. Without sparing her another mercy, the man shoved her backwards until her body was forced into the rough edge of her table. Elindra crumpled against the impact then sagged to the floor numbly; watching as the charcoal images became distorted under the layer of black coffee.
Elindra is what the humans would call Tuatha Dé Danann or, in more common terms, Fae. Many, still, did not accept her kind. Unnatural, they would call her. Monster. Knife-ear. Her violet eyes flickered against the sodden images. She watched them- humans- in their happy lives and became committed to understand. Humans contained desires the Fae could never experience and dreamed of things their minds could never fathom. It was beautiful. They were beautiful… and so very ugly at the same time.
The first time Elindra had ever experienced this thing the mortals called ‘racism’, she did not comprehend the purpose of creating such hateful expressions. So, like every other fresh emotion she experienced, Elindra had bound it to paper and studied the lines in hopes to grasp its purpose. It was an ugly image; like watching ink spill into the sea, tainted like a storm beneath the surface. Violent.
She felt the trickle of disdain as she realised such emotions were beyond her.
Elindra drew in slow breaths, trying to calm the blaring pain snipping across her nerves. The discomfort became imminent as she pushed herself to her knees. Pitifully, she reached for the ruined pages. No one had come to her assistance, just as they had not every other time she had experienced such horrors. The once quiet walls began to escalate back into an everyday manner. Humans liked to be ignorant because awareness made the ugliness of the world real. It was a disheartening mannerism.
Liquid swirled against the charcoal lines; the image bled and distorted. Sadness bit into the caverns of Elindra’s chest as she pushed the book aside and, instead, attempted to salvage the fine pencils. The fragile cores were, more-then-likely, damaged at this point but she would make use of what she had.
Embarrassed of her wounded heart, Elindra concentrated on the clatter of wood against the floor. She had paused to push frustrated tears from her cheeks when a set of hands began to retrieve her scattered goods. Shock pulsated from her heart; thundering through her veins as she sought out the face of this mysterious figure.
He had eyes deeper than the night sky, twinkling with lightness of the moon. A dimple eased the edges of his chocolate skin. Elindra watched as the man patted down the pages of her sketch book with his coat’s sleeve, careful to not ruin the image further. He pondered down at the page with a smile that never seemed to falter; gradually he returned the book to her shaking hands. “I think this is yours.” A deep mirth flowed from the conclave of his voice, a sound that pulled hope from her heart.
“Remus.” The man pushed himself into a slow stand and that smile, deep and kind, deepened even further. He reached down, gifting her with the assistance to stand- An act never granted to her by a mortal before.
“Elindra.” She returned quietly.
“You know,” He reached down, allowing the coffee stained picture to shine beneath her violet gaze. “I used to think the hatred of others is what brought me down in life. This kind of happiness,” Remus swept a finger against the adoring face of the woman pressed into the pages of Elindra’s portrait. “The kind you find beautiful enough to place upon the pages of a book, can never be corrupted by the hands of others. They are just like the coffee, dark and overpowering so you forget the picture is still there…but, the coffee gives it character.”
“Character?” The Fae woman raised an elegant brow towards the dark human.
He chuckled. “Yeah; makes the image better then it was- makes it more.” Elindra focused down at the picture and absorbed it as she would something new. “Would you like to join us?”
Elindra blinked, then followed his gaze toward a distant table. The woman depicted within Elindra’s sketch watched from the distance with admiration. “I would like that.” Remus lead her to the table and Elindra settled into the comfort of a new emotion.
Compassion.