Work Text:
“Darling, I can’t paint you properly if you keep moving.”
“How am I supposed to stay still when such a divine being is standing so close to me?” Ella teased, smirking.
“You can move plenty once I’m done.”
“You’re no fun.” She pouted.
“You cannot rush the oils, dear,” Muriel replied, shaking her paintbrush at Ella in a mocking and chastising manner. “And I would hate to have any detail of your beauty go untreasured.”
“You already treasure me so. But, I suppose, I’ll cease my whining, for now. After all, this world was made so that we could be free to pursue our art, and it would be cruel of me to try and stop you, even for a moment.”
With twin suns overhead, Muriel bowed back over her canvas, painting every detail of Ella’s beauty. Her oils worked differently now, since the night of The King in Yellow; her brushstrokes blended seamlessly together and as long as she thought hard enough, her visions would manifest on the canvas, a combination of the passion in her soul and the power of this new world.
Others of Muriel’s friends and associates had a harder time adapting to the streets of Carcosa, but she found herself immediately at home the moment she saw Ella. The strangeness she possessed when they spoke to her during the interval was gone, and instead she was bathed in a radiant light. When she smiled and spoke to Muriel, it was like the first time they met, laughing over brandy and talking about art and complaining about society and leaning in toward each other until their lips were mere millimeters apart…
Not that it was simple to immediately start fresh in a foreign world, a magical land that was so different than London. But it was easier for Muriel to manage, now that she could work on her art with no restrictions, and now that she had Ella, her muse, at her side.
“What do you think?” Muriel asked, turning her easel around for Ella to see.
“Oh, love, it’s wonderful. You’ve truly outdone yourself.” Ella stood and came to examine the painting closer, smiling the whole time, before lacing an arm around Muriel’s waist. “I suppose it was more than worth the wait.”
Muriel grinned at the praise, then pressed a quick kiss to Ella’s cheek. “Thankfully, we have all the time in the world here.”
“Nothing to stop us, nothing to stand in our way. Just art, the art we create together.” Ella reached out to take Muriel’s hands and look up at her, filled with bliss.
A few seconds later, Muriel gasped. “It’s almost first sunset! Darling, we have to get to the pier, you know how I love the way the hues dance over the water.”
Ella glanced up at the sky through the window, then pouted again, a mischievous glint in her eye. “We still have a little time before the sun gets that low. I’ve been sitting in one place all day while you’ve been painting me. What do you say you help me stretch out first?”
“I suppose it’s the least I can do for my muse.”
Muriel tugged Ella in closer to kiss her while Ella wrapped her arms tight around Muriel’s waist. Their bodies pressed together with two suns overhead, they were free to create their own masterpieces, with no limitations holding them back.