Work Text:
The sun had slowly begun to set. Kieran had prepared all the materials to paint but was staring at the plain canvas, trying to generate an idea. He looked around the room at his other paintings, commissioned by people all across Ardhalis. He had taken up art as his full time job now that the Phantom Scythe had been defeated and disbanded, and had become quite popular within the city. He started getting a wide range of commissions, from scenery and landscapes to wedding pictures and portraits. It wasn't much income but just enough to keep him running.
As he looked at the canvas, he chuckled to himself. The once feared Purple Hyacinth, defeated by this canvas. How times have changed, he thought. Then the bell rang. Lauren entered the house, clad in her police uniform.
"Good evening, Subordinate," she said, keeping her bag aside, sitting down to remove her shoes.
"Good evening, Officer. Did you miss me?" Kieran greeted her back with a smile.
"I did, in fact," she said, pulling him in for a kiss, to which he obliged.
"Go get a shower, Darling. You smell of sweat and patrol cops," Kieran said, pinching and speaking from his nose.
"Alright, I'll go." She shot him a smile and went towards the bathroom removing her clothes one by one until Kieran could see her bare back before she shut the door.
"You fucking tease," he snickered, sitting in front of his canvas again. Maybe I should paint Lauren. That might at least indulge me for some time.
After some time, Lauren came out, dressed in a bathrobe.
"How was your day?" she asked, preparing herself some coffee.
"It wasn't bad, I finished two commissions. Now I'm thinking about what to do next. How was your day?"
"Same as yesterday, nothing new. Not getting any ideas?" she asked, looking at the plain canvas.
“Actually, I did get one after seeing you.” He winked.
“Let me guess, you want to paint me?” she raised her eyebrows.
Kieran bent sideways and looked at her with a smirk. “Do you want to be painted so bad that the idea came by itself into your mind, Officer?”
“Well, looking at these other paintings of yours, the thought did pop up,” she said, glancing around the room.
“Well, sit down then.” Kieran gestured toward the sofa.
“I have a better idea,” Lauren said, setting the coffee aside.
Within a second, she undid the belt of her bathrobe and let it fall to the ground, exposing her entire body to a very shocked and tomato red Kieran, who immediately turned the other way, luckily not breaking his neck in the process.
“OH MY GOD LAUREN, WHAT THE HELL!” he screamed.
“You said you wanted to paint me. So paint me,” she said, walking over to the sofa. She lay down and put her arms above and over the armrest and looked at Kieran. “Paint me like one of your commissions, Kieran.”
Kieran slowly turned around hoping it was a minor hallucination but nope. There she was on the sofa, fully nude, waiting for him to start.
This is a dream, pretty sure. But not a bad one to be honest. He dipped the brush and began painting, carefully making each stroke. His eyes glanced above it to Lauren, studying her perfect form. He occasionally moved his hair out of his face to see the beauty in front of him. He got every detail, from her golden pensive eyes to the faded bullet wound on her ankle. She also stayed still, determined to see his replication of her in full detail, only sometimes biting her lip to distract him for a second just to laugh it off immediately after.
The end result was a true work of art and passion. It almost seemed alive. Kieran had done a stunning piece within an hour. She looked at it with such awe that she hadn't registered his question first, until he asked it again.
"How is it?"
"It's….it's beautiful," she exclaimed.
"You were a beautiful model, Darling," he said, moving closer to her until she could hear his breaths.
The coffee went cold that night while their temperatures shot up, as they spent the night in each other's company.
"I…I love you Kieran," Lauren whispered, exhausted as they lay on the bed.
"I love you too, Lauren." He whispered back, as he hugged her and they both went to sleep.