Work Text:
“Why do you have so many red pencils?”
Nilou lay on her stomach as she lounged on the bed, using her elbows to prop herself up as she dug through Kaveh’s pencil case. Among several normal graphite pencils were just as many with red lead. They were obviously well-used, some sharpened down to half their original size. As she held one of them in her hand she puckered her lips, taking the pencil and balancing it in the space between her nose and lips. Kaveh peered up from his sketchpad and let out a chuckle, watching Nilou’s eyes cross as she stared at the pencil just under her nose.
“Well…” Kaveh flipped a page in his sketchpad and turned it towards Nilou. It was a half-finished drawing of a building, simple with no frills, a fairly routine commission. "I use a red pencil to roughly sketch my ideas, that way I can go over it with a regular pencil to make it more refined.”
Nilou set the pencil on her face to the side as she leaned in to study the page. Underneath dark neat lines were a mess of light red scribbles, with a few flecks of eraser dust clinging on to one area that had been reworked a few times over. She couldn’t help but let a soft smile spread across her face as Kaveh explained his drawing process, something that he was clearly proud of.
“Ooh, I see. That makes sense,” Nilou replied as she looked up at him. “I’m always amazed at how you can turn these little doodles into big beautiful buildings.”
“It’s not as easy as it looks, I’ll tell you that much. Feels like I’ve barely made any progress for the amount of time I’ve put into this,” Kaveh sighed as he glanced down at his blueprint before flipping the sketchpad closed. His tired weary eyes softened as he caught Nilou’s gaze. He reached his hand out towards her, brushing a strand of Nilou’s hair behind her ear. “I think I need a break…”
Kaveh set his sketchpad aside before he reached out to Nilou and pulled her in close. He could feel her head resting against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. Kaveh brought a hand up to Nilou’s head and ran his fingers through her long red hair. He watched as the long silky strands slid through his fingers.
As they cuddled silently together Kaveh pondered her question once again. While his answer wasn't a full fabrication, it still was only a half-truth. Realistically, he could use any colored pencil he wanted for his architectural sketches, it was merely a matter of what he had on hand.
Although he probably would never freely admit it, Kaveh carried around so many red pencils for a different reason entirely.
For an artist, inspiration can strike at any moment. But as bright as these ideas shine, they can also fade away just as easily. Kaveh knew this well, he'd lost count of the number of times his ideas fizzled out faster than he could jot them down. Which was why he started to carry a small sketchbook wherever he went.
Once serving as a mini blueprint to scribble down ideas he had for buildings and other projects, the sketchbook had slowly lost its purpose over time. Now it served as a catch-all for any sort of artistic vision floating in his head.
Whether it be the flowers that bloomed within the lush green forests, or the fuzzy little foxes that scurried throughout the vast desert, Kaveh drew inspiration from all around him. But there was one subject that he had grown particularly fond of doodling across the pages of his sketchbook.
It started innocently enough as anatomy practice. He would stand in the back of the crowd at Zubayr Theater and watch as the beautiful red-haired starlet would leap and twirl across the stage. Kaveh dragged his hand hastily across the page, capturing her form in long expressive lines. He had never felt such a strong connection to a subject of his art. Eventually after watching a few more of her shows, Kaveh finally mustered up the courage to talk to her.
As the two of them got closer, Nilou became one of Kaveh’s biggest sources of inspiration. Without even realizing it he incorporated her into many of his architectural designs. He spared no expense in adding accents of gold in his designs, like the gold embellishments she wore on her head. Whenever a client wanted the interior walls to be painted blue, he would always use the same shade as the clothes she wore. And for the finishing touch, he would suggest adding red curtains, just like the hair that framed Nilou’s face.
So the day Kaveh found a pack of pencils with red lead, he bought it in a heartbeat.
Kaveh still remembers when he’d come home from their first few dates and spend the whole night drawing her. As he drew her big wide smile he couldn’t help but let his mouth scratch into a smile of his own. And with her face sketched out, he grabbed a red pencil. From the bangs that rested just above her eyes to the long swoops of hair that came past her chin, he drew every strand of hair with precision. Even though he would never show off these sketches to anyone, they had to be perfect.
He never tired of capturing her beauty upon the pages of his sketchbook. Sharpening and wearing down pencil after pencil, using feather-light strokes to draw delicate wisps of hair. Even in his deepest ruts of art block and burnout, all he had to do was flip open a blank page and sketch her sweet smile.
She was a star sparkling like a bright idea. Nilou was his muse.
The pages of his sketchbook slowly turned into a slideshow of their budding relationship. Kaveh captured it all. The first time he brought her to the Palace of Alcazarzaray was one such memory. Her eyes lit up as she turned her head to look around the palace, nearly tripping over her own feet as she was so engrossed in her surroundings. Kaveh has had many people express their awe of his magnum opus to him, yet Nilou’s pure fascination for his work made his heart soar.
Near the end of their tour, they stopped by a field of Padisarah’s. Nilou crouched down and leaned towards the purple flowers, taking in their scent. The light breeze made her long red hair flow in the wind. She looked so serene as she let her eyes flutter closed. That was Kaveh’s chance to pull out his sketchbook, quickly sketching out her form before she could notice. He slipped the book back into his pocket just in time as Nilou opened her eyes again.
She reached out and plucked a Padisarah from the ground, holding it delicately in her hand as she stood up. With a wide smile, she walked up to Kaveh and held the flower out to him.
“For you!” She said.
Kaveh still had that Padisarah pressed between the pages of his sketchbook. Taped down on the page next to his completed drawing of Nilou by the flower bed. Long wispy lines of red hair popped against the monochrome sketch. Even as the flower dried and withered over time, the sketch beside it remained full of life.
Kaveh sat hunched over his desk at the dead of night, only a single candle illuminating his bedroom. He held a red pencil in his hand and flicked his wrist across the page. After he drew the final strand of hair on Nilou’s head he moved his hand over her face. Kaveh colored in the pencil balanced between her nose and lips. He couldn’t help but be proud of how much he’d improved, how he was able to accurately draw the way she puckered her lips and crossed her eyes.
He set his pencil down and let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in. As his body relaxed into his chair Kaveh was about to close his sketchbook. But while his fingers brushed along the edge of the paper, he decided to flip to a random page, landing on the one with the dried Padisarah.
Kaveh stared at the drawing in awe. It was like he was taken back to that scene, remembering the way his heart seized in his chest as he watched Nilou among the flowers. How it felt like the whole world around him faded away as he focused solely on her. It was only through this retrospection that he realized something.
That Kaveh captured the exact moment he fell in love with Nilou. And how he yearned to fill the pages with memories of her until the end of time.