the aforementioned birthday present

for Nath, who may or may not actually like it. Because what's happening here is this:

"Andra, it's been a year now. We have to talk."

"Maybe tomorrow. I'm going to bed." I turned away from him and headed for the stairwell. He followed me up the steps and stopped me by one of those tall, arched windows. Moonlight streamed in, edging one side of his face with cold silver. The torches that lit the manor at night cast fireglow on his other side.

"Please, just listen! You can't avoid this forever."

"Watch me." The words didn't come out as steady as they should have. I sank my teeth into my lower lip and bowed my head, glad for once that he couldn't see me.

"You're crying," he said.

"No, I'm not." I answered out of habit; he knew me too well to believe me.

His hand went to my face, thumb smearing through my tears. I pushed his arm away, shoved at his chest, five seconds too late. His sightless eyes narrowed. His brows furrowed together. "Andra -"

I stumbled backward up the stairs, pressing the side of my fist into one eye. "Not now. I can't talk about it now. I'll see you in the morning." My voice was shaking hard, but it didn't matter. I turned and fled up the staircase, leaving him standing beside the open window, with the moon gilding his skin.

This bit takes place a year after the end of the actual story. I figure that after all the crap I put them through, Andra and Nath would probably be pretty messed up and have lots of post-crisis angst and issues. Muaa, I'm so friggen evil to them. But you guys know by now that's how I show affection, right?

So about the picture: I've been staring at it so long that I almost hate it now. It wants color, but since I'm absolutely terrified of dual light sources and also have zero confidence in my level of coloring skill, color is unlikely to happen anytime soon. But I left it unshaded, just in case. I was so sick of dealing with this, I didn't even clean it up in PDN after scanning. Happy Birthday to you, Nath. You'd better like it.

By the way, Thaelen and Anabeth have been inspiring lately. I can't get them out of my head. But that's a good thing, I suppose. Many many scribbles to come soon!

Commander Kip
"Turn around, man, you'll never make it!" *VROOOOOMMMMM... pheeeeeewwwww.... THUD* "Made it."
Normal is overrated!