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$15.23

In the middle of the Local Library, Sunny quietly set her phone onto the table and slumped in her chair. The amount was less than she’d expected. Raening needed lunch money the other day because you forgot to cook the god damn rice.

She was barely able to stay awake long enough to help him with his homework that night. The last thing on her mind was cooking– Stupid. How could she be so careless? The irritation was beginning to press sharply behind her eyes so she raised her palms to them, let them close, and took a long steady breath. This morning Raening had slipped in a permission slip from his teacher with his reading list. The grade took some sort of vote to go camping and this was the School’s little prod towards the parents to help pay for the supplies. Not that she’d mind… if she’d gotten paid this week. Where would she get twenty dollars by Monday? Better question: Why did Raening give her the slip so late? There’s no way the school was only giving the parents a weekend to come up with their child’s portion, right? She couldn’t be the only one strapped for cash, right?

Sunny took another moment to center herself, folding the permission slip and Raening’s small list of books. She wasn’t going to get anywhere just staring at her bank account and the deadline. What she needed was a zen space to think. A moment later she had her sketchbook in front of her and clicked her pen into action with a satisfied sigh. Swirls took up a majority of the center space. Some areas grew tighter than others, mindless scribbles that within minutes began to take the form of a child’s face– Raening’s. He’d looked so timid this morning.

He must really want to go… Sunny realized as she sketched in his expression. She murmured under her breath, “I just need 5 dollars…” It’d wipe her account clean, but that wouldn’t be the first time it had happened. She could manage a few days until her next paycheck hit. What was important was that she did this for her brother.

A shadow suddenly loomed over her sketch, Sunny’s scribbling slowed as she studied the shape and realized someone was standing in front of her. She lifted her head, staring up at the stranger in silence. Enough of it would pass that her brows narrowed.

“... Yes?”

Malachite wasn't known for his love of reading. He used to enjoy it before he landed on the streets but it wasn't like there was a lot of time to sit and enjoy such an activity when he was trying to stay alive in those early months, even years. They did have some books at the hideout that just appeared over the years depending on who lived with them and what was swiped in passing and he had read a few, especially in the winter when it was harder to go out and they stayed huddled inside around the little heaters. But he was settled into his cozy hidden away life now and not starving or constantly on the move and looked clean enough that he wasn't immediately eyed suspiciously and kicked out of places, Malachite found a new favourite place to hang out.

The library was the perfect place to warm up or cool off thanks to their wonderful temperature controlled environment. Even better--they expected people to loiter as they browsed, studied, and enjoyed books in general. Since it was a day off and the gang and Jade were doing their own things, Malachite found himself sitting in a fairly comfortable chair, finishing up the second book in the Percy Jackson series. He wasn't the most advanced reader and his attention span was questionable some days so the easy reading of Percy and his friends was perfect for him.

Once he finished, Malachite was left with the usual wondering about how much was true. Surely the author was a mage and cleverly spilling secrets that mundanes believed were all made up. He hoped anyway. It would be kind of cool to have attended Camp Half-blood when he was younger. But he had still found his way into a magical world and one day he would be rewarded with the gift of immortality when Rafe was satisfied with his loyalty and dedication.

He slipped the book back on the shelf where he had found it and saw the next one was there but ignored it. He had already spent too much time at the library and sadly couldn't take it with him. Oh, he probably could with the right slight of hand and maneuvering around the barcode sensor but Malachite didn't want to upset the sweet librarians or ruin his chances of spending more time in the library when needed. Too bad he didn't exist and couldn't get a proper membership.

As he was about to leave the aisle, Malachite saw a woman sketching and his nosey nature grabbed him and he watched for a few minutes. She was good! So good that he found himself moving closer to see more and greet her. But before he could say anything, she all but asked what he wanted and he gave a light laugh at being called out.

"Sorry. I couldn't help but watch you draw. You're really good!" He smiled and hoped she didn't mind the interruption since she had seemed so relaxed.

She peered back down at the drawing, not appearing to have heard what the stranger said or perhaps just not reacting. If anything she was a little confused. What she saw was just a mess of circles, really. They stretched from one end of the page and then to the other, some small while others were larger, bending around the center, growing closer or further apart. She turned her wrist away from the page so that her pen didn’t distort the piece. Now she could see what he’d meant. All that layering created a clear impression of a photographed image of her brother.

Something felt a little tight in her chest as she quietly considered the compliment she’d been given. Sunny could feel a small muscle jump at the corner of her mouth where, for just a moment, she found herself smiling. The warmth in her chest could have been pride. She wouldn’t really know for sure. It wasn’t like anything she had done the past few years was all that commendable. No one ever made her feel that she’d done something well, at least.

“Thank you,” she replied softly.

Her dark eyes rose to study the man more closely, and her scrutiny was hard, really trying to see him. He looked like a member of those boy groups popular in South Korea. Or maybe a videogame character? That probably meant he was young, following trends. Though he didn’t seem much older than her when she thought about it. He was tall, which the strain on her neck as she looked at him made her annoyed, but she decided that she liked his hair. It reminded her of holographic material, like looking at the back of a disk caught in the light. Sunny almost wished he were in the sunlight, too. His hair would glow and almost look translucent, and she would really enjoy trying to match the colors on a canvas.

Sunny peeked at the chair across from her, just beside where he stood. A second passed, and then another. Her pen gently tapped against her sketchbook before finally, she decided to entertain this.

“I could draw you. If you want.” Without his answer, she was already flipping to a new page and adjusting her workspace. When she finished, she position her pen above the blank sheet and cast him a patient expression.

She reminded Malachite a bit of Jade. That girl was full of confidence but as soon as he paid her a compliment, she often became shy and didn’t know how to handle it. That made him sad. Didn’t she have anyone to cheer her on? Encourage her? Simply give her praise over her work? Maybe it was because he was a stranger and that was something she wasn’t used to handling. That idea made him worry slightly less and while she took in his appearance, he returned the same.

What did she see? He wasn’t vain, exactly, but he did take care of his appearance the best he could by wearing clean clothes and paying close attention to his hair. He didn’t ask, however, since he was enjoying her simple beauty. She seemed far too skinny but he had struggled for proper meals for a long time and wasn’t going to judge since he didn’t know her story. But he liked the understated look she had. Malachite doubted she would ever draw a crowd by walking into a room but when she caught an eye, she held it. At least, his gaze had been held and he oddly felt at ease around her.

So much so that he smiled and slipped into the vacant chair. “Only if you want to draw me. You could draw something else.” Malachite paused and then softly chuckled. “Sorry, I have a feeling we won’t get anywhere if we both keep shrugging and hoping the other decides. So, I’d be honoured if you drew me.” He settled into the chair, making himself comfortable since he had no idea how long it would take or if he would be allowed to move. It would definitely be a good test of his ability to sit still, that was for sure!

Then another thought hit him. One of the girls in his crew, still in her teens, sometimes tried to sell her art on the streets. She worked hard on her drawings and he liked the comics she quietly worked on at night about a street rat finding a magical item that gives her super powers and changes her life forever. But it made him realise that artists deserved compensation for what they did as much as anyone else. “But only if you’ll accept payment afterwards.”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to,” Sunny didn’t smile, but there was a moment– deep, deep down– where she actually wanted to. That prickly spirit within her shrank back and became less protective when she heard him laugh. She decided she liked that the most, even more than his interesting hair color.

This must be what it’s like to have a friend. Sunny was embarrassed to say that she’d forgotten. Even if she tried really hard she couldn’t quite remember the faces of anyone she’d laughed or smiled with at Rae-ning’s age. Not that she could call this stranger her friend by any means. He was just some attractive guy that she’d vaguely remember in a month, telling her coworker about the muse of a sketch she’d never manage to paint. At best he was a spark of inspiration she’d lose like everything else.

She watched as he positioned himself in the chair. The whole world around him turned into a blur of color. Large wall windows made a thick metal grid behind his silhouette and made his edges glow. That was when she realized that none of her earlier thoughts were true. He wasn’t some stranger, and she really wanted to paint the colors that seemed to suit him so well.

“Okay…” Her tone was quiet but sharp at the suggestion of payment. Like a switch had been turned on inside her, Sunny’s study of the man intensified. Trusting people wasn’t the easiest thing in the world for her anymore, and she’d been conned enough times to be skeptical of his integrity. Were it not for her determination to make this a painting she might have left altogether.

– but she softened at that, the feeling that something seemed to be turning in her direction at last. Someone acknowledged her rather than judged her. The prickly spirit inside her settled down, and she allowed her lips to turn up enough to qualify as a smile. “Five dollars.” That’s all she needed to pay for Rae-ning’s trip. She could survive the rest of the week until payday.

Sunny tilted her head from side to side as she considered his final pose. “Could you turn your head a little to the left? Away from me just a bit.” Her index finger ticked towards her requested direction twice as a guide.

At first Malachite worried that he had offended her by offering to pay but then worried that she was making fun of him with that low price. He didn't think he looked like a total street rat anymore thanks to his jobs at Indulge but maybe he still carried himself like he was and she suspected he couldn't afford much. She wouldn't be entirely wrong since he always used the cash he did get to feed the others and do some things legally like buy winter gear, bedding, and heaters. But what did he know about pricing art or art in general? "Five dollars sounds fair," he agreed before trying to place his head in the right position he was asked.

Once he found the right spot and his artist friend started sketching, Malachite's mind wandered to his past. He never was any good at drawing. He had a teacher that liked his short stories so maybe he could have been a writer? He remembered telling his dad how excited he was to go to high school and join the band. He wanted to learn an instrument, maybe the clarinet or saxophone. But that never happened. High school never happened. His dad never would have seen him play even if it had.

Malachite blinked rapidly several times, shaking away the memories and refusing to let them grab hold of him, especially in public and with someone studying his face so carefully. "Sorry, just thinking about how much my own attempts at drawing suck," he gave a soft laugh, doing his best to keep his voice low given where they were but then smiled brightly once more as he realised they hadn't properly met yet.

"I'm Malachite, by the way. And no, it's not my real name but that name is boring and doesn't suit me anymore. This one was given to me years ago and just sort of stuck." Mostly true. He gave it to himself, having always liked the stone for the colour and the properties behind it. No one in Greenbrooke knew his real name and so far that had worked well for him.

“That’s perfect,”

She sank down in her seat and tried to hide the flush blooming across her freckled cheeks. Sunny never liked being the center of attention, even if just for one person. Sometimes it felt like her blood was boiling under her skin. She’d forget herself and whatever she was doing. Eventually she fell silent and only ever offered her opinion when she felt it was necessary. Which wasn’t often, but she was always thinking and the silence helped give her time to sort herself out. So it was much easier to sit with her new muse now that his eyes were turned away. Ironically she could now scrutinize him the way that she feared he might have been doing towards her.

… but more than that, this was a great angle for him. She really liked his profile in the daylight. His lashes appeared to glitter and cast a small rainbow in his dark irises. Peering down at her sketchbook, Sunny considered her approach and began to draw with broad straight lines. It was easy enough to form his pose, the lines of his face; but what she found herself lingering on was the strands of hair that swept over his brow. Some had caught onto his lashes and it was ruining the thoughtful expression that had filled his eyes. She quickly reached forward and swept the strands away with just the tips of her nails before settling back in and continuing her drawing.

“You can’t suck at drawing,” she informed him softly, well aware that they were still in a library. “Art is just… how you feel deep down.” Her lips pursed slightly as she tried to articulate her meaning, but eventually abandoned the thought and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m… Sun-hi. People say it sounds like Sunny so I just let them call me that.”

Her own dark eyes, having flickered between canvas and muse this entire time, paused to study his presence in comparison to her sketch. After a while she gentle called his name, “Is your favorite color green?” If she remembered correctly, Malachite had swirls that were a few different shades of green. Sunny jotted his name down in the corner to use for reference when— if, she reminded herself, if— she was lucky enough to paint this.

Malachite appreciated her attempt to cheer him up about how bad his art skills were. He liked the explanation and maybe it would be true if he ever tried drawing again but it had been years and based on what he remembered from art projects in school—he sucked. He felt it was best to currently let those with talent do their thing and he would happily admire it from the sidelines.

A smile appeared at learning his artist’s name but he couldn’t decide which she preferred to be called. The names were similar and maybe it didn’t bother her but the phrasing made it seem like maybe she did. His own parents had each had their given Korean names and their western names they adopted to make life easier for classmates and co-workers. “It’s nice to meet you, Sun-hi.” It felt odd to use Korean pronunciation again after years of not using that either. But there he was, embracing another part of his past in a handful of minutes. It wasn’t like he could hide his heritage but outside of a couple of Indulge patrons, no one knew he could speak it. Actually, he wasn’t sure how well he could anymore after nearly a decade of not needing it. He could likely get through a conversation if he tried, probably with some gaps, but he could maybe fake it if needed.

As Sunny continued to work away, Malachite fell silent again, not wanting to disturb her as she seemed so focused. His mind was wandering again when the question came and he gave another laugh with a little shrug. “I guess it is. Or, it’s important in my life, anyway. Lots of signs, if you believe in that. I might lean more toward blue if I think about it.” The stone he took his name from had always been a favourite of his and he liked the list of properties attributed to it and used it as a guide for who he wanted to be to the other street kids. But there was also Jade and she was probably his closest friend and someone he could rely on and given she bore the name of another green stone, it had always felt fated to be.

She didn’t really mind the similarity. It was actually what her father had intended. When Rae-ning was born it was storming outside her mother’s hospital window. Her father said that when she was born it was a bright and sunny day, one of the hottest in the season. She had a knack for always pressing forward, even when she got frustrated or kept failing. That sort of resilience was perfect for a big sister, her father said. She’d have to look out for her little brother, who was prone to being more sensitive and conformed to whatever decided to shape him rather than scorching his own path as she did.

Sunny didn’t believe in signs, but when she considered that and where she was in life she wondered if that was always the intention. Just how long had her father planned to get his family out of the North? As her gaze returned to her drawing she tried not to imagine the same scene again: red pouring out into the river from a hole in her father’s head.

“Blue is my favorite color,” She admitted. Her pencil slid rapidly around Malachite’s face to shade in his features and add texture. “I know I shouldn’t say that as a painter,” Sunny cracked a smile but didn’t allow herself to laugh. “Having a blue period is supposed to mean that you’re sad, but I think it’s soothing. We flew over a dark blue ocean to be here, and the morning sky was a powder blue with fluffy pink clouds. Our apartment door is blue, and so was the pot I thrifted for my first houseplant.”

Again Sunny blushed and perked up as she realized she’d gotten a little too personal. Her smile was sheepish, not exactly able to hide the fact that everything she had listed was all things that made her happy or were important to her as Malachite explained of the color green to him.

“Here.” She quickly turned her sketchbook around and presented it to Malachite. She’d drawn him using straight lines like a prism reflecting light. Where his form bent against that principle Sunny added in swirls that were reminiscent of the stone he was named after. She’d drawn him with great detail, but he would find that she spent the most time on his thoughtful expression. His tour down memory lane gave the piece a dreamy feeling. Even in the background, Sunny had added books that appeared to be floating, the same for a few strands of his hair and how his clothes fit to his body. Everything appeared buoyant and comfortable, which might have been Sunny applying how speaking with him made her feel.

“It’s… not really done, though.” She bit her lip as she watched his reaction, “Actually, I’d rather paint it.” Pointing to his hair and the use of lighting around that area she smiled brightly as she explained, “The colors I'd use here would make the whole thing look like a dream. Can you see it?"

Malachite was about to ask why a painter shouldn't like blue but Sunny continued and he nodded in understanding. He agreed that blue was soothing and it may have been why he sometimes sat by the lake and stared out at the water, simply enjoying how calm and beautiful it was. But he also could see how blue represented sadness and before thinking if he was about to make an odd comparison, Malachite softly blurted out, "I think some people associate blue with sadness because of nostalgia. You have it linked to beautiful memories and meanings and smile but some might feel sad that it's in the past now."

He noticed the blushing and was about to apologise if he was being too personal and making her uncomfortable but Sunny struck first again and suddenly turned her sketchbook around and all thoughts left him. It was so much more than he thought it would be. He didn't doubt Sunny's skills but he hadn't thought about the way she would see him. It had a dreamlike quality to it, maybe even ethereal. Jade liked to tease him for the care he tried to put into his appearance and Malachite did like how he looked, especially with the lighter hair colours regardless of how hard it was to keep up. But his ego wasn't big enough to assume everyone liked what they saw or that he could inspire such a piece of art.

His mouth opened to say he loved it as is and then it flipped into a smile as Sunny confessed she wanted to paint it and what she'd do. He was glad she kept talking because he didn't think stating he loved it or that it was beautiful explained his feelings accurately enough. So when she asked if he could see her vision, Malachite nodded as he stared at the art and then looked back up at Sunny and smiled even more brilliantly at her. He thought himself to be a happy person and had been surprised to see she didn't draw a smile but him lost in thought. Maybe that was why it was striking such deep chords with him. It showed a side he rarely let himself see but Sunny had made it seem okay and a magical moment.

"The way you view the world is so unique and magical," he really sucked at finding the right words and went with his last thought on the matter. It fit, however basic or catch-all it could be. "I would love to see it painted," Malachite eagerly added and pulled around his small cross body bag. It was just large enough for his phone, his tarot, some money, and a couple of other small random items but that's all he needed. Thanks to Jade and most of his crew not having a phone, Malachite had taken to keeping a tiny notepad and pen in his bag to write notes and reminders and he pulled those out now and jotted his name and phone number on it before sliding it across the table to Sunny. "I don't expect you to paint it now but call me when you do or it's finished or even if you want to show me other works. I can even sit for you again," he laughed at how excited he sounded but even with their limited conversations, he found himself wanting to see Sunny again.

He went back to his bag and while he knew he had some fives in there, he spotted a flash of purple and pulled out the ten instead and handed it over to Sunny. "I know you said five dollars but please accept this. I don't think it's enough either honestly." He would have tried to give her a twenty but suspected she would fight him on that. Ten dollars wasn't too big of an increase and it left him with enough money on his person to bring food home for his crew.