Sleepover! (Closed for Amelie)

[under_the_radar]

They'd been lounging around since lunch. Daniel had been working a little bit while Amelie tapped away on her laptop, both of them just sitting in Daniels apartment in comfortable silence. At some point Daniel had gotten bored of actual work and started sketching his favourite subject.

"So Miss Coombs, how does it feel to be the muse for international artist superstar Daniel Thornton?" He said, smiling over at her as he drew.

Comments

[ameliecoombs]

She knows he's stopped doing the commission he's supposed to be doing and started drawing her as soon as he looks up. There's a look of concentration on his face, moreso than when he's drawing something he doesn't care about, and his eyes keep flicking between her and the paper. She cracks a wry smile at him over the top of her computer.

"You won't be much of an international artist superstar if you keep avoiding finishing that piece."

[under_the_radar]

Daniel made a face. "Have you seen what the guy wants? I'm actually sketching it out with my eyes half shut to avoid looking at it." He said, adding some more lines to the piece he actually cared about. "I have to go where my muse takes me. And you're here so really it's all your fault."

[ameliecoombs]

"Oh yes, that logic is perfectly sound." She rolls her eyes but it's fond. His sketchbook is starting to contain more pictures of her than anything else, and if she's being completely honest, she likes it that way. Amelie might not be the perfect Coombs daughter, but she's got enough of it in her to be a little vain, and she likes that she holds his attention the way she does.

"His request can't be any worse than the essay I'm grading right now," she sighs, closing her laptop. It's an appalling effort really, hastily written an hour before the due date and copied mostly from Wikipedia.

[under_the_radar]

Tossing his sketch pad onto the coffee table, Daniel grinned and spun around, putting his head in her lap. They were just starting with the more physical side of their relationship but he thought they were getting there slowly. Enough that he could take liberties like this at least. "He asked for some stylised boots standing on a pigs back. Apparently there's some kind of significance to the blah blah blah." He waved a hand. "I gave up listening when he said something about the gentrification of the 'slums' of Siren Cove." He said, rolling his eyes and grinning up at her. "What's the essay about?"

[ameliecoombs]

Absently, Amelie runs her fingers through his hair, laughing. "That sounds like something you made up," she accuses. She's seen Daniel do some interesting commissions, but that's too ridiculous, surely. She shoves her laptop aside and shrugs, honestly not even sure. "I don't even know, I dozed off after the first actual Wikipedia reference."

[under_the_radar]

Daniel laughed. "I swear. He used the word slum. Three times!" He said holding up three fingers. "But at least he knew what the word meant, which sounds like more than your essay writer. Maybe you're too demanding?" He teased.

[ameliecoombs]

"Mmm," she muses, tipping her head back against the couch armrest. "Maybe. But I can't help thinking that by grade 9 they should know how to at least spell 'essay', and maybe even write one."

Maybe this isn't the right gig for her after all, maybe she should be doing what her mother wanted and plan high society events. She'd be good at that. And she does love the kids, most of them, but it's getting harder to keep her attention focused. "You ever think you're not doing what you should be doing?"

[under_the_radar]

He smiled softly. "Mom was an artist. Some of the few memories I have are of watching her paint or draw. When I do the art I love I feel like I'm exactly where I should be, doing exactly what I should be. " He grinned. "I'm not doing what I'm supposed to be doing though. Father wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer. I think even a professor of some sort would have been acceptable but...this is better." Daniel picked up Amelies hand and kissed her knuckles. "What about you? You sound like you're not so sure."

[ameliecoombs]

She loves hearing Daniel talk about art when it's not some shitty commission, and she wishes he got to do more drawings that he loved instead of drawings for money. "Hasn't he already got all that nailed down with Demetri and James?" She doesn't know a lot about Daniel's brothers, but she knows enough. Although she's pretty sure James's dating life right now must piss off Papa Thornton almost as much as Daniel's.

"I just think maybe it's not 100% me. Coming back here I thought I wanted it, but I think I was better at being a socialite. I know that sounds shallow." She's not overly embarrassed;, Amelie has always felt more comfortable being the flighty Coombs, and maybe she was trying to be too much like Moira, trying to distance herself too far from Violet.

[under_the_radar]

Daniel snorted. "Demetri, maybe, but James not so much. The police force wasn't what Father wanted him to do and now with Davin..." He grinned. "James and I are pretty much on the same disappointment level."

Reaching up, Daniel ran his fingers through her hair, smiling. "You could always try something else. Teaching is always going to be there."

[ameliecoombs]

"Well, that makes me feel a little bit better at least," she says with a laugh. "I didn't want to be solely responsible for ruining the Thornton legacy."

She leans in to his touch happily. "I think I want to quit." It's the kind of thing that hadn't felt real until she says something out loud. She feels like her and Aoife are starting to switch places, and she wonders whether Daniel will love her less for it. She hopes not.

[under_the_radar]

"Then you should quit." He said. "Nothing worse than doing a job you don't want to be doing." Maybe it wasn't fashionable to think that way but he didn't care. He just wanted Amelie to be happy with whatever she did.