Cinderella and the Beast

IV

Seraphine stared at herself in the mirror after having her hair dried up, and wondered if a pink dye would work now or if she would need to dye it again before trying to go back to her natural color. As she moved her head to one side and then the other, only now he realized she could have used a wig for both compromises and wouldn't need to be in this current dilemma. Well, that soft orange wasn't a bad color and she did like how it looked on her, but she already missed her old hair and not spending so much more to treat it.

While sitting there backstage she couldn't help but be anxious, of course it would take a long time for the photos to get ready from the post-production, but she still wondered how they would look after most of them have been taken underwater. Nidalee had already told her to go home, but she wanted to see it the moment it was done! So Seraphine stayed, bouncing her leg nervously while admiring how good her hair looked even without the professional styling, makeup and Nidalee's designed outfit.

"If I show you one of the pictures will you go home?" Nidalee asked with her arms crossed and resting her body against the doorframe. Of course she wouldn't leave when it was her project and she had to give the final say on the result before moving to the next one.

Seraphine moved towards her direction and suddenly felt she had nothing else to say. She didn't want to stress Lee after all the fun they had during the shooting, and decided to this time attend her request instead of insisting again, getting up from the chair and taking her bag before hugging the older woman.

"No need! I'm sorry for bothering you, I'll be going now" She answered, relaxing a little after seeing Nidalee's expression soften and passing her arm across the singer's shoulders.

"Good! Cause you know I hate showing my unpolished masterpieces"

Actually she didn't, and it warmed her heart that, even so, Nidalee still was willing to show her an unfinished photo; so she hugged Lee by the side while being walked off from the studio. The first thing Sera did after the car arrived was immediately start texting everyone about the photoshoot, wanting to leave them excited too. Well, she hoped they were, even if she kept talking about it all week and had a small frightfulness of becoming annoying to them. The last person she texted was Viego, knowing that if he replied quickly, she would end up immersed in a conversation with him again.

Chatting with Viego was a weird experience, they barely knew each other and yet it felt like she had since forever. There wasn't that awkward barrier that made moments without replies uncomfortable, especially because she knew what he most likely was doing: trying to juggle his studies and finally start producing his first solo album.

Sometimes he would even send to her some samples, asking for her opinion and even taking her criticism into consideration, although she didn't have experience listening to that type of music. He didn't take Seraphine's comments as insults, and after moments of silence he would send another version of the recorded piece, sounding even better than before. Seraphine understood why Evelynn was so rigorous back in her training days, but now she got the prideful warmth that spread across her chest when Viego reached the level she knew he could achieve.

They haven't seen each other after the coffee date-not-really-a-date and mostly chatted through messages or audios, and sometimes she would even share with him selfies from where she was, including in the studio before the shoot. Viego didn't really do the same, but sometimes would complain about some annoying employee or how the "stupid program" made him re-do his calculations "even if they were right on the first time". He never talked about his "main work", but it was implied he assumed she already knew about it by the way he would just drop complaints without context. Even in the angry audios detailing his most recent headache his voice was still beautiful, but Sera had to remind herself that bone chilling rumble wasn't directed at her.