Magenta and Raven (Hylian Miphvali Oneshots)

Charcoal and Graphite

The empty page was daunting. He gripped the pencil too hard and was yet to even make a line on the paper.

All they were drawing was a simple bowl of fruit. He knew he could do that. Couldn't he?

Revali was beginning to regret joining this class. He peeked around his easel to the person who was the reason he was there in the first place--Mipha Lightscale.

She was sketching away, completely engrossed in her work. He could tell by the concentration in her eyes, in the slight downturn of her eyebrows. She glanced over to the bowl and caught his eye, causing him to immediately duck back and hide his face.

He shouldn't have agreed to this.

But the way Mipha's eyes had lit up when she found out he could draw...her expression was still clear in his mind, the pure joy and excitement drowning out his embarrassment of her finding out in the first place. Out of their little group (he wouldn't consider half of them his friends), Mipha was the artistic one; or at least, the only one open about her artistic ability. She had always felt a little alone on that aspect, given more often than not, they wouldn't understand the terms she was using.

Except for Revali.

He enjoyed drawing and had sketchbooks locked in his desk in his dorm. What he didn't enjoy was people knowing about it due to some...unfortunate incidents in early middle school, so he kept his skill to himself. Which was a novel concept for him.

He finally started drawing, absently thinking back to how Mipha had found out in the first place.

It was a Friday afternoon. Revali was sitting in his usual place, a deserted bench in a corner of the university campus, drawing. He was trying to capture one of the nearby trees, not paying attention to his other surroundings until it was too late and she was already on top of him. "Revali, you can draw?"

He inwardly cursed, looking up into golden eyes filled with curiosity and--oh goddess, no--hope. He bit the inside of his cheek before nodding very slowly.

That was when her face had lit up. And when she had started talking excitedly about how she had wished she had known sooner and that he should join her art class, he could bring himself to say no to her. 

So here he was, drawing a bowl of fruit and fighting off an anxiety attack.

Glancing around, he recognized no one in the class, which was an utter relief to him. Hopefully he would continue to go unnoticed and word of him being there would never get out.

The next forty-five minutes ticked by slowly and when the teacher called time, he was more than ready to flee to his dorm.

Of course, Mipha approached him before he could escape. "Did you enjoy the class?"

She looked hopeful again and that expression made the whole thing worth it. He shrugged. "I guess it wasn't a complete waste of my time."

She giggled, clasping her hands behind her back. "I'm glad. This is a more advanced class, so we shouldn't be drawing fruit for very long. I believe we're starting on people in only a few weeks."

He knew what that meant. A man or woman would come in and would undress so the students could draw him or her. Joy. "Fun."

She seemed to ignore his sarcasm. "It will be. When do I get to see the portfolio you submitted to the teacher?"

This caused Revali's face to heat up. Sharing your best works with the teacher was a requirement to get into the class, and so he had picked his favorites and photocopied them. There was some landscapes, some inanimate objects, and some people...although the people part mostly consisted of drawings of a certain magenta-haired young woman. If the teacher had realized this, she had made no comment, simply letting him know he was in the class.