End of Sallow

***I swear that you don't have to go

CW: ...SELF LOVE... 

"Are you paintin'?"

Theo spun around wide-eyed, stepping in front of the canvas quickly hoping to shield it. As if his scrawny frame could hide much of anything. Alec just looked at him unimpressed and gently pushed him out of the way to look at what he'd been painting.

It wasn't much of anything. Just colors smeared and mixed while he tried to figure out what colors were made when mixed together.

"Nice," Alec said and Theo knew Alec wasn't patronizing him, but he still felt heavy with.. shame almost.

"It's not."

"The fuck you mean it's not?" Alec asked, turning to stare him down. Theo didn't look at him. "It's just colors."

"Yeah, but art isn't just about colors, is it?" Alec asked, crossing his arms and looking again at the canvas. "You've been workin' on this at different points in time, haven't ya?"

Theo nodded, brows furrowing. "Yeah... How did you know?"

He pointed at one spot on the canvas. "Yer brush strokes are different, the pressure ya used are different in different areas, as if ya came and painted while angry."

Theo's eyes widened when he realized that Alec was right. There were those subtle differences in the painting.

"Yer emotions and curiosity come out in yer paintin'. It makes me see it and feel it, that's an artist trait."

Theo felt himself become lighter, smiling a bit, feeling proud of his work now. His 'worthless' little painting now felt... more.

"Yer addin' to the world. Creatin' in it. Don't sell yerself short. Now come on, I need yer help finishin' somethin'."

Theo frowned and carefully put his paintbrush down – not that it mattered, the bristles were already too stiff and mangled and starting to scratch at the canvas – and went to follow him.

Lately, Alec had been bringing him around to do small repairs around the orphanage. Anything wooden, Theo had learned to build and repair just fine, but he had a real knack for whittling.

"Makes sense if yer paintin'," Alec muttered as Theo helped smooth out the wood on a new railing that they had built for the stairs. The old one had been falling apart for years, so Alec decided it was time to take care of it over the summer before he went back to the school.

Ever since Alec had gotten back, food wasn't a problem. He never needed help going to get the food now, but he always came back with a rather large supply of it. Only one child had questioned it, and Alec had given them a glare that had terrified everyone enough to never ask again.

Theo, since his magic had came in, summed it up to just that. Alec was using his magic. But, after being berated by Podex, Theo was too scared to ask Alec to help master his magic.

Podex had been training him - as he so nicely put it – in regards to his ancient magic but that was it. Still, even if he wasn't learning the magic that Alec no doubt knew and already had a vast understanding of, Theo was happy to just spend time with him.

A few other boys had also begun to take up working with them as well, providing their own talents, but today, Alec made it just him and Theo.

And as he came to that realization, Theo realized it had to be for a reason. He quickly counted down the days and felt his heart start to sink.