The Merman's Lament - IvanTill

~11~

Till and Ivan spent the rest of the day in the castle after the trip to town had ended badly. Till decided to paint something with some of his watercolors and decided to let Ivan try them out as well. Ivan didn't know what painting was, so he was curious about it. He first took a good look at what Till did, deciding to sit next to him and watch him as he began drawing first a sketch of the view he had from his secret room, moving later onto coloring with the watercolors. Ivan was fascinated with the art and couldn't wait to try it out.

Once he was done, Till showed him the finished painting and Ivan quickly took the notebook and wrote down.

"This is amazing!"

Till loved it when Ivan would praise him, which was most of the time. Anything he did was amazing to him, and he couldn't help but blush. He had never gotten that amount of praise from anyone, not even from his parents, so he was thankful to him that he did actually do it.

"Would you like to try it out?"

Ivan nodded excitedly and quickly grabbed the pencil from his hand. Then, he looked out the window and began trying to sketch what he saw from their position. After a while, he managed to draw something quite close to what he was seeing, leaving Till quite impressed.

"Wow, this is great! Are you sure you have never done this before? It looks great!"

Ivan couldn't help but blush as well after being praised. He finished the sketch and then moved on to the watercolors. At first, he found it a bit difficult to find the right amount of water to mix in, but once he got it, he managed to color everything more or less perfectly.

"You are doing great! You are very talented!"

Once Ivan finished his painting, Till couldn't help but stare at it in awe nonstop. He loved it and had the urge to put a frame around it so he could hang it on the wall just like he would do with some of his paintings.

"This looks like the perfect painting to have on the wall! I really want to hang it in my room so I can stare at it every morning!"

Ivan couldn't feel any more flattered. All the attention and praises he was receiving from the silver-haired boy made him feel over the moon. His heart couldn't stop beating so fast that it seemed like it would even leave his chest and his cheeks were tinted red.

He was becoming more and more in love with Till.

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The next morning, they also woke up and got ready quite early, just as soon as the sun rose. Then, Till got the carriage ready so they could leave.

In less than ten minutes, they arrived at the center of the forest and Till helped him out of the carriage. Ivan was fascinated by seeing so much green and the many different flowers and feeling the grass under his feet, even if he was wearing shoes.

The tall trees all bore flowers Ivan was in awe at their beauty.

"Do you like it, Ivan?"

Ivan nodded as he went on to take a closer look at the flowers. Some of them had butterflies in them, and when they sensed that Ivan was close, instead of flying away, they oddly flew towards him and landed on his hands. Till couldn't help but be amazed once again by him, as not only the insects did, but the birds and other wild animals did too.

A little bit far from their position, they saw a deer, and when it also noticed Ivan, instead of fleeing, it approached Ivan and even let him pet it. After a while, he also tried to get Till to pet the deer, and although the deer was a bit scared at first, it also allowed him to, leaving Till fascinated.

"Wow, this is amazing! How do you do that? Not everyone can manage to approach wild animals like this!"

Ivan shrugged. He couldn't really tell him the truth after all, as much as it pained him.

"Maybe they can sense you have a pure heart."

Ivan smiled softly. Till also smiled, and they ended up looking at each other for a few seconds, losing themselves in each other's eyes. Before they knew it, they had spent an entire minute staring at each other, as if they had been hypnotized.

Till had lost himself in that dark galaxy that seemed to hold Ivan's eyes, and Ivan seemed to have lost himself in Till's emerald eyes.

They only came back to their senses when they noticed the deer had left, and when they did, they were left a blushing mess.

"Um, how about I show you my favorite spot? I'm sure you will like it. It's not very far from here."

Ivan wrote down in the notebook for him to show him and he led him deeper into the forest, going through more trees and fields of flowers of different hues. Eventually, Ivan could hear what sounded like water, and as they kept walking, the sound got louder.

Soon, they arrived at a crystal clear water lake with a waterfall. The sight was stunning, and it left Ivan wishing they had brought the painting supplies so they could have been able to paint it right then and there.

"What do you think?"

Ivan quickly wrote down in the notebook.

"It's beautiful!"

Till approached the water and decided to take off his shoes and socks to get in the water. Ivan also did the same, and he felt really good when he did, feeling the pain from walking disappear as he submerged his feet in it.

"Feels nice, doesn't it?"

Ivan nodded. The water was also not very cold, leaning more towards warm, so it felt nice.

It was then that Till approached him and decided to start splashing him. Ivan was taken aback, but seeing as he was playing, he joined in and splashed back. The two of them began throwing water at each other like two little children, and even though they didn't have the intention of getting fully into the water, Till had caught Ivan at one point and thrown him into the water, to which Ivan did the same. The two laughed and played throughout the rest of the morning until the sun was at its highest and they decided to return to the castle to have lunch.