Elven Love (SAA Book 1) ✔

Part Sixteen

After they returned home, Oren watched intently as the human gave Nutmeg food and restocked water for the bottle that hung at the side of her cage.

The white ferret climbed out from sleeping under the blankets and dug through the bowl of food with her pink nose, scooping around the kibble before eating. After they settled in and Clayton checked in with Ava, the two just decided to relax as the sun set.

As Oren looked to his left, he found a shelf filled with sketchbooks of varying sizes. One was small with a cardboard back and front, and another had a sleek, black cover with thicker pages. He crawled over to the shelf and pulled one from the stack, his palm running over the faint ridges on the hard cover. The row of rings were large and wide, black plastic bending easily along with the pages.

He opened the book to see a still life sketch of a woman, who's body was exposed as she stood confidently. Her hand was rested on her chiseled hipbone and her curly black hair fell over her shoulders in waves. Confused, Oren turned to Clayton and tapped his knee.

The human peered over the bed's edge and glanced at his own artwork. "Oh, yeah that was for an art project. We had live models come in and we drew from sight.." he rolled his eyes and resumed typing on his phone as Oren looked down to the drawing.

Everything was in perfect proportion, joints and muscles... everything. It was flawless. Oren shot a glance to the blond before flipping the page.

A flower, petals bloomed out and colored in with something dusty, hung from a tall planter as sunlight tended to the soil. Oren swiped a thumb over the dust only to see that it made a mark on his skin. As he sensed overseeing eyes, he rubbed his thumb and forefinger together as the dusty substance wiped off.

"I used pastel for that one."

'He's so good at art.. I wonder why he doesn't have a job for this.' Oren pondered, before carefully flicking the page aside. This time it was of a boy, a mysterious hand resting on his cheek as he looked up to something off of the page. His eyelashes were thick and curled, lips parted as a cloud of colorful pastel floated from his lips. The colors gently meshed to create a saturated puff of rainbow that trailed off of the page.

"You're amazing, Clayton." he said, looking up to where Clayton laid on his bed, feet crossed as he skimmed through a social media website. "How did you learn?" he tried once again to pull the blond's attention from that blasted phone, but of course it wasn't to avail. He stood from the ground, abandoning the notebook as he sat down next to the human.

"I ripped one of the pages. Sorry."

Clayton's eyes darted to Oren, his expression growing wildly furious.

"A-ha. Now I have your attention." Oren noted, to which the blond pacified and set down his phone with a clatter. Oren's heart nearly jumped to his throat as Clayton smoothed back his hair with a calm sigh. He didn't know why he felt so heavy and anxious now.. He was fine a minute ago. Surely it's not because of the stupid facade the human puts on to act tough. Oren nearly laughed at the mere thought of it. It has to be something else.

His nails dug into the flesh of his palms as he swallowed thickly. Daring green eyes raked over the boy, pupils analyzing the way his chest puffed as he inhaled. His jaw was flexed and eyebrows were pulled down in a frustrated manner. His narrowed teal eyes were staring back at him patiently, flicking down every now and then.

The nimble fingers coursing through his blond hair were very flexible, almost too flexible as they bent easily. His short hair was sprawled out over his pillow lazily. His exposed wrist was muscly and his arms were just between lanky and burly. Of course, his attitude could be sour at times and he tends to put walls up. Though, Oren could see right through those walls. He knew Clayton was simply acting, which was a little funny considering they've known each other for about a month now.

"What do you want?" he asked, scowling.

Oren's silent gaze lingered as his pulse leaped, hands crawling over his abdomen as his stomach fell to swirls. A rush of adrenaline fueled his veins as his eyes locked with a painfully bored pair. Oren lowered his gaze to the ground, but couldn't help looking back up, into those cyan orbs of flatness.

"I wanted to know how you learned to make art like that," the elf blabbed quickly, "I-I mean, it's not because I want to be an artist, rather because I just want to understand.." He squeezed the fabric of his shirt tightly as an unfamiliar anxiety bubbled up in his chest.

'Am I sick? No.. I haven't been outside recently.' he came to wiping away these thoughts. Oren took a deep breath and purposefully avoided the other's gaze. Clayton pulled back the covers as he sighed at the quietness of the other.

"What is there to understand?" he mused, breaking the silence, "Come to think of it now, I guess I taught myself around seven years ago. Nobody was there for me at the time and I had to find some way of coping with the loneliness. Then dad came back from his drug years but ignored me and mom stopped dri--" he suddenly stopped, eyes growing a darker shade as he looked away.

"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. I didn't mean-"

"No.. It's okay. I feel like I can trust you with this."

"But--"

Clayton shot up and clamped a hand around Oren's mouth, palm now pressed against his soft lips as the elf's warm breath fanned over his fingers. With a hitch of his own breath, Clayton slowly removed his hand from the boy's mouth.

He huffed and leaned back, eyebrows raised drastically as he placed a hand on his chest. "Let's just say this family is fucked up, okay?" he uttered, eyes falling closed as he pressed his head further into the pillow.

Oren sat silently, thinking of what to say as to not seem disrespectful. He grasped his stomach again and wondered if it was just something that linked to his innards... He wasn't very keen on elven anatomy. Oren pursed his lips to find out what this feeling was, maybe he should look it up.

He perked his head up, which caused his ears to jerk up too. "This might be sudden, but can I borrow your phone for a second? I have to look something up really quick." Clayton gave him a suspicious glare, but slid the device over to him anyway. When catching it, he felt how light it was, despite the size. He brought up the main search engine and slowly typed in, 'i have a weird fluttery feeling in my stomach'.

The results weren't what he expected.

As soon as his eyes laid on the top result, which was an implication of cancer, he blanched. Clayton stifled a chuckle and crossed his legs as his feet nudged Oren's side. "What'd you find?" the blond smirked, toes curling against Oren's back. The elf scrolled down a page and all that was brought up was cancer for women.. Something along the lines of early pregnancy contributed to the jumble of confusing matches for his inquiry.

Oren wasn't female, nor expecting a child anytime soon. He didn't even know if men could get pregnant.

'Maybe I typed it wrong?' the elf believed, tapping the search bar to edit his entry. He added in, 'when I'm close to someone' and the outcome was drastically different than the last.

"Why falling in love gives you butterflies"

"Why do we get butterflies when we like someone?"

"I get a weird feeling in my stomach when I think about my crush?"

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Thanks for reading Part Sixteen!

oh boy help me