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[salome-g]

Creating a fictional City - Part I

Read Saltwater here

[salome-g]

Saltwater Ω Chapter 3 - "Headspace"

Read the full chapter here !

This one was complicated to write but golly gee I'm happy about it ! _____

Across the court, Robin was already moving again, fast. The word that kept coming back to Eije was "efficient" ; everything he did seemed efficient. There was no wasted motion, no unnecessary aggression.

And thankfully, no dramatic displays for the crowd. Even surrounded by athletes who were operating with every competitive instinct turned up several degrees, Robin somehow remained strangely controlled.

Which wasn't the same thing as gentle. That distinction became clearer the longer she watched, because there was a difference between kindness and softness.

People constantly confused the two : Robin wasn't soft, he was kind.

[salome-g]

every romance needs a meetcute. theirs was an art professor with no respect for personal boundaries.

excerpt from Saltwater, my original ABO university romance 💙 Read it here ! ________________________________________________________________

Evening light spilled through the enormous pristine windows overlooking the campus, casting long shadows across the tables and easels scattered throughout the room.

Eije relaxed slightly as she stepped inside. And then stopped.

Someone else was already there. An alpha. The student sat near the windows, bent over a sketchbook with enough concentration to suggest he hadn't noticed her enter. Afternoon light spilled across the table, illuminating a mess of perspective exercises and pencil smudges.

For a moment, Eije couldn't place him.

Then he looked up, and recognition arrived all at once.

The drummer from the concert on Founder's Lawn last month.

Of course.

Eije blinked as he immediately straightened.

"I didn't know you'd be here."

The words came out quickly enough that she almost missed them.

Before she could respond, footsteps echoed down the hallway. Professor Bellamy appeared a second later balancing coffee and an alarming number of loose papers.

The older alpha took one look at Robin and sighed.

"Oh, absolutely not."

Robin looked vaguely trapped.

"Professor Bellamy—"

"No."

Bellamy dropped the papers onto the nearest table.

"You voluntarily enrolled in Advanced Visual Arts. Which continues to confuse me, but here we are. You don't get to bail on office hours because you're scared of being in the same room as an omega lady."

Robin rubbed the back of his neck.

"I chose this class because I like art."

Bellamy pointed toward the perspective exercises.

"Then explain this."

"It's not that bad."

Bellamy snatched up a page.

"Robin, if this building looks correct to you, I am legally obligated to schedule an eye exam."

"It was one line."

"It was an entire building."

Eije felt a laugh threaten, warmth spreading in her chest. 

Robin looked deeply offended.

Bellamy turned toward her.

"And you're late."

"I have one functional wrist."

"Last I checked, omegas still walked with their feet. Come on, let's get to work." Eije smiled and settled at her usual easel near the windows.

A reproduction of one of Rembrandt's self-portraits sat propped beside her canvas.

Bellamy had assigned light studies, which was unfortunate. Light required patience. Patience required two functioning wrists.

Outside, the harbor had turned silver beneath the evening fog. Ferries moved slowly through the bay below, their horns echoing faintly between the hills.

She mixed a pale gray into ultramarine and tried not to think about how much easier this would have been before the accident. On her easel danced brushstrokes representing a lighthouse, illuminating only half of the coast. 

Across the room, Bellamy was currently dismantling Robin's perspective sketches with what only could be described as alpha academic violence. "No, see, this is what concerns me," Bellamy was saying while holding up one page. "Because intellectually, I know you're intelligent." "That's reassuring." "So explain to me why this building appears to be collapsing diagonally." Robin leaned forward in his chair, trying unsuccessfully not to laugh despite obvious embarrassment. "It's... an artistic choice." "No," Bellamy replied flatly. "It's a failed process." Eije bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to stop herself smiling. But above all, she noticed something: unlike typical alpha behavior, Robin wasn't feigning confidence.  He was bright, obviously. Quick enough to understand every correction immediately. But every line on the page looked overworked somehow, like he kept doubting himself halfway through drawing and had to redo every line five times. Eije had seen him on the basketball court. Robin moved like certainty itself. In hallways, other alphas unconsciously gave him space without him even seeming aware of it. There were always alphas who commanded respect, whilst others believed they needed to act all though and macho to obtain recognition. But here, seated beneath fluorescent studio lights with charcoal dust smeared across his fingers while Bellamy tore apart his perspective work? He looked young. "This horizon line suggests you've never physically seen a building in your entire life." Across the studio, Eije finally snorted softly before she could stop herself. Robin looked up from his desk, one corner of his mouth twitching despite his humiliation.

"I knew coming here was a mistake."

"Oh, absolutely not," Bellamy replied immediately. "Suffering builds character." Then Bellamy straightened suddenly. "Actually — perfect. Eije, come here." Immediately suspicious, Eije looked up from her canvas. "Why." "Because it's good practice and you're an arts major." "Um—" "Come explain why this feels flat." Eije hesitated briefly before setting her brush down and crossing the studio. The closer she got, the more aware she became of him. Obviously, his scent lingered strongest here, concentrated around the sleeves of his rolled-up uniform shirt and the graphite-smudged hands resting near the edge of the sketchbook. Robin shifted slightly when she stopped beside him, posture tightening almost imperceptibly with restraint. Like he was trying very hard to avoid crowding her despite the limited space between them. Bellamy, meanwhile, remained blissfully oblivious. "Well?" he asked expectantly. Eije leaned down despite herself, one hand bracing lightly against the edge of the table while she studied the drawing. Up close, the perspective work was actually... good. Technically rough in places, yes, but thoughtful. Careful. Overcorrected. "You don't trust your first lines," she said carefully, knowing what criticism did to alphas sometimes.

Robin looked up at her.

She pointed lightly toward the sketchbook. "This part was right originally." Bellamy made an aggressive vindicated noise somewhere behind them.

"Yes. Thank you. Exactly." Eije kept talking now mostly so she wouldn't think too hard about the fact she could feel warmth radiating faintly from Robin's shoulder beside her. "You keep trying to make the perspective perfect," she murmured, fingers brushing briefly against the edge of the paper. "But perspective isn't actually symmetrical in real life. Things distort depending on where your eye naturally focuses." Robin watched her hand move across the sketchbook with unnerving concentration. "You started well," she continued quietly. "Then you started correcting everything and made it stiff." For a second, neither of them spoke. Then Robin admitted very honestly: "...That sounds like me." Something about the way he said it landed strangely hard beneath her ribs. Bellamy clapped his hands once, making Eije jump. "Wonderful. Excellent emotional breakthrough. Now fix it." Eije startled slightly, pulling her hand back from the page quickly. Quickly enough that she didn't notice the faint charcoal smudge her fingertips had left near the edge of the paper. Robin's gaze flicked toward it once. Then immediately away again. His shoulders, however, had gone subtly still. Eije returned to her easel a moment later with her pulse behaving strangely beneath her sweater. Behind her, Bellamy circled once around her canvas before stopping thoughtfully. "The sea's too careful." Eije looked up immediately. "What?" "You're controlling it too much." Bellamy gestured vaguely toward the painted water. "It looks technically beautiful, but the movement feels restrained." Eije frowned automatically at the canvas. "I don't think water should look restrained," Bellamy continued mildly. "Especially not yours." Heat crawled unexpectedly into her face. Across the room, Robin glanced up briefly from his perspective sketch. "At least he didn't call your work 'deranged, '" he mumbled, head down.

Read it here ! ________________________________________________________________

[salome-g]

if you've ever thought social ABO dynamics were fascinating but every story got weird about it five chapters in, this might be for you

Eije chose Elis Omega College for a reason. After years spent carefully managing a body she never fully trusted, she'd built a life around control. A quiet life. A predictable life. Then she met an alpha-Robin. Robin-the drummer with perfect grades, an infuriatingly kind smile, and a habit of appearing wherever she happened to be. Robin, who somehow made her laugh. Robin, who made her want things she'd spent years convincing herself she didn't need. Falling for him was never part of the plan. Neither was discovering that the closer she got to him, the worse her condition became.

Read it here ! 🌊