#ft. gem

[murdockoclock]

what would you do if carmen and izzy ever decided they didn't get along?

Cry? Throw up? Blow a hole through the fabric of the Universe? I dunno! It's never been a question. I love them both and they love each other and I wouldn't be able to live without either of them!!! They ROCK.

Leo, if you see this, you rock too and I promise I'm on my way with your coffee. Tell Gem to stop sending me hate male.

[kr0ww231]

Watch til the end

Because it is important

[kristie-rp]

9. Carson

“That,” Gem opens with, after staring at the canvas for a beat too long for Carson’s anxiety to appreciate, “is a terrifyingly accurate portrait of us.”

“It’s almost like I’m good at what I do,” Carson answers, waving the paintbrush as if to underscore his point. It’s loaded with a mix that approximates the soft caramel of Gem’s skin; he pauses mid-motion to return to painting. It’s a complicated thing, getting skin right, and Gem’s is only a little more straightforward than his own white, which he’s already nailed.

Still. Her compliment makes him want to burn it a little less, and he swishes the brush in the jar of water he keeps alongside his easel instead of setting fire to the sixth brush this week. “Is this for next week’s collection?”

“The artist and the muse? No thanks, I’m not willing to commit to you as a muse. The world is simply too big for that.” He’s joking, but Gem still swats the back of his head.

“You wish I’d commit to being your muse. No, not the muse thing, the friendship thing. Pandora’s painting her and her sisters’ friends, I believe. If she does what I’m imagining, it’ll complement this nicely, once it’s done.”

Carson would like very much to keep this piece, actually – it’s pretty decent – but the last seventeen he tried to keep, he burned, so maybe Gem has a point. He sighs. “It’ll be done by Friday,” he promises with a sigh, like it’s a big effort to move from his rented studio to the gallery. Like the studio isn’t a side room attached to the gallery itself. “You can have it then.”

Gem claps a hand on his shoulder, grinning, and leans forward to press a sloppy kiss to his cheek. He blushes in spite of himself, and almost doesn’t hear as she says, “You’re the best, Car. I’ll give you your cut once it sells, okay?”

He makes a face at the portrait. “Yeah, yeah, I know the drill,” he muters to Gem, and refocusses on the painting. It’s better that Gem sells it, anyway. At least that way he gets something out of it other than staring at his own bland face alongside Gem’s winning smile.