In the Library

[Stella]

I'll have the spam, spam, spam and spam please.

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Boring… Boring... Read it… How to dissect grats? The feeding habits of ruby dragons… Who actually reads this stuff?

Stella was wandering up and down the rows of books in the Balamb Library looking for something new to read. She had been hoping that the saucy romance novel she had been eyeing for awhile would still be in but alas it had been checked out. So now she was wandering around the shelves in hopes that something else would catch her eye.

She was just turning the corner when she spotted a familiar blond at one of the tables. His head was bent in concentration at the pieces of paper spread out in front of him. In his fingers was a pencil and he was moving it in steady strokes over the pages. Raising her eyebrows she leaned against the bookshelf and watched him for a few more moments. Yup, Zacke Mercutio was definitely drawing. And from what she could see it looked like he was actually good at it.

Then Coma Boy came over and flopped down in the chair across from Zacke and set a small stack of books on the table. He pulled one out of the stack and started reading it looking like he was mildly enjoying himself. Funny, she hadn’t pegged him as the library type. But then again she would never guess that Zacke was an artist.

Stella walked over there and slid her fingertips along the table as before she sunk down into the chair next to Zacke. Carefully she leaned on his shoulder trying to get a better look at what he was working on.

“Hey Zacko” she gave him a little grin, “so not only do you rescue whole teams of people from certain defeat but you draw too… a man of many talents”

[Zacke]

Zacke saw from the corner of his eyes that someone had slunk down into the chair next to him. He glanced over when he felt the light pressure of her leaning on his shoulder.

"Hey Zacko," it was Stella, smiling at him in a friendly way, using that nickname that Stardust just loved. Although, he found he didn't mind so much when Stella used it. "so not only do you rescue whole teams of people from certain defeat but you draw too… a man of many talents”

"Nah, not that many," Zacke grinned, looking back down at his sketch. It was sort of cartoony-looking, of a little girl holding a doll and looking up at a floating ferris wheel. Abstract. "Pencils and nunchuks, and that's about it for me. So now you've seen it all." he laughed. "Disappointed?"

During the few and brief interactions they'd had since he rejoined the team, she came off as such a nice person to him. Very flirtatious, but sweet nonetheless. She didn't seem to be the person the rumors back at Galbadia made her out to be. People can be so judgmental. he thought.

[Stella]

"Disappointed?" he said with a friendly laugh that made her shake her head just a little. He was so open and nice to everyone it was pretty amazing they had never crossed paths in Galbadia. But then again she had avoided people like him back then.

"Not at all" Stella said with a little smirk. She leaned a bit closer looking down at the drawing.

"This is really pretty. Your technique is really good. I like this detail here" she pointed the where the girls hands clutched the doll, "and this here" she moved her finger to the center of the Ferris Wheel where all the spokes met. She realized she was rambling and shifted a little in her chair moving away from his shoulder.

"I uh.. used to be a bit of an artist myself" she said sheepishly a hot blush crawling up her cheeks.

[Zacke]

Zacke's grin widened at her onslaught of compliments. "Wow, thanks... " He looked over at her, truly appreciative of the words. It had been a long time since he'd drawn something, it was nice to know he hadn't gotten too rusty.

"Used to be an artist, huh?" he remarked, lifting his pencil and moving it to the paper. "You know, I remember you from Galbadia, but I don't remember ever seeing you in any of the art classes I took... " he paused with his sketching and glanced at her. "Did you ever take any? I'm not that into graphic design, but I hear they have an awesome program for it--" he paused suddenly, letting out a laugh and shaking his head at himself. "Sorry. I tend to dominate conversations. What type of art are you into?"

[Reese]

Reese was staring intently at the book he held open before him. 'Junctioning and Tactical Practice.' He couldn't help but smirk a bit. It was sort of amusing, some of the brainswash-y bullshit Garden tried to pump into the minds of their pupils.

He glanced up when he heard Stella's voice, watching her place a hand on Zacke's shoulder and lean closely, peering at his scribbles. He raised an eyebrow slightly and looked away, shutting his book and sliding it aside. His eyes skimmed over the titles of the others he had selected. 'History of the Pandora.' 'Adel.' 'Art of the Arcane.' 'I Have an Insane Guardian Force, How Do I Tame It?'

He lifted the last one. It was kind of gimmicky for his liking, but it was still worth looking into.

"Sorry. I tend to dominate conversations... "

Reese rolled his eyes as he opened the cover of the book. Moron.

[Stella]

She shifted a little uncomfortably at his mention of their old garden. Oh well things could have been a lot worse.

"No, I never took any of the art classes at Galbadia. I wanted to but.." she said smiling at him as she shrugged letting her sentence kind of drift off. Probably good I didn't then we might have actually known each other...

"I've dabbled a little in graphic design but its a bit too impersonal for me. I like the more hands on sort of stuff... you know sculpting, drawing, painting. But I'm a bit out of practice at the moment with most things I still sketch pretty often though" She watched him draw some more as she talked realizing that she might be giving him a bit too much information.

[Zacke]

Zacke nodded slowly as she spoke. His eyes were trained solely on the sketch in front of him as he drew, but he was listening intently. Suddenly he stopped, casting her a brief glance.

"Still sketch often, hmm?" he smiled and pulled a clean sheet of thick drawing paper from underneath the one he was working on and slid it over to her. He lifted the box of various size ink pens and coal pencils and plunked it down between them with a flourish. "Well, show me what you got, Stellar." He grinned, his eyes teasingly challenging.

[Stella]

"If you insist Zacko" she shook her hand and let her fingers linger over the box of drawing utensils before plucking out a pencil and turning back to the piece of paper in front of her. It had been awhile since she had drawn in front of someone like this.

With a little smirk she glanced across the table at Coma Boy and let her eyes wander over him for a few moments taking in every detail about him. With a deep breath she looked back down at the page and started to draw.

She had always been best at portraits. Her excellent memory made it easy for her to look at someone and then record them to paper. Her broad confident strokes quickly started to take shape. The way his hands rested on the book. How his hat shaded his face. His eyes, they looked kind of sad. The whole time she was drawing she didn't even bother to glance back up at him.

It didn't take her long to finish her pencil lingering over the page to add a few last minute details. When she was done she slid the paper over in front of Zacke and looked at him expectantly.

[Zacke]

Zacke's attention switched from his own sketch to the one Stella slid before him. He smirked slowly and looked up at Reese, then back down at the drawing. "I think you got the disgruntled frown down pat." he remarked with a wry grin, glancing at her.

"Yo, Reese, check it out," he lifted the paper and turned it around so Reese could see.

Reese's gaze lifted from the book held before him. He glanced from the picture to Zacke, his face impassive. "Did you draw that?" he asked quietly.

"Nope, she did." Zacke replied, nodding his head toward Stella.

Reese looked at Stella. He looked back at the drawing. "Oh." He paused for a few seconds, staring at it. "It's nice." He glanced at Stella again, before looking back down at his book and presumably starting to read again.

Zacke looked down at Stella and raised his eyebrows a bit. "Well, well, it's nice[/u] he says... "

[Stella]

She shifted a bit uncomfortably as Reese looked at her and she thought that it might have been a bad idea to draw him. She knew nothing about him and he might be a complete freak or something.

"Well nice is better then pile of crap, I guess" Stella said smirking at Zacke. He always made her feel really comfortable with his easy smile and his laugh. She plucked the drawing from his fingers and laid it back down on the table.

"We should totally get together and art it up sometime, I don't think anyone else on the team is even mildly interested in this sort of stuff" She dusted the page off a little and smiled as she spoke.