Not quite like one of your French girls

[Charlotte Greene]

Between Connor, school, and sleep.. Charlie hadn't had time recently for a lot of reading. --Sure, she still read for an hour or two on most days.. but pre-connor that number had been significantly higher. Double, triple, even quadruple. She hadn't been in the library for more than returning and checking out books in months now, and today was on in which she finally had time to settle down for a bit and dig in to a new story.

She'd forgotten how comfy the library was.. The smooth quiet, the subtle and distinct smells, the fact that it was always comfortably cool. Not to mention the plush chairs near the windows.. She'd concluded a long time ago that they were, in fact, magical to some degree. Or someone was some sort of .. upholstrymancer here (best meta ability EVER? Charlie thought maybe) who had made these chairs extraordinarily comfy. She'd grabbed her book and sat with her feet on the floor for a while.. then curled up with her legs folded beneath her.

Her knees were to her right, and she was leaned on the arm of the chair in the same direction, supporting her head with a loose fist beneath her jaw and holding the book in her left hand resting on her knees.. Cozy, safe, comfortable..

So it was no surprise to her when an hour or so later her position had changed only slightly (her hand now open with her cheek resting against it) and she was fast asleep.. looking like some kind of teenage angel with her pale skin, serenaded by the soft light pouring through the windows behind her.. Baby blue leggings and a faded pastel orange shirt a stark contrast to the dark woody colors around her..

It would be a bit of a surprise, though, if she were to wake and find someone staring at her.. especially if that person were also scribbling on something every time he glanced away. Waking to find someone giggling was one thing. Waking to find someone using you as a point of intense concentration was entirely another.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar was supposed to be studying. 

That was the official reason he was in the library. He had a boring history project to work on, and it required research. But while he had been browsing for books on the history of American miscegenation laws he saw something so much more interesting.

A girl. A girl who was sleeping. He thought he recognized her as the girl Connor spent so much time around the last year or so, maybe. But maybe she was a different girl. Regardless, he wanted to draw her. 

She looked so peaceful, and her pose looked like precisely the sort of thing he ought to practice if he wanted to draw pictures of wistful waifs looking out windows into the distance. 

He didn't stop to consider that perhaps she wouldn't want some guy she didn't really know to draw a picture of her, or that even if she did want to model she might prefer he ask first. Instead he whisked his drawing pad out of dimensional storage, and plopped down in the seat opposite her, concentrating fiercely as he began to sketch. 

[Charlotte Greene]

Sunar's suspicions about who Charlie might be may well be confirmed if he spoke mumble... as Charlie was dreaming - as she did nearly every time she fell asleep - about Connor. this particular dream had them both on horseback side by side riding calmly and slowly across a huge field covered in a foot or so of snow. In her dream she was telling him about her day with their kids and he laughed at the antics they put poor Curtis through. He was the 'cool uncle', sure, but he was also a total sucker for their youngest and she could get him into the silliest and most embarrassing situations..

In the waking world she smiled and mumbled a soft nonsense comment, ending in what was undoubtedly the word 'Connor'. She would keep this up for a while.. blissfully unaware that someone was watching her every move, close enough to hear her ever word (er, the ones that were actually words, anyway) and not only studying nearly every part of her, but replicating it on paper..

Until Connor in her dream started scratching away on his horse's neck.. which was made of paper... and Charlie was suddenly just in a white void.. and Connor wasn't there... and when Sunar was most of the way finished with his sketch she woke with a start, nearly dropping her book in the process.

She blinked rapidly and looked one way, then nearly jumped out of her chair as she looked the other and found a someone staring at her. Pressing her hand to her chest and taking a deep breath and gave herself a moment to realize where she was and what was going on.. "Are.. are you drawing me?" Surely the pad this boy had wasn't a book. It was far too big. It had to be a drawing tablet or something.. "Why are you drawing me? Ugh, how long was I asleep for? Was Connor here?" She looked around for any signs of Connor and her shoulders fell as she realized that he wasn't around. "Aww.." Connor made everything better.

On the fortunate side, she didn't seem to mind that she was being drawn.. just wondered why. Lack of getting slapped or called a stalker for the win?

[Sunar Chugani]

((eek I'm sorry for being so late! I am the worst when I take LOAs, I never manage to catch back up in a reasonable amount of time))

"Oh, you're awake," Sunar turned the pad towards her when she asked her question, allowing her to see the sketch he had made of her sleeping form. "You looked so peaceful." 

It did not occur to him that perhaps he ought to have asked her consent before using her as a model, or that this might be a violation of her boundaries. 

Fortunately for the peace of the library, she didn't seem to think of this, either. 

When she asked about Connor his eyes widened. "I thought you looked familiar. Are you Charlie? He talks about you all the time, totally smitten." 

[Charlotte Greene]

"Oh.. Peaceful. I suppose I was, yes. I was dreaming about Conn--" She'd been mumbling under her breath when Sunar asked if she was herself.. said that Connor talked about her all the time. Was 'smitten'. And she smiled huge and blushed no small amount, hiding slightly in her hair. "He does? He is? I.. I guess I'm pretty 'smitten' with him, too. He's.. kinda my everything." And then a wonderful, painfully obvious idea crossed her mind as she stared at the sketch pad.. Sunar was a very decent artist.

"I... am going to need to ask you a favor. I want you to draw me and Connor! Could.. would you be willing to do that? I can.. pay you? Somehow? ..Maybe?" She could go without lunch for a few days.. maybe sell a few books. "I can't afford to get him nice presents, but I bet he would like that, right? You can draw us when we're cuddled up in the common room. That's my favorite way to spend time.."

Er.. wait. This person apparently knew Connor.. and at least knew of Charlie. "Um.. Actually, let's start with names? I guess? You seem to know that I'm Charlie.."

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar was a bit taken aback by Charlie's request. He had never accepted a commission before, and so he wasn't exactly sure what would be fair. Oh, sure, he had seen a variety of posts about it floating around on Tumblr and DeviantArt, but as he wasn't in the business of commissions he simply hadn't paid that much attention to them. 

"Oh! Uhh, sure! I'd love to. In exchange you have to be my model for a week." 

That seemed fair, right? Live models were much more helpful for figure drawing than trying to draw from stock photos (although those were still better than no references at all), and he liked drawing from real people over the wooden mannequins. 

Oh, right, names. 

"I'm Sunar!" 

There, now that was out of the way time to go back to business. 

"So...when do you need it for? Christmas? Umm. For...an anniversary?"

[Charlotte Greene]

"For as soon as you can do it. I want to see it and hug it and treasure it before I give it to him.." Model? For a week? ...Provided Sunar wasn't asking for anything.. inappropriate.. that seems like a very fair deal. Though Charlie didn't entirely understand why he would want her as a model over someone else. Sure, she was.. sort of pretty some days.. but there were lots of people here far prettier that would surely make better models.

"Um.. When you say 'model for a week'.. You do mean.. uh.. f-fully.. clothed?" Because if not, that miiight be grounds for getting slapped.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar was taken aback by Charlotte's concerned question.

"Y...yes! Of course! Definitely fully clothed!"

Although Connor wasn't an especially jealous person as far as Sunar knew, he also was pretty sure his friend wouldn't be thrilled if Sunar asked his girlfriend to model nude for him. Maybe if she was a nude model for a living, but they were all underage.

"I don't think the administration would allow that..." He offered meekly. "But I want to learn to do better with clothes. Wrinkles and folds are hard."