The Fantasie of a Stepmother | Shuri Von Neuschwanstein x Nora Von Nuremberg | G | 502 words
It was a good day for a picnic, and Leon and Rachel had been vibrating with excitement since morning. Elias tried to look cool and unconcerned, but Shuri caught him glancing towards the woods every ten seconds or so. The crossbow was obvious on his person, too. Jeremy began keeping them in line once the kids started to neglect the food, half-eaten in favor of playing openly in the field.
Nora was there, like an honorary family member, always a steady figure amidst the chaos of the children. A sketchpad and pencil on his hands, he cut a sharp figure in the landscape. Shuri found her sight drifting over his direction, but whenever he looked up from his drawing her head would whirl away, inexplicably anxious about the idea of getting caught.
But later, her concerns proved to be futile because Shuri had to approach Nora anyway, once Jeremy chased after Elias, who was chasing after Leon and Rachel, who made a game out of something Shuri didn't hear.
“Lady Shu.” Nora put aside the sketchpad and smiled up at her. “Do you need me to get them?”
Nora always knew what she felt somehow. As though he could read her mind, and oftentimes he had an answer ready before she could even ask him something.
Struck by a whim, Shuri replied instead: “Nora, you seemed so serious with your drawing. May I ask what it is?”
Slowly, Nora’s cheeks darkened, but he deftly ignored his own reaction. Another smile, and “Would you like to guess, Lady Shu?”
Off-center, Shuri stared at him. An answer itched its way across her tongue, but she bit the response back before she could utter it.
Nora took the sketchpad back and turned the pages. Shyly he presented the drawing.
“Oh.” Heat crawled under her skin, from the base of her neck and up, up, up to her face.
It was a sketch of her, watching her children, soft warmth in her expression. Each stroke belied an aching tenderness that only someone in love could create. Shuri wanted to trace the lines that shaped her profile on the paper, wanted to feel the care Nora made in hatching the shadows on the skin, clothes, hair.
Nora was now rubbing the back of his neck as the prolonged silence grew to be awkward for him. Shuri hastened to salvage the moment.
“It's beautiful,” she hurried to say. Then, with mustered courage, added, “You always see me as someone more than what I usually feel.”
Nora started at her reply. “Of course, Lady Shu,” he said, full of conviction, full of meaning. “To me, you've always been someone who's –”
He paused, suddenly flustered. Then he shot up and stumbled in the direction of the children.
“I’ll get the kids now, Lady Shu. I'll be back!”
Shuri watched Nora jogged over to Jeremy, her heart beating out of her chest. Next to her the sketchpad laid open, her own face looking back at her, bright under the afternoon sun.
