#rchanscandy

Levi breathed in, his chest heaving sharply beneath Eren’s touch, and he knew that he had unearthed yet another ticklish spot with the tip of his paintbrush. 

“Stop smiling like that,” Levi grumbled, catching the look on Eren’s face as he hovered above him. He ended up yawning mid-scowl, spoiling any chance of Eren taking him seriously. 

As Eren bent down to place a gentle kiss at his temple for his trouble, he felt the other man let out a satisfied sigh against his skin. Levi was still feeling the euphoria of their earlier lovemaking, enveloping him like an old sweater and making him heavy-eyed and pliant beneath Eren’s fingers.

Sex usually had the opposite effect on Eren; it invigorated him and opened up the creative pathways in his mind, hence their current situation. 

Earlier, with Levi buried inside him, Eren had placed both of his hands on Levi’s face and felt the way that the other man pressed up into his touch. He’d dragged his thumbs through the creases below Levi’s eyes while he pushed down into his thrusts, moving their hips together and breathing in his lover’s quiet pleasure. 

He liked that part of Levi, liked how soft and vulnerable his skin felt under his fingers. He loved the way he could see the faint hue of blue coloring Levi’s paper pale skin, and the dark bags that decorated the space under his eyes like two peaceful, midnight pools that held all his secrets in their depths.

After they both had finished with breathless moans, Eren had rolled off Levi only long enough to catch his breath and grab some paint, a splattered pallet and a few paintbrushes from his studio in the other room. He clamored back on to the bed with a determined look on his face that made Levi groan out, “Do I even want to know?” before he’d resigned to Eren’s ministrations. This wasn’t the first time he’d played canvass for Eren. 

“It’s not my fault your porcelain skin begs to be covered and marked and treated like the ethereal canvass that it is,” Eren said, shrugging his shoulders and getting to work, with something like wonder clouding his voice.  

It was late already, and a dull beam flowed through the window, making everything in their bedroom glow. Their white comforter took on a dusky blue hue, like it’d been washed in the dirty runoff flowing through the space in between stars. All that soft beauty crowning Levi’s sturdy frame was all the inspiration that he needed. 

“I have an idea,” was all he shared with Levi before pushing him back into the sheets and straddling his lap. For the next hour, his paintbrush did the talking for him, whisper kisses and careful exploration, each stroke and flick heavy with his  admiration for his subject. 

For a while, nothing but their slow breathing and the gentle movement of brush against skin filled the room. 

“Tickles,” Levi sighed again, when Eren’s brush moved too close to his rib. The dim light gave an uncharacteristic softness to Levi’s face and the thin, worried lines of his lips, gently parted and damp, set Eren’s heart aching. 

But it was his eyes that did it, that sent his whole mind spinning with frantic, creative energy and the need to show Levi how he felt through his art. Even after he climaxed with Levi, as humanly close to him as possible, he still wanted more. He wanted to press himself so deeply into Levi that he sunk through his skin to float through the magic that pumped through his veins. He wanted to share the maddening love he felt bubbling up in his chest every time his eyes chanced upon Levi.

But most of all, he wanted to run his thumbs under those dark circles and stroke until he spread the midnight sky across Levi’s cheekbones and down his chest. 

“Sorry.” Eren pulled away from Levi’s body to stare down at what he’d painted on Levi’s body. “Almost done.”

Levi nodded and stared up at Eren’s face with hooded eyes that shone with such unwavering fondness and trust that he felt his throat constrict. After another stroke of his brush, he cleared his throat and stood. “Done.”

“So,” Levi said, not making a move to stand up yet. “Going to hang me up in a museum, Picasso?”

“They couldn’t afford me,” Eren joked, and then added, more quietly, against Levi’s ear. “Don’t want to share you with anyone.” His words had their intended effect, because when he pulled back he saw that Levi’s cheeks had warmed underneath his gaze.

He felt Levi shift on the bed, and Eren took his hand and kissed his knuckles with slow, unhurried lips. “Want to see?” he asked against Levi’s skin. “Come here.”

Levi followed Eren to the mirror in the corner of their bedroom, their fingers interlocked. When they got to the mirror, Eren gently pushed Levi in front, so that his boyfriend’s naked body and what he’d painted there was on full display. He stood behind Levi, watching him take everything in with his slow, hesitant gaze.

“I wanted to paint something beautiful,” Eren whispered nervously in his ear when Levi remained quiet, his eyes fluttering up and down his face and chest.

“It is beautiful,” Levi gasped, low and quiet, and sudden, like the words had been building in his throat for hours.

“Not the stars, Levi.” Eren stroked the side of his face and then wound his fingers in Levi’s hair, turning his gaze up to meet his own in the mirror. “You. You’re beautiful.”

Levi stiffened. “Not me.”

“Yes, you.” Eren’s thumb rubbed the back of Levi’s hand. “Been thinking about those beautiful, purple-blue pools all night.” 

“You like the bags under my eyes?” Levi scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Just reminds me how old I am.” 

The words he didn’t say hung in the air between them. You’re so young and talented, Eren, you could have anyone. Why hook yourself to a dead horse like me?

“Levi,” Eren said, gently. “Look at the stars I painted on your face, on your chest. That’s what I see when I look at your every damn day.”

Levi looked down at the ground.

“Levi,” Eren said, nudging his chin up. “Every day.”

Couldn’t Levi see how beautiful he was? How brightly he burned from within?

“When I touch you, Levi,” Eren said. “I feel a spark. You make me feel alive.”

Levi pulled Eren to him them, bringing their lips together in a burning kiss. When they fell back onto the bed, Eren could feel the paint shifting between them, spreading a little of the midnight sky over their wildly beating hearts.