#selfsert

“Keep your chin up, cara mia,” Leonardo instructs with the brush in his hand.

“Sorry, it’s hard not to look down at Lumiére. He’s just so cute.” Ronnie pouts, gazing down at the sleeping feline again, and gently rubbing its black fur.

“You’re doing it again.” He chuckles, walking towards her. He fixes her pose and gives her cheek a gentle pinch. 

“Sorry, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like your hands on me.”

“Naughty girl,” he snickers.

Ronnie chuckles, then sighs contentedly. The sweet smell of the flowers around them wafts to her nose, a familiar scent she has missed. “I’ve missed this place.”

He hums. “Me too. It looks exactly how it did when we left for our honeymoon five years ago… somehow.” She laughs again. “Now stay still, just like that.” He presses his brush against the canvas in swift and smooth strokes as he works on the portrait. “Good girl.” That makes her cheeks flush with a soft shade of pink, a smile fighting its way across her face. “Lovely shade…” he murmurs.

Leonardo grows quiet as he studies her face, her gentle expression, soft brown eyes, and warm yet teasing smile. After a moment—once her expression has settled into him—he says, “You know, cara…You’ve changed remarkably little since the day we met.”

She snorts. “We don’t change the way humans do, tesoro,” she says softly, “but the way we settle into ourselves… that does.”

He notices how calm she is with him, how natural their banter is, how inevitable they feel, and how he does not fear the passing of time since they are together.

“...Curious,” he murmurs to himself.

“What is?”

He hesitates for a moment, brush hovering over the canvas. “When did you know?”

She tilts her head to one side, confused. “Know what?”

“That I was the one you’d endure eternity with?”

Her cheeks blush ever so softly, and that almost shy smile that he adores creeps across her face. He feels the urge to recreate that hue.

She thinks for a moment, the memory unfolding as if it had happened yesterday. The sound of the river, the distant market noise, the smell of freshly baked bread, the sweet tobacco clinging to his clothes, the cacophony of laughter, the bustling people, the flapping of bird wings, and the light, frantic stir in her chest. The Oporto of three decades ago comes to life once more.

They were walking along the Duero River; the streets were alive with vendors,  laughter, and overlapping conversations. But this time, their loud voices did not bother Ronnie at all, perhaps because she was too focused on what Leonardo had to say. She always listened to him, especially when he rambled about the things he loved. This time, he was talking about humans, and there was a gentleness in his tone and a twinkle in his golden eyes that had her staring at him in awe and wonder. She tightened her grip on his arm, smiling softly at how passionately he spoke about those creatures. Were it not for his insistence on her giving humans a chance, she would have never gotten out of the comfort of her book-filled chambers at her family’s manor in South America.

“You see, humans aren’t defined by their worst instincts. They’re defined by the moments when they choose to—” He stopped abruptly, his expression shifted from admiration to focused. He let go of his companion and crossed the street without much of a word.

“Hm? Leonardo?” She stood there for a moment, confused and wondering what had just happened, before trailing behind him. He strode towards one of the vendors, the one who was selling birds. The cage was cramped and rusty, and the poor creatures were fluttering their dull feathers in panic, evidently stressed. She frowned, lip twitching in contempt, not at the birds but at the vendor. 

“I want to buy them all,” was all Leonardo said.

Ronnie blinked in surprise, having expected him to lecture the vendor and demand the avians’ release—but instead, he paid for them.

As soon as the vendor handed Leonardo the first of the caged birds, Leonardo opened his palms, setting it free. He did the same with every one that followed—and every single time, her heart fluttered.

Leonardo’s soft chuckle brings her back to the present. She smiles at him, eyes crinkling with joy.

“Back then, you didn’t look back at me. You didn’t look at anyone. You only watched the birds flying away in the sky with an expression so gentle that it made my heart quiver.”

“Cara mia,” he whispers, walking towards her.

“Only when the birds were out of sight, you turned to me. Do you remember what you told me?”

He nods once. “I said, ‘If people were only what they do when desperate, then none of us would be worth saving. That choice… that’s what defines them.’” He smiles. “I meant it.” He cups her cheeks ever so tenderly, rubbing his thumbs on them.

She leans into his touch. “I know.”

“Didn’t know that simple moment stayed with you all this time.” He exhales softly, the sound almost resembling a laugh. “You’ve always seen me so clearly, haven’t you?” He leans his forehead against hers. “I think that somewhere along the way, that’s what made me fall in love with you, Ronnie,” he whispers, breath tickling her smiling lips, before claiming them with a loving kiss.

Leonardo pulls away, eyes closed, and exhales: “I couldn’t have chosen a better wife than you, amore mio.”

Her cheeks blaze at his words, and she giggles contentedly as her hands find purchase in his shirt, pulling him in for another kiss.

Lumiére, who feels trapped between the two, jumps off her lap and stretches meowing once.

Leonardo stares down at his beloved pet. “Heh, tired already, little one?” The cat simply turns around and calmly saunters towards the manor.

“Maybe we should continue tomorrow,” she offers, finally getting up and stretching her weary limbs.

He teases, “Hope you can stay still tomorrow.”

Smirking, she fixes the collar of his shirt and says, “Who knows, I might surprise you.”

Surrounded by tender banter, laughter, and the sweet aroma of the flowers, the painting remains unfinished—yet as inevitable as their love story.

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