There's Safety Within These Walls [November 1997]

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

Kirsa nodded, "It's kind of nice to still have something that I like doing. It gets out the stress and negativity." Not everyone had the privilege of doing that any more in Hogwarts castle, and Kir considered herself lucky in some way.

She then laughed as she pulled out a yellow crayon, "And I'm all eyes, Picasso."

[Reed Wintersprout]

Reed quickly finished his masterpiece, and looked at it. It looked like a cross between a beetle and a very deformed child. Oh well, it'd do.

"Ta-da!" Reed made a hand gesture in the direction of the weird beetle/child.

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

A look of befuddlement clouded Kirsa's face as she watched Reed work on the drawing. She took a moment longer to inspect it even after Reed declared it a completed production, before finally tilting her head and reaching out to carefully touch the line art, "Oh, it looks .. interesting. What is it?"

[Reed Wintersprout]

"It's a bird!" Reed exclaimed, wondering why it wasn't obvious. He looked at his picture, and squinted. Hmm, maybe not. It didn't really look like one, he realized.

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

"A bird?" Kirsa couldn't help the mild incredulity as she parroted Reed. She returned her stare to the picture hovering in midair, tilting her head as if somehow, a shifted axis might help her get a clearer idea. No matter how much she looked, it still didn't look like a bird, however, but Kirsa was too nice to say that.

"Well.. You'd make a really awesome abstract artist," she concluded with a nod.

[Reed Wintersprout]

"Yeah, abstract!" Reed grinned, now that he had found an adjective for his art that wasn't terrible, crap or rubbish. "It was totally meant to be like that."

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

"It's a really cool sort of art, too," Kirsa said a bit excitedly, "there's this muggle piece, for instance, where this artist drew clocks that were like dripping water. It was absolutely fantastic."

She turned back forward, "Though I myself prefer real drawings. Still life, for example, that's always cool. Or scenery." She proceeded to sketch a sunflower, switching to a green crayon for its stem.

[Reed Wintersprout]

"Cool," Reed said, thinking about clocks as dripping water. It was pretty weird.

"Do your drawings move, after you make them?" He asked. Moving drawings were his favourite, like little comics.

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

"Some of them, yeah," Kirsa nodded as she focused on drawing the leaves of the sunflower, "it's kind of cute, especially if I draw Jer. He's this tiny, pixie-sized thing that just runs around in circles on the canvas." She laughed a little at that revelation.

[Reed Wintersprout]

"Yeah that does sound like him," Reed laughed. "So if this painting of clocks is made by a Muggle, it probably doesn't move then, right?"

Reed found it weird that their pictures didn't move, they just sat there like statues.

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

Kirsa shook her head, "Nope. It stays stationary. All the muggle arts do, unless a piece falls into the hands of one of us, and we decide to charm it to move on its own accord. I've seen before a masterpiece by Van Gogh, The Starry Night, charmed to move. It's beautiful."

She wore an almost longing smile at the memory.

[Reed Wintersprout]

"Oh, that sounds cool," Reed says. "You're a pretty good artist, your drawing is definitely better than mine, anyway," he chuckled.

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

Kirsa leaned back a little to inspect the sunflower floating in front of her, though she did cast a warm smile towards Reed, "How nice of you, thanks."

She then gave a small chuckle, "Although some might argue still life is actually rather boring."

[Reed Wintersprout]

"I wouldn't know, I'm rubbish at all the types of art," Reed shrugged. He hadn't determined which ones he found interesting and which ones were boring. Still life looked nice anyway, especially if it was done well and actually looked like a real object.

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

"Well, there's also the thing where people generally consider artists a whole kooky lot," Kirsa pointed out in a bit of a self-depreciating joke, "so it's just as well."

She proceeded to reach out and try to fix Reed's handicapped-looking bird.

[Reed Wintersprout]

"Really? Are you like that too?" Reed joked. He didn't actually know much about Kirsa at all, it wasn't like Jeremey was informative when it came to things like that.

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

Kirsa's soft chocolate-brown eyes sparkled with mirth and she replied almost slyly, "Oh, I don't know, Reed. I wouldn't be one to label myself kooky. What do you think?"

[Reed Wintersprout]

"Oh, maybe a little bit," Reed joked, with a small smile. He didn't actually think Kirsa was, really. But there was no harm in a little teasing, was there.

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

Kirsa dropped her jaw in mocking outrage, "Oh Reed. You wound my soul."

She proceeded to pick up a crimson crayon, drawing a heart that was halved in two in the middle. "See? This is how my heart looks like now, thanks to you," she jested, although actually managed to look almost serious.

[Reed Wintersprout]

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry!" Reed was being mock over-dramatic. He took the crayon from her, and coloured in the middle trying to 'mend' the heart again. "Better now?"

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

Kirsa placed her hands over her chest where her heart hypothetically was, saying almost sadly, "You can mend it, but the scars shall never fade."

Though then, the girl burst into laughter, clearly not at all being serious about the sappy prose previously.

[Reed Wintersprout]

"Hey, at least it's in one piece now," Reed laughed along with her. Somehow, Jer had never mentioned that she was really fun to hang out with as well, usually he talked about her hotness.

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

"What a relief!" Kirsa laughed.

She then leaned back a little to inspect the three floating clip arts in front of them, "Quite the nice ensemble, don't you think?" Actually, it didn't make very much sense - a rather dysfunctional-looking bird, a coloured-in heart, and a sunflower.

[Reed Wintersprout]

"Yep, I still think mine beats all," Reed pointed to the bird. "It's just pure talent right there," he chuckled.

[Kirsa Fitzroy]

Kirsa nodded, "Very sexy. Apparently it also loves my sunflower." She gestured to the arrangement of the heart hovering between the sunflower and the bird.

"Wonder how would that turn out? Perhaps destined to be star-crossed lovers after all?" she joked.