Fleurs in abundance

Elijah could only do but wrap Selene up in his arms and hug her. He didn’t know what to do with the emotions she’d bombarded him with. He didn’t want to believe her. He wanted to tell her that she didn’t know the difference between first love and true love but he didn’t have the heart. He was being selfish - or perhaps he was being kind. He wanted her to love him. He did, he truly did. He wanted to love her too but that was an entirely different kettle of fish. He didn’t possess those feelings for her, though he did care about her, and he knew that it was neither his place nor his right to love her. She needed to find a nice young swot at the Ministry who wore suits he had yet to grow into and novelty ties to marry and settle down with. She didn’t need to be hung up on him. It would kill her and he wouldn’t let her do it. He couldn’t let her. But he wanted to. He wanted to do this. Something inside himself was telling him to do it. It was egging him on, encouraging him to hang Mira, hang what was expected of him and do this because it promised love - something he so desperately wanted.

“You read too much into things,” He murmured into her hair. “How on earth can you do that? How can you see my emotions in my paintings? There is so much that is expected of me Selene. I don’t have control of myself. Sure I can decide when to leave here. I would probably decide to stay here forever but my children do need me and this certainly isn’t a place to bring them up. No, there’s a little house I’ve wanted to buy in Wales and it’s sort of perfect really. I know what it would take for me to have it though and I need a reason. I need a reason to finally break from the idiotic family I was born into. It’s not even a family anymore, it’s a firm.” Elijah sighed. “And I need to hand in my two weeks’ notice. We can be whatever we want to be here, Selene. It’s like a cocoon. It’s protected...it allows us to grow as people here. Could you show me what you mean...about the paintings? There’s a storage rack over by the window...can you show me, please?”

Selene let him wrap his arms around her, and she got embraced.. a real embrace, for the first time in her life. Selene couldn't hold it back anymore, and she let out a half sob. Tears gathering in her eyes, but she forced them down, only letting out that one small dry sob, before she focused her emotions and got them under control again. "Why are you so nice to me?" She asked, her voice shaking as though she were in an earthquake. She didn't want him to know that she had never been hugged before.. the closest thing she had come to an embrace was when he had picked her up in the empty classroom and made out with her. No one else gave a rat's ass about her, and she knew this was all in her head. There was no way someone like Elijah Krum liked her.. or wanted to actually be with her.. there was no way he'd give up the life he had just to hold her at night... she just simply wasn't that special of a person... but... a hug... so simple.. so.. passionate, it almost meant more to her then the kiss had.

Selene listened to him, and when he asked for a reason, she looked up at him sadly. "I wish I could be your reason.." She said softly, before burying her face against his chest again. "I would do eet... I would.." She said and then shuddered. She couldn't imagine herself as a mother.. she just wasn't very.. motherly, but she wanted to be.. for him.. she wanted to help him, help him escape.. but it just wasn't to be.. she was hurting herself the longer she stayed in his arms, but she didn't want to move. When he asked her about the paintings, Selene looked up at him, and then nodded. Carefully she took his hand and pulled him over to the paintings, pulling one off the rack, and inspecting it carefully before she nodded. "You were angry about something.." She said softly, glancing up at him. "Your brush strokes here are short, choppy... and look at ze position you have her in.. she looks fierce.. hair falling over her right shoulder... zat symbolizes anger in your paintings.. I would know.." She said and chuckled lightly. "Ze lighting is coming from behind.. making her stand out even more... and her features aren't zat strong.. her eyes especially.. you've hidden them.. made zem choppy and short, eet's hard to tell how much detail zere eez in how you loaded up your paintbrush." She said glancing at him and then back at the painting nervously.

"Something made you angry.. maybe... ze woman said something against your children... or... someone insulted someone you cared about.. I can tell by ze way you signed your name.. you put an emphasis on Krum.. in other paintings.. you put an emphasis on Elijah.. and Krum is barely visible.. because you do not want eet to stand out.." She said frowning before looking up at him, and then carefully putting the painting away and choosing another. "Zis one..." She said after a moment or two of studying it. "You were sad... depressed... possibly felt like you were alone in ze world... she may look happy in ze picture." she said running her finger over the facial expression of the woman, but not touching it. "But... look at her hand Elijah.. look how you made her stick eet out just slightly.. bent at ze wrist, her ring finger eez visible.. now compare eet to zis one.." She said pulling out the angry one again. The ring finger was not visible in that one. "You missed Chase... or your family.. you felt like Chastity left you... alone to ze world.. took your child..." She frowned and stared at his name. "But.. you were feeling pride also... you... were understanding yourself better.. you wished you had her back.. but.. at ze same time.. you were happy she was gone." Selene stared at it for a long time, before she hid her eyes from him. "I don't know eef I'm right about zis.. but... eet ees what I get from zem.." She said softly, glancing at him. "Also.. for the sad one.. eet was raining outside... ze colors are to vivid.." She said and put it away again.

Elijah could only do but watched as she lifted his past out of the rack, each one plastered onto a piece of canvas in every colour of the rainbow. Elijah swallowed, taking in each painting and each description. Anna-Maria, Collette, Jayne...they were all there and each one bore some sort of different emotion with each leg curve, each sweep of the hair. It did make him feel slightly ill at the sight, at the obviousness of the paintings. He was angry, upset, lustful, in love...all in those paintings. It was so clear and so haunting; he wondered whether those who bought the paintings could tell. He wondered whether the girls who looked upon the paintings after they were finished recognised his anguish or his lust or whatever the painting communicated. Elijah suddenly felt the need to be rid of them, whether by selling them or just giving them away. He swallowed carefully and put a hand on Selene’s lower back.

“Pick three you want, more if you like. I can’t keep these now.” Elijah murmured against her ear. He then dropped his hand from her back and turned around, striding over to the vanity that was pushed up against one of the walls. He fiddled around with some of the boxes, knocking pearls and necklaces and earrings onto the floor but not caring. He finally tore open an ink well, dipped his quill inside and began to write to Arnold. The dealer had wanted everything in that rack for weeks, months even, and Elijah had been hesitant to sell. There were about a dozen paintings in there - maybe more. He wanted them did he? Well, he could have them. “Am I that transparent?” Elijah asked, lifting his head from the parchment he’d bent over. “Am I that completely obvious? Does it show? The emotions...the upset...the lust...the love...does it show on me?”

Selene froze, her back still to him as his hand gently touched her lower back, and she felt his face near her ear. When he told her to pick out ones she wanted, she turned and looked at him startled, but he had already crossed the room, knocking things to the floor, and starting to write something on a piece of parchment. She stared at him, unable to do as he asked, knowing that there was a reason he kept these paintings on a rack in his studio... He always had a reason for not putting pictures up in galleries, or for sale. He looked so hurt though, and she realized she had said to much. Face flushed Selene walked over to him, uncertainly.

"No.." She said softly, her eyes searching for his. "You are hard to read... I wish I could read you as easily as I read your paintings." She said, her voice shaking. "I want to know what you are thinking Elijah." She said softly, the quieter she spoke, the easier to tell that her accent was indeed starting to wear off around his voice, and the fact that she had spent so much time at Hogwarts, her French accent was molding into more British then French now a days, and she pronounced her words much more easily, and she didn't have to ask what a word meant as much as she had used to. "Elijah... how can I help? I want.. I want to help.. how can I?" she asked moving closer to him, looking up into his extremely handsome face.