[Table Challenge] - Romania/Norway - Random/2
Title: [untitled]
Author: Kahlan Aisling
Claim: Romania/Norway
Character(s): Romania (Traian), Norway (Lukas)
Table/Prompt: Random/2 -- Limits
Word Count: 338
Rating: G
Summary: AU in which Romania is an artist and Norway is... something. Originally written for Hetachallenge. Sequel to Colors.
Lukas finds him the next morning, crouched on the floor and glaring at his painting. Said painting is sitting on the ground with the canvas torn to pieces, brushes scattered about and new droplets of paint on the technicolor floor.
He doesn't appear to have slept.
Lukas nudges a few brushes aside with his foot. "Hmm," he says. "Wonder what happened here."
"Get out," Traian spits.
That's odd -- Lukas is the one who bitingly tells others to leave him alone, not Traian. "Problem?" he asks.
Traian is holding a small brush in his hand, its bristles wet. There are lines of dark red on his other hand. "No," he says.
Lukas bends down and picks up the mangled canvas. "You ruined this for nothing, then. Got it. I'll just go throw it ou--"
Traian leaps to his feet and snatches it from his grip. "Don't," he says quickly. "Don't do that."
"Why not?"
"Just. . . don't."
Lukas shrugs and drops it back on the floor. It lands with a loud clatter that echoes through the studio. He's not entirely sure what's been going on with Traian lately -- he's clearly got problems, that much he was aware of from the beginning, but they've gotten worse. Lukas quite frankly doesn't know what to do about them.
So, he's been going about like normal. Traian usually snaps out of it in a day or two.
Lukas begins picking up everything else, then. The brushes, rags, spare papers and pencils and paints scattered around. He's been here often enough to know where everything goes, and none of it goes in the right place. It doesn't take long to clean up, but the one thing that strikes him as odd is that there's a lot more red than usual. He wishes he knew what it meant: Traian has the tendency to attach meaning to colors and forms when he really doesn't need to.
It's the one language he speaks that Lukas hasn't managed to figure out yet.
Next