As the man reaches for the painting: "Don't!"

It stops cold as he turns.

In his hand is a stone.

And he smiles as it completes Its moon.

~

Zāne fiddles with the little stone in Its hand.

It’s rough to the touch on one side and smooth to it on the other. It’s in the shape of a half sphere, old and always handled with care. It’s a match to Its signature and its maker is right here.

Fhir smiles while watching It fiddle.

“… That was one of the first things I made,” he quietly admits, his own hands fiddling nervously with his cup of tea. He stirs the hot liquid with one of the goth café’s finger bone inspired spoons before continuing, “That I really liked, I mean. It was my last year of high school and I did it for art class.”

“How did it do?”

“Really well!” Fhir smiles, “The theme was everything’s in the details and we were challenged to go as small as we could. I’d always loved the moon, so I tried my best to recreate it.”

“Why a half-moon, though?”

“It’s my favorite.” The carver smiles as Zāne blushes, obviously agreeing. It sips at Its own mug—minted hot chocolate—while a camaraderie forms between them. “I’ve never seen that painting before,” the blue-eyed man comments, referring to the work that finally brought them together: a broken moon basking in the sun’s rays as bits and pieces of it crumble away; it had looked like something crashed into it, breaking a chunk of it off. “Is it new?”

Zāne shakes Its head, “No; it was one of my firsts, too.”

“O?” Fhir leans forward, excited and eager, “What’s its name?”

The painter smiles, “The Mourning Moon.”

“Sounds depressening.” Black brows raise high, “Ah, wait! Not that that’s a bad thing!” Fhir raises his hands disarmingly and waves them both at Zāne, hoping he hasn’t offended It.

The brunette just laughs, “Yes, it was. It was a stress piece. I was… trying to get over a bad love.”

The carver raises a brow, “By breaking the moon?”

Zāne laughs, “By expressing my rage.”

Fhir nods slowly, contemplatively. “So… were you the moon, or were they?”

Red-clad shoulders rise and fall in a shrug.

“Both, technically: I was beaten and broken; but also, the one doing the beating and breaking. I think the main point was how empty I felt and how badly I wanted to finally be complete.”

~

In the new year, Halil is proud to host another Miss Foreboding event.

This time, however, it’s not just paintings on display. Dangling in front of many of them are now little half spheres of stonework made by his brother, Fhir. The pieces of art are held together by invisible strings and light touches of glue where needed. Others are actually affixed to the canvas by either glue or thread looping through carefully drilled holes in the stone. And even more are actually Fhir’s works standing alone with the careful hand of Zāne shining through the coloring.

Even Celia is proud of the bizarre pieces.

She takes photos of as many of them as she can, angling herself in various ways to help showcase the illusions this unique style creates. They’re all uploaded to Zāne’s portfolio website which has now been modified to a digital art gallery for both It and Fhir.

They’re all becoming immensely popular.

But the most loved piece is probably the newest; the one Zāne and Fhir created together: a painting of a night sky lit up by a breaking moon whose craters are being painted in by a painted on hand and whose broken parts are actually flakes of stone being chipped at by a stone hand and flat chisel; the one called Lunar Love.