“Soooo…” Aiden said as he sat on his balcony with an ice cream cone in hand.

Damien, who was sitting beside him also holding an ice cream, turned to address him. “So?”

“Like, theoretically, if you could be any supernatural creature, what would you be?”

“That’s… random.”

“I mean, we’re at that phase of the friendship where asking random questions is bound to happen. Humor me, pick anything. Dragon, vampire… demon.”

Aiden looked at Damien with intensity, waiting to see if his neighbor made a face or reacted oddly to his list of choices. Damien merely licked his ice cream and turned back to the sunset as he thought about it. They’d managed to get everything moved into Damien’s unit, and a sense of unease had rolled over Aiden when he walked inside of the completely empty unit. The only things he could see were the vinyl that had been placed carefully against a wall, a laptop plugged in next to it, and a bag of toiletries in the bathroom. Damien’s blanket had been left in a heap from the previous night when the storm had come through. The units weren’t big, but he could understand why Damien had panicked when the power went out. Being this empty probably made the room feel endless.

They got the mattress unrolled and put in the corner with the new pillow and his blanket. Aiden mumbled something about forgetting sheets, but noted they could go back later with his rolling cart to make things easier. The lamp was plugged in and turned on, so whenever Damien went home for the night he’d walk in to a lit room. They put his new dishes in the cabinet, the utensils in the drawer, and set his flashlight on the kitchen counter next to that new kettle. Aiden mentioned they could go thrifting on his next day off to see if they could nab a bed frame and a nightstand so everything wasn’t on the floor. Damien liked the sound of that, so they made a plan to do so over ice cream on the balcony.

“Um… I dunno. I haven’t really thought about it. Do I have to answer now?” Damien asked.

“No, I was just curious,” Aiden replied.

Well that failed spectacularly.

“You?” Damien asked.

“Um, maybe a vampire? I practically am one with my late night schedule and disdain for the sun, but I don’t think I could give up garlic.”

Damien chuckled and went back to his cone that was melting quite rapidly in his hand despite the cooler temperatures. Aiden was sure something was up with Damien that wasn’t in the realm of the normal but he also didn’t want to sound like an insane person by asking him outright if he was hiding horns under those luscious locks of pink and black hair. It was already hard enough getting him to open up about his life and his needs, he didn’t need to scare him by overwhelming him with nonsense brought on by his ’tism.

“Hey, okay, so legit question,” Aiden changed the subject. “Would you mind posing for me?”

“Posing?” Damien asked.

“Yeah, I have a panel I need to work on but the pose isn’t working well and I think it’s because I’m not the right model for it. I was hoping maybe having someone else do it night help. I hate using myself as a reference.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you.”

“Uh, sure. What do you need me to do?”

“Just strike a few poses that I can snap photos of so I can have visual references. Nothing hard or complicated. It’s mostly the angle of the face I need help with. Hard to make a dramatic staring off into space expression when you’re also having to take the picture of yourself while doing it.”

“I don’t know how much I can help but I’d like to try!”

Damien finished up his ice cream. Aiden watched a little too intensely as Damien licked the chocolate off his fingers. The past few weeks of getting to know Damien had really gotten his heart all twisted into knots. He was behind on every deadline but was happy to spend his time with him. Happy to get to know him. Happy to help him figure this new adventure out.

Aiden finished up his cone and walked inside the apartment to find his phone and wash the stickiness off his hands. He had Damien sit at his desk so he could use his ring light to get the correct effect and positioned him to gaze slightly off to the side with a sense of longing, as if he were gazing at something spectacular. He took a handful of photos with slight variations to the movement, and knew he’d made the right choice in asking.

“Perfect,” Aiden said with a smile. He sent the photos to his email so he could load them on his laptop. 

“What do you do with it?” Damien asked.

“Well, I typically like to freehand most of my stuff and only use references. For complicated portraits like this—especially for something as big as this—I trace the face shape and add the details on later so it looks more professional. You wanna see how I do it?”

“Yes, I would!” Damien said. He got up from the chair so Aiden could sit down. “What’s this portrait for?”

“The end of this story arc. The last panel of this chunk of the narrative is going to have a character—”

“Who?!”

Aiden smiled. He’d forgotten that Damien had read the entire comic already and he didn’t need to be vague about his handsome second-in-command’s journey of self-discovery at the princess’ side as they journey through the galaxy helping people in need. 

“It’ll be of Collus staring through the spaceship window as they head back to the kingdom—”

“They’re going back?! Already? That’s so fast! Is the series ending?”

“No, no, they just have a task there. But since Eiden and Collus haven’t been back home since Damianos’ coup it’s emotional, I need a lot of intensity in his stare. Like, he’s piloting them home and the last they saw of their kingdom it was under siege by an unstoppable force. They’ve grown a lot, and Collus is going to play a bigger role going forward, so it has to be right. This is going to help a ton.”

Damien watched a little too intensely as Aiden started to trace his face shape, adjusting little lines and angles as he went, until he was able to make a featureless head that somewhat resembled a human but looked really odd without the character’s signature hairstyle.

“Now I just go back in and add the details, flesh it out, then I add the flats and shading but I haven’t quite figured out the angle of the lighting yet. I forgot where they were in their solar system so I have no idea where the sun is. I need to break out my lore bible,” Aiden said with a nervous laugh.

“I’m so excited to see what happens,” Damien said as he slipped his hands into his hoodie pocket. “It’s on the right, by the way.”

Aiden turned to look at him. “What?”

“The sun, it’s to their right. Assuming this isn’t too far into the timeline after they split off from those survivors they helped rescue, they would have just left that planet. If they’re heading toward the kingdom it’ll be on the right.”

Aiden blinked a few times and pulled up his reference maps. “You’re right… How did you know that?”

Damien smiled. “Like I said, I enjoy the story… a lot. I might be a little ditzy but it’s one of those air headed-but-good-at-trivia kind of ditzy. I don’t forget small details of things I hyperfixate on, and Neon Promenade is kind of my new obsession. Is that weird?”

“No, not at all. Honestly it might help keep me on track,” Aiden said with a laugh. “I’ve been doing this for so many years now I feel like the smaller stuff slips my mind at times so I appreciate having a walking lore bible around who has just read the series.”

“Can I put that on my resume?”

Aiden thought about it for a second. “You know, I think we can find a way to work that in. Want to bring your laptop over and we can get that finished so you can go apply?”

“Would you mind?”

“Not at all.”

Damien nodded. He said he’d be right back and happily skipped—literally skipped—out of Aiden’s apartment to his own. When he was alone, Aiden let out a soft squeak that he had to muffle with his hood. His poor heart wouldn’t be able to take much more of this.