#ash actually gave herself most of her tattoos and johnny some of his

[wellscanthemback]

MERWeek2018 Day 2: Pictures and Moments

Pairing: Female Shepard & Admiral David Anderson

Timeline: Mass Effect 3 [with Universe Alterations]

Notes: Day 2 for MERWeek2018: Mostly from Anderson’s POV. There is no way my Jane would not send him a vid-chat or bombard his Omni-tool with photos. Afterall, Anderson was always sending her embarrassing childhood photos and vids of herself during her venture against Saren back from when they lived together for a short period before briefly returning to the streets before she was old enough to join the Alliance.

--In my personal canon, [War Hero] Jane Shepard is Earth 'raised’  and is the younger twin of [Ruthless] John Shepard is Space ’raised’ as is their younger half-sister [Sole-Survivor] Cryda (cree-da) Shepard who was raised mostly as a Colonist though all were Spaceborn. Hannah Shepard is their Mother. Admiral Hackett is the Father of the twins (I’ll divulge that later).

-Jane is my canon Shepard.

He was exhausted. Earth was exhausted. How many had they saved compared to what was lost? The Reapers were overwhelming them faster than they could count the days.

He often wondered what would have happened if he had left Earth with the Commander. After their briefing before he decided to give her his Citadel apartment, after being kicked in the ass by Cerberus, she had gone downhill fast. He’d received a report from Joker or at least he thought it was Joker. Something was kicking him in the ass that said it wasn’t Joker’s report, though this one he had received faster than the speed of light, surprisingly fast considering their last was received two months after it was sent. His worst fears confirmed as he read Shepard’s mental health was deteriorating due to the amount of stress this war had put her under and according to a medical report attached she showing signs of deep depression and PTSD to the point it was affecting her physical and mental health more than ever.

“Admiral Anderson!” The shout of his name broke him out of his thoughts.  He looked up to see the young soldier entering the room.

 “What is it, lieutenant?” He called over and the man looked up.

 “A message from the citadel, sir!” He explained as he hovered his Omni-tool over to Anderson who received the message.

 It was always a relief to receive a message from familiars, or at least he hoped it was a familiar. “Who from?”

 “Commander Shepard I believe, Sir. It has attachments.” The young man explained with bright eyes. The same bright eyes heard from anyone who hears about Commander Shepard. Anderson felt his stomach do a kick and flip. As his eyes quickly snapped to his own Omni-tool.

 “Dammit, I hope she hasn’t gotten herself into trouble again.” He cursed quietly but loud enough for the Lieutenant to hear, he looked up, “If you ever meet the Commander, you’ll understand.”

 “Sir?” The poor man was confused now.

 “Remind me to tell you about her first reconnaissance mission.” He said playfully, chuckling t the memory. Then he cleared his throat, “Dismissed.”

 “Admiral.” The man saluted and left, though disappointed at the lack of information. As Anderson sat down and waited for complete silence in the room before opening up the vid and he was greeted by static. Shit! Dammit! Come on work!

 “Alright everyone, let me talk!” He chuckled as Shepard’s voice cut through the static and the picture appeared and he was greeted in surprise by Jane Shepard smiling happily, compared to her weary state on the Citadel Apartment complex over the vid-com, “Hey, Anderson. I hope you’re still kicking ass down there!”

 Joker’s voice cut through from the behind her, “hey, that’s my line!”

 “Your point?” came the Commander’s cocky reply.

 Joker grumbled something unintelligible as everyone laughed. A female voice reached his ears, “Jeff, behave.” It wasn’t a voice he recognised. Anderson could recognise the Quarian Tali’Zorrah and the Turian Garrus Vakarian. Kaidan and Joker were there, along with Steve Cortez and James Vega. Samantha Taylor, the Asari Dr Liara Tsoni, there was another Asari, an Asari Justicar, he recalled, Samara, was there as well.

Some were heard but out of earshot. “Just wanted to thank you again for the apartment, Joker suggested a party and luckily, so far, things haven’t gotten out of hand. Keeping Grunt and Wrex under control is simply the main task in not breaking anything.”

 There was another woman on the screen, Miranda Lawson, former Cerberus he believed he was told, another man with dark skin appeared beside her, Jacob Taylor, also former Cerberus. Both were grinning at Shepard. The heavily tattooed woman was Jack, she was working with Kahlee at the Grissom Academy was also smiling at her. He spied the two Krogan in the back, along with the mercenary, Zaeed Massani, whom Shepard told him about. There was a woman in the shadows, whom he didn’t recognise but guessed it was the thief he had heard about; the one who travelled with Shepard during her fight against the Collectors. Shepard was moving her Omni-tool around to capture everyone with her. Damn, Jane. I hope you’re not getting into too much trouble up there.

 “What was that, Liara?” Shepard called, “Is Javik alright?”

 “He’ll be fine, I just don’t think he can control his alcohol intake.” Was the Asari’s reply as an unidentified alien appeared with her on screen, what the hell is that? Shepard glanced back at the screen, “Oh, you haven’t been told about Javik, he’s a Prothean, a living Prothean.”

 “Yes, the last living Prothean.” He grumbled in the back and Anderson’s eyes widened, “You primitives always state the obvious.”

 “And our new friend and ally against the Reapers,” Shepard chuckled, making the Prothean stutter, “he’s okay once you get to know him.”

 She has a Prothean and two god damn Krogan in the apartment… dammit, Shepard! And you wonder why I worry?

 “Don’t worry, Admiral. We’ve got Shepard under control.” Kaidan said as though he could read Anderson’s mind and the colour of Shepard’s face began to clash with her hair.

 “Really, Kaidan?” she cursed, her face grew darker as Kaidan kissed her cheek. Anderson blinked, I’ll have a few words for you the next time we meet, Major, that I can guarantee you he thought darkly before blinking at an unintelligible shout from behind them and spun around, Shepard snapping “Joker, you can shut up too!”

 “Calm down, Shepard,” Garrus cut through, “We all know who really breaks things around here.”

 “Wow, Garrus. Thanks,” she muttered sarcastically, to which Anderson chuckled. Then another face appeared, dark hair and blue eyes, Jane gave him a look, “Don’t even start, Johnny.”

 John Shepard, her twin brother. The two may not look even remotely alike, well, save a couple of facial similarities and mannerisms. The two were twins. Jane, the Hero of the Skyllian Blitz and John, the Butcher of Torfan. Anderson couldn’t say he was surprised to see the two had reconciled after the whole Collector business. He wondered if the same could be said about Hannah Shepard and Admiral Hackett. John had held his hands up in self-defence. “I’m saying nothing, Janie.” Before looking at the cam, “Hey Anderson, Cryda told me to say hi the next we saw you!”

 “I can tell him myself, Johnny!” yelled the voice of the young woman in question as she appeared behind the twins, grinning and waving at the Camera, “Hey Admiral!”

 Cryda Shepard was their younger sister; half-sister. The girl spent most of her time being schooled on Mindoir as she preferred solid ground to Spacecraft before the place was attacked by mercs. The girl was lucky, she’s a Shepard and a spitting image of her older sister despite being ten years younger. They hang tight despite their different choices. Jane grew up on Earth, John luckily remained with his Mother in Space and Cryda preferred to be amongst the Colonists and was studying Colonism, three Shepards and all three were very different, how the hell were they all even related?

 Jane turned back to the cam’s face, “Wish you were here, Anderson. We have everyone here, except a select few who were unable to attend. Karin’s busy with work or so she says, and as for Ash, Mordin, Thane and Legion. I’m sure they’re watching down on us.” She went silent for a moment before shaking it off. “Hackett will be taking John and Cryda after this is over, I’m going to be needed at the front line.”

 “Are you ever going to call him 'Dad' , Janie,” John called from off-screen to which Jane rolled her eyes, and Kaidan glared at the off-screen man. Nope, still not going well. Jane had still blocked Hackett out of that part of her life.

 Jane cleared her throat, “Whether you actually receive this still remains to be seen though, still, you’re missing one hell of a party! So I’ll send you all the pictures we had Glyph take over the course of the night along with any we all may have taken. Save some Reapers asses for me to kick when we reach Earth. I’ll have the entire Galaxy behind me and we will beat them, I know we will and we’ll do all do it together!”

 There was an eruption of cheers from behind her and a crowd of arms washed over the red-haired woman in the centre of the screen and at that, a wide grin broke across her face. Anderson froze and instinctually paused the screen to take in what he was seeing. Never in all his years that he had known Commander Jane Shepard, had ever seen her seen her smile like that. After her defeat on Thessia… Joker had said in their last briefing that she was going downhill, and fast. Yet, here she was, as though the world were normal, as though there wasn’t a war going on. Smiling and laughing with her crew... no, her friends, her family. She’d come a long way from Earth, snatched from her family and living on the streets of Humanity’s homeworld. He was proud of her, more than he would be able to express.

 He sat there silently, taking in the image. That was the woman she was supposed to be. “I’m proud of you, child,” came the whisper, and a smile etched on his face as he blinked away the glazing of his eyes, clearing his throat before clicking play.

 Her laughter echoing through the speaker, “We miss you, I miss you! We’ll have another once this is all over! Promise! Shepard out.”

 The vid ended on her last smile, and he smiled at the last image. Before recalling there was an attachment and after locating it, well, he just wasn’t expecting his Omni-tool to be overloaded with a wave of over a hundred images. “Jesus Christ, Shepard.”

 How long did he have? For that moment he didn’t care and scrolled through every single one. His suspicions confirmed the presence of each individual he had seen or thought he had seen, save the robotic VI EDI who had not been in camera range however he was sure it was her voice he had heard somewhere in the vid. Probably the one scolding Joker? Jane was seen with each individual, hugging and kissing and joking around. He paused on this particular one with Kaidan caught in a standstill with Shepard in his arms. The way the man looked at her as though she were the greatest treasure to be found. Perhaps for the young Major, she was. However, he realised then that it never clicked in his mind two to three years ago, after the SR1 was destroyed that Kaidan wasn’t just grieving for a Commander or friend. He was grieving for his lover, for the woman he loved. Anderson sighed. At least they took the chance before it was too late.

 One thing stood out in the pictures though. She was smiling. She was laughing. She was happy. That’s what this woman’s life should have been like all this time. She should have been smiling, long ago. She should have been happy, laughing and joking with friends and family. Heck, if she wasn’t with the Alliance could have been raising her own family. She should have been safe and happy, away from all the war and fighting.

 Even as a child, he’d never seen her smile like that. A tiny little red-haired child who had stood out amongst the gaggle of children in that children’s home. Those big wide green eyes full of wonder as she had looked up at him. He was barely a decorated Alliance Soldier himself. He had placed one of his own medals, one he earned for his part in the First Contact War, on her little white t-shirt bearing the alliance emblem.

 “How will I give it back to you?” She asked innocently, truthfully, he had not expected to get it back after placing it on her.

 “The day you join the Alliance Military,” He told her, as she fiddled with it, lifting her chin to look at him, “I’ll be there waiting.” It resulted in her standing up straight, saluting him with a tiny “yes, sir.” Possibly the cutest thing anyone had ever seen if the awes from the soldiers behind him were anything to go by… nope, definitely cute and he had a picture to prove it and tease his former XO about. The next he saw her was on the streets, a chance encounter in the Metropolis café, over three and half years after meeting her. No shoes, muddied and tangled hair. Dirty clothes… the same t-shirt… and his medal. It hung on her, she had lost a lot of weight. He wondered what might have become of her if he hadn’t intervened and stopped the café owner from chasing her off. He didn’t like to think of it. Though, he wasn’t sure how he’d have to actually explain to the Alliance that he had taken in a random child off the street. What would he have said? He’d lost count of the days, weeks, months, the years he’d spent looking after her before the Alliance eventually called him in. He’d left her alone for a few short hours. A thirteen-year-old girl, who knew not to open the door to strangers and knew how to use a gun, what was the worst that could happen?

 He found out when he got home after explaining his situation and discovered his apartment had been trashed, a man in Alliance uniform with a bullet in his head and little Jane was gone. He never thought he’d be spending the next few years searching the streets for the little red-haired girl. The man in uniform wasn’t even a real Alliance Soldier but an infiltrator… a Merc. His CO called the search off. The man was unlikely to be alone and there were more than half a dozen kids on the streets. He never forgave himself for that.  The look on his face, as Jane attempted to describe years later, the day she turned up in front of him. Fresh in uniform, the same big green eyes full of wonder and that future she held in her hands and what was the first thing she did, she placed the medal back on his shirt and saluted him. He didn’t even speak as he embraced her. He wasn’t sure she’d gotten over the embarrassment… but neither could he get her to tell her what happened that day he’d left her alone. She could only say, “It wasn’t your fault.”

 Anderson sighed as he returned his eyes to his Omni-tool. The next photo was of all of them together in the living area in front of the piano. He smiled at that. She was with the people who had followed her to hell and back. Who loved and believed in her. He exhaled quietly, she was where she belonged.

The last image was of Shepard alone. She just stood there in her N7 hooded jumper smiling at the camera. The image showed him a woman who looked as though she had never seen the worst of a battle or was even in the middle of a war. It showed the woman who looked as though she had had the best years of her life and was content where she was. That was his baby girl. Blood or not... That was... No, 'is' his kid! His child.

 Anderson felt a wetness fall down his face and exhaled sharply as he wiped his eyes, I’m proud of you, Jane and I promise this to you, child. On my own life… I’ll be there to make sure you live through this.

#merweek2018 #Mass Effect Relationships Week 2018 #female shepard #david anderson #mass effect 3 #mass effect trilogy #that was a fanfic

[gvbejvmes]

Drabble: Gabe & Nattie go to Art School

Warnings: PG-13 Relationships: Gabe/Johnny, Gabe/Jillynn, Gabe/Nancy, Gabe&Georgie Characters: Gabe, Natalie, Bella, Johnny, Jillynn (mentioned), Nancy (mentioned), Georgie (mentioned)

Gabe had done some weird things in his life, but he definitely had to say that pushing a stroller through an art trade show on his way to teach a master class was definitely up there. Not only was it surreal, but the fact that there was a six year old perched on a skateboard looking thing attached near the handles definitely made things interesting. This wasn’t Bella’s first time having to sit through an art show. Most days she was attached to his hip. This was, however, Natalie’s first art show.

“Uncle Gabe, are you famous?” She asked as she looked around at all the booths as they were escorted across the main floor.

“Sort of.” He said with a small shrug, not looking down at his soon-to-be step-daughter and instead scanning the area so he doesn’t mow anyone down. 

Natalie nodded for a moment. “‘Cause Delia’s on TV?”

He blinked. “No.” He said, not liking where this was going.

“‘Cause you used to be married to someone who’s on the news a lot?” 

“No!” He said, now feeling offended. “I’m good at art. So people who like art, and want to be good at art, too, know who I am and I’m famous to them.”

She nodded as they came to a stop in front of a huge vertical banner outside of a ballroom. Gabriel James: Using Alternative Materials in Painting. Underneath it was a painting of a woman’s back made entirely out of liquefied glass. “Uncle Gabe.” Natalie breathed out, bending so she could look up at him. “Did you make that?” She asked staring at the screen-printed rendition of his art.

Gabe couldn’t help but snort. “Don’t sound so surprised, little girl. I am capable of doing things other than just coloring with you.” He said before ruffling her hair affectionately.

“Mr. James?” One of the volunteers greeted them. “I’ve been assigned to help you and your little helpers get set up before the master class begins.” They were lead into the ballroom where half of it looked set up for a seminar, and  the other half looked like an Art 101 classroom. 

As soon as they were inside, Natalie took off running towards an area off to the side of the stage where a couple of his new pieces were waiting. They were going to be shown off here before they hit the gallery showing next week. “Same rules apply here as in my studio at home. Don’t touch anything unless I say you can.” He called out before parking the stroller next to the stage. He glanced inside to check that Bella was still asleep. 

“Your kids are adorable.” The volunteer said before pulling out a folder with his and the girls’ badges and the schedule.

He laughed. “My kids are all full-grown: 27, 25, and almost 23. The sleeping one is my granddaughter. The one running around is my future step-daughter. And my cousin; don’t ask. But I’ll tell their moms that you said so.” He said with a warm smile before pinning his all access badge on and then pinning on Bella’s to her sleeping form.

“Nat, come here.” He called out, waving the badge. “You need a badge to go with the bracelet they gave us when we came in.” 

As he pinned the badge to her, the volunteer started talking. “We followed the plans you sent over for the display of your new pieces, but we don’t think we assembled the installation piece correctly, and wanted you to look at it before it’s displayed. After the seminar and the class they will be moved out into the instructors’ gallery. We also got a couple of your older pieces on loan from the collectors - Aphrodite, Ares, and Narcissus. And of course we received Apollo & Artemis when your newer pieces came. These will also be moved to the gallery after the seminar and will remain on display throughout the show.” Suddenly another person popped into the room, and the volunteer shot Gabe an apologetic look. “I’ll be right back. Can you check on the placement of your pieces?”

Once Gabe was alone with the kids, he took Natalie by the hand. “Come on. I’ll show you things I made.” He said leading her over to an area of the ballroom he hadn’t noticed before. The four paintings the assistant had talked about were in a row, perched on easels with a grumpy looking man  standing near by, obviously the supposed security guard of some kind. 

They stopped in front of Narcissus, which was the painting from the banner. It was a naked woman seen only from behind stepping into a pool of water. It was liquefied glass poured and painted onto wood. “Was that a real person?” Natalie asked as she stared up at the painting.

“It’s DJ and CJ’s mom.” Gabe affirmed before moving her to stand in front of Ares. 

This one was only a couple of years old, and wasn’t on display in someone’s collection so much as it was purchased because someone didn’t want a picture of their ass hanging in a stranger’s living room. It was dyed ash painted onto an acid washed canvas. A man was stepping into flames, and like Narcissus, it was a nude body from behind. He didn’t necessarily want this one here, but it was part of the set. The only painting missing was Zeus & Hera, but that had been an issue with the collector not wanting it on display. 

“That’s a boy butt.” Natalie said before bursting into giggles. “Is that Uncle Johnny?” She asked in a whisper. 

Gabe groaned. Between Natalie and Bella, he swore to God. “Mr. Johnny. That man is not your uncle any more. He’s Mr. Johnny now.” He corrected, sounding a little annoyed that all the little kids in his life were traitors. “And yes, but he doesn’t like people knowing that.” 

He then moved Natalie to stand in front of Aphrodite. This one was slightly different. It’d been painted out of different shades of lipstick on top of a faded out mirror. It was still was from behind, but the woman had been painted so her face wasn’t seen, but the swell of one of her breasts was. She was stepping onto the petal of a flower.

“Is that my mom?” Natalie asked in awe. “How mad at you is she that someone has her butt and booby in their house?” She asked with a slight giggle.

Gabe rolled his eyes. “This one is actually at the Museum of the Goddess. It’s a small, liberal, hippy museum. It’s mostly Wiccans and lesbians checking her out.” He said with a shrug.

When Gabe didn’t walk her to stand in front of the last one, she walked herself over to stand in front of Apollo & Artemis. This one was two people merged together like the original Greek interpretation of soulmates. The male half had been painted out of a rainbow of different crayons melted down. The female half was painted out of different shades of blue crayons. They were stepping into the woods, and their faces were turned so you could see the outlines of their faces as the looked at each other.

“Is that you and Aunt G?” Natalie asked him, sounding awed. It looked like she wanted to touch it, and because it was the only one of the four that he hadn’t had it in him to sell, he nodded in approval. Natalie’s fingertips gently traced over his and Georgie’s forms. “How come you look more like aliens than people? And you don’t have any tattoos. The one of Uncle Johnny’s butt has a tattoo.”

Gabe pinched the bridge of his nose. Jill was going to murder him if Natalie kept calling Johnny ‘Uncle Johnny.’ Sighing, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and let her over to the installation piece to see what was going with it. “Little girl, you gotta stop calling that man your uncle.”

Later

There was the buzz of art students outside of the ballroom and all the pieces had been checked and double-checked. The make-shift studio was set-up to his specifications, and Natalie was dressed in a little smock so she wouldn’t come home covered in melted candle wax when she ‘helped’ with his class after the seminar. It wasn’t until Gabe and the girls were ushered into a makeshift greenroom made out of room dividers next to the stage that Bella woke up from her nap and wouldn’t stop crying.

“Bella, I gotta put you down, okay? We brought your playpen. You can watch Grandpa from the stage, but I’m gonna need to put you down.” He tried to reason with the toddler.

“Nooooooo” She whined, burying her face into the crook of his neck. “Grandpa can’t go. I need you. I have to potty.” 

Gabe sighed, and it was then that the volunteer appeared. “I can take her if you’d like, Mr. James. We have a tight schedule to keep.” She told him, looking frazzled.

He ran his free hand over his mouth before shaking his head. “I’ll take her. She won’t go with you. Stall or something. I’ll be right back.” He looked at Natalie. “Come on, Nat. I can’t leave you alone.”

The little girl shook her head. “I wanna stay with your paintings. Miss-” She looked at the volunteer’s name badge. “Bonnie will keep an eye on me. It’s just five minutes.” 

Sighing, he knew he’d lost this one. “Fine. Stay with Bonnie the whole time, okay?”

“I won’t go anywhere other than the stage.”

Something about that comment should have concerned him, but it didn’t.

Ten Minutes Later

As Gabe walked back into the the ballroom, it sounded like someone else had started the master class. What? Raising an eyebrow, he placed Bella into her playpen with her headphones and her iPad before giving Bonnie a very confused look. “Where’s Natalie?” He asked very slowly, already having a feeling he knew exactly where she was.

“She decided to start the workshop for you. She’s the cutest!” 

Raising an eyebrow, he stepped out of the greenroom and onto the stage where he could see Natalie. She was sitting on what he assumed was his stool, a microphone in her hand while the audience ate out of the palm of her hand. “Gabe says it doesn’t matter if other people think your art is pretty. If you think your art is pretty that’s enough. Or if it’s supposed to be ugly, then rock that shit.”

Gabe ran a hand over his mouth as the audience laughed. Natalie was quoting her verbatim. Oh, Jill was going to murder him for sure. 

“It’s not important what other people think of your art - as long as you think it’s fucking awesome.”

There was another loud laugh, and that was when Gabe decided it was his time to take the stage. Lord only knew what was going to come out of Natalie’s mouth next. He took the microphone from one of the volunteers and quietly walked onto the stage, a finger to his lips so the audience wouldn’t give away that he was walking across the stage.

“And you gotta be true to yourself and not care about the haters ‘cause they suck anyway.”

Gabe almost laughed, but he waited until he was standing right behind Natalie before he brought the microphone up to his mouth. “But the most important thing is to chase your truth no matter how weird it might be.”

Natalie all about jumped out of her skin. She spun around and looked at Gabe with a sheepish smile. “Hi, Gabe!” She greeted and there was a cheer.

“Can we make some noise for my almost step-daughter?” He asked the crowd of artists appeased him with a series of cheers and clapping. The little girl all but scrambled off the stool, but Gabe stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Where do you think you’re going? Can we get another stool up here?” 

As a stool was brought out two things happened at once. The door opened and a latecomer walked into the ballroom. And Bella somehow managed to get out of her playpen and was wandering down one of the aisles. Jesus Christ, this day was one thing right after another. Before he could even react, Bella suddenly screamed out: “MR. JAY! GRANDPA JAAAAAAAAAAY!” And of course she then launched herself at the person who had just come into the ballroom. He barely had time to catch the confused and startled look on Johnny’s face before Bella was suddenly in his arms. 

“Don’t worry. That wild child also belongs to me.” He allowed himself to shoot a lopsided grin in Johnny’s direction before tacking on: “And that’s actually her other Grandpa. More or less.” 

He took the stool from the volunteer, and settled down next to Natalie. In the distance he could see Bella tugging Johnny to where she wanted to sit, but he tried to focus on what was left of his master class time and not on everything going on around him. “Now, I want to be vain and assume everyone here is familiar with my work and my style, but just in case you have no idea who I am and just wanted to learn something new today, I’m going to have Nattie here tell you about each of the paintings that I brought with me today.” 

The projector behind them suddenly turned on, and Gabe nodded at Natalie to turn on the stool so she could see what was behind them. When the first painting came into focus, she giggled. “This one is called Narcissy-” “Narcissus” “And is of Aunt Satan, but that’s not really her name. That’s just what Gabe and CJ and DJ call her. Gabe poured glass onto wood and he had to be super careful ‘cause it was hot and ‘cause glass cools like really really fast and he wasn’t as good at art then and he has a scar on his hand now ‘cause it got too hot.”

There was laughter, and Gabe nodded for the next slide to appear. “What’s this one about?” He asked, and honestly this was easier than all the focus being on him.

“This one is called Aphrodite ‘cause that’s the goddess of love and being pretty, and Gabe thinks my mommy is the prettiest girl in the whole wide world. And that’s my mommy by the way. And I don’t know why he used lipstick other than ‘cause he was thinking about kissing her a lot. And her booby is out because he likes her boobies.”

There was more laughter, and Gabe couldn’t help but hide his face in his hands. He wasn’t sure if he was never bringing her to another one of these again or if he was going to bring her to all of them. The artists all seemed to love her. “I’m afraid to have her describe the next one.” He said as he nodded for the next painting to be shown.

Natalie giggled at the next painting. “That’s a boy butt. It’s Uncle Johnny’s butt. Hi, Uncle Johnny!!!” She waved into the audience, and Gabe did not hide his laugh at the look on Johnny’s face or how Bella waved back for him. “But it’s made out of ash that Gabe died different colors and I think Gabe chose ash ‘cause he and Uncle Johnny fought a lot a lot when they were married. And Uncle Gabe said Ares is the God of War and that’s why he named it that. I just think he wanted an excuse to draw Uncle Johnny’s butt. He really liked Uncle Johnny’s butt. I heard him tell Daddy once that Uncle Johnny has the most fuck-”

Gabe all but slapped his hand over Natalie’s mouth. “Now that’s enough of that.” The laughter was so loud that Gabe didn’t think he was going to be able to get control of the audience again. “Put up the next one.” He said, sounding flustered. 

His hand was pushed away and Natalie stared up at the next painting dreamily. “This one is my favorite. It’s named after twins with weird names.” She said. “Aunt G was Gabe’s favorite person in the whole wide world, and she died before I got to meet her. He loved her more than anyone else in the world. They were best friends, and he used crayons ‘cause they used to color together and she always told him that he should be himself. This one is his favorite, too.”

Suddenly feeling a lump in his throat, he reached out and placed a kiss on the top of Natalie’s head. “Thanks, little girl. Can we get another round of applause for Nattie and her mostly accurate descriptions of my paintings?” There was clapping and cheering. “Go ahead and have a seat with Bella and Uncle Johnny.” He realized what he said and winced, but it was too late. Rolling his eyes, he pushed Natalie off to sit down with Bella. “And, Nattie, leave the mic.”

There was laughter again, and Gabe addressed the audience again. “Alright, now let’s talk about how to paint with things other than paint.”

#Drabble #pairing: Gabe/Jill #pairing: Gabe/Johnny