An explanation made Chéri reach a conclusion that was perhaps a bit shallow, but appropriate for someone who was no painter “Then you must be lucky. Or maybe, you are steel learning how to find beauty into more things. And people,” they theorised, with a simple smile.

Chéri nodded and pointed their fingers in the air, with an excessively triumphant smile “That. That was what I meant. The attention,” they tried to add. It was too much of a subtle concept for their sad language skills to explain. Chéri shrugged “And why would you help them?” the question sounded rhetoric even to them. They shook their head “No, you should be with people who like you,” they concluded. Maybe it wasn’t a universal truth or a truth universally acknowledge, but they still felt like in Darius position it was the most reasonable course of action.

A shurg “I didn’t say never. I didn’t even say often. But sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I am not there. Sometimes I am training because I care about my body being able to dance when I want to dance. It will forget if I wait for the whim and the more I get used to it, the more demanding I will get with my mood. Discipline is more important than that,” they repeated the words of their old ballet master like they would the gospel, without any hesitation. Darius was still in the picture, for good or for worse.

A nod. Beauty and elegance, Chéri could work with that. He could work with Paris. But it was the better human that got them. They put both their hands under their chin and flickered their lashes “An angel,”they said, not without irony, but also putting some extra sweetness in their voice. What they didn’t say, was how much exercise and effort it had cost them, to learn to command their body like that and to push it to that limit of power and grace. Effortlessness was a much more attractive look for them.

Darius showed his toys and Chéri couldn’t help but think that while the man certainly had a lot to express, a great deal of love, and enthusiasm, it also looked like he was trying to distract himself. It wasn’t a bad thing per se, but Chéri thought it made his statements incomplete. They had a sort of confirmation when Darius reacted like that. The man wasn’t at peace with his body.

Chéri repeated the gesture “Oh, you could feel it? Like this?” they then followed his jaw, drawing the bone under the skin and the beard “Or is it more of a throat thing?” they asked, as their fingers wondered down Darius’s neck “Some also do feel it in their stomach…” they kept saying, as their voice got huskier and their eyes stayed big, cheerful and innocent. Only their smile suggested they knew exactly what they were doing, but the contradiction made it easy to ignore it if one wished to.