Soren stood in the middle of a freshly emptied room. They couldn't quite remember what was in here before, but they were certain there had been a desk and a small table. This had been one of Raven's rooms, so they hadn't had to worry much about it. Now though, Raven had asked about children and they'd absently agreed. So they'd been pushed into this room and told that they should "feel free to paint it however you like for the kids!"
Dutifully, they'd brought in paint and brushes, laid out the plastic to keep the floor clean, but now they were. . . at a loss. They didn't have siblings. They hadn't been a 'big sibling' at school. They had little to no experience with babies, or infants, or small kids. This wasn't something where they could just. . paint what they wanted or what inspired them, could they?
Raven had called it a nursery and a kids room. They'd looked at a few pictures of nurseries and of kids' rooms, and there wasn't really a specific way to do it. Most of the stuff had been bright colors or pastels with some sort of animal theme. It all seemed so. . .bland. The more interactive or interesting looking rooms had equipment that cost much more than the two of them were willing to pay so they were stuck.
They couldn't just. . paint the room all neat and have the furniture be all bland and boring? But they didn't want to paint the furniture to make it match. Maybe they could just.. . .paint one wall? They could do something like. . .
The flame of inspiration upon them now that they'd figured out something that would (hopefully) work, they dabbed their brush into paint and began. This wall would be the sky fading into sunset at the top, a mix of all the parent's colors and patterns. Caius was the warm sun and the brown of the furniture they'd pick out. Soren was the blue sky of a clear day and Raven was the stars along the top and edges, the night edging in after a long day. The rest of the walls could be a blue tinged with stars at the top and the 'sun' in the middle of the ceiling as their light.
Once they'd stopped focusing so much on what to give the child and how to behave for it they'd found inspiration. It took much longer than they'd originally expected to complete the wall, and they nearly had to separate it into two different sessions. Wiping the sweat from their forehead, Soren stepped back to take it all in. It was nearly their best work yet and when they turned to clean everything up, they caught sight of Raven giving them this teary, joyous look.
Blinking, because surely they hadn't been painting that long, Soren wasn't prepared for the kumiho to rush up to them and throw herself around them in a hug. After a moment's hesitation they returned it, even knowing that she'd have something to say about the paint smeared over their skin and now dappling her dress.
Word Count: 538
