"Dae...?" she said warningly, not turning around.
The Eden child froze, eyes wide and heart fluttering as he wrung the edge of the paper in his fingertips. How had she known??
"Dae, honey, what are you doing?" she asked, turning to look at him slowly, not wanting him to think he was in trouble. Yet. It depended on what was broken or what had spilled that he was now attempting to creep away from. When he was within her line of sight, a pathetic scene was already playing itself out.
Dae was clutching the smeared and gobbed paper to his chest, lip trembling, wings vibrating, and eyes swimming with tears as he goggled up at his adopted mother. It was enough to melt even the hardest of hearts, and Karma's was comparable to a marshmallow when it came to her younger kids.
"Oh Dae....sweetie, don't cry..." she crooned, dropping to her knees in front of him to gently wipe his tears. "I'm not mad, okay...?"
Dae didn't seem convinced as a tear rolled unbidden down his cheek as though any minute she was going to launch off into a tirade at him. Trying to diffuse the situation before it got much worse, Karma directed her attention to the paper.
"Is that your painting?" she asked. "Can I see?"
His frown deepened and he twisted to the right to try and hide the painting. He didn't want her to see the mess he'd made...it wasn't even a picture!
"....please? I bet its really pretty...." Karma goaded. Dae hesitated for a long moment, his resolve crumbling easily as, little by little, bit by bit, he surrendered the paper to her and allowed her to take it from him.
Karma studied it with a smile, feeling nostalgic of the fingerpaint pictures Raven and Kendall would do for her when they were Dae's age. The meaningless loops of color and splotches were such that only a small child could be capable of them.
"Oh Dae, its beautiful!" she said, giving an exaggerated motherly gasp. He blinked twice, surprised by this reaction. She wasn't going to yell at him for making a mess...?? "In fact, its SO beautiful, I think we need to put it where everybody can see it." she added, examining it quickly to make sure the paint had dried enough so that it wouldn't drip. "What do you think of that, kiddo?"
It was hard to tell WHAT Dae thought of it as he stared at her with his fathomless grey eyes, watching as she stood again, carrying his picture over to the fridgerator and magneting it firmly in place on the freezer. "There!" she smiled. "Just wait'll Ken gets done rotting his mind on those video games long enough to come in and scrounge for dinner. I bet he'll think its pretty too!"
Dae approached the fridge and stared up at the painting hanging there proudly. Mom still had some of Raven, Kendall, and Arkie's pictures haphazardly on the fridge from when they were younger, but this was the first time anything of HIS had been given a place of honor. His wings vibrated and fluttered on his shoulders, lifting him an inch off of the ground before dropping him back to his feet.
Maybe sometimes mistakes COULD be beautiful...
