Not a member of defy_ka with this journal. Oops. So the random AU thread goes here instead!

[steelartisan]

Piotr is ensconced on a rock outside Milliways, with a large sketchpad in his lap and a pencil case sitting on his empty bag.

He's working with charcoal at the moment, and from memory. The image slowly taking shape is that of a woman, with long pale hair in a braid and a lopsided half-sad smile.

Comments

[joiningyousoon]

There is a woman with remarkably similar facial structure heading his way now. Her hair may be cut short, the ends waving against her jaw with the breeze, and her eyes may be a flat white, but the biggest difference -- between the live woman and the one on the page -- is the cast of her face. The woman in the drawing is full of quiet resignation and old sorrow. This woman is smiling quietly to herself, and there is no sadness in it.

Maya's hands are in her coat pockets. She still wears her old greatcoat, from time to time, though only at Milliways (there are too many old memories associated with the uniform, for many in the Citadel), and she has stripped all rank insignia from it. It's really too warm for the coat, she is thinking, just as she spots the familiar broad-shouldered figure sitting on a rock, and she detours in his direction.

(Her smile strengthens.)

[steelartisan]

She's close before he notices. Piotr's used to paying attention to his surroundings, but he's not on edge here, and he's focused on his drawing. The edge of the woman's jawline is being difficult, and he's a perfectionist.

But he does notice, and when he sees her he smiles.

[joiningyousoon]

She slips a hand out of her pocket to wave, and then figures that while that arm is out of the way, she might as well get rid of the coat; she shrugs it off as she walks closer.

"Privyet, Piotr," she says, and she tosses her coat at the foot of the rock. "Working on a new masterpiece today?"

[steelartisan]

"Privyet, Maya."

His smile is more of a grin, for a moment, amused and self-deprecating both.

"It is sketching only. How are you today?"

He doesn't turn the sketchpad to show her, but neither does he make any effort to hide it.