Outdrawn

by Deanna Grey

Noah's work helped get me through my fog a few months ago. At rock bottom, I'd turned to her comic, and it'd been the best thing about my day. My obsession with her characters was embarrassing to admit,

I kept myself amused by getting reactions out of Noah.

I wanted to scoff at how nice she sounded, how pretty she looked.

She looked at me now, those dark brown eyes confident. I didn’t know why they set a spark in my belly, the kind of spark I got when I have a long day of drawing ahead of me. Those kinds of days were the only ones I looked forward to.

She laughed, and I reveled in it. How many more ridiculous claims could I make in the next few minutes to get her to do that again?

Lots of things made me happy: art, perfectly seasoned rice, bike rides downtown, and now, apparently, making Sage smile because of something silly.

"If anyone was to capture my powers, I think I'd want it to be you,"

"Art needs that kind of bravery," Sage continued, gaze lingering on me for a moment. "Calls for more than one side of you. So, whatever you do and whoever you decide to be, make sure you try whatever calls to you with your head held high, and make sure you correct people when they try to tell you who you are. Because, trust me, they will always try."

"Of course I noticed my viper wasn't biting," she teased. Her viper?

A kiss would prove me wrong.

I didn't want to have to share her attention again. I wanted it to be us with a sea of people in the background for as long as it took for me to figure out if the urge to wrap my fingers around hers would wane all on its own.

It was official—flirting with Noah was ten times more fun than arguing with her.

"Sage?" Her voice lowered to a whisper. "Please, tell me how to help you. I want to help you. What do you need?" "You,"

"Falling in love with someone who wants everything I do in the art world isn't something I thought would ever happen," she continued. "So, yes, it was hard, and I couldn't vocalize that immediately. The conflicting emotions made me defensive. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"Because I know I want to be with you," she said firmly. "I know I want to see your smile and hear your voice every day. I know I want to help you feel seen and heard. I know not a day goes by when I won't work hard to give you everything you deserve. I know that you want me to have everything I deserve. You're never going to make things easy. You'll never sugar coat things. I know when we're together, we are petty assholes, but we're also something beautiful, something far bigger than the art. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Noah, we can be bigger than the art. I know that."

"All I know is that I want to be with you," I whispered. "Even with all this fear, I want to be with you." "Then that's enough," she promised. "Knowing that is more than enough."