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JESSIE:This is all great! I'm happy for you. I gotta get back to painting but keep texting if youwant!

Kell looked at the time.He'd just gotten home, he had hours until Parker would be done with work. He groaned. He wanted to see him. With no new project due, Kell actually had some free time to kill before Parker would get off work, and any extra time he had was a gift he could use for doodling or working on personal projects. He decided he would paint something for Parker to give to him as a gift; a portrait. He didn't have any reference photos of Parker, but that was fine. He would use his own memory. With how vividly Parker appeared in his head, it'd be no problem atall.

He wentto his corner of painting supplies and dug out a small canvas, about two feet long, and placed it up on his easel. He moved the lamp that he and Parker had set up and put it next to his easel, and then brought over his paints and brushes. When he looked at the canvas he could already visualize the painting in his mind, and he dug out several tubes of paint from his box. Yellow ochre... cadmium red... cobalt blue... Prussian white... And several others. Then, he brought out his palette and began to squeeze dabs of color onto it. He worked quickly and confidently and began to blend the paint using his palette knife. He then grabbed a brush, and in heavy swipes began to put down big swashes of color onto the canvas to primeit.

Kell lovedthe zone he got into when painting, a meditative state of flow that carried him away from all other thoughts other than the task at hand. He was in that zone now, but this time his mind was also occupied by thoughts of Parker. His feelings for him were fueling his creativity, and he was becoming more and more excited as he painted, until it felt like pure glee was flowing out from within. He and Parker were together. It was such a crazy thing to think about, something he never could've imagined before. He was thrilled. He was excited to learn more about him, to crack a bit of the enigma that he was. And he was excited for the new realms of pleasure that he knew he would be experiencing withParker.

He still ached from earlier.The soreness thrummed through him, but it was a delicious soreness, like the kind imbued from a particularly good workout. And the itch—the one that seemed to have been building up deep inside—had been relieved, just a little bit. It was still there, of course, and he couldn't wait for Parker to scratch it again thatnight.

Kell grinnedas he thought about it, and his cock responded too. The things that he wanted to do to that man... and have done to him. Dirty things. Dirty, dirtythings.

Power couple.

He did like that title.Mostly, he just liked that they were acouple.

The scaffoldingof the portrait was starting to appear on the canvas. Parker's defined jawline was there, along with the shape of his eyes and the slight curl of his mouth. Kell took a step back to admire the emerging likeness, and then went in to start adding in the big blocks ofcolor.

He really liked him.He'd never had these kinds of feelings bloom up so powerfully before, and from seemingly out of nowhere. He'd never felt this way about anyonebefore.

Kell workedon the painting for a couple hours, until he was forced to stop when he ran out of red paint. He dug through his box, looking for another tube, but he was fresh out. He cut open the back of the rolled-up paint tube and extracted whatever leftovers were inside and dabbed them onto his palette, but it wouldn't be enough to complete the painting. He swore to himself, annoyed that he hadn't bought a replacement tube even though he'd known he was getting low. The apartment move had gotten him alldisorganized.

He had time.He could run to the art supply store and grab more and probably still have time to keep working before Parker gotback.