Fire Emblem (Edgar Frog Fanfic)

Chapter 28: Admirable Anchors

Chapter 28: Seraphina's POV

A loud clatter sounds, causing me to spin around  to face the direction of the noise to see if  Sam had knocked something off the wall intentionally to freak me out. I turn back finding nothing out of place to send him a warning narrow of my eyes. "Hey. It wasn't me!" He raises his hands in surrender with a soft chuckle, nodding his head toward the door of his home. "It came from the outside." 

"The outside like your garden?" I inquire though it sounds ridiculous after falling past my lips. 

He shakes his head, stuffing one hand in his pocket while the other runs up and down the back of his head like he always does when he is nervous. "Outside like back where you belong. Outside of here in your head." He strolls over to the bookcase near his front door, pulling a bronze frame from the second top shelf. He turns the frame to face me after he's gotten beside me, "Where these two idiots live." 

A picture mom had taken of us at a 'family' dinner a couple years before Sam had gotten bit shows myself, Sam, Edgar, and Alan squished together in an upclose frame. A grin spreads across her lips before she reaches out and shoves her brother over for calling them 'idiots'. "I didn't think clattering would be their kind of thing in a hospital. They were loving to one another after Edgar killed Peter." 

"Thank whatever God there is that he did. That guy was a total dick." Sam mutters, walking back over to his bookshelf to put the frame back where it belongs. 

My eyes roam around the room again to take one last look when a canvas hanging on the wall near his hallway captures my attention, but I ask, "You met him?" 

"Yep. Wish I hadn't but before I went a little haywire, after I went haywire, and lastly after I'd jumped off from the crazy train. He came looking for me to help turn you and Edgar into vampires. To get you both on his side for his personal vampire slayers." I can hear the laughter in his tone so I don't bother to ask whether he'd considered turning us for the alpha because it's self-suggesting that he knew it was stupid. "What's got your attention?" 

My fingertips roam over familiar orange gold and cotton candy pinks of a setting sun then tracing downward toward the two figures making signs. I suddenly loses my breath, my heart racing in my chest as tears of joy rise in my eyes. "Where did you get this?" 

Suddenly from my peripherals, Sam is standing beside me, casually shrugging his shoulders though his arms cross over his chest. He leans back to get a full view of it, a stupid grin painting itself on his lips. "A favorite artist of mine. It's called 'The Promise of Forever'. Maybe you are familiar with it?" I can't tear my eyes away from the print of the painting I'd done in high school, my fingertips still brushing over the canvas from top to bottom. Stupid stuttering and half spoken words tumble from my lips as I try to find the right question to ask him as my heart swells in admiration of his appreciation for a piece he wasn't supposed to know existed. "I think the question you're looking for is 'How do you know it exists?'. And well, the answer is simple. I happened to stumble across the painting when it fell out of the confinement of your black denim coat. And I adored it. I also really adored the additional painting of Michael, you, and I at the dinner table learning to play poker. That one is hanging in my bedroom. Along with the one of Edgar, Alan, and I at the beach." 

I spin to face him, surprised he'd had all these paintings I'd done in my own isolation here with him. He'd never once mentioned knowing about any of these items- I'd often shown the group my paintings or drawing but never the ones that meant an abundance to me. I'd always been afraid to express my adoration for the simpler moments to find they didn't hold nearly the same amount of gratitude for it as I had. "But-" Tears rise to my eyes in happiness before I throw my arms around his neck and hold him close to me, unable to stare into the gentle blue eyes I've always known.