My Last Dive [Made in Abyss Fanfiction]

22| Rainfell

I sat at the kitchen table, orange evening sunlight mixing with the overhead lights that spilled down onto the sketchbook before. My brow was furrowed in concentration as I drew, carefully outlining the petals I had sketched beforehand. With a small sigh, I dropped the pencil, causing Aedia to look up from her notes.

   "Everything okay?" she asked.

   "Just finished," I replied. She held out her hand expectantly, and I slid my sketchbook over to her. Her eyebrows lifted in surprise and delight when she saw the Eternal Fortune bloom I'd spent the past hour or so on.

   "Len, this looks great!" She brought the sketchbook closer to her face, examining the drawing closely. "Look at the flecks you put on the petals. You've been doing this for what, a little over a year? You've come so far." She began flipping through more pages, looking at my other drawings.

   I rubbed the back of my neck, smiling sheepishly. "Shading still eludes me, unfortunately. But thank you." Had it already been that long? It seemed like yesterday when I first started drawing with Llyr. Then again, when hadn't it felt like time had flown by?

   "Wait, you drew this too?" She was looking at a drawing of a forest clearing on the Second Layer. It wasn't anything too special, with more of my attention going to an unsuccessful attempt at dappled-looking shading with the leaves. I was proud of how I drew the tree roots though, far cries from the "dandelions" I was first producing.

   "Don't say that like you haven't been busy," I said, nodding to the small pile of paper near her own sketchbook. "You'll be able to start putting together your notes for your book, right?" More of our savings than usual were used for Aedia to pay off willing participants in her research, but after my first delve to the Fourth Layer, I felt comfortable letting Aedia use some of our money like that.

   She nodded. "Hopefully I can by the end of the year. Even then, I'll still want to get more information before I really set anythin' in stone, but I know I can't make a compilation of everything on the first two layers, there's just so much! Still, the samples you and Llyr bring up have really helped."

   "And we'll have more for you soon," I added.

   A slight frown crossed Aedia's face before it was replaced by a more noticeable smile. "Oh yeah, you guys are going to delve to the Second Layer next week. It seems like Melva and Llyr are getting along better too."

   "It's more because I want to delve with Llyr but don't want to go without Melva as well, so I force them both together," I said with an awkward laugh. "But they have been getting along better. Llyr actually makes conversation with her on his own once in a while now." It felt weird to be proud of him for that, but it didn't stop me.

   "He did seem a bit more upbeat when I last talked with him, so it looks like your pushing might be helping with that too," Aedia said. "It's kinda funny that you're so determined to delve with the both of them, especially Llyr. You've really been pushing him to go with you. You two have gotten close."