𝙷𝙱𝙾 𝚆𝚊𝚛 𝙸𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜

Second Time's the Charm | Skinny Sisk

i actually wrote this and published it on tumblr a long time ago, i just forgot to post it here too lmao

~~~

The barracks were a mess. Skinny didn't know what had happened to incur Sobel's wrath, and he couldn't help but frown and grumble at the disarray the barracks were in.

Skinny spied a sheet of paper sticking out from under his mattress and sighed before pulling it out. It was probably another sheet of notes he missed picking up the first time he cleaned everything.

His thoughts were proven wrong, though, when he flipped it over. His eyes widened at the sight that greeted him: a single drawing of himself filled the page, all of his details and quirks captured so gracefully with just pencil and paper. Skinny carefully smoothed out any wrinkles and stuck the drawings with his notes, making a mental note to ask around about them later. He wondered why someone who drew so well would want to hide their work from the world.

"Whatcha stuffing away so quickly?" George's voice called from behind him.

Skinny straightened up and shrugged, picking his blankets up off the floor.

"I dunno, some drawing."

"Oh ho, are you hiding something from us? Are you secretly an artist, Skinny?"

Skinny snickered, shaking his head. He looked up at Luz when his blankets and covers seemed straightened up enough.

"Nah, I can't draw to save my life. But this?" He pulled the paper back out from the others, handing it to George. "This is amazingly accurate."

George whistled in appreciation at the paper, a playful grin spreading across his face. "Damn, it is. Y'know who drew them? I think you have a secret admirer."

"I don't think I have a secret admirer." Skinny laughed, shaking his head again. "Seems whoever drew it didn't want to keep it."

George shrugged, handing the paper back. "Whoever it is, tell 'em I hope they become a successful artist. Shame that they're stuck here in the army instead."

Skinny studied the drawing again, eyes scanning over his paper-self grinning up at him. "Yeah. Shame."

~

Skinny spotted another paper on the floor again some days later, and he hurriedly picked it up lest Sobel find it and take away their weekend passes--again. This time, the drawing featured George joking with a couple other men. Skinny shook the dirt off and carefully wedged it with his other papers, sticking it under the drawing of him. He occasionally took it out to admire it, though he wouldn't admit that to anyone. The drawings had him intrigued, if he was going to be honest. He wondered why someone would want to get rid of such remarkable work--or why they didn't seem to care if they lost it.

Skinny was still lost in his thoughts as he made his way through the maze of barracks, no particular destination in mind. The endless yellow of fresh wood eventually faded out to green as he walked farther and farther away from the barracks and to the peace and quiet of the outskirts of the base.

He looked out at the landscape, and almost missed the figure sitting under the farthest tree. Their head was lowered over something; they must've been writing a letter home. But why all the way out here, he understood: it was quiet. Skinny made his way over to them, edging as close as he dared out of their line of sight. He didn't plan on staying, but as he got closer, he noticed that the figure under the tree was you.

Quiet Y/N, always with a distant, pensive look on your face. Skinny hadn't talked much to you, but he knew you were a nice person. You were creative, too, always thinking outside the box to get around Sobel's strict rules or to weasel yourself and others out of his bad graces on more occasions than Skinny could count.

Skinny's eyes widened when he saw what you were working on. It wasn't a letter, like he had suspected. Rather, it was another drawing. Not of him, of course--it was of Lieutenant Winters--but he could still appreciate beautiful art.

He opened and closed his mouth for a few moments, wondering what to say before finally stepping into the edge of your line of sight and settling for, "You wouldn't happen to know where I can find an artist, would you?"

You looked up at the voice, smiling when you saw him sheepishly standing there with his hands in his pockets. You hummed in amusement, then went back to your rendition of the lieutenant.

"Hmm, it seems you're in luck, Skinny. Just so happens you're talking to one."

Skinny chuckled and sat down next to you, watching as you moved the pencil across the paper before remembering what started his whole search for the artist of the two drawings he had found.

"Hey, I don't mean to bother you, but seeing as you're the only artist that I know here for a hundred miles," he began, pulling out the drawings from his pocket. Why, he didn't know. It was useful when asking around about who they were drawn by, but really, he didn't know. "I wanted to return these to you and ask you: why'd you throw away these drawings?"

You looked over at the papers he pulled out, and your eyes widened in recognition before you took the drawings back with a shrug.

"Dunno. Guess I didn't think they were good enough."

"Not good enough?" he asked incredulously. "Have you seen what you can draw?"

"I'm drawing now, aren't I?" you said plainly, but your grin said you were more amused than anything else.

"Seriously, I thought these were really good! And not just because one of them was of me, but...I dunno...I really liked them. Luz and I couldn't figure out why someone would want to throw them away." Luz's voice flashed through his mind and he quickly added, "He also says he hopes you become a successful artist someday, by the way."

You chuckled as you studied the discarded drawing before pointing at some blemishes on Skinny's portrait.

"The shadows I didn't get right on this side; see how the light source comes from the left, but I drew the shadows on the left as well, instead of the right? And here," You pointed to some stray marks off to the side. "I couldn't quite get your nose or mouth right."

"Still looks perfect to me." Skinny grinned as you shuffled the drawing of George and the two other men to the front.

"This one..." You let a small smile appear before pointing at more blemishes on the paper again. "Couldn't quite get the blurred background right; you can only do so much with a pencil. If I had some charcoal or a blending tool--a good one, mind you--I'd be able to make the silhouettes blurrier, but..." you trailed, letting out a laugh. "I can't complain since I signed up for all this and knew full well I couldn't bring my set of charcoal pencils to war."

Skinny nodded, taking one last look at your artwork before turning his eyes to you.

"Supper will be soon; you want me to save anything for you?"

You grinned at him and shook your head. "I'll head back later; I want to get this finished. But thanks, Skinny."

He nodded and turned to set off to the mess hall. He took a step before turning back around and adding, "For what it's worth, I think your drawings are good, mistakes and all. Makes 'em unique, and I think you should at least try again instead of giving up on it, y'know?"

You chuckled, looking up from the two drawings you discarded. "Yeah...maybe. Thanks again, Skinny. I'll see you later, yeah?"

"Yeah."

When Skinny went to bed that night, you were nowhere to be found. But when he pulled open his covers, he saw a folded up paper on his pillow. He picked it up and unfolded it, grinning when he saw a portrait of himself smiling back up at him. He noticed that the off shadows you had mentioned in the older drawing were fixed and were now corrected in the new drawing. His nose and mouth looked the same, though; he really couldn't see what was so wrong about them in the original.

He noticed a new addition on the paper, though. In the bottom corner of the paper, he saw a note addressed to him.

I tried again.

With a quiet laugh, Skinny put his portrait at the top of his stack of notes and climbed into bed. He'd have to find you and thank you when he saw you the next morning.