Well Aren't You a Nice Young Man? [Feliciano Vargas and Halimeda Cosmatos][Complete]

A light hum fell from Feliciano's lips as he started down the stairs, one paintbrush tucked forgetfully behind his ear in contrast to the towel he had over his shoulder. Fully intending to go swimming, he'd forgotten all about the brush that he had tucked back there for save keeping almost an hour earlier, and now no longer felt it's pressure over the shell of skin. Humming turned into murmured words in Italian, an old song put to the beat of the decent down the first flight. It was an old habit, one he'd picked up as a child, and he'd sung the song so many times over the years, over so many flights of stairs, that he hardly remembered learning it any more.

By the time he was fully down the first flight he was singing audibly, but he pulled up short when he reached the mini-landing half-way down the second flight, leading to the lobby. This was because he'd come to the realisation of two things: One, he was not alone, and two, the person he was not alone with was a very pretty woman. Her face was vaguely familiar, so he must have seen her around the building before, but he couldn't for the life of him remember talking to her. And that was practically a crime. After all, how could he pass up the chance to talk to such a beautiful woman? And it looked like she was trying to carry a lot of bags, he couldn't just leave her to do that by herself!

Smile widening out into a beam, he stepped forward, shifting his towel over his shoulder.

"Ciao, bella~" The greeting fell vanilla smooth from his lips as he moved to offer his hands for her use. "That looks heavy, can I help you bring it up? Such a pretty lady shouldn't have to carry such heavy things by herself, and I'd be happy to help!"

Help and spend more time with her, anyway. A warm pleasantness ballooned up inside of him as he greeted her. It was so nice to meet new people, and he couldn't help but feel the happiness of it straight through to his fingertips. Of course, Feliciano was a generally happy person anyway, so when he found an excuse to be even more so he tended to radiate with it. And today, free of classes, with a whole nice spread of hours before him and a new friend to meet (and a pretty woman of a new friend, even!), he just couldn't help himself.

"Any time~" Feli announced, taking up the bags and following her, given that he had no real idea where they were headed. Whatever, it would be nice just to go, even with bags to carry. Which... were... kinda heavy. Oof. Feliciano was sure he'd be tired after carrying this much. Funny, how he could lift blocks of clay (when he couldn't talk someone into moving them for him) but a few grocery bags were much too heavy for him to lift for any length of time. Still, he worked to keep it covered so that she wouldn't think that he was pathetic or anything like that, and beamed in her generally direction.

"Feliciano Vargas~ But you can just call me Feli if you want. And you? What's your name, bella?" He responded, putting a bit of extra energy into his walk in order to keep up, despite her slowed pace. He had short legs and a tendency to walk slow, so he couldn't really help lagging behind every few steps and having to give little bursts of speed in order to catch up.

(POSTS WHY ARE YOU SO SHORT? I think Feli muse is feeling lazy. Longer posts soon, I promise)

"I was right!" Feliciano beamed as soon as he heard the name. "Your name is just as beautiful as you!" he giggled. Okay, perhaps he was laying it on a biiiiiiiit thick, but he couldn't help himself. Everything he said was true, after all. She was beautiful, and her name was strangely musical, though most foreign names were, he liked to think. At least those that came from Latin, anyway. Spanish names and French names and... yes, kind of Greek names too. Pretty. All of them.

"And of course I would help you out. You had a lot of bags, you shouldn't have to carry them all by yourself, plus, it's nice to walk up with someone every once and a while. And a good excuse to meet knew people~" he smiled, canting through the doorway with a small hop, despite the heaviness in the bags that made his arms so tired. Do something for him? Hmmm... he looked over her carefully, casually biting his lower lip lightly - a habit for him - as he studied her face.

"For me? Uhm. I actually think there is. Would you... let me sculpt you, maybe? Someday? You have a face that just looks like it should be in one of the classics. I was going to try and paint everyone in the building during my time here, but I think anything less than sculpture would just be wrong for you!" Something about her just reminded him of those studies in human form (of course, usually male, but in her case it still fit) that came from the ancient Greeks and Romans. And given that he had a love for the classical styles straight through the Renaissance, he couldn't help but be drawn to putting her into stone or clay.

"...not if it's too much trouble, though, because it might take up a lot of your time and I don't want to do that! But. If you could... maybe just once or twice a week, sit for me?"

Feliciano couldn't help but give a bit of a frown at the question. Even if she'd said yes, he'd really have preferred to do it somewhere more convenient.

"Well... I was going to ask if you could maybe come by the studio for it... it's hard to bring the clay all the way across town, I don't want it to dry out...." he sighed, then shrugged and pulled on his usual smile again. "But if you're more comfortable here it'll be better. People are always best in their natural habitat, si? So here is fine. I'll find a way to make it work. Thank you for letting me!"

Someday he'd talk her into coming into the studio. It would make everything impossibly easier and was a much more comfortable space for him to work in. Selfish as that was - his model should be comfortable as well, after all they were the ones that allowed the piece to come to life, even if he was the creator of it - it was very hard to work if he wasn't in a good position to do so. And sometimes that was just hard to find outside of the studio. But. Well. Such was life, he'd find a way to work around it.

"And of course I want to sculpt you! Look at yourself - you're perfect for it! So have exactly the face. I bet you have the perfect form, too. Thank you so much for allowing me!"

"Well then you obviously don't look very closely at yourself," Feliciano replied with a shrug. "Or you don't study classical and pre-classical sculpture and art very often. Or think to put the two of them together, maybe? I don't know. But you're very sculpture-worthy. Portrait worthy too, but I think you'd be better... uhm. What's the word... the one that means you stick around for a really, really long time? Like forever. Uhm. Immortality-ised. Or something. I think you'd be better immortality-ised in clay or stone then on canvas. At least to me, si?"

He shrugged, shifting the bags around again, arms growing tired from holding them for so long. "Can we put these down, maybe? I need a picture of you for fratello mio because I know just what I want you to wear for it and I think he can make it! And. Uhm... whenever, I guess? If I don't have a class, and you're free, it's good, so what time do you like best?"

Really, even if he had a class he could probably get away with skipping at least one of them for her, right?

"Oh!" Feliciano nearly smacked himself in the head. But. Right. Bags. Instead he held those forward. "Right! It's at the Chelsea College down the road a few blocks! The ceramics building. I can walk you there one day, if you'd like~" trying to balance his proffered load onto one hand, he started digging around for his phone.

"I have a camera on my cell, si? I'll take a picture of you in that. Uhm. All of you. And ask fratello to come up and measure you soon. So that we can get a good outfit, because I can't do this until then and I know exactly what I want but I can't really make it."

"Lovino! His name is Lovino Vargas," Feliciano chirped out, taking the paper, then frowning. Truth was, he couldn't quite remember the address. He walked there every day, but he didn't really think of where it was so much as how to get there.

"Uhm..." he bit his lip, looking down on the paper. "It's on John Islip Street," and that he wrote down for good measure, "but I don't know the street address? It's. Uhm. It's the big building with a lot of people around it all the time and it should tell you in pretty big letters that it's the Chelsea College of Art and Design, though? I don't really know the address because I just walk there, si? And I get all my things here so I don't have to remember the name for visitors or letters or anything like that..." he frowned, suddenly worried now. "That's not a problem, is it? I mean, I could probably look it up online or something like that and find the address for you that way? I can't write down more then the name or the street because I can't remember, but. But. It's the ceramics and sculpture building... uhm. If that helps. I'm sorry!"

Oh! Right! That would make sense! Smiling, Feliciano wrote down his number - and his room number, just in case, look how forward thinking he was being - on the pad as well before offering it back to her. That done, he fumbled with his phone with his free hand, pulling up the camera option.

"Right, okay, that has my number and my room so you can call that if you need to too, si? and I can't wait to hear from you, this'll be really fun! Thank you for letting me do this!" He paused, posing the phone a few ways then stepping back a little. "Uhm. Could you try to stand at a quarter turn? I want to get both your front and your sides, si? I figure I should give him a full body shot to think about first..."

Looking over her, Feliciano chewed his lip slightly, then frowned. "No... more like... uhm, put your back a bit straighter and twists your shoulders in a bi- can I just position you, maybe?" That would a be a lot easier, in the long run.

"I mean, not if you don't like the idea of someone putting their hands on you, but if you don't mind... It'd make it a lot easier if I could just shift you around a little bit before taking it - and I think Lovi will have to measure you anyway so I guess you'd have to get used to someone touching you, si? Oh, but it might be a bit different, given that he's measuring you for clothes, but I don't really know, it's your body, after all..."

Feliciano, being an incredibly tactile person, couldn't really understand why people didn't like being touched or held, but he'd learned over the years that some people were just... like that. So while he might normally be happy to go up and start touching anyone and everyone without thought, that was a no-no unless they knew him or expressed that it was fine. Right. No touching unless otherwise specified. He had to work to keep remembering that one...

"Oh..." Feliciano frowned slightly at the snappish nature of her comment. "I... could come by later..." Oh, but, no. Get it done now, much easier that way.

Shaking off the comment he moved forward, hands working to shift her slightly, raising her shoulders and twisting them in, gentle fingers tilting her chin up and to the side before stepping back and snapping the shot. Looking over it he took another for good measure before smiling and nodding to the room in general.

"There, that looks perfect! I'll go ask him, okay? And. I can. Leave you alone with your groceries. I'm sorry I wasted your time, sometimes I just get a little carried off and I forget what I'm doing, si? I can't help it... but it was very nice to meet, you, si?"

(I think we can call this closed and move it to archived yes? *can't really respond to that, after all* and move it over to Lovi and Feli for a while before Lovi and Hali etc.)