dinner and drawing

[Vanessa Bolton]

The dinner party was going well, which was no surprise seeing as it had been planned by Farrah Bolton. Everything she planned went off without a hitch--and even if there were a hitch, the siblings would handle it with grace.

Dinner had been served, four courses, wine and mead, and now the older men sipped whiskey and chatted while the 'children' played cards. Vanessa had played one hand with them before ducking out. She tried not to be a sore loser, but it was no fun to play when Xavier made all of them look like fools. He was a fairly good sport about it, but you could see that glimmer in his eye that told you he knew exactly how good he was. She loved him dearly, but it still made her want to scream.

Instead, she'd situated herself in a nearby armchair with her sketchbook. She used the arm of the chair as a table to hold the pad while she drew. She'd started with Xavier first, but gotten frustrated when she couldn't capture the look in his eye. She flipped to a fresh page and chose someone more animated--the younger Degraff. Each Degraff was so different; Rowan the intimidating one, Cian handsome but serious, and Dunstan, more relaxed and chatty. Each one was handsome in their way, but it was the way that Dunstan DeGraff joked with his brothers and grinned behind his hand of cards that caught her attention as the subject for a sketch.

She set to work, building a somewhat messy, but decently accurate sketch of him hiding behind his hand of cards as if it were a lady's fan. One brow was arched, and the far corner of his smirk was visible beyond the cards. She didn't bother to be secretive about what she was doing--the others were too distracted to worry much about 'little Nessa' anyway. Even so, she couldn't help blushing a little when she looked back to check the angle of her model's hair and found him looking right back at her. She didn't let it stop her, though, she just smiled brightly and waved her pen to explain herself before going right back to work.

She wasn't sure how much longer it was before a shadow crossed her sketchpad, but she glanced up to find it was Dunstan DeGraff looking down at her drawing of him.

"What do you think?" she asked, turning it around so that he could see better. "Have I done you justice?"

[Dunstan DeGraff]

Dunstan rather liked having dinner with the Boltons when the DeGraffs got invited. He tended to come along with little fuss about it. He liked hearing Xander Bolton’s tales even if Vance was a bit...different, and Preston could be pleasant enough company...sometimes. But Dunstan really liked to go for the Lady Boltons truth be told who were both easy on the eyes and quite lovely company, or so he thought. He kept that to himself though, and just continued on as his normal, “Dunny” self as his brothers called it. Everyone babied him, but they failed to realize how hard working he actually was when it came to being a guard and making sure he carried on the DeGraff name. That despite his laid back, carefree-ness, he saw everything.

Like how Vanessa Bolton kept looking up from whatever she was doing and looking his way while he was playing cards with her brothers and his. He arched a brow in curiosity at her, before he saw her grin and little wave. Ooooooh she was drawing him. interesting... He thought, finding himself curious at how it was turning out. He glanced over when Cian nudged him that it was his turn and glanced at his cards before he tossed one onto the pile.

Before long, Xavier had declared his win, when it was actually the ever silent, and looming Rowan that had won as he tossed his cards down, revealing his hand. The other boys laughed, and were started to shuffle cards again, while Dunstan slid from his chair, quietly excusing himself as he crept over. Looking over the top of Vanessa’s sketch book to see the messy sketch of him she’d done. “Hmmmmmm,” He said as she turned for him to look. He brought a hand up to lightly stroke his chin, and looked at it with a critical eye of any art critic. Bending down so he was eye level with the drawing, he narrowed his eyes slightly before he moved his head slowly to the side so he was peeking out from behind Vanessa’s sketch book. “Not bad, not bad.” He mused. He straightened and then grinned down at her. “You’re pretty good.” He complimented. He was actually rather impressed, it certainly looked like him, and even looked a bit comical save for the smirk.

[Vanessa Bolton]

Nessa waited rather impatiently for Dunstan to decide if he liked it or not, jiggling her foot to keep herself from just demanding to hear what he thought. He was making her nervous, playing serious like that. When he crouched down to get a better look she frowned a little, beginning to wonder if he really was just messing with her, or he actually hated it. Maybe she should have picked someone different to sketch.

When he finally leaned slowly over to peek at her from behind the book, she couldn't help giggling at his antics. She drew the sketchbook to her face so it hid all but her big eyes and batted her lashes dramatically.

"Are you suuuuure you think so? It took you an awfully long time to decide." She narrowed her eyes at him in playful suspicion and lowered the sketchbook to hug it to her chest and rest her chin on the top. She pouted up at him for a moment before she brightened back up to smile again.

"I could do better given more time, you know, but I was just scribbling. You were teasing your brother and you had a nice energy, so I tried to capture it." She shrugged nonchalantly as if it were nothing.