"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm no good at this stuff?" I flung my arms above my head as I stomped alongside my smiling teacher.

"You might not think so but that does not mean your opinion is the same as another's would be. The desire of the young lord to have you paint for him is a fine example of this differing of opinions, young one." His deep, gentle voice was like a balm to most people but for me, it was little more than another thing that bugged me, making me feel even more out of place aside the ever calm father-figure he was to me.

I myself was nearly his polar opposite, uncomfortably quiet around strangers while always being filled with too much energy around those I knew and feeling hardly able to sit still long enough to finish a simple painting, let alone the detailed masterpieces he created over the span of several hours. If I sat still for so long, it left people wondering what trouble I had planned or was in the process of planning, thus the reason many tried to keep me busy with various tasks in hopes of keeping me too busy to cause mischief.

Somehow, regardless of all that, it seemed the young lord had decided he wished to not only meet me but have me paint for him. This left me not only nervous about what would happen if I failed to meet his surely very high standards but also curious how he had even heard of me before, as I was little more than a student with mostly unknown talents. Or rather, in my own opinion, a lack of said talents.

"Why did he pick me? How did he even know about me?" Seeing the gentle smile grow slightly mischievous on his face, I turned with wide eyes to gaze at him in horror, my voice wavering as I froze in place. "What did you do?"

Instead of stopping to answer me, he continued walking along the long pathway leading to the large, sprawling building of the local young lord who ruled over this part of the country. As he passed from one tree's shadow to the next, I could hear him trying to muffle his laughter with one hand, his shoulders shaking as he slowed down just enough to allow me to catch up once I began moving again.

"If anything bad comes of this, it will be on your head," I grumbled to my teacher, his head turning just enough to let me see the warmth shining in his eyes before he turned towards the looming manor ahead of us.

"Of course, young one. I wouldn't leave my favorite student to face things alone, now would I?" I felt my frown vanish, replaced with a large grin at his words, even if I didn't know why he thought so well of me to say such things.

"No, sir. Of course, you wouldn't leave one of your students alone when they need you, favorite or not." I felt his fingers curl around my hand as he slowed down to walk beside me, a smile on his face as he glanced down at me. The warmth of his hand worked to soothe my anxiousness as the manor's gated entry grew near.

--------

"Lord Kagamine, the teacher has brought his student here, as you ordered. Shall I bring them in now?" The young blonde continued staring at the painting before him as he simply waved a hand towards the door for his servant to bring them in, hoping that the person who had captured the image before him onto canvas would be able to create more such paintings of the world.

Instead of the usual paintings he saw, that looked so dull and lackluster to his young eyes, the image before him seemed filled with energy and an excitement that made him wonder what was beyond the fields of flowers and grass that almost seemed to shift under his gaze. Every day he had looked at this painting, he had picked out something new he had missed the previous day. A small fox peeking out from behind a stump to one side of the field, a snake slithering through the grass in the foreground, even a deer that blended into the branches of the distant trees.

Sure, the artist was obviously not as honed as their teacher but they were still very skilled for a student and had painted something that drew him in far more than their teacher's paintings could. It was almost like he was sitting there at the same spot they must have been while capturing the image on the canvas. Len could almost imagine himself peering over his shoulder to look at the artist, ready to start a conversation with them about the scene before them, and it left him wanting to meet them even more in hopes of speaking with them in truth.

Pushing his blonde hair aside, Len finally broke his gaze from the work before him when he heard the door open once more, his eyes focusing in on the teacher he had conversed with the previous night when he requested him to bring the student he spoke so highly of.

His breath caught for a moment when a younger than expected person stepped out from behind him, their eyes remaining fixed on the floor as they fidgeted in place.

"Lord Kagamine, may I introduce my prized student," the teacher said as he tapped his student on the shoulder. "Please give our young Lord Kagamine a proper greeting."

Len watched as they shuffled forward, his eyes wide as he had expected someone much older than the person brought before him. They looked closer to his own age, barely into his teens as Len was.

"I-it's a pleasure to meet you, Lord Kagamine. I hope that I may p-paint something new to please you on this day." Their soft voice carried through the room, the slightly uncertain stutter continuing when they finally gave him their name.

Len leaned forward in his seat, the painting almost forgotten as he stared at this person who had suddenly captured his attention with such ease, just like their painting had done.

"The pleasure is all mine. Truly, the pleasure is all mine." The feeling of their name passing his lips a moment later was almost equal to honey rolling across his tongue, the sweetness leaving behind a strong desire to say it again and again, something he would have done if not for a slight worry that they might find him odd and not want to paint for him if they heard him chanting their name like that.

Instead, he simply smiled at them and began explaining the idea behind the image he wished them to paint for him, although not without adapting it into a larger image than before. Anything to make them have to stay longer to finish the image, giving him more time to think of other ways to keep them near. Perhaps another painting, or a series of paintings! Yes, that sounded like a grand idea!

--------

"Don't you have a bigger canvas?" I listened to Lord Kagamine ask from behind me as I readied my supplies, the largest canvas I could find in front of me in all its oversized glory, ready for the second painting I would be creating for him since the meeting.

The first seemed to have pleased him greatly, the image of a flower I had seen once in a book but done in colors seldom seen in the flowers of our region. No, such colors were usually found in the lands far to the south of us, where the weather was warm throughout the year and never felt the harsh bite of winter's grasp.

"My Lord, this canvas is taller than I am and twice as wide, how can that not be big enough? What do you want me to do, paint the entire wall?!" Realized what I'd said, I turned with a gasp and bowed low before the one person who could end my life with a simple command to his ever watchful and loyal guards. "I'm so sorry for my words! Please forgive me, Lord Kagamine!"

The sound of soft laughter filled the air, my eyes widening as I realized it was coming from the young teen before me. Feeling a fingertip against my forehead gently pressing, I raised my head up slowly to see the blonde lord smiling at me as he waved off the guards that had started to move forward at my shouting.

"Actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea. A whole wall painted just for me. Yes, I do like that idea. And I know just the wall you could paint, too!" The smile on his face would have been worrisome, had I been paying attention to that instead of overwhelming myself with the thought of painting even just one of the smaller walls in here.

The smallest wall I had seen so far was easily over twice the size of the canvas I'd found. I really doubted that he had that wall in mind, the larger walls I had seen flashing before my eyes as I stood frozen in place. I didn't even respond when the confused but happy young Lord began poking me in the cheek.

I wonder how much paint it would take to cover one of those walls.

--------

It took me a week of climbing up and down ladders just to outline the image I'd come up with when I saw the towering wall of his bedroom. It was the longest amount of time I had spent focusing on just one painting without becoming distracted or ending up planning some prank to play on someone. Of course, that could have been due to the intimidating idea of what the Lord would do if I dared to even think of playing such a prank on him.

During the course of that week, I had slowly grown used to the feeling of his eyes watching me work, responding quickly to any suggestions he had for the image. Sometimes I would make the change, sometimes I would explain to him why I felt the need to refuse it. Whatever I did, he always seemed to respond with a smile, happy to be taking part in the creation even if it was from the sidelines.

After carefully drawing the last line on the wall to finish outlining the final branch of a tree, I climbed down the ladder and turned with a smile to see Len staring at the wall with a look of slight awe on his face. Watching his eyes slowly lower to meet my own, I noticed an odd look in his eyes that vanished quickly as a smile appeared on his lips.

"We need to celebrate! You got the last bit of the outline finished and that means you can start painting in the colors, so we really need to celebrate! I'll let the servants know to start preparing for the festivities! We'll spend the whole weekend celebrating and you can invite your teacher too! He can see how amazing your painting is so far!" The smile on his face grew even bigger at those words, like he was happy with the idea of showing this off before it was even done. "Besides, I have something I need to talk to him about, so this will let me get things done with even more ease."

"The whole weekend? Do... Do I have to be here for all of it? I mean, not that I don't appreciate the idea of such a big event for something as small as this but wouldn't you rather I get started painting it as soon as possible so that it can be shown off in a completed state?" I asked nervously, wondering why he was making such a big deal of this. Maybe he was just that desiring of an excuse to throw a party of some kind?

"But why rush this when we have a chance to show your teacher how far you have come in so little time? I mean, this is a huge endeavor and you have gotten so far already. I was thinking this would take far longer to complete so why not spend some of the extra time we have in celebrating your amazing abilities?" The cheerfulness in his voice was almost enough to hide the hint of disappointment.

If only I could figure out why it was there in his voice.

--------

The music was amazing, listening to the stunning sounds of violins, cellos, and flutes among the other instruments being played, Len sparing no expense to hire an entire orchestra to play for the party. The sounds they made floated through the air, charming me into a silent daze as I listened raptly to every note.

I barely even noticed when the young Lord walked up beside me, only coming out of the daze when I felt his hand gently grasp one of mine. Turning me towards him, he placed his other hand carefully upon my waist, giving me a gentle tug towards the open area nearby.

"Do me the honor of a dance. Please?" In shock at his request, I simply nodded in acceptance.

The next few hours were spent in a mix of dancing, laughter over some surprisingly humorous jokes the young blonde shared and a sampling of exotic foods from every land, many that I had never even seen before but found myself excited to try.

Well, maybe not the one that looked like it was still moving...

--------

Ever since the party, my teacher came to the manor with me every few days, meeting up with Lord Kagamine while I headed off to his bedroom to work on the painting. I found myself wondering what he was working on but dared not to ask, not wishing to upset him by prying into his private affairs. If he wanted me to know, he would tell me when the time was right.

Wouldn't he?

--------

Months passed, one bedroom wall finished and moving on to the next until finally all four were completely covered in paintings. From the forest to the ocean to the mountains to the plains, every surface caught a different region for Len to enjoy.

It had taken much persuading on his part but finally, the Lord had convinced me to call him by his first name, although I still used his title in front of others. It was only when we were alone that I would relax on the formalities as he had asked of me.

We had grown closer as the months had passed, celebrating each completed painting as well as birthdays together. I guess we could even say we had become good friends, sharing our pasts with each other and hinting at secrets we didn't want to tell anyone else but maybe, just maybe, we could tell each other at some point.

It was almost like I imagined having a brother would have been like, if only Len hadn't made it obvious to me that he did not see me as a sibling. I had grown used to his slightly odd way of showing me his affections and I couldn't even count the times I had wished that I returned his feelings.

If only I hadn't fallen for the young gardener instead, with that gentle smile they turned my way whenever Len wasn't paying attention. Maybe then I could have returned his feelings and things wouldn't have turned so tragic.

--------

"What have you done?" I asked, horrified at the sight before me.

So much blood, pooling in the grass around the bodies strewn about the lawn. The party had started so peacefully but shortly after I had accepted the hand of the young gardener when they requested a dance, I had heard the screams begin. Guards had surrounded the area, spears stabbing at the panicking people as they fell to the ground, left to bleed out.

I'd began to back away, only to be pulled from my almost lover's grasp and dragged from the circle of death. Pushed into the waiting arms of Len, I had nearly stumbled to the ground before he righted me, looking up to see his eyes staring at me with the look of one who has lost their mind.

After the last screams had finally died away, he'd released me and watched as I had stumbled back to the place where I had once stood with the one I'd imagined my future with. Death was the only thing I'd found, the body already growing cold as their blood stained my shoes, mingling with the blood already there.

Feeling arms wrap around me and pull me against a warm chest, I heard Lord Kagamine whisper into my ear.

"Now you can be all mine again since all the people who distracted you from me are gone. The one who tried to steal you away, the servants that stole the smiles that should have been mine, even the courtiers who dared look at you for too long. Now you can be mine and mine alone," the insanity in his voice caused me to shiver in fear, wondering when the time would come that he would bring my own death about.

--------

It was centuries later that the couples' legend would come to light, a young couple staying at the manor-turned-inn while traveling on their honeymoon. They found a hidden room, filled with scrolls telling how the young lord and his lover, a painter he had trapped inside his manor and forced to accept his affections, painted each wall of their home.

As they read about the life the artist was forced to live, they wandered the huge building and gazed at the carefully restored painted walls, looking at the images that seemed ready to come to life and move. Trees and flowers almost seeing to wave about in a gentle breeze, birds ready to take flight while foxes and small cats were frozen midstep as they prowled nearby. The paintings were beautiful, enchanting in their ability to capture so much in one moment of time, each one more astounding than the last.

It was when they got to a single room, a sign claiming the room to be off-limits, that they read the final passage of the last of the scrolls they had taken from the hidden room. It was covered in dark blotches, the few readable passages describing how the now grown artist had murdered the Lord before taking their own life.

Filled with the excitement of forbidden adventure and morbid curiosity, they entered the roped-off room to find the walls covered in paintings even more detailed than those before. The light shined in through the windows, casting odd shadows in the corners of the room and casting a pale beam across the white sheets of the ancient bed that stood in the center of the room.

The mountains of one wall were covered in snow that had yet to melt, waterfalls visible in places where the trees thinned out. They could almost hear the wind whistling across its surface, a pile of rocks gathered around its base where they must have fallen over the centuries.

On another wall, brightly colored flowers spread through a field, small animals peeking out from a distant treeline as butterflies flew lazily about the clearing. When the young wife got closer, she could almost swear she smelled the sweetness of the blossoms and heard the soft buzz of bees.

Yet another wall had an ocean, the waves frozen in place as they crashed against the shore, but the young couple swore they could almost feel the spray of the water as it hit the rocks scattered along the sand, the faint scent of salt in the air when they got close to that wall.

The final wall was the one that caused their hearts to stop, the forest scene breathtaking in its detailed images. They could make out every leaf and needle of the trees, the branches almost seeming to sway gently in a hidden breeze. Squirrels and rabbits peered out from under bushes and wolves seemed ready to jump out from behind thick tree trunks and caves. A bear stood on it's hind legs as it stretched up to bat it's paw at a dangling beehive, honey dripping from the broken surface as the bees buzzed angrily about the area.

But the real shock was the young couple standing in the middle of the scene, an elegantly dressed person with hair styled like the nobility of the area would have worn in centuries past, their fingertips stained various colors as they held a brush to the surface of an almost finished painting beside them. The young lord on the other side of them looked at her with eyes that seemed to burn with emotions best not thought of for long, one hand reaching out towards the artist like he was ready to pull them close, an odd red shining on his own fingers.

The longer the young couple gazed upon the pair, the more the red seemed to spread across the image, first spreading to his wrist and then his elbow, spatters of red appearing across the rest of his clothing and pooling beneath him in the grass as screams began to rip through the air. In the short time it took them to let out a horrified gasp and take a step back, the forest of the painting had burst into flames, the wolves tearing into the smaller animals of the scene as the painter stood cackling in madness, the young lord appearing dead at their feet.

Turning to the mountain they saw the top blow off and molten rock seep out of the now revealed volcano, the trees catching fire as ash filled the sky. The painting of a field of flowers was gone, in its place a gathering of dead bodies as the grass was turned into a mess of red mud and toppled chairs, a haunting melody filling the air along with the screams of the dead. Turning towards the ocean wall that held the doorway leading out, they were horrified to find the ocean turned into a maelstrom of angry water, footprints in the sand leading to a newly formed cliff where the artist from before now stood.

They watched in shock as the person took a knife, stabbing it into their chest before they took the last step off the cliffside, falling into the churning waves below. Seeing blood begin dripping down the walls, covering the now horrifying paintings, the couple ran from the room. Behind them, the once white bed grew damp, red splotches forming across the sheets as Len's voice echoed about the room.

"I don't care how many times you kill us both in this afterlife, I will never let you go. You are mine, my love, and forever mine you shall stay."