Every canvas is a journey all its own.

Helen Frankenthaler

The nap she had taken the day before at least helped some. Her back was still hurting but at least her head had seemingly cleared up and so when her phone made her presence known, she happily got out of the bed.

Luke and she had agreed that he would pick her up at her house and then they would do the one hour drive to Augusta and the next hardware store.

To be honest, Daphne still wondered why he was even bothering with that and hadn't found something more interesting to do than to help her paint the walls in her room. Well, she wasn't going to look a gifted horse in the mouth though. He had offered and she happily took that offer if that meant that she would have something else but white walls.

Otherwise, she would need to ask Caroline or Matthew to take her and they had already done more than enough for her.

She knew what she wanted. A wall mural. Nothing crazy coloured, something peaceful and serene. Something nice.

Daphne was leaning towards a forest as she was quite literally surrounded by them either way.

She looked outside and then couldn't help but smile as she saw that it had started to snow overnight, thick flakes slowly drifting to the ground.

There wasn't much yet, only maybe an inch or two on the floor but it already looked like a winter wonderland.

She got dressed quickly enough and then pulled out some of the money that she had carefully stashed in the very last drawer of her vanity table.

Some habits were hard to break.

And she also felt terrible about the idea of even using that money for something as....selfish as painting her walls.

Painting her walls had never even been a possibility before. Daphne could darkly remember that when she had been still in primary school she had used scotch tape to stick a few newspaper pages together...everything that was colourful...and had stuck that to the wall in the closet that had been her room at the time.

It had ended up being destroyed by her mother in another one of her drunken rages like so many other things but Daphne had had it for a few months.

But now...this here was her room. A room that actually had furniture, that had a door that worked and that she could close behind her...it was her room. Caroline told her that she could do whatever she wanted to the walls.

And Daphne had the money...she didn't need to buy the groceries herself anymore, didn't need to pay the rent anymore...

She had worked hard for that money.

And it was her room...she...she deserved something pretty, didn't she?

She took the money with shaking hands, putting it in her bag before she went down to the kitchen. The rest of her family didn't seem to be awake yet and Daphne wasn't about to wake them, so she took care to be quiet.

She made herself some toast, filled two reusable cups with coffee and then checked if she had everything.

"Daphne?" Her uncle's voice came from the doorway still sounding sleepy. He was still in his pyjamas, brown hair a curly mess atop of his head.

"Did I wake you? I am so sorry." She apologised but he just shook his head and then went straight for the coffee. She watched amused how he chugged a whole cup of it before he could think straight.

She didn't see Matthew often during the school week only at dinner as he went out of the house before she and Ollie even woke up for school. He was busy with his doctor's office in the town. Nearly every person living in Fairbury had him as their general practitioner and as a lot of the population was older, that meant he was busy. Very busy.

"Luke's picking you up?" He asked her as he poured himself a second cup and Daphne looked up surprised. Caroline had been happy enough to allow her to go with Luke but she hadn't known that Matthew even knew about it.

"In five minutes or so," she told him, taking a sip of her coffee. God, she hated the bitter taste but at least it made her feel awake.

"Here." Her uncle held out some folded bills to her and she stared at him.

"I don't need...really, I don't..." They had already spent far more money on her than was needed. She could...could do this alone.

"Buy some painting supplies, I don't think we have anymore. And some drop cloth to protect the floor," he told her calmly, still holding out the money for her to take, which she finally did.

"Thanks, Uncle Matthew," she whispered and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

At that moment she could hear an engine in the driveway and he pushed her into the direction of the door with a smile.

"Go have fun," he told her amused and she grabbed her parka and the two reusable cups

"See you later..." she gave back with a smile as she walked out of the door, looping her scarf around her neck.

Luke was just arriving in front of the house and Daphne happily skipped the last few steps to his pickup truck, opening the door and climbing in.

"Good Morning," she greeted him, unable not to smile at him. As he smiled back at her she was just thankful that she was already sitting and her knees had no chance to get weak.

Damn it, Daphne. He was your cousins best friend and you have absolutely no bloody chance with him. Stop having your ridiculous crush on him that won't go anywhere. Ever, she berated herself.

"Good Morning," he gave back as well. Daphne could hear the smile on his voice. "Do I smell coffee?" He asked and she laughed softly, handing him one of the reusable cups.

"You are the best," he told her theatrically, taking a sip and she just shook her head at his antics

"It's black, I don't know how you drink it normally," she said, filling the silence for a moment and he put the cup back in the holder, as he backed the car out of the driveway.

"Black is fine. I am never going to say no to sugar though," he told her happily as he turned the car and they started driving out of Fairbury.

"So where do you want to go?" Luke asked her. "Lowe's or..." he trailed off and Daphne shrugged.

"Who has the bigger paint selection?" She asked and that seemed to amuse him.

"Lowe's it is then," he told her, making the music louder and then nearly flinching when some kind of screaming with guitar solo came out of the radio.

"You can change the music if you want to," he told her with a sigh and she happily started to flip through stations.

"What do you normally listen to?" She asked him, finding something less loud than what there had been.

"Whatever Grace likes. She has some very definite idea about what is worth listening to," Luke answered with a roll of his eyes and Daphne couldn't help but laugh at that. That sounded like Grace.

They finally found some stations with some terrible oldies that both of them tried to sing along with pretty terribly.

They had fun. Far more fun than Daphne was used to having.

"Thank you for doing this. I am sure you have better things to do than to play cab driver for me though," she said softly when they had quieted down a bit.

"Nah, not really," he told her with a grin. "So what's the plan for that wall?" Luke asked.

"I am thinking I want a mural. Something pretty."

"Flowers?"

"I thought about it but I think I want something more...peaceful. Maybe a forest..."

"I like the forest. Sometimes it's the only place where I feel like myself," Luke admitted and she looked at him surprised. He was watching the road in front to them, them having stopped at a red light. "The sound of freshly fallen snow under your feet, the trees...the peacefulness and the knowledge that you are completely alone..." there was something in his voice that Daphne couldn't place, not really. But it was obvious that the forest was important to him. So very important.

"Do you want that all around the room?" He asked her suddenly, changing the topic and pulling her out of her line of thought and she shook her head before she realised that he wouldn't be able to see her.

"No, I am thinking the forest should be behind my bed...that's the biggest uninterrupted wall I have...and then the other walls in a blue colour...like the sky in the mural..." Daphne tried to explain and he listened to her with a nod.

"I have absolutely no artistic bone in my body but it sounds beautiful," Luke told her honestly and she couldn't help but snort at that.

"You built that desk out of scraps, maybe you should rethink that. Paint is not the only medium you can use for art," she commented pointedly and he shrugged, a blush working it way up his neck.

He was embarrassed. That was probably the cutest thing Daphne had seen that day.

"Do you always use...acrylic paint? At school you mostly use pencil..."

"Mostly because that's the easiest to take along. I also love to use watercolour because you have no control of over it. It just happens and you need to roll with the punches... I love to use charcoal for the same reason Acrylic paint is nice for more controlled works. And coloured pencils because that easy to get..." she cut herself off before she went on a ten-minute rant about painting supplies and their pro and cons. She doubted he wanted to hear that. "Sorry, I doubt you want to listen to me ranting about..."

"I asked," he interrupted her gently as they arrived in front of the hardware store, parking the car.

"Let's buy some paint. And supplies," he told her and she jumped out of the car only to be then dragged over to the shopping carts by Luke. Of course, he didn't pick a normal one but one that was clearly made to carry bigger things as it had a platform and not a basket.

"Hop on," he told her with a nod to the cart and she stared at him.

"I hope that's a joke," she finally said but he just grinned.

"Nope." He popped the p, still grinning at her. "Never did that?"

"I don't think I ever even was in a hardware store, to be honest," Daphne snorted but after another moment of holding his gaze she finally groaned and gave in. She did step onto that shopping cart, holding on to the handles and cursing when he started to push it as she needed to hold her balance.

"Wow, you really had a deprived childhood" he commented. She did. He had no idea how much.

Still, she reached back to poke him and then cursed once again as she forgot that she actually needed to hold onto the handles.

He just laughed behind her, happily pushing her through the aisle.

At least the hardware store was nearly empty, so nobody would actually see that. Apparently, not a lot of people wanted to go hardware shopping on a Saturday morning, which she could understand completely.

"Big city girl, no hardware stores in sight...what the next thing you are going to tell me? Did you never eat rabbit either?" He asked her and she couldn't help but snort. Yeah, sure. Rabbit.

"The only hunting I ever did was to do down to the corner shop on my street and buy whatever was on clearance that day. And ramen. Lots and lots of ramen," Daphne answered truthfully as she let him push her through the hardware store which was far too big for her liking.

"Luke!" She squeaked when he pushed her and then let go suddenly only to catch onto the trolley after a few seconds again.

He laughed warmly again and then finally brought the shopping cart to a stand, offering her his hand to help her step down.

"Childhood experience all ticked off," he told her and Daphne was unable not to smile at him at that moment. His hazel eyes seemed to nearly shine with his amusement and he was far too pretty to look at that moment.

"You get your paint, I get supplies," he suggested and Daphne happily went along with that.

Once she found the paint chips she also quickly found what colours she wanted to use, different shades of green, blue and grey. The only shade she thought over for a long time was the one that would go on the other three walls in her room.

She contemplated two tones of blue.

"Do you have everything?" Luke asked her, starting her as he came up behind her and she bit her lip in contemplation.

"What do you think? Mountain Air or..." Daphne checked the name on the paint chips. "Soar?"

"Are they different?" He asked her, taking the paint chips from her to hold them against the light.

"Soar is darker," Daphne told him with some amusement creeping in her voice. Really? They weren't the same colour at all. Mountain Air was lighter and had a greenish tint to it while Soar was a cooler tone.

"I like Mountain Air," he finally decided and Daphne nodded her agreement. So did she.

She grasped a container filled with that, taking a bigger one than from any of the other colours and Luke took it from her to put it on the shopping cart that was already filled with drop cloth and painting supplies.

"Do you need anything?" She asked him and he just sighed.

"I have a " he told her with a roll of his eyes, but she could see that he was exasperated and not angry. "That's what happens if you mention to my father that you are going to the hardware store."

He handed a folded piece of paper while he pushed the cart along and Daphne read over it, her eyebrows climbing into her hairline.

"I have no idea what half of these things are," she finally admitted with a laugh. Warming Wire? A Wood Screen Rolling Tool?

At least she knew what a dowel was.

"Now you are going to learn," Luke snorted. "Welcome to my family where we own far too many building tools and seemingly everybody has an obsession with Chair Rail Moulding."

She also freely admitted that she had no idea what Chair Rail Moulding was. Apparently the pretty pieces of wood along the middle of a wall.

Daphne tagged along while Luke went searching to whatever weird things his father had asked for which ended up being a pile bigger than her stuff.

Finally, they were on the way down to the cash registers, Luke went to check out some sale they were having on bathroom vanities and Daphne stared at the selection of doorknobs they were having on sale.

They looked like they were made out of glass, speckled with blue and green. Rounded and pretty. Daphne had no idea what she should use them for but they were pretty.

"You could put them on your dresser. Replace the old ones that have already seen better days," Luke said as he came up behind her and she shook herself out of her thoughts. "They should fit without a problem."

"I don't need them," she said with a soft sigh. She didn't need them. They were pretty and ultimately useless, weren't they?

"They are on clearance for one buck each and you find them pretty," Luke said raising an eyebrow. "What are you waiting for, Daphne? Buy them."

"I do," she admitted softly. She had the money. What was she waiting for?

"Fine."

***

Luke loved watching her paint.

He had seen how it had started to itch in her hands to start as soon as they had arrived back at the house.

And so he had happily helped her to put all her furniture in the middle of the room and thrown plastic sheets over it.

Then they had spent far too much time taping off everything that needed to be taped off, which at least wasn't much because Daphne had sworn she could do that edges of her mural without any tape and he would let her try. He had his doubts but he wasn't about to say them out loud.

But when she started to actually paint...

It was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. She completely and utterly got lost in the colours and the strokes of her paintbrush, her eyes flittering over the wall, her hands slowly and carefully building paint and colour up until it looked just as Daphne wanted it to look.

In the meantime, he painted the other three walls of her room a light blue colour, the same colour that the sky would have in her picture, the wall behind her bed was slowly but surely transformed into a misty forest.

It surprised him that she chose that and not the beach or some colourful flowers, but the misty forest was...peaceful. Just as he always could find peace in the forest, Daphne could find it in the painting of her wall mural.

They didn't talk.

They didn't need to.

The silence was relayed and peaceful, the time moving slow between them and Luke was just happy to soak up as much of her presence as he could.

Every time he was near her, he could feel his whole body coming to a standstill when he began to listen to her quiet breathing, the steady thump, thump, thump of her heartbeat. She relaxed him in a way nothing else ever had.

Her smell permeated the room even though the paint fumes and him having opened both of her windows wide open while he painted around the closet doors that he remembered helping Ollie fix.

It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday in his opinion.

They had pizza for dinner, courtesy of Caroline and Matthew, who were off to the movies and told them to be teenagers for once, which made Daphne laugh.

So they ended up on the floor, leaning against the footboard of the bed amid painting supplies and a finished mural on the wall.

"You have not a single animal in your forest. Isn't that a bit unbelievable?" He asked her after another bite of his pizza and she just looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"How do you know there are no animals?" She asked him, a glint in her eyes and he stared at the wall again.

"I see two birds," he finally told her drily and she shrugged her shoulders.

"It's two animals," she deadpanned and he couldn't help but laugh.

"What other animals should I put on there then, in your opinion?" She asked him

"You should put a wolf somewhere," he couldn't help but suggest and she reached for her paintbrush one last time. A black wolf took up residence on the mountain top, howling at the moon that took up most of the left upper corner of the wall.

Howling at the moon? Really?

How .

He took what he could get though when Daphne left the paintbrush in the paint pod and curled up on her side on the floor, looking at the mural again. Her head was somewhere next to his thigh and he yearned to reach out and run his hand through the blonde curls.

He didn't.

It wasn't his place.

Not yet.

"Thank you for helping me," Daphne said then, her voice soft.

"I liked doing it," he gave back. He had loved doing it. If they could spend every weekend for the rest of their life like that, he would be completely content.

"It helps," Daphne whispered suddenly and he looked down at her.

"What helps?" He asked her softly. What was she talking about?

"Painting...my head gets quiet then...I don't need to think about...I don't need to feel if I don't want to."

He didn't know what he was supposed to say to that.

Luke could hear the thickness in her voice, could smell saltiness in the air, her tears that must be running over her cheeks.

He reached out to put his hand on her shoulder, wanting to at least offer her the comfort of touch because his words weren't enough in that moment.

And he to do something.

For a moment she flinched away but then she seemingly melted in his touch.

***