He smiled and reached into his sweater's pocket. It seemed like he had everything in there, including random pieces of lined paper and a pen. Kenneth scrawled his name and number across one of the pages in neat printed script. He checked it over for mistakes without really thinking about it before handing it over to Henry.


"There you go," said Kenneth. He smiled. "So, when is the first session going to be anyway? I'm pretty much ready to start whenever you say." At least he wouldn't have to wonder what to do to keep himself occupied now that larping season was over, and there were no other comicons or anime conventions to get ready for this year.

Henry looked over the number, memorizing it without meaning to. His own phone lay buried in his pocket along with a few pennies and pens so he took it out and sent Kenneth a quick message of 'hi'. "Now you have my number too." He twiddled his fingers a bit as he thought of when best to meet. Of course, he wanted to say now, but that sounded desperate. He couldn't wait long though, so he just smiled briefly, a ghostly sort of expression. "Tomorrow? The studio will be open in the afternoon so I can text you a good time if you're uh...not busy with anything else." Kenneth said he could start whenever, but still best to double and triple check that he wasn't the only one so eager to start.

When his phone went off, Kenneth tugged it out of his back pocket and wrote a quick reply. "Hello to you too. ;P"


Then he spoke, looking right at Henry. "Tomorrow sounds fine with me." Kenneth finished off his coffee and stood. "Text me the address too, alright?" Without an address the photo shoot wouldn't be able to happen. It was kind of important information.

Henry eyed the responding message with a bit of a flutter going off inside him. Oh he was definitely playing with fire now. "I'll do that," he assured the other, standing up again. After wiping his sweating hand off on his jeans, he offered a little wave in good bye. "G-good by then? I...look forward to tomorrow."

Kenneth nodded, waved, and walked away with a last quip about seeing each other again soon.

That evening, and the next morning, he went through his closet not once, not twice, but three times. Every outfit he pulled out seemed wrong somehow. In the end, Kenneth had five garment bags set out and was pondering what to wear over to the photo shoot. Nothing like the lazy day outfit he'd been wearing the day before, that was for sure. It was a wonderful think that he'd completed so much of his work early out of pure boredom, it meant one less thing to worry about as he strolled around in no more then a pair of boxers.

The apartment Kenneth called his own was a pure mess. Clothes were everwhere and boxes too. He never had gotten around to unpacking everything ...

In the end he settled for a goth outfit he was sure would impress; that was when he realized he was getting ready like he would for a date. He laughed at himself for that. He had dated some men, had dated some women, but no one had ever really stuck. He was a really picky guy that way.

Henry sat back down and stared into his tea cup. He never finished the drink and spent a while sitting at the cafe, wondering just what he got himself into. When he gave up on that, he walked back to the little apartment he called home.

By the next morning, he'd managed to completely psych himself out to the point that he almost called Kenneth to tell him they couldn't meet after all. He paced in the tiny space between hand-me-down furniture and his bookshelf for a good ten minutes before he gave in and texted Kenneth the address and told him to be there in an hour. Because really, it was too late to go back now. Not when he got this close.

Throwing on a simple tanktop, shorts, and his pink hoodie again, Henry stuffed what he needed in a backpack. His bike sat out front and he spun through the streets and reached the studio with thirty minutes to spare. Good, he had plenty of time to hide in a corner still.

Kenneth read his message with a smile, then called a cab. He waited downstairs with his pile of bags, shifting back and forth from moment to moment. Plastic crinkled every time he moved, or played with his necklace. When the yellow cab finally pulled in, Kenneth raced out and dumped his clothes beside him as he settled down and rattled off the address Henry had sent him.

What would it be like? Kenneth had never really posed before, modeled. Standing before a lens, a gleaming sliver of glass, and trying to make yourself beautiful ... How was that even possible? Henry would have to be a magician to turn Kenneth into a model. What did the other man see in him anyway? It had to be something pretty amazing to make the obviously shy Henry blurt out his request.

The car pulled to a stop in front of the most modern building in the city. It was all angles and big windows, letting light in. There were shutters too, the beautiful bamboo ones that always made Kenneth smile, because they were so calming.

He paid the cabbie and waltzed inside. The front desk clerk directed him up stairs, and through to the third door on the top floor. He stepped through and looked around the large room, eyes wide. There was so much stuff, so many things he didn't know what to call, or what they were used for. "Henry?"

After testing the lights three times and setting up the tripods he wanted, Henry slunk away to a small break room between the studio space and the darkroom where he made a cup of tea. It was there that he hid until the time he gave Kenneth. At that point, it didn't take long and he dumped the rest of his tea in the sink before rushing back out to the studio his mentor gave him the keys too. Including its own darkroom, the whole floor had everything that a photographer needed to produce art including its own exhibition space.

Jack Neison ran the exhibition really, and everything here. Henry helped him with it, always hoping for a chance to be inside of it and now he was. "Ah, I'm here!" he exclaimed, slipping in through the side door just after Kenneth entered the studio. He eyed the bags he carried first before the clothes Kenneth wore really caught his notice.

Henry's mouth opened, but no sound came out. He stammered a bit longer, frozen in place in the middle of the room, before he managed to say anything. "A-are you r-ready?" Oh god, he sounded like an idiot. No matter what though, he did not expect to see this. He just figured he'd see casual Kenneth again and yet, he couldn't look away from this Kenneth even worse than before.

Kenneth chuckled and stepped forward, clapped Henry on the shoulder. "Yeah, I'm ready. Though if you want me to change ..." He held out the five garment bags. "I brought a sample of my wardrobe."

The white backdrop gleamed beneath the lights. There weren't any props, no furniture, just a blank space waiting for decoration. Looking at it made Kenneth fidget. What was he supposed to do? He never worked with blank spaces, empty white. The pages he edited were always full of words, waiting to be re-ordered, changed and shifted.

He set the bags aside and went to sit on the white covered floor. Kenneth leaned an elbow against his knee, leaned his chin against that hand and stared up at the other man with a hint of a smile. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Uh...ah, this is fine," Henry replied weakly, his heart skittering when Kenneth clapped his shoulder. It took a second for any real thoughts to make it through his mind and when they did, he jerked away. Grabbing a couple things, he rushed here and there for a second, messing with his equipment. "Just give me five minutes to play with these lights. Sit...." He pointed to a space in the center of his lighting. "...a little more to the right." The light needed to hit him just right after all and with such an outfit, sharp shadows would fit the mood. Not that Henry really went along with clear direction yet. He finished adjusting a shade so the light hit Kenneth at a different able before he went to the tripod and peered inside. "Th-these will just be practice shots okay. Ready? One, two, three...."

Henry's nervousness had Kenneth fidgeting. He was glad to be able to move, to shift, though the light made him wince. He lifted an arm to shade his eyes and winced. What was it with photography that made it alright to shine light right in people's eyes? It made him hesitate for a few seconds and wonder if this was really what he wanted to do. Henry was a complete stranger. There was nothing, no obligations or history, which made exposing himself in this way a necessity... But, Kenneth reasoned, he had given his word and he tried his best to always keep it.


When the camera started clicking, Kenneth took a deep breath and started trying to pose. He played with his hair, pushed it back to reveal his face as he leaned back, putting his weight onto his right arm. He smiled as enigmatically as he could, and didn't notice his shirt riding up to expose skin.

Henry didn't really care what Kenneth did for the picture since it was for practice. Sure he wanted to have perfect pictures right off the bat, but a photographer had to learn to be patient. After the one shot, he took four more to complete a series of five before he stepped back from the camera. "Alright, you can relax," he said before he went to his backpack and pulled out his laptop. This he hooked up so he could get the digital photo files. "Now we can see how they came out..." He offered his laptop so that Kenneth could see as well. They were just photos, not works of art right now, but the basics all looked good so far. His lighting brought out Kenneth's natural beauty and he had potential to command the camera.

Tense muscles, cramped from worry and stress, were stretched out as Kenneth relaxed. He flopped to the ground with a groan and stared at the ceiling while Henry went through the practice shots. He did glance over from time to time, but didn't really see anything special on the screen. Just him.


"They look alright. Then again, I'm not such a good judge of myself and how I look in someone else's eyes." He shrugged his shoulders and flopped to his stomach. Surprisingly, he was comfortable right where he was.

Henry spent a while just looking at the pictures. What did he need to bring these photographs to life? Yes, he should pick a background, maybe a prop or too, get some poses worked out but that was also just thinking about basics. He sighed. "They're okay," he mumbled. He glanced over at Kenneth once and swallowed hard at the way he looked so comfortable. God, he wanted so badly to capture Kenneth with his camera. He already become so surprising that Henry feared his photographs would never do him justice. He still had to try though right? "U-um...are you ready to try for a few more?"

At the mention of more pictures, Kenneth jumped up with a of-course-are-you-kidding-me kind of grin. He stretched his arms up high and then slid his shrug from his shoulders. Casually, Kenneth flopped it over his shoulder and tilted his head, eyes on Henry, not on the lens pointed his way. Yes, that was it. He needed to focus on the person taking the pictures, the one behind the lens, not the lens itself.

Henry seemed so much calmer when he crouched behind the camera and started clicking away. Kenneth had noticed it the first run through. "Just tell me what you want me to do. You're the one who knows about this stuff, not me." Kenneth was as far from a professional model as could be. He didn't know what kind of angles worked, what would make him seem short and stumpy, or marvelously commanding and eye catching.

What to do? Henry didn't really have that much experience working with live models, or telling people what to do. Some of his photographer nature took over though and made him look far more confident than he felt. "Relax like you don't know there's a camera here. Don't look right at it..." He swallowed past his dry throat because it already seemed like Kenneth didn't look at the camera. No, it seemed like he looked at Henry instead, which didn't make anything easy.

"Er...tilt your head down to the left," he specified so that Kenneth would look somewhere else. Henry spent a little more time thinking about the composition and focused on the other's face this time, letting the rest of him fade out behind. Once again, he counted down and took a couple different shots, asking Kenneth to move slightly in between them.

Having direction, even minimal as it was, helped Kenneth focus, feel less nervous about the whole experience. He started being freer with his poses, even cracked had a laugh. It was fun! Maybe being someone's model wouldn't be so bad, especially not if it meant helping someone fulfill their dream; photography seemed especially important to Henry. The art form lent itself to helping even those, like Kenneth's current photographer, who were shy a way to express themselves without words.

When it was time for a break, Kenneth walked to stand behind Henry, and took off his shirt to reveal a slender, yet athletic, build. Swimming was his sport of choice, and it showed upon his sculpted arms. "So, am I getting better at all?" He grinned. "Staring at you instead of the camera has been helping a lot. I hope you don't mind."

Henry felt relaxed with the camera and actually wore an easy smile by the time he finished that round of photographs. He just switched to looking at them on his computer when Kenneth approached. At first, he didn't think anything of it. "Yes, look at these...ah?!" he yelped, nearly dropping his laptop in the process. Kenneth stood close enough to touch and for some ungodly reason, took his shirt off. With the lights shining so brightly, there was no way for Henry to hide his blush.

"That...ah..." He jumped over a few steps to put more distance between them again. Ducking his head, he played with his glasses as if that might take away the image standing in front of him. "W-wait, w-what did you say??" His mind raced and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't focus. It made it very hard to come up with a response for whatever Kenneth just asked him.

Henry's reaction was priceless. It was hard not to chuckle, to laugh a little, because of just how adorable the other man was. He'd taken off his shirt because he was warm, and because the next round of photographs seemed like a good time to get used to having a lens pointed at him when he wore less clothing. He sure he would be comfortable with that, with Henry behind the lens. Besides, it wasn't that big a deal, no more different then swimming really. In fact he was more clothed at the moment, compared to when he wore a speedo during races.

Kenneth settled for smiling when Henry stuttered out a confused question. "I asked if you minded if I stare at you, instead of the camera, when I pose. I am doing this for you, after all." He almost winked, but settled for shoving his hands in his pockets. It was just so tempting to tease Henry, and that would probably give the guy a heart attack.

Henry continued to struggle for breath even thought he hid it better after a few seconds. Of course he was used to freaking out, especially in front of good looking people so he had practice. Normally he would run out of the room though and end the situation. He unfortunately couldn't do that now, and rather didn't want to. Instead, he finished fiddling with his glasses and glanced at Kenneth again before quickly glancing away again.

"I-I don't really mind," he managed to stutter out. He did mind, but in the face of such a question, he just submitted. Kenneth could do what he wanted and Henry would probably still be in this heaven/hell either way. "So I can...take your photo like t-that?" he asked with a vague motion toward Kenneth's bare chest.

Kenneth gave in to temptation. He leaned forward, ever closer to Henry, with the wickedest of smiles. "Honey, I feel at ease enough with you that you could take pictures of me naked and I wouldn't mind." He winked and pulled away. It was fun, this banter, this teasing and flirting. Kenneth had forgotten how fun it could be, though honestly he wasn't sure if he was attracted to the obviously enamored photographer. It took a long while for him to actually open up his heart, lay it bare as on the operating table for anyone to see. Just two days wasn't enough for that, and that was what he needed to have for a relationship to fully bloom.

Something that could very well have been a squeal of horror emitted from Henry's mouth. If a brain could fry, then his would have. Maybe because so much blood rushed to his head, leaving him red all the way from his ear tips to his neck. Why, why did Kenneth keep getting close like that and saying such things? It was awful. Henry wasn't the type who collected attention and he liked it that way, not knowing what to do with it when he had it. "Please don't do that!" he managed to exclaim after a few failed attempts. "Can I please just take you picture?" That, he could handle. Not this hope that he could ever have Kenneth.

Kenneth took his place on the white stage, but he couldn't let his smile drop, that cocky grin he so rarely wore. Henry's red faced reaction had been priceless!


"You know I'm just teasing, don't you?" Maybe he'd taken it a bit too far. "Why are you always so nervous anyway?" Always stuttering and acting shy … Kenneth knew some people were just naturally that way, but Henry didn't seem to have any reason to be. He was a handsome kind of cute, with a heap of talent and a good eye.

Of course Kenneth just teased him. That only made Henry feel all the worse though. His face fell for a second before he managed to cover it up as best he could. He focused on the camera, messing with settings that he didn't even need to mess with. For a good long minute, he considered not answering the question, but eventually he lifted his eyes to look at Kenneth. "I just am...I-I, ever since I started school..." Of course he had a few theories, or at least a countless series of small events that led to who he was. At one point, Henry could be considered cheerful and outgoing, but that was so long ago he almost wondered if he dreamed it up. "Can I take your picture now?"

He regretted asking the question, teasing Henry as he did. He really didn't know the photographer all that well. What had he thought he was doing, acting like that?

Hastily, Kenneth struck a pose. "Yeah, go ahead, I'm ready." Were cameras magic? In some cultures they were thought to be able to capture your very soul, or at least when the devices had first been invented they did. Mirrors and paintings were the same way. The story o Dorian Grey certainly proved such legends had been around for a while.

Did that mean someday Henry would capture his soul with that camera of his? It was an unsettling thought.