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Alex loudly hummed to hirself again for the umpteenth time that afternoon, and it finally proved to be too much for Steve and their (admittedly fruitless) attempts at fishing. With a sigh, Steve reeled in their empty line and looked at Alex, whose hands were stained in shades of purple from crushing bits and petals of lapis lazuli and poppies in a bowl (provided courtesy of Steve’s fishing). It didn’t take long for Alex to peer back up, blinking in surprise.
“What’s wrong?” Steve asked.
Alex let out (yet another) sigh, raising up the bowl. A small globule of dye dropped from its rim and plopped between them. “I’m trying to get a specific purple, but it’s always either too light, too dark, too blue, too red...” Ze suddenly squinted hir eyes, staring at Steve for a few ticks before looking back down at the bowl. “Maybe I should try adding some bone meal...”
Steve raised an eyebrow. Alex wasn’t usually the artsy type. “What kind of purple are you going for?”
“Your eye color,” ze said, already crumbling some bone meal into hir dye mixture. “It’s really pretty.”
A breathless and quiet “oh” left Steve at that, not able to say much else. They remained quiet even as Alex knocked hir head back with a groan at hir too light purple mixture.
Ze stood up, putting away the dye and lazily swiping hir hands across hir pants. “I need to get more lapis. Do ya wanna come with me?”
“...Sure.” Steve rose, briefly glancing away. “I, um, like your eyes, too.”
Alex just smirked, placing a (still dirty) hand on their shoulder. “Thanks, I use them for seeing.”