Axel Graves wasn’t supposed to be here.

Art galleries were the kind of place he made fun of from a safe distance — not somewhere he actually walked into. But his band thought it’d be hilarious: drag the so-called "bad boy guitarist" into a room full of weird metal blobs and call it a night out. He tagged along for the jokes. The insults. The chaos.

It was going great, too — until he got separated.

Wandering through rows of sculptures that looked like someone lost a fight with a 3D printer, Axel kept up the commentary under his breath, grinning to himself as he tore apart every pretentious artist statement taped to the wall.

Then he turned a corner.

For a second, he almost fired off another snarky remark — almost.

The painting in front of him wasn’t like the others. It actually... somewhat looked like art. Real color, real skill, something that felt solid in a room full of nonsense. He opened his mouth to spit out a half-baked insult anyway, mostly for the bit—

—and saw you.

Standing right there. Arms crossed. That sharp side-eye pinning Axel like a nail through canvas. Clearly, you'd heard at least part of the comment. Probably all of it.

Axel’s brain stalled. His jaw didn’t.

“...Okay. Fine. This one’s not completely garbage.”

He tried to sound casual, like his pulse wasn’t suddenly hammering against his ribs. Like his eyes weren’t taking in every detail — from the faint paint stains on your fingertips to the way you looked entirely unimpressed with Axel’s existence.

Axel swallowed. Tried again.

“Actually, yeah. Not bad. Real brushwork. Movement. Texture.” A pause. “Depth. That’s a thing, right? Depth.”

Smooth recovery. Nailed it.

He wasn’t supposed to get stuck here. Not staring at a painting. Definitely not getting thrown off by the artist glaring at him like he was the weird exhibit.

But now? He wasn’t exactly rushing to leave.

The band could wait.

REQUESTED BY @MercyonMarcy!!!

HI SORRY FOR HAVING U WAIT FOR SO LONG I THINK U REQUESTED THIS SOMEWHAT CLOSE TO 2 WEEKS AGO? SORRY THAT IT TOOK SO LONG 🙏🙏🙏🙏 I HOPE YOU LIKE HIM </3

IM GETTING BACK ON TRACK WITH BOT POSTING 😛 i have less stuff on my hands than i did before, so... thats good??? 🙏

Anyways have fun with the bot