Family Rates!

[Elliot Oz]

The red head had all but interrogated Vittorio Mattaes on his family. Elliot loved spending time with Vittorio, meeting him was definitely one of the best things to have happened to her. She had asked him about the rest of his family, if any of them were painters and artists as well as him. Vittorio had let her know about his cousin; he did portraits and then the portraits moved! Although she'd tried to convince him to go with her, a couple portrait would be super cute, Elliot eventually made her way to Alessio Vittori's studio. Perhaps she could give it as a gift to her mom, if Vittorio didn't want to keep it. She would tell him it was a way for her to be with him all the time, even when she was off practicing her quidditch and playing games. Elliot knocked on his door happily, to the beat of the tune in her head.

 

[Alessio Lichester-Raven]

Up until that moment, Alessio had been enjoying a quiet, peaceful day. Much to his excitement, Robin was off at the circus, and that meant that the Italian had a good six hours to himself to do what he liked best - being alone. The day was filled with interesting and fun tasks such as cleaning, feeding the thestrals, touching up the mural in the spare bedroom, organising his scarf collection, and ironing all his pants until they were as straight as boards. He had just started on cooking himself lunch when his solitude was irreparably shattered by a rhythmic knock on the door. Hoping that his ears had mistaken him, Alessio paid it no mind as he sipped his floral tea, and let the effects calm him down whilst he finished chopping the fruit to add to his afternoon tea.

That was when the knocking continued, to a louder, more forceful rhythm that was utterly impossible for him to ignore. Had he not known better, he would have assumed it to be one of Robin's brothers - but who was he kidding? They would have broken through the windows rather than use a door. His mood was going south as he placed the knife down and wandered out, apron and all, to the foyer. Don't be Robin. "Buon pomeriggio-" He cut himself off once he got a look at the women. Who was this? He straightened slightly, and held the door open for her - presuming this to be a client of some sort. "Ciao, mi chiamo Alessio Vittori, piacere di conoscerti. Come ti chiami?"

essentially, he's all like: hey, I'm Aless. What's your name?
​

 

[Elliot Oz]

The man must have been deaf! Elliot could hear movement inside the house, so she knocked harder, thinking of her own tune this time. Knock, knock kno-kno-knock knock, knoooocckkk-; until finally, Alessio opened the door. Elliot grinned, excited to finally meet this great artist that Vittorio was related to! To be fair, she would be excited to meet any of Vittorio's relatives; she would love it even more if they had a big family gathering and he took her to meet everyone - that would be like a dream come true. But for now, she settled on getting her portrait done. She loved this man already.
Elliot giggled at his introduction. "Ciao! Hello! I'm Elliot. I have no idea what you just said. I can say 'Sì'! Or 'No"! But that's the same as English anyway." She giggled, stepping forward and on her tip-toes to greet Alessio with a kiss on the cheek. He was, however, way too tall. No matter how she tried, Elliot could not reach the giant's face. So instead, Elliot settled with a hug, wrapping her arms around the man, resting her cheek against him and squeezing him tight. "Vittorio told me about you and that you could paint my portrait." She said before releasing him and taking a step back. "Oooh, maybe you can teach me some Italian while you paint me!" Elliot exclaimed excitedly.

 

[Alessio Lichester-Raven]

What was with all of these foreigners coming to his home? Do his understanding, he didn't own an international floo network, why on Earth were they here. It honestly couldn't get worse when she tried to greet him, and he didn't help the matter along at all - which turned out to be to his detriment. He did his absolute best not to physically cringe as she hugged him, but took it all on the chin as he was squeezed like a best friend and he was absolutely not down for that. It all became clear when his cousin's name was mentioned. This was obviously payback for something he had done that he couldn't think of at the moment, but there would be consequences for Vittorio if Alessio had anything to say about it. Perhaps a shopping date with Robin.

"Ah, Vittorio," he said quietly, putting on his kindest smile. He was going to kill him. "Well met, Elliot." Fixing his crumpled robes and apron, he gestured for her to enter the house if only to get away from her with the hope of never being hugged again. "We should get started immediately." Afternoon tea was completely forgotten - he could starve as long as she got out of this house as quickly as possible, and so he guided her through the hallway, bypassing his favourite room, the kitchen, and into the studio. "Do you have any ideas of how you would rather be positioned or captured?"
​

 

[Elliot Oz]

When Alessio told her that they should get started straight away, Elliot squealed with excitement, and she followed him into his studio, with a skip in her step. As they went, she let her eyes roam around each room they passed. "You have a very bellissimo house Aless. Alright if I call you Aless?" Elliot asked rhetorically, though proud of herself for remembering the word for beautiful in Italian. "Where does Alessio come from anyway? I suppose it's Italian right!" Elliot laughed. "If you don't like Aless, we could always just go with Al, or Ally, Less, Lessio even. Al would be awesome, because you could call me Ell!" She giggled again. "We're like two peas in a pod!" She sung out, talking the whole time they were walking through the house. Elliot shook her head when he asked her the question. "No idea! I'm good at posing though, I sometimes do for Vittorio, but he prefers landscape and that boring crap, do you have any suggestions? I mean, you probably do because you do this for a living right? I could do this - " Elliot stood with one hand in the air, the other on her hip. "But I do need my arm for Quidditch so maybe not because I'll lose all the feeling." She laughed, before trying another pose. "How about this? Or this?

 

[Alessio Lichester-Raven]

Alessio removed his apron along the way, and hung it up in the kitchen. The fruit was cleared, but his very relaxing tea was re-warmed and brought with him - he would really be needing it. Since quitting drinking, he had the odd crave but never legitimately considered wandering down to the cellar to have a glass. But even he realised that he could probably do with one right now. The only thing she said that he actually liked and appreciated so far, was the compliment of his home. He spent hours every day keeping it in this perfect condition, so it was nice to hear a compliment every now and then. If only she had stopped talking after that, then his opinion of her would have been much more impressive.

"Alessio is Italian, yes." Very surprising, apparently. Considering he was Italian, in Italy, funnily enough, he even spoke Italian. When would this end? "Alessio would do quite fine, thank you," he replied politely over his shoulder, wishing she would just go away. He didn't even care by what means she left. She could blow a hall through the walls, or be eaten by a dragon - as long as she left quickly. He sipped his tea silently as the door to the studio was waved open with his hand. The effects of the sweet smelling beverage were already serving to calm him, and that was what he needed if he was going to work under these strenuous conditions.

The studio was much like the rest of the house - spotless. There were large windows of the outside garden and cider tree line, which complimented the dark floorboards of the studio. There were comfortable chairs, a lounge, and a light fabric ottoman. There were props around the room of course, sheets and blankets, pillows, plants and palette slides, all stacked and folded neatly in the corner with the blank canvas' and recreational paintings that depicted anything from a forest in motion, to a bustling village. He took little to no notice of her different poses as they held absolutely no interested to him. Giving her another smiled, he waited until she was done being her general self.

"Would you refer to sit in a chair, a stool, the ottoman or the lounge?"
​

 

[Elliot Oz]

A smile grew on Elliot's face as she congratulated herself with a "Yus!" when Lessy said his name was Italian. Ah she was so clever. The red head pouted slightly when he said that his full name would be the preferred name, but she would just try different ones every now and then, and soon they would grow on him. Everyone needed a nickname, nicknames were a lot of fun and definitely made people feel special, so why should Al feel exempt?! Elliot watched him with a smile on her face as he sipped his tea, and she decided she felt like a tea as well, maybe she'd have one after the portrait was done, she was sure Less would be fine if she hung out for a bit, and she wouldn't even mind making the tea herself. "Your tea smells really nice, what kind is it?" Elliot commented, while she continued to look around his studio. Her eyes fell on the props scattered around and she made a beeline for them, searching through to see what she could use. "Oh I have to sit?" Elliot mused aloud. Sitting wasn't her strong suit, unless it was on a broom, but even then she was moving and doing something so she was fine with it. Sitting down was so boring. "Maybe I could drape myself across the lounge?" She suggested happily, proud of her use of the word drape. So artistic. She found a bunch of grapes, and muttered "Perfect." to herself before going to the lounge, draping herself along the couch, one leg over the other, holding the grapes up in the air over her mouth and she looked up to them, as if she was going to eat one. "How's this?!" Elliot asked, her eyes flicking back to Ally, though really, it would have looked a lot better if Vittorio was there, and he was the one holding the grapes for her. Ahhh one day.

 

[Alessio Lichester-Raven]

Why, in Merlin's name, could she not have gone somewhere else? There had to be other painters somewhere that were as talented as he was, but in reality he knew what she had come - because his cousin had a sick sense of humour. He remained poised and calm in the face of the personification of Chaos and he watched in horror as she continued bumbling around with the grace of a mighty albatross. He placed his tea down when she seemed to take notice of it, in the hopes of discouraging further discussion of his beverage. "Ah, just some floral tea. Nothing too incredible," he assured her quietly, and then tried to return to business.

It was hard enough watching her disturb his peaceful, carefully organised room. Now he had to witness her defiling his lounge with her stupid draping, and it was hard to hide his discomfort from the mere fact that she breathed near him. It was punishment from past wrongs, her being here, and he pulled a practised smile on his face as he was addressed once more. "However you wish," he assured her, not caring how she positioned herself, as long as she would stop talking. Perhaps the grapes would gag her.

Hoping for quiet, Alessio began working away, collecting his palette to start the mixing of his oils, whilst his sharp eyes began mapping out the placement and the colours he would use for the background. He didn't often paint from memory, but sometimes the background didn't quite fit the person, and so he tweaked a few things in order for them to fit aesthetically. He only needed five colours to cover the tones of her skin, and after he had a rough sketch of placements and dimensions, he began applying contrast highlights and shadows with a medium, smooth paintbrush, trying to ignore as much of his client's voice as possible.​

 

[Vittorio Mattaes]

"No," whispered Vittorio as he stared in horror at the note on the sideboard.
'Gone to visit Alessio for a portrait! Can't believe you didn't wanna come ;_; Oh well, I'll get something nice and flattering done for you ... <3 See you tomorrow! XOXO'
No, no, no. No way. Whatever decent relationship he'd managed to maintain with his cousin was over. The Italian mortician sighed and went to fetch his coat- his best chance at salvaging the situation with Alessio was getting there before Elliot did. Chances were he'd missed her by a couple of hours since he'd just gotten home, and he desperately needed a shower because he still smelled like dead things- the coat went down again and Vittorio went grumbling throughout his house to get ready for another trip.
Where his girlfriend got off involving his family in her damn fool ideas, he'd no clue, but somehow Vittorio found himself putting up with that and more. Some part of him acknowledged that if he'd just painted her portrait himself, she wouldn't be out bothering his cousin into grey hairs, but he'd always been adamant that he was not a portrait artist. He'd screwed up once by snapping 'Go talk to Alessio Vittori if you want your portrait done, and you can stay there, too!'. She'd only giggled at him, and he'd grumbled and griped until his ruffled feathers had been soothed and he'd sketched her a miniature shadow profile, after she'd bullied Alessio's story out of him.

An hour and a half later, Vittorio was knocking on the door to the Vittori household, and to his surprise it was answer by a man shorter than Alessio but around his own height, tanned olive and wearing a facial expression far too bright to be his cousin's.
"Hiya!" said the man.
"Er ... buongiorno," Vittorio greeted him awkwardly, his hands shoved into the pockets of his trousers.
"Oh, want me to speak Italian? I know little, please in come."
He figured the man meant 'please come in,' which was already weird because he clearly didn't live here (surely Alessio wouldn't be dating a man who dressed like that), but he jerked his head in a nod and carefully took his shoes and jacket off at the door.
"Who you? You family? I am Robin!" 'Robin' was bouncing on his heels like a puppy and fluttering around, which almost made Vittorio reach out to swat him away so he could have some personal space.
"Look, English is fine," he said to the man shortly, causing the curly-haired firework visible relief.
"Thank Christ for that. Alessio is in, he's doing someone's portrait. If you're a client, ya gotta wait." Vittorio went a little pale and turned around. "Oh, d'you know her? She's pretty! Let's go see 'em." He was being towed down the hall by the wrist, and all the mortician could think was 'What have I gotten into?'​