"Move a bit that way. Wait, stop, yeah that's good. Can you stay like that for a bit?" Lars asked looking at Mathew from behind the canvas he was working on.
"Yeah, I can." Mathew nodded back from on top of Lars' bed, then remembered that he was supposed to stay still and stiffened. He'd been modelling for Lars for over three hours now, posing the best that he could with his limited expertise for him to draw. His muscles were stiff and his arms were starting to hurt and shake from him leaning his weight back on them for a very long time now.
He'd accepted the job once it had been explained to him. He had thought it sounded like something interesting to do and it was something he could tell his papa about when he went home. His papa would like him doing this as a job. His dad might freak out though and try to tell him that modelling was incredibly inappropriate, even though he still had his clothes on. It was still only the second day of doing this after all. His dad would find something wrong with what he was doing, then go ballistic. He didn't know how his brother, Alfred, would react though. He would probably react positively. His brother always had a good outlook on life. Alfred could find the good in everything it seemed. He would probably say that Mathew modelling was cool. He was a very predictable person sometimes.
Mathew sighed and turned his gaze without moving his head towards the only window in the room. He was glad that he had this to look at as it was very boring doing nothing at all for hours on end. It was the only thing he disliked about this job. The boredom, it was suffocating. But, the window was nice to look out of; it distracted him from the only other source of entertainment in the room, the person painting in front of him.
Lars finished drawing with a sigh, slowly putting down all his supplies neatly and stretching. As he went to wash his brushes with turpentine before he washed again with water and soup to put them away he heard Mathew get off of his bed, he could hear it creaking a bit he would need to get that fixed, and pad over to the not quite finished drawing he'd been working on.
"Do you like it?"
"Oh Lars, it's beautiful."
"Humph." Lars nodded and finished putting away his art supplies, the room was as neat as he could get it now. "Would you like a glass of water?"
"Sure." Mathew said.
It was as he was fishing two glasses out of his cupboard and pouring some water into both of them that a thought occurred to him.
"Hey, um, do you have somewhere to stay? Like somewhere you can stay at permanently while you're working here? You're only here temporarily right? Do you have decent housing?"
Mathew thought about it, accepting the glass that Lars handed over to him. "Hmm, not really. I'm just staying at a motel down the street a ways."
Lars nodded. They were silent for a while. Then Lars spoke, "Would you like to stay here then? It won't cost you anything and Lord knows this place is big enough for two people to fit inside comfortably."
Mathew smiled. "Sure, I'd like that. That's very kind of you."
Lars placed his glass down on the counter beside him and started walking towards the stairs. "It's no problem. If you've decided, I can help you move any stuff you have tonight then. But, first, we have work to do. Let's go." Lars called down as he vanished up the stairs to his work room.
Mathew sighed, set his own glass of water down, and followed him up the stairs. His muscles were already aching from earlier and the sore feeling coming from them was protesting against the thought of what he would be doing for the next while, using them.