Disclaimer: characters loaned from someone else, no money involved.
Quick sketch
They were twenty-four when they decided to move in together. Takato was doing so many courses under the general topic of art that he was the only one who remembered them all [except Henry, who just knew naturally]. Jeri said that there was no way she was going to stand living in the smell of turpentine and fixative and the frenzied hiss of aerosol cans, but Takato thought she was kidding because she'd insisted they search for an apartment together.
They'd found a small apartment that she kept saying was perfect for him, making Takato thrilled to have a girlfriend so dedicated to his happiness, and the next second he was dragged into the elevator so they could check out the apartment directly above. Jeri had loved it and insisted it was perfect for her, and while he was still bewildered half an hour later while they finalised the agreements with the landlord, she was mentally arranging her furniture.
Now she lived above him, managing her rent somehow with waitressing supplemented by helping in the bakery on weekends, and often Takato found presents on his balcony, the string they had been lowered by tied around them with a bow. Light things were weighted down with her keys, for when she wanted company, or sometimes taped-up stacks of small denomination coins when she'd served a lot of cheapskates the day\night before.
[The presents were why she lived above and not next door. "They might break," Jeri said serenely. Takato thought it made sense. Other people usually just grinned widely.]
Every third day or so Jeri dropped crumbs. He'd figured rats were eating the stuff she sent him, and when he finally remembered to tell her she had chided him.
"The birds are your present, silly!" They were used to the routine before he was: small, hopping, brown-speckled birds and heavy, fat pigeons returning regularly to the balcony to peck at the crumbs. "They're so cute! You can just look at them, or; why don't you draw them?"
Small, lively sketches, so rough it was laughable. But they were so easy and unpressured when compared to his other stuff – besides ... they came from him and Jeri. So. He just liked them, every time.
