Worth it

Model

"Do you have more pillows? This stage is pretty flat."

"Yeah, hold up," Lars called over from the last garage window he was covering with paper. He didn't want any possibility of someone peering in during this, and invading their privacy. He then went through the garage door that led to the house, coming back inside several seconds later with a bunch of pillows in his arms, "Is this enough? I can probably yank some offa the guest room bed too."

"That should work," Ronaldo smiled, and took them, placing them in a pile suitable to be lounged on, "So uh, do I need to take my clothes off now yet?"

"Mm, in a couple minutes," Lars mumbled, pulling out his pencil case, and picking out the drawing utensils he would be using, and grabbed a pillow for himself, placing it on the drawing horse he'd brought in.

"OK," Ronaldo breathed through his nose, trying to settle his nerves. He'd been all too eager to volunteer to be a model for Lars to practice life drawing with, but hadn't expected to be told he would be stripping naked, his friend having explained that's normally what drawing studios did, life drawing with nude models. It wasn't like Ronaldo could really back out on this, after all, Lars had been complaining all week about how he needed to squeeze some practice in while the local college's drawing studio was closed for renovation, and he did sound really desperate.

Lars passed him a bamboo stick, "I probably wanna start with some quick standing poses or somethin', you can pose with this if you want."

"U-Uh great, thanks," Ronaldo nodded.

"Need you to tie your hair back a little, I wanna get your face", he tossed him a little hairtie, "Keep your glasses on a bit, I'll see if they add any element or whatever."

"Gotcha," Ronaldo sighed, putting the band between his teeth as he worked his curls into a manageable ponytail of some sort to tie in the back.

Lars looked around his little makeshift studio, "OK...yeah...yeah! This will work. Aight, man, you can strip now!"

A small shiver ran up Ronaldo's spine, and he gulped, "Oh, uh, right. Yes. Let me...do just that..."

"You want me to cover my eyes or whatever?", Lars shrugged.

"No, no," he spoke quickly, "I'm fine!", and immediately began to strip, feeling a bit of anxiety building in the pit of his stomach. Keep it cool, this isn't much different than when we went skinny dipping as kids, it's fine, it's cool. Ronaldo was, admittedly, a bit more than a little nervous stripping naked in front of his datefriend. It wasn't just because it was Lars, but just in general, Ronaldo was slightly self conscious about his body like this, fully exposed.

"If you ever wanna take a break, I put a robe behind the platform by the way," Lars piped up casually, snapping Ronaldo out of his thoughts as he had just pulled off his shirt and was hesitant to remove his pants.

"Oh, uh, yes, thanks," he smiled quickly, and nervously shucked off his cargo shorts and boxers, dropping them in a pile on the floor. He glanced away, not exactly wanting to see what Lars' expression was as he prepped to draw him.

"Aight, so just gimme some gesture poses, I'll tell you when to move and stuff," the artist spoke casually, already starting to scratch some lines on his paper with the charcoal pencil, which prompted Ronaldo to freeze.

Every time Lars announced he could move, Ronaldo was very particular about posing himself in ways that hopefully wouldn't show off his stomach, or his 'love handles', or his chest with 'man boobs', or his butt, or his thighs, or his hips. Or anything that he felt clashed with what made a good model. And he was not very successful with his attempts to make the pose right.

Lars must have noticed his discomfort during the sixth or seventh pose, as he spoke up, "Y'doin alright up there? You look antsy."

"Just...getting accustomed to the stage," Ronaldo smiled tightly. On the next pose, he picked up a pillow and held it over his stomach, trying to play it off as a prop, but his fingers were gripping so tightly to the pillow, it simply melded against his form.

"...do you wanna put your clothes back on?", Lars sighed, seeing how the other still looked so uncomfortable.

"No, really, I'm fine."

"Alright," Lars shrugged, "Let's do some longer poses now, I guess. Just use the bamboo stick, and hold still for a bit."

"Right," Ronaldo nodded, and awkwardly flexed his fingers around the staff, and once again, did a very withdrawn looking pose that, in Lars' opinion, made for a crappy silhouette.

"...Uh, you wanna get a little more dramatic, man?", he piped up, "I can't draw you if you're all huddled like that."

"O-Oh of course," Ronaldo laughed awkwardly, "Let me just ah...", he began to get a little frustrated, mumbling to himself, "No no, that can't be seen...this is too big, that's too thick...oh...", he mumbled, growing a little more flustered.

Lars rolled his eyes, "Alright, put your clothes on."

"B-but I-!"

"Y'obviously don't like being naked up there and me potentially staring at your junk, so I'm not gonna force you to stay like that."

"But you need a model-"

"I don't want you naked if it's gonna bug you so much, man," he sighed, "Look, I'd be pretty freaked if I had to pose nude, with or without a binder, so I'm not gonna be mad if you wanna do it in your clothes."

Ronaldo sighed, grabbing the robe, "It's just...you need a model, and I...definitely do not have the body of one."

"Oh for fuck's sake," Lars muttered under his breath, standing up, and walking over, 'If that's what's bugging you man, don't worry about it! I think your body is great drawing material, I mean, you've got a lotta curves, and a lotta shape!"

"That's not far from the truth," Ronaldo mumbled, poking his own stomach.

"And that stuff is like, really fun to draw," he grinned, and tugged Ronaldo by the hand, "Look look, I made all these really round shapes and lines with those gestures I did. You've got killer thighs."

Ronaldo flushed brightly, looking at the curvy, large-shaped figures, "Gee. Thanks."

"Hey that's a good thing! Curves are like...in most artist's eyes, really...lovely!", Lars shrugged, the word sort of strange coming off his tongue.

"Really?"

"Yeah, man! It's not much fun doing the same straight lines on thin models all the time. You add a lotta variety to it! Your 'intrinsic line of beauty' is gonna be a lot more exaggerated and it makes the drawing all the more fun to do!"

Ronaldo looked over the drawings, and felt a tiny bit better. If Lars truly was admiring his body, and making them into frankly, very beautiful drawings, then maybe he could handle being a nude model. And handle someone normally as prickly as Lars calling him 'beautiful'.

Lars had teasingly let a hand gently grope his stomach, snickering, "Besides, your chub is pretty damn cute for me to google over."

Flushing bright, Ronaldo dropped the robe right where he stood, which made Lars sputter, and the model scooped the suddenly very flustered artist up. After a bit of squirming, Lars huffed, and settled against Ronaldo's bare chest.

"Y'know, you're actually pretty comfy," he muttered.

"Can I take a break with you on the stage like this?", he grinned cheekily, "Those pillows shant go to waste!"

"Fine, but I'm keeping my clothes on."

"Fair enough~"