Polar (Erejean)

Cheers

"I thought I told you to stay out of the basement." 

I froze at the bottom of the stairs, my gaze stuck on Jean on the opposite side of the room. I didn't even know how he'd noticed me - he was facing the other direction and he had his headphones in, playing music that I could hear even from where I was standing.

"Sorry," I mumbled, unsure if he would hear that, as well. He didn't say anything else, instead focusing on whatever he was doing. I took a moment to look around, amazed by what I saw. The room was practically covered in artwork - paintings, drawings, sculptures... Hell, even the walls themselves had patterns running across them.

The artwork itself was astounding. I'm sure I could remember Jean mentioning using the basement for his art before, and I knew he was good, but fuck, this was just insane.

Still scanning the contents of the room, I made my way over to the other, my eyes widening a little when I turned my gaze to what he was working on.

"Is that a Cintiq?" I asked, still staring down at the large, interactive drawing tablet sitting on Jean's desk. He gave a short nod, keeping his head down but at least removing his earphones so he could listen to me.

"Didn't know you were into art."

"Oh, I'm not," I said, turning around to lean back against the desk a little. "My mum was, though. She mainly did paintings but she did some digital art, too - not with anything as fancy as this, though."

"That's definitely understandable."

"Yeah," I said blankly, caught in a short state of reminiscence before quickly shaking myself out of my thoughts. "What are you working on, anyway?"

"Nothing," he said, as if it was an automatic response. After a moment, he sighed, slumping back in his seat before saying, "come look."

I moved over so I was standing beside him, looking down at the large screen in front of me. He tapped a button before leaning back again. The section of the screen he'd been working on turned black for a few seconds, before transitioning to an image of the sky, panning downwards.

The following 60 seconds showcased a heart-warming animation, featuring a little kid no older than five. There was no sound, of course, and the animation itself wasn't finished, but I still loved what I saw.

"That looked amazing," I breathed, and I swore I heard a breath of relief slip past Jean's lips.

"You really think so? It's nowhere near done, and I still haven't even figured out who I can get to do the voiceover, but I've been trying to make it as good as it can be."

"It's brilliant," I assured. "What's it for?"

"I'm hoping to use it in my portfolio if it's good enough. I've been thinking about going to study animation at university."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I just really like the idea of being able to create something for people, you know? Like, actually being able to make an impact on people's lives - even if it's just by bringing them some form of emotion through a video or something."

"That's - really cool, actually," I said, his words surprising me, slightly. I'd never heard him sound so genuine before, and I wondered if he ever opened up like that to anyone else.

The room was filled with silence, then, with Jean staring blankly at the screen and me watching him carefully. I was about to walk off to leave him be when he spoke up again.

"You can stay here if you want," he said, slowly leaning forward to work again as he continued speaking. "It's nice to have some company, for a change."