"You don't need to commission me," he tells her, waving the offer off. "We're friends. And I already have more money than I know what to do with." The desk made a small dent in it all, as did Erik's insistence he increase his grocery budget, but it's still just piling up in his bank account and he hasn't the least idea how to get rid of it.

"Besides," he adds, as the thought occurs to him. "I want to do this for you. I think...it would...I don't know to put it. I thought the best I could hope for was to leave this world, at least, with an absence of any lasting harm wrought by my hands. But this is an opportunity to do something...something good. Something that will...if not bring pleasure, at least soothe one person's pain." He smiles at her, small and awkwardly. "I feel like I should be thanking you for the idea, really. And," he adds, with a pointed glance, "I've found that if I try to sketch while I'm emotionless, I don't care for the results afterwards. So I'll have to leave my feelings alone while I work on this project."