Chad gazed into the newly awakened eyes of his omega mate. No longer the hazel that they had been, they were a rich and beautiful turquoise that shimmered with love and a touch of longing as she agreed with his alpha and called herself his. It was the most magnificent expression he had ever seen on her face and soon had every detail memorized, vowing to recreate it for his art, for his muse, for his lovely omega mate.
After Chad and Jeanie bonded, they spent the next four years living together and attending college together. They learned more about themselves in this period of time, and as their love grew, their understanding and appreciation for each other grew and settled. Gone were Jeanie's insecurities over her body, in their place was the knowledge that she was loved for who she was inside, and it didn't matter what her outward appearance was. Chad loved her for her, but he also loved her body. He always made sure to appreciate it to the fullest whenever they had time alone.
As the time came for Jeanie to enter med-school, Chad had already graduated college the year before after getting his Bachelor of Fine-Arts degree. He had sporadic work as an artist and over the last year, he had been saving as much as he could to afford a small apartment for him and Jeanie to live in. It wasn't as if they weren't welcome to stay in his grandfather's house, it was the lack of privacy as a whole that bothered him about staying there. He had put up with it for the time that he and Jeanie were in college, but now that they had graduated from school and Jeanie was furthering her education to become a doctor, it was time for them to find their own place. He would miss his studio in his grandfather's house, but it mattered to him more that Jeanie be able to afford to pay for her education to achieve her dream. As such he took one last look around and finalized his plan to sell off his art. It was for Jeanie's sake so he would part with his once treasured garage kit models and let the listing for them go live.
Jeanie, none the wiser, was fretting during her break at her part-time job. Her savings were dwindling. She had already used her partial scholarship for pre-med and now that she was to attend med-school, the money from her part-time jobs over the last four years had gone into her first year's tuition. She still had to get her textbooks and other materials as she trained to be a doctor. She was carefully considering her options as she studied her bank statements. If she picked up just one more part-time job over the summer, she could afford most of the books she needed on her list of required materials. But if she managed to get a full-time job, even if she did quit after just three months, she wouldn't have to worry about getting her books or any other of her materials she needed. However, that meant that she would have less time with Chad, and they were supposed to move into their own apartment in the next couple of days.
The whole purpose of moving into their own place was so that they could be alone together more often. He was busier than ever as he worked over the last year, so she barely saw him in the evenings, and when she did, he was always having to split his time between his parents, grandfather, and his little sister. She wasn't upset over the time he spent with his family, it was just the opposite, she encouraged it. She too spent a lot of time visiting her parents when she could and whenever she had a free weekend, she tried to be there for her baby sister. She was eight-years-old now and wanted to spend a lot more time with her and 'Big Brother Chad'. Chad visited with her when he could, but it wasn't always feasible for him to see her sister with her lately. It was also hard for them to spend time outside of school to visit with their friends.
Although Vivi had already advanced to medical school the year before, and Leon had just graduated this year, they wouldn't be able to see them much anymore now that they were both preparing for their futures. As she finished her calculations and made up her mind to find a full-time job, Jeanie had no idea that Chad was currently planning something major and life-changing.
Sighing as he finished the last price listing and letting the sales page for his hand painted figures go live, he also thought about opening up his artist portal for commissions. If he could just sell a few figures and get a couple of major commissions, he could more than just afford the apartment for Jeanie and himself, he might be able to afford the ring he had an eye on for his beautiful mate. It was a ring that consisted of silver ribbons that crisscrossed over each other and in the center and interwoven throughout was a rose gold colored heart where a Swiss blue topaz rested in the center of the heart. Throughout the ribbons were much smaller diamond settings, but he didn't think he could afford to pay for the ring with those. The small Swiss blue topaz alone was a huge expense, so he was thinking of cheaper options, including cubic zirconia as placeholders until he could afford to ask the jeweler he had an eye on for this ring to put actual diamonds in it.
As he was thinking this, his phone alerted him to his first sale. It surprised him that someone had already purchased one of the things he listed. Taking a look, he noted that it was one of his rarer figures that he had purchased years ago and only recently got around to painting. He was glad it was sold, since he needed the money, but at the same time, he would miss seeing his figure collection. There was no room to put it in the apartment he was renting for him and Jeanie, so consolidating the rest of his possessions was a good thing. While he was carefully packing the figure up to ship it to its new home, his phone went off twice more with alerts for purchases. He had no idea his figures would be so popular so quickly after listing them. He chalked it up to the fact that he had several extremely hard to come by figures that had cost him a lot of his allowance as a teen to obtain, which made them popular with the recent revival of remakes and live action anime series.
By the time that he had packaged up the next two figures, his phone alerted him to even more sales. This was now beyond his comprehension. If this kept up, then he would have sold several thousand dollars worth of figures in one day. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was about to be scammed and receive chargebacks for selling these. However, he had to take the chance. His job wasn't paying much, and he wanted to push forward his plans for proposing. The small apartment had been the next step in his overall plan. The first had been to bond with Jeanie. After proposing to her, he would marry her after she finished med-school, and maybe after she had a couple of years of working, they would have a kid or two. Although he didn't know how she would feel about kids after she was 30, he would have to talk to her about it and see how she felt about it.
Unbeknownst to Chad, there was someone who had been instructed to help him out if ever he needed it in the future. This was the same instruction that had been left so that several other people close to a certain individual would be taken care of in their time of need. Whatever that person needed was what was done to help out. Although the order that had been given was from someone no longer in this world, the loyalty they had would last generations of those who had known them. So, when Chad started listing his figures, it triggered his flag and he would be financially supported with the purchase of these. All this stemmed from one chance meeting he had years ago with the person while he was studying with his friends.