Nudged into action.

[brokendoors]

It's been an interesting few weeks. Far more interesting than usual, and Ivy finally gets a moment to sit down.
But once she's on her butt, she can't sit still.

Caleb's spending the Thanksgiving weekend with his grandparents and isn't due until Monday afternoon, and she's lonely. This why she gets the urge to pull out her cell phone, and scrolls through the list of names.

And stares, bites her lip, and begins texting a message.

Hi, Casper. I doubt you remember me. Ivy, from the Nexus. Got a little boy with asthma. If you do, I was wondering if you were busy? Maybe get a coffee or something.

He probably doesn't remember her, and it's been so long that she's had an actual friend so she'll be really pathetically awkward.

Comments

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

"Oh, it was fun to begin with, but" she shrugs. "It lost it's appeal after five years. I do wanna look into those apartments in the Nexus, if you're still up for it."

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

He snaps his fingers as he's reminded of their earlier conversation. "Right, I'd forgotten about that. Well, I have no plans for the day, so unless you wanna go sightseeing we can go look after we're done here." Then he suddenly pauses and looks at her. Did she just say..? "Five years? Yeah. It's probably time for a change there."

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh. How to choose? Sightseeing or looking for a new home?!

Alright, what could be better than a bedroom of his own for Christmas? "I think.. apartments." Grin. "Definitely!"

"It was a godsend at the time," she explains. "I had a job, and a new place to live - and I could bring the baby along to work. But he's older now, and yeah. He needs something more normal."

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"Good choice. San Fran will always be around." Maybe not always always, but... Yeah. Sightseeing can happen some other day.

"Hey, I'm hardly criticizing you. We all work with what we've got, and obviously this has worked for you."

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

She softens, just a little, and manages to look sheepish. "Yes. I know, I'm sorry. It just sometimes feels like I can't stop hearing people say that it's not a good environment."

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

He shrugs, finishing off the last of his coffee before it gets cold. "Sure, it could be better. But it could also be a hell of a lot worse. Take credit in that."

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, it could." She grins over her own cup. "That's what I keep tellin' people but they never seem to believe me."

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"Trust me, I haven't even seen this place, and I can already say that I've seen worse. And, even if the roof over ones head might be better, the living conditions could still be worse."

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Thankfully, the reason the living conditions come under question so often is because he's cared about." Caleb's grandparents love him a lot, she'll give them that.

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"That's what's important, right?" The kid is loved. As long as there's that, and that there's no actual hard coming to him from living in a hotel, Casper thinks he'll be fine.

But, an actual apartment and that the kid gets his own room? Yep, that is better. As soon as Ivy's done with her coffee, he'll take her to go look for a place.


((Lalalaa, you did not see that misposting with a wrong acount!))

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

((I saw nothing.))

"Yessir!" Smile.

"So.." Ivy says when they're back in the Nexus, on their way to an apartment building. "Crazy, that this place is so big."

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"Truthfully I try to not think about just how big it might be. A world between an endless number of worlds? . This is the block where I live. It's not the most fancy, and there's everything from werewolves to creatures from the Black Lagoon to angels living here. But it's cheap, and all the odd creatures are friendly enough."

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

"What's the crime like?" She's used to some crime; she lives in Columbus after all. But a new town, new environment.. it's a little scary.

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"Nothing at all that I've noticed, save for the odd graffiti. We're in the AV-fields, after all. I suppose burglary is possible, but I haven't heard anything about that happening. At least not during the time I've lived here, and I've been here for a few years now."

They walk past a small grocery story on the corner, and past an Irish pub. There's four buildings, with a small playground for kids in the middle. "I live right up there," he says, pointing to the building across the little yard before opening the door to the closest building. There's a sign right inside the door, listing the tenants and vacant apartments. There's one one-bedroom apartment, plus the big-ass penthouse. "Hmm, maybe the next building?"

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

"...I keep forgetting about the AV-fields. That's actually great news." Ivy likes that idea more and more. "No one can bully Caleb, and no one can get shot." There's been a ton of child-related crime in her city lately, and it bothers her a lot.

But this looks like a nice place, what with the little playground. Her face falls a tiny bit when she learns there's not a 2 bedroom available - or at least out of her price range. She nods at his question. "Yeah. But I can keep the one bedroom in mind, just in case."

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"Well, bullying... There's not much the AV-field can do about harsh words. But as far as I can tell, the kids around are nice enough. Seph hasn't had any problems, at least."

They walk over to the next building. Better luck there. One one bedroom, and one two bedroom.

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Ivy does rather like the building. She likes the place a lot. "Hey. Look. We should definitely look at the 2 bedrooms.."

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"Unless they've changed the routines since I moved in, the door should be open." Five floors up, looks like. So, a short elevator trip, and then they can check the flat out!

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

"...Not having to walk up flights of stairs would be wondrous." she comments, looking at as much as she possibly can. "And it's so clean." She approves.

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

The layout is identical to Casper's apartment. They enter into a fairly spacious living room. One bedroom and a bathroom is to the right, and the kitchen and the other bedroom to the left. Straight ahead is a door out to a balcony.

All in all it's a fairly normal-sized apartment, and in good shape.

"One's allowed to paint and put up new wallpaper," Casper says. That was the first thing he did when he moved in. Or before he moved in. He painted more or less the entire place blue.

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

Hold on, Casper. Ivy's never had free will to do anything like ..painting. Oh. Gracious. She wonders what kind of wall paper Caleb could want.

"...There's a dishwasher," she says reverently.

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"Yup." He rarely uses his, for some reason. He's the type of guy who washes up whatever he's dirtied right after a meal, so there's not much piling up for him.

He finds a note tacked up on the wall. It's the general info about the block and the apartment, such as rent. "So, what do you say? Would it be worth a hundred bucks a month?"

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

Ivy blinks. "A hundred dollars?" she asks incredulously, reading the notice again to make sure she's not misreading or mishearing or going insane. "It's..they take out seventy dollars a week for the hotel room. That includes lights and water and stuff, but that's.. holy crap that's cheap."

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"I think I remember telling you that it's cheap to live here." Yep, have a grinning Casper, Ivy. Because he knows that those hundred dollars include electrical, heating, water and...l well, everything, really. He loves this place. It's like it wants people to live there, so it makes it cheap as hell so that anyone can afford it.

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

"Well, yeah. But I wasn't expecting.. oh, Casper, I just.." She grins up at him, suddenly having the urge to jump up and down. "it's gonna be amazing." They could maybe get a Christmas tree this year, and maybe the landlord is OK with animals. Maybe she could get Caleb a kitten..