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

[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..

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

He doesn't know the feeling, exactly. He was doing alright economically even before he moved here. But he can imagine that there's some relief for Ivy.

"Wanna check out the rest, or are you jumping at the chance?"

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

"I should probably comparison shop..." It's the responsible thing to do. "But..I really like this place."

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

Not so much luck in the other buildings. There's a large four bedroom place in the next building, and in Casper's building there's only a small studio apartment. Too large or two small.

But, since they were in Casper's building... "So we just had coffee, but I'm a caffeine junkie like you wouldn't believe. So since I live two floors up..."

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

"Sure," she says, hefting her bag up on her shoulder more. "I probably won't do coffee again, but I'm pretty fond of a nice glass of ice water." No really, she is.

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure I can arrange something."

Casper's home has a definite blue theme to it, with silhouettes of birds painted on the walls. And looks like he keeps a tidy place. "My older son lives just upstairs, actually," he reveals as he's heading into the kitchen.

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

Ivy does appreciate a tidy home. After five years of such close quarters, she's a little anal retentive about clutter. She's very curious, so she nods instead of acknowledging him aloud.

She's already considering what she can possibly find like those silhouettes on the wall for Caleb's room.

And then she's in the kitchen. "Oh. I love the blue!" She blushes. "Oh. It must be really nice to have him so close by."

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"Definitely," he says, putting the kettle on for his coffee, and then going to raid the freezer for ice cubes. A tall glass of ice water coming right up. "Though sometimes it's a bit of walking a razor's edge, in not spying on him and not being too distant. I mean, he's a grown man and can take care of himself. But at the same time..." He makes a face. "Even if I never got to know him when he was little, he's still my son. I worry and fuss and all that."

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

She nods. "Yeah. My mom used to say that she had to figure out how to become a friend and mentor more than a protector."

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"Something like that, yeah." Even though Seth hadn't been a child when he arrived, he had been stripped of his powers and thrown out from the world he'd known. Casper had been a protector of sorts in the beginning for the boy, be he in his late teens or not.

[ivyandcaleb.livejournal.com]

"I'm definitely not looking forward to it with Caleb," she confesses.

[watchingsparrow.livejournal.com]

"Oh, but you have a long time until then. And I suppose that it'll come gradually." Once the coffee is done and water poured, Casper motions Ivy out into the living room. No sense in standing around in the kitchen. There's a few comfy chairs around, and a sort of old and worn leather couch that damn comfortable.