[Fin] Alfresco Living

[BlackFireKitsune]

Abel waved away what seemed like Taavi's umpteenth thanks as he turned to lead the way back to his apartment, and returned his hands to his pockets. Pleased that he was no longer so fidgety, Isaac settled more comfortably across his friend's shoulders, while Elizabeth and Caleb trotted along behind them, the former lagging behind only a little this time. "Oh, really?" The blond spared a glance to his companion, eyebrows raised a bit. "Well that's good I guess, you don't need to worry about having too many bags and boxes of stuff to carry around with you, yeah?" Silver linings were important, however slim. Isaac flicked his ears back, not particularly fond of the chill in the air even on his warm perch, so he shifted meaningfully; Abel obliged him and pulled the top of his coat forward as he continued the conversation, "I almost forgot you haven't been in Kodo too long. How long has it been now? Not quite a year yet, right?" While he spoke, his Espeon slunk down into the warm space his trainer created for him inside his coat, and with a bit of squirming and shifting around, his head finally popped back out of the top of the coat. After Abel folded his hands under the wiggling lump inside his coat, Isaac gave a final little squirm or two to get himself comfortable before he stilled.  

[TawnyAngel]

It was true, he couldn't have moved lots of extra stuff around so he would have had to get rid of it somehow if he'd had it. While he had moved a few things on it had been simple practical stuff that you needed in a home but didn't if you were camping slash apparently couch surfing, nothing he'd been attached to so he didn't feel like he'd lost important stuff? And he'd always hated that apartment right? Maybe... maybe he'd find a decent job and be able to afford a decent place to live.

"Right?" he agreed with Abel aloud. "I am a Squirtle, got everything I need on my back! Y'know except running water and stuff. But, most things!" Maybe he could... cook a nice meal for Abel? If Valour caught something and he bought some vegetables he could do a roast dinner so long as Abel had an oven.

As Abel tucked his coat up around Isaac Taavi smiled over at the Espeon. "Heh, sorry to have dragged you and Abel out in this." It wasn't the best weather for somebody with fine fur. "Uh, and I guess it's been.... yeah, six months now?" Taavi continued to Abel after a moment's thought. "I got here at the beginning of July, so just about. A lot's happened since then, it feels like a lot longer." One thing of particular note hadn't happened yet but he just needed to keep being patient, if it was meant to be then it would come in its own time. He really hoped it was meant to be.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Heh. I think you could argue that a Squirtle would have running water regardless, being a water-type and all," he said with a wry grin. Deep in his coat pocket he felt his phone buzz, so after a moment of digging he managed to pull it out to check it. Upon seeing who sent it he merely made a face at it briefly before sticking it back into his pocket. Maybe later.

Isaac smiled back at Taavi and offered a soft 'eon' in response. Abel smiled as well and ruffled the fur atop his Espeon's head. "Nah, don't worry about it. He wouldn't have come along if he didn't want to. He likes bumming around town with me, right bud?" He received an affirmative 'espeon!' in reply. "Six months, huh... That can either feel like not long at all, or like it's been a really long time. A lot can happen in six months," he agreed with a short nod. Unfortunately for Taavi though, it seemed like lately the sort of things that happened were more bad than good.

After a few turns through the city, Abel finally led the pair off the sidewalk, out of the chilly air and into a tall apartment building. As they walked through the lobby they passed several glass doors - one a mail room, the others mostly small offices - though given the late hour, there were few people around and all of the rooms were dimly lit with the doors closed. On the other side of the lobby sat an elevator and a stairwell; Abel stopped at the former of the two and pressed the button. "I live on one of the upper floors," he informed his new guest with a slightly rueful smile, "so I always take the elevator. You could probably take the stairs if you wanted, but I dunno if you'd really want to climb up and down six flights of stairs every single time. Though maybe you would want to, I dunno," he added with an excessive shrug, stepping inside the elevator once it arrived with a soft ding, and gave him a self-deprecating grin. "I couldn't do it." No, he smoked far too much to handle many flights of stairs.  

[TawnyAngel]

As they approached the apartment building Taavi squinted upwards, spotted Valour's circling shape and gave him a wave. When the large bird didn't start to descend towards him Taavi followed Abel inside, explaining; "He'll want to be out while the light lasts," as he went.

The inside of the building didn't look so very different to his own, or at least his former one. Most buildings like this were much the same though he guessed, grand architecture and interior design wasn't really a priority in housing until you were making quite a lot of money. "Elevator is good," Taavi replied with a little smile. "I was on the eighth floor so I usually took the elevator except that time the elevator was broken for like a week, or if I was feeling really motivated." This afternoon he was not feeling motivated, he was exhausted and stressed and not in the mood for exercise and doubly so because of his big heavy bag.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Fair enough," he replied amiably, though he didn't know why Valour would want to keep flying around. It had to be so cold up there, but then again he had plenty of feathers... Did they keep him warm? Maybe.

Setting the thought aside, the blond chuckled a bit. "Man, I don't know how I'd survive if our elevator broke. I'd be able to get down all right, but getting back up? Especially after a long day? No thanks." He'd have to go up them regardless, but he really wouldn't want to. It wasn't that he had anything against stairs or anything; his lungs did.

When the elevator stopped at the appropriate floor Abel disembarked and passed by a couple doors as he headed to the other end of the hall. As he stopped in front of his door and pulled his keys from his pocket, he said, "So this is my place. It isn't too big or fancy or anything," he went on as he unlocked the door and pushed it open for his two fire-types and his guest to enter before he followed behind, "but it's still pretty decent, I think." As soon as the group began filtering in, Sonia stepped closer to greet them while Joel peeked around the corner of the kitchen at them. A scuffling sound from the other room hinted that another pokemon beat a hasty retreat into another room, away from them. While the interior of his apartment was sparsely furnished, it at least had plenty of seating available in the form of four chairs at a small rectangular table, an armchair in a corner of the living room, and a comfortable-looking couch against one wall. Some old dirty rags and bottles of oil accompanied a long, thin tool on the table, presumably to clean something similarly long and thin, and in the living room a TV sat atop a modest stand on the other wall, a few feet to the side of which hung a guitar. Its case sat on the floor beneath it. and visible beyond the living room were two open doors; one led to the bathroom and the other led to the bedroom.

"You can put your stuff down wherever," Abel informed his guest as he slowly and carefully unzipped his coat, "and if you want, you can put your coat in the closet behind you," so saying he nodded his head at the open closet behind the front door. If Taavi turned to do so, he would be greeted by a white Zubat hanging from the coat rack.  

[TawnyAngel]

“Heh,” Taavi shrugged, “I’m kind of used to being on my feet running around all day so it’s not so bad for me. Still, I’m glad the elevator is here.” He’d always found them a bit claustrophobic but not anywhere near enough so to avoid them if he was going up more than three or so floors on most days, the good definitely outweighed the vague visions from horror movies.

“Hi there!” Taavi greeted the pokemon once Abel opened the door as he stepped inside and murmured thanks to Abel for holding the door. Now who was it that had scurried away? He thought that pretty much everyone he knew was accounted for... Oh well he’d probably find out soon. “It’s great!” Taavi insisted as he paused by the door to take off his boots; by his tone of voice and the way he looked around it sounded like he genuinely meant it, it might not be fancy here but it seemed like a comfortable friendly home and that was a lot better than fancy in his opinion.

For the moment at least a decent place for his bag seemed to be beside the closet so Taavi put his bag down there before removing his coat and opening the cupboard to put it in. When he opened the door he let out a little chuckle upon spotting the occupant. “Oh, excuse me!” Careful not to disturb the white bat his hung his coat up and then moved out of the way so that Abel could do the same.

“Um, so, when you stay over with people I know you’re meant to bring wine and chocolate or something? Buuut I only have instant coffee, instant noodles, and some jerky,” Taavi said with a slightly uncertain grin. “Oh, no, that’s not quite true; I also have chilli powder! Not recommended with coffee, but it makes noodles more interesting.” He felt a little bit awkward and he didn’t usually feel awkward with Abel, but visiting somebody’s home for the first time was a thing and especially because it wasn’t the best circumstances. It was probably best that he shut up though rather than rambling on anymore about chilli.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Me too," Abel agreed with feeling; he finished unzipping his coat and let Isaac hop onto the floor. After landing on all fours, the Espeon gave himself a thorough shake before he trotted off into the living room. "I'm usually on my feet all day too, but not always, and I don't really ever have to do any running around, luckily, though sometimes there's boxes of stuff to move or stock." Standing around at a counter or sitting in the back cleaning supplies wasn't bad at all, but unloading a new shipment was quite tiresome.

Sonia offered Taavi a brief wave of greeting before Abel patted her head and, rather than take his coat off just yet, he moved to the table so he could rummage through his pockets first. Taavi's 'excuse me' drew his attention and he looked over at the closet curiously for just a brief moment before he chuckled a bit. "Ah, Cyrus must be in there. He found me during some Halloween thing I went to and has followed me around ever since. Usually he stays outside and only comes in when the weather's bad, but since it's been cold lately he's stayed inside more often than not," the blond explained as he pulled his phone, wallet, lighter, and a box of cigarettes from the various pockets in his coat and dumped them all on the table. That achieved, he slid his coat off and moved around his guest to hang it up in the closet and offer the Zubat a brief pat.

By then all of his pokemon had filtered out of the entryway and had settled themselves in various corners of the apartment; Sonia had curled herself up in the armchair in the corner, Caleb's fluffy tail was visible poking out from behind that same armchair, Joel had moved to hide behind the armchair and peek out at them from his spot, Isaac had perched atop the back of the couch, while Elizabeth settled herself with rummaging around the kitchen. Overall the apartment was sparsely furnished, sparsely decorated, and the small amount of various items scattered randomly throughout was what one would expect to find in an apartment that housed one person and at least six pokemon. "Heh, that's kind of a funny coincidence," the blond admitted as he ran a hand through his hair, his stomach doing a little flip as he recalled just how little food he himself had. What was he doing, inviting someone else to stay with him? He could scarcely feed himself and his pokemon, let alone another person. That same thought had presented itself when he came across Vanessa though, and that turned out just about the same. When would he ever learn? "I, uh, don't really have much more than that myself, to be honest. At the very least I have a couch you can sleep on?" He ended somewhat lamely, feeling bad about it. A thought occurred to him and he quickly seized it, adding, "Oh, before I forget, you're more than welcome to let your Vulpix out if you want."  

[TawnyAngel]

Ah, Abel was on instant noodles too? He'd never been quite clear on what it was Abel did other than that it was vaguely retail oriented and, well retail didn't pay a lot. When you had a lot of pokemon to think about it wasn't all that surprising that Abel didn't have a lot to spend on himself.

"He looks happy in there," Taavi said in reference to the Zubat as he moved through into the living room. "And, heh, maybe we have different brands? An exciting change right? And a couch is awesome, it looks really comfortable." Maybe... maybe if he got some kind of a job he could suggest they rent a place together? It was a lot cheaper for two people- and that was a pretty major thing to suggest to a friend out of left field, plus the fact that he didn't even have a job anyway, and maybe Abel liked living on his own, and he wouldn't want to be dealing with Sasha being over all the time.

Man, he was really glad he hadn't voiced that thought aloud.

"Oh, thanks, he'd probably like that. And, um, I met a new pokemon at Halloween actually too, could I let her out too?" Taavi asked, taking the two pokeballs from his belt. "She's a Chingling, so she doesn't take up a whole lot of space."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

After sparing a glance at the open closet, the blond chuckled a bit. "Yeah, he likes that he can hang from the rod in there. When he's outside, he usually hangs off the fire escape," Abel jerked a thumb towards the window in the living room not too far from the couch, "plus if he wants it to be dark, we can just shut the door."

Ha; a different brand of instant noodles. Unless Taavi didn't buy the absolute cheapest ones they had, in all likelihood they'd be the same. Unfortunately Abel couldn't afford to be picky. He wished he could, though.

Pushing such thoughts aside, he swept one arm out in a 'go ahead' gesture. "Yeah, of course," he said in case the nonverbal cue wasn't clear, "there's plenty of room in here if they're smaller. Bigger ones - well - we might end up with an obstacle course in here," the blond noted with a hint of amusement in his tones. "I've another new one too - a Lopunny - but she's shy and skittish. Probably hiding under my bed or something," he added after a moment of thought. "That's usually where she bolts to when something startles her."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Thanks!" Taavi smiled, nodded, and made a noise of understanding. "Would that be who I heard running away when you let us in then? Heh, your little family's really expanding hu?" Had he been somebody else Taavi might have questioned the decision to bring new pokemon home if you were living on instant noodles, but as Taavi was Taavi he assumed there was a good reason for it- it was a bad time of year to be a stray for example.... Annnd Abel had just brought home more strays, hadn't he? He was going to have to make sure he didn't outstay his welcome, he didn't want things to end up awkward between him and Abel.

With permission granted Taavi let out his pair of companions and made introductions where they were needed. "Abel has said we can stay here for a few days, so you guys be good alright?" he concluded, taking a seat on the couch. Swift nodded before trotting over to join Isaac on the back of the couch and Melody jingled, which Taavi took to be a yes.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

"Ah, probably, yeah," Abel said as he joined Taavi in the living room, but rather than take a seat on the couch, he slid his thumbs into his pockets and leaned against the counter that separated the kitchen from the rest of the apartment. He hummed thoughtfully for a couple moments as he regarded his bedroom door and no doubt its lone occupant - he couldn't think where else she could be hiding - and after a moment he turned to Taavi with a questioning expression. "Wanna try to win her over? I can give you something to give her to help, otherwise she'll probably hide from you almost the entire time you're here. If you want to, that is," he added. Maybe Taavi would prefer to just sit on the couch and not do anything for a while first.

Isaac offered Swift a nod and a polite word of greeting. Caleb, on the other hand, leaned over and peered out rather warily at the two pokemon. Swift he recognized, at least, but that other one...  

[TawnyAngel]

"Oh, yes please, I'd love to!" Taavi beamed, forgetting his long list of worries at least for the moment at the prospect of befriending a new pokemon.

Melody, who was now sitting on the table, gave another jingle and waved at Caleb.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Oh, well, that was kind of a positive reaction, wasn't it? Just a tiny bit. Not too much.

Chuckling at Taavi's response, Abel shifted and headed into the kitchen. A biscuit warmed in the microwave for a few seconds before being cut in half, drizzled in honey and then put together again, essentially forming a honey biscuit sandwich, was placed on a small dish once finished. Plate in hand, Abel exited the kitchen and motioned for Taavi to get up and join him, handing him the plate once he was near enough. "She's really shy at first, but you can talk to her to try to coax her out or something if you want." That said, the blond walked over to his bedroom door but instead of entering, he merely leaned against the door frame with one arm, the hand on his free arm resting on his hip. "Hey Vanessa," he called gently as he gestured for Taavi to kneel or sit outside the door, whichever he found most comfortable, "it's okay to come on out. We've got visitors tonight and one of them has a treat for you."

Caleb narrowed his eyes at Melody suspiciously.  

[TawnyAngel]

<> Swift offered to Caleb.

Melody jingled.

Taavi meanwhile nodded along with Abel's explanation, took the plate and sat down cross-legged on the floor when his friend motioned for him to do so. "Hi there," Taavi said, keeping his tones soft like Abel's. "My name's Taavi, I'd really like to meet you if you can come out? Also, there's a warm biscuit with honey here; sound good?" Taavi set the plate down on the floor just in front of him; if Vanessa only felt brave enough to scuttle out, grab it and retreat that was okay for now, you couldn't rush things with a shy pokemon. "I've got my friends Swift the Vulpix and Melody the Chingling with me too but there's no rush to meet all of us at once." He didn't mention Valour just yet, he was still outside and could be talked about later on when he came inside.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Caleb's only response was to grumble and retreat into the sanctity of his spot behind the couch where his dog bed lay.

Isaac offered, speaking loud enough for the Growlithe to hear.

Abel nodded approvingly; honey was Vanessa's favorite thing to eat, after all, so perhaps hearing that would entice her; he would've mentioned it if Taavi hadn't, but he did, so instead he offered, "You can bring your blanket out too, if you want to."

Slowly, slowly, the sounds of movement floated out from within, from somewhere out of sight of the door; soft, timid footsteps and the quiet fwump of fabric falling onto carpeted floor. After a time, one half of a round, brown face wrapped in a dark blue blanket peeked out from behind the door, and a single, bright orange eye flitted from Taavi to Abel to the biscuit with honey, then back to Taavi again where it rested while the Lopunny debated what to do.