[PRP] Moving In

[Akira Midoriyama]

The brunet stood in the doorway, taking a good look around at the new apartment. It seemed spacious enough with only boxes to occupy it for now, but he guessed it would feel smaller once some furniture was moved in. As he himself hadn’t had much to transport from his old place to the new one, all his things were already there.

Nate, however, had yet to bring in the majority of his possessions and Akira had heard he had asked a friend of his to help him move. They were supposed to be there any minute. With a sigh of satisfaction, the young man turned to head outside, ready to assist them in any way he could.  

[Suudonym]

"Whoop." Nate stopped short as Akira moved to exit the apartment, hoisting the bin in his arms slightly higher to rebalance it from the sudden halt in movement. When he turned his attention to Akira, it was with an air of slight disbelief, "Dang, don't tell me you've already got all your s**t in there?"  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Heh, well I didn't have much to begin with," he explained, holding out his arms. "Most of my things I left back in Sinnoh. Just extra baggage. Can I help you with that?"  

[Suudonym]

"Eh, I got it; I'm already here anyway," Nate replied with a partial shrug. Instead of moving to proceed directly into the apartment, though, he turned back towards the stairs, looking down towards the parking lot below. "Cory, he's already got all his s**t in here! Hurry, Cory! Run!"

There came a shouted reply, "What? Why? Don't tell me what to do."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Run?" Akira laughed. "You worried I'll unpack and take over the place before you have a chance to stake your claim?" Heading downstairs, he tried to keep to the side so as to avoid running into the second mover.

"Hey, you must be Cory," he said. "Awfully nice of you to go out of your way to help. Anything I can do? There still stuff to bring up?"  

[Suudonym]

"Well yeah," Nate replied matter-of-factly, mischief in his grin. "That's what I'd do if I got here first." He moved to maneuver the bin through the door, finding a place for it inside the apartment.

The man that Akira encountered took more care in his movements than Nate had, leaving little concern about running into him unexpectedly. "Yessir," he said, "and I suppose that makes you Akira, then. Let me tell you, this is much less about being nice and much more about being excited that he's not going to be breaking into my apartment anymore." He gave a brief, good-natured laugh, then glanced back towards the parking lot thoughtfully. "Uhh, yeah, sure, I'd appreciate it. Blue pickup; there's not a whole lot of stuff, but the boxes are kind of heavy."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

Shaking his head with a smile, he turned his attention to Cory. "Breaking into your apartment? How often does that happen?" he asked, mildly surprised. If Nate spent nights in his car, it couldn't have been more than just to bug his friend every now and then. Akira recalled the white-haired adolescent remarking that Cory 'had his own s**t to deal with', which suggested that Nate was more considerate than he made himself out to be.

"Alright, I've got it," he assured Cory, heading down the rest of the steps toward the indicated truck. He may not have done much physical labor or lifted a whole lot before coming to Kodo, but having been a stock clerk meant shifting and relocating a lot of inventory, so he'd gained some experience in that department, at least. Picking up the nearest box, he did his best to shift the weight onto his legs instead of lifting with his back.  

[Suudonym]

"Oh, not too often. Usually only when I tell him not to come over because I won't be there." The casual tone Cory used suggested that he probably didn't care all that much anyway. He nodded his appreciation with a smile and a "thanks" as he ascended the stairs to deliver his load to its destination. He passed Nate on his way up, catching the younger male with a word, "Hey, don't forget to get your stuff out of your car."

Nate stared, skeptical. "Your car?"

"No, your car. You know, that little hellhole of a nest you've got going in your backseat? The location of 90% of all your wearable clothes? Yeah, that."

Nate stuck his tongue out dismissively and continued down the stairs.  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"So are yours and Cory's vehicles sufficient enough to hold the essentials, or are you going back home for another trip?" Akira asked, catching some of the exchange between the two as he went back up the way he came, arms occupied with a full box.  

[Suudonym]

"Ehh, there's still some stuff at my parents' house, but I dunno if it's worth going back for," Nate answered, shrugging. "Might just leave it. They'll dump it eventually."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Hm. Alright then," he said, dropping off the box inside before heading back for more. "Um, Cory...how long have you and Nate known each other?" Akira asked, trying to make conversation. "If it's not too nosy a question. Just seems like you and him must be pretty good friends for him to feel comfortable enough to break into your apartment while you're away."  

[Suudonym]

Cory looked up from his own cargo to receive the question, setting the box down against a wall gently. "Hmmm, a pretty long time," he said. "High school for me, so I guess he was still in middle school. We met through his older sister, Ellia." There was a brief hesitation to his features, as if doubting whether or not he should have divulged one of those details; he recovered shortly. "Forgive my curiosity, but how did you guys meet? I was kind of surprised when he said that he was moving in with someone who wasn't one of our friends from Ambergris."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Oh, wow. Quite an age difference." He recalled mention of a sister, but he couldn't remember if Nate had said anything about her being older or younger. Maybe he had more than one...? Though he didn't think that was the impression he'd gotten when he'd heard Nate talk before.

"Ellia, huh? Yeah, I think Nate mentioned her once or twice. Hm?" He raised his brows at the question. "Oh, nothing to forgive. Naturally you'd be curious, having known him longer than I have. And suddenly we're sharing an apartment." He shrugged. "We met through a mutual friend - a girl named Seraphine. You know her?"  

[Suudonym]

"I've heard the name," he said with a nod, looking mildly surprised. "I half expected that she was made up, though - until I came home from a trip and found that a castle made from furniture and six packs had been erected in my living room. I figured he probably wasn't working alone to make a mess like that."  

[Akira Midoriyama]

"Ah." Akira scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Yeah, that sounds like them. So, uh...you said he had other friends he could have moved in with from Ambergris, right? Did any of them had any interest in coming to Camphoreon?" He regarded Cory with a sideways look. "I'm assuming you were from Ambergris, too?"