genessia | Movin' on up- Closed log

Entry tags:

dove eden,
lea

Movin' on up- Closed log

Who: Lea and Dove
Where: Dove's- and now Lea's- place
When: A little while after Namor's returned home
What: Lea is moving in with Dove for both practical and personal reasons. There's a sitcom in the making here somewhere...
Warnings: Possible feelings and angst. And lots of boxes.

Lea took one look one last look around his old 6th floor apartment. It looked strange, stripped of anything personal and restored as closely as possible to how it had been when he and Xion had first moved in. He fought the absurd notion to leave Xion a note on the counter, explaining where he'd gone. Stupid... whether she ever came back or not, the note would get thrown away the next time someone came in to clean the place.

He sighed, then carried the last box through the Dark Corridor, letting it finally close behind him as he emerged once again into Dove's penthouse. And his now too, he supposed. He added the box to the stack of others in the living room, straightening up and stretching a bit. "Well, that's it," he said. "I'm officially moved."

He looked at the boxes with another sigh. "Now we just need to unpack all this stuff again, and figure out where we're going to put it all." Not that Dove lacked the space. On the contrary; she had plenty of that. To say that the penthouse was spacious would be an understatement, and the furniture and possessions within didn't seem to fill much of the space. But that in itself made it daunting. Everything there looked so clean and orderly to him, each thing in its appointed place; how was he and his rather mismatched set of possessions going to fit in here?

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Dove watched as Lea appeared, disappeared, then reappeared through that strange corridor of his over and over again, busying herself by sorting the boxes he brought back by labeled category: clothing on one side of the room, personal effects in another, and so on. She, even in her more recent (but slowly waning!) edgy mood, was too intimidated by the portal to attempt her own trip through it, even with Lea to guide her. It probably wouldn’t go too well for the embodiment of Light, she had told him with a sheepish shrug. Instead, she would see to it that things on this end were prepared, and that none of their Pokemon would go digging through boxes of socks and underthings.

Admittedly, the addition of a roommate made her nervous, but mostly in the strange, excited way. This would be good. After a long conversation with him, she had finally realized and accepted that she needed this, despite the unfamiliarity of it all and the implications that came with it. It stung, knowing that she needed the support even in a place where her true title didn’t matter, but…. Lea was her friend; more than that, even. He knew her better than anyone left in the city, and had been right there with her through the rapid string of recent heartbreaks. She hadn’t found any bitter judgement in him, and didn’t expect any to come. He could be trusted, and in keeping him close…

…well. Maybe she could help him with more than just shifting some boxes around. Somehow.

When he stepped back through the swirling darkness and finally dismissed it, she looked up with a small smile. “Well… you should probably pick out a room, first,” she shrugged, shifting her weight and setting her hands on her hips. “but… yeah. Welcome home, Lea.”

Easier to start with his private room, then work their way out, she figured. While the penthouse certainly looked like something straight out of a magazine, Dove didn’t at all mind the thought of giving it a little more personality, if Lea wanted to spread out. She had only hired a local designer to create the space at her agent’s suggestion when she had signed for the place, and while she loved what Diana and her team had built for her… she had really only desired a place to lock herself away with a little more air and room to stretch her wings than her previous apartment had provided. A sanctuary and fortress all in one.

…and maybe she had overdone it, but it had definitely helped with her public appearance.

Edited (ooops, probably shouldn't italicize the entire post hm) 2019-11-15 15:16 (UTC)

Lea had agreed with Dove's reasoning regarding the Dark Corridor. It would have likely either harmed her or caused the corridor to collapse, both of which could have been Very Bad for different reasons. And in any case, it wasn't good for someone without a Black Coat to travel through them much anyway; they were far more than just a fashion statement after all.

He chuckled at her pointing out the fact that he still hadn't picked a room yet. "Yeah, I should probably do that," he said. "Though that reminds me, there's one thing I need to do before even going that far."

He opened the last box he'd brought through, which seemed to be filled with pet supplies of various kinds. And on top of the contents sat five Pokéballs. "Alright guys," he said, picking the balls two at a time and releasing the Pokémon inside. "Come on out." In short order, they were joined by a Growlithe, a Honedge, a Blaziken, a Noibat, and a Fletchinder. "Welcome to your new home, guys."

"I know you've met Fireball, Buster, and Donald already," he said, indicating the first three Pokémon to Dove, "but I don't think you've met these two yet. I haven't quite come up with names for them yet, but they're a Noibat and a Fletchinder." The Pokémon all chirped, growled, or hummed a greeting and in Donald's case, waved hello.

She shrugged and glanced down the hall; there were a good handful to choose from, though she herself favored the second suite. Slightly smaller than her own master suite at the opposite end of the penthouse, it had quite the view and plenty of space to move around. In the end, though, it would be his choice.

She tilted her head curiously as she watched him sift through the contents, blinking as she remembered he definitely wouldn't be the only new occupant. She laughed softly as he released them in turn and crouched down to greet the familiar growlithe first, should he accept her outstretched hand. With a melodic whistle, she called for her own to join them in the living room.

Ace, of course, sat by the large glass panel to the balcony just outside of the living room, having watched their moving progress since the start. The others, confined to the other end of the apartment, now made their way into the space to greet the others. Lovey rounded a couch, ribbons tugging an overely excited (and much smaller eevee) back from pouncing on Lea on sight. The two ninetails she kept with her calmly made their way to flank their mistress. The sixth... well. Her absol apparently couldn't be bothered for the time being.

"Hello," Dove cooed, keeping a careful eye on her own team and... Donald. While she trusted Lea and his team entirely, the fighting-fire type was... somehow unsettling even still. "Make yourself at home, kiddos. Just... try not to each the couch."

From the way the smaller eevee shrank back at her teasing tone, it...might have been attempted before.

"Ace, Lovey, and Scout you know," she told them, nodding to the eeveelution and her tiny charge as the houndoom huffed from behind her. "Prada is...somewhere..." She reached to either side to run a hand over the luxurious fur of her ninetails pair. "The twins are Niel and Chanel."

Lea couldn't help but chuckle at the overly excited Eevee. He knew very well that the Sylveon holding him back had once been much the same, so the irony wasn't lost on him.

For the Pokémon's part they looked varying degrees of interested at meeting Dove's bunch and looking around the residence. Though Fireball looked slightly sheepish and Buster mildly offended- at least as much as it was possible to tell with a sword- at the couch eating comment. "Yeah, no worries there," Lea commented. "Mine've got plenty of toys and things that they can chew on. And I brought a few extras for yours as sort of a housewarming gift." And to hopefully prevent any squabbling as they all got used to living together.

Though with the Pokémon introduced, Lea found himself out of excuses for continuing with the move in. "Anyway, picking a room," he said. "Right... OK." He paused, looking around for a moment, once again finding the size of the place a bit daunting. "Um... any suggestions? Cause frankly this place is bigger than my whole house was as a kid, and I don't even know where to start."

She ruffled one of the growlithe's ears before getting back to her feet again and nodded her approval to Lovey to release the little fluff monster. The moment the sylveon's ribbons had loosened, Scout dashed for Buster, aiming for his 'tail'.

She grinned at Lea. "That was sweet of you," she smiled, crossing her arms as she watched both ninetails circle through the room to greet the others. "I'm sure they'll appreciate it."

Right, on to picking a room. She laughed sheepishly at his comment, but started down the wide hall just off the living room. "Well... You're welcome to any of them, except that one," she told him, nodding toward the first door nearest them. "It's... kind of become a storage room... Kind of. But you can stash stuff in it if you'd like." If he could find space. It was mostly filled with swag from companies she had worked with and clothing she'd likely never wear again. "Personally," she continued, heading for the end of the hall, "I'd be sleeping in this one if I wasn't in my own room."

She opened the door to the second suite to let him in. The room was flooded with sunlight, curtesy of an entire wall made of glass and the view of the city below. to the right, a long bookshelf ran the length of a real wall, perfect for any plants, books, or special nicknacks he might have. Opposite of the 'window', a modestly large bed dominated the space, its headboard simple and each side flanked with a bed stand.

"I mean... This one has its own bathroom," she shrugged, tone laced with lighthearted sarcasm as she moved through the room and swung open a second door. "No sharing with guests, you know?"

Lea saw Scout immediately going for the cloth attached to Buster. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said. "Supposedly, Honedge can use that cloth to drain the life out of their prey in the wild. I've never seen Buster do it, but well... probably best not to chance it." He didn't know how likely it was that the little Eevee would listen, and highly doubted that his own, well-fed Honedge would do such a thing, but better safe than sorry.

Leaving the Pokémon to mingle, Lea followed Dove down the hall, nodding slightly as she mentioned the storage room. He made a mental note to take a peek in there later, but didn't expect he'd really need it for much. Despite the number of boxes he'd brought, once it was all unpacked and spread out, he really didn't have a ton of stuff.

When they came to the room Dove suggested though Lea couldn't help but let out a low, impressed whistle. "I can see why you like it," he said, walking to about the middle of the room and looking around. He could seriously live here? I felt like... well he wasn't sure what it felt like other than big. It was a beautiful room, but there was part of him that felt like he should ask for something smaller. More modest. If there even were any modest sized rooms in the penthouse. "It's... pretty amazing."

And then Dove opened the other door that he had assumed until that moment to be a closet and he got another surprise. "Wait... you mean it seriously has it's own bathroom?", he said in disbelief, going over to take a look at it himself. And even upon confirming the fact he still gave a bit of a stunned laugh. "Wow... it really does. I thought this kind of thing was only in hotels and stuff, you know?"

She turned to him from the side of the tub with lighthearted bemusement splashed across her face. "Yeah, why wouldn't it? I mean, it's technically a suite, not just a room, but... It's all yours if you want it," she told him, shifting out of his way to head back into the bedroom if he wanted to poke around the full washroom for himself. Pristine tile and dark cabinetry, topped with beautiful marble counter space, a standard glass-walled shower, and of course, her favorite feature, the lone standing tub just off to the side- all normal accommodations, she had thought, for a penthouse guest suite.

She felt him out silently, hoping it wasn't too much... While she was fully accustomed to the luxury of the life she had lucked into, she didn't want to overwhelm him, even if he deserved it and more. "The um... windows do this thing, too," she told him, moving to the bedside to the switch next to the lights. "But if you hate it, we can get some normal curtains instead..."

With a press of the button, the sunny clear widows slowly fogged and 'tinted' themselves, turning fully opaque and leaving the room entirely dark, until she switched on one of the bedside lamps. "Electrochromatic? Chromic? ...something..."

Lea couldn't help but chuckle again at her apparent bemusement. "It's great, really," he said. "It's just I'm more used to like... one bathroom per whole house, you know? Or maybe a bathroom and one of those little extra powder rooms." That and the group showers and bathrooms that they'd had at Castle Oblivion. But this was really nothing like either of those experiences, aside from containing the same essential features. He ran his fingers lightly over the marble countertop. He'd almost feel bad about using this like a normal bathroom; it was all so nice and expensive looking that he kinda didn't want to mess it up.

As Dove mentioned the windows though he moved back to the doorway to see what she was referring to. Then, with the flick of a switch, the windows went from normal windows to opaque while Lea watched in mild astonishment. Astonishment that only grew at the suggestion that he might hate it. "Are you kidding?", he said. "Why would I hate it? That's so cool!" Guess who was going to get a kick out of tinting and untinting the windows later when he was alone? He would probably be doing it right then, except that he didn't want to look like a complete dork. "Can they be tinted like halfway? Or is it just clear or dark?"

Well. That much she was used to, at least, though she didn't comment on it. She had grown up the equivalent of a princess in her world and was now its 'queen'...Archangel. Formalities. Regardless, she was happy to have someone to share it with, now.

She laughed at the spike of excitement, then nodded to the switch as she stepped away so he could try it out if he wanted. "I think this switch just turns them on or off, but there's an app you can get.." she mused, pulling out her device. "I'll have to have Diana send me the link for it again, but it changed the colors and stuff, too..." While fascinating, it had been too much at the time for her to handle, and she just hadn't gotten back around to it since.

Lea grinned. "Different colors too?", he said. "OK, once I'm all moved in, I gotta get that app." That just made an already cool thing several times cooler.

He paused and took another look around the room. "This really is an amazing room," he said. He sat down on the bed, testing the softness of the mattress and smiling at what he found. "It's hard to believe I really get to live here, you know? I mean, I thought having my own regular apartment was cool, but this is something else."

His smile turned sheepish as he turned back to Dove. "Sorry if I'm acting like a dork," he said. "I'm sure I'll get used to it. It's just a pretty big change, you know?"

She hugged her arms around herself as she felt him out, still feeling somewhat sheepish, but happier than she had been in a long while.

She laughed softly and turned her gaze out to the city below as he apologized. "No, it's sweet... It's just nice to be around someone so genuine," she corrected him, rubbing her arm. "And it'll be really nice to actually have someone to share all this with. I definitely overshot when I signed for this place..."

While, yes, it had originally served as her fortress and escape, something in the shift of her world had broken through that security and peace. Since the disappearances, it had just felt... empty, yet somehow still smothering. Now, with Lea close by... maybe she could relax and allow herself to heal properly, knowing he would be near, should anything happen.

"'Genuine', huh?", Lea said, somewhat amused. "That's mostly a nice way of saying 'doesn't think before he opens his mouth half the time', but I'll take it. Though I can see what you mean by overshooting. You could probably have a dozen people living here if you wanted, and it still wouldn't feel too crowded."

"Anyway, are there any other surprise features of the room that I should know about before we continue the tour?", he asked. He'd been there before as a guest, of course, but he hadn't had free reign to poke around then, or at the very least felt he hadn't. His mom had raised him right, after all, and he knew better than to go poking around in other people's things without permission under most circumstances.

"A dozen might be a bit much," she grinned, wrinkling her nose at him and the idea of it. "I like people well enough, but it's nice to have a safe place to escape." The fact that she trusted him enough to live with her should spoke volumes about how she felt about Lea. She hadn't willingly shared a space with anyone since...

No. This was good.

"...aside from the ghost in your closet, you mean?" she teased, winking as she headed for the door and chased away the memory, tone dripping with sarcasm. "She's quiet, I swear, and only comes out at night during a new moon, though she's quiet the snuggler..." The angel slipped out into the hallway once more, then added with faux thoughtfulness, "She's also mentioned on multiple occasions that she's particularly fond of red heads, so it'll be nice to be on her good side again." From the catlike grin on her face, she could only imagine Lea would be the perfect offering, should such a ghost exist.

Lea chuckled as he followed her out the door. "Lucky me," he said. "I'll try not to disappoint her. I'd hate to be on the bad side of a cuddly ghost."

He then paused slightly as a thought occurred to him. "You know, how exactly would you go about snuggling a ghost anyway?", he said before resuming following Dove. "I mean,would you just go right through them?"

She laughed, shaking her head at him over her shoulder, light dancing in her eyes. "I guess you'll just have to find out for us both," she told him with a knowing shrug, before pushing open another door, this one closer to the living room. "....maybe I need a cuddly ghost in my room."

"Two more guest rooms up this one... that one over there is just another washroom," she told him, pointing to another door across the hall. "And my... office? Consultation room? ...whatever this is."

She leaned into another door, gracefully swinging with it as it opened. Light once more spilled in through the large glass panels, casting the nearly pure white room in dazzling rays. A faux fur carpet and modest seating arrangement took up one side of the room, a book with her signature in gold scrawled across the front sitting atop the coffee table between the chairs. A desk sat along the opposite side of the room, a blanket tossed across the chair as if she hadn't quite thought to tidy it up.... at least that looked used. Her laptop and tablet sat atop the desk, and beside them... a now-polished glass rose that Lea might find familiar and that Dove couldn't quite bring herself to move to her bedroom. Not yet.

... and never mind the scattering of polaroids in the document basket.

Lea chuckled. "I'll be sure and let you know how it works out then," he said. He made note of the various rooms as they walked, nodding a bit to show that he was paying attention.

Then when they arrived at her office, he actually had to blink slightly at the bright whiteness of it all for a moment, and yet... it suited Dove somehow. She was an angel, after all; she should be surrounded by light. There were just enough various objects on the desk and coffee table to tell that it had been used and lived in without it looking untidy. Though it still had that same slight too empty feeling that the much of the rest of the apartment seemed to have. The bright white lacked... warmth. Though he supposed he might be biased, given his favoring of warm colors.

"It's nice," he said, walking around to get a closer look at the various things. "I mean I haven't really been in a ton of offices, but I like this one. Though... it could maybe use a little more color? I dunno... I mean I guess white and light everywhere suits for an angel, but still... maybe we could put a painting or two somewhere? Break it up a little, you know?"

He paused near the desk, scanning around the room as if looking for the optimal place to hand such artwork. When he happened to glance down at the desk, the pictures in Dove's document basket caught his eye. Upon taking a longer look at them however... he blushed and quickly found something else to look at. It felt wrong, almost, to look at those kind of pictures, doubly so when they were pictures of Dove. She was as beautiful as ever in them, but still... wow.

In time, with his being there, that warmth might return in a whole new way.

"Probably," she laughed, leaning back against the desk and reaching over to swipe some invisible dust from its edge. "I was told it was best to have a 'clean canvas' in case any of my employers decide to bring outfits with them during consultations. It's been alright... just a nightmare to clean. I actually spilled wine on the rug while Diana's team was here setting it up." Her cheeks flush a little. "There were portraits of me hanging here and there but it felt... vain." And some of her best work had been done in her skin- only her skin- and with Lea moving in...

She watched him with mild interest, then tilted her head, quietly amused. "What?"

"Wasn't really thinking portraits," Lea said looking at a section of blank wall thoughtfully. "Maybe a nice landscape, or just something abstract. Long as it's colorful."

When she caught his reaction to looking at something else, though, he hastily tried to come up with some kind of excuse for his blushing and sudden awkwardness, but came up blank. Crap. "Well... I uh... kinda looked at the pictures there in the basket on the desk," he said. Then hastily added, "I wasn't trying to; they were just there. And... yeah, sorry."

"Or... a nice big metalwork?" she offered, shrugging before crossing her arms over her middle. "I might know a guy."

Her eyes drifted to a few wrapped frames in the corner beside the desk, and she sighed. "I've got a few more...personal pieces that I just don't have the heart to hang just yet, but it would be nice to warm things up a bit with work that means something..."

She laughed at his apology, but shook her head and scooped up the photos to examine them herself. "Don't worry about it. I was supposed to approve these ages ago. Just...haven't gotten around to it yet. They're just Digitals, anyway, and most of the people I'm working with know what I look like." She frowns down at the one atop the stack. "Though I guess they do help with pre-planning the touchups."

Even in the low, natural lighting, the scars across her abdomen are pretty prominent.

"... at least I'm semi-clothed in these," she added flippantly, trying to shift the mood a touch.

Lea smiled at the clear suggestion that he could make some kind of metalwork for her wall. "Well, I could give it a shot," he said. "Once I'm settled in, we could try and plan something out." He wondered what she meant by 'personal' pieces, though opted not to ask just then. Because well, they were personal after all.

And to be entirely honest, Lea hadn't even noticed the scars much, having been more focused on the fact that he was seeing pictures of his friend in a state of undress that had previously been reserved for models in a few magazines that he'd had to hide under his bed so his parents didn't find them. He supposed he'd always known logically that Dove- being a model- might pose for photos like that too, but seeing the evidence was quite different. Especially when it hadn't exactly been meant for him to see.

"Ah, yeah," he said, not missing the implication that she also did photos completely nude. "I'm glad of that, at least."

"Not that you look bad or anything!", he said hastily holding up his hands in a placating gesture, aware of how that might have sounded. "The opposite in fact. It's just... well, you're my friend, and it's weird seeing... those kind of pictures of a friend, you know? Especially by accident."

She mirrors his smile, even if it's quieter, and nods. She has plenty of space out at the studio. Maybe she could set something up for him there...

She laughs softly and shuffles them back into a stack and sets them face down atop the envelopes in the basket. "Thanks...but I'll pay more attention to where I leave my proofs laying around," she promises, making a mental note to be sure of it. "I'll...also have to go shopping for some actual bedclothes, too, now that I think about it..." she adds casually, heading back for her office door. Sure, it's a tease, but she...really will have to think on that one also.

Lea nodded, still looking a little sheepish but more cheerful for the teasing as he followed her. "Probably a good idea, yeah," he said. "On both counts."

"Though that's something else I hadn't actually thought of. I usually just wear boxers and sometimes a t-shirt to bed, if that's alright? Though I guess I could find myself some comfy PJs too."

She slipped back into the hall with a grin, glancing back at him. "Don't worry about it," she laughed. "That's more than enough if that's what you're comfortable in."

To be fair, that had been almost exactly what she had meant for herself when she had mentioned 'proper nightclothes'.

Lea nodded as he followed her back out into the hall. "This is gonna take some adjusting to for both of us, probably," he said. "I've been on my own for awhile, and... well I don't know if you've ever lived with anyone before like this." Sure, he suspected that she'd had friends over more than once, potentially overnight, but that wasn't the same thing as living with someone long term.

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Movin' on up- Closed log

Wooohoo, an exposition text wall for you! <3

Yay wall o text! \o/

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