[open] cleaning day

[exuviiated]

Warnings: Uh, this thread aims to be pretty clean.
Location: 37847.
Characters: Aaron and whoever wanders in.
When: September 21, afternoon.
Summary: Cleaning day shenanigans and meeting new (or old) people.



After a while, his place in the slums really did start to feel like home. He'd had to fix some stuff up-- plumbing and electricity, water and the general cleanliness of the place. It cleaned up nice, even though the stove only sometimes worked and the refrigerator tended to freeze things instead of just keep them cold.

It was good, and it was his, and that's what mattered.

And so, starting from noon, he was doing a weekly check-up of the place-- sweeping, wiping down any surface that might collect dust, rearranging books in the rickety old bookshelf he'd picked out at the flea market. Though he'd never admit on pain of death,maybe dancing with the broom a little too to the oddly familiar music streaming from the radio perched in the corner. In lieu of having something productive (like school, which he was so rudely ripped from) to do, he turned to housework. Typical. He'd actually taken to doing odd jobs to get enough money to buy things to spruce the place up, like the aforementioned bookshelf-- and a kitchen table, a few chairs, and a desk.

The fern and its clay pot propped open the door to help air the building out, and also so that anybody-- fleeing the Nox, in need of some healing magic, or maybe just a conversation partner-- could come inside.

Comments

[batdweeb]

The slums weren't the sort of area you'd expect to see a billionaire wandering around- although God knew what kind of legal implications being stuck in another dimension had for your finances- but there Bruce Wayne was, strolling down the street with a gym bag slung over his shoulder and a preoccupied expression. It was fortunate that, apart from the monsters, Freesia City was relatively peaceful, otherwise somebody probably would have tried to mug him.

Not that Bruce was quite as preoccupied as he looked. He was paying enough attentions to his surroundings to notice the sound of Aaron's radio in the distance, and music was unusual enough in the slums to pique his curiosity.

It only took a slight detour for Bruce to locate one of the shabby apartment houses in the area, which seemed to be where the music was coming from. The front door was left hanging open with a potted plant serving with a doorstop and, moving with habitual quiet, Bruce stepped up to the doorway in order to look inside.

[exuviiated]

Aaron was decently observant, but Bruce was really, really sneaky, apparently. He didn't see him until he turned around from what he was doing, which was chasing a normal spider from the cavity under his sink. He gave a little jerk of surprise once he turned towards the door (and banged his elbow on the lip of the sink) and saw Bruce in his doorway.

"Mr. Wayne? I didn't see you there." He set the broom down against the wall and walked over, beckoning him inside. "Wouldn't expect to see you in a place like this." It was half-joking, and half-serious-- the slums truly weren't the worst place to be, considering, but they still weren't the shiny new apartments Aaron had expected to be more Wayne's speed.

"How are you doing? It's been a while, right?" The last time they'd met, they'd been fighting giant spiders. Aaron rather enjoyed the change of speed.

[batdweeb]

It took Bruce a moment to actually recognize Aaron from behind, since it had been a while since they'd last met in person- or at least, since they'd last met when Aaron wasn't leaking Nox ichor everywhere, a memory Bruce quickly tried to banish from his thoughts.

He winced when Aaron banged his elbow, then gave the younger man a sheepish smile and obediently shuffled into Aaron's apartment. "Sorry for startling you," he said. "I happened to be in the area when I heard your radio, and curiosity got the better of me." He took a moment to glance around the apartment. Tiny, by his personal standards, and maybe a little bit shabby. But it was clean enough that it probably could've met with Alfred's approval and Bruce was self-aware enough to know his standards for what a home was like were rather different from most people's.

More thoughts he needed to push away, as homesickness wasn't going to help the situation. He tried to concentrate on what Aaron was saying, instead. "Me? Um, fine. Staying out of trouble, believe it or not." He offered up another smile, inwardly bracing himself before asking: "How about you? Freesia treating you alright?"

[exuviiated]

He drifted off towards the kitchen to turn down the radio while waiting for Bruce’s response. “It’s good music, isn’t it? And no problem, I’m just a little jumpy today.” He shook his head as if entirely disappointed with himself, mustering a little laugh to go along with it. “D’you want some coffee or something? I put a pot on like, an hour ago, and totally forgot about it.”

A look close to bittersweet crossed Bruce’s face, and Aaron guessed it had absolutely nothing to do with coffee or what he was saying. Instead of pursuing, however, he just waited until Bruce responded to him again. “Bruce Wayne? Out of trouble? That’s more magical than the magic we got.” He grinned right back at him, leaning against the wall.

“How—how I am?” His smile became remarkably fixed, and then he shook his head. “Not any crazier than normal. I just kinda wanna go home, you know?” Lie told, he pointed towards the table. “You don’t have to stay standing up. I have chairs, you know.”

[batdweeb]

'Jumpy' was one way of putting it. Aaron seemed a little out of it in general, like someone who had a lot on his mind but had to go through the social motions anyway. Of course, considering the misadventure Aaron had been through recently, Bruce was expecting the false sounding laughs and almost theatrical motions from him.

Coffee? There was indeed a mild scent of it in the air, especially as Bruce followed Aaron further into the apartment. "If you're sure it wouldn't be an imposition..." He didn't particularly need the caffeine hit, but it gave them an excuse to socialize.

"Yeah, well, I hate to say it, but Freesia doesn't have the same distractions that Gotham does," Bruce said, keeping his tone breezy despite the we're-both-stuck-in-a-city-in-another-dimension subject matter.

And despite the close attention he paid to Aaron's next answer, which was: Repeating Bruce's question back with a hesitation and a noticeably fake looking smile, all leading up to a lie.

Well, part of a lie- Bruce had no reason to doubt the sincerity of Aaron's homesickness. So he simply nodded, pulled out a chair, and replied "I know. And thanks."

Once seated, Bruce glanced up at Aaron and examined him for a moment. "You know, I don't think you had much of a chance to tell me about yourself before," he said. "Were you a university student back in Gotham? You seem like one."

[ pls... don't feel pressured to match. i went Too Long ]

[exuviiated]

"Imposition? No, not at all. It's not wasting daylight if it never really gets dark in here." Sure enough, tea lights (the electric kind) and other small sources of light would keep the main room well-lit without the soft yellow light of the sun to do it. Aaron disappeared into the kitchen properly and, after a moment, came back with two generic white mugs filled with coffee, just warm enough to heat the ceramic but not hot enough to steam. He placed one at the two-o-clock position in front of Bruce and stayed with holding his own, sitting down neatly in the chair opposite Bruce's.

"And yeah, I was a university student. Med Stu-- Medical student, in my second year. I really miss it. It seems like time just slowed down as soon as I got here, I guess? Might just be the sudden lack of excitement in my life." Another lie, but much more smoothly told. He looked down into the shimmery blackness of his coffee, sighing, and then looked back up at Bruce. "You came and gave a talk opening the new lab a few months before all this happened, right?" He was speaking at a faster clip, now, leaning slightly forwards.

"And I bet you've heard this way--" it broke off into a faint laugh, "way too many times, but the quality of an education I got there wouldn't've been possible without your generosity."

Deciding that he'd revealed quite enough about himself, he set his coffee down and smiled brightly at Bruce. "I bet you're a man of hidden depths. How do you think your company and stuff's getting on without, y'know, you there to guide it along?"

[batdweeb]

At Aaron's words, Bruce glanced at the plethora of small electric lights that had been scattered around the room. "Not a fan of the night life, I see," he murmured. He was dubious about how necessary this sort of thing really was but likely it served to make Aaron feel more secure.

Bruce waited patiently for the coffee and took the cup in one hand, but rather than drink it he rested his chin in his other hand and leaned forward, listening with interest to Aaron.

(So he did call it on that university student thing.)

"I-" New school lab, new school lab... He did remember it, once Aaron mentioned it, although it still took him a moment since he had hardly thought about it afterwards. "...Was that really a few months ago? It seems like it's been longer, somehow."

Evidently it had made more of an impression on Aaron, though. Bruce straightened and gave Aaron a reassuring smile. "Relax," he said. "I don't think I'm going to suffer from over-appreciation any time soon. And you're welcome."

The smile was dropped when Aaron brought up Wayne Enterprises, leaving Bruce to instead stare pensively at his coffee. "It shouldn't be at any risk of collapse," he said, speaking a little slowly, "And I trust the people who work for me." In fact, if he was being honest, the company was probably the least of his worries in Gotham. "The situation when I left was a bit of a mess, but I have reason to believe things turned out fine."

[exuviiated]

"Yeah, it does seem like it happened forever ago.” A wistful sigh, and Aaron quickly distracted himself from that with a sip of coffee.

"I've been sitting in on the organic chemistry class at the college, and they don't have half the stuff we do." That was just born of his searching for something to say. Bruce seemed interested in what he-- he, wow-- had to say, and not in that polite way afforded to pesky interviewers. "--don't tell them I'm in the class without paying for it." He managed to look guilty, somehow, even though in truth he felt zero remorse-- it was their fault they didn't even have a roll sheet.

There was a small, scared twist in his chest once Bruce's smile fell. But instead of being brushed off, he got an actual answer. "Oh. That's good. I'm kinda surprised you didn't try to get into the business side of this place, really. Not that there’s any I’ve seen, apart from the mall and the vendors around."

Aaron kicked his feet under the table for a few seconds, sipping his coffee and keeping his eyes down on the swirling grain of the table. He was regretting turning off the music and leaving them to quiet. “—have you seen anything interesting around here? My life’s been pretty dull, what with rejuvenating this place and avoiding the Nox.”