Visitors

Aidan

Aidan carried a backpack. It held all his things, or at least enough of it that he could survive alright on his own. That was relative speaking of course, as he didn't have any money left over, and only his wits. He hummed as he moved along the streets, pausing now and then to ask someone about 'Elijah' as if they knew the whole city and there was only one; like a highlander or..something. It took him fifteen tries before he got someone, and that someone was...not in the usual plane of existence. 

People might have looked at him strangely as he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, lips widened into a bright smile, and asked the poor girl if she knew about 'Elijah.' She seemed to know who he was talking about, especially when Aidan mentioned that, well, Elijah could see her too. Surely she knew someone who could see her. She might have even tried to take his hand, and Aidan wrapped his own around hers as if he could actually feel it, and they walked. Everyone else found him rather odd. But that was normal in a city, to have mad people.

She led him slowly to the apartment, and stopped just outside his door. "In here?" He asked pleasantly, and she nodded. Aidan let go of her hand and he felt the knob of the door. It was cold to the touch. Before he even turned it, he looked back to the girl and knelt slowly. "I'm Aidan." He said, giving her that same smile. "If you ever need anything, I'll help you, Ok? You can just find me." He lifted a hand and 'poked' at her forehead, giving her a small giggle."Eli won't mind either if you need help. He's a nice guy. " 

He rose slowly and finally...finally reached for the knob to step right in the door.  He didn't knock. He didn't ask for entrance, Aidain tried to walk right in as if it were his own home.

Elijah

The door wasn't locked.

The door was nicer than the other doors, but that was Jenn's doing. She'd repainted it, tried to take care of the knob, was careful to make sure the hinges were well-oiled. She paid attention to what was there, but someone in the building was bound to get jealous that Jenn had managed to make part of the apartments immensely nicer than the others. When Aidan walked in the door, the place was more solid than it had been in the past.

The floor was solid, hard wood and polished. The stairs gleamed like iron and copper and the ceiling was barely held together, opened up to a sky full of clouds and stars. there were paintings on the walls, bright and vivid and filled with colors and shine. This was what Jenna Laurent spent her time, devoted her life and her energy, to actually working on. There was the sound of Van Morrison on the stereo, crackling over the speakers as the record continued to turn. Elijah was on the couch.

To his credit, he had clothing on. Which was saying something, because when he had the space to himself there was usually a chance that he might not be wearing something vital to being pleasant company. He had on athletic pants and a tee shirt. The room smelled like incense and dirt and plants because there were plants. Mostly in Jenn's room but a few in the living room.

He sat up, blearily looking to the door and the person walking in. His reaction was slow, but his green eyes widened. Elijah vaulted over the coffee table.

"Holy fucking shit," he cursed. He laughed.

Aidan

He touched the wall, followed it along as the door closed behind him. He was distracted by the way it looked, the contrast between it and the outside.  The colors, the love, the care that it had. Aidan giggled a little to himself. "I can tell you're happy." He said, though it wasn't to Elijah who was now... so blatantly obvious. 

He wore a loose, very thin long sleeve. It meant that he'd be warmer than he needed to be but he could cover himself the way he liked. It was blue, a deep blue, deeper than his own eyes. His sneakers were newer, high top style and were snug, along with his tan pants. He caressed bits of the house as Elijah noticed and ventured over.

Aidan gave Elijah a bright smile and a slight cock of his head to the side. "Miss me?" He said with that upbeat charm. "I like your home. It's bright. It feels happy and warm." Aidan pulled his backpack off and set it on the floor. "You're hard to find."

Elijah

"Jenn was really dead-set on making the place look nice. She went on and on about potential, and I was sold on the view," the view, of course, that Aidan wouldn't have much trouble actually seeing on account of being a person who didn't have a problem seeing between the words. There's a balcony outside of the kitchen with a view of a wall if you're unlucky, and a view of a breathtaking skyline with spiral cut stars if you happened to be inclined in such a fashion.

Miss me?
"Fuck," Elijah laughed, stared at Aidan like he wasn't sure if he was seeing a ghost or if the guy really was actively standing there. It felt happy and warm, and he was pulling his backpack off. His hands went up to run through his hair. "Ohhh my god, you're not blond anymore."

He's hard to find. "Huh?" duh, Elijah, he didn't stutter, "Oh, yeah, I've been kinda quiet, it's hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for."

Aidan

"Jenn has good taste I think. The house agrees, I think. I think it's happy you're here. Now if you ever leave it'll be sad." Aidan let a blush rise to his cheeks as Elijah noticed the hair shift. "I know. It was sudden. Did I do it right?" One can only imagine Aidan sitting in a bathroom trying to figure out how dye worked and not getting it all over himself. "It's...It's just temporary. I miss my old hair now."

He wore a necklace too, with dark beads and a wooden figure on the end of it. It dangled mid his sternum. "It seemed like a good idea, I thought. Like it?" Aidan wrapped his fingers around Elijah's wrists lightly. 

"You at least still look good. This place suits you."

Elijah

Elijah has a lack of personal space. He reaches up, hand certain, and he can't help himself. He has to touch. he has to physically affirm that Aidan is actually standing there and that he hasn't lost track of the world and that this really is how things are supposed to be going. It's temporary, he's just visiting… or at least Elijah thinks that he's just visiting. He had said that Aidan could come by whenever he wanted, but had failed to actually give the young man an inkling of where he'd lived. A fact that escaped his mind at the time.

"You did great, just… embrace what you've got for now, it makes your eyes really stand out," he told Aidan, "oh, and I almost moved, I split time between here and Kalen's but… this feels more like it's mine. It's more home and less dorm."

His eyes dropped down to the necklace, "this is new."

Aidan

Aidan has never minded the contact; he was very much a physical person himself. Personal space was a strange concept. If you enjoyed being near someone, shouldn't you want to touch them? Somehow others didn't feel the same. "Kalen...Kalen...Kalen.." He thinks about it, furrows his brows as he tries to remember because he know that Elijah told him once. It might have gotten muddle din everything else. "Oh! Your mentor. Is he still your mentor? Did he decide to keep teaching you? Are you doing well in your family? You are aren't you? Because you're smart." It was as if once he started, the questions just...poured out.

"Dorm?" The 'college' experience was not something he had much knowledge of. He hadn't even really been in high school that he could recall. He wouldn't do well anyway. Aidan couldn't manage to listen, take notes, and do homework like normal people. He would have been better if he were tutored.

"Granna gave it to me. It was hers. Before that it was her teacher's. Now it's mine."

Elijah

"It's kind of a probationary thing? I talked to a guy- like someone who is high up on the food chain, and basically if things don't work out for me here with a mentor here they're not going to work out at all," he manages to not sound nervous. he manages to hold himself together, and he laughs, because Elijah is so easy when it comes to laughing. He played with the textures of the other man's hair, studying his features, trying to determine whether or not he's put on any weight since they last saw each other. He hopes so. "So! Normally, the mentor picks the apprentice, not the other way around, so I'm here to romance a personable old gentleman into taking me on as a legitimate student."

A beat, a shrug, a reassuring smile, "the Order's complicated. It'll work out no matter what, though. And a dorm is, like, a place where students live when they live at school."

He pulled his hands back, looking around before meandering to the kitchen, "are you thirsty? Hungry?" his eyes drift to the necklace again, "so, it's kind of like passing the torch?"

Aidan

"You'll do well." Aidan said with a smile. "They'd be stupid not to take you. As long as you don't throw chairs, I know you'll find someone to help you here."  He wasn't gaunt, so he hadn't lost more weight. He seemed healthy enough despite not having eaten much the past few days. Maybe he had started eating again, or at least was eating more than he had. He was actually, because Elijah had picked him up just enough to get him to eat decently again. Some days he didn't feel it, some days he fell again, but he was always sure not to be around people when that happened, or at least not to show it. That was before he left Granna of course.

"They don't live in their own homes?" Didn't it seem odd that people would move to learn...specifically move to learn, and call it something else? Aidan turned and followed him. "Yes!" He said, to both. He was famished really. He felt that, had he not been a vegan, he could eat a whole horse in one sitting.  "I.." He looked down at the necklace, touching it lightly. "I don't know. She said she felt if she didn't give it away now, she would never be able to. So she gave it to me. I think she was just trying to hide how nice she is. Granna likes to pretend she's a mean old hag."

"Where's Jenn?"

Elijah

"Sometimes, they don't. Dorms are more temporary living, you don't hunker down in a dorm room and call it home. It's temporarily home, yeah, but it is transitional. You leave at some point and someone else lives there. It's pretty traditional for colleges? And other situations, I think it's a throwback from when people would be part of a legit apprenticeship program and live with the person who was teaching them the craft," Elijah mused. He went to the kitchen, flung the door open and peered in. He took out a bottle of cranberry juice. Plopped it on the counter.

He went through, pawed through the bin and tried to find something that looked reasonable. Mushroom caps, carrots, a little bit of celery because celery was fucking deliciousness and Elijah was not ashamed of his love of celery.

There's something that's going on here, he knows it, he feels it. He can feel it in his gut, and he listens to that reaction. He has to, it steers him wrong so many times but it doesn't ever lie to him. "Jenn's gonna be back in… I think an hour? She's taking a short course right now. She decided she was gonna finish her studio art degree early."

Aidan

"Huh." Aidan blinked, lifting his hands to wrap around behind his neck and let his elbows linger at his chest. " "Is it fun? being in a dorm with people?" He can only imagine the constant chatter. The ward was bad enough at times, but to be with more people for so long seemed almost... almost too much. Aidan was just good at keeping it together, or at least looking like he was.

"Juice!" Aidan didn't even think, he reached for the bottled and opened it up. Glasses? Who needed those? Why did people use glasses? Aidan drank straight from the bottle.

"An hour is..." Not long? Too long? Soon? He wasn't very good at time. "Well, I'll be here." He said with a bright smile. "Do you...do you want me to help with anything? I can cook for you?"

Elijah

"I… have no idea," he said with a laugh, "I lived at home when I went to school in Louisiana and I lived off campus when I got here because the campus was dry and fuck being somewhere that doesn't allow liquor."

Elijah looked over and grinned. Bright and playful, "woooooould you like to cook? You don't have do, but if you want to, you can. You have free reign of my kitchen, it is officially your territory." He opened his arms up wide like it was an invitation.

"An hour isn't that long, relatively. She might make it home faster, she's gonna lose her mind when she sees you here. Are you in town long?"

Aidan

Aidan blinked. "You didn't? It seems like you a little. I didn't know you liked alcohol so much." He smiled a little and let his arms drop. "I'd love to cook!" He lifted a hand halfway up as if to raise his hand to be called on. "I love cooking for you. You liked it last time right? Was it good? Do you even cook without meat very often?" Aidan gave him a soft, but skeptical look, and stepped further into the kitchen to start getting things together and cutting up the vegetables.

Is he going to be in town long?

Aidan curls his lip up under his teeth and slides his tongue over his lip. "Well... well I didn't have plans of going back. "

Elijah

He smiles, unabashed but perhaps he was serious. Perhaps it could be serious about it, about the idea that things could be different. That he really was starting some new chapter, that he really was going to be taking things seriously because… people thought he could be taken seriously. There was something about names, about definitions, about becoming something instead of just being what you are. Or, perhaps, honing what was already here. He could be someone, if he'd just drop the pretense and be something.

"I do eat a lot of meat," he said, "Jenn's not too big on it. She's a big cereal and almond milk kind of girl." He started to settle back into the breakfast nook. Aidan said he wasn't intending on going back. He remembers, he thinks back to November and… Something twists in his stomach, "something happened, didn't it?"

There was that suspicion again. Eyes cast to the beads around Aidan's neck, and his hand brushed against his back. He can but two and two together. This much is clear, but… some part needs confirmation.

Aidan

"Almond milk is good. Cashew milk is better. Sweeter I think." Yes, he had been there. When you make out into the wide open world and you're no longer part of the majority meat crowd, you try out new things even if they seem odd to you. Aidan was also trying to, at least, eat alright, even if he didn't eat much. Granna said it was important. "Well, here I'll show you." He began working on cutting up vegetables, on putting them in a pan he found and using some oil to get the skillet started. "Salt. Salt is the main part of it. Salt bring solt brings out the flavor. You can also add thyme and oregano to make it more italian, like pasta." Aidan smiled warmly at Elijah. "You have to rely less on the fat form the dairy I think, and more on the flavors in the vegetables. Like squash. Know how to cook squash best? With cinnamon, nutmeg and a little pepper. If you add a bit of salt, it brings out the sweetness of it." He had learned a lot since november. Aidan had bothered to learn.

He scratched at his neck a little and tilted his head up and back to look at Elijah. "She just had some trouble. Said I should come here. That's all. Granna is fine. She'll be ok. I know she will."

Elijah

He hangs around, keys in because he likes learning things and he likes hearing Aidan talk about things and he was… wow, he was actually getting pretty well-versed in cooking. He stands and settles in with a hand on Aidan's hip and settles for something familiar yet comfortable. There is a moment that he's just content, just happy to be where he is and trying his best not to think about the hanging conclusion that he knows he has.

Ganna said he should come here, that's all. She's fine, she'll be fine, and he doesn't press. He knows he should, some part of him is the type that presses on bruises, but Aidan seems happy and he seems like things are fine and all he can think about it the prospect that making Aidan aware that this might not be the case would be causing unnecessary harm. Elijah nodded, planted a kiss on his shoulder. Doesn't say anything.

Aidan

Aidan doesn't want to think that she's dead.Having hope means that sometimes you have to neglect the potentially obvious, at least... for him anyhow. "So I.." He never shied away from Eli's touch, but seemed to lean into it. "I can stay here? For now?" Until he can figure out how he's going to live without the kindness of his mentor. Even if there was a chance he might be able to support himself, he wouldn't know how. Sure he worked for Granna but he never paid his own bills. She paid for his rent. Aidan didn't know the first thing about surviving on his own...at least in the world they lived in.

"At least until Granna comes to get me? I think she's just going to wait until she knows it's safe." He pointed to his hair. "It's why I changed my hair. To help."

Elijah

"You can stay here," he says, "my bed's upstairs, you can crash there. Jenn's in the other room- well, like, the only legit room aside from the bathroom. Or if you ask Jenn, you could probably sleep with her. Some night's I'm not here and I don't think she really likes staying alone?"

He knows she doesn't like living alone. She's never lived alone. He knows she doesn't like living alone because even when he wasn't staying there he was on the phone with her before bed. He's been around her long enough to know when things made her uncomfortable. She didn't enjoy the solitude, partially because she enjoyed the company and partially because she was young woman in a strange city who was small and didn't quite do confrontation and some people don't take I'm not interested as an appropriate answer.

"Until it's safe from what, though? I mean, do I, like, need to set up wards? Do I need to talk to people?"

Aidan

"I'll keep her company." He said cheerfully. "I don't wander at night anymore. Harder to find my way home, I think. Everything changes at night. Some of the spirits go to sleep, and others come out. Not bad spirits, just spirits. Things change a little. Important things I think."  Aidan moved the vegetables around in the skillet with the spatula. "If you put garlic on vegetables too? It helps. Also keeps away vampires. Or maybe it doesn't. I don't remember. Maybe that's crosses." He scratched his head a little. "Why do they not like crosses?"

"Uh... Granna made some people angry I think. She tries to help, and some people who are lost, don't like that very much. I think they just got angry?" He looked at Elijah out of the corner of his eye, then dropped his gaze to the food, almost guiltily. "I don't want to be trouble for you Eli."

Elijah

"Human beings are worthy of the risks that come with them," he said, voice quiet and intent.

He'd not quite figured out how to actually be a source of protection for others. Truth be told, Elijah's most readily available means of self-defense wasn't necessarily a non-lethal force. And vulgar as fuck, but we digress. It's like… Aidan believes the best in things. Doesn't let something tarnish him, but at the same time it allows for disaster. Allows for holes in what might be coming.

"You're worth the trouble. But I doubt you will cause any, so we're golden."

Aidan

Aidan smiled brightly. "Everything is worth the risk. Not just humans. Humans. Chairs. Storms. Lamps. Cars. Cats. Dogs. Mice. Roaches. Spiders. Snakes. Hedgehogs. Pigs. Cows.." He could go on and on. He actually did, listing off more things or animals than just humans."...The wind,the leaves..." And on...It'd take him a moment to even stop to breathe.

"I won't be a problem." He turned to face Elijah. "I promise. I'll try to contact Granna in a few weeks, so I don't bother you for too long.  I don't want o hurt your training. It's important to focus."

Elijah

"Trust me, I think we are so far outside of the bounds of a traditional apprenticeship at this point, people are just going to be glad if I graduate at all and if someone legitimately takes me on. I think we'd all call it a win."