It's a house but is it home?

[mitochondriaaya]

She looked over the papers in her hand and chuckled softly, Mog, also sitting at the table, chuckled as well. "It's just...odd," she admitted. "This still feels like Sannish's house you know? I don't feel right renting it out just because we got talked into a bigger place..." Beach strip or no, the larger house was a hell of a fixer upper.

"Kuuu-po?"

"I'll look it over more in the morning okay?" It'd be the best way to offset the costs of taking on the new house, even with her savings it had been a bit of a panic inducing moment, but it still...didn't feel right.

Sannish would laugh at her. For a minute she honestly considered calling the Territories just to ask permission. Annnnd then he'd laugh. The man was Merchant Prince in the best sense of the term, he'd tell her to use the property wisely.

"Kupo pu po?"

"Yeah, go ahead Mog, I'll finish packing up the kitchen here then go to bed myself." She gave her friend a hug then watched the moogle bob off down the hall then hitched herself up on to the counter to reach the highest shelves. Hmmm, counters. She was going to add longer counters and more work space in the new house when she fixed up the kitchens. She liked sitting on counters so obviously there needed to be more of them.

Somehow she'd assumed some day she might outgrow the personal ideas about how furniture should be used, but since the boys hadn't, well, she didn't have to yet. That was her reasoning anyway. Right, back to what she was doing. Packing. And not letting her hands shake. It was such a stupid reason to wake up with nightmares huh?

But she'd had nightmares. She hadn't slept through a night in the past week as the house paperwork was signed and rental debate had arisen; it was a relief to go to work in the morning these days. Mog was worried, bless her fuzzy little bobble, and they were both trying not to just scream at the walls and throw things in boxes at this point. How they'd amassed so much stuff in the few months since transferring to town was beyond.

Granted, a chunk of it was the synthesis anvil and forge that Mog's parents INSISTED she had to have. Every moogle on their own did! And a chunk of it was the furniture people kept dropping by as a 'welcome home and we know you'r eon your own now...' even though the small house came furnished.

Furnished to KATZU STANDARD no less! Most of the heavier furniture was coming to her new place, for Dilan and anyone who visited from the territories; plus there was just something comforting in being able to curl up entirely in an arm chair some days. Still, there was just....stuff. So much stuff. What happened to the days when she had a few duffle bags and was good to go?

Oh, right, she'd been a tiny kid then. Right right.

Speaking of...the boys would be almost as good as talking to Sannish, right? She glanced at the clock then hit the speaker on her phone. She'd aim for the lounge in the labs first, they were probably there or just getting ready to leave by this point in the day.

If they were going home. She didn't like how often lab work for them turned into 'and then I emerged three weeks later'. So, yes, best to ring the area closest to a coffee pot. "This is the badged wonder calling braniacs," she trilled when she heard the machine roll over, she almost missed the tone by having her head up in a cupboard but hey, at least she had something to say?

"Pick up pick up pick up if you're there gentlemen..." Or not. Hey, maybe they actually made it home tonight? Well then. "Alright, elsewhere. CLICK CLICK BYE!" She wrapped a few more glasses then hit the button for the boy's flat.

Ah, but what if they were actually out on a date? It was...a weekend wasn't it? She didn't really keep track anymore since she and Mog covered most the oddball shifts currently. Hmmm, yeah, a weekend. "Hey, calling those currently unoccupied!" she chirped at that machine. "Just..yeah. I'm up. I'm...staying up. It's that kind of night. Call back whenever." She didn't want to ring their cells really, not for something silly. Besides, she kinda wanted them both on speaker and that was iffy with cells.

A few more hours and if she hadn't heard from them she would call the territories. Or wait until she could have coffee with Elcy and Yinsi in the morning. Yeah, that seemed like a good backup plan.

Comments

[mitochondriaaya]

"Don't you sigh at me!" Aya laughed, slapping the phone speaker gently. "You and Braig get to decorate the walls. That's just fact! I'll put up whatever you decide on! Protozoa, pollen, whatever you want! I just don't want you to jump straight to the 'This is under my microscope right now!' conclusion and want to change it out later!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Hey, I'm told that lots of people...in mom and dad's bank range...swap out art all the time!" Dilan said, laughing, "Why not you, too?"

[mitochondriaaya]

"Because I'm not in that bank range?" she laughed. "And I like having some pretense of permanency in my life?" Just a little sometimes? Why not after all?

"I like being...settled. Now. I like it. Moving at all is...yeah."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Okay, yeah. The American in me can understand that, even if the Katzu part has genetic wanderlust. Yes!" before she could say it, "I know I haven't found a genetic cause for wanderlust...yet!"

[mitochondriaaya]

"Eh, I don't think it's the American in me?" she offered with amusement. "Just past experience influence my current self!" She could face up to the fact that moving around as a kid before meeting the boys was an issue okay?

"And you shouldn't be looking for a wanderlust gene! It's more a predator instinct to keep from overhunting an area, you've said that!"

[sliceitwithwind]

He just laughed at her, or with her if she started laughing too.

[mitochondriaaya]

"Sure, laugh at me," she chuckled. "I took developmental psych and instinctual patterning remember? I can understand that reason whereas I have to take your word on genetics!" So there!

"Whoa...did you know Sannish kept that vase Braig made in summer camp? I just found it in a cupboard with some dried flowers in it!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yeah, I knew. You picked the flowers that same year. If you don't want it you should call him and ask if he wants it shipped down to one of the aestivation houses."

[mitochondriaaya]

"If I call Sannish he's going to laugh at me," she admitted promptly. "He just is. Trust me. We'll see." She was just bemused to find it!

"And we picked millions of flowers, every year Dilan. You remember these ones in particular?" That always amused her.

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well, yeah, but he likes laughing." there was a small silence, "Ayay...my memory is damn near perfect. I remember Braig showing off the vase, and then you said it needed flowers. So you ran out of the house and nearly bowed dad over getting to that patch we usually grabbed flowers from...and then you got all flustered, so he had me put them in water while he gave you a big hug and a piggy-back ride around the house."

[mitochondriaaya]

"I almost calle dhim tonight," she admitted.

"And I didn't even tell you which flowers were in it! We could have switched the flowers out over the summer Dilan, heck, flowers wilt and die and all that! You're guessing as much as you're remembering!" she was just teasing now, yes, but hey, why not?

[sliceitwithwind]

"Nope." Dilan grinned at the phone, "After you went to bed Sannish said that those flowers were going to be dried and have permanent place in that vase."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Ah, no fair! You had more information than I did!" she laughed. "Fine fine. When I call him I'll ask." They obviously had more meaning than she'd thought.

"Tell me I shouldn't feel weird about renting this house out when we're moved?"

[sliceitwithwind]

"...Why would you do that?" he got derailed from the flower conversation by that, "You moved. It's very Katzu, in a way, to rent it out. A transient place for people to stay a while."

[mitochondriaaya]

"...because it was given to me because I needed a place that was mine and it was Home for a bit and I just feel weird sometime? Told you he'd laugh."

[sliceitwithwind]

"I'm mostly just confused." Dilan said, shaking his head, "It's still yours. It's like renting a room to Mog, only with land between the rooms."

[mitochondriaaya]

"I don't really rent a room to Mog? We're good at living together so we kinda just...keep doing it? I don't like living alone, got it out of my system." And they were going to do a while room in the new place as a proper suite for Mog?

"I know it'll be alright, my head knows that, just....need to actually sign the papers and then work out renters."

[sliceitwithwind]

"Hmmm." he thumbed through papers for a while, thinking, "Rent it to the Clan until you're all settled. People come up to visit us all the time anyway. Leave the beds and all the furniture you put in storage because it's just too big for you to really use on a regular basis and charge just enough to cover upkeep.

"Mostly because if you don't, they'll give you more money than otherwise. You know they will."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Do you think they'd just let me cede it to them?" she asked, half heartedly. She knew the answer really, the clan would just direct deposit stuff in her account anyway if she tried to tell them the house here was clan property.

"Still want to move the couch and curl up chair over...I'll get some others in if I'm renting to the clan." Because those were pieces of furniture that they loved? The couch was awesome and the curl up chair used to fit all three of them!

[sliceitwithwind]

"Yeah, but then they'll pay you a salary to perform upkeep because you're almost Clan anyway. As close as I am." Sure, he had Dahnil blood...but he wasn't Dahnil Clan. It didn't bug him, he was much more concerned with trying to establish a new one anyway.

"Well, yeah. I did say the stuff you don't use!"

[mitochondriaaya]

"Yeah, that's what I thought," she snorted softly. "You know, I missed living somewhere where people understood that! Back in the city no one got the almost clan thing." Points for home huh?

"Hey, this is me telling my head it's okay to take it despite renting to clan who could use them!" she laughed. "Hush, I'm not always sane!"

[sliceitwithwind]

"Well, how many people had even met a Katzu in passing up in the city?" Dilan asked, reasonably enough, "It's better that you're home, though. Visiting mom and dad felt wrong without you."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Not nearly enough," she laughed. "Not nearly enough. It's good to be home, took me a few months to settle back in, but I missed it. Still reeling under the 'Aya buy my house!' thing but..."

[sliceitwithwind]

"There you go, then." he said, laughing, "I really am glad you're home...and if you need help with the furniture I can either come down and do so, or make sure you have up-to-date phone numbers for the Starling boys."

[mitochondriaaya]

"Well, gee, that's a hell of a choice!" she laughed. "When were you last out of the labs kitten? Should I get you down here to wrestle things around for me? Lemur too?"