Several boxes were settled on the living room floor about him, as he sat on the floor in the middle of it all, the boxes were all opened but he still hadn’t removed things in order to see what was contained within each of the large boxes. He knew he had candle holders but he knew he’d gone and ordered a bunch of actual candles of various sizes as well. Tapping his bottom lip gently he wondered just where to begin, there was a lot of boxes to get through and he then had to put everything in it’s place. This was going to be tricky as nearly everything could break.
It wasn’t just these boxes though but also the sterling silver candle holders he’d gotten earlier, on the way home from his trip out, that he’d purchased from a certain antique store. They sat on the coffee table in a box all wrapped up and safe as they awaited the blonds decision over where to put them. Such problems and difficulties he faced!
Aiden stood outside of Alex's home holding a package that the UPS guy allegedly forgot to deliver. What the heck is he buying jeeze… Unusually heavy for a medium size package he used the corner of the cardboard box to leaned against the doorbell and waited to see if anyone would answer.
Not long after the two had started officially dating, Alex had given him a key to his home. A useful thing to have at times like this but something he didn’t want to rely on without at least having the courtesy of knocking, or in this case ringing the bell, first.
On the other side of the door Aiden heard Cadah barking loudly with little claws tapping the hardwood floor as he danced in excitement. One good thing about canines, unlike humans they’re always happy to see you; given there were a few exceptions to that line of thought but they usually shared company with unsavory owners to begin with.
“Alex!” he hollard then leaned against the bell once more. “I hope to God you got insurance on this stuff.” he muttered more so to himself. Three boxes stacked on the landing plus the one he held. If his partner truly wasn’t home then UPS would have a hell of a time explaining why so many things went missing after allegedly being delivered without a signature. With theft on the rise, it was a wonder why delivery services weren’t more diligent in making sure their patrons actually received their packages.
He was feeding his love for candles thus the large delivery to the house. Having not gone through what had been delivered the day before he was, so far, unaware of the missing items, though it did seem he had fewer boxes than he should. Just as he was grabbing the sheet inside the first box, listing the contents of said box, he heard the doorbell just as Cadha rushed down the hallway and begin to dance in circles. “Easy boy.”
Standing and stretching he carefully made his way around boxes toward the front door on socked feet. Dressed in jeans and a thin sweater, since it was starting to get cooler out already, Alexandre was surprised by what he saw when he did open the door. “Aiden?” He hadn’t been expecting the others arrival. It was after moving to take the box the other had that his eyes fell onto the other three boxes and he stared for a moment. “Well...it did seem a bit small but to have forgotten half the order…” Trailing off he turned his gaze from the boxes on the porch to Aiden and leaned in, trying to keep the box from hitting into the dark haired male, to brush his lips against the others.
“Come in.” Before Cadha decided to run out and before he dropped what he was holding and smashed someone's foot.
"Sorry, I would have called but my mom decided to do laundry and grabbed my dirty close outta my room without checking the pockets and put my phone through the wash." Aiden offered Alex a lopsided grin and extended the package out to him to take; the smallest box in comparison to the three beside them.
“By the way, what did you mean by half the order? What all did you buy?” His eyebrow raised in curiosity since it seemed far too early for Christmas shopping.
Lifting the first box he placed it just inside the door, then the next. The last one he held onto then stepped inside and closed the door behind him with his foot. Despite the facade of this being a nice neighborhood, Aiden knew first hand not to leave belongings out on the porch where anyone could stroll up and take.
“Yankee candle’s Halloween collection came out last week. I went and ordered some candles and candle holders.” Some being a lot, at least by most people's standards. With the box in his hands he headed into the living room, setting it on the cleared off side table in order to relieve himself of the heavy weight. On the living room floor, between the leather couch, and chair on either side as well as the stone and glass coffee table in the middle of the room, were opened packages. Some weren’t open but some were, one had paper most of them and bubble wrap showing.
“This is the rest of the order.” The candles he’d bought were because Alexandre had been working on decorating the house with Halloween right around the corner. Some of the pieces would stay out year round while others would go into storage till next year to be swapped out with Christmas decorations. He would have had all these boxes gone through, and emptied, had he not gone out earlier to pick up his school books for the new semester. The said books sat beside the bag from the on campus bookstore and were laid out on the living room couch, all still wrapped in plastic with the receipt in the bag.
Aiden faltered in his footsteps, nearly tripping as he stepped into the kitchen to get a glass of water from the fridge "Rest of the order?" he gawked. And I thought Jenna was bad… That girl, left unchecked, could wreak havoc on their father's credit card; not that he cared what she did with it considering he had been disowned by their ‘loving parent’.
"Are you planning a candle party?" the dark haired young man asked with a raised eyebrow? Not something he was completely unfamiliar with considering it was something his mother often took part in before his parents divorce. Given Alex’s home was significantly larger than the one his mother lived in, still… all these boxes seemed a bit excessive.
“A candle party?” Finally Aiden’s question registered and drew a confused expression from the blonde who’d never heard the term till now, and was obviously clueless as to what such a thing was. “N-no?” He ventured to answer before looking at his purchases before deciding to head out and one by one get the other three boxes inside. “I bought these for the house.” For himself; all of them.
"Ummmm..." Fishing about he pulled out the receipt. A multitude of various candle holders, and multiples of each style, he had even more candles of various fall scents and of each size possible. The price at the bottom of the receipt was...staggering really. "I'm lucky I got home in time or the UPS driver would have had to bring everything by later. I had to get school supplies." Motioning with a wave of his hand to the large bag from the college school store.
Thankfully none of the books were the short which came with a cd, those cost more, but a few were rather thick and had some weight to them. Most were for his art courses; history textbooks, study guides, and new sketchbooks. Alexandre had decided to try his hand at French 101, seeing as he’d been working on learning the language, so there was a French text book thrown into the mix. He had a small, slender, planner as well, so he didn’t need to rely on just his phone, to keep track of things in case anything were to happen; this way he had back up.
Aiden walked over beside Alex and placed his hand atop the blond's head "You’re special," he stated as-a-matter-of-factly while shaking his head ever so slightly. With a sigh he added "you know that right?" It wasn’t meant to be an insult, more so an observation if anything else.
"I'm special?" He asked looking up at the other. Wide grayish blue eyes staring at the other. "They don't have sales for the new purchases...so I bought them before I had to worry about lines or getting the used books. I just printed my list off this morning and went to pick them up."
“There’s nothing wrong with that.” Aiden moved some of the wrapping aside and took a seat on the couch. Leaning back, the cushions molded against his body. A sigh escaped him and he relaxed.
“All I’m saying is before you go running off to throw more money at the school, you should at least check online to see if anyone is selling used copies.” There were plenty of online resources out there that offered up ways to get ahold of things for cheap or offered coupons for orders over a certain price. “Just something to consider before running out the door. At least then they’ll deliver to your home so you don’t have to worry about picking them up.”
“But aren’t all those books all used? Like...pre owned?” He questioned the other while he finally locked the front door and went to look over everything he had which needed unpacking - it was a lot. He’d done a lot of shopping online the other night and now he had to actually do something other than click a mouse a few times, he had to go and unpack it all.
Managing to not make a face he went to work and smiled at the other as he did so. At least he had some company while he worked. Plopping himself on the living room floor he went back to work on opening boxes and started to now remove and unwrap things. Sorting things as he went, the paper online orders being set on the coffee tables glass surface.
Alex’s question startled a laugh out of Aiden, “Yes, pre owned…”
After downing half his cup of water he cleared his throat then added, "You know not all discount books are used right? If you check places like Barnes and Nobles and Amazon.com you can find people selling new books. It's like how I knew a girl last year who signed up for Dif EQ but two weeks in had some family emergency and had to move back to Nebraska so she sold her new book for cheap." Aiden shrugged his shoulders as if this was common knowledge. "All you need to do is know where to look."
The perplexed look he gave the other made it easy enough to tell that Alexandre hadn't known, was clueless to that whole process, and had never thought of such a thing. He simply went out and bought his books new and would go on like that semester after semester, or maybe he would't? Either way Alex had just spent a lot on them and on other things, which were slowly piling up on his floor. It seemed that the idea of new, and untouched by someone else, perhaps appealed to the blond as if the idea of otherwise was...somehow lesser?
Aiden raised an eyebrow at the empty yet shocked look Alex gave him. Sighing he patted the spot on the couch beside him, a wordless request to take a seat and relax a bit. "Next time ask me, my mom raised us to be penny pinchers so I know how to find a good deal."
“The only time it is worth spending the full price is one… when it is a new edition and the one used the previous quarter is outdated. This happened at least once a quarter especially if the teacher is the one that writes the text book. Two… if you think you are going to continue looking through the book and referencing it even after the course is over. Times like that it is best to avoid used books so you can annotate the space and highlight information you find important, not someone else.” Feeling like a bit of a know-it-all, Aiden finished the last of his water then set the empty glass down on the table. “Sorry,” he added after a few seconds of silence. “I kind of got carried away there.” It wasn’t his intention to scold Alex for his spending habits.
“No need to apologize or be sorry. It’s fine.”
Standing up he moved to join the other on the couch, sitting at Aiden’s side, he shifted to lean into the other gently “I never had to think of prices. I just asked and got what I needed for classes..." He answered with a tilting of his head. "I mean my mother has a good job and my father.” So he’d grown up with something of a silver spoon. Never worrying about anything all he did was ask, or want and let the want be known, and he got. Shaking his head as Aiden apologized he lifted a hand and pressed a finger to the others bottom lip.
They clearly came from two different ways of living, and it was abundantly clear, not that it was a bad thing at all. It was just making itself rather obvious right now. “It’s another way of doing things, something I’m new to.” Clearly he was clueless as to these things which Aiden spoke of.
"It must be nice to not have to worry..." Aiden said absently not realizing that his thoughts had actually come out. Determined to be independent he got his first job just shortly after turning sixteen. Though he had bounced between a few different places, he finally did find a restaurant that treated him well enough and paid decent. The best part about it was that the owner discouraged most tips and actually paid the waiters at the very least minimum wage; a new trend that was starting to pick up in various large cities across the US.
This past summer though was a doozy. Two part time jobs and volunteer work at the parkour gym in downtown Destiny City not to mention that crazy s**t that happened around July with the monster. Now to add classes again to the mix, he wondered how he’d continue to juggle it all while still finding time to spend with Alex.
“Ah, I do worry just not about money. School, work, my social life.” His art also but he worried about being caught for the disloyal General he was. he worried about not coming home from some battle, even a small fight, or being kidnapped again and not coming home and laying dead on some distant star with family and friends, and now a boyfriend, clueless. He had his worried, plenty of them, but he shouldered them the best he could and accepted that they were there to stay for the foreseeable future and they were not things to be shared with Aiden, at least not all of them. Maybe one day he could share them with him but not any time soon. He wasn't going to let the other become tangled up in his dangerous and bloody life - it wasn’t his place.
Laughing, Alexandre attempted to change the subject. "If you’d like we can go out and get you a new phone later?" He offered, figuring the others phone was destroyed thanks to it taking a bath. A phone was an important thing, perhaps more in this city than most, given the issues this city faced. He was more than willing to go out and get Aiden a new phone, even add the other to his own contract, not that he said this aloud of course.
“Nah, I’m good. I get paid at the end of the week.” It wasn’t like he’d be completely unreachable; Aiden still had the laptop in his room with both Skype and instant messenger available for late night chatting. Plus, he felt a little odd contemplating accepting the offer, almost like if he’d said yes to Alex it would be like accepting a hand out. No, he’d work for it.
“Plus, my mom said she’d pay me back since it was her mistake.” Not that he’d hold her to it since he was the one to leave it in his clothes to begin with. She was honestly just trying to help knowing her son disliked doing laundry with a passion.
“Alright, if you’re sure.” Shifting to get comfortable at the other side, one arm laying itself across the others waist, he laid his head on Aiden’s shoulder. He wouldn’t force the other into taking his offer, as it was just that - an offer. It was simply him wanting to help and be nice, he was giving when it came to those who were close to him.
Glancing to his mess on the floor he sighed. “Help me?” He asked while sliding off the couch and onto the floor in order to get to unpacking everything so he could start his decorating. He already knew the other would join him so he got right down to work.
Sleet Tempest Snape
Word Count 1812
Shanyume
Word Count 1273
