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 Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 6:31 pm
She felt vaguely guilty for forcing Nye to finish his dinner quickly like that but it was a half-hearted thought. She really was tired though and, as Nye crammed the dishes into the sink, she turned off the TV and snuggled down into the sofa, almost wrapping herself around the pillow provided. A smile found her lips as she felt the puppy's comforting weight on her feet.
"M'kay. Goodnight, Nye." Came the sleepy reply, and Ivie was out before Nye had even finished turning off the lights.
Ivie had always liked small places. As a child she'd curled up in cupboards, draws and under the sink even. It was comorting to be enclosed. Her apartment wasn't large, just cosy, and despite living on her own the girl has a single bed. It was only natural, then, that she slept wonderfully on Nye's couch; being enclosed by three barrirers (and a puppy) made her feel right at home.
It was early when she awoke. Six am, to be precise. Well, she had gone to sleep rather early too. Her moving woke up Lizzie who came to lick her face as soon as Ivie sat up. Giggling and giving the puppy a cuddle, Ivie pulled the blankets around her and found her clothes, she'd laid them out the night before to try. It was too cold in here to bum around in shorts and a t-shirt so back went on the stockings, skirt and top, with Nye's jumper shrugged on over that.
It was six-thirty. Damn. Well she wasn't about to wake Nye up, was she? Instead the girl kept herself busy; after checking out her bruise in the mirror (it had gone down quite a bit over the night, and was now simply discoloured...horribly), the girl washed up the dishes from the night before and quite a few from before that. They went away, she started on the benches, the stove and whatever else she could find cleaning appliances to clean. Well, why not? She'd kinda slept over without planning to, the least she could do was clean a little.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 5:38 pm
There was a loud thump from Nye's bedroom as he sleepily rolled straight off his bed.
A hand reached up to scratch his scalp beneath a mop of dark hair, ignoring the pain in certain parts of his body from the harsh fall. Nye rolled to the door and snatched the doorhandle in his stupor, using it to yank himself up to his feet. Basically swinging along with the door, he slowly stumbled into the hallway that lead to his living room.
Poor pajama-clad Nye barely recognized his house. His eyes propped open at the mere cleanliness of it all, 8 o'clock sun gleaming off all the freshly dusted surfaces and vanilla scent no longer mixed in with anything suspicious or strange, or for that matter, rotting. "Am I still in my house?"
To confirm his inquiry, Lizzie scrambled out from her corner and tangled herself with Nye and his fuzzy red socks, eager to be in a cleaner atmosphere and all the whatnots. Even her food bowl was refilled! Better than what Nye does in the morning, anyways. "It's clean," he stated blatantly.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 6:14 pm
An hour and a half. It had taken an hour and a half for Ivie to finish a rudimentary clean of the place; dusting, wiping and tossing. Even the curtains, which had been pulled back to reveal the sunny, winter's day below, had become dust-free. She hadn't even touched the laundry basket that was festering in the corner (nor did she want to), nor vaccumed yet she was feeling pretty pleased with herself. She'd tidied and not been too much an intrusion, in her humble opinion.
By the time Nye had made an appearance Ivie had found an almost-expired pack of cornflakes in the cupboard and helped herself, taking care not to crunch too loudly. She sat up at her host's sudden appearance, almost slopping milk out of the bowl. Her curls had been yanked back into a ponytail and she had a smudge of dust on her nose, and a slightly guilty look had crept onto her face.
"Ah...good morning." She greeted, glancing around at her work. It hadn't occurred to her that Nye might actually like his house being a mess. The dirty dishes had been her main operation, but she'd become carried away out of habit. "Um...yeah. Sorry if you didn't want it...I did the dishes and kinda went from there....sorry?
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 6:29 pm
Nye blinked in shock and looked around in confusion. Was this even his house?
He fumbled over to the TV, having to avoid puppy the whole way through, and slid one finger over the top of it. No dust. Quietly, he shuffled over to sit on the rug in front of Ivie, about demure as a school kid. "If I bribed you with infinite cheesecake, would you teach me your ways?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 6:46 pm
As Nye did a mini-tour of his own home, Ivie scooped another mouthful of now soggy cornflakes into her mouth, chewing absently as she waited for his opinion. Surely no-one could be angry about their house being cleaned, right? Right. She was fine, it was fine, he couldn't be angry...he was sitting on the floor in front of her. It was a good thing she'd swallowed her food because Ivie burst out laughing, reaching forward to pat Nye on the head.
"You just have to clean as you go, silly." She said with a lop-sided smile, favouring the unbruised side of her mouth. "And don't leave things just because you're feeling lazy. It leaves a nasty smell."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 6:59 pm
Nye pouted. The word 'cleaning' always scared him, but Ivie had made it seem so effortless and so... almost fun? Pah. His parents always yelled at him for his room being a complete and total pigsty. For weird spontaneous people, his parents were actually pretty neat.
"Are you serious?" he asked, all but jokingly. He was sincerely confused about the art of tidiness. "I always wondered how Mum did it."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:04 pm
Cleaning wasn't hard, just boring. That's what she'd always been told, anyway, and Ivie didn't see anything difficult about it. True, she wasn't really home often enough for her apartment to become a mess, so she didn't have to clean it very often aside from dusting. Guess what she did on her day off?
"Well it takes a while to get into the habit. I've been cleaning since forever so it's second nature to do it when I'm not busy." Did this girl ever just loaf around? Apparently not. Ivie busied herself with finishing her breakfast before standing, walking around Nye and promptly washing the bowl up. The dishes from earlier had drip dried by now and, out of aforementioned habit, Ivie began putting them away. "You have any plans today?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:09 pm
Nye got to his feet again and walked into his kitchen. It was his turn for breakfast- a warm bagel and coffee for the fop. It wasn't much better than cold cereal, but it seemed to fill him up. Go figure. "Eh, not really. If you're not busy, you wanna actually make the dog park and the museum today? There's also this new diner I've been dying to go to. I hear they've got killer chicken soup."
The only reason Nye Hemmingway ever picked up a newspaper was to look at new restaurants and places of interest. Who needed the news?
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:16 pm
Standing on tip-toe to slide the dirty-plates into one of the top cupboards, Ivie wobbled a little before closing the door and returning to earth. The bagel smelt divine but Ivie had already eaten; the last thing she wanted to do was over-eat in this weather. It wouldn't do to put on weight, now would it? Oh but more lunch! That sounded nice.
"I'm not busy until tonight, work and all. Sounds good though; can we stop at an ATM on the way so I can withdraw some cash?" She wasn't about to let Nye pay for her, if she could help it. "Chicken soup sounds nice...doesn't look too warm out there even with the sun."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:24 pm
Nye nodded as he sipped his coffee, complete with hazelnut creamer and all. "Okay, so how 'bout museum, diner, then dog park, then I'll drop you off at work? I have some errands near the hospital, anyways."
That, and he had work as well. 'Cept he wouldn't tell Ivie that just yet. Why would he bother? He'd probably be quitting soon anyways, dealing at night was getting old. Same faces, and all. Perhaps skydiving...
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:34 pm
Having finished putting anything she could find away, stealing Nye's plate as soon as he'd finished his bagel and washing that too, Ivie had begun folding the sheets and blankets she'd used that night, whipping off the pillow-case and tossing it onto the laundry basket. Lizzie jumped and nipped at the moving sheets, causing Ivie to laugh and fold a little higher so the pooch couldn't rip them.
"That sounds like a plan. Seems Liz here needs to get out, she's bursting here!" At the sound of her name Lizzie barked shortly, and Ivie laughed as the dog jumped into her lap as soon as she sat down. "Yes, I'm talking about you, yes I am." There was some affectionate cuddling before Ivie began again.
"You don't have to take me to work, really. I start at eleven and the buses at that time aren't so hot. It's fine, really."
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:58 pm
Nye shoved the last piece of bagel into his mouth and gulped down the rest of his coffee contently. "She's always like that. Runt does not mean lazy. Now, uh, pardon me while I go make myself look decent." With a wave, Nye vanished back into his bedroom and re-emerged only about five minutes later with some clothes draped over his arm.
The rest of the preparations were done in the bathroom. Getting dressed and the like, as well as a quick styling of the hair. Nye always took about 20 minutes to get ready, unless he was aiming to impress.
And today, well. He was a bit too shocked from last night's display to even try to. "Alrighty, bathroom's all yours if you need it," he exclaimed as he emerged.
Jeans and a sweater.
Classy.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2008 8:02 pm
Nye took far longer than Ivie to get ready. She'd been done this morning in about ten minutes - hair included - and it was like this most mornings. Occasionally she might have taken fifteen if she was going out, makeup and a little extra time on the hair, yet she usually just didn't bother. She didn't have time was the general rule.
She was doing her very best to teach Lizzie how to 'shake hands' when Nye came out. A lack of treats was making the job difficult, and Lizzie seemed to think it was some sort of game. Ivie had picked her up again when Nye emerged.
"Oh, no, I'm ready." Was all she said, stifling a grin as she looked at the clock. The window was close by and her eyes automatically slid there, her smile dropping a little. "Have you got any umbrellas? The news said there might be a shower this morning, but the afternoon should be fine."
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:35 am
Nye raised his hand at the silly ritual that Ivie and Lizzier were performing. The treats were in the cupboard one over from the stove, he knew that much, and going to get them was an effortless, second nature action already. As he set the box out of Lizzie's reach but within Ivie's, he heard her ask about umbrellas.
Seemingly excited, Nye walked over to his coat closet and bent in there to dig about. In the end, he pulled out about five umbrellas. Only one was a regular black one.
There was a pink one with flower print, a green one, one with sunflowers, and a super bright red one. Nye seemed rather proud of his collection. "It's these or the black. Take your pick!"
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Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2008 3:47 am
Lizzie seemed to go into bezerk mode when the treats were unveiled and watched, this time with rapt attention, as Ivie held out her hand and placed one of the puppy's paws in it. As if the dog had done it by herself, Ivie broke into a smile. "Good dog! Who's a good dog, you are, yes you are!" A treat was handed over, Lizzie was happy if a little bemused by the entire process. As Nye dug around for umbrellas, Ivie repeated the process a few more times. Lizzie seemed to be getting the hang of it by the time Nye reappeared. One of the red-head's eyebrows rose.
"That pink one...is the girliest thing I've ever seen. I think it's girlier than my entire wardrobe." Whether this was a good thing or bad wasn't quite obvious. "Lets go green, red would clash with both our outfits." Ivie might not take as much care of herself as she should, but even she could see the red would clash with her hair.
"Shall we head out then?" With another pat to Lizzie's head, Ivie tugged Nye's jumper over her head, became stuck with her arms in the air and her tummy slightly exposed for a moment, before pulling it off and folding it. Her scarf and jacket went on instead.
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