Welcome to Gaia! ::

She’d had a few potential bites on sublet-ing of her spare room, and a few of them she’d shed because they seemed creepy, or their email indicated an undesirable feeling on the whole senshi and Negaverse war. But there’d been two or three that seemed okay, and Vanya had told the first two to come yesterday, and they’d been… a little… not what she was looking for, really. Well, with her income right now and the rent, she could afford to live by herself here as long as she liked, but it wouldn’t be ideal. That was the problem; she didn’t like lacking people to be around. She didn’t like missing that constant source of socialization. She didn’t like coming home to an empty apartment.

Vanya adjusted the arrangement of her spice canisters on the countertop, took a deep breath and looked around. It all looked neat, and lived in, and--she thought she had good taste. The apartment was tasteful dark hardwood floors and lighter furniture and red accents. She thought it looked mature. Hopefully this Finn Derouen would agree.

Like the thought had summoned the man, the buzzer went off. She crossed to the door and opened it, went downstairs and let him in at the gate. “Finn Derouen,” she asked, offering a hand to shake. “I’m Vanya Morgenstern. Thank you for your interest in renting a room in my home.” It was pretty much word for word what the wikiHow page had told her to say. And then she proceeded, as they went up the stairs: she ran down the rent due from him, the utilities (the ones she had and the ones she didn’t, because she didn’t want cable, it was too expensive right now). “I work at Crystal Academy for Girls,” she told him at the door, “so my hours are pretty regular, I think. You said you were a student?”

She felt like she’d talked way too much, but maybe a little disclaimer was required once they were in the apartment proper. Vanya shucked her shoes, put them on the rack in the closet. “It’s a little bare,” she said, self-consciously. “I was renting a room myself until about a month ago.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “If you decide you want to stay longer, that’s fine too. Everything is fine.” She stood awkwardly in the living room by the end of the couch, trying to remember what the internet had said to do after that. Should she give a tour? Show Finn around while they talked? Maybe. It seemed wise.

So she left her safe spot by the couch and walked him through the kitchen. “This is the kitchen. No dishwasher, but the pantry’s over here. We came in through the foyer… I’m a teacher,” she said. “My subject’s English. Actually, we call it ‘Language and Literacy’ now.” And she taught it because she had a degree in it, right? Right. It was fake, even though her name was on the alumni rolls at DCU and everything. She tried not to think too deeply about that. “Is it the Leah Derouen with the purple hair?” She scowled when he nodded, and then remembered--he could just be joking. “She’s very enthusiastic,” she said, diplomatically.

“Linen closet, bathroom--my bedroom’s over there. And the room that’d be yours is here. We have in-unit laundry.” She stopped just inside the room that the floor plans labeled the ‘den’. She’d sort of adopted it as a… ‘books and games from estate and yard sales and thrift shops’ room. Also, there was probably a box of clothes somewhere. “I’ll get all this cleared out if you decide to stay, of course,” she said, more than a little embarrassed. “Um, there’s a closet. I haven’t put curtains up anywhere.”

Vanya had never dyed her hair in her life--not that she could remember, anyway. She self-consciously touched the auburn locks and pulled a book out of one of the cardboard boxes, studiously looking at the canvas cover. “I don’t have any siblings,” she said, awkwardly. “Or any family, really. I do have some friends who will be over for Thanksgiving. You’re invited. If you want to be.” She wondered--maybe it’d be useful to have a park ranger around? Or maybe she shouldn’t go dragging people into wars just because she had a weird feeling of deja-vu around them. She sighed and put the book down.

“It’s fine,” she said. “If you wind up staying here longer, then you can do as you like. But I trust you.” She didn’t know why she thought that was a good idea, but… it wasn’t like she couldn’t cover him if he missed a month. She’d just have to camp out outside an ATM and wait. It made her feel small to do that, sort of dirty and awful, but--most of the people she was doing that to were well-off. Parents of her students at Crystal. Most of them, she had social interactions with and didn’t like.

Still. It sat wrong with her. She’d prefer to do that as little as possible. “There are some forms but they’re mostly to cover me if you turn out to be a crazy delinquent… I don’t think you will. But. The landlord requires them. Right?”

Vanya said, “I think, if you want, I’d like it if you lived with me. You seem like a nice guy.”

She got the paperwork off the coffee table in the living room and handed it off to him. “Whenever is convenient to you,” she said, “But I probably need at least the weekend to get all of those books on shelves and sort out what I even want.” With a somewhat crooked smile, she gestured at all the clutter. “I don’t know how I do it. It’s just hard to turn down a good carton of books for two fifty, right?” Even if she didn’t know why she’d ever need a book called A Christian Philosophy of Life.

Well… that was pretty much where her expertise ran out. “So… Monday, maybe?”

“Oh. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories,” she said, even though she knew she’d done nothing of the sort. She’d just made a comment about her books, and--well, it seemed polite, anyway, he’d lost a friend. Maybe even to the war. Who knew? “Monday is perfect. Bring the paperwork around whenever.” With a friendly smile, or a smile that she hoped was friendly, she walked him to the door and waved goodbye.