Welcome to Gaia! ::

The glow of daylight permeated through the sheer blue drapes that hung across the window. Normally, by this point, the occupant of the room would have already risen and been about her day, but libations from the previous night meant a need for more sleep. It seemed though that mother nature wasn't about to let the woman slumber the day away. Groaning in slight protest, Gwen rolled over in bed and attempted to ignore the wake-up call. It didn't much help. Once wakened she was doomed to remain conscience.

Giving in to the inevitable, Gwen rolled onto her back, an arm draped across her eyes as she yawned. She laid there and assessed her situation. Well, I don't have a headache. That's promising. In fact, she felt pretty good. Obviously her indulgence last night hadn't been too extreme. Still, she was happy to just lay in bed and relish the weight of the numerous blankets that were piled on top of her. Gwen had always been one to sleep in light clothes, even winter. To compensate for the cold, she'd nest under multiple blankets. It was much more convenient to just kick off a layer of blankets than it was to get up and change out of warm clothes.

A little scratch outside her door was the last prompting she needed. It's time like this I wish Reilly could use a litter box. Pulling the blankets off of her, she slipped out of the bed. The soft pink chemise she had worn to bed needed a bit of adjusting before she padded barefoot to the door. Normally she left it open for him to sleep with her, but apparently she had neglected that. Opening it, Reilly stood there looking up at her, tail wagging. "You're going to have to wait a few more minutes, little man." She smiled as she knelt down, gave him a kiss on the nose, before walking into the bathroom.

There she went about her morning routine of brushing her teeth, her horribly bed ridden hair, and washing her face. It was about the time that she was patting her face dry that she heard a voice from in the living room. Gwen opened the bathroom door while giving her face one last wipe, only to pull the towel away to find Isaiah standing there looking down at Reilly. Her focus, not that she expected anyone to blame her, almost immediately zoned in on the fact that whatever sort of undergarment Isaiah was wearing left very little to the imagination. Nice butt. She mused as her eyes traveled of their own accord. Not to mention it did a wonderful job of showing off everything she only had been able to get a glimpse of beneath his shirt last night.

Of course, to her, the ensemble was both alluring and also completely ridiculous. With no way to hide it, Gwens face turned a slight shade of pink as she practically stared at the man. "What in the seven hells are you wearing" Despite the sexiness of it, Gwen couldn't help but laugh lightly at it. It was almost like he was wearing women's underwear, despite the fact they were obviously cut for a man.

"I didn't say I didn't like it." She murmured softly as he disappeared into his room. Welp, what a way to start all of this off. Way to go Gwen. She hadn't meant to insult him, she was taken by surprise was all. Ok, maybe they were a bit amusing when you first saw them but she wasn't going to judge him for them. To each their own, after all. She had to admit though, her reaction could have had a bit more couth.

When he reappeared a moment later wearing his leather pants from last night she didn't comment. A bit too preoccupied admiring the view. There was something about a shirtless man in pants, and tight ones at that, that caught Gwens attention almost every time. The leather just helped make it all that much better. But, before she could pull herself from her thoughts, Isaiah was off to the kitchen and she heard him cursing.

She turned from where she was standing and hurried into the kitchen where she found the man standing there looking for the exit. It was obvious that he was frustrated and Gwen instinctually wanted to do anything that would keep that ire away from her. So she padded over to the somewhat concealed door just behind the small table and unlocked it for him. Almost scurrying out of the way to allow him access to the outside and, in turn, the cigarette that was perched in his mouth.

"I...I didn't mean it the way it came out." She said tentatively from the entrance to the kitchen which she had retreated to. "It's just a surprising thing to see when you're use to seeing guys wear boxers." She tucked her hair behind her ears before carefully padding back into the kitchen. Not really knowing what to do or how Isaiah was going to react, Gwen was, in a way, waiting for the ax to fall and she hated herself for it.

Gwen watched as he took drags of his cigarette. Whether it was the nicotine or the motions of smoking, he was visibly beginning to relax. His lowering tension meant Gwen was able to let herself relax some as well. It was such an ingrained reaction for her to tense and do everything in her power to try and alleviate any sort of aggression. True, Isaiah hadn’t made any movements towards her to make her feel the way she did, but two years worth of waiting for the blows to come was enough for her to revert. I thought I’d gotten over this by now too.

“Well, I’ll just chalk them all up to learning experiences then.” Deciding that the comment about her brother didn’t need a comment she shifted on her feet. The cold air from the open door caused the woman to wrap her arms around her as the cold began to seep in. Her lack of clothing wasn’t helping matters.

“Oh, right. Coffee.” That was something she could tangibly do to help still her nerves. “I’ll get the coffee on then.”

She didn’t waste any more time teetering at the threshold of the balcony. Turning, she left the door ajar before walking over to the small coffee pot. She took her time fishing out the can of coffee and filling the coffee pot. The mechanical motions were doing wonders for her frazzled nerves. Caffeine at this point wasn’t the smartest idea though. With the Coffee pot set to brew, she grabbed her tea kettle, filled it, and set it up on the stove on high. Reaching back into the cupboard that held the coffee, she stood on tip toes to reach up to the shelf that she stored her tea on. She snatched the box of green tea, retrieved a tea bag from it, before placing it back on the shelf. She grabbed a mug and set it up on the counter by the stove with the tea bag inside.

She stood there, idly staring at the kettle when she heard and felt Isaiah enter the kitchen again. The cold air ruffled her chemise and messy hair. “It shouldn’t take too long.” She said, without turning around to look at him.

“In all honesty, I’ve not seen much of my landlord since I’ve moved in. He’s very hands off unless there’s any issues.” The kettle wasn’t going to start boiling any faster with her staring it down, so Gwen turned around to face Isaiah, hips leaning against the cabinets. “I doubt he would even know someone else was living here, but I’ll pull out the lease to take a look.”

Despite her nerves, Gwen’s stomach was beginning to protest a lack of food. There wasn’t any way she was going to get anything heavy down so that left toast. “Do you want anything to eat?” She questioned Isaiah as she moved to grab the bread stashed alongside the fridge. Pulling two pieces from the bag she popped it into the toaster. “I don’t have a lot here for breakfast really, but I have eggs and obviously bread if you’d like toast?”

She could tell that Isaiah was still tense as stood there. The white knuckles of his hands were enough indication and she busied herself with getting a mug down for him and placing it by the coffeepot. Thankfully the kettle was showing signs of heating up as steam began to billow from the spout. She didn’t wait for it to begin to whistle before whisking it off the stove, turning the stove off, and pouring the hot water over the teabag in her mug. She placed the kettle onto a cool burner just as the coffeepot went off.

Not even bothering to wait to see what Isaiah would do, Gwen walked over and poured him a mug of the brew. “Creamer is in the fridge and sugar is in that little bowl there.” She indicated a small gray sugar bowl near the coffeepot. “I’ll grab you a spoon.” She turned back to the stove, and pulled open a top drawer which housed the utensils. Snatching two spoons, she placed one in her own mug and one by Isaiah’s before dolloping a teaspoon of sugar into her own mug. The tea still needed time to steep though and she was forced to let the mug sit on the counter.

“Considering that you’re in a smaller bedroom I wouldn’t ask you to split the rent with me. I think a third of it would be completely fine and we can split the utilities if that works for you?” She looked over at him. That was when she noted the change in his demeanor. Like a balloon he had deflated and with that, Gwen’s own nerves quickly faded away. It was hard to be intimidated by someone who looked completely exhausted with life. “Truthfully, I think we will get this all figured out soon enough. There’s no need to make sure every little detail is plunked out today. It’s not like I am going to kick you out if it’s not and should my landlord come by all it would take is telling him you’re a guest for a few nights. He won’t care as long as there’s no trouble.”

At that point Gwen’s toast popped up. Pushing away from the counter she retrieved a jar of raspberry jam from the fridge, and her toast before grabbing a knife and smattering on the jam.

Taking a bite of the toast, Gwen chewed thoughtfully as she watched Isaiah prep his coffee. He seemed meticulous about the process. Well, that or his mind was on other things, and Gwen didn’t know the man well enough to make assumptions either way. Not yet anyway. Being roommates she knew they’d get to know each other’s habits and ticks.

“I don’t mind if you do some decorating.” She shrugged. I am not partial to anything in here really. I told you, my father had a hand in a lot of what’s here furniture wise and decorations...well...it is rather feminine.” She smiled before turning to lift her mug to lips and sip at the hot tea carefully. “But, if you insist, then half the rent and utilites. There! That’s done and was rather painless.”

She sipped at her tea and took another bite of her toast. The delighted in the raspberry jam. It reminded her of spring which was oh so close, but still far enough away to just be a dream. Soon though, soon she would be able to enjoy warm weather, the outdoors and gardening. She’d been looking forward to planting some pots with vegetables and flowers. The balcony was certainly large enough and plus she had some space down in the shared garden.

“That’s an impressive amount of planning. I wish I could say I thought so far in advance but,” She shrugged. “I tend to just let things happen as they come.” At the mention of his phone being dead Gwen paused. “As long as it’s not an IPhone I can probably help you with that. I’ve got a micro usb charger here for my own cell.” She put down her mug of tea and popped the last remaining bite of toast into her mouth before heading out into the living room and her bedroom respectively. There she unplugged hew own phone which had been charging on her nightstand, before relieving the wall of the charger and taking back out to Isaiah.

“Here, check to see if it will work for you. There’s an outlet just above the stove there.” She indicated the white outlet above the stove with a nod of her head.

Returning back to where she had placed her tea, Gwen leaned against the counter again. Her already short chemise rose slightly with the action and was pinned between her and the counter top. She didn’t notice though as she returned to sipping her tea and eating her second piece of toast.

“So, here’s a question, would you like to eat dinner in today or go out? That’s assuming you don’t have other things to take care of?” If he opted for eating in Gwen knew she’d have to do a store run. She had some things here but nothing that was intended for two people.

That’s right, he probably had nothing besides the clothes on his back when he lost his apartment. Well, I feel a bit jerkish now for bringing that up. Gwen made a mental note to try and avoid bringing any more girlish furnishings into the apartment. Though he may not have anything to contribute to make the place less feminine she could certainly work at not making it look like a sorority. Thankfully the furniture itself was rather gender neutral in it’s monotone grey color scheme. She wanted Isaiah to be comfortable if he was going to be living with her after all. There was nothing fun about feeling like a stranger in your own home.

She snapped back to the conversation when Isaiah continued on, talking about his business. Though she learned a lot in school and through watching her Da run his pub, it was interesting to hear about other’s experiences. And Isaiah’s was much different than what she experience with her Da. Training people to wait tables, bartend and cook was much easier than training them to understand the value of all sorts of items that were brought in. “Oh wow. I never really thought of the intricacies of running a pawn shop. Especially finding workers for it. Training people for the restaurant business is much easier, not to mention you can find just about anyone with experience.”

The other things, payroll, maintenance, planning, that stuff...well… “My Da use to have me help with some of the more general things with running his pub once I was old enough and started my major in college. It was a great way to learn the basics like payroll, customer service, and event planning. Besides, you know, waiting on tables and bartending.” She shrugged. “It helped me save up some money though since he decided to pay me instead of just utilizing my skills since I was his daughter.” She grinned.

“Well I was debating on making something but getting something to eat in sounds like a great idea as well. Did you have some place in mind? I don’t have much to do today so I don’t mind running somewhere to pick anything up. Um…all I ask is that we avoid chinese. It and I have never much agreed with each other.” With a shrug she lifted her mug to her lips to sip on her tea. It was still very hot, but thankfully did not feel like molten hot lava so her mouth survived unscathed. “Unless of course you’d rather I cook something? I am not going to say I am the best chef but I’ve learned a few things with my Da.”

A chuckle escaped her. “Well, yea, most people would have monopolized on their kids free labor.” She shrugged lightly, her thumb rubbing against the side of the warm mug. “He always told us to value our time though, so I guess him compensating me for work was his way of telling me the time I lent him was important and had value to him. I won’t lie. I would have happily worked for him whether he paid me or not, but the money was a big help.”

Lifting the mug to her lips, she sipped at the tea. The warmth was a welcomed sensation on a cold January morning. Pulling the mug away she pondered Isaiah’s suggestion for dinner. “Mexican isn’t a bad idea. I think I know the place you’re talking about. I’ve not had a chance to try it out yet so I am game. It’s been awhile since I’ve had good Mexican food.” In fact, when she thought about it, she hadn’t had Mexican since moving to Destiny City.

“Well you can help yourself to the shower if you’d like. I am sure everything in there to wash with is probably too fruity smelling for you but you’re free to use what you need. I, doubt Dallen has left anything here that you’d want to wear to work.” She look apologetic. She wasn’t sure if he’d head back to his friends place first before heading to work, but by the sound of it, Isaiah wanted to get to his shop as soon as he could.

“I’ll look up the menu for the Mexican place and when you get back, we can decide what we want and order. I don’t mind if it ends up being a bit on the later side either.” And, while he was gone, Gwen made the decision to head off to the grocery store despite their decision to eat out. She’d need to get some more provisions considering she barely had anything left in the house. “Actually, I am going to stop at the grocery store while you’re at work. Any special requests while I am out?”