Moving out of his old apartment had simultaneously been the easiest decision Elliott had ever made, and the hardest. In the weeks following the death of his last roommate, the city had moved on. Elliott had tried to join it, even though the people of Hell’s Kitchen kept on living because his roommate had stopped. They hadn’t even noticed what he’d done. The most he’d gotten was a newspaper article buried deep in the paper about hoodlums setting off a fireworks display several days early before the Fourth of July. No thank you, no nothing. Benji had sacrificed himself heroically to save an entire building full of people, and nobody had even stopped to notice his act. They’d just blamed the disruption on rowdy teenagers, and moved on. The death had been a hard hit. It had left him feeling a million things, the least of which was bitter.

He hadn’t believed Benji had done the Trademarked Heroic sacrifice at first. Then, he’d bargained over it. “Please, be okay. Please...” he’d thought. But no dice. When he’d gone home, he’d been angry. Thrown things around. That had lead in a lot of interesting directions... one of which had been acceptance. His roommate was dead. He had to move on. Benji wouldn’t have wanted him to just stop. After that realization, he’d been left alone in a house full of memories and his dead roommates old things. It hadn’t been healthy. And despite his better judgement, Elliott still almost had. Stopped.

So many old things. Books. Art. That stupid book by the ancient Chinese general Benji had always quoted. The journal. Don’t judge. An old violin, and tons of sheet music of which he couldn’t make heads or tails. But mostly art. Maybe it had turned into a coping mechanism, a way to deal with the pain and the bitter anger. Whatever it was, it had worked well enough to get him out of the house.

A man’s gotta eat. Beer is liquid bread. It’s good for you. A man’s got other needs, too. He’d picked up a woman at the bar. Moving on was moving forward, even if it just lead to places like the bedroom. Funny enough, they’d taken a detour through the living space in between, first. Weird how that works. Funnier still, she’d spotted Elliott’s art. His canvas with the big blob of paint from the shattered scorched remnants of the real Cheshire’s motorcycle helmet, the black one with the smile, that had fallen from the fire in the sky. The one he’d kicked into the oversized blank canvas that had been left waiting in the middle of the living room for a budding artist who would never come home. The canvas he’d attacked, with helmet, with brush, during the raging aftermath of Benji’s death. The helmet with the lippy grin that had been the only thing left

“Very Jackson Pollick,” she’d said. “And are those... your footprints? Two toes?”

He’d said, yeah, he’d kicked it. With his feet.

She’d said “is there any other way to do it?”

His soon-to-be future girlfriend had stayed the night. One thing had led to another, and his soon-to-be future girlfriend had also become his art agent. She’d urged him to channel all that anger, all that passion, into something. It had been a lot healthier than creeping on his deceased best friends stuff. So, he’d started painting.

As it turned out, he had talent. Unrefined, sure, but talent all the same. His girlfriend showed him where and how he could sell his art, and just like that, his income went from whatever money he’d saved from work before he’d stopped going, to something significant. Better than working at a Korean restaurant and pocketing money from would-be muggers, anyway.

His girlfriend, Kenzie McCabe, decided it for him. Now that he had a better income, he needed a better place. Something that didn’t have a giant billboard outside the living room window that burned bright all night. It made the nice Hell’s Kitchen apartment cheap, sure, but it also made sleeping over Hell. Thus, moving out of his old apartment had suddenly become the easiest decision ever. Also, hard. Because memories of the place you crashed with your very best friend are hard to part with. But she was right. He needed to move. He needed to suck it up. And suck it up, he did.

He went through ad after ad. It was Kenzie that finally found the one. “Lonely antisocial woman seeks human contact,” she read. “P L Z, ohgawd. So alone.” She actually spelled it out, Pee ELL Zee.

Elliott stared at her. “It doesn’t actually say that. Does it?”

“No,” Kenzie laughed. “I’m just being a bit$h. It’s just this woman looking for a roommate to share the payment with on her condo in downtown Brooklyn.”

“And you’d be fine,” he said. “With me rooming with another woman.” Somehow, he didn’t believe it.

“Duh,” Kenzie said. “I trust you. And besides. If something happened, who would help you sell your art?”

She was kidding. He was absolutely certain. Probably. But either way, he wasn’t planning on being a jerk. “So you’re cool with me sending out a reply to the ad...” He said, one more time. To be certain.

“Yes.” She said. “Hell, I’m suggesting it. Don’t be dumb. I’ll even help you put your best foot forward.”

“Because I am so very awkward at times.” Elliott rolled his eyes.

“Exactly!” She said.

That was how, when he finally went to the condo to meet with his prospective new roommate, Elliott came bearing flowers and chocolate in a leather jacket and designer jeans. His t-shirt read Aerosmith. He was both hopeful and horrified. Also, nervous because he wanted to make a good impression. Basically, all the emotions.

When the woman opened the door, Elliott pressed the floral bouquet and the box of chocolates into her hands. “My girlfriend said I should give you these,” he said hurriedly. “To put my best foot forward, I guess. I’m Elliott. Nice to meet you.”

How come it just felt like his girlfriend had purposefully sent him off to make a giant fool of himself in the boldest way possible? At least the box of chocolates was rectangular, and not shaped like a heart. If it had been heart-shaped, it plus the yellow lilies would have given the wrong idea.

Yellow lilies are supposed to symbolize gaiety, which is totally not a romantic notion to send mixed signals with. He blushed brown on green skin, all the same. Only once he’d handed the gifts to her did Elliott realize that, hey, she was green too. His black antennae twitched. Red eyes blinked. Did she have snakes for hair?

Andrea had spent the day methodically cleaning the whole place. She wasn't a messy person, far from it in fact, but she did tend to accumulate piles of paperwork and books. It was a trait she had been working on to prepare for a roommate and sharing a space after so long of... well... not.

By the time she was expecting Elliot, as he had called himself in his response, the place was sparkling it was so clean. She was finishing wiping down the stone counter in the kitchen when she heard knocking at the door. In a panic, the Greek tore her cleaning apron off, ditched her kitchen gloves, and stuffed them under the sink. She smoothed out the front of her reserved, floral dress and rounded the corner of the kitchen to the hallway that led to the front door. On her way passed she glanced at herself in the hallway mirror, tried to smooth out a few stray curls of black hair that appeared to want to stand on end... gave up, and swung the door open.

Nearly instantly a bundle of flowers and candy was pushed into her arms. She blinked, orange eyes wide and startled in surprise. "I... ah... nice to meet you too?" She blinked again and readjusted her grip on the items. "You must pass along my thanks to your girlfriend... then?" She paused awkwardly at then, getting her first real look at Elliot.

Oh! He was also green. And... were those antenna? She watched as his cheeks darkened brown. Was that what it looked like to other people when she blushed? She felt her own cheeks heat up slightly at the thought. A beat passed and she couldn't stop a little bubble of laughter from escaping.

"Well... Dare I say we have a few things in common?" She stepped back and turned slightly to allow him in, a warm smile settling on her lips. "Please won't you come inside, Elliot?"

Her reaction was just as awkward as his. For a moment, Elliott worried his girlfriends “help” had sabotaged the meeting he’d wanted to go well. The trickle of laughter that escaped the green woman eased his worries.

‘Dare I say we have things in common?’ She joked. Yeah. It looked like they did. Elliott smiled a small smile at that, one that didn’t quite show off his zipper like set of teeth. The puppers got revealed, though, when she smiled and invited him in.

The ad had said her name was Andrea Gordon. Did she want him to call her Andrea? Gordon? Miss Gorgon? Sorry. Gordon. He mentally corrected himself. The best way to know was to ask. Which, of course, he didn’t do.

“It’s not easy being green,” he agreed easily, slipping into the condo. “Thanks for meeting me, Gordon. The condo looks—“

Elliott glanced around. It was a nice condo. Good furniture. Nice furnishings. “Super clean,” he finished.

“Plenty of room, too.” He added thoughtfully. Maybe Kenzie had been right about the lonely angle.


“You’ll probably have questions for me.” He said, Mind abruptly turning to business. “Smoker, nonsmoker? Stuff like that.”

“It’s not easy being green, Thanks for meeting me, Gordon. The condo looks— Super clean."

Her whole face darkened and she chuckled nervously. "I...ah... maybe have over prepared a little." She headed into the kitchen to fish out a vase. "and please, just Andrea is fine." After giving the flowers some water and a place to stay she headed for the living area and motioned for him to make himself comfortable as she set the chocolates and flowers on the glass coffee table.

“You’ll probably have questions for me. Smoker, nonsmoker? Stuff like that.”

She chuckled again, "I do, and I am sure that you must have some for me as well." She paused before sitting, "Would you like something to drink beforehand though? Coffee or tea?" She waited for a moment before heading the short distance to the open kitchen to prepare herself a cup, and possibly something for him also. When that was done she headed back in settled herself on one of the white leather couches and cradled a porcelain teacup and saucer in her lap. She'd brought back biscuits for her coffee as well, laid out alongside the chocolates on the table.

"Alright... down to business I suppose. Let me start off by explaining a little about myself first if that is alright?" She waited for a moment before continuing. "I work as a Registered Nurse around the city, as well as out of state and country from time to time. As such I have a very irregular schedule and may be gone for a few weeks at a time here and there." Her schedule had been part of the reason for wanting to move someone else in... with all of the shelter work she did in the area she had started to feel guilty about having a home being hardly used while she was gone, when so many were struggling to find affordable places to live in an increasingly expensive city.

"I hope that my coming at going at odd hours won't be a nuisance?"

She was nothing if not polite. “Tea,” Elliott said, smiling. “Green, if you’ve got it.”

He liked lemon tea, too, and mint, but it was never polite to put a host out when they were making a friendly offer. On the streets, that was a good way to never get helped out by someone nice again.

As always, he had to mentally kick himself to add A “Thank you.” It felt like it came in a beat too late. Nice people always threw him off, even if he’d encountered more of them lately. Kenzie was trying to help him get out of his shell, but it was a work in progress.

Elliott found one of the white leather couches and sat in it. It was by a coffee table, and he pointedly avoided kicking up his feet.

Earlier, Andrea had seemed self-conscious about cleanliness. Elliott had crashed in far worse, and some of the nicer holes he’d slummed in had been ones he’d set up, himself. He couldn’t fault her for being a clean freak. There were far worse things to be a freak about. And he had to take great strides to avoid the opposite behavior. Being a slob is easy. Being a freak is hard. Hell, even having a vase on hand for random bouquets was almost superhuman levels of Proper Home Ownership. Him and Benji probably wouldn’t have had one. They’d most likely have had to wash out an old paint can or coffee tin. Fish out a fish bowl, mysteriously fish-free. And thinking about Benji had made him sad. Hrm. He needed to get less introspective with himself.

Gordon had set out cookies and chocolate to go with her coffee and his hippy tea. He leaned forward and snagged a chocolate, because what solves momentary morose memories better than chocolate and repetition of sounds? The chocolate vanished like magic, into his mouth. Okay, maybe not magic. But it was a nice snack!

He let his tea bag steep while she told her a little bit about herself. Elliott listened thoughtfully, nodding when appropriate. Antennae waggled as his head bobbed up and down. All the while, he filed away details the way a good street smart (read: slightly paranoid) alien might. RN, out of state, AND country.

Irregular schedule made for sudden absences and reappearances. He didn’t read into the whole absences and sharing a nice home for people who might need it, “homeless guilt trip” angle, but having been homeless, had he known the thoughts behind the decision, Elliott probably would have appreciated it.

Elliott used a spoon to daintily extract his tea bag, and squeeze out any extra tea. He put the spent bag on a saucer. He added a little sugar, a half and half, and stirred.

Would her coming and going be a nuisance? “Nah,” Elliott smiled. Chocolate had him feeling better now. And tea. “You might find me more of a nuisance, but I’ll try and keep it under control better than my last roommate.” There it was again! He suppressed a frown. “I paint. He used to take up the living room and his bedroom and all the areas in-between with his canvasses. Fumes stunk to high heaven. I’ll try and keep most of it in my room until I can afford a studio. Keep it out of your hair.”

“I may be up and out at odd hours,” Elliott continued. “For work and stuff.” Not technically a lie. “May start going to school too, for the art. Don’t know yet. Still figuring it out. Kind of new to me. But apparently, people have liked it enough to buy some of the pieces. My girlfriend Kenzie is a pretty good saleswoman, I guess.” He laughed.

“No smoking,” he added. “Though I might be taking up the violin... and that’s probably worse.”

She listened with a polite smile on her face, taking sips of coffee during short pauses. He mentioned painting and his last roommate, and the lack of space it had apparently left. She chuckled. He went on, but she was starting to feel like she had already heard enough. He was polite in person, spoke well of himself and his goals. Usually the first impression was a good indication of how someone would act when they settled in. She'd looked it up!

Truth be told, the Greek was still a little new to living with people after having left the school. She wasn't a child anymore and tended to act accordingly, but had found it hard to abandon some of her younger, more naive tendencies. Believing that people were mostly good was one of them. It was hard to look at the man across from across from her and not simply assume the best of him.

"I am rather hard to annoy, fortunately. I do not mind hectic comings and goings. I have spent many a night in various hospitals through the busiest nights." She set her cup and saucer down on the table as Sloth stirred and started to curl over her shoulder. The big, lazy snake yawned widely and settled in her arms as she cradled him. "And you will no doubt be pleased to hear that the bedrooms are rather large. The last owners of this apartment turned both of them into master suites, so they both have matching accommodations. Would you like to see where your room would be?"

She waited for confirmation before standing and leading the way to the other side of the living room. His room was on the other side of the apartment from her. She had liked the layout of this apartment for that reason. Lots of privacy.

"The previous owner of this apartment had locks installed on the doors, so each room has its own key." She walked down a short hallway with a half bath at the end and gestured to a room that had the door already open. The bedroom was large, and sparsely furnished already. There was one walk-in closet off to the side, and a smaller rolling door closet tucked in the attached bathroom.

"I bought the place from the previous owner furnished already, so if you do end up moving in you can do what you wish with the furniture in here. I was using it as a guestroom before I decided to open up the roommate spot."

The walls were white and bare. On the opposite side of the room were two large glass doors, and just past them a personal patio.

The Greek stepped in and clicked the lights on, "What do you think?" She scratched sloth under his scaly chin as she waited.

Yeah, working in the hospital, she would have to have been used to chaos. Maybe not even organized chaos, depending on the day. Odd hours from a roommate bothering you when you’d already told them you’d be working odd hours and be in and out all day... it didn’t seem the sort of thing one would object about unless one were a hungry, hungry hypocrite. Elliott nodded at that.

The news about big bedrooms was nice. Plenty of space for painting and gear. And pets! He had no problem with snakes. Even mutant snakes. He didn’t bat an eye. When she asked if he’d like to see the room, Elliott smiled and said “Yes. Thank you.”

She showed him the room. The rooms location gave some good privacy, and the doors locked. Big, like she’d said. Closet space, bathroom. Elliott looked around at all the space he could fill. And it came with some furniture, so he could keep it or trash it. It’d save him some trips to Ikea, Sweden. The room even had a little patio, perfect for sneaking out.

Elliott turned to the woman, and grinned at her. “This place is amazing,” he said. “Totally bests my expectations. I think this place will work out just fine.”

“I like the snake, by the way. What’s his name?” Elliott asked.

She was delighted at his acceptance, clasping her hands together happily under her chin. "Wonderful!" She would get together her paperwork later and plot some kind of welcoming party. Oh, she would need to invite some of the neighbors, wouldn't she?

Sloth flicked his tongue out again, tilting his head at the Green man. The other snakes reacted to the attention their brother was getting by wiggling out from their nesting spots in her hair, angling black scaly heads, and orange eyes Elliot's way. Altogether the seven snakes stared. Andrea chided them quietly in Greek, attempting to pus some of the back as they crowded forward and brought her braid with them.

"Demons, the lot of them." She muttered and a cross look settled on her face. "The large one is Sloth. The smaller ones are Avarice, Vana, Lust, Gula, Ira, and Hubris." She pointed out each in turn. Lust unashamedly tried to wriggle himself closer. She tuned out the excited whispering in her head.

"Don't give the too much attention. It goes straight to their head, and then they are impossible to deal with."[/color] She chuckled, while a few of the snakes turned and gave her their own versions of a dirty look.

Eventually, she led them back out to the living room. If he was up for it she would show him the rest of the place, aside from her own room. The half bath in the front hall, the kitchen and small pantry on the side. She asked a handful of boring questions on the way, peppering them into the conversation naturally. By the time she sat back on one of the sofas, she was feeling very content.

"When do you think you will be moving in? I can arrange for help with getting your things up here if needed." She smiled pleasantly, cup once again in her hands. "Oh! I nearly forgot... if any of the neighbors give you any trouble, do let me know?"

She smiled in a sweet way that didn't quite match the ferocity she had been forced to unleash on a few of the more troublesome residents who shared the building with her. Shortly after she had moved in her neighbor across the hall had let her know that people were talking about her in the building, and not in a kind way. Given that the Greek worked closely with many of the shelters scattered across town she was familiar with many homeless visible mutants who struggled to find places to stay due to discrimination. She refused to put up with it. Not for her, nor anyone else. She was acquainted with a few people who represented mutant equality rights and had left very warm, inviting gift baskets for those residents who had objected to her moving in, with very pleasant, choice words on the greet cards.

She hadn't heard a peep from them since, and was rather pleased by it.

Well, that was settled then. He’d worried it would be far more difficult to cement his place as ‘roomie’, but just by tellin her he liked the place, Gordon had careened into happy times and much hand clasping. If he could have read her mind, Elliott might have been taken aback a little by the excitement over welcoming parties and neighbors and friends. It was all so sudden. And cheery. Instead, he simply smiled at her words, and felt grateful everything had worked out.

The big snake took a sudden interest in him, flicking its tongue and eying him (like prey?). He had friends. They came out to give him the old look-over, too, as if to say “our mistressss hasss chosssen a roommate. He’d better be goooood.” With additional ssssing, of courssse. Elliott DID NOT feel like a mouse among snakes. He’d already pegged her for some sort of snake lady. Thankfully, she didn’t have the Greek monster lady’s tragic gaze.

Gordon did have the Greek monster lady’s Greek, though! He’d eaten at enough Greek food stands to hear a similarity in the language patterns.

Elliott had always felt a little sorry for a Medusa, in the mythologies. She’d only loved Poseidon. Or not, in his homeless friends interpretations. Athena had cursed her for Poseidon’s forcing himself upon her in Athena’s temple. “That’s victim shaming, at its worst,” Stark had told him, during one of his rants on mythology. If not for those rants, Elliott’s knowledge of mythology would have been jack squat. Those crazy rants had been a blessing in disguise.

Apparently, the head snakes weren’t a blessing, though. They were demons. And with them on her head, she would know. A wry thought struck Elliott. ‘At least her demons, she can beat with a hair brush,’ he thought to himself. ‘Mine are all internal.’ The thought... was too real to share.

She went on to list the demons names, and they sounded a lot like the seven deadly sins from to Elliott, with some minor nose tweaks (which he knew from further myth ranting). Thanks, pop culture, thank Stark. Idly, he wondered if they were named due to their personalities, or if their personalities were due to her.

“Straight to their head,” he mused. ‘Not your head, he thought.’ Interesting. Maybe the latter, rather than the former. “I see.” He smiled, and shook his head.

Were they shooting her the evil eye? In gambling, snake eyes could be bad luck. The phrase must have come from somewhere. He had no related rant in his memory for that one.

They moved back to the main room. He answered her questions along the way, shooting the breeze repeatedly, almost violently, in the head. Every little question was answered, with a vengeance. Finally, they settled back down in the living room and she had a question for him.

He leaned forward, and tried his tea. It was cool, now, but that was fine. He sipped at it before he answered her, three-fingered hands folded around the cup.

“I’m planning to move in as soon as I can,” Elliott told her. “I need to pack up a few more things. I was worried I’d need a storage area, but... maybe not.” There was certainly room. Though he might want one, still. Old roommate detritus didn’t need to stare him in the face every day.

“Help with boxes would be really nice,” Elliott said. Anything to ease the load of two peoples crap.

“I’ll let you know if anyone bugs me,” he agreed. Then added, jokingly. “... hopefully, the one guy who always follows me around screaming ‘alien!’ doesn’t realize I’ve moved.”

He hadn’t been joking. But she didn’t need to know that.

“I was wondering something.” He said. “Would you be opposed if I, uh, put one of my art pieces up in the living room after I move in? It’s one of the larger pieces, and I can show you a picture, but—“ He suddenly felt self conscious. “It’s a piece that means a lot to me: one of the first I ever did.”

She nodded, making a mental note to help arrange aid for him moving in. The Alien comment caught her off guard for a moment. She blinked widely at him because from her position she could see that happening. She chuckled a little, assuming it was a joke just for the sake of the conversation.

(I see what you did there!)

When he asked about decorating the walls a little, a gentle smile returned to her face. "As far as I am concerned this space is also your space. I have never been very good at decorating, so I just leave the walls blank.... but please do feel free to put up any art would like too."

The moment the words left her mouth she realized her mistake. What if he was into nudes?! Oh lord, she'd have to get good at avoiding looking at the walls.

"but really. Almost everything in here came with the place. I do not mind you using things or decorating as you see fit. All of my personal possessions are kept in my room."

"I will have people over occasionally though. I work with a few of the local shelters and when we cannot meet at the church, we meet here. Maybe one a month at most. I hope that is alright?"

She was sure Sean would just be delighted at the notion she wasn't living alone anymore. The poor man tended to worry himself sick about her most days.

Her mind drifted to her neighbor across the hall and she paused, flushing slightly. How... was she going to explain that she had another man living with her to him? What if it scared him off?!

"I tend to do a lot of cooking, too. I do not mind cooking for both of us if you like, though I do tend to share a portion of dinner with a neighbor across the hall."

He was an author, working on a romance novel. It was dreamy.

Wall decorating, yes. He could do that. Her response had been more than accommodating. He couldn’t read minds, because he wasn’t that kind of alien, so any artistic nude thoughts Andrea had thought went entirely unheard. Which was probably for the bust. Best. Because he probably would have had a cheeky response lined up for something like that.

He nodded at her excited and rambling response about covering the walls with art with a small “Cool,” and when she asked about shelters meeting, he smiled at her understandingly.

“That’s fine.” Elliott said. Local shelters, and donating time. The thought ran around in the background of his mind like a small child high on caffeine. Maybe if he made enough from his artwork, he could some give back. They’d have to see.

He noticed the blush. Was that a blush? She blushed brown like him. And then noticed the follow up mention of cooking and a neighbor. Idly, he wondered if there was something there. But, then, that was really more her business than his. Maybe green girl had a guy friend!

(You go, girl!)

“Sounds fine to me. Maybe I can help out some times, and learn some things. My cooking... well, I didn’t do dishes at the last restaurant I worked at because I liked dawn dish soap and wrinkly hands.”

He could learn to cook. Basic cooking was okay. But anything fancy... he left to the restaurants.

Elliott finished his tea. He’d been sipping at it while they had talked, and suddenly realized it was all gone. Time had passed.

“Wow. I lost track of the time.” He said, eyes widening. “If I want to get some packing done tonight, I ought to get to work. Otherwise, I won’t be able to do my moon painting tonight!” (That’s a painting of the moon, folks. Not a bare bottom.) It was a new thing he was trying, painting a moon each night as the phases changed... and then kicking the spit out of it. For the art.

“Thanks for the tea,” he said, rising. “I’ll have to chat with you later and sort ‘moving in’ stuff out.”

Her eyes lit up at the mention of helping to cook. Stars and glitters of light would have appeared in the orange depths if it were possible. She was so excited! The Greek loved to cook almost as much as she loved to read, and teaching someone some of her recipes would be a first!

"I would very much love help in the kitchen whenever you are willing to offer." She could teach him things to cook for his girlfriend! Oh, the romance~

She lifted her cup to finish off her coffee when he mentioned the time. She checked the watch on her wrist and her eyes widened a fraction as well. "Oh, you are right." She hurried to set her cup down and join him as he stood.

"I will get all of the paperwork together, as well as arrange for some help moving your things in when you are ready." She hurried to the kitchen counter and fished an extra key to the apartment out from a ceramic bowl.

"In case I am away when you are ready to move in." Her shifts at the various hospitals within the city were long, and often a little unpredictable. she passed the key to him as they made their way toward the door.

"It was very good to meet you, Elliot." She held the door open as he left, waiting for a bit before shutting it a bit, and then turned back to her empty apartment.

Soon she would have a roommate. She smiled warmly as she leaned back against the door.

[End]