Chris was sitting leaned back in a chair in his new apartment, his legs resting on a brown cardboard box. He was watching an old Animal Planet re-run - David Attenborough was just explaining, in his impeccable British, how the howler monkey were perfectly adapted for a life in the trees.

It was early in the evening so he had pulled down the blinds - not that he had much evening sun in the room since one of his two windows faced a brick wall on the other side of an alley. He had left one window slightly open - it had been a really hot day and the air was still very warm and dry.

He had finally unpacked his things, not that he had had too many things to start with. The room was furnished very Spartanly - a table, two chairs, a fridge and an oven, the old TV he'd bought for ten bucks and his bed. His books, clothes and personal belongings had been stuffed into a chest next to his bed.

Chris was slowly adapting himself to this new life. His neighbors avoided him and he avoided them, and that suited him just fine. Sure, the mansion had been a safer place to live, but lately he'd felt it had been to much for him. To much noise, to much people, to much everything...
No, this had been the right decision to make. Still, he knew he were going to miss some aspects of the mansion life. The safety, the food, the handful of friends he'd made during the one-and-a-half year he'd lived there... He was even going to miss Saphirus, his big, loudmouthed roommate.
Chris leaned back even more into his chair, not really interested in how the howler monkeys build small nests of leaves and twigs and whatever but not disinterested enough to change channel.

Saph didn't like goodbyes... He'd never been good with them. Generally, even if he knew he'd never seen someone ever again, he'd shove off with a 'see ya later', or a 'catcha next time, eh?'. Sure, he'd feel a little empty inside after, but he always knew that with those phraises came the hope that an old friend would come back.

All that aside, one thing he didn't like more than goodbyes, was no goodbye at all. So, when Saph found himself staring at a tiny little note from his now former room mate explaining he'd already left, Saph simply shook his head, and mumbled. "Yeah, no... Ain't gettin away from me that easy, kid."

Presently, he was making those words true. After much asking around, and maybe a little file snooping, he found himself standing in the alleyway of a certain appartment complex with a lovely view of a brick wall. Saph looked up to the wall before him, and then down to the little scrap of paper in his hand once more... if he'd calculated right, his window was the third one up, and the second two from the right... He'd collected a good ammount of energy from tossing himself in front of a car earlier, and his hand tingled with what he figured was enough to get him to the fire escape, at least.

A quick hop proved that theory true. The X-man grinned slyly as he climbed carefully up to the right set of windows, and noticed one slightly cracked open. He took the liberty of slowly lifting it open, and then maneuvering the blinds out of the way. He silently climbed in, and raised the blind, listening to what sounded like the nature channel or something as he took a seat on the seal... Gees, this kid really needed to inject some excitement into his life, didn't he? Well, that's what he was here for, right?

"So... This is the new place, huh?" He stated plainly... He wasn't very impressed... Where was the excitement? He'd already sat here thirty seconds, and hadn't heard a single loud crash, angry yell, or frightened scream. Where was the life?

During the course of the documentary Chris decided that monkeys were actually quite boring. They looked for food, scratched themselves, jumped from a tree now and then... but they didn't really do much. The supposed hilarity of monkeys were greatly exaggered.

"So... This is the new place, huh?"
"What the - !?"
The chair, which Chris had been balancing on it's back legs, slammed it's front legs into the ground as he lost the balance of it. Chris flew out of the chair and spun around, so hyped on adrenaline that it actually took a moment for him to see Saph sitting there on the window seal, totally calm and collected.
Chris backed a step and slumped down on the bed, trying to slow down his breathing to a more stable pace. His heart was beating like crazy against his ribs.
"Jesus, Saph! Don't sneak up on me like that!! Seriosuly!"

A grin found it's way onto Saph's face as Chris freaked out. He always was a timid kid; that was prolly why he left the mansion, after all. Saph had hoped he could maybe man him up a little- Turn him into some kinda super hero.

That hadn't worked too well. Still, he figured he might yet be able to put some hair on the fish kid's chest. Not literally, that would look strange, but figuratively, because he needed to cowboy up!

"Would you have answered the door if I woulda knocked?" He didn't know the answer to that. He figured that since Chris seemed to hate trouble more than most other things, he would naturally want to avoid Saph, who was the biggest trouble magnet in the world. Hence, the note, rather than the proper goodbye.

"Look, kid. I gotta say i'm a little upset. Not because you left... That's your choice. But because you just... left. Y'know?" While he spoke he stood from his place on the window, and walked on over to the fridge, opening it, taking the last soda, and cracking it open before sitting at the seal again.

Now that he was starting to calm down Chris could pay attention to other questions, like how the hell Saphirus had managed to end up on his windowsill without Chris noticing it. He glanced at the door, which was unmarkably non-kicked in. The two safety chains were still doing their job.
And since Saphirus wasn't able to phase through walls (at least to Chris's knowledge he wasn't) that only left the window. Chris glared at the partially open window as if the inanimate object somehow had betrayed him.
He wasn't surprised that Saphirus had been able to climb three stores - he was, however, surprised that he had managed to sneak in without Chris noticing it. But Saph's randomness was one of the characteristics that defined him.

"Would you have answered the door if I woulda knocked?"
"Of course I would!" Chris said in an almost hurt way. "I'm not a total reclusive, of course I would open the door to a friend. It's not as if I moved away because I want to hide away from all human contact, like some sort of crazy... cat lady... man."
It was not the most elegant simile, but it was the best he could think of at the moment.

When Saph mentioned that he was a bit upset about the way Chris had left, the fish mutant looked down on the floor in a sort of ashamed way. He reached out pressed the mute button on the remote - screaming monkies in the background could be very distracting.
"Yeah, uh, sorry about that. It's just... I'm not good with goodbyes. I know this wasn't really a goodbye, since it's not like I'm moving to another state, but... still."
He looked up at Saph and added defensively:
"I didn't write down my address - be my guest, by the way - since I was going to have a move-in party and wanted to get things in order first."
Then he scratched the back of his hairless head and looked around in his small apartment.
"But then, uh... things sort of ran out in the sand. The only thing I'm worse at than saying goodbye is organizing parties."
It sounded as some kind of sad excuse but it was true. Chris had never been one for parties, not even birthday parties. When someone asked about his birth date he would say "in the beginning of March, I think."

"Of course I would! I'm not a total reclusive, of course I would open the door to a friend. It's not as if I moved away because I want to hide away from all human contact, like some sort of crazy... cat lady... man."

"Oh... My bad, then..." Saph shrugged and took a sip of his soda. A sideways glance showed him that Chris did look like he wasn't proud of himself for leaving without a word... That made him feel a little better about the situation. Honestly, though he probably wouldn't ever say anything of the sort, he'd grown attached to the fish kid. He stopped by because he was worried the kid was going to turn into a total hermit more than anything else- he'd rarely met people that had as much trouble compelling themselves to interact with others. He was a good kid, too.

Saph couldn't stop himself from chuckling as little when Chris mentioned trying to get a party together and failing miserably... It was such a Chris sorta thing. But it was great, because that's what Saph was here for. Made him feel a little less useless than the whole situation with Andrea made him feel.

"I got an idea." Saph stood, and started walking toward the door. Once he got there, he looked back, blinked a few times, and opened the door. "You coming, kid?" With that, he walked on out.

Well, it seemed that this had worked out nicely without barely being awkward at all. Actually Chris was relieved that Saph had come to visit him so that their friendship or mutual acceptance or what it was hadn't been destroyed by Chris's crippling inability to perform basic social actions, like telling his roommate that he was moving away. Not that he would admit it, of course.

Chris turned of the TV since the screeching monkeys in the background was sort of disturbing.
"Okay, neat. Glad that's sorted out. Help yourself, by the way," he added and looked at Saphirus's soda can with a raised eyebrow.
But it looked as if the catching-up would have to wait, since Saphirus suddenly stood up and walked out of the door, urging Chris to follow him. Chris snatched his regular coat and hat from a hook next to the door, not really sure what was going on or where Saph were heading.
He locked the door behind them and walked fast to keep up with Saph - stairs could be a curse when your knees bent the wrong way.
"Wait, Saph!" he protested. "Where are we going?"
They walked out the front door and the evening air was brisk and still warm. There were not many people out, just a mother with a baby carriage on the other side of the road, and not much traffic either. This wasn't the most rundown block in the area, but it wasn't very fancy either.