Noel pat around on the bed to find her phone, but the alarm stopped before she turned it off. In that moment before her brain got the memo that she was waking up, she lay confused about where her blanket had gone.

Ugh. Right. The dryer. She scrubbed the sleep from her eyes and stumbled that way. It was all fluffy and warm and smelled not at all like what it would have had it gone through her washer. Different soap.

A quick swap of clothes and she was back out feeling more like herself. Her shoes, she carried in her hands, still wet.

Noel touched his shoulder with cool fingers. She should have gotten him a shirt, she supposed. "Hey. It'd be real awkward for me to live on your floor with only one set of clothes." Or, you know, at all; but the food fairy lived here. So. It was actually a little bit tempting. "Help me break into my place?"

The Ranger had not intended to actually sleep, just to rest his eyes for a short while. No plan survives first encounter with being wrapped in a blanket with napping as an option.

A cold feeling on his shoulder woke him up. His eyes snapped open and it took him a moment for his mind to get back into gear. It was Noel. Her cold hand had touched his shoulder. She also appeared to have changed.

"Y' looked great in my clothes." He began, sitting up. "But, y' might have a point. Cain't have the woman livin' on my floor wearin' all my clothes with jus' one other outfit."

He climbed to his feet, most of his weight on his good ankle. The wrap and anti-inflammatories had worked wonders in making his ankle usable. "Sure." Then remembering he was wearing only his underwear. "Once I'm wearin' pants."

He hobbled off to his bedroom to change. New underwear, pants, shirt, and a pair of boots. Less nice than the ones he had been wearing before. They'd had their day and were now a pair of shit-kickers. They also had a 1 7/8" heel instead of a 2". They'd do until he recovered the boot that was not stolen from the front desk.

Back into the living room he went, ready to go. He grabbed his phone and said, "Ready."

> "Y' looked great in my clothes..."

He'd said it off hand. It probably didn't mean anything, but it was enough to make Noel pause. He thought she looked great. The clothes bit was almost like saying she could have been at home in them or with him.

She thought that she looked soft, like a victim waiting to happen.

Somehow his comment made her want to fuss with her hair. So stupid. Moments ago, she hadn't even thought about it existing. Now she was aware that she had gone to sleep without brushing it first.

He stood up in clingy, post-nap boxers and she, again, found other things to look at in a hurry. ”Right. Forgot about the no pants standoff.”

He hobbled on. Noel nudged a few boxes around to create a path and then had nothing to do but wait.

There was something inside her rib cage. It felt a little like fear, a little like the way guts rearrange themselves on a roller coaster, and a little bit… good? No. Weird. Bad, in fact. She didn't like it.

> ”Ready.”

Noel paused with her hands half way through finger combing out some tangles. ”Right. Not too far. Hopefully you'll make it.”

She let the way out into the hall, had to reorient herself at the elevator, but did manage to choose the right door eventually.

”There's a number code. I still don't have it memorized and it washed off. It's… been a weird couple weeks.” or a weird life. Noel made herself stop touching the hair. It was fine.

The no pants standoff? The Ranger shook his head and gave a slight chuckle. It was quite the way to describe their interaction before napping.

The Ranger noticed Noel finger combing her hair. He wrote it off as just a thing to do since she'd just slept on it. She informed him that it wasn't far. "It'll take more than a busted ankle t' stop me. Worst case; I get carried again." He said with a small laugh.

Noel led the way to her door. She seemed only a little lost at first. Not everyone had studied the floor plans of the building and could navigate it like him. Once they arrived she said that there was a code, but she hadn't memorized it before it was gone. "Sounds like it." he said. If all she'd told him was true it had been quite the ordeal.

It was at this point that he realized that Noel had been touching her hair a fair amount. Was she preening?

Pulling out his phone the Ranger navigated to instructions for the keypad. It was a pain to remember the correct way to reset them. "I'll get the door open an' y' can set whatever number y' want."

The instructions pulled up he started pressing numbers on the pad. An access key. Wait for the blinks. Press the button for what you want it to do, unlock. Wait for blinks. Enter his access code. The door unlocked. Start the process over. Get to the access code again, one of the only ones that could do this directly at the door without any other key or RFID. The light blinked twice then held on with a different color. The door has to be unlocked to reset the code. A pain, but that's the way this model works.

Stepping aside the Ranger said, "Key in what y' want then hit pound."

She wasn't about to tease him about being a primadonna that needed carrying. Not when she needed him to hobble along to her doorstep. They eventually made it with pride intact. Noel leaned against her doorframe and watched him work the magic. She wished that she was better at memorizing and retaining information. She'd love to borrow that whole sequence of key strokes. You know. Just a little harmless entering made harmless by the fact that it'd take no breaking to accomplish it.

Noel, instead, used her time to try to figure out what kind of key code that she could remember. If she made a shape, maybe... or her birthday. That was in the fall some time, but she was hazy on the dates. Actually...

"6 digits? When's your birthday, Ranger?" Then she could just ask him when she inevitably forgot. That was an easy thing to do, right? Get a hold of the security guy and ask him his birthday. Easy.

Once he'd supplied that, she typed it in and hit the hashtag button. It flashed some mix of lights and she typed it in again. "Sorry I missed it this year. Maybe next time, huh?"

She pushed open the door to her apartment which would have been incredibly spartan except for the army of neon colored post-it notes that waggled in the hush of the air conditioning. Everything had a label from the light switch positions and what those meant, to the kitchen cabinets, to the couch, its cushions, and the carpet. It was a OCD person's dream... or nightmare.

No pictures hung on the walls. Nothing was personalized beyond what came stock to the room, except for her post-its.

A half-drunk cup of cold coffee sat next to an apple on the kitchen bar. That'd been her planned snack.

"Uh. So this is it, I guess." Noel offered her hand to Michael Hunter, the Ranger she'd unbooted. "If you're ever locked out of your place, I guess you know how to get into mine." Drat. She hadn't exactly thought that one through until just now. But, she supposed that he'd trusted her around his weapons, legally incompetent or not, and she didn't exactly have much to steal.

"6 digits? When's your birthday, Ranger?"

She wanted to use his birthday as her pass key? He wagered that if you have a tendency to forget things having your key be something you can go ask someone real fast is convenient. Otherwise you have to have security let you in and change your key.

"O three, twenty, eighty-five." He supplied the date in the civilian order.

"Sorry I missed it this year. Maybe next time, huh?"

"Y' can make it up t' me with a cake next year." He joked. His birthday was not something he’d ever much cared about. . After 21 what difference did any of them make?

Noel opened the door. From where he stood the Ranger could see enough inside to see everything was labeled with a sticky note. It must have taken someone an incredibly long time to so thoroughly label everything. Had she forgotten what everything was called?

With an offered had, Noel gave a good-bye. She also pointed out how he knew how to get into her place. The Ranger took her offered hand. ”It’s been fun, ankle snappin’ aside.” he released her hand. ”I can always break into my own place.” he said. Even knowing how to get into Noel’s place he wouldn’t just drop in. ”An’ like I said before, anythin’ I can do t’ help.” He started to turn to leave but stopped.

Fortune favors the bold.

He had a cryotherapy pump at the office, he could have it brought to Haven. A day or two with that hooked up to his ankle and he’d be moving like he normally did. He wouldn’t be putting thousands of pounds on it for a while, but he would be up to dancing.

Turning back to face Noel the Ranger said, ”Once I’m up and about again, y’ should come out dancin’ with me. Get y’ out of here for a while.”

He could break into his own place. That'd been a dumb offer on Noel's part. She'd practically invited him to drop in without asking.

> ”An’ like I said before, anythin’ I can do t’ help.”

"Uh. I'll keep it in mind." Once she figured out what needed to be done, that was. She was feeling more and more foolish by the second. Should she invite him to use her laundry? Or beg him for the leftovers she'd half eaten? Noel instead grabbed her phone from the countertop where she'd left it charging.

She was going to ask him to turn back around for a photo, but he already was.

Dancing? Despite her internals doing weird things, she tried to answer with whatever she'd normally answer. "I don't think I know the first thing about dancing, but I wouldn't mind an escape." Did it have to be dancing? Maybe she could con him into almost anything else.

"Hey. Say cheese." She snapped his picture just as she had all the other residents she'd met, except for this one, she already had a name, alias, and birthday. That last one was surprisingly important. After she'd filled it in, Noel turned the phone around so that he could approve of his photo.

"I don't think I know the first thing about dancing, but I wouldn't mind an escape."

The Ranger didn't realize it until after she replied, but he had been a bit anxious for her answer. He never got anxious about asking someone to dance. And he was relieved she hadn't said no.

"Y' did well last time we danced. But, I can teach y' again if I need t'." The Ranger pulled out his phone. Since he didn't know for sure when he would be up for dancing, just that it would at least be a few days, he would just get her number to let her know once he was up for it.

While he did that Noel had brought up her phone, "Hey. Say cheese." and snapped a photo. She typed on it a moment then showed it to the Ranger. His hair was a little flat on one side from the nap. Oh well, it happens. He nodded his approval of the picture before asking "Let me get y'r number. I can let y' know when I'm back in dancin' shape. An' I'll give y' mine so y' can just let me know if y' need anythin' or want t' just get out of here for a while."