It had taken work, but Zaid and Jude could finally say they were moved in to the new apartment. The downstairs rooms still had plenty of boxes, furniture was left in odd places, but they had a bed, a dresser, and a mostly functioning kitchen. There was the small problem of missing silverware still, and Zaid wasn't sure how all the Tupperware they owned lacked lids, but those were things they could solve.

The first few days had gone rather fast. After spending an enormous amount of time hunting for sheets, finding clothing, and eventually crashing for the night, day one had been a blur. Day two had been interrupted by an unexpectedly drunk Zaid, who proceeded to try to teach Jude how to dance, then spent a bit of time feeling sick when his body remembered it couldn't throw up. Thankfully, alcohol poisoning was avoided. That would have been a mess to explain given he was still underage.

Day three was spent, well, day three had distractions that mostly involved the bedroom. Being drunk and affectionate, Zaid had given his boyfriend a lot to resist. And then, there wasn't so much need to resist once he was sober. There wasn't much progress setting up the house after that.

They ordered delivery. Day three became a very lazy day in the end.

Waking up on day four, Zaid yawned and wandered into the kitchen, deciding it was finally time to try and set them up for actual cooking. He nosed through a few boxes, finding tea, coffee, but no coffee pot, and in the end put on a pot of water to boil. They would have to settle for the old fashion way. While that was working, he went into one of the side rooms, and started to fish through another box. A wayward pen fell out, and Zaid blinked as he watched it slowly roll toward the door. Fascinated by the moment, he stood there in his pajama pants, wondering if he had anything else to roll through the room.

As much as he'd wanted to stay in bed, moving days did not mean the end of moving. Jude had taken some time off. Well, a time off. A single day. And he'd planned to take at least a half day again to get them a little more settled on the other side of the weekend. Now that the weekend had somehow disappeared, he only had half a day to help settle the things they'd put off.

They'd put off a lot.

Jude rummaged through a clothing box that was still half covered by something that said "FRAGILE" on the side. His one real nice suit was in there, he was almost sure. He wanted to fish that out and get it de-wrinkling for the meeting he couldn’t put off later today. Only there was no finding a suit from a 3inch box opening while struggling to balance something breakable.

Okay then. He’d just move the box.

Only the box seemed to outweigh him, and the bottom threatened to come undone.

”Hey, Zaid? Is there coffee?” Because, he’d opened the box and these looked like weeb trinkets, manga, and Zaid’s highly breakable family heirlooms. He was going to have to do this the right way, the careful way, and take them out one by one. If his sanity was going to survive, he was going to need some go juice.

”Hon?” Rather than yell and no doubt alert the neighbors, he elected to walk down to the kitchen area to make sure Zaid hadn’t fallen in. (Fallen in what? ANYTHING. He was a disaster magnet.)

Zaid was in the side room, staring down a pen as it rolled into the kitchen, when his ear twitched in the direction of Jude's calling. He was about to answer when one of the not-so-carefully stacked boxes behind him fell over thanks to the slanted floor, and the sudden THUNK behind him sent the bunny up and backward onto the nearest tall object. More boxes. It was a good thing he was light, and also a good thing the stack he landed on didn't immediately fall over with the sudden weight of a man-sized rabbit perched on them.

"Sorry! Coffee. Working on it. Water should be boiling. Hey, I think this floor is...tilted." Zaid answered from the other room. Now that he was up on the box tower, he had to find a way back down without destabilizing the whole thing. How did they get so many boxes, anyway? It wasn't like Jude had a large apartment to start with, and Zaid didn't. He was fairly certain the one he was sitting on contained towels and linens. The one under it had to also have been something fluffy, while the bottom he knew most clearly was labeled 'books'. In the end, he sort of shifted his legs back under him, and made the hop back to the floor, feeling more like a cat than a rabbit. Success!

Giving Jude a kiss and trying to looked pleased rather than embarrassed by his acrobatics, he moved back to the kitchen to put the coffee on that sounded like it was needed. Taking a coffee filter, he spooned the powder into it then wrangled it over a mug. At least in the kitchen he was coordinated, so Jude wouldn't feel the need to snatch the pan of boiling water from him. Or, he shouldn't. Zaid often wondered if he should really be around so many knives for his day job when life seemed to love throwing drama his way...

Task complete, he handed the cup to Jude. The coffee pot probably would have done better, but at least his barista experience kept there from being random coffee grounds floating in the water. His nose twitched once at the lingering smells from the strong brew, and fished around for black tea for himself. "I'm going to find the rest of the kitchen stuff today, I swear. I didn't think we owed so much..." He admitted.

He steadied a tower of boxes that looked ready to jump ship and snorted at Zaid's apology. "It's not like you gotta serve me. I can do it myself. I'll do it wrong, but I can." The suggestion that the floor was tilting distracted him from proving his point, however. How did one test a crooked floor? Or correct a crooked floor?

He got a quick peck that further distracted him, but... no. They were supposed to fix this, so they should fix this. After they unpacked.

"How crooked are we talking?" Zaid disappeared behind some boxes into his domain and Jude noticed a peculiar sound. A sort of rolling sound? He had to life a quilt from where it spanned two box towers to see a pen making its way across the room. Zaid reappeared as Jude was sliding a different box tower to the side so that the pen could continue its curved rolling path. The coffee was welcome. The nervous excuses were not.

> "I'm going to find the rest of the kitchen stuff today, I swear. I didn't think we owned so much..."

"I'm not bothered by the- okay. I'm totally bothered by the mess. Could we Marie Kondo some of this stuff? Or maybe it compresses down when it's put away." He sipped and, whoah. Strong coffee was strong. Just the wake up he needed, though. "I guess I don't understand the sentimental stuff. And I don't want to disrespect that." He hip checked a tall box just barely in time to allow the pen to pass. He knew the box was full of something soft. The side said "Linenens" and it was his own weird left-handed scrawl. Spelling was hard.

"How far is this pen going to go!?" The kitchen fed into a skinny hallway which led right back to the bedroom from whence he came.

Zaid's ears did a little dance at Jude's comment about the coffee, but smiled back instead. "Hey, the kitchen is about the only place I feel confident in. Don't take away the one thing I feel like I can be helpful with. Maybe it's less about your ego and more about mine on this one," he remarked.

Then he sort of lost the smile at the comment about the boxes. Yeah, there really was a lot they needed to go through. The idea had been to send whatever wouldn't be kept to get donated, but the move had happened in a spontaneous shuffle that hadn't given much time to do actual sorting. Now he just felt overwhelmed by the task on top of the remodels.

The pen stopped somewhere right at the halls edge. Thankfully, it didn't go alllll the way to the other room. That was more stress than either of them needed.

"Honestly, not all of it is sentimental. It's, a bit hard to explain." Feeling he needed something to drink if he was going to try putting this into words, he put some hot water into a cup and started seeping a tea bag. His ears flattened and relaxed as the scent reached him. It was oddly calming, for black tea.

"When I was left on my own I just sort of was...winging it.I kept a lot of stuff just because I had no idea what I was doing. I knew how to do laundry and cook, but if something broke I had to figure out how to fix it, and then I needed to alter my pants and there were sewing supplies but I had to figure out what I could use... Now I can look at things and admit I probably didn't need 12 towels for just me, and I've never used that little hand towel size in my life, and no, we don't need a round table cloth when we don't have a round table." He gave Jude a somewhat sheepish look.

"So yes, for the most part, I prefer if we just scoot the unneeded things off to a thrift store. The uh, nerd trinkets we can take on a case by case basis too. You seem to have adjusted into the bachelor lifestyle much smoother than I did."

"The little hand sized towel is supposed to hang in the restroom. It's for drying the hands. After you wash them." He was sure Zaid knew that. Surely. Right? Jude sipped and nosed a box corner out of the way as the pen slowed and started to roll back and forth. "I dunno, we could make the round table cloth into a ravishing cape, I'm sure." Jude just wasn't used to having things. An apartment? Sure. But, his actual personal space had been miniscule. And before that he'd been homeless. Before that , he'd been a child. He sipped again.

>"You seem to have adjusted into the bachelor lifestyle much smoother than I did."

He choked.

"Well I didn't— I mean, Sebastian left, but he's in Ohio or something. Ghost is in California. It's kind of different." His adopted dad had only tried to end the world. Totally a rite of passage. Which he'd come out on the other side of.

"I want to respect what you want to keep. We'll find places for things. But... everything needs a place. I'd like to be able to walk across the floor in the dark without dying."

Jude toed the pen and tried to look around to see if he could tell what that meant. There was just too much junk to see.

"We'll deal with the floor when we get down to it."

Zaid felt his cheeks get a little pink, and he laughed awkwardly. "I mean, I guess I just used the normal towel for my hands? Why waste another towel? But...I also never had guests. I guess you wouldn't expect a guest to use your normal towel... Stars, please don't run out the front door halfway through this and give up all hope for me. I blame homeschooling." They were opposites on this. Jude was always around people, and Zaid had spent most his life in isolation. He drank a deep gulp of tea, not even regretting how hot it felt. He needed something to stop the rush of panic that seemed destined to fill his overactive brain.

We could make the round table cloth into a ravishing cape, I'm sure.

"Be careful with that type of talk or I'll have you dressed up for the next convention, for sure. Which, you're going to have to go to one with me, costume or not. At least then half the words I use will make a little more sense. I swear it's not all Japanese." He knew dating a nerd was a bit of a challenge, but Jude was trying, and that was all that mattered. They didn't need to like the same things, but it was just nice to be accepted as he was.

Taking another gulp of tea Zaid set the cup down and pulled the nearest box over. Walk across the floor without dying? He could certainly make that happen. "Believe it or not, my apartment was clean. No risk of injury. But, a lot of this was shoved into one of the bedrooms. I'm pretty sure most of it will just go back out the front door." He flinched slightly when he removed the tape from the cardboard flaps. The items inside were mostly old clothing, and while they were a bit musty, the scents still lingered a bit. That was a kick to the stomach he managed to swallow, quickly checking under the items. Just clothes. He shut it and scooted it to the corner. "Donation pile. One down." The next box smelt like Jude's apartment, which was a much calmer experience for him.

He opened his mouth to argue that the small towels had a place and use and... and he realized it really didn't matter. Ghost had kept things magazine-clean. He hadn't kept things nearly as tidy until he'd started to really live on his own and realized that some things really did matter. Like little towels.

Yes. He was fussy sometimes. It worked for him. He just had to draw clear lines and they'd be good, right? "At least you're washing your hands. I think that's where I'll draw the line and start running and screaming."

He sipped his coffee as Zaid sat and started attacking things directly. His box was musty enough for even a human nose to detect. Jude was still wondering what to do about the floor slant. Could he make a GPS marker or something to indicate this spot? He took a picture, realized that without context it was no good, and tried to reframe the shot to include a wall or something.

"Find me a cool guy to dress as and I'll dress up. Some of the hair seems really impossible, though. Even for a mutant." Forgetting what he had originally been meaning to do, totally derailed by the pen and good coffee and company, Jude also took a seat. His coffee got a seat of honor in a spot less likely to spill and Zaid indicated a box that was his.

"Ohhh, for me?" Jude ripped into it, feeling a little like it was a present. A disappointing present.

"Bedding. Er. Our bed isn't this size, but there's some pillows in here. How many pillows does one apartment need?" The comforter, too, would make a lovely cape.

"How many capes does one apartment need?" Okay so in practice, getting rid of things was actually quite a bit harder.

Zaid was still new to relationships, and more often than not it made him nervous he was doing things all wrong. It didn't help that he was part rabbit. Rabbits and nervous tended to go hand in hand. He wondered where he had flubbed on the towel situation, then wondered where the towels actually were. Hopefully one of these boxes. They had two, but having to wash the same towels every day was not his idea of a winning situation.

Maybe there was a little luck in his life that brought the towels to the next box. Zaid lifted one of the small hand towels out and flashed it at Jude victoriously, "There! Small towels! And actual human sized ones for drying." He made sure no random books were hiding at the bottom of the box before moving it toward the door where it could properly be put away. "You're lucky I work in a kitchen then. I am surprised I have any skin left on my hands after washing them so much. Change gloves, wash hands. Touched my apron, wash hands." Zaid was pretty sure hand soap was one of the first things he unpacked when they moved.

After the towels and Jude's box, they had cleared a sort of opening into the room. There was one more box of clothes Zaid shoved to the 'donate' pile, before he opened one containing manga. "There are lots of cool guys. I mean, not all of them have crazy hair." Zaid pointed to a character with a military style uniform. Lots of buttons, spiffy shoes. "No cape on this one though. We may have to let go of some of your capes," he teased. Zaid looked at the pillows, poking one of them.

"Pretty sure Revie snuggled up against that one. My fur is not that color. Nor do I smell like dog," he noted. He wagged one ear and closed the mangas up for the time being. They needed a bookshelf for those, or, a garage sale. Or he would have to hide them in the closet until Jude made him go through them more closely. One or the other. One struggle at a time.

"I have tomorrow off, I can tackle a few things around here. Just, probably not the floor for now. Maybe Evelyn can help with that... Is it weird to consult a seven year old about remodeling? And did you notice we have a light switch that goes to nowhere? I feel like that's a fire hazard waiting to happen." He wondered if he should buy a fire extinguisher. With his luck, he probably should have something close by.

Jude rolled the blanket back into something like a fold and pushed it back into the box. He managed to get a pillow half out before getting distracted peeking over at the comic book that Zaid had pulled out. Someday he was going to read one of those.

"Oh. He looks spiffy." But knowing nothing about any of it..? "But...? He's not, like, Hitler Jr. or something is he?"

Zaid identified the hair on the pillow as dog hair and suddenly that pillow was looking less and less like a pillow that made the cut to stay in this house. Jude put it down slowly as if betrayed by it.

> "Maybe Evelyn can help with that..."

"Is it weird? Yeah. But weird is every mutant's middle name. If she's up for it, I say let's hire her. I'm afraid as it is we'd just break her brain, though."

> "...did you notice we have a light switch that goes to nowhere? I feel like that's a fire hazard waiting to happen."

He opened his mouth, but... that was probably wise. They needed a fire extinguisher sooner rather than later.

"Surely it goes somewhere?" He stood, paused, went to rescue his coffee, and flipped the nearest switch which turned on the overhead light. Not necessarily needed since the morning light was still streaming in. Why had he thought it was that one?

"Er. Which one does nothing?" Not that he was an electrician, but he was curious.

Zaid laughed at Jude's comment about the manga character, "I would never recommend you to be a character with some type of horrible background. If I subject you to dressing up, you must be properly prepared with the nerdy knowledge to go with the attire. Although, it's more fun if we find something you actually enjoy reading or watching."

They would get to that, eventually. Zaid had tried not to throw Jude face-first into all the Japanese plus gamer culture, but a lot of the habits came with living together. And it was hard to completely mask what a geek he was when there were plenty of trinkets hiding around. "I think I'm going to be a character from one of my favorite games next." He knew it would be hard to put something together with the move, so the green tunic and bunny hood felt like a safe bet. And if he recalled, the fighting style game with popular characters was one Jude knew.

The pillow was set aside, and Jude was distracted testing for the light switch. Zaid snuck over and flipped the troublesome one, and pointed to the fact nothing turned on.

"I mean, I can start plugging things into outlets tomorrow and see what happens. Or, wait until you get home. Maybe plugging things in first is asking for trouble...." If he ended up getting shocked too horribly he would be stuck alone until someone found him. That sounded a little on the risky side.

Circling the room, Zaid reached out for where he left a notepad the day before, and started writing Japanese characters as reminders to himself. He noted the floor, light switch, and then the upstairs bathroom that needed new tub handles (cold was hot and hot was cold, which had been an unpleasant surprise). He drummed the pen on the page and wrote down dragging the boxes to be donated, and figured maybe Andrea and Erik could help with that if needed. It would be nice to at least surprise Jude with a somewhat cleaner house the next day.

He was about to write something else when the light overhead went out, and he blinked in the darkness, "Hang on, there were light bulbs upstairs. Probably just have to replace it!" He set the paper down and scurried from the room, taking the steps two at a time and popping into the spare bedroom. There were shopping bags with a few supplies he had collected, and the light bulbs were on top.

Downstairs he thought he heard Jude say something, and turned, ear swiveling to catch what was being said. He lost hold of one of the bag handles, and the lightbulbs went rolling away. Zaid quickly snatched the nearest two, then dove after the final one.

He dove across an ugly decorative rug in one corner, and then yelped as his knee when through a completely unexpected hole in the floor.

Zaid didn't cuss often, but having his knee bust through the floor of their new apartment drew a rather unplanned spew of Japanese profanities from his mouth as he took an undignified face plant into the disguisting carpet.

"

"Okay. I guess I'll be prepared, then." After all, it was easier to be someone else. Being himself but dressed oddly? Well, that'd just be awkward for everyone all around. "I've impersonated other people before for a job... I guess it's not too unlike that?" Yeah.

Of course Zaid already had ideas for himself. If it took time... well, there was always next year for Jude. "What game is that?" He was casual, oh-so casual, in his information gathering. There were birthdays incoming.

He tried a light switch, but it did something, so Zaid had to hop up and show him which it was. And he quite successfully showed off... nothing. Nothing happened.

"No. I mean, it's got to do something, doesn't it? Are there wires hooked up?" Actually... yeah. They should be unpacking. "No, you're right. We'll tackle this later. It's not actively making a fire. So it can wait. Even if that's more fun than unpacking."

It was, unfortunately, the adult thing to do.

Zaid went to pace or write things down... no, he found need for a lightbulb. Jude took his coffee back to a pile of boxes, sipping before ripping into a new one. Oh. Rugs and fireplace set... was this one of the boxes he'd gotten out of storage that technically belonged to Ghost? He heard a thump and saw a bit of dust fall, but the surprising closeness of some fast spoken Japanese made Jude look up...

"Was it a bad idea to move here?" He asked the wriggling lump in the ceiling because, honestly, it felt a little like a death trap money pit at the moment. "You okay?"

What game is that?

"The Fable of Linkle. I was going to dress up as Zeldio. He was in Ultra Fight Siblings, you know, he was the one with the green hat and tunic? But in the game he has this hat that is bunny ears, and I thought it would be fun to...well, make my ears that." It sounded a little silly saying it out loud, he hoped it would make more sense once he was actually wearing the outfit. The idea was still on his mind as he was upstairs looking for the light bulbs, and then when he had almost fallen through the second story floor.

Was it a bad idea to move here?

Zaid pulled his leg free and rolled to the side, then leaned so his face could glance down to where Jude was. The hole was...okay, it was larger now that the bunny had almost fallen through it, but it looked like maybe it had only started as some sort of minor break. "Layne would have warned me if she had known this was here...she gave me a heads up on some of the other problems. And no, I don't think it's a bad idea. I just have bad luck. I thought rabbits were supposed to be lucky? Or is that only the dead ones..." Zaid asked mostly to himself. How lucky could a dead rabbit really be, though?

He looked around and found something to cover the hole better for safety, and then collected the light bulb and returned downstairs. He did the proper thing and grabbed a step ladder to change out the burnt out bulb, talking more as he did.

"I mean, it needs work. Okay, a lot of work. But it's way bigger than any place we could afford. And...I know it's sort of a mess right now, but when it's fixed up, it'll be the sort of home you can be proud to live in," Zaid changed out one bulb and then connected the other. This was done without incident, and the light returned when it was secure.

Climbing back down, he dusted off his jeans, trying not to note the large rip in one leg. His ears sort of gave him away though, going back with unhappiness. He didn't want Jude to regret this. It was a bad start though.

"I just, I didn't want you to be stuck in some cramped run down place with me, but I guess this isn't looking like a much better alternative. But if we get things fixed up, find somewhere to cram all my nerdy stuff, we can make a nice sitting room or something in case you need to have your boss over or something? Uh, I mean, it has extra rooms, maybe like an office since you're doing so much with BlacTac?" He had to force one ear back up, then the other. No droopy ears. They could do this!

He grabbed the box of towels and started hauling it toward the linen closet, more determined to make things look better. If he had to go and buy something to fix the floor today, so help him, he would!

Oh. And he just launched right in. From what Jude could tell Zeldio was a person even if that was a terrible name. ”That’s great you can use what you already got.” If mutants were in hiding or something, he might’ve even won a prize for best animatronics or something. But now that they were all out, mutants were all over Hollywood.

Jude watched the leg wiggle and eventually remove itself from the hole above. Zaid had a lot of faith in Layne that was harder for Jude to trust since he didn’t really know them in the same way.

”Let’s not test the rabbit’s foot theory just yet… or ever.” He watched the ceiling imagining that he could tell where Zaid was walking. He should get back to unpacking, but it seemed prudent to check the entire ceiling for more hidden surprises.

But walking while looking up was a bit of a mistake. He walked right into a box, stubbing a toe and smashing a knee. It was nothing more than grumble-worthy, but it made him spill his last sip of coffee. Drat. He went to set the cup in the sink before he made more of a mess of himself and pulled his shirt off.

He was running water over the coffee spot when he heard Zaid on the stairs.

”It’s big. And you’re right it just needs some love. Just… if it turns out to be actually dangerous maybe we stay somewhere else until it’s stabilized.” He’d done some handy work at the Sebastian apartments. This was like that, only more official. As in, there were officials who cared how handy the work was done.

”I don’t think I’ve ever been expected to host anything before. I won’t say no to an office, though. Do you… have something you want for this place? Like a kitchen island? Or a bigger kitchen or something? I don’t think the plans said that was out of bounds...” He wrung the shirt out and shut off the water. Layne had to submit plans and they would have to follow those, but that was mostly finishing like keeping the crown molding and wood floors. They had to preserve historical details.

Zaid found himself sidetracked with his box of towels when Jude's voice changed direction. He caught sight of Jude shirtless in the kitchen, and took a detour instead. He was just being helpful, yup. Not just there to admire the view.

He offered his boyfriend one of the small hand towels they had kept, and gave a slight smirk when he did. "I really need to take Rhia up on that workout offer. You're a lot more fit than me and I'm jealous." Working in a kitchen kept him thin, but Zaid found it bordered on scrawny more than he wanted to admit. It was difficult to go back to unpacking now. He blamed Jude for being distracting.

Zaid did a mental inventory of the flat and what they had already uncovered that needed fixing. "It would be easy to make that spare bedroom an office. It's out of the way enough you wouldn't be interrupted all the time, and I think Layne did some work in there already. The floors were done at least. I'm still not sure what to expect from the wiring...

And...I think the kitchen is fine. It's ten times better than what I had. I am still learning so honestly I don't even know what I would want in a kitchen yet." Would he want an island? Or little hooks to hang pans on like his work had? He never had to make these choices. He picked the towels up again and decided it was a good sign to finish unboxing before the ideas of remodels gave him anxiety.

Towels away, he broke down the box and retrieved the next one with the rest of the sheets they decided to keep. Things were already looking more habitable with just the little work they did. "Don't you have a meeting later? Did we find your clothes?"