A hand towel. Jude looked up and couldn't help but smile and shake his head as he accepted it.

"I can go with you the first time if you're nervous. Or... not. Maybe it's better without any pressure, but Rhia's on your side. So long as that's true, I'd trust her to be encouraging and kind. I mean, it's what she does for a living. I'm assuming she's good at it." Jude wiped at his abdomen with the hand towel, an affront to its name by improper body part usage! He wasn't exactly at his fitness prime, but he was somewhere between desk jockey and junior wannabe weightlifter. BlacTac employees had sorta rubbed off on him by way of having an in-house gym.

> "Don't you have a meeting later? Did we find your clothes?"

"Oh shoot!" One glance at the time and he wasn't panicked, but he was concerned. He'd absolutely forgotten between the floors and the lightswitch to nothing (IT HAD TO DO SOMETHING?!) "It's like a cascade of stuff- had to move one box to move another and- ah!" He stopped in the master bathroom to drape his shirt over the shower curtain. They'd at least had time to install the shower curtain. Now Jude wouldn't have time for a shower, though!

"There's some nostalgic stuff? It's heavy and the box looks unstable." Jude started plucking pieces out of the box one or two at a time, as many hands as he could leverage in his up and down rhythm to grab something and then find a semi-safe place on the floor. Manga- that explained the weight of the box. Plastic figurines of robots? They weren't heavy, but they looked fragile. Jude put those further away. A stack of laminated placemats? On the bed. A couple plates? Jude gathered as many as he felt he could safely carry and padded back out to the kitchen.

"Are these our plates? Or your parents? Or memorabilia? I'm not sure what to do with them." There was a catbus on the top plate so... really it could be any of those three options.

Zaid considered what it would be like having Jude there while he trained and decided it might make things worse. If he was horrible at weight lifting then he was just making himself look bad in front of his boyfriend. Zaid was trying his best not to drive the other boy away anytime soon. Sharing an apartment had been a step for them, but it was already revealing some of the smaller challenges for them to get through.

The current challenge being the way their possessions had magically multiplies when they moved...

"Nostalgic?" They got to the bedroom and Zaid noticed the box in question. Oh, it really had gotten a strange mix of things in it. The manga was easy to gather so he could put it somewhere they wouldn't risk tripping over for the moment, while the figurines he gave a quick glance to, trying not to look too closely to make sure they were fine. Those weren't incredibly valuable, but they had other worth in his head. While Jude grabbed the plates Zaid went ahead and got the placemats to be moved to the spare room for donation.

"The figurines are mine, the plates I think were my parents. They're from an anime. I'm pretty sure they just have hung out in storage, they aren't really good to eat off of... But also, I don't know if anyone would take them if they were donated?" He took a detour and put the placemats into a box and then went back to the bedroom so he could see what was left in the box. A few mugs that could actually be used and put away, then some clothing. The clothing was mostly Zaid's so he scooped it up and put it off to the side to be folded and put away.

"I think we cleared this one. Were you trying to get to the box under it?" Zaid broke down the now empty box so Jude could reach his own clothing.

So... what was the point of plates that no one wanted to eat off of and no one wanted? "Uh. Decor? They could be hung up or... or something." For now, he set them in the spare room with potential donations. It seemed a shame. The catbus-thing was cute enough. When he was walking back in, Zaid had already cleared the rest of the box and was collapsing it.

"Bless you." He scoped Zaid up in a hug from behind since his hands were full and then scooted sideways past to the box beneath. Jude's fancy clothes. Stolen shoes from his time impersonating a dragon, a heap of silky socks, and a hangar zipper clothes wrapper that had ended up folded in half rather than hanging in a hanging box. Inside, his suit was just a bit more rumpled than he should have let it be. This, plus the shirt in the bathroom--

He was up and bulldozing right on through Zaid.

"Iron? Have we found the iron?" He hadn't meant to barrel right into him so Jude reached out to steady the bun. "There is an iron... right?" He was definitely willing to sacrifice his shower time for iron time, but he had yet to see one.

Zaid tried not to squeak when he was moved, then he was almost knocked over, then he was steadied. That was a lot of movement all at once. Maybe the coffee was finally doing the trick. Or, it was the time. How had unpacking taken so long?

Zaid could sense the rising panic as Jude was struggling to get ready, the glances at the wrinkles, the cry for the iron.

Zaid quickly snatched the suit away, and started pushing his boyfriend back toward the bathroom.

"You, shower! I can iron. But I know you, and you're going to be fussing with your hair all day if you leave it like that," Zaid declared. Unwashed hair had a habit of looking greasy halfway through the day. Jude, being much more in tune with his appearance, would probably not enjoy that.

With a quick reminder that the faucet handles were backwards, and a tossed towel, Zaid scurried back to the kitchen to get the iron. That, he at least knew where to find, given that he had set it aside to work on his cosplay that week. It was not worth the story why it was next to the toaster right now. He needed to sort out the electrical situation sooner rather than later.

Gathering a cotton sheet they had lobbed into the 'donate' box, Zaid made a makeshift ironing board on the table and set to work. At least domestic chores had not escaped his childhood. He got the outfit in a presentable state, got the iron unplugged, and managed to get back to the bathroom as the water was being turned off.

"All ready! At least one outlet works around here," he tried to encourage.

Jude sputtered, but ultimately found himself in the bathroom, alone in a creaky old bathroom, without the clothes he'd been determined to put on. He thought that he'd been a whirlwind, but his bun could be a force all on his own when his mind was put to the task.

Time marched on. So he fiddled with the temperature— No, wait, the other knob for hot. He'd just been reminded! Something made the whole shower rig bobble a bit, but nothing in this wreck of an old house surprised him much any more. He fiddled with the shower curtain to be sure the floor was protected and hopped in.

He landed weird.

Like, through the floor?

He was so surprised to find himself on his butt in the half-sunken tub and bits of rubble. It took a moment for his brain to catch up. He'd stepped in, closing his eyes and enjoying the feel of the water. The creak of the floor when he shifted his weight between his feet had fast become a groan and when he went to grab the shampoo the groan became a crash.

Jude scrambled to get his feet back under him, but the tub was only half sunken. Half the heavy clawed feet were still on the ground floor. The other half the tub was through the floor, sub floor, and down to what must be the foundation which left it at sinking pirate levels of slanted. It rocked beneath him as he grabbed for the floor that was at chest height. It hadn't been a long drop, but Jude coughed at the wood chips and powdered grout that just kept crumbling away as he tried to get back onto the good parts of the floor.

Okay. New plan. He reached for the tap to turn off the water... only the tap was still on the level. He debated finishing his shower, but not knowing where the water was getting to was enough to make him reach up on tippy toes and stretch to just barely be able to turn the whole thing off.

The shower curtain wafted gently, taunting him.

They had another bathroom. If he hoofed it, maybe he could still get clean.

Jude started the arduous climb up and out of the top half of the back of the tilted bathtub.

"I think this place is trying to kill me."

When Zaid opened the bathroom door he had not expected to find Jude somewhat further into the floor than he left him. Or, down in the floor at all. Wait, why was the bathtub in the floor? He paused, looked back at the kitchen, down at the clothes, then his ears twitched in confusion. ”How did... is the bathroom the only soundproof room in this place? How did I not hear... is this room brick? Wait, never mind, that’s not the issue I need to focus on!”

Zaid quickly put the clothes in the bedroom where it was safer, then helped Jude free of the tub. He ducked down and put his nose near the hole and did a quick sniff, relieved he didn’t smell mold. Termites then, probably. But no water damage. He would smell that. Realizing how strange it looked he quickly scrambled to his feet to deal with his half-washed boyfriend.

”The other bathroom works, but if you want to get to work you need to hurry! Or, we can sink wash your hair. Just, something. You didn’t have a chance to rinse... you’re still sudsy....I’ll, figure this out. I mean, it’s not leaking....” he knelt back down when he thought Jude was returning to getting ready, and continued nosing around near the opening. What was holding the tub up? Was the pipe still attached? Should he turn off the water supply? Maybe Erik could lift the tub out for him if he got Andy to ask... oh no, what would Andy think if she saw their bathtub halfway through the floor??? Stars she may drag them out of this death trap until it was fixed at that rate...

”Is it normal for electrical wires to be down here with the water pipes? Ah, so that’s where that chord goes....” he was halfway into the hole before he realized where his bunny brain was leading him.

The things that Zaid chose to focus on and freak out about were... emergency adjacent. Jude chuckled because if he didn't chuckle, he was going to to start throwing a full blown toddler hissy fit. Zaid padded away. That was quite possibly karma. So he needed to shoulder what he'd earned. Jude did what amounted to a sloppy, slippy pull of on the back rim of the tub. He'd managed to get one foot back on dry land that would support him by the time his bun came back to help.

Zaid was chattering away, offering helpful ideas and some less than helpful observations. "Zaid." And then he went to inspect the hole? Like he was going to get in there and lift a cast iron tub? By himself? Jude hurried to wrap himself up and put a heavy hand on the rabbit's shoulder to cut through his enthusiasm. It was endearing, one of the best things about him by Jude's estimation. But this...? This was beyond what even a lucky duck could handle.

Neither of them were lucky. Otherwise they wouldn't be living here.

"Zaid, you're not touching the tub and I'm missing my meeting. I think falling through the floor qualifies as emergency enough to call out for a few hours. I'll reschedule. We'll call a professional. And... maybe cut the power before we all die?" He took a drippy step toward the door and stopped. He was wet and should not be messing with even just the breakers.

"You get the power. I'll call in. Meet back at the other shower in case I fall in?" He gave Zaid a kiss on the cheek to break up the pow-wow. Good talk. Go team. Jude grabbed up his pants to shuffle his phone out of the pocket.

Cut the power, don't touch the tub. Zaid had been pulled free of the hole in the floor and was instructed not to mess with things further. Zaid accepted this instruction without a fight. He knew Jude had a better sense for danger than he did. In fact, he had sense enough to send Zaid to deal with power while he finished a shower.

Power. Right!

Zaid found the breaker, which had a surprising number of sticky notes on it, a few in Layne's handwriting. One said 'don't touch!', another had a question mark. Zaid found the one for the downstairs bathroom and flipped it off. Then, he reentered the house.

Nothing flooded, nothing short circuited. So far so good.

Zaid peaked upstairs and Jude was still showering in peace. He moved to the bedroom, finished cleaning what they had started and got the collectibles out of the way. Then he returned to the kitchen. Something felt...off, still, but he was sure it was just the lingering foreboding that came with the broken tub. There was no flood of water, so that was good, right? He decided to head back up to be on the safe side, and knocked on the outside of the bathroom door, "This one work alright? Just gonna bring in your towel..."

That was the goal, at least. He wiggled the door knob, it didn't open. Ah, locked. "Hey, Jude, you...locked it."