Home Is Where the Heart Is [Arvalyn]

[Finn]

32nd of Frost, Year 121 AS

It was the first day of Rime and they were moving in. He had lived above the Crown and Lion for so long, they didn't bat an eyelash at him moving out on the first of the month rather than the last, and he supposed the dormitories at the Golden Peacock Theater were the same for Arry. All his worldly belongings didn't amount to much, and once he had everything packed, he cleaned the place like it was a military barracks about to be inspected. When the proprietor came up to find him almost finished, she threw up her hands in exasperation, claiming he didn't need to go to that much trouble; she even got a bit emotional and embraced him, saying he would always be welcome in the taproom for a drink and a meal, whether or not he wanted to play for them, but she hoped he would. She seemed to think it was a given that his hand would recover.

And so it was afternoon by the time he arrived in Adira's Promenade at the address Arry had given him. There just hadn't been a good time for both of them and the owner so they could see it together, but Finn trusted him and the building certainly seemed fine from without. He looked a bit like a vagabond with a huge pack on his back, others hanging from each shoulder, and his half-fixed lute slung across his belly. He had walked all the way up from the Low-City and despite the cold he was perspiring a bit. He supposed he could have afforded a carriage, but he was used to walking everywhere. He was, as Arry liked to point out, a village lad. Keeping active kept him in good shape, and Arry didn't seem to mind that at all—thick thighs to match the strong arms.

Looking hither and thither, he didn't see Arry waiting so he stepped up to the door and knocked. He had signed the papers that Arry put before him and handed over enough gold for his share of the rent, but he hadn't seen a key yet. Arry had handled that. Perhaps it would feel like home as soon as he had the key and he had spent the night there with his lover. This was another first for him, for both of them, and he was smiling a bit at the thought.

[Arvælyn]

Arry, for his part, had sprung for a coach to tote the two large trunks and other lesser burdens that comprised his personal effects- Bought, borrowed, gifted and stolen. Aurin had taken the trip over with him that morning to help see him through to the final stages of the plan the himself had hatched. Arry was grateful for the assistance, as he wasn't sure he'd have been able to get the trunks over the threshold without someone on the other side.

Most of the morning was spent hemming and hawing over what should go where. Mercifully the place had come furnished and he liked the pieces, if not the way they were arranged. Aurin suffered his indecision for several hours, before making his excuses and leaving Arry to wallow in his decision paralysis. A knock at the front door drew him out of his mental floor plan. Figuring it was just Aurin having forgotten something, he paced over and answered.

"Finn!" Arry beamed at the face on the other side of the threshold. "You just missed Aurin! And you couldn't have come at a better time." He stepped aside to grant him the berth to enter.

"I was just trying to decide on the best place for the fainting couch, because... Where is someone most likely to faint? I think it would look odd in the washroom or the kitchen, so I guess it's more a question of where in the living room or parlour is someone most likely to faint." He paused, "Or is it just called that? It's probably just called that. Oh!" He remembered himself and leaned over to place a hand on Finn's back and kiss his cheek.

"Welcome home!" He tilted his head, "You're sweaty. Did you walk all the way here?"

[Finn]

"Arry!" he greeted in kind, and then stepped gingerly over the threshold, barely making it with his width amplified by various packs and things. His eyes widened as he looked around. The funiture was finer than he had ever owned, and he supposed he didn't own this, but still.

"Oh, sorry," he murmured, but he would thank Arry's benefactor later, he was sure. Despite the long, burdened walk, he didn't set his things down as he walked slowly around. But he came to, grinning, at the kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you kindly. Aye, didn't want to wait for a coach. Everyone wanted to chat as I was leaving so I just... ran." He grinned again, sheepishly this time. "I think fainting couches are for Zaichaeri ladies who lace their corsets too tightly and can't breathe? Or is that a myth? I haven't been, so I don't know for certain. Perhaps wherever you think it looks best. You should definitely only faint into me so I can catch you gallantly."

With a wink, he looked around and then decided to set his things carefully by the door so he could keep them out of the way until he had assessed where his things ought to go. Then he pulled his boots off and set them by the door as well; they were clean, but he didn't want to make a habit of tracking anything in and making a mess of their floors. The wood was fine and seamlessly fitted. He wouldn't snag a stocking or stub a toe if he was walking barefoot around here.

"You're right, though. I'll have to start improving my wardrobe if I'm going to be living here and playing at court. I'll need your help with that, though. You have a better eye for such things than I do. Hm, I suppose I ought to take a bath and put on clean clothes so I don't get the place grimy."

[Arvælyn]

"Why are you sorry?" Arry wrinkled his nose. He'd just said Finn came at the perfect moment and, though he didn't articulate as much, part of that was because of, not in spite of, Aurin's recent departure. It wouldn't have been an abject nightmare if the two most important people in his life crossed paths, but it wouldn't have been ideal, either. There was an awkwardness inherent to the whole arrangement and there was just nothing to be done about it. At least nothing that Arry had yet conceived of. Until he did, he was perfectly content when those worlds failed to collide.

"That was a lot to carry over such a distance!" Arry chided, and patted the back of the fainting couch. "You should stand by the fainting couch in case you get lightheaded from overexertion and need to break it in." He chuckled, "And surely the sight of you fainting will set me to swooning myself, and I'll sympathy faint right on top of you." He giggled,

"I don't even know what the fuck I'm talking about. I'm just in such a good mood about all this, I suppose the situation has be a mite giddy." He shifted the angle of the couch, and considered Finn's words.

"Well, a lot of my Kalzasern-styled attire is pretty loose fitting, so you're welcome to borrow that. You'd probably just need to wear your own belts... That should suffice until we have time for a shopping excursion. Is this even?" He asked, as he stepped back to take in the way he'd arranged the room.

"Oh! Should I draw you a bath? Perhaps you can show yourself about the place quickly whilst I set that up, unless you'd prefer a guided tour?"

[Finn]

Finn shrugged good-naturedly. That meeting would happen when it happened, he supposed. He wasn't exactly avoiding the man, but he wasn't actively seeking him out, either. He would have just to be polite if Arry didn't seem to have misgivings about it. He grinned at Arry's excitement and the silliness that ensued. From what he gathered, Arry had been forced to grow up too young, so he liked when he was relaxed enough to feel simple joys that one didn't need a Rune of Mesmer to sense.

"I can think of many things worse than you falling on top of me, gorgeous," he said with an admiring look. "Well, ah—why don't you give me a grand tour? Perhaps I can postpone the bath until you've had me do any heavy lifting that needs doing. I just don't want to make a mess of our new home."

He considered what he might look like in some of Arry's clothes. The lines between them sometimes blurred even if they weren't blending their symphonies while joining their bodies. That seemed like a positive thing so long as they maintained some healthy boundaries, whatever those were. Finn would try to be vigilant. He didn't want to mess things up and neither of them had a lot of experience with what they were trying to do together.

"Is the bathtub big enough for two?" he asked casually, though his eyes rested pointedly on Arry. It would be nice to soak together, perhaps even share the simple intimacy of helping each other wash. He did love Arry's body and wouldn't count it a toil to wash him, massage him, and rub unguents into his golden skin...

His mind was going to wander if he wasn't careful.

[Arvælyn]

"Oh stop it, Finn!" Arry's protest couldn't have sounded less earnest, couched as it was behind a blush and a giggle. "You're incorrigible!" He added, shaking his head.

"Very well." He stepped back over to the fainting couch and shifted it just slightly to the right, and stepped back to regard it once more. "That'll do for now. And bathing later seems wise. I haven't even begun rearranging the furniture outside of this room, so there's more exertion to be endured and we'll likely kick up a bit of dust as well..." Not that the place hadn't been cleaned prior to move-in, but having started in this room he knew that they didn't clean under any of the heavier pieces.

He wiped his hands on his hips and paced over to Finn, smirking.

"I think the former occupants were Avialae, so... Well, I'm not sure the bath would be big enough for two of them, but for wee 'uns like us it should be an abundance of space." With his mind in home renovation mode, it took him longer than usual to realise that had been more than just a practical question- it was also an overture. Once that registered, he looked Finn in the eye and shook his head, repeating: "Incorrigible. Now then..." He gestured to the foyer through which Finn had just entered and stepped out so he was facing the front door.

He placed a palm on the railing leading up the stairs to his left, and gestured with his right hand.

"The dining room is to the right. It's not very big and needs a bit of love, I think, but you can take a peek in there before we head left into the kitchen..."

[Finn]

The minstrel's libido could be a bit mercurial, though it always tended to respond to Arry's. Sometimes he just felt the intense urge to flirt, or more than flirt. But he just smiled like he had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar and shrugged. He knew Arry didn't mind or he would have made it clear. It would seem he liked when his little wickednesses were observed and commented upon.

"Good thing I'm not allergic to feathers," he noted quietly in response to the revelation of the previous occupants' race. He followed Arry so he could see everything from his perspective. His hand rested on the small of the half-elf's back, not pushing for anything but a simple physical point of connection. It always pleased him to know those little things were enjoyed.

"Dining room," he murmured, taking his cue and going to look through the doorway. It might have been small for a dining room, but it was almost as big as his old garret apartment, so it seemed quite large enough for them. He wondered who they might invite to dine with them; Arry's best friend was avoiding Finn, while Finn mostly had acquiantances, and Arry loathed one of those already. Perhaps they could invite Talon and Aoren. The building was made for their kind, so they wouldn't feel cramped, and Talon did rather enjoy occasions where he could dispense with the pomp and circumstance of royal and divine life.

Nodding, he returned to Arry's side, replacing his hand and dropping a kiss to his high cheekbone.

"The door at the other end of it leads to the kitchen, it looks like?" He hadn't ventured so far without his tour guide, but that seemed like a logical and convenient location for it.

[Arvælyn]

“Indeed.” Arry seemed a bit distracted or at least task-focused, so his reply to Finn’s jest was a tad muted. When the human seemed content with his assessment of the dining room, Arry pivoted to approach the kitchen. His intense, focused expression softened as Finn pressed a kiss to it. Remembering himself and that this was an happy occasion, not just a lot of work.

“Correct.” He confirmed and gestures within. “Be prepared for a lot of brass.” He bade, “They must have emptied all the mines in Zaichaer to fashion our cookware…” As they stepped inside, the bulk of the aforementioned brass was hanging from racks that lined the farthest two of the room’s four walls, over stove and counter.

“Not bad, eh? I suppose I shall have to learn to cook, now…” He wrinkled his nose, clearly not excited at the notion, but if they were going to entertain they’d need at least a bit of culinary expertise. At least until their careers took off enough to hire a cook to pop in for special occasions.

“There’s a pantry in back there if you’re interested, and next to that is the door to the sun room from whence you’ll get a nice view of the yard. When you’re ready, we’ll go through. Do you have a green thumb, at all? It’s occurring to me that having your own place is a lot of extra work…” His focused, flustered expression was returning to paint his fair features. It appeared he hadn’t thought everything through. The labour wouldn’t end with moving in, there would be upkeep to consider.

He grabbed Finn’s hand, and tugged him through to the sun room, which was sparingly furnished thus far.

“It wants for houseplants I know, but I have nary a clue how to keep owt alive what isn’t myself.”

[Finn]

"Huh."

His eyes gazed over the brassware; there was certainly more here than he had grown up with, so the previous occupants must have been skilled cooks, though he didn't know why they wouldn't take such fine things with them.

"I know the basics," he admitted, "so we needn't starve, but perhaps we could take a class together or something?"

Finn smiled. It seemed like it might be amusing to put on aprons and follow someone's directions together to create something edible, though he didn't know if Arry would be able to think of it in such terms. Cooking could be drudgery, but there were people who truly enjoyed it so there must be some magic there. As they walked, he also paid attention to the slipspace overlaying everything. It almost seemed like memories of bodies moving through the space at different angles and different speeds, but he didn't really understand what he was seeing other than as a means to move through space with his new Rune or his two feet.

He peeked into the pantry and then let Arry tug him into the sunroom.

"Oh, I can handle the yard," he said with more assurance. The village boy knew how to cook, clean, and mind the home; he just hadn't had much occasion to do so since he moved to the city. "And I wouldn't say I'm a Fae'ethalan or anything, but I can keep green things alive for the most part. We could have some herbs... they smell nice and will taste good in our food. Flowers in the window, I suppose? Perhaps a potted tree?"

Then he moved to the window to look out at the yard, taking Arry along with him as their hands were still attached. "Ohh, nice. When it's warm, we can take a bottle of wine out there, sit in some chaises longues and sing and... stuff..."

[Arvælyn]

"Rich people, innit?" Arry responded with a shrug.

"Aye, I suppose the pub prices in this neighbourhood are pretty dear..." He acknowledged with a slight grimace, "So we won't be able to eat out all the time, but well... At least our industry is big on free meals, so you won't have to cook all the time and... I'll learn." He wasn't opposed to the idea of taking a class. That might be a fun little activity for them that fell outside the realm of their typical pastimes, like drinking and fucking. It did seem inevitable that their new situation would call for the diversification of their diversions, since they'd have a lot more time together.

Arry nodded encouragingly at Finn's botanical musings. It all sounded good and he didn't really have a mind for it. He knew that he liked the aesthetic houseplants could provide, but he'd just never dealt with them growing up in a slum and having spent the rest of his life in cabarets and theatres where such things fell outside his purview as a performer.

"That's a splendid idea!" Arry grinned, regarding the yard without. "If we sing rowdily enough, mayhaps our neighbours will throw tomatoes for us to complement with our fresh grown herbs!" He chuckled and bumped his shoulder playfully against the human's side.

"This is about it for the downstairs floor. Sorry to say there's no gentlemen's smoking room or owt like that." When Finn seemed content with his review of the ground floor, Arry led them back through the kitchen and into the foyer. "Up we go. I'll lead on so you can ogle me bum." He released Finn's hand and took the railing with his as he sauntered up the steps, glancing over his shoulder to cast a flirtatious wink in Finn's direction.