Who: Adam & Shiri What: A 700 lb Titan in the Room Where: Their House When: Between May 3rd and May 8th sometime. Warnings: none
If it was a normal day, Shiri would have lingered after her exams to relax and hang out with her college friends.
If it was a normal day, Shiri would have went to the school cafe with them to give them their summer's farewell before many of them returned to their homes at semester's end.
It wasn't a normal day. Shiri rushed home and if it wasn't for muscle memory, she wouldn't have hit the kick stand and her motorcycle would have tipped over. She tossed her helmet carelessly away and opened the interior garage door.
"Adam!" She called out in her haste, rushing with her ability to the guest room where she figured her mortal would be and knew was where they had stashed their unconscious Titan, "Is everything okay? Did he wake up?"
Hearing the calls of his muse as she came running into the house, Adam stood from the chair he'd been in and ended up meeting her at the door of the room. He caught her as they nearly collided. "Hello, [my lady]," he answered with a smile, kissing the top of her head, then releasing her so she could check for herself. His current sketch pad was on the table in the room, the chair he'd been in next to it. Having another person who could hold so perfectly still was making a good model for him, and he was putting the chance to use. "He hasn't woken up yet."
Pressing close to her mortal's chest, she calmed at his kiss and relaxed into his arms. Only after a moment did she glance beyond him to the Titan still unconscious on the mattress on the floor. The sight brought a deep, long sigh to the muse's lips. "Not even a stir?"
He shook his head. "None that I've seen." But he also wasn't watching him every moment. So who knew if he missed something? They hadn't set up a web cam. He rested an arm around her lightly as she leaned against him though, mildly amused about how eager she was in her return, and how quickly she mellowed.
It was an economy of perseverance. If Atlas did wake up violent, however unlikely she believed that, she could get better by him saying pretty words to her, even at a distance; the same did not hold true in reverse but such a thought was far from the muse now. She kissed his jaw in delayed greeting only to then step away from him to approach the unconscious Titan. If only she had a stick... "Do you think poking would help or did we try that?" Shiri then paused in thought and turned to Adam, "Did you tell me that poking never helps or did I imagine you telling me that?"
He paused to consider as he leaned against the door, peering in at her. "Maybe. There might be a few times when it helps, but not in this case." Considering how much they had to shift him and move him just to get him to the bed he now laid on, it didn't seem likely that a poke would do much good.
She would never want to be reminded of how much they had to shift, tug and roll him to get him from the camp site to the house. Ever. And she hadn't even done the bulk of the work and she didn't want to be reminded. Shiri crouched down with a frown and couldn't resist but to poke him once and then ceased when it did nothing. "I did call him a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Now it is very accurate. He is a mystery and when he will awake is an enigma."
The mortal only shrugged. He wasn't too concerned about it as long as there weren't other messes that would need to be cleaned up and he didn't die on them. If it looked like he was getting pretty bad though, he'd recommend a call to the god doctor, if possible. Hopefully it wouldn't get that bad. "There's isn't anything I can think of that we can do though. We don't even know why he won't wake up."
If Adam suggested calling a god doctor, Shiri was going to erupt into laughter. That wasn't going to happen. She wanted Atlas to get better, but not her detriment. Standing again, she moved only to sit on the bare box spring that the mattress had been on before she had tugged it to the floor. It was a miracle they had gotten him into a car, out of a car and into a house, onto a bed was too much. "At least he is a quiet roommate. No all night parties."
"And no surprise guests from the club he went to the night before," Adam added. Ah, Sam. You are remembered. "Should we be worried about him eating all our food once he wakes up?" It was one of those other roommate battle concerns, but also a legitimate question.
Shiri smiled at the reference to Sam. She missed the little erote sometimes. Patting the box spring beside her, she motioned for him to join her. "I honestly do not know. The three times I have met him, food has never come up, though when I have tranced for days, I woke up hungry."
He followed he cue and walked over, joining her and taking a seat. Besides their unexpected guest, there wasn't much else in the room to look at. Except Shiri. "Should we stock up then?" He glanced at her. The guy was pretty big.
"He is not moving in." Shiri shifted and leaned against Adam when he sat down beside her. There was plenty in the room to entertain the muse but she has stared fascinated at painting drying so... And yet, she closed her eyes. "You really are being understanding about this."
He kissed the top of her head, then wrapped an arm about her as she leaned close. It was difficult to make his normal shrug though, so he didn't bother. "He needed to be somewhere." And, as they already said, he was a good house guest. They'd have to wait to see how long that lasted after he woke up though.
Shiri nodded, "If we had left him, an alligator would have eaten his feet. Then he would have no feet and there would be a dead alligator."
That was an interesting image. Adam wondered if the alligator would even have gotten more than a full bite before the ichor killed him, but it wasn't a question he really cared about. "Probably more than that if someone else tried to eat him too. Imagine if he was found by the cops or another camper."
"Normal people would probably call EMS and as soon as they tried to put an IV in him, the dying would probably begin." She was caught up on the first part of his comment though. It was much more fun to imagine some cannibal wishing to eat an unconscious camper and then dying for it. "But if someone did try to eat him, they deserve the ichor. It is ironic their food killing them."
Adam should have chosen his words better, and he chuckled at her response. "I meant if another animal tried to eat our guest after the alligator had already failed," he pointed out, then kissed her cheek. But her image made him pause to consider a mixture of them. "Or if someone came by to get the killed alligator and ended up dead because of the ichor..."
Shiri frowned, all his other words were ignored, "What kind of animal?"
"Birds? Vultures? Crows?" There weren't a lot of choices for animals that would try to take a chunk out of an animal that was already larger than themselves that he could think of.
She continued to frown, "I am glad we brought him then. I like birds. I could live without vultures and crows but the prettier birds? I would not want them to die because they got too close to feetless Natal."
"It's just best that he's here and not there." Idly, he rubbed her side with his thumb. No reason to continue a discussion that made her frown.
She couldn't help but frown. She had just been thinking about cute little birds just falling over dead, but his gentle touch quickly forced the switch of her emotions. Happy thoughts returned to her as quickly as her smile did, "Oh, oh! The school is letting me borrow their lute for the summer once all the exams are over!"
He blinked. He hadn't known that she was going to ask. But she seemed happy enough about it. "That's good. Do they want it back in the fall then?" Or was she taking summer classes? He didn't recall her mentioning any.
"They want it back in the fall. The instrument organizer just sees no reason to lock them all away when people could play them." Shiri leapt to her feet in a fit of excitement and it only calmed when her eyes fell to the unconscious Titan again. Right. Right. "I will try to not be annoying with it. You deserve that much considering how much you are putting up with it."
A shrug and the mortal leaned back on his arms, peering up toward her and noticing her excitement. It made him smile in return. "I don't think it'll be that bad. I can just put on some headphones if I'm trying to do some work and it's distracting." Not annoying. He doubted that the music would actually be annoying, unless she over did it with one piece of music.
Shiri had met saints in her lifetime from various religions and when she compared them to Adam she realized that so few of them had his kind of calm patience... At least not at the start. Maybe toward the end. Maybe after an epiphany... Maybe. Though now that she thought about it, she was a walking epiphany for Adam but at the same time the man unconscious on the mattress had been the subject of his jealousy not even a week ago. If his calmness was genetic, it certainly came from his mom's side. The muse took a deep breath and then laughed, amused at her own thoughts that he wouldn't know about. "I am very good on the lute."
He had to arch an eyebrow at the laugh. Of course she was good on the lute. Had he ever heard her on an instrument she wasn't good at? But the laugh and the mild change in topics caused him to push himself from the bed set he was on and start to walk towards her. "Can you do rock lute?"
"Do you mean play something that sounds like rock music or completely own the lute through musical prowess? The answer is yes to both but it is an important distinction." As he neared forward, Shiri met him half way. "I have played the lute longer than some languages have existed." Like English.
Now close enough, his arms wrapped about her waist, drawing her against him. He paused and kissed her forehead slowly before pulling back enough to look down at her. "Then I probably won't need any earphones. I'll just make requests." It would have almost been odd if he did have to use earphones for something. He wasn't entirely sure he even had a pair.
If he needed headphones, he only had to go into her dresser drawer and draw from her collection Headphones had become a cheap gift choice amongst her college friends so she all sorts of colors to match her various scarves when she wore them. She pressed close to her mortal, the strong beating of his heart made her forget the Titan on the floor for a second. "I will take requests."
"Good." He smiled at her. Life wouldn't be overly disturbed as far as he could see. Shiri would have music, he'd have art, and they'd be plenty of other normal activities between them. It was just a lute instead of a harp. He would quickly be learning the differences in their sound though.
It wouldn't be very hard to tell the difference. Shiri kissed his jaw in thought as she tapped a finger along his right shoulder blade, unconsciously in rhythm to the beat of his heart. "Do you want me to cook dinner tonight?"
His eyebrows went up at the offer. "Sure." Since they balanced out it seemed about who cooked for the night, it didn't bother him to accept.
Nodding, Shiri stepped away from him and began to leave the guest room where the sleeping Titan laid, "Maybe I will make enough to have left overs... just in case he does wake up."
Adam glanced down to the guest, then shrugged and started to follow her out. "If he doesn't, I'll finish them tomorrow." Either way, the food wouldn't go to waste.
"You can have it for lunch," Shiri thought aloud as she began to think about what to cook for dinner, "A pattern we can repeat until it is broken, I suppose."
He shrugged. "It can work. It's not hard to make pasta though if we keep a jar of sauce in stock." Hopefully he wasn't a picky eater, or there might be difficulties. Following Shiri out the door, he left it open. If something happened, like the large man waking up, it would increase the chances of them hearing.
Summary: It is final exam time for Shiri. It is also the time her and Adam are keeping Atlas in their house. She rushes home to check the progress on their guest and Adam gives her a full report on the matter.