Log: Kaitlyn and Abi WHO: Kaitlyn Ka and Abi Blyg WHAT: Sleepover! And Kaitlyn gets invited to move in WHEN: the day Dylan disappeared WHERE: Chocobro House WARNINGS: N/A
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Kaitlyn had grabbed two bags of chips and the dip from her apartment.
That was literally all she had. She had cringed looking in there and knew she probably should get more to eat but when Abi asked her to come over for comfort food courtesy of Iggy, it felt like a moot point. The next morning, she would go shopping, for sure. And maybe get something more than junk food. Tonight, though, she was focusing on Abi. They had lost two friends very close within each other but Kaitlyn was sure that Abi was feeling it more because one of her friends had been Abi’s boyfriend. And from what Kaitlyn could remember in their horrific night at the Quarry, his fate was up in the air.
She was not bringing that part up though. Tonight was going to be for hugs and commiserating and maybe distracting.
When she showed up at Abi’s door, she held up both of the bags and gave a weak smile. “I brought something as a midnight snack! Something to contribute to the household?”
“Aw, you didn’t have to do that,” Abi said, stepping back to let Kaitlyn in. “But thank you. And thank you so much for coming over.”
As soon as they had the door closed to make sure no pets escaped, Abi came in for a hug. She was always the huggy type, but even more so when things were going badly, and especially so given the nature of this particular upset. The fact that people she loved kept disappearing on her made Abi want to hold on even more tightly to the ones who were left.
Kaitlyn saw it coming and instantly put her stuff down before allowing it to happen. She wasn’t shy of telling or showing people that she cared but normally, she didn’t go for any kind of physical touch – unless it was a punch to the shoulder like she usually showed Jacob. But she also wasn’t touch-averse that she wouldn’t allow Abi to do it.
Plus, she knew right now that Abi needed it. Probably would need it for a while. Kaitlyn wasn’t about to hold her back if that’s what Abi needed to make her feel better.
“This fucking sucks,” she said, mumbling into Abi’s shoulder.
“Completely fucking sucks,” Abi agreed, muffled in much the same way. It was sort of novel actually being at shoulder height for someone she was hugging—at five foot nothing, she was used to being towered over.
But she made herself pull back and give Kaitlyn a watery smile. “Wanna play a board game about it? Prompto got me one that’s all about growing bamboo to feed pandas and trying to be the best imperial panda caretaker.”
“That sounds both familiar and not familiar at all.” Kaitlyn shrugged, dropping her backpage as well. She didn’t have much in there other than clothes and some toiletries. Not like her laptop had come through with her in this world, although the devices they had been given would suffice for now. But she also had a job now and was going to make a living somehow here and figure shit out.
“But yeah, that sounds fun. Before or after dinner?”
“After?” Abi suggested. “I had something I wanted to ask you over dinner and I want to go ahead and get it out.”
It was silly to be nervous about asking Kaitlyn if she wanted to move in at the house. Abi was pretty confident that Kaitlyn would be into the idea. She had always been good at conjuring up reasons to worry, though. She’d rather get the question over with and have an answer so she could stop stressing about it.
“Yeah, sure!” Kaitlyn refrained from raising an eyebrow at that even though she really wanted to. It sounded partially ominous but she wasn’t entirely sure if that was because she was feeling pessimistic right now with Vallo or if it really was meant to be ominous.
No, no overthinking it, Kaitlyn, she told herself. She turned to the bedroom door again, holding it open for her fellow once-camp-counselor-now-permanent-friend. “After you, girlfriend!”
“Actually, I’ll just go ahead and ask,” Abi said on her way through the door. She turned back around to look at Kaitlyn with just a little hesitation. “What would you think about maybe moving in here at the house? Instead of living at Morningside?”
Kaitlyn practically breathed out a sigh of relief. “That’s it? Okay, but you made it sound like something like super serious! I mean, no, this is serious too but I mean, bad serious.”
It was her turn to go for the hug now, and her arms went around Abi’s shoulders right away, squeezing her tight. “Dude, I would love to! Not going to lie, it sometimes gets kind of lonely in the apartment now. I mean, not so much when Dylan and Nick were still here but. You know.” She pulled back immediately after though, a question coming to her mind. “Wait, is that okay with everyone else? I don’t want to impose or anything. I mean, I would totally make up for it by pitching in money since I have the job now.”
“I already asked the guys, and they’re all happy to have you here,” Abi said with a bright smile. “And there’s not too much to pitch in for, really—the guys are…well, you know how half of them are nobility where they come from? Gladio has his money from there. So I basically just do my part with chores and pay for my peanut butter cookies and that’s it. It’ll be the same deal for you.”
Kaitlyn nodded. Though it felt weird to agree to not need to worry about paying them for some kind of rent. When was the last time she had gotten an offer like that in New York? Then again, it wasn’t like she had been paying for the Morningside apartment anyway.
“Do some chores and your peanut butter cookies. Don’t be surprised if the peanut butter cookie stock starts to grow a little too because I want some of those too, damn. Like right now. Or maybe that’s because I’m pretty hungry already.”
“Let’s go see what Iggy’s left in the kitchen, then,” Abi cheerfully replied. “There’s usually some kind of sweet around, and nobody’s really fussy about who takes what. The general rule around here is just to be considerate about it, but everything’s pretty much fair game. And like, ask before you take the last of something. Basic roommate rules, you know.”
“You got it. All of that? Easy peasy.” Kaitlyn grabbed her forearm and started to pull her apparently new roommate down to the direction of the smell of the food. Not that she really needed it to guild her since she had been there a bunch of times already. “Let’s stuff our faces and discuss the room setup. You gotta tell me where you prefer I hang all of your art that I bought, roomie!”
“We can make a gallery wall! I’ll feel like I’m living in an art museum of me,” Abi laughed. She followed Kaitlyn down the hall to where Ignis would undoubtedly have food enough for a small army, some of which would make it into lunchtime bentos. “This’ll be fun. I’m so excited you said yes!”
Kaitlyn paused and threw a questioning glance at Abi. “Did you think I was going to say no?”
“I mean, not really, but I’m always a little worried people don’t like me as much as I like them,” Abi said, then shrugged. “Anxiety, ya know? It gets its sticky little fingers all over everything.”
Kaitlyn gave her a nod. “I know it’s not the Miracle Cure and all, but I want you to know that I freaking love you, and I love being around you.”
“Aww, I love you too!” Abi replied, beaming. “Oh, speaking of love! One of the guys, I can’t remember who now, asked if you’d be okay with all the animals, and I almost laughed myself to death. Because like…” She gestured at Kaitlyn as though something would physically indicate her love of the small and fluffy. “It’s you.”
And Kaitlyn did a gesture that basically said “well, obviously” in agreement with Abi’s statement. “You know if Mom wasn’t hella allergic to a shitton of animal dander, I might have had like four cats and two dogs or something. Maybe once I had gotten into college and got my own place or something.”
“My mom just hated having anything make a mess in her house,” Abi said. “No pets for me either. It’s been nice having so many around here. I think when I move out on my own one day I want a cat. After I’m done with school, maybe?”
She was in no rush to get out of the house. This little family that had adopted her made her feel safe, and that wasn’t anything Abi wanted to let go of yet. Even when she was ready for more independence, she knew she would miss this house and everyone in it.
“That was probably Mom too. I doubt if I had mentioned hypoallergenic pets, she would have said yes to that. We didn’t even have a fish.” Kaitlyn reached out and squeezed Abi’s arm in affection, feeling much lighter than she had since Dylan’s return. This was the part that sucked: people getting pulled back to their worlds. From what she had heard from him, things didn’t end well with Abi, so she wasn’t entirely sure if things would stay okay with any of them back in their world. And there was always a chance that Abi herself would get pulled out of here too…
“Come on,” she said, pushing that thought away immediately, because she didn’t want to think about their world. She didn’t want to think about how a night that was supposed to be a chill night of just a minor rule breaking would come close to costing them their lives. “Let’s fill up this belly here, it’s feeling emptier by the minute.”