WHO: Rowan Proudfoot and Kai Bennett WHAT: Talking about Kai moving into the newly-empty second bedroom WHEN: Sunday, June 7, 2020 WHERE: Rowan's apartment RATING: Tame
"So yeah, that's the room." Rowan leaned against the door frame and gestured toward the empty bedroom. It was still strange not having Thorne there, in a way that wasn't entirely comfortable, but he was ignoring it as much as possible. Yes, Rowan had needed his brother a lot more than average the last few years, but it was time that they lived their own lives without that crutch. Maybe. Probably. It didn't matter, since he didn't have much of a choice in the situation. "Nothing fancy, but there you have it. The rent's pretty reasonable, especially compared to LA. It's walking distance to the Demimonde and the Wizzywood entrance, if you feel the need to stroll instead of apparate. Decent food in delivery range, that sort of thing. Have I sold you yet?" He laughed.
Kai stepped into the room, looking around. There wasn’t much to it in its current state, emptied of furniture and other personal touches. At the moment, it looked like a blank slate, but he knew full well that it hadn’t always been that way. He felt bad that Rowan was losing his brother as a roommate, but he figured that if he wasn’t okay with the room being occupied so soon after Thorne’s departure, he wouldn’t have asked Kai if he wanted it.
“It’s an actual bedroom! That I don’t have to share with siblings, school roommates, or with a loud and temperamental mini-fridge. A step up, if I do say so myself.” Kai grinned over at Rowan. “I’m sold. What remains is whether or not I’ll end up driving you completely up the wall.”
"You only have to share with your cat and me," Rowan said with a grin, then laughed at himself. "I mean, not that you have to share your room with me, which you know, obviously. But you know what I mean." He tapped his fingers on the doorframe, thinking, then added, "I think we'll fit just fine, but I guess we should probably make up some ground rules, huh? Not sure what, exactly. I've never roomed with anyone who wasn't my twin brother, and trying to give Thorne rules is like...well, trying to give a cat rules, I guess."
He laughed and twitched his head toward the living room, where they could sit and comfortably discuss. "You want something to drink? There's water and some kombucha, but otherwise things are sort of bare. I have a pretty, um, restrictive diet, I guess. So maybe that's something to discuss? Groceries and cooking and whatnot."
Kai was almost always in constant motion in some way, fidgeting, shifting his weight from foot to foot, energy appeared to be vibrating through his slender frame. The mention of sharing a room with Rowan gave him pause, though, and he went still, regarding him quietly, curiously. Thanks to TJ, he had been exposed to what it was like to kiss another man, to cuddle and fall asleep with another man, and he had enjoyed every minute of it. He had no idea if Rowan was of like mind, but the brief ramble did make him think. What if? And what did that mean for him? He was still confused, wondering if how he felt with TJ was a phase that he would grow out of, and if it wasn’t, what it meant.
He blinked, bouncing back out of his own thoughts as the topic changed abruptly to rules, fingers fiddling with the hem of his t-shirt, the vintage NASA snake logo emblazoned across it, something he had picked up last week at a second-hand store. “Speaking of cats, I’ll make sure to take care of Georgia so you don’t have to. Cats are easy. If I know I’ll be out for a long time, I’ll just leave more food and water out. She can be left to her own devices for a while.”
Following Rowan to the living room, he shook his head. “Nah, I’m okay for now, thanks.” He paused, thinking about groceries. “I’m used to having a limited kitchen. Those studio kitchens are only good for making microwave dinners in so I’ve been living like a no-maj college freshman.” He wrinkled his nose. “I really should eat better. Is there anything I shouldn’t be bringing in?”
"That's good, because there are reasons I didn't go into the family business. I'm doing well to remember to feed myself, much less another creature." Rowan grabbed a bottle of water for himself before settling on the couch. "No, not really. I'm not allergic to anything in particular, so you don't have to worry about food. Food doesn't hurt me so much as I've got to be more careful than average about the makeup of my diet. Thorne and I were always sickly as kids, until Mom got the balance right. It's not perfect, but it's better." He shrugged. Probably he'd eventually tell Kai about his other health issues, but that was enough for the current discussion. "You're always welcome to try my way of it, but if Thorne's complaints are any indication, it might not be the most fun way to eat."
He laughed, nodding in agreement. “It can be a challenge. I forget to eat when I’m nervous. I don’t usually forget Georgia, though. My cat. She won’t let me forget.” Flopping down onto the couch, he tucked his legs up underneath himself, making himself comfortable. “I have to admit, I don’t know much about it. I’m very new to this world on the whole so I’m open to talking about it and getting a better understanding of it. Maybe not right now, but in the future.” He didn’t want to make Rowan commit to having that kind of conversation now. “I usually eat whatever comes my way, in all honesty, but I should probably learn how to cook.” He looked over his shoulder at the kitchen. “Now that there is a proper one to use.” Turning back around, he edged into the next item. “Policy on guests? Not that I expect there will be a lot of them, but I do have company every now and again.” He thought of TJ. “Sometimes. Yes.”
"I won't say I'm a great cook, but I'm passable. If you want to chip in on the ingredients of whatever I'm making, I'm happy to make extra. I'll send you my meal plan. I, uh, might have a spreadsheet." Rowan laughed. He wouldn't consider himself especially nerdy or especially organized, but when it came to health things, he tended to take it more seriously than anything else. "Umm, hmm. That's a good one. I guess...if we're in our rooms, then it doesn't matter so long as there are silencing charms. If we're using the common spaces, then we just need to give each other a heads up as soon as we know? Would that work? We can always revise if we need more or less rules. Annabeth is here...I won't say all the time, because she's so busy, but as 'all the time' as someone with her schedule can be. My family likes to drop by without warning, but I'll keep reminding them that it's no longer me and Thorne. They might get it eventually. Mom will probably just want to adopt you, too, and then she'll claim rights to keep dropping in."
“I’m open to that. I don’t see the harm in trying. Who knows, I might like it. Especially if there is even the slight possibility it might put some meat on my bones.” Kai lifted a slender arm. “I’m not organized at all. It might help if at least one of us is.” He tended to lose things all of the time within the chaos of his living space, his energy levels contributing to the appearance that a tornado might have torn through his stuff. The only things he tended to take care of were his clothes. “That works for me. I’ve lost track of how many people have said they’d like to adopt me so that would be nothing new.” He laughed, shaking his head. “I can’t seem to grow out of the cute puppy dog look.” Kai made a show of pouting out his lower lip pathetically before bursting into more laughter. “I think all of that works, though. I’m happy with it.”
Rowan raised an eyebrow and lifted his own rather slender arm in comparison. "Yeah, you've seen me, right?" He patted his flat—and muscularly insignificant—abs. "I've been accused of puppy looks before, so maybe by comparison I'll get it a little less," he teased. "I can't really think of anything else, though. Other than the food stuff, I think I'm pretty laid back. If I'm hunched over a script, it might take you more than one attempt to get my attention, but that's about it. So yeah. The room's yours whenever you're ready to move in. If you need a few extra wands for moving, I'm sure I could find some people, too."
Kai laughed. “We’re the same in a lot of ways. This should be a good arrangement!” He wasn’t scared off by Rowan’s dietary restrictions. It was understandable and he wasn’t one to judge, as someone who did consume large quantities of alfalfa with some regularity. “If I see you hunched over a script, I will leave you to your creative process. Unless it’s an emergency. I hope we don’t have any of those.” He grinned, both excited and relieved that he was getting to move out of his tiny studio into something not only bigger but almost half of the rent he was currently paying. “I don’t have a lot of stuff so I should be fine.”
"Cool," Rowan said, tapping his fingers on the back of the couch in a twitchy sort of gesture that helped him think. "I'll get the sublet paperwork and stuff, and we can knock it out now." It wouldn't be the same as having Thorne around, but he was pretty sure he and Kai were going to be a good fit. "I'll attempt to make this the last boring thing I ever ask you to do." He laughed, then pushed off the couch to retrieve everything.