Rising Shards

We decided that we wanted to get the bulk of moving done before I started work at Rising Shards. Maybe we were taking on a bit more than we could chew, but we were both motivated and I had plenty of free time during the week. I spent a long while finishing getting pretty much everything boxed up that I hadn’t gotten to yet. In a busy day (that we somehow managed to not interrupt with sex), we got a ton of stuff moved over, including my bed, and the kitchen table, with the metal stuff handled by Evy’s neat trick to use her Cani power of metal manipulation to smush them into relatively easy to move cubes. We still had to get my dressers, but Evy was confident we wouldn’t have to hire movers even for those. It wasn’t easy to move so much, but it was a lot less difficult than I was expecting, allowing me time to worry about something else.

As I was bringing a box over, I rehearsed over and over in my head how I’d bring it up to Evy. I had a lot of different methods in mind, from overtly dramatic to going full sarcastic comedian asking about it, but I settled on just asking it straight up. When I arrived in the apartment through the back door that headed into the kitchen, Evy stared at the microwave, in pizza popper mode which could work in my favor, as pizza popper mode was generally a happy one for Evy.

“So, slight problem.” I said as I set the box down. I don’t know where that line came from, it wasn’t from any of my rehearsed ones, and threw me off my game preemptively. “Potentially slight problem. Maybe not a problem? But. A thing.”

“Hit me,” Evy said, rubbing her hands at the sight of the pizza poppers nearing optimal microwaving.

“Zeta really wants to see the place.” I said.

Lately, Zeta had been asking me a fair bit about two things. One was a completely understandable flare up in her curiosity about our family. Unfortunately, I was not in a state that I was able to talk about them, and we fought a bit over it. The other thing was wanting to see her new apartment, which, again, also completely understandable, she was going to live there and all, but I was still worried.

Evy nodded as she thought it over. “Well, why can’t she?” She got her pizza poppers out of the microwave.

“Well. We gotta take care of some stuff here, right?” I asked.

“Sure.” Evy said. “She does have to see the place eventually. You want some?” She held the bowl out.

“If you’re offering.” I said. We sat down in the living room, with me draping my legs over Evy’s lap, which felt like just the right amount of intimate to vent out my fears. “I’m just worried about a lot of things. Can we show the place to her without telling her?”

“Probably,” Evy said, wolfing down a pizza popper before it had cooled off.

“Is there enough space for her here?” I asked. I took a pizza popper from the bowl and nibbled at its corners, which made me feel a bit like a squirrel. “It’s about the same space as our LE place, but…her room would be right by ours.”

“You know, we could try being quiet. Or obviously not doing it when she’s here?” Evy suggested.

“Shut up,” I giggled. “I don’t just mean that. Just. She’s sixteen, she should have more of a space to herself.”

“Well. There is something we could do there.” Evy said. She set the bowl down. “These are way too hot anyways. Come here.”

“Wh—Evy!” I yelped.

Evy surprised me by reaching under my legs and around my back to scoop me up. It was a bit of effort for her to lift me all the way, but Evy was definitely in a mood where she wanted to show off her strength. I wrapped my arms around her neck and shoulders as Evy got herself balanced, and enjoyed the ride as she brought me to the kitchen to the metal shelf on wheels that had seasonings and such on it.

"One sec, Stel," Evy said, setting me down. 

"Aw, I could stay like that a lot longer." I said.

"Maybe later," Evy said. She moved the shelf thing and opened the door. I peered inside, confused at the stairs in front of me.

“It’s safe, it’s not my secret murder room,” Evy said. I squinted. “Or my secret sex dungeon." My squint turned into the same look I gave Zeta when she stayed up late reading negative reactions of her favorite shows, knowing deep down there wouldn’t be relief just anxiousness and bad vibes. That energy but with concern about Evy revealing something about the apartment to me instead of concern for my baby sister’s mental wellbeing. "You know what, how about I go first?”

Evy led me down creaky, wooden stairs with cobwebs all around. She flipped a light switch.

“Alright, don’t judge the mess,” Evy said, gesturing to the musty boxes and random trinkets strewn about the room. “But she could stay here, if I clean this up. There’s actually a bit of space down here, and it isn’t too musty basement-y. And if we clear it with the landlord.”

It was a mess, sure. Filled with junk, it was dirty, kinda gross…but…there was something I liked about it. The cheap wood paneled walls, the surprisingly nice carpet, it was rather charming. Or it could be charming with a lot of work put in it. Evy showed me the rooms connected to the main basement area, and one stood out to me as a potential bedroom for Zeta.

“How have you not shown me this yet?” I asked, putting my hands on my hips.

“Well, it’s a horrific mess, so I didn’t want you to think less of me.” Evy said.

“Evy,” I rolled my eyes. “It’d take a lot for me to think less of you.”

“Aw,” Evy said. She blushed, and I adored that I could have that effect on her. I meant it too that it would take a lot for me to think less of her!

“If Zeta gets the basement, she could have her personal space, a lot more space than she has now.” I said. “And we could make that room upstairs an office. Or a guest bedroom if we’re not…telling her about us yet."

“Yeah, true. It’d be a lot easier to explain than us sleeping in the same room.” Evy said.

I wasn’t sure how Zeta would process it when we eventually told her that Evy and I were together. I would hope not angry, but I worried that she wouldn’t be pleased, even if that wasn’t a logical reaction that Zeta would have at all.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” I said. “For now, let’s figure this out.”

“We’d have to clean it up a bit…a lot a bit.” Evy said, looking through a box filled with magazines that seemed to be about either anime, video games, or both.  “If you talk to the landlord about letting her have that bedroom, I’ll do whatever you need down there.”

“It’s a deal,” I said. I hugged Evy we swayed together for a bit. I felt so safe in her arms, especially when Evy kissed the top of my head.

“Alright, we should probably get upstairs.” Evy said, breaking the hug and rushing to the stairs. “Pizza poppers. Cold. Don’t want.”