I chuckled at Kai's comment over Myst's sexism, although there lies truth in what he said. Why would Myst have a tenant that was so rude?
Kai stops in his tracks at the tenant's door and attempts to eavesdrop. I tug at his hand, feeling rather uncomfortable, as if the man could pop up at any moment. "I didn't get a good look… Dark hair? White shirt, taller than me, if that even means anything to you."
the hell is that supposed to mean bitch
"There's too many guys with dark hair and white shirts in this world." Kaiholo grimaces, leaning back toward your door as you continue to tug. "Anyway, let's hope that was only a bad first day for him, I suppose."
As the two of you enter your apartment, Kaiholo habitually gravitates to the plant by the window.
"Did you water him this morning?" He mutters, gently running his fingertips against the leaves. They felt satisfied; understanding it's circumstances but content regardless. Kaiholo wouldn't be able to give a diagnosis to a plant, but he knows a thing or two from Harmony, who spends most of her time studying plants.
Kai makes his way to my plant, Zain. I always had a habit of keeping things where there were, specifically the furniture, to avoid Kai tripping over things. He is quite used to the layout of my apartment at this point, although every now and then I'll tell him I've moved things and it'll take a day or two for Kai to remember.
"No, I woke up late and didn't get to open the window. You can water him if you'd like." I take off the work apron, along with the rest of my clothes since they got wet from the gentle rain. The nicer part of a sightless friend was that I didn't have to worry about myself being seen. As I pick up the old warm pajamas and throw them on, I call to Kai, "Do you need a change of clothes or anything?"
"Maybe just a shirt," Kaiholo responds, taking his hair out of the ponytail and running a few careless fingers through it once more, as if that would do any good to the obvious tangles in his dampened hair. He huffs a bit in reaction to the pulls in his hair as he finds a comfortable seat on the couch nearby. He was greatly anticipating the hair styling, but even still, he was quiet.
I find one of my oversized t-shirts and two thin rubber bands made for braiding. As I come back from my bedroom, I find Kai already made himself at home on my couch. The sight makes me giggle as I throw the shirt onto his head.
"I'll try to be fast, so that we can get as much sleep as we can. The shirt color is like," I take a moment to ponder over how light green feels. "how Zain feels, but softer. It also feels soft, too." I refrain from complimenting how cute he looks in green clothes. "We're gonna do two dutch braids, with a few pieces of your front hair left out. Get that wild look."
I position myself to sit on my feet so that I could access the top of Kai's head. Gently, I place my fingers on the sides and slightly adjust his head to tilt to the right. After years of doing his hair, the bandanna was no longer an issue to work around. My fingers expertly weave the strands on the right together, grabbing other hair from each side.
Kaiholo exhales slowly, attempting to remain as still as a statue in order to not interfere with your work. Often times he'd go weeks without brushing his hair, and it'd tangle to unholy messes. However, when he first opened up his bar, he decided to take more care of it, which led him to ask you for help on styling his hair after he got bored of a simple ponytail or bun. Sometimes he would even turn to you and ask if the style was okay, and most of those times he only managed to gather half of his hair into a bun.
Though he wasn't always aware of his hair, he somehow always knew whether his blindfold needed to be adjusted.
While you worked on his hair, Kaiholo fidgeted.
"I'm pretty curious to see how you'll describe my birthplace." He wonders aloud.
I complete one side of his head, moving the tail of the braid to the front for him to feel. "Hopefully I have the ability to, I'm running out of ideas and creativity. You might have to give me some time to think about it." My response is slow as I focus on the intricacies of the second braid. His hair wasn't the softest and I often complain about his dry ends, but Kai could be quite stubborn.
Kaiholo tries not to nod as he listens to your voice. He reached toward one of the hairs sticking from the front and messes with it as he lets out a responsive exhale.
"There is no end to creativity. One mind can hold hundreds of universes inside of it. We're just in one."
The corners of his mouth twitch into a sly grin as he returns to his original point.
"You've got time, though. To gather your thoughts."
I chuckle at his remark. The braids are complete and I tap Kai to signal that he can turn back around. I lean my arm on the couch rest and bring my legs up to my chest. "I know creativity can stretch on for miles, but this stressful universe makes it hard to focus sometimes, to really channel my creativity. Creative thoughts are absolutely a muscle, I think. But, hopefully this expedition will help."
A yawn escapes my lips. I realize it must be getting too late. Tiredness starts to creep up my body and urges my eyelids to shut. "Hey, we should sleep for tomorrow. Go take the bed, spider boy."
As you tap his shoulder, Kaiholo turns with a big smile on his face as he almost strikes a few poses with his new hair. He finally nods as he listens to you.
"I have faith that it will help a lot more than we expect." He mumbles airily.
As Kaiholo stands up and begins walking to your room, you hear him humming, and somehow you know exactly what he's humming.
Nighttime remained eerily long when the sun wasn't around all that often. Regardless, as you set up a place to sleep on the couch and turn off your lights, something about the darkness was just different. Different from the darkness in your bedroom; it could have been because of how much more space you have in your main room compared to your bedroom, or it could be the single light from down the hallway's window that hit your floor. Or it could be the first night with a mysterious neighbor setting off the energy.
Whatever it was, you didn't really care. You're going to sleep.
The sound of the light rain accompanied you as you get comfortable.
You close your eyes as the occasional car passing by adds some variation to the rain, but after a few calming minutes, the sounds begin to drown in a mixture of each other, blurring until you don't process them anymore
You open your eyes. Looking around, images aren't that developed yet, but as you continue to look with curiosity, the scene before you grows clearer.
You're floating over a vast ocean that doesn't really exist. You can see the fish dotting the darkness like stars in a clear night sky. What color are the fish? Can you see the bottom? Can you see the plants that float near the top? Can you feel the ground below you? That doesn't matter, but you can feel it if you want to.
Regardless, you could feel the other's presence, but you weren't sure if you were allowed to address it. The silence that followed only lasted a non-existent moment as the other spoke.
"What do I look like to you?"
The voice hung directly next to you, your left ear tickling at the sudden feeling of rhythm that their tone maintained. It took you a solid couple of seconds to actually focus your vision and see them.
The first thing you notice are their expectant eyes.
"I don't know," I mutter as the vision quickly blurs again. "I'm tired of you controlling my dreams. You always left me guessing." The words came out smoothly, but not for long. Their eyes glimmer closer every now and then, like a distant book I've read. What book? I don't remember.
"I guess that's the point, isn't it?"
You're not really sure which part they were responding to, but they refused to elaborate. They release a saddened grin, looking down into the sea.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? I've never actually seen it until now, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity."
They look back up at you, their expression holding a bit more of a serious tone now. Their eyebrows pressed down, but tilted up and inward to communicate fear; or sadness.
"I'm not a good person. I'm stuffed full of awful mistakes, and as much as I wish I could change, it's just not possible in my case."
They take a step closer to you, but their confession sparks something in you that causes you to take a step back in response. This visibly hurts them.
"I just wanted to apologize in advance for what I may or may not do. I'm sorry. It's a hard enough decision as it is, and you have to know that I myself am scared, too."
They stick their hands in their pockets and start taking a few steps away from you, away from the light, obscuring your view of their face. *
*"I'll see you later, Jen."
CLANG!!
The sound of metal hitting tile jerks you awake, almost forgetting you were on the couch as you look to the source of the sound. Kaiholo stood frozen in the kitchen, a fork laying smugly on the floor as Kaiholo whispers,
"Did that wake you up?"
"Wai-" I try to call out, but-
My body jumps in fear at the loud noise. I look around in a panic as the dream starts to fade away from me.
"Did that wake you up?"
I groan in frustration and throw the blanket to the side, feeling the same old stinging tiredness. "Yes, that fucking woke me up. I was in the middle of a dream and now I can't remember it," I snap at him, but instantly feel guilty. "Sorry, Kai. What are you even trying to do?"
Kaiholo's ears perked up when you responded.
"Dream?" He echoed, like a dog hearing the word 'treat'. "What happened in the dream?"
Kaiholo's always been eager to hear your dreams, as if they mean something to him. As you ask him what he's doing, he grows a bit sheepish.
"I was hoping to make you some breakfast before you woke up. I only have some scrambled eggs done." He smiled nervously, fidgeting as he rubs the nape of his neck.
I slowly sit up and rub my eyes, reaching for my glasses. "I told you, I lost the dream." When I slide my glasses on my face, the world is revealed again in a clean, clear perspective. The smell of eggs perks me up a bit, along with the soft sound of sizzling. "I love your eggs, do you need any help?" I offer.
Weirdly enough, Kaiholo appears disappointed that you forgot your dream. Nevertheless, he grabs a spice container, confirming with you that it's the correct one, and shakes a bit of it onto the eggs.
"I wouldn't mind, yeah. I'm worried I'll burn my hands making pancakes, but I have the batter ready."
He points to a mixing bowl of pancake batter, a whisk sitting peacefully inside.
"Also I forgot to turn on the lights." Kaiholo adds, grinning to himself.
I fall into a fit of laughter at his mention of no lights. I turn my head towards the window where Zain sat quietly, admiring the way the sun shone through the window to light up the room. "Very funny, Kai. You and your talents, cooking without lights," I say teasingly.
Pancakes weren't my favorite, but I knew Kai made quite the batter. I gently push him aside and make the both of us perfect little pancakes and toss them onto the plates, next to the eggs.
"Remind me again what you prefer on your pancakes, syrup? Butter? Whip cream? How much?"
Kaiholo grins as he stands a bit closer to you, turning to face you when you talk.
"Strawberries aren't in season anymore, are they? Just butter and lots of syrup for now." He chimes, waiting patiently for you to apply the syrup. For the most part he can guess where your table is, but since it tends to move the most, he bumps into it more often than the other stuff. For now, he just stands still, awaiting your next move for his queue.
my table does not move the most she is wrong
"I wish I had strawberries, that'd be so good right now. So, do you know where we're meeting up? Are the others going to call you?" I inquire as I bring the plates over the my dining room table. I place forks next to each meal, after that pouring up some apple juice, for it was all I had left. I tug at Kai's arm in the direction of his seat, indicating that breakfast was ready.
I pull out the chair and sit down, chowing down on the fluffy scrambled eggs first.
Kaiholo follows your lead to the table, sitting down as he thinks about your question.
"We'll meet up at my bar. It'll have to stay closed for a while, but I'm sure no one would mind."
Bars and pubs often closed for weeks at a time, due to the adventerous nature of a majority of the city's population. At least, that's what Kaiholo likes to think, but most of the time it's due to bars not passing health inspection or regulations, and needing to be closed for renovations or cleaning. Luckily, Kaiholo kept his in good shape.
"We won't be meeting until noon, so we've got a bit of time. I want to talk to Myst while I'm here. You should probably let her know you'll be leaving as well."
"Yes, I planned to," I reply after gulping down the rest of my eggs. I move onto the singular pancake, dancing to nothing in between each bite. "Bars aren't a necessity so it's really not a big deal. We're all broke anyway, plus you got regulars that love us to death."
After the two of you finish up, Kaiholo refusing to let you wash the dishes so that he could wash them, you gather your things and head out the door. As you step out, you hear talking coming from the mysterious tenant's door. Kaiholo hears it too, and immediately all of his attention directs toward the door.
The talking gets closer as you recognize one of the voices. Finally the door opens.
Myst and the tenant step out, the tenant in mid-sentence. "-it until now, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity."
"No problem, and if any problems arise, don't ever hesitate to let me know. I've got some good contacts for plumbing, electricity, all that fun stuff."
Myst turns around to notice you and Kaiholo, her smile shifting from the Landlord Smile to her friendly personal smile.
"Jenny! Kaiholo! Good to see you two. Great timing, too." She gestures to the tenant. He wore the same outfit from when you first saw him; the white button up and black pants. His hair was dark and fluffy, but still fairly short, at least compared to Kaiholo's. He had somewhat of a sickly look about him, but he held himself as if that was his usual appearance, the hazel eyes showing enough life in them to confirm he wasn't actually sick. Myst continues.
"I'd like you to meet Tyler! Tyler, this is Jenny, she's a good friend of mine, and this is Kaiholo, a good friend of Jenny's."
I walk out with Tyler and spot Myst. She always had the most luscious hair, thanks to her genes. The smooth silk black bounced nicely on her shoulders. I am not gay.
"Didn't you ignore me yesterday?" I mutter, eyeing the rather handsome-looking man. Tyler felt like a familiar name.
Tyler almost tried not to look you in the eye, but eventually glanced at you with an air of a friendly-stranger smile.
"Hm? Oh, right, my apologies." He begins, his voice polite, but you can tell it's the kind of polite that customer service workers have, "I guess you could say I was being pulled in all different directions. I understand everyone lives a busy life, but I never really get a chance to rest."
Kaiholo holds his hands behind his back as he maintains a polite smile.
Myst chuckles softly.
"Don't worry, Jenny," She starts, the tone of her voice setting up for what could either be a joke or a threat, or both, "Tyler knows the rules of the apartment. He won't cause any problems here."