“First round of apartments, here we come,” She said softly to herself, making her way over to the stairs and deciding how to get up with her leg. Eventually she figured it out, using both of her crutches and almost swinging herself up from step to step with caution. Getting back down was going to be the less fun part. She sighed when they reached the first floor, taking a break and resting against the railing, “Why are there so many freaking stairs?”
"Because you're supposed to use the elevator." Jay replied in a slightly amused tone. Leo wiggled and tried to jump out of the backpack. Jay caught him, and lowered him to the stairs. Leo jumped up the stairs, keeping pace with them.
She rolled her eyes and shook out her sore arms, “I don’t think those elevators are going to work any time soon, but you’re free to try them.” Delia cracked a small smile and glanced at him before heading down to the first door, trying the handle and frowning when she saw it was locked.
Jay chuckled. "Mhm." He saw her dilemma, and smiled slightly. "I can fix that." He gently nudged her put of the way, and rammed his shoulder into the door. It splintered and broke upon, and he nearly fell inside the apartment. He turned to her with a grin. "There you go." He said.
“Thank you,” She replied, the smile still on her face, “Are you going to start on a different room? Or help in this one? Either works.” Moving so she was inside the apartment, she looked around. So far it looked-and smelled- exactly how she expected, like a apartment full of rotting food that had been taken over somewhat by rodents and bugs. “Also, be careful where you step, don’t fall through the floor like I did. It hurts and we don’t need both of us hurt.”
"You're welcome." He replied. "I'll stick with you, and try not to fall through the floor." Leo bounded ahead of them, exploring the apartment and sniffing at everything curiously. Jay was quiet, testing the floor before walking.
The apartment wasn’t very big, with only two room down the short hallway connecting to the main space they were in. Delia looked around and carefully made her way into the bedroom to explore, frowning when she saw the bed was completely destroyed from animals. Looking around, she decided to check in the closet, opening it and finding a few random guys shirts hanging on hangers.
Jay went over to the shirts, checking the tags. "Too small." He said disappointedly. He stepped back. "Oh well. There will be others." He said with a small smile. Leo sniffed around the room, tail wagging.
“You know you don’t have to follow me around, right?” She asked with a hint of a smile, “Go explore the bathroom or something, find something useful.” Turning back to the rest of the room, she looked around for anything else to dig through, finally spotting an old dresser in the corner she had looked over.
He nodded, and went out of the room, exploring the other rooms of the apartment. Leo stayed with Delia.
Delia made her way over to the dresser and opened the bottom drawer, not sure what she would find. It was full of empty notebooks, pens, chargers for old devices, everything they didn’t need.
Jay went into the bathroom and started going through the cupboards, humming softly. He laughed softly as he pulled out a box of condoms, then a razor, then an old bottle of shaving cream. "These people didn't exactly organize very well." He muttered, laughing.
The next drawer was mostly empty, a hole filled pair of sweatpants tucked into the corner. She sighed and pulled open the final top drawer, a tiny smile crossing her face when she saw both several pairs of socks and underwear, and a very old textbook shoved into the drawer. Whoever used to live here definitely either didn’t care for organizing or was too lazy to move anything once it was set somewhere.
Jay sighed softly as he found a motheaten towel. "Not useful." He muttered. Leo grabbed one edge of the pants that was hanging out of the drawer, and tugged. It fell out, and he yipped, rolling around on the floor with it in his mouth, tangling around his body.
Delia’s head immediately whipped over when she heard Leo, laughing when she saw what the pup had done, “You goofball.” She picked up the pup and waited until he had calmed down a little before starting to untangle the pants from around him, “Those are a little too big for you, and I don’t think they’re your style.”
Leo wiggled, and licked her hand, wagging his tail. His mouth was open, tongue hanging out happily, and he squirmed until she set him down, then jumped up onto the bed. Jay came back. "There's nothing useful in any of the other rooms." He announced.
“Nothing good in here either, unless you need a notebook, or pens, or a charger for who knows what,” She replied, shifting her pack around on her shoulders and looking around the room for anything she might have missed, “Whoever lives here wasn’t very into cleaning, or organizing.”
Jay laughed. "Nope. And the only things in the bathroom are ancient shampoo and conditioner, a box of condoms, an old razor, and shaving cream. And a ratty looking towel." He chuckled softly.
Delia couldn’t help but chuckle, “A box of condoms, nice.” She shook her head and shrugged, “Well, if you don’t need anything from in here, I don’t need anything from there and we can head to the next apartment.” Looking around, she spotted Leo tromping around on the destroyed mattress, “You ready boy? Onto the next room?”
Jay chuckled, and nodded. "Let's go. I might need to break the door down again, but that's fine." He smiled slightly, adjusting his backpack. Leo barked, and jumped down from the bed, wagging his tail.
She smiled lightly as she headed out of the room, Leo walking alongside her as she stepped over the broken down door and down the hall to the next door. Even though she was quite disappointed they didn’t find anything they needed in the first room, she knew there were still plenty of rooms on this floor and the many floors above them.
Jay followed her. "Need me to break down the door again?" He asked with a soft chuckle. Leo barked softly, following them.
“Possibly, let me check first,” She twisted the handle and surprisingly, the door pushed right open, even if it was a little creaky, “Nope, not this time.” Glancing down at Leo to make sure he was still by them, she motioned for him to go in first since she had led last time.
Jay went inside, one hand resting on his gun, just in case. The floor creaked and groaned, but held. Leo bounded in in front of Jay, tail wagging.
This apartment had roughly the same layout as the other one, except there were two bedrooms down the hall along with a bathroom. It was also clear that whoever used to live here was a lot neater than the other person, and was a student of some sort based on the pile of textbooks in the corner of the main room. Delia followed Jay in, already scanning he main room for anything they might need.