Small Steps to the Future
Chapter Nineteen: Apartments
The new, military-appointed apartments were better than Riya had expected: on the edge of the dome, in technically the cheaper part of town but they were better than many of the places Riya had lived before, close to the bonding complex and their classes, and-- best of all-- they were human-sized, rather than dragon-sized like most of the housing available in the city. His apartment had two bedrooms, one bathroom, a tiny kitchen, and a very spacious living room. Andy and Cemitae lived right next door, and Mullen had let slip that they'd bought six more rooms on the floor, presumably for the other cadets once they bonded.
After Mullen had left them to their own devices for the rest of the day-- or week, since they only had to report back to the fort once a week-- Riya wandered around the apartment, reveling in the sense of freedom it gave him. He let the twins bicker in the hallway over who got the spare bedroom-- Evola wanted it all to herself, but Evoli thought it would be a good idea to share it between them, at least for a while-- because they had both agreed to give him the larger bedroom. Riya wasn't about to complain: the apartment was furnished, if sparsely, and the bigger bedroom had a queen-sized bed in it. That was a luxury Riya had never enjoyed before, a bed bigger than what was strictly necessary.
The rest of the apartment was fairly empty: the spare bedroom had a pair of twin beds-- Evoli's evidence that they should share that room; the living room had a couch, a ratty-looking armchair, and a coffee table that looked like it had seen better days; and Riya's room had his own bed, a bedside stand, and a massive, old-fashioned dresser. Apparently, the dragons weren't expected to ever want clothes, for they had no dresser. The living room and second room even had windows with a fairly decent view, if you didn't mind looking at the arched wall of the dome and the walkway below it. It let in light, at least, from the blazing water-lights that lined the dome's ceiling.
Quite content with his new home, Riya flopped down on his back on his bed, listening to the twins still debating back and forth outside. Evola, as usual, was certain she would win the argument; he could feel her surety through their bond, and it made him smile, even as he shut his eyes and relaxed into the comforter on the bed-- that, at least, was brand new, and smelled very clean, very much like a department store, very real, as if it were the only solid, predictable thing in this strange, wonderful world.
The apartment along the master bedroom's wall was quiet, or else the wall was very well insulated. Riya wondered what Andy and Cemitae were doing. Riya didn't know the floor plan of Andy's apartment; he had been too busy staring around his own with the kind of amazement that probably gave away how poor he'd been all his life, or even if they weren't poor, how he and his father were always forced to cram themselves into inadequate housing with at least one other family. Andy probably was used to much better places than these slightly run-down, very mis-matched apartments, but to Riya it felt like a mansion.
The end of the bed bounced, and Riya lifted his head a bit to see Evola padding across the mattress towards him, looking a little disgruntled and more than a little surprised. Apparently, she lost the argument and she and her brother were sharing the second bedroom, and she still felt a little put out after the unexpected end. She flopped down beside Riya without her usual settling and dropped her chin onto his chest with a little "hmph" sound. Riya chuckled and ruffled the short fur of her neck.
"Got overruled, did you?" he said, stating the obvious.
"Yeah..." She sighed, but now that she ws getting used to the idea of actually loosing an argument with her brother, she could see the truth of his points. Which were... "Evoli says since I'm in your head all the time now, you deserve a little privacy, so you should have this room to yourself." Riya's brows went up in surprise, and promised himself he'd find some way to repay the little dragon for his thoughtfulness. "He said he'd sleep on the couch if I didn't let him sleep in the second bed."
"That was a really nice thought," Riya said sincerely, lifting his head again to grin at Evoli, who was peering at them shyly from the ground at the foot of the bed. Evoli smiled, back, and climbed up onto the bed, making a bit less of a disturbance than Evola had. He sat down on Riya's other side, not touching him.
"I just thought you'd like a place to yourself," he said modestly, "since you're used to being by yourself."
Thoughtful and insightful... Riya was impressed. He lifted his other hand to tug gently on Evoli's right ear. "Well, I still say it's a really nice thought." Evoli dipped his head and smiled again.
For a moment, the three lay in silence again, then Riya sat up. "How about we see what kinds of things the good captain left us to eat, hmm?" he suggested. The magical equivalent to a refrigerator in the kitchen was supposedly fully stocked by the UNIS budget, but Riya had yet to check and see what they thought "fully stocked" meant, and none of them had eaten dinner yet, so....
Predictably, both dragonets were enthusiastic about that idea and bounded off the bed and into the kitchen, Riya laughingly following and expecting that the kits would have to make due with his own meager cooking skills. He just hoped they wouldn't mind-- and that he would improve with practice!