Welcome to Gaia! ::

Crete closed her eyes as Raiden touched her hair and even given her current situation she felt - just for a moment - that everything might be okay. Perhaps they didn't have the answers now but they would come. He always had a way of calming her down, making her feel at ease. If Raiden had helped her through bigger tragedies, she would survive this. Crete nodded into Raiden's chest. Yes, she did want to stay with him. She couldn't imagine going home to an empty apartment - not now. Crete just wanted to be held, "Do you work tomorrow?" she asked quietly. Selfishly, Crete wanted him to spend as much time with her as possible. Every minute until he walked her down to the car so she could go pick up Derek. She needed her best friend.

"Sure," Asim agreed easily. He had a couple of wine glasses somewhere but had yet to find them as they were still packed up in a box somewhere. Wine that night was served in regular glasses as a substitute. He set one glass down at his seat and one at Marie's, water for Wendy. Then, finally, Asim plated some food for himself and sat down. Trying to be polite he kept conversation even though he wanted to shovel food into his mouth at a rapid pace. "So Marie, are you working or going to school or...?"

Wendy took her place at the table and waited to hear Marie's answer. She loved hearing about other people and was excited to get to know Marie, as well as the rest of her new room mates.

"Oh what are you studying?" Wendy took great interest in this as she was also going to school. "Where did you transfer from? What are you taking this semester?"

"Jeez Wendy," Asim laughed at the barrage of questions, shaking his head.

"Well I was just curious," she muttered in response, "We have a lot of catching up to do if we are going to be room mates." Wendy flashed Marie a smile, hoping she didn't mind.

"That's really awesome!" Wendy was more concentrated on finding out about Marie rather then eating. "What kind of art do you do? Like drawing, or sculpture or...?" she waved her hand around in front of her face in a circular motion, as if trying to drag the rest of the sentence out of her mouth.

"Wendy," Asim held up his hand, still laughing, "Don't freak her out, she'll ditch us! And then your rent goes up!"

"I'm just curious!"

"I hear ya," Wendy frowned in agreement. There were two reasons she didn't have a car but the primary was financial. "Well if you ever need someone to pose for you, I got you covered!" she said with a wink.

Wendy frowned as Marie up and left the table, confused as to what she may have said wrong. She was just trying to be friendly, after all. She turned her head over her chair and watched Marie escape down the hall before looking over at Asim with a concerned, yet confused look on her face.

"You probably shouldn't have suggested getting naked on the first date." Asim answered without hearing the question.

"That is NOT what I meant!" Wendy squealed in surprise, shocked it had been interpreted that way. She would have to make it up to Marie and apologize.

Wendy was the first to awake the next morning bright and early and was standing over the stove cooking a single egg for breakfast. She had already prepared some sliced pieces of strawberries and melon for herself and was working on her second glass of water. Still mulling over what had transpired the night before Wendy was running over scenarios in her head on how she might explain herself, apologize. She had never been shy so she often let things slip out without considering how they might be interpreted. Sighing, she transferred her egg on to a plate and turned off the stove burner. Hopefully this wasn't the start to a very awkward living situation.

Crete had taken the opportunity to sleep longer then usual - that and her emotional breakdown the night before had drained her of all energy. She slept peacefully, still curled up in Raiden's arm on the couch. Her curly hair had become tousled in the middle of the night and now lay over her face like a blanket, shielding her from the sunlight that was beginning to pour in through the windows. Despite her serene appearance sleep had been riddled with nightmares and worry. Waking up however meant returning to the real world, which at the time seemed even scarier.

Crete let out a low grumble of protest as she felt Raiden move against her. The light that managed to hit her eyelids when he had moved hair out of her face made her scrunch her whole body up and bury her face against his chest. "Stop it." she whined, not fully conscious but semi aware that someone else was there. Facing the day was difficult, couldn't she sleep a little bit longer?

Asim was awake already, laying in his bed and staring at the ceiling above him trying to fully wake up. Like he did as a kid he was trying to make out shapes in the textured ceiling. He had already found one that looked like a hamburger, one shaped like a tree and another that was passable as a horse - sort of. Asim snapped out of his trance when he heard noise pouring in from the room next door. At first he dismissed it, figuring it to be Wendy or Marie, until he remembered that he shared a wall with the room that had been mysteriously locked the night before. Raising an eyebrow he slowly got out of bed and stood up. Perhaps one of his room mates had managed to get the door open. Leaving his room he went to go check on the girls.

When she heard footsteps enter the room Wendy looked over her shoulder to see who had risen. She had been expecting to see Asim, not Marie, and the sight of the other girl made her freeze temporarily in terror. Everything she had rehearsed in her head seemed to disappear and she didn't know what to do. Suddenly and without warning the floodgates opened and words just began tumbling out in a jumbled mess. "I'm sorry I freaked you out! I wasn't suggesting you draw me naked. I'm not some kind of weirdo, or a lesbian. Not that I have anything against gay people, but I don't like girls. But its okay if you do, I mean, if you do. But if you don't and even if you did I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I was just saying it would be cool to be drawn, but with all of my clothes on. No ones ever drawn me before, except like stick figures. That's not the point though, I'm really sorry!" Wendy finished, looking quite flustered, hoping Marie would accept her apology despite its lack of eloquence.

Breakfast, Crete's stomach seemed to lurch forward at the word. She had hardly touched her dinner last night - eating sounded wonderful. Opening one eye Crete lifted her head, letting her curls fall out of her face, and looked up at Raiden. It took her a few moments to process why he was there. The memories of the night before came flooding back to her but she was too groggy to care. "Pancakes." she said simply and laid her head back down, "With butter."

Wendy let out a sigh of relief. She would take that reaction as positive. Taking her breakfast she sat down at the table and began to pick at her fruit, now no longer quite as hungry. "Do you have class today?" she asked, trying to at least have a conversation.

Asim paused in his doorway when he heard a man's voice coming from the next room. Now he knew something was strange, as he was fairly positive both Marie and Wendy were women. He went over to the door and tried the handle again. "Still locked..." he muttered. Asim couldn't quite make out what had been said but he was now positive someone was inside. He knocked on the door lightly, but loud enough to be heard, "Hello?"