[Cathy's Apartment Building, Havok, Piasu, Ryomania, 3:20 PM, May 7th, Tuesday 2025]
Cathy and Amelia quietly stood next to each other in the elevator, feeling a warm sense of belonging.
"For a maid, you're pretty awesome… I-I mean that honestly — don't make a big deal out of it or anything!" Cathy crossed her arms over her chest, looking away from her, blushing. She hadn't felt so accepted since our childhood days.
Amelia gave her a gentle smile, nodding.
"Thank you, I appreciate your kindness, Cathy! You're my first real friend outside of the Daniels family…"
They both came from entirely different mediums but were now so much alike. They both had nowhere to go and every reason to stick together.
The elevator doors opened. Cathy turned to Amelia.
"This is my floor, come on… If you make me sob again, I'll hug you to death." She hovered out of the elevator first, gliding towards her apartment with precision.
"O-oh… Of course! Um… You're very brave to move so quickly despite there being a clear risk of anyone seeing us, right?" Amelia followed after her, glancing around the hallway.
"I don't really care, honestly. Enough people have seen me, seen us — hell, I'm on the news. Or was."
The hallway was dingy as expected — old cobwebs every now and then, a trail of ants going across a wall from one crack to another, mold, flies.
"I've never been in such a quaint place before, oh goodness… It's like a jungle!" She giggled softly, turning to Cathy as they both stood in front of her apartment door.
Apartment 237.
"Believe me, if I could, I'd leave in a heartbeat." Cathy looked down at herself, after a day or so realizing she forgot her backpack at school, alongside her phone and apartment keys. She had been wearing the same clothes — a white tank-top and black leggings alongside her purple rubber sneakers — since then, though they looked more tattered and worn. "Oh shit, I forgot my backpack at school! My keys…"
Amelia looked between her and the door with a bemused smile.
"Tinker Bell." Tinker Bell suddenly materialized, hovering in front of her. "Tinker Bell! I wish for Cathy's apartment door to open!"
Tinker Bell rang once, twice, before a thin layer of golden light covered the door.
"Oh, right… Thanks."
A moment passed, then the door swung open, the golden light around it fading. Amelia grabbed Tinker Bell in her hands and giggled softly.
"You're very welcome! I just love using it so much… It's so cute! Eeek!" She let out a tiny squeak as she waved it around, causing Cathy's lips to curl up into a smirk.
"Yeah, I figured as much… Get in before anyone sees you doing that."
"You're not worried about anyone seeing your aura?"
They both stepped inside. Cathy shut the door with gravity without even looking.
"Nah, I'd just scare them off or something. Bloody steal their phone too, chuck it out of a window."
Amelia gasped, shaking her head quickly.
"No! That's so mean…"
"I'm kidding, Amelia… Come on, let me show you around."
They both laughed about it and stepped past the doorway. The entrance to the apartment was quite small. There were a few paintings on the walls, a large mirror next to a door on the left side of the small hallway, and there was a small table in the corner next to a door on the right side.
"Alright, pick and choose, what do you want to see first?"
Amelia pondered the question, rubbing her chin thoughtfully as Tinker Bell hovered over her shoulder.
"The living room!"
In front of them was the bathroom door. And to the left was the living room/guest bedroom. They both stepped inside. The detail that stood out most was that it had a foldable couch which doubled as a bed. There was also a table next to the right wall, doubling as a dining table with seven chairs. The room was decorated with pictures of Cathy and her family, paintings, memorabilia, and furniture.
"Woah… It smells like cinnamon! This is so amazing…" She looked around in wonder, inspecting everything she could. She looked intensely at a picture of Cathy, Normand, and Yoshio, her nose scrunched up in concentration. "Why is your brother cosplaying as an ogre?"
She glanced over her shoulder at Cathy, who was lounging comfortably above the couch, hands behind her head.
"Oh, that's my younger brother Normand… He… He's no longer with us." Cathy looked away, lifting a pillow off of the couch and putting it on her face.
Amelia didn't question it further.
Cathy mumbled from underneath the pillow.
"You're gonna sleep here, by the way… I mean, obviously." She pulled the pillow away from her face, looking at Amelia.
"Yes, of course, I would not want to intrude on your personal space." She nodded politely and stepped closer towards the couch, her hands held properly in front of her. "May I see the kitchen?"
Cathy scoffed, flipping over onto her stomach, kicking her feet in the air.
"Geez, you're so annoyingly proper… Go."
Amelia softly chuckled and went towards the door on the right side of the room. She stepped into the kitchen, noting how small it was. She could pace back and forth between the small space before colliding with the wall. Everything was neatly packed together. From the door, there was a stove, oven, oven top, two counters with four drawers each and a microwave on top, a cutting board, a few more shelves above, and behind her on the wall three different cupboards filled with plates, knives, and other forms of cutlery.
"This will do nicely, yes!" She fist-bumped the air, then peeked over into the doorway of the kitchen, making sure Cathy didn't see her.
She stepped out of the kitchen and closer to Cathy. Cathy was lying motionless in the air, hovering above the couch, her head burrowed in her arms and her feet dangling in the air. It was the first time since Amelia first saw her that Cathy looked this relaxed.
She reached out, tapping the aura above her right shoulder.
"What? Can't you see I'm brooding?" She flipped over on her back, stretching languidly and smirking at Amelia.
"So… I don't have any personal belongings, at least not anymore… Does that mean we'll share things?"
Cathy felt a soft blush creep on her face at the suggestion. She flipped over, standing up.
"What kind of a question is that?! I-I… I mean, maybe some things, but not clothes o-or a toothbrush! I'll buy you what you need… Dummy." Cathy reached out, flicking her forehead with a small burst of gravity, causing Amelia to stumble a step back.
"Okay, sorry for asking!" She gave her a gentle smile and bowed. "Can I see your room?"
Cathy thought about it, running a hand through her hair and crossing her arms.
"Fine, just don't break anything."
She got up from the couch, gliding over towards the hallway again and into her bedroom. Amelia quietly followed inside. The room looked very simple — white painted walls, a painting of her hung up on the wall, a metal cross on the wall, a painting of a brick wall in an alley with a candle on top of it with a prism-like outline on top of it and a golden wheel at the base of the stone wall. Right ahead was another foldable couch that turned into a bed, next to the door was a large TV flatscreen mounted on a wall, and below it a dresser with a white Wi-Fi router on top that emanated a green light into the room, a series of perfumes and deodorants she kept around, a vase with a few plastic roses inside — both red and white, seven of them — and alongside a green haircomb and a green towel.
But Amelia was drawn to what was behind them.
"Oh wow! You have a Gintendo Plug Console!" She ran her fingers across the top of the handheld console, which was already sitting in its charging dock.
Cathy sighed and gently swatted her hand away.
"I told you, paws off. And it's whatever… I don't even have enough time these days — I mean, I didn't before, with school and stuff, so I never played that much on it. I'm more of a PC girl. But I don't hate it or anything…"
Beyond that, Amelia saw her desk next to the bed on the left side of the small room. On top of it was a gaming laptop held up on a stand, with a mechanical keyboard below, a mouse, an external USB outlet allowing for more slots, and next to the laptop there were some wireless headphones sitting on top of a few items. A handheld drawing tablet, a screenless drawing tablet, and below those two a box with a familiar logo.
"You have two tablets and some Pupil AR Glasses?! That's so cool! Master Jack also had one of these, before… um, he always let me play with it whenever I wanted. Have you played the game Daggers & Magic?"
Cathy was slightly shocked by how much Amelia knew. She put her hands on her hips and hovered closer.
"Yeah, but I don't play it for too long. Actually, it's been a year since I've booted it up. I usually get too into it and sweat too much… I-It's complicated — shut up!" She sighed and looked away, hovering above her bed and lying down on her side.
Amelia noted a few other things on her desk — a gendama toy, a rechargeable flashlight, a lantern, two snow globes that seemed defective even from afar, a packet of bubble gum, a small case of wireless earbuds, a red cross keychain, and her mousepad. She then turned around to look at the large white wardrobe taking up most of the space in the room.
"Wow, you must have lots of clothes in here…"
"Don't look inside!" Cathy yelled at her and threw a pillow from the bed. It hit Amelia in the face, and she instantly bowed.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to make you upset! I wasn't planning to…" She picked up the pillow, her lower lip jutting out as she pouted. "P-please don't kick me out…"
Cathy stared at her for a moment before groaning and hovering towards her, wrapping her arms around her in a hug that repelled both of them.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you. I won't…"
Amelia's pout went away, replaced by a gentle smile, and she returned the hug. After a moment they both stepped back.
"And I guess that's just the basics, so uh… make yourself comfy or whatever… I'll be honest, I'm very, very tired… And hungry and a bit…"
"Smelly?"
Cathy blushed furiously and snatched the pillow from her, hiding her face with it.
"Don't just say it so casually like that! Get out of my room! You're ruining the vibe…"
"Ah! Okay, okay! I'm sorry…" She scurried past Cathy and the bed, standing by the door.
Cathy looked back at her, throwing the pillow onto the bed.
"I'm sorry. I don't mean it, you know…"
"It's painfully obvious you don't. You're very kind…" She grinned at Cathy and bowed politely before heading back towards the living room.
"And yet so weak…"
Cathy hovered back to the bed, lying down again, shutting her eyes. She finally felt safe, but didn't feel ready to hold it.