How don't you drown in a rainstorm

One look at your eyes and I cave in

If she notice the way he looks at her, she doesn't show it. Or chooses to ignore it this time. Had it been her father looking at her like that, she would have snapped instantly, but she is having way more patience with Uldren when it comes to any kind of worries related to her health. So far, she's still alright, but she knows it will only last for so long. She had never gone through a Drenak without issues. It was just a lottery game on when it would start and how bad it would be.

The only thing that might be off at the moment would be her mind trying to pick up thoughts to chew on while she prefers to not think of them at all.

She keeps her hand under the water as it grows warmer, then steps away a bit. "I certainly hope so. At least the water got the right shade, so I'll take that if it means being rid of the grime for a moment." She mutters and pulls the damp hoodie over her head. The shirt underneath is still spared of the gritty sand, but it still feels icky. Everything does, so she wastes no time throwing that off as well.

"How are you, by the way?" She asks, as if just realizing she had not actually checked in on Uldren properly since arriving "I've just been worrying about your apartment and weird sand, and gushing about big cats so far." She gives him a small smile and chuckles softly, pushing her boots aside with a foot after untying them and then moves closer again, one hand reaching out to slowly move up his side now when there's no gritty shirt in the way.

One taste of the life now I crave it

ira

// && my heart won't change if my head don't break,
i need a little bit of patience, 'cause we been going through changes //

“Anything to not let it stay.” Uldren agrees with a soft huff of a laugh. Even if the water was still gross, it simply became a matter of which is worse, and right now? The sand sticking to him is far worse than anything else. He works quickly to shed out of the damp, gritty clothes that cling to him, his own boots set aside just beside her own, and it isn’t until he’s mostly free of his clothes that he focuses back on her as she asks how he’s doing.

He doesn’t expect to have to think about it when he does, but her hand runs along his side and he draws her close into a hug, wrapping his arms around her gently. “I’m good. Y’know, aside from all of this. Made a fairly good sale on the last day of Kivan so I was hoping to coast for a little bit since I knew it would flood.” He flashes her an almost confident smile. “Looks like I got what I wanted out of it, even if it wasn’t as relaxing as I’d hoped.”

Uldren

One look at your eyes and I cave in

Even if the running water wasn't completely clean, it certainly looks cleaner and would do to wash off the grime. At least it doesn't look red like the water outside. She works on peeling the last of her own clothes off herself while waiting for him to reply, peering at him curiously as he seems to have to think of it. Hearing he's doing good brings a soft smile to her lips and her arms wrap around him as well.

"The water did come in very sudden, yeah. Can only hope it will stay calm for a while now to make up for it." She wriggles out of the hug, only to be the one taking his hand this time as she starts backing towards the shower and gently pulling him with her. "But glad you're doing alright, despite the nasty surprise flood." A small chuckle leaves her and she steps into the tub and in under the stream, the hot water being a stark contrast from the cold last time they were there.

One taste of the life now I crave it

ira

// && my heart won't change if my head don't break,
i need a little bit of patience, 'cause we been going through changes //

“Saints willing.” He mumbles under his breath, keeping his green gaze on her as he wraps his arms around her and she does the same in turn. It lasts a small amount of time, though, as she wiggles out of his grip and starts to tug him along with her, backwards toward the shower until the hot water falls along her skin, washing away the grit.

He’s glad too, to be honest. “Me too.” He murmurs softly, stepping closer to her to share the stream of water as it starts to wash away the grime, peering down momentarily between them to see it pool up into the drain, disappearing from sight. “I’m so glad I stocked up before the floods hit.” There’s a beat of pride, of having plenty of bottled water and some food to eat for if the floods had taken out more than they had so far.

He flashes her a bright smile with a hint of pride, hands rising to run through her hair to get the water to clear it from any nastiness from her trek over here.

Uldren

One look at your eyes and I cave in

The feeling of the hot water washing over her makes her sigh quietly in relief. The sandy grime slowly running off and draining away and leaving her feeling a bit more comfortable than before. Now they only need the water from the pipe to stay at this level of clean and not become a brown mess again. No more sudden bad surprises.

She rubs the water from her eyes and peers up at him and the bright smile has her laugh again. "Smart move. I think we've got something stocked at my place too, but I'm honestly not sure." She shakes her head with a small smile and then closes her eyes again with a soft hum as he starts running his hands through her hair. "I'm sure I can fix it somehow otherwise." Or perhaps her father had seen to it already. She can't be the only one responsible for it and he was using the food in the apartment more often than she did already.

Her eyes open again and she looks him over with another smile tugging at her lips. One hand rising to run along his arm and gently rub away some of the grime stuck to his skin. "Or maybe I'll just claim the flood is too bad for me to make it back and I'll crash here for a while" She then teases with more of a playful smirk. She wouldn't actually just invade his space, but the idea of hanging around with Uldren for a while sounded quite nice to her still.

One taste of the life now I crave it

ira

// && my heart won't change if my head don't break,
i need a little bit of patience, 'cause we been going through changes //

He hopes that with the constant water rushing through the pipes right now that that dream will stay alive – that it’ll refrain from turning brown again. The last thing they needed was to get all cleaned up, only to get dumped on by the lining of the pipes or whatever the rust colored water was. In fact, he shivers slightly with the thought.

His hands run through her hair, getting it clean the best he can, before he lets his hands run along her shoulders, his green gaze more relaxed than it had been the second he’d spotted her at his door. No longer needing to calculate or work to help his neighbors. “At least the lifts still work so we can go Plate side if we need groceries and all of ours are flooded.” It’s said with a slight air of annoyance, but only because of the fact that he was glad it was an option, however much he hated the Platers.

Her hand rises along his arm, clearing it of the muck that had tried to it while he worked, and he flashes an amused smile back her way with a huff of a laugh. “If you don’t mind staying in a damp room, you’re more than welcome to.” He keeps that smile, hands running along her shoulders and arms in turn to get rid of the grit.

Uldren

One look at your eyes and I cave in

She keeps her concerns about the water to herself, just in case mentioning it would jinx it and turn the shower all brown and disgusting again. Her hands continue slowly up his arms, fingers rubbing in gentle circles against his skin where she can see traces of grime too stubborn to simply be washed away by the running water.

"I'd be up for that. Could be a fun adventure." There is a mix of teasing amusement and some sarcasm in her voice. She really doesn't like the Plates, but perhaps a brief change from the dark moldy Drench could be good and she'd be happy to do things with Uldren's company. Even if it was going up top. Perhaps it could be more fun than going up alone too.

Her hands slowly makes their way up to his shoulders, continuing their gentle little massaging patterns into his skin. "Problem is I've only got that one set of clothes..." She throws a sideway glance at the heap on the floor. "Not that I even want to put them back on at this point." She visibly shudders at the thought of having to put the damp, gritty fabric back against her skin.

"But, if you don't actually mind me sticking around I can always just make a brief trip home later and gather some things. I'd take a damp room and your company over my dryer lonely one any day." She smiles warmly back at him as they both continue trying to rid each other from any sticky leftover grime.

One taste of the life now I crave it

ira

// && my heart won't change if my head don't break,
i need a little bit of patience, 'cause we been going through changes //

Ironically, Uldren’s in the same boat – wanting to avoid the Plates at all cost, but if he didn’t have to go by himself or with his sister… Well, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. So the smile that crosses his face is genuine when she agrees, a soft huff of a laugh. “Let’s make a date of it then, huh?” He asks with that same genuine smile, one that relaxes slightly as she runs her hands along his skin and he wraps his own around her neck, toying with the ends of her hair to get all the bits and pieces of dirt and grime out of it.

She mentions that she only has one set of clothes and Uldren huffs a laugh, his head tilting as he regards her and continues to run his fingers through her hair. “You could do that. Or, for today, you can just wear some of mine. I’ve learned to keep them on the top shelf.” He flashes her a wink with another amused grin, before he relaxes slightly. “Then maybe tomorrow we can drop by your place and get some necessities and you can stay for however long you’d like to.” Even if it was damp and cold and out of the way of everything.

Uldren

One look at your eyes and I cave in

His suggestion to make it into a date makes her laugh softly, but the smile she gives him is equally genuine. "Yeah, let's. If we're going, might as well make the best out of the trip." The Plates are not even near her top ten locations on going for a date, but if she had to go up it sounded better to make it as enjoyable as one possibly could.

She keeps her hands at his shoulders, starting to massage a bit firmer across his muscles there and slowly rubbing her fingers down his over his shoulder blades, taking a small step closer to him when he wraps his arms around her neck and she can feel the slight tugging at her hair as he tries to clean it out.

She tilts her head the other way and looks up at him while listening. The wink making her smirk a bit. "How can I say no to the offer of some top shelf clothes." Her smirk grows with another small laugh. "But yeah, it beats having to go all the way back and forth again in the same day, so let's do that tomorrow instead. With the diner closed for a while, I won't even have to make it over to that end of town daily either." One of the few pros of her day job being it is close to her home, and the con of the bar being that it's far away instead.

The smirk turns into more of a smile and she gently rubs the back of his neck with a hand. "You sister wouldn't be against you having me around here then?"

One taste of the life now I crave it

ira

// && my heart won't change if my head don't break,
i need a little bit of patience, 'cause we been going through changes //

“Might as well.” He agrees with that same gentle laugh, nodding as he focuses on her, rubbing away the grit of the flood waters from her hair until it’s clean and his hands move along her shoulders, calloused from the tools used to create the jewelry he makes.

A note of agreement slips from his throat, his gaze watching her curiously. “It sounds like a lot.” It almost ends in a slight whine, the idea of going back and forth multiple times in one day. He was already exhausted just thinking about it. So Uldren’s glad when she agrees to wear his top shelf clothes and that they could simply deal with it tomorrow. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you wanna.” He offers, shifting to settle in the water a bit more, letting it warm up his skin when she asks about his sister.

His shoulders rise and fall in a small shrug. “Doubt it. Even if she does, she can deal with it.” A flippant way to say he didn’t care either way if she was annoyed about it or not. After all, it wasn’t like he hasn’t told her about Ira.

Uldren