“Yes.Very,verygood dog, Ume.”
Raven stood halfway between the couch and the little coffee and tea counter, suddenly unsure what to do or how to act.He spotted the notebook from yesterday on the coffee table, several pens lined up neatly alongside it.This is surreal.Am I really supposed to be here?
“Uh…”
Maxim stood and rounded the couch.He was wearing black jeans, a white tee, and a big beige knit cardigan that was open in the front.Raven couldn’t help but notice how much that suited him, the soft knitting patterns mirroring the braid his hair was still in.
“Blood or coffee?You’ll have to decide.I’ve found they don’t mix too well.”
“I… Okay?”
Maxim put a hand on his hip.“Are you thirsty?”
Raven nodded.“My mouth’s kind of dry.”
“Right.Blood, then.I can have breakfast brought up, or we can head downstairs.Which would you prefer?”
Raven looked around.This place is really big.It looks bigger than yesterday, which is irrational.When he considered going down in the elevator though, the very thought made him feel tired.His gaze came to rest on the notebook.
“Can we…?Up here, if you don’t mind.But I think Umeboshi needs a walk.”
“Hardly.Jason took him out before he left to attend his classes.He said to tell you to text if you’d like to hang out.Let me text the kitchen.”Maxim pulled out his phone and typed a quick message.
Raven frowned.“Right.That was nice of him.”
Maxim chuckled.“Oh, very.He tried getting the leash Heath ordered on canny Ume here without waking you in the process.It was fifteen minutes well worth watching.”
Raven swayed from one foot to the other.“He got Ume to wear a leash?”
Maxim tsked.“Obviously not, but the attempt was ever so heroic.Especially with Clement giving advice on how to capture Ume.Come sit while we wait.”
Raven nodded and made his way to the couch.It was a big couch, and when Maxim sat back down, there was a lot of real estate to choose from.Raven wasn’t exactly sure why he couldn’t right then.
The notebook though.It sat there on the table, somehow brighter than the rest of the room, searing almost.He bit his lip and grabbed it hurriedly, and the pens along with it.
“I’ll just put this away.”
Maxim hummed in agreement, but Raven barely noticed.He clutched the notebook to his chest and hurried back to his room.To the guest room.The curtains still being drawn made it feel cozy in there, to a point, the seeds of familiarity having taken root.
Raven looked around the room.There was a small desk by the white window, a detail he could easily make out despite the soothing gloom, but he decided to put the notebook and the rainbow of pens in the closet instead, placing them behind the duffel where he’d always know to find them but where they couldn’t easily be seen.
He stood there for a while, quiet all around him with just Maxim back in the living room, telling Ume he was a good dog.He heard the elevator coming before the doors opened with aping, a voice he didn’t recognize greeting Maxim as they dropped off the blood.
Raven didn’t move for any of that, he just stood there, staring at his things sitting on that single shelf.
What was it Maxim said?Just get up and do one thing after another?
It helped that he was thirsty, and whether he imagined it or whether it was real, Raven thought he could smell the rich scent of blood, so different from the way he’d experienced it before.
In the end he closed the door and went back out to the light-flooded penthouse.He sat on the corner of the couch, close to Maxim but not too close.Ume immediately took that as his signal to jump over Maxim and plop into Raven’s lap.
Maxim clicked his tongue.“Won’t even stay by my side for the treats.Plain favoritism.”
He handed Raven a thermos, and Raven took it wordlessly, glad Maxim didn’t seem to mind.After the first big mouthful, he sipped it slowly while Maxim went back to a novel he’d been reading, a science fiction series Raven had heard of but never read himself.
As he sipped, he wondered about a vampire such as Maxim enjoying spaceships and lasers, different worlds and aliens.He wasn’t sure if it fit or not, but he decided he’d give the novel a try as well.
Maybe I can ask to borrow his copy when he’s done with it?
