She ended up in a black, pleated skort and a mint green tank top with a cat from one of her favorite comics on the front, and a pair of chunky clog sandals. Once dressed, she sat on the bed and grabbed her phone to text Lucia.

Morning Lulu!

Whoa, I thought you were going to text me this morning. Started thinking you weren't gonna at all!

Hey, it's still morning! For... 5 more min...

Lazy bones!

Psh, let's see how much you wanna sleep after driving 11 hours, crossing into a new time zone, and then unpacking a moving truck.

Psh back, sleep is for the weak!

Rue laughed and shook her head.

Do you want to see the house or not???

Oh! Uh, whoops, so sorry! You're brilliant and powerful and of course you sleep as much as you need. Of course I wanna see the house. Show meeeee~

Rue got up and started walking around the house, snapping pictures of the different rooms and sending them to Lucia.

Not bad, not bad. It's bigger than I expected, you have a whole empty room. Everything is pretty empty right now, but I guess that makes sense.

Yeah, I could only get so much financial aid for furniture and stuff.

You never explained how you got ANY, actually.

Yeahhh, wellll... it's complicated. It's just, some aid from a government agency that helps people like me?

Hmmkay. Op, I gotta go, Mat has a thing and I have to go with. Byeeee!

Bye Lu, have fun!

Rue got up and grabbed her purse. Well, it was really more of a wallet on a shoulder strap, with just enough extra space for her phone, rather than a normal purse. It was black leather and embossed with leaves that had been painted neon green. It was a graduation gift from her mom, and she really loved it. Sticking her phone in the intended pocket, Rue slung the bag over her shoulder and went back downstairs. She grabbed the housekey from the kitchen counter and headed for the door.

Movement in the downstairs bathroom made her pause. She peeked in to see a pigeon-sized fae that looked like a little doll, with brown skin and hair like dried alfalfa, wearing a little outfit made of carefully sewn leaves. Ah, so this house had a brownie after all. The creature looked at her with doe eyes and Rue gave it a cautious smile.

"Behave yourself. I'll buy milk while I'm out," she told it in the fae language. It didn't say anything back, but she didn't really expect it to.

Rue stepped outside and locked the door. She turned towards the street and spotted a familiar figure on the covered porch of the house to the left (well, the right from how she was currently facing). Claude sat on a porch swing with an acoustic guitar in hand. He was in ripped jean shorts today, though they were still black. He wore the same sleeveless hoodie as yesterday, but today it was unzipped, showing off the tank top he wore under it, which sported the logo of a popular metal band. His feet were bare, sandals a short distance away under the porch swing.

Rue paused to watch him. She couldn't see his face from this angle due to how the curtain of black hair on his unshaved side was in the way. He seemed very focused on the guitar. It looked old, but well-maintained, and there were no brand logos on it anywhere. He was playing a rather complicated guitar solo that she vaguely recognized from a punk band that got some air time, though he was playing it much slower than the band did. He wasn't making any mistakes though, so it seemed like he was pretty familiar with the tune.

Without really thinking about it, Rue found herself walking across the yards to stand at the bottom of the porch steps. She watched the vampire play and listened to the music in silence. He had a very serene look on his face, now that she could see it properly. He was so focused on the music that he didn't notice her at all.

When he reached the end and stopped, he leaned back, head lifting. He did a double-take noticing Rue at the bottom of the stairs. She offered him a tentative smile.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, I just didn't want to interrupt," she said contritely.

"Oh, no, no! It's fine! I just didn't realize... I-I mean, I was focused, and, um, I guess you're upwind," he said sheepishly, waving his hand.

"I am," Rue agreed, still smiling. "I sort of recognized the song you were playing, though with the tempo being so different and the rest of it missing, it was harder to tell. But you didn't make any mistakes, as far as I could tell."

"Oh, yeah, it's just..." Claude waved a hand dismissively again, "I know the song pretty well, but I was still messing up playing it on tempo, so I decided to slow down until I have it really nailed down."

"I kinda figured that."

"Well! Uh... did you come over to say hi, or are you, um, going somewhere?" Claude asked awkwardly, setting down his guitar next to the swing.

"Well, I was going to head to town to get some groceries, but then I saw you and heard you playing. I didn't... exactly intend to wander over," Rue admitted, "but fae tend to be drawn to music."

"Oh. I didn't know that. Is that good or bad?" he asked, brow furrowing.

"Neither, both?" Rue chuckled. "It depends on where you are and what kind of fae you're attracting."

"Such as?"

"Well, some will come to dance to your music, which is usually harmless... unless they decide they want to dance for longer than you want to play, cuz they then might curse you to be unable to stop playing. Others will come to challenge you to a competition of who can play better. That's fine if you win; you'd probably get something really cool. But not so fine if you lose, because you could become cursed or enslaved or something," Rue explained, giving Claude an enigmatic smile as she spoke.