“It doesn’t seem very fair of you to give my bicycle so much flak.”

We’d made it back just as night began to fall and, to my relief, hadn’t run into any revenant. I’d driven, and my unexpected host had followed behind on his bike, pulling into his drive way a few minutes after me.

Now he comes up the walk eyeing my wheels jealously, then secures his much more mundane mode of transportation to the fence with his bike lock.

“You drive a mo-ped.”

“Are you kidding?” I say, genuinely appalled. “You cannot be implying that Iris is on the same level as your bike just because she has two wheels.”

He lets us into the house and holds the door open for me as I trail after him, bag over one shoulder. The breakfast nook and kitchen adjoin the entry way, and I make my way toward the dining table.

Pulling off my borrowed jacket, I drape it along the back of a dining chair then pull the chair out to sit, dropping my keys and bag on the wooden surface in front of me with a satisfying clunk.

“I mean, maybe if you had a regular bike, I could understand. But your bike is mint green.” I wave a hand dismissively. “That puts it in a category all its own.”

“I like the mint green. Besides, your motorbike is pink. You can hardly judge.”

I balk. “I didn’t choose her color, Iris was given to me.”

“Uh-huh,” he says, pulling his head out of the open fridge door to look at me. “That’s what they all say.”

I open my mouth to fire back, but nothing comes.

The adrenaline that's been carrying me since the alley last night picks this exact moment to drain out through the soles of my feet, and all at once I'm just… tired. Bone-tired.

I groan and sink down onto the table, my hair splaying out as my forehead finds my forearms.

Having pulled a number of items from the fridge, green-eyes peeks at me, knife in one hand, cutting board in the other. “You okay? You look a little pale.”

“Yeah,” I sigh, running a hand through my hair. “I’m just suddenly feeling drained.”

I see the smile flicker across his face a second before he gets it under control, coughing to try to cover up his laugh.

I roll my eyes. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“Still, not wrong.” He rinses a tomato in the sink and sets to slicing. “What you went through isn’t easy to bounce back from. For a while, I wasn’t even sure you were going to make it through the night.”

He adds it almost as an afterthought, but the way he’s focused on chopping up that tomato makes me think it was a lot more serious than he’s letting on.

“Why don’t you go wash up? Dinner is going to take a bit longer and you’re still covered in blood.”

Glancing down, I absently touch the dark brown stain that stretches down the front of my shirt. I’d totally forgotten about it.

“There are clothes in the dresser—you’re welcome to whatever—and clean towels under the sink in the bathroom. It’s the door on the right down the hall—” He gestures briefly with the knife before returning to chopping.

My gaze drifts down the hall.

A shower does sound nice. I still have dried blood in my hair and under my nails… and having been in the same outfit for the last forty-eight hours is really making me feel grungy.

Standing from the table, I grab my bathroom bag and make my way toward the hall.

“Oh,” He turns to me as I pass him. “You should be able to take your bandage off. The wound shouldn’t be bleeding anymore.”

“Oh… kay…” I say, and then continue toward the bedroom to find clothes.

I’m a lot more aware of the house as I move through it now. It’s small. Cozy.

The door to his room is ajar, with the spilled tray of food still abandoned on the floor.

I’m suddenly embarrassed for my behavior earlier.

Had I actually been abducted by the revenant, I doubt they would have kept me so well. If I’d just bothered to use my brain it would have been obvious that he wasn’t hostile.

He had even brought me food...

I stare down at the mess with dismay, then crouch. Setting my bag aside, I do my best to scoop the mess onto the tray, which I then leave sitting on the dresser—I’ll take it to the kitchen later.

There’s still a decent sized grease stain on the floor, and the spilled orange juice is going to be a pain to get up, but I’m sure I can get it out tomorrow with a little scrubbing.

Ruffling through the dresser drawers I manage to find some clothing I figure will fit me comfortably. Though, if I’m being honest, there’s little that wouldn’t fit me comfortably. It’s unnerving how close to me in size he is. Perhaps a little wider at the shoulders and a little longer at the torso, but passable enough.

He’s clearly too damn skinny.

Also, I need to go underwear shopping. Pronto.

I shut both doors behind me as I move from the bedroom to the bathroom, locking the second and setting my newly acquired clothing on the toilet so it won’t get wet. The bathroom is small, like the rest of the house, but not unclean. There’s one small counter with a sink inset, above which is a medicine cabinet.

I pull at the edge of the mirror to open the cabinet and smile at how neatly everything is lined up on the shelves.

Unzipping my bathroom bag, I set my yellow toothbrush in the cup next to his blue one and frown. I’ve never had time for love in my life. Spending my days training and tracking down revenant means there really isn’t any time for guys.

Yet, here I am. Moving in with one. It’s so genuinely…

Mundane.

Ugh.