Confidence is key

It doesn't take long for Samantha to have her conversation with Aba and even shorter for me. I felt his presence move quite a lot through the cathedral while they whispered to each other. His weight of power coming and going in waves both calming yet slightly suffocating at times.

"We're done Hazel. You can stop pretending to sleep." Aba's voice whispers just audible to me.

"Sweet." I say with a stretch. "Off to my place? I can show you the room you will be using when you're here."

"Thank you." Samantha whispers.

"No problem." I say slapping her shoulder.

We leave the cathedral and begin walking back to my place. Early spring and late winter mix together on the street. The cold breeze pulls at the few remaining leaves from the trees and simultaneously slowly hurts the vegetation that desperately trying to come to life. The streets are lit just enough to see the old fashioned two story mid-western style houses. With their intricate wood carvings decorating their front porches,  tresses, pillars and windows. Most of the windows sills have flower planters on them. Clean cut grass and trimmed bushes and hedges line yards.

Then we stop infront of my house. The iron gate surrounds the knee high dead grass. With no lights on to light the house, the iron front door looks a bit menacing from the street. The one story house makes it look like it is squatting amongst the two story high houses. Good thing a thunderstorm isn't happening.

Samantha's face turns to one of concern. "You're not going to kill me, are you?"

"What?! No! I will let you know though. This place was listed as haunted when I bought it at a dang good price."

"Haunted? Like someone or something else will kill me in my sleep?" Her eyes get a little wide.

"No. I have lived here for a few years now. The place burnt down after the owners kid inherited it and then the man built something smaller since he never married. He died here and supposedly haunts the place but I haven't seen hide or hair of him." I wave my hand to dismiss the haunting.

"Which room?" She asks.

"What?" I reply heading for the house.

"Which room did he die in?" She slowly follows behind me.

"Oh, mine?" I reply wondering what that had to do with anything.

"Oh, alright." She says quietly.

"Anyways. Welcome to your home away from home." I say opening the door and flipping the light on.

The small cream colored livingroom is off to the left with a red flower pattern couch, a matching sitting chair and a light colored coffee table. The right side has a small kitchen that is also cream colored.

Actually the whole house interior is cream because I never got around to painting it. Luckily that means accenting it with color is easy. Even though my favorite colors are black, red and orange...

The old guy did build dark oak cupboards in the kitchen. With a bar top to divide the kitchen from the entryway. Sadly that surface turned into a catch all. In the corner of the kitchen is a dark wooden table and two chairs (side of the road deal). The backwall has an archway leading to the hallway for the bathroom and bedrooms.

"This is the livingroom and kitchen." I say as we take off our boots.

"This first door here." I say walking through the archway in the middle of the back wall. "Is the bathroom. My room is the one on the left there and yours will be this one on the right."

I open the door to her room. I have stashed a few things of mine in here over the years. Mostly books I have read, armor and weapons and a few chests.

"Let me drag some of this out of here first." I say embarrassed of how messy my place is.

Without a word she helps carry the heavy chests to outside my room and I give her new bedding for the bed we unburied. Along with a change of clothes and a new toothbrush. She then silently wanders to the bathroom. 

I begin pulling the chests into my room since I have forgotten what I stashed in them. While doing that I wonder how many years I have been here. Its been a long time since I lived with anyone. After coming here I lived with Heather and her familiar Rufus for almost two years before buying this place. Everyone I have trained so far had a family they would go home to whenever we got back from a mission. Mumbling to myself and counting trainee's just to realize its been several years of me stashing things in that room. Oops.

I begin unpacking the chests to find more armor I use to wear and other random things. 

"I could sell these since I know now I can't use them. Maybe keep these gloves though for Samantha. Oooo this helmet should fit her. And this leather chest piece is better than the one Chelsea gave her. The rest of this though can be sold." I think out loud while sorting things.

Morning comes fast yet again for me. My crystal alarm clock chimes and tings til I smack it. Groggily I make my way to the bathroom. Out the corner of my eye Samantha is sitting at the kitchen table in the dark.

"You can turn lights on." I inform her flipping the switch. 

"Ah alright." She says quietly. Her stomach then growls two times louder than her voice.

"I will get ready quickly and we can go to my favorite restaurant for breakfast. Sound good?"

"Um yea. Ok." She nods.

"I will get you some different clothes too." I say looking at the baggy shirt and sweatpants she borrowed.

<(~.~)>    <(-_-)>

Samantha doesn't look comfortable wearing my clothes. The jeans she is in are baggy and she was swimming in the shirt and black sweatshirt. We gave up on the idea of letting her try a bra when we looked at each other. So her arms have been crossed over her small chest the whole time we have been out of the house.

We stopped at Rosy's for breakfast before Chelsea's shop. At Chelsea's I did my best to get what I could for the used armor and weapons. We bicker for awhile about her cutting me a lot of deals just for me to show up with all this gear. In the end we found a middle ground and I had to promise not to hoard as bad. Then Chelsea had Samantha fitted for a translator. We just need to go to Matilda's or Tilly's place to activate it. 

First stop though is Sally's since Samantha looks to be more self conscious with the more people coming out of their homes. 

"You haven't said much today. If you don't like something say it. Especially in this building here." I say pushing open the front door to Sally's Boutique. 

"O-okay." Again with a quiet response.

"Hazel! Who is this!?" The perky light blue Tiefling asks dropping the fabric she was pinning to a mannequin to run up to Samantha.

"Hi Sally. Samantha here needs clothes."

"Mmmhhmmm." Sally hums while circling the girl. Her long thin tail starts to twitch faster. "Take this off please." She says grabbing at the sweatshirt.

The girl slowly complies. Then folds her arms over her chest.

"I have quite a few outfits you will look stunning in!" Sally claps her hands together with a smile.

Samantha is then dragged into the changing room and is turned into a runway model. Sally had the poor girl in summer dresses, suits and even a swimsuit at one point. No matter how many compliments Sally gave Samantha her face and body language screamed she was uncomfortable.

"Alright Sally, you had your fun. We need to head North to put some Zombies to rest." I say getting up from a chair.

"Just a little longer? She can pull these off too!" The Tiefling sniffles holding up another frilly outfit.

"Samantha, go pick out what you would want to wear around town and for fighting. Don't worry about cost. You will need at least 7 pants and 7 shirts." I tell her. "Don't forget underwear."

She nods. Grabbing some teen girl jeans and a shirt from the mens section. The quickly picks over a bra. She dives into the changing room once more. Stepping out she has on a fitted long black sleeve shirt and tight fitting boot cut jeans. The clothes showed off her petite yet strong physique. Confidence radiates off of her for the first time in the shop.

"Damn!" Sally says resting a her elbow on my shoulder. 

"You like it?" I ask.

"Yes." Replies Sally.

"Not you..." I snarl.

"Yes. Can I try on a tank top too?" Her voice now firmer.

"Go for it." I tell her.

We end up leaving the shop with 5 jeans, 2 black yoga pants and a mix of t-shirts, tank tops and the long sleeve black shirt. Samantha paid for half of it since that was everything she made the day before.

The whole time home Samantha thanked me over and over for covering the clothes even though I told her I was going to pay for all of it.

<(^–^)>       <( ' - ' )>

"I'm ready to go on that hunt. I need to make some money." Samantha says coming out of her room geared up in my handy down gear of a leather hood with her dirty blonde hair poking out the ponytail hole on the back/top. The quilted leather chest cover that comes down like a sleeveless extra long shirt and her new long sleeve shirt and jeans. She is holding her gloves and the spears are strapped to her back.

I look at the time and half of the day is gone. "Alright lets get a move on. We need to stop at Matilda's before heading out." 

Samantha nods happily as I grab a bag of things to trade with Matilda.