Night's Omen

"Mm," Hailee said, a non-committal noise as she studied this selection. The main problem was that it didn't really match the rest of the furniture. Kind of, but not REALLY really. Pity. A horrible pity, that. "It's... ok," she said reluctantly - it did look nice in its own right, after all, and she could incorporate it as well. Thank heaven they hadn't started on chairs when everything ELSE was done, that was all. THAT would have been a pain. And she doubted Adam would have understood when she told him that, for that chair, he needed a different rug. It was TRUE, however.

"All right then," she said, rapidly rearranging her ideas, "so if that's the chair you want... hmm, these lamps might work better. The clock is still fine, and so is the table... what about this end table? A bookcase might not hurt either - bookcases can be useful. And then... oo, that rug might work well in the kitchen. Aaand..." she thumped a nearby nightstand "what about this?" Simple, boxy - it matched the bed, and the wonderful thing about beds was that you could do all KINDS of things with the bedclothes. She smiled.

Adam was going to have a SHOWROOM apartment by the time she was done here, or she would know why.

"But.. it's all black. Why can't I have the stuff you picked out before?" he asked, plopping down in his new chair that he hadn't bought yet. He looked up at her, brows furrowed. "I thought if it was all the same colour than it matched," he protested.

Meanwhile, a salesman was looming horribly close by, trying to notate the changes in the order so that his employees didn't pull the wrong boxes off of the shelf. Adam was sort of hoping he got lucky and they forgot to charge him for something, but the man working on their 'task' was unfortunately a stickler for detail.

"Ugh, whatever," he said finally. "If I get a bookshelf I need to buy books."

"Yea the color's the same, but the style and material are different! Besides, that's more charcoalish then jet. Do you see? You see? ... you don't see." Hailee sighed a little. Ah well, such was life. "Man, you are lucky that you found me to bring along. Your poor apartment might have ended up completely unfortunate looking." The witch shook her head a little in mock despair.

"If I get a bookshelf I need to buy books."

"No, actually," Hailee said with a slightly contemplative air. "I mean, people normally put books on bookcases and all that, but they can be used for other things. But never mind - do you want one? Yes, no, maybe so?"

"Okay, but only if you find a bunch of crap to put on and in it, because all the books I have will take up maybe one portion of it." He paused for a second and sighed. "Really, as long as it doesn't look like complete garbage, you've got the purchasing power here. I just don't want it to look frou-frou, and I think all the black stuff pretty much cinched that about twenty minutes ago."

He looked around. "What do you say we wrap it up and then you can pick out my wardrobe?" he asked. "I'm thirsty anyways, and the salesmen are all gathered over there leering at us."

"Yea, I think we've taken care of frou-frou," Hailee said, looking over her selections with a critical eye. She glanced over at him with a wicked look. "Of course, I could put forth an effort...." She laughed. "Don't worry, I'll find you junk to fill it. I'll even make sure it's not too girly. No pink, no lace, none of those little doileys...." She was teasing him, of course. She didn't like most of those things. She sighed a little, looking around the contents of the store. Nothing here was really catching her eye. Let's see, if she was to have lots of space - something orientalish, maybe? It would match the simple theme that they'd gone with for the most part thus far.

Book ends might be nice, some simple ones made of onyx or something, and maybe one of those little swords made for display....

"Here, come get me some french fries." And maybe a soda. Yes, Adam was financing this little trip.

Adam handed the men his credit card and wandered off after Hailee. "Come get you some french fries? Did I just hear that correctly?" he asked, stunned, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as he came up to her side. He looked down at her. "This is why I'll never marry you. So demanding." He laughed and shook her playfully before letting her go. To the woman at the counter of the little food court, he said, "Large cheese fries and two Sprites - is Sprite okay?" he asked Hailee over his shoulder. Adam was a fan.

Once he'd paid for whatever else she asked for food-wise, he carried the tray over to a table that was comically too small and sat down in a deformed plastic chair. "Ah, the food court. Don't you love the authenticity of the cheap patioware they thrust on us? And if I'd decorated my apartment, this is what my furniture would be." He grimaced at her.

"Ah, but if you married me at least you'd always know exactly what to do," she teased right back. "Come on, admit it. There's something to be said for demanding." She laughed at him when he shook her and shoved him back, not hard. Honestly, they probably did kind of look like they were dating. And then, of course, there was the fact that Hailee had just picked out all of his furniture for him.

She shrugged when he asked her about Sprite, which was... all right, if not her favorite. "I prefer Dr. Pepper," she said with a slight grin, then watched the woman change the order. It didn't take long to grab the fries and the drinks, then Adam grabbed the tray to carry it over to one of the little tables. She walked over with him, sliding into one of the plastic seats and grabbing a fry. She loved junk food such as this, so it was a good thing that she both worked her butt off in the training room and on her hunts and had a decent metabolism. She'd have hated to give up such things as fries to fit into some of the clothes she loved.

She sighed and rolled her eyes when he said that this was how his apartment would have looked had he been left in charge of decorating. "Thank heaven I stepped in when I did then, huh? Honestly, you couldn't in good conscience do this to a perfectly nice apartment. Could you? No. Tell me no. Please tell me no."

Adam got a little glee in watching the surly woman dump out the cup of Sprite and re-fill it with ice, probably because he'd seen her screw up other orders before his while waiting in line. Call it a malicious tick; it existed in them all, from time to time. Gratified, he ate his food, though he nearly snorted out a fry when Hailee said that if they got married, he'd always know what to do.

"You'll find I'm not as obedient when the frequency of our hang-time increases," he warned. "You did just pick out all my furniture, and I'm happy about that, but don't push your luck," he said, pointing at her with a fry.

"And no, I probably couldn't do this. I'd have gotten the wicker patio stuff, not this plastic crap," he said. He was serious. "Ah, don't look at me like that. My step-mother and step-sister would have taken one look at it and driven me straight to this place and made me pick out other furniture. The difference is, you appreciate black and silver; they would have tried to decorate everything like, spring green, or peach puff, or whatever the Hell else other colour that they can buy matching kitchenware and bedsheets for."

He took a sip of his drink, and then looked down at his watch. "Now you get to come and help me rearrange it all several times before we decided we liked it better the first way we had it."