not so shiny

who: roy and evie
where: her place
when: morning

Roy had gone to visit Marian, in a bit of a dark mood that morning. He'd wanted to see her, maybe get a smile from her, and see if it brightened his day at all. Unfortunately for him, she was out, probably working--which really he should have figured in the first place. Marian was working a lot. Still, her not being there when he needed her to be didn't help his mood, and it was with his head hung and his shoulders hunched that he walked back through the halls, not looking especially well where he was going.

Evelyn locked her door, a bit annoyed that she had to use the stove downstairs this morning, and decided that carrying a small collection of cookware downstairs would not be a fun task. But even a broken stove and the task beforehand wasn’t enough to ruin her mood – last night she had finally found somebody to cover her shift! However, the sudden shove of force from her side wasn’t exactly welcoming as she felt something slip from her hands and fall to the ground. Thankfully it was only a small frying pan, made out of cast iron, and unbroken upon the floor. She was all ready to shoot an annoyed glance at whatever hall-mate had – oh.

Her face expressed clear surprise at it not being one of the girls of her floor and at him being someone she kinda recognized… from the hotel. “Oh.. hi.”

Unfortunately, she couldn’t entirely remember his name. … Grody? …Grady? ...Gra-something, at least. Well, at least she was more dressed than when she met Zhen, although she would’ve preferred an extra arm to wrap the robe around herself.

Roy hopped back, looking up and it was clear for just a moment that he was angry--and then it switched immediately thereafter to concern. "I'm sorry--I didn't mean...I didn't see you there." Generally it was difficult to see people when you flat out weren't paying attention in the first place, so this was definitely his fault. He ducked down to grab the pan he'd knocked from her grasp. He gave a little apologetic smile. Recognition was more in Roy's favor then, because he most certainly knew her. She was Miss Wright, she worked at the hotel, and she had the prettiest eyes he'd ever seen. Not that he actually made eye contact a whole lot, and he thought she probably didn't pay the slightest bit of attention to him, but still. He knew her. "Sorry 'bout that, Miss Wright." he said.

She tensed at the anger, defensively bracing for something to follow – because with arms full she didn’t really have another option. But then he ducked down and came back up with an expression as opposite of angry as one could get. But by then Evelyn was too sidetracked by his knowing her name to ponder that. Well, her work name anyway. Which wouldn’t have been too much a problem if she were… at work. And she didn’t know his, and now felt bad about asking. At least he had called her “Miss Wright” though; Evelyn didn’t really know many of the other residents’ last names. And outside of her roommates, she was pretty sure very few knew hers. So she relaxed a bit on that point.

She smiled, though it came out a bit awkwardly as she was wondering which girl he was leaving. Most guys made their exits earlier in the morning, after all. “Oh, it’s—it’s fine.” Then after a brief moment of ‘what-on-earth-should-I-say-now?’, she added, “Funny running into you here, anyhow… thinking of joining us?” She kept her tone the lighthearted, friendly one she used at work; a good mask for how awkward she felt.

He held onto the pan, since she hadn't taken it from him, and he quirked a half smile. "Naw. Not sure I'd fit in." he said, going with the joke. "I was just here to see if I could say hi to my sister, but she's not in. I didn't mean to go running into people, must've been a little too far in my own head." Which happened, really. Happened a lot to him, truth be told. He was distracted, though, currently. She had a nice voice, too. And the curve of her neck was something he'd noticed before, even if he couldn't see it as well because her hair was down...which he'd never seen before. It was nice, though. He glanced away, pushing all the little observations ticking through his mind aside, or he tried to, anyhow. "You need help carryin somethin?" he asked, ticking his gaze back for just a second before he averted it again.

So… his sister lived there. She really hoped this moment wouldn’t come back to bite her in the ass. She didn’t stop and think if he would even care about her name, she just knew that she really didn’t want him to know about it. At his offer to help her with the armful she realized she’d been too distracted to grab her pan back. She started to reach for it, but then considered the offer.

“Actually… yeah, kinda.” Although it probably would’ve been best for her to say ‘no’ and then they could both be on their way, she realized that she could actually really use the help. “I think the teapot’s bringing the most trouble.” She made a little motion with the stainless steel teapot dangling in her grasp. “I shouldn’t have tried grabbing so much, but I just didn’t want to make another trip.” And, just because she wanted to explain that trekking downstairs with a mess waiting to happen wasn’t her usual routine, she explained, “My stove’s out this morning.”

He reached out to take the teapot from her, then paused when she said that the stove was out. "Did you want me to take a look at it?" he asked. "I mean, if you had time, or...or whatever, I could, though." He fixed things around the hotel sometimes, though he didn't know if she knew that. Hell, he was willing to bet she didn't even know his name. People tended to overlook him, after all. He was one of those people, the ones in the background important types didn't see, they looked through. "If you wanted." he said, making himself stop there, so he could quit tripping all over his words.

Evelyn weighed her options. The landlady was nice enough, but slow to respond to maintenance issues. And sometimes the guys she hired seemed to fix things in a manner that would break again. Evelyn suspected the mess-ups were intentional – because the probably clueless landlady would call the same guys back. And even though she had no idea whether Roy had any specific stove experience, she figured he’d be better than a money-hungry saboteur. But she could hear her brother’s voice warning her against letting strange guys into her apartment (or any guys into her apartment). And her desire to protect her secret was pushing to just deny the offer and cut their encounter short.

… but carrying so much stuff was kinda heavy; and did she really want to trek the stuff up and down stairs for the next week (if she was lucky)? Carefully coming to a decision, Evelyn gave a brief nod, “Sure, that’d be great. If you don’t mind, anyway.” Hearing her say it aloud reinforced the decision more and she gave a small grin. “If the Drake trusts you with their stuff, I guess I can trust you with my stove.”

Roy smiled, a shy sort of expression, though he was pleased she was taking him up on the offer. "I don't mind." he promised. "It'll give me something to do for a while." And it wasn't like the weather was nice outside. "There a maintenance closet around, maybe a tool kit?" he asked. He didn't have his with him, considering he'd been here for a social call, not to fix anything, but most buildings had something. And if not...well. He was pretty damn good at improvisation, now wasn't he.

“I think there’s a closet on the floor below,” she answered slowly, picturing the closet in her head and almost certain tools were kept there – although she couldn’t attest to their quantity or quality. “It’s usually locked, though. But sometimes somebody forgets to shut it.” And if it was locked… Evelyn wasn’t sure what to do. Even though she actually knew a good share of lock-pickers, she had never picked up the skill herself. “I do have some small tools from a model I’m working on.” Well, a model she had finally opened the box to, anyway. “But I think they’re a bit small.” She gave him a slight shrug and an apologetic smile.

He smiled. "Why don't I take a look first, then I'll see what I might need." he suggested. "You're working on a model?" he asked. That was odd. For a girl, anyways. He'd never met a girl before who did models. He'd had one once, back when he was younger, and before things had gone sharply to hell, but he didn't know what had happened to it. It probably had gotten broken by the younger kids at some point. He also waited til she opened the door, not wanting to be too overt with things. It was her place and all, so he'd wait for her to let them in.

“Not yet,” Evelyn amended as she twisted her key into the lock, a task made much easier by not having the pan or kettle to worry about. She then opened the door and stepped in, holding it open for him “I’ve only just opened the box.” She led him down the small hallway into the common room, leaving the door open because he would be heading downstairs anyway and because she wasn’t that trusting of strange men, harmless seeming or not. …Well, more ‘boy’ in this case. “Here’s the stove.”

The apartment didn’t have a separate kitchen; the kitchen, dining room, and living room were all rolled into one with one corner housing some cabinets, a stove, and an ice box. The two bedroom doors were located on opposite-facing walls with a small bathroom off the small hallway they had just walked through. Evelyn set her stuff down on their little dining room table, next to the roses that she hadn’t wanted to keep in her room but wasn’t heartless enough to throw out.

Roy noticed the roses, and wondered if they were hers or someone she lived with. But he also knew that asking wasn't going to be appropriate, so he didn't. "Nice flowers." he said instead, which would give her the opportunity to tell him the story if there was one to be told. He didn't waste time heading to the stove, though, and started tinkering, seeing what was and wasn't working. "You ever done a model before? What's it of?" he asked, curious about it.

“Oh, thanks.” She didn’t sound too enthusiastic about them, but she didn’t elaborate on the roses. Thinking of how to politely explain ‘I suspect they’re from a rude, moody, bipolar weirdo who I’d still prefer not to see again’ just gave her headache. But the subjects of planes and building things were something that had always gotten Evelyn excited, and she was eager to answer as she watched him at the stove.

“A plane – well, a Lockheed L-10 Electra model, to be exact. I’ve done one before – ages ago.” Her tone became more animated as she used her now free hands to tighten her robe and braid her hair, “It was a plane as well, not of this model though. It was this small little red one. It was a present from—” She caught herself there, realizing she almost broke her ‘don’t give personal info’ rule. The little model plane was an old present from her brother, one that she had actually brought with her during the move.

“—from a birthday,” Evelyn cautiously finished, taking the braid and carefully twisting it behind her head. It would’ve been easier to just go to her room and grab some pins, but her roommates were out and she felt uncomfortable disappearing into her room with the boy there.

Roy kept his attention on the stove, slowly working out the problem little by little. He glanced back at her with the huge, clear, obvious pause there where she switched what she'd been going to say. He wondered why people did that. Why they bothered going for something that was probably a lie. And why it was people expected others to just buy it. To smile, and nod, and let them get away with being ingeunine bastards. He knew the dark thoughts he had there were from the mood he'd been in in the first place, and it was why he didn't look back at her long, and then had his back to her again as he fiddled with things, dropping down to pull the stove out a little so he could get a look at the back of it. "Like planes then, I take it?" he asked, no hint of his ire in his tone. He was also used to just letting himself be treated like that. You had to when you did things for people in the mob.

Evelyn wouldn’t let herself fidget under his glance even though it made her uncomfortable. But her discomfort probably had more to do with her unsmooth cover-up than what she picked up in the glance itself. “Yes, I do.” she responded politely, sitting in at the table, careful now not to be so careless in her speech. But that wasn’t entirely the truth: it wasn’t just that she liked planes. It was the fact that mankind had literally used their ingenuity to soar above the clouds – it was the fact that, with hard work and creative problem solving, the Wright brothers had opened the door for Man to fly. It was an ideal that, in the past, Evelyn had happily rambled about and obviously used as a metaphor for her life. And even though it could still inspire her, it also brought to mind past dreams and current disappointments.

But that was a part of her Evelyn wasn’t willing to share with anybody. So she just watched Roy for a quiet moment, leaning towards the table as she propped her head up with her hand, before settling on a question of her own. “So… who’s your sister?” She was curious, both for curiosity's sake and because the information could be useful.

Roy hadn't been going to continue the conversation, but then she asked a question, and he knew it would be rude not to answer. "Have a butter knife?" he asked first, politely, finding what he thought was the issue. "And Marian Grady." he answered her. "She's up the hall, works at Nighthawk's." he provided, though the details were less for Miss Wright's information and more just to clarify who he was speaking about, since he knew that there were a whole lot of women staying here. Normally, since they were in a different setting to when he saw her at the hotel, he would have been taking the opportunity to get to know her better, to talk, and try actually coming up with a decent half of his conversation. He was shy, he knew he was, but he was generally better when there was less people around. But due to her blatant 'I'm going to not tell you what I was going to' thing, he didn't. And maybe he'd regret it later, when he saw her again and her eyes seemed as pretty as they had ten minutes ago, but at the moment, she'd definitely lost her shiny.

“Oh, I know her. Brown eyes, wavy brown hair?” Grady! That was it! She knew it was Gr-something. It was the name she had heard others call him, although it apparently was only his last name. And he was Marian’s brother? Evelyn stood up and dug around the drawers for the butter knife – it was something that each girl in the unit had her own particular place for. Finding it, she handed it over. “We’ve only talked a couple of times, though – our schedules don’t coincide that often.”

The girl seemed very bubbly and very sweet, but not all the time. There was something sad when Marian stared off into space. But, unlike her family, Evelyn wasn’t a good enough person to ever ask about it. She also doubted many of the other girls noticed; she was aware that she was generally more observant than most – although that skill was clouded when she was too lost in her own worries. Like now: she picked up the sense that Grady seemed more distant, but she didn’t know if it was due to her or due to apparently finding the stove’s problem. She observed him for a moment before finally continuing, “I could let her know that you stopped by, if you want.”

"That'd be appreciated, thank you, Miss Wright." Roy said automatically, since he was a polite boy if nothing else. Respectful, all that. He took a moment to twist a screw loose, and then he pulled the plug from the wall, so he could wind the wires tighter. "I was going to leave her a note, but couldn't find anything to write on, so that'd be great." he told her. Mostly he figured he'd just stop by again soon, or Marian would find her way to the vault. It was kind of getting around that time, when he figured she'd be showing up soon.

Yeah, he was back to polite now; well, he had never actually stopped being polite, but now it seemed more… professional. She didn’t know if it was because he was shy, or upset, or just preoccupied, but she didn’t comment on it. He was focusing on the stove and if there were something he wanted to share then it was his decision to share it. Evelyn didn’t appreciate others prying into her thoughts – or she told herself she didn’t, even though sometimes it could be a relief – so she did others the courtesy of not prying into theirs. Careful not to invade any personal space, she leaned against the counter and watched him curiously as he fiddled with the stove. She enjoyed watching things being built or fixed, and if she knew what the problem was now then she might be able to work it out herself later.

At his comment on the note Evelyn pushed herself off the counter. “Just a moment,” she murmured as she quickly headed towards her room. She walked back out in a matter of seconds, one hand holding her purse as the other dug through it. On her way back she left the purse on the dining table and strolled back to the counter. “Here you go,” she placed a pen and notepad, each imprinted with ‘THE DRAKE HOTEL’, on the counter next to the stove. She smiled at him, politely this time, thinking that maybe the more personal apartment setting just made things more awkward for him – it kinda did for her after all.

He hadn't expected her to provide paper or the like, and he didn't really want to leave a note. Even if Marian would probably work out it was him and all, it wasn't like his reading and writing skills were all that good. "My hands are all dirty...would you mind writing just that Roy was here?" he asked. He could manage it himself, it would probably just look childish. Or, that was his story and he was sticking to it. That and the dirty hands. Which technically, they actually were, so it was a valid excuse. It would also get her from hovering, which he didn't especially like. It made him feel self conscious, and like she was waiting for him to break something or make a mistake.

“Sure,” she answered, not thinking anything of it as she quickly jotted down the note and, finished, placed the pen next to it – just in case he wanted to add anything else. Roy, huh? At least she didn’t have to feel bad about not knowing his name; she was pretty certain she had only heard him referred to as Grady. But even though she shouldn’t have felt bad for not knowing it, she couldn’t help feeling relieved that she no longer needed to ask. She watched him for a couple of seconds, no longer leaning against the counter and hiding the awkwardness she felt as silence returned.

Fighting a sigh, Evelyn made her way to the ice box. “Would you like anything to drink? I’ve got orange juice, milk, and… well,” she nodded towards the sink, “there’s always water too.” Then, realizing something, she flashed him an apolegtic smile, “Sorry about my manners – I should’ve asked sooner.” If Roy had been fixing her family’s stove, the question would have been the first thing out of her mother’s mouth. But Evelyn wasn’t as naturally good and warm a hostess as her mother – not unless she specifically planned to host some sort of gathering, or was working, then she was excellent. But entertaining and catering to casual and surprise guests on her own time? Not so great.

"No thank you, ma'am." Roy said. In reality, he was kind of thirsty and the like, but he figured considering it had been a little bit of an afterthought, a late offer, that she wasn't genuine with it. So, he opted to just not go there, and then she wouldn't be angry later that there was another glass of fill-in-the-blank that she couldn't have. Or a dish to wash. If he hadn't been in a bad mood before, and she hadn't kicked at it inadvertently, his view on the situation would have been entirely different, but everything was now colored in that same light. It just didn't show much, save for his manner being polite, if short, like he behaved when doing something at the hotel. Just doing 'his job', no one wanted to socialize with him while he did it. Should have expected it. he told himself. Idiot.

He did, however, get the wires wound right, and then plugged it back in to see if there were any sparks. All seemed well, though, and he carefully started putting things back, where hopefully they wouldn't jar loose again, or do something like start a fire. He didn't think it would, but if he'd had electrical tape on hand, he would have used it. He just didn't at the moment, so he'd make due.

Evelyn didn’t push the issue as she closed the ice box. She wasn’t really the kind of person to repeat a question or offer, even if she sensed that the response given wasn’t 100% -- not that she was sensing anything from Roy other than he didn’t want a drink and was polite about it. If she had knew him better, and if she were asking about something more noteworthy than a drink, she would’ve bothered to make sure. She was better about doing that kind of thing with people she was more familiar with – an important exception being perhaps with her brother. Because sometimes it was just easier to deal with his excuses than know where how he really acquired his latest gift, or knowing that he got his ass beat for yet another pretty face.

And how did she get onto that train of thought? She blamed the silence, although Evelyn stopped trying to break it as she walked back over to the dining table and organized the mess she had left atop it. In spite of her earlier thinking, she was still looking forward to seeing Jesse and Jessie tomorrow – and she figured she’d do a surprise drop-in on the rest of her family as well, even stop by Dorothy’s place. A private, happy little smile snuck onto her face at that thought. She really could use a day of fun and a day with her family – especially since her father and sisters hadn’t been in when she dropped by. Evelyn sat at the table, moving onto organizing her purse, pulling out the tickets to double-check the show time, and wondering what she could offer to repay Roy for his time – even if he wasn’t able to fix the stove. For whatever reason, maybe just to concentrate, he seemed to prefer quiet while working. So she could give him that.

He was glad when she stopped talking, because it meant that he didn't have to come up with responses, but it did seem to put pressure on him to hurry up. Like she was done with whatever small talk she had in her, and he could leave now, any time. Which was fortunate, because he did have the thing fixed, or he thought so. Moving the stove back into place, he turned it on, and the burner started to glow, so he shut it back off again, quickly checking everything else over. "Fixed, ma'am." he said, looking back over at her. He picked up the note that she'd written for him, and noticed he left a smudge on it, but at least that way she'd know for sure it was him. "I'll get out of your way now." he added, heading towards the door. "Have a nice day'n all."

“Thank you!” Evelyn was excited, and impressed, at his fixing the stove (the typical maintenance staff would’ve made it a day-long process). But he was heading towards the door before she could properly express any of that. “Oh, wait!” She grabbed a couple of bills from her purse and sort of half-ran after him. “Here you go,” she said, reaching him as she offered him the money. She wasn’t sure if it was adequate or not – she didn’t know how complicated the problem had been or what the going rate for stove-fixing was, so she had (hoped) she estimated a little high, “for your trouble. And I don’t like feeling in debt if I can help it so I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. And you’ve really saved me a lot of trouble.” She smiled, and it was warm because he had really helped her out, but the words were true. She hated owing people – Evelyn worked hard to depend on herself and not have to owe anybody.

Roy hadn't expected that and he sort of retreated more towards the door, backing up towards it since he faced her when she ran up towards him. It was a habit, anyone who rushed up behind him got a response that was tension, a whirl around, and a defensive sort of jolt through his system, even if rationally he didn't think Amelia would hurt him at all. "No it's fine, I offered, I didn't say it was for any pay, it was just me offering, it's fine, it wasn't nothin to fix anyways." he told her. It hadn't taken much, really it was just a little wire twist and all was well. He stopped when his back hit the door, and only then realized that he'd continued backing away from her. He hadn't meant to, just when you lived a life where you got jumped sometimes, just because, it made you react certain ways unconsciously.

Evelyn kind of watched him curiously as he backed himself into the door. That was… unexpected. She was shorter than him by about two inches and he could easily physically overpower her – so she wouldn’t have thought she was imposing enough to be backed away from. She considered his refusal, but she still wasn’t entirely willing to accept it. Owing people just didn’t sit well with her. And even if the problem had been an easy fix for him, it didn’t change the fact that it saved her at least a week of lugging her dishes up and down stairs when she was hungry. “Alright; since it was an easy fix how about this?” She took out a smaller bill from those in her hand and held it out to him, not bothering to step forward lest she… spook… him again. “It’s enough to get yourself some breakfast – or brunch, I guess – on me.” After a momentary pause as she gauged his reaction, “maybe you could stop by Nighthawk’s and say hi to your sister?”

People didn't get it. And really, someone like her, she probably had no idea what it was like to actually live a hard life. She'd probably never in her life experienced what it was like to hear footsteps coming up behind you and the next thing you know your world explodes with pain and someone's rifling through your pockets for whatever you might have, and kicking you to keep you down. "Right, yeah, good idea, thank you, Miss Wright." he said, reaching out to take the bill, even if he still didn't quite feel right about taking it, he really hadn't had compensation in mind when he'd made the offer, he'd just wanted to be around her for a little longer. Which, really, had taught him a lesson he wouldn't soon forget so he was definitely taking something from the encounter. He just hadn't wanted money. "I've got to go." he told her, pocketing the bill with the note she'd written for him, even if he'd momentarily forgotten about the note in the first place. "Thank you, I'll see you around. Hope it stays fixed." he said, reaching behind himself to twist the knob, then slip out into the hallway. He wasn't necessarily turning and running, but he was of a mind to get the hell out of there.

Well, that went… awkwardly. Evelyn watched him go, feeling kind of… she wasn’t sure. A bit confused, definitely. She’d probably have a better grasp of what she felt if she knew whether this was his usual self or it was just her specifically that had… set him off, she guessed. Although he really hadn’t gone off at all, just – eager to get out the door. He hadn’t run out of it or anything, but in his polite and hurried good-byes, that left no room for her to say anything, he betrayed his eagerness to leave. And leave he did, before she could get the chance to ask him whether she should call him Roy or if he just always went by his last name.

But she had never actually talked to him before, much less enough, to determine if this was his usual behavior or not. And, really, after their awkward encounter Evelyn wasn’t sure if she wanted to – why bother trying to chat up somebody who made it awkward? Or who didn’t like her? Evelyn had better things to do, and she had family and friends who enjoyed her company. She wasn’t going to try and bother with somebody who didn’t want to be bothered. But her pride still felt a little sore, because who really appreciated a boy being kind of friendly at the beginning of an encounter only to eagerly leave at the end of it? It was possible that all that had nothing to do with her, but it still stung pride-wise.

Sighing, Evelyn closed the door and glanced at her watch. She still had some time to use her now-fixed stove for breakfast and finish getting ready for work. She walked back to the stove and turned on a burner. In spite of the awkwardness, she supposed she could still consider this a win. For her breakfast, at least.