Chapter Text
One thing about Ermes: She always acts before she thinks.
Sometimes her mouth would move faster than her brain does, leading her to say some of the most batshit crazy things. She was quite the colorful wordsmith.
Her mouth definitely moved a little too fast this time, landing her in quite the predicament. Not that it was exactly a bad thing, but…
Ermes didn’t know what exactly she was going to get herself into after impulsively inviting Mayume to be her roommate.
Sure, she knew her from the occasional chit chat with her while she was working at the gym, but… she didn’t really know her. She could’ve been a high end drug lord for all she knew, and she just casually invited her to take the extra room in her apartment.
Okay, so maybe that thought was a bit too extreme, just a bit over the top… She knew from past conversations with her that Mayume was just a senior at the local university who frequently came into the gym to lift weights.
But still! She didn’t really know this girl! She was just a customer from work. And she just casually invited her to live with her.
What.
Ermes guessed that the tears streaming down the poor girl’s face and her sad, sad sob story must’ve softened her rock solid heart that day. Something about Mayume let her extend her hand out to help her.
It was odd. Hmm.
She remembered the thick, upset energy that radiated off of Mayume when she had walked into the gym that day.
On a normal day, she’d be as happy as a clam, greeting Ermes whenever she came in to work out and asking her how she was doing before dropping off her gym bag in the locker room.
Today, it looked like someone sucked all the life out of her. She barely glanced at Ermes as she moped her way to the locker room.
All it took was for Ermes to stop her and ask her about the long face that she immediately burst into tears and gave her her whole life story.
Not even twenty minutes before arriving at the gym, she was met with what was essentially a surprise eviction e-mail: the apartment complex that she had lived at for the past three years was being shut down and the tenants had only two weeks to pack up their shit and leave.
Mayume explained that she basically had nowhere to go. Her three friends that she listed off didn’t have the space to accept a roommate long term, and it was too far in the semester for her to apply for housing at her school. Her parents lived four hours away in Saint Augustine, none of her older siblings lived nearby and she was in the middle of her student-teaching for her degree. There was no way on God’s green Earth that she could just drop everything and become an online student, especially in the middle of her senior year. There was no way that was going to be possible with her situation.
Unless some kind of miracle happened before October 13th, Mayume would be sleeping on the floor until she found a place of her own.
Something about her tugged at Ermes’ heart strings. It was strange, feeling so much sympathy for a near-stranger.
Without even thinking, she blurted out:
”I have a spare room in my apartment I can rent out to you. Help me with the rent and half of the bills and it’s all yours.”
Mayume stopped dead in her tracks.
She gaped at Ermes, trying to take in the gravity of her words.
Even Ermes looked like she was surprised with what she had just laid out on the table.
”What?” Mayume asked breathlessly.
”You heard me. Help me with half of the bills and half of the rent, and you can have my spare room at my place. Finding a new place within two weeks is definitely not in the cards. You’re gonna end up sleeping on one of your friends’ floors for a couple months or in the locker room until you find some place around here, if there’s even anything available.”
Ermes had no idea where this sympathy for a practical stranger was coming from, but she really did have a point about Mayume becoming homeless if she didn’t crash at anyone’s place.
Being a college town, apartment hunting was extremely competitive and it would even be a miracle if Mayume found anything that would even accept the possibility of putting in an application.
Mayume knew that pain all too well; it had been a huge pain in the ass to get her current apartment, and she had spent the past three years making it her home. All that hard work being thrown into the trash hurt like hell, but she had to roll with the punches.
She hadn’t expected Ermes to extend her arm out that far for her. She even didn’t know her all that well.
”But… are you sure? I-I don’t want to invade your space or anything, I’m so sorry for trauma dumping on you—“
”I wouldn’t be offering if I didn’t have at least a speck of trust in you. From our previous conversations, I can tell you’re a nice girl and you’re clean. Sooo… you can take it or leave it, kid.”
Ermes was shocked when she felt Mayume’s arms wrap around her body, weeping into her shoulder. She could hear her blabbering sobs of gratitude as she dug her face into her skin.
How did this girl still have tears in her body? God, she must’ve been dehydrated at this point!
Ermes awkwardly patted Mayume’s back until she turned off the faucet in her eyes finally.
“I’m assuming that’s a yes?”
”… Absolutely,” Mayume sniffled. “Thank you, Ermes. Jeez, I’m so sorry for slobbering on you,” she griped as she awkwardly cleaned Ermes’ shoulder and rubbed at her eyes.
“Nah, it’s fine. It’s the least I could do.”
Ermes Costello, what have you gotten yourself into this time?> She thought to herself.