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The bed was something new. Leo didn’t want to admit to it or let the other house members know, but he’d never had one like this.
He had spent most of his life living on the streets, sleeping on anything he could find. Having a soft surface to lay on was a luxury back then. And so it was at the monastery too. Lorién used to remind him that he could take it away at any point.
Leo knew the other boys had proper beds.
When he’d arrived at the monastery, the first year or so he had shared a room with a couple other kids and had a bed of his own. He really should have enjoyed it more back then. After a while Lorién had moved him to his own room. He was happy about not having to share his room with the other kids - who tended to bully him on a daily basis - but he did miss the comfort of his bed.
In the old dusty storage room that Lorién had repurposed as “Leo's room” he only had a mattress to sleep on. It was fit for an eleven year old but as Leo grew the mattress stayed the same. And Leo grew to be tall, so to fit on the mattress properly he would have to hug his knees to his chest. To be fair he probably would have ended up sleeping like that whether or not the mattress was a fit, since the position brought him comfort - especially after a long day of training when his limbs were aching and head pounding - but it would have been nice to have an option.
And Lorién never bothered to switch out the mattress. Which wasn’t a shock to Leo, considering after a week or two living in the old storage room he realized Lorién had no intention of redesigning the room at all. All the storage boxes stayed, the only light was a spare candle Leo would occasionally replace from the kitchen and the only proper furniture was the old wardrobe that Leo didn’t even have stuff to put in. He on the other hand was put in the closet multiple times by Lorién when locking him in his room wasn’t enough of a punishment for “bad behavior”. Leo wasn’t dumb. He knew that the reason Lorién put him in his own “room” wasn’t because he didn’t get along with the other kids at the monastery. It was because this room could be locked from the outside.
So a lock on the inside of his own bedroom at the manor was also a completely new thing. But he’d figure out how he felt about that another day. Right now all he could think about was the bed he was sitting on. The mattress was maybe the most comfortable thing he’d ever laid his ass on.
How was he supposed to ever get up from this?
He laid down on it - simply to test it out - and just that action already made his eyes tear up.
When he’d run away from the monastery he’d known that he was giving up everything that Lorién had given him. The daily meals, the lessons which brought him meaning and the luxury of a place to sleep in. But to end up with an upgrade was something he had not expected.
This hadn't been the plan.
He wasn’t supposed to get comfortable..
And suddenly the mattress, the room, a lock on the inside - all of it - felt like too much.
What if he had to leave and the downgrade from this bed to sleeping on the streets would be something he couldn’t handle? What if he fell asleep too comfortably and wouldn’t wake up to the footsteps approaching his room in the morning?
As he ran hundreds of “what ifs” in his head he scrambled out of the bed and onto his feet and started pacing his room. No no no not his. He didn’t have stuff. He could get used to the idea of his. That stuff didn’t last - it never had. He'd given up his room when he ran away.
And as suddenly as he had gotten up, he now needed air. That's how he ended up sitting on the porch of the manor, staring at the woods ahead. But he didn’t get to sit there alone for long: The footsteps approaching alarmed Leo of someone coming and the boy was up before the door was even opened.
“Oh I didn't mean to startle you!” Larkspur laughed as he stepped outside. The tall purple tiefling who Leo had just met a couple days prior - but was now sharing a house with - closed the door and sat down on the porch. He patted the wood with his hand in an invite for Leo to sit down next to him and so Leo did.
“Soo.. Have you settled in yet?” Larkspur asked with the same smile still on his face. A smile that soon dropped to a concerned look when Leo simply looked away instead of answering.
“Is the room not to your liking?” Now that got Leo to quickly move his eyes back to the tiefling.
“No no!! I mean.. YES! It’s perfect! Really! I'm really grateful!”
Larkspur simply gave a light hearted laugh at the boy and continued: “Because if it wasn’t, we can find you another at the house. There’s plenty here! You could join me and Wis upstairs... Or we could move the furniture around!”
Leo’s eyes widened. “I-.. I’m allowed to move stuff around?”
“Um.. Yes. It’s your room? You can do whatever you want with it! We can even go shopping if you feel like the room needs something.”
“No!! Like I said, it's very nice! It’s actually so nice I… I’m not used to it.”
“Well. Try moving stuff around! Aaaaand if you need help you can ask me! Or I'm sure Wisteria could also help you out.” Larkspur said as he got up from the porch, dusting his clothes and starting to head back in. He stopped at the door and held it open for Leo to follow.
And Leo did.
He headed back to his room after Wisteria, Larkspur’s sister - who also had moved into the manor - had forced him to sit down and eat some of her baked goods. She had somehow already managed to get them done while everyone else was settling in. Apparently the smell would help make the place feel more like home - or so Wisteria had said.
It definitely didn’t smell like the monastery, but that was a good thing Leo decided.
When Leo got back to the bedroom he got to work.
First he moved the bed to the corner furthest away from the door. He angled it so when he was lying down he’d have a perfect view of the entrance. A lock inside the room didn’t mean anything if someone had a key. He made sure he had clear access to the windows as well in case he needed to get out quickly. It would also be nice to have a way to sneak out, maybe up onto the roof from here.
After moving the bed to his liking he looked at the body length mirror. Without thinking too much of it, he flipped it around and left it be. Another thing to figure out how he felt about later.
And lastly he tucked his stuff under the bed. As he was doing so a thought popped into his head: Maybe the reason Lorién didn’t allow him to have a bed frame at the monastery was for this exact reason. It worked well as a hiding spot for his valuable items. He kept his stuff in the small bag he had taken from the monastery when he ran away, still fully packed and ready to go if need be.
When everything was organized, Leo sat down on his bed and sighed. He took a long look at the room and smiled.
He could work with this room.
His room.