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“You gonna give me a house tour, then?” Jayce teased, tone joking. Caitlyn, however, took that rather seriously.
A few weeks ago, she had moved out of the small apartment she shared with her best friend, Jayce, as she had finally graduated from college– and no longer had any need to be stuffed into that little flat any longer.
Now, her and her girlfriend finally had the chance to move in together– into whatever house they wanted, not limited by anything.
The only problem with that, though, was that none of their friends knew they were dating.
“As a matter of fact, yes ! I am,” Caitlyn grinned, taking the joke in her stride and spinning the camera of her phone around– giving Jayce an eyeful of the bedroom she shared with Vi.
She roamed around the quaint room, first showing Jayce the double bed– covered in expensive sheets and cute plush toys. “All of my children actually manage to fit on this bed now,” she stated, aiming the position of the camera closer to her cuddly toys, zooming in on them all.
In the past four years that she lived with Jayce, she had to keep the majority of her plushies on the floor– there hadn't been enough space on her single bed for all of them, and she still needed somewhere to sleep, despite the rather large haul of them.
“Are there some new ones there?” Jayce asked, inquisitively raising an eyebrow.
Caitlyn hummed for a second or two, “No,” she lied– taking the camera a little further back.
In truth, the bed withheld both her and Vi’s plush toys– something which they had both collected. In fact, Caitlyn remembered how Vi had made such a big deal once they moved in together about how their stuffed animals would now be siblings; and Caitlyn had thought it was the cutest thing in the world, seeing her girlfriend all excited over such a childish hobby.
“Seriously, Cait? You've been living on your own for all of two weeks and you're already wasting all your budget on plushies?”
“I’m not,” Caitlyn retorted– patting a few of her cuddly toys on the head before pulling away from her bed entirely, flipping her camera back around to show her face so that she could argue properly with Jayce.
He chuckled, before continuing his accusation, “Somehow I don't believe you.”
Caitlyn stuck her tongue out at the camera– an incredibly immature gesture, but one that Jayce seemed to find funny as he snorted from the other side of the phone. “And besides which, I’m not on my own– I have Vi,” she explained, making an obvious show of rolling her eyes.
“Vi collects, too– she probably enables you,” Jayce grinned through the phone screen, eyes creasing while the corners of his lips teased upwards.
“I'll have you know that my poor financial decisions are my own! ” Caitlyn replied, almost offended that Jayce thought her ridiculous collections were a result of anyone but herself, “Vi has nothing to do with this.”
“ Right.” Jayce, seemingly still not buying it, responded, “Go on then– show me the rest of your room.”
“ Okay,” Caitlyn agreed– flipping the camera of her phone back over and making her way over to her compact corner desk. “Here's my desk– it's covered in trinkets and shit.”
And, Caitlyn wasn't exactly wrong– the wooden desktop was littered with different blind box figures, pieces of cute stationary, and pens – lots of pens.
“It looks even more of a mess than it used to,” Jayce sputtered out, giggling over the fact that Caitlyn had been in her new house for less than a month , and had already found a way to leave a mess.
Putting on a front of mock offense, Caitlyn spouted out a response, “I'll have you know that it's a very organised chaos.”
“Sure it is, Sprout, do you even know where anything is?”
“I do!” Caitlyn huffed out, pointing towards a stack of books. “Over there is my reading list,” she explained- picking up a book or two before plopping them back down onto the pile with a thud !
Then, she spun her phone past the mirror– where she gave a little wave at herself, the man on the other line’s giggling only increasing in response– settling the camera’s frame onto one of her drawers. “And here's all my makeup.”
And, finally, Caitlyn panned the camera across the whole desk, showcasing off her various little figurines and keepsakes. “Finally, my trinkets– the most important part.”
Jayce laughed– shaking the camera as he did so, the bottom of his face leaving the frame slightly, “What about the actually important things?”
“Those are important, Jayce.”
“ Sure.”
“It's not like I have any work or anything to store there anymore– I finished college already!” Caitlyn groaned– although she wasn't actually frustrated, continuing their light banter.
“ Whatever,” Jayce disregarded the topic, trying to keep a straight face between all of their joking and teasing, “You got anything else in your room you wanna show me or are we moving on to another room?”
“Uhm…” Caitlyn contemplated for a second, scanning her eyes around the room. There was a whole other side to it which Jayce had yet to see– but that was mostly Vi’s stuff. And Jayce didn't know they were dating, let alone that they shared a room. “No– onto the living room.”
Caitlyn kept the camera ahead of her as she toed along the soft carpet, stopping for a brief second once she reached the only other door within the second floor, wrapping her fingers around the cold metal handle– pulling it wide open.
“Your living room is upstairs?” Jayce asked, raising his eyebrow from the other end of the line. Caitlyn quickly flashed a glance towards her phone, where she held back a slight grin at the absolute look on his face.
“Yes.” Caitlyn rushed to reply. She wasn't quite sure why there was an issue with her living room being upstairs– in her eyes, that was a perfectly reasonable thing to do. After all, the Kiramman Mansion housed a few different relaxation rooms upstairs.
“That's the only other door up here– where does Vi sleep?”
“Uhm..” Caitlyn paused for a beat, before her brain filled in the blanks for her. “Her room’s downstairs.” Another falsity escaped Caitlyn’s lips, tumbling out of her mouth before she even got the chance to register that she was deceiving Jayce once more.
“You put the living room upstairs and Vi’s bedroom downstairs?” Jayce raised an eyebrow once more, amusement spreading across his stupid little face.
“She prefers the wooden floor.” God, what was wrong with her today? Just spewing lie after lie– this was going to be impossible to explain once Jayce finally got the time to come over and visit himself, physically, rather than through the phone; where Caitlyn could make up as many falsehoods as she felt were necessary.
“Weirdo.”
“Hey.” Caitlyn scolded, flipping her camera towards her face again so that she could poke her finger against the lens as many times as she felt possible– telling him off for insulting her roommate-slash-girlfriend. “Play nice.”
Jayce couldn't hold back his laughter, giggling in copious amounts as Caitlyn fake-poked him through the screen of his phone.
The laughter died down after a minute or two, Caitlyn switching her camera back around to showcase the room around her, panning it from left to right. Jayce eventually spoke up, prompting her to show some different parts of it in more detail, “O-kaaay, so what's in this fancy old room?”
“ Well, over there’s the TV– and with that is Vi’s PS3 and Nintendo Switch,” Caitlyn edged slightly closer to the black television stand, showing off their fancy TV in its full glory, before angling her camera towards the two consoles which rested on the stand.
Jayce was silent from the other line– giving Caitlyn a chance to dart her eyes over towards her phone screen, where Jayce was running a hand through the top of his hair. “Why does she still have a PS3?”
Caitlyn shrugged, visible in the way that the frame of her camera shook up and down, “Apparently the games are good enough that she doesn't feel the need to get an upgrade.”
“Buy that poor girl a PS5 for christmas.” Jayce told her, apparently very unaware of his ignorance.
Caitlyn simply tutted at him– furrowing her eyebrows, despite being aware that he wouldn't be able to see it. “I think she'd be offended– she loves that PS3, Jayce.”
Jayce’s tone was filled to the brim with sarcasm the next time he spoke– not entirely convinced of Caitlyn's words, “Sure she does.”
“I'm serious! It's got all of her and her siblings' game data on it from when they were kids– she wouldn't trade it for the world.” Caitlyn rushed to argue, giving another glance towards the slightly battered gaming console, “Not everything is about money.”
“That's rich coming from you, Miss Kiramman.”
Caitlyn hummed for a second, before realising her hypocrisy, “Maybe it is.” she giggled, “Anywayyyy, moving swiftly on, here's the sofa.” Caitlyn spun around on one foot, giving Jayce a proper view of their brown, leather sofa. Vi had chosen this sofa from a thrift store– and Caitlyn had been a little dubious at first, but eventually gave in when she realised how well it would match the rest of the room.
“Ew leather,” Jayce complained– as if this were his house.
Caitlyn didn't see an issue with the sofa being leather– it was easy to clean, and meant that she could do what ever she wanted with Vi on it; no worries about the stains which might follow. But, obviously, that wasn't something she'd be telling Jayce.
Instead, she settled on reprimanding him– again, for what felt like the fiftieth time that morning, “Can you keep your mouth shut and appreciate the room tour?”
“No.” He grinned– tone sarcastic, “I think my input is rather necessary.”
Caitlyn only groaned in response to that– because when has a man’s input ever been necessary? “Not when you're judging my roommate’s lifestyle choices.”
“Mighty protective of her, aren't you?” Jayce accused– although the tone of his voice wasn’t particularly accusatory, and instead would be better described as joking.
Caitlyn froze for a second, keeping her phone camera very still while she came up with a response. “Well yeah, I live with her.” She settled on, before being overcome with the need to explain herself further, “She's a good friend.”
“You sure that's all she is?” and now Jayce was accusing her, her eyes flickering to the screen of her phone just to find the man with his eyebrow raised, maybe a little closer to the camera than he had been in the past few minutes.
Caitlyn was in half a mind to reply with a ‘No’, but that would force her to explain it all– to elaborate that they’d been dating for nine whole months. And so, instead, she forced out a rather simple “Yes.”
Then, quickly changing the topic, she spun her phone around, panning it across the room to gauge an idea of what else she could show Jayce. The room itself wasn’t the most interesting one in the house– it had its fair share of cute decorations and little nerdy statues and figures. But other than that? It was rather dull.
“What else can I show you in here.. Uhmmm…” She mumbled, now squinting her eyes towards various different corners– towards the white walls, and grey carpet, before her eyeline finally reached something of note. “Oh-! the bookshelf!”
Caitlyn trod towards their brown, wooden bookcases– standing a few metres away so that she could show the extent of them, before getting a little closer. She first showed the first case, put the camera up towards the top case, slowly dragging it downwards (and eventually finding herself on the floor) so that she could show Jayce everything.
Jayce, from the other end of the phone, squinted his eyes– getting ever so closer to the camera as he tried to discern what books were on the shelf, “Was that a whole shelf of manga?”
Caitlyn nodded, despite being very aware that Jayce wouldn’t even be able to see her, “Half of it is Jinx’s collection– according to Vi, she ran out of space in her own apartment for it.”
“So you're the one who has to deal with it?”
“Why not? we have the space.”
“ Right.” Jayce confirmed, nodding his head– maybe still a little confused, “And is that a lego kit on the bottom shelf?”
Caitlyn panned the camera back down again, showing off the sets of lego on said bottom shelf, “Vi likes to complete lego sets next to me while I read,” She told Jayce. She smiled a little to herself, brain reminding her of all the countless times she’d spent curled up onto the sofa, a good book in hand while Vi’s hands scrambled over the little pieces of plastic– assembling them into impressive sculptures.
“You're like an old married couple.” Jayce stated, laughing as he did so.
Caitlyn couldn’t exactly argue against that one– they were, in fact, a bit like an old married couple. There were countless times where they’d find themselves gardening together, going on long nature walks– or, there were multiple instances where Vi would be in the kitchen, cooking dinner, while Caitlyn sat atop one of their kitchen stools– ball of wool in hands while she knitted.
“ Whatever,” she chose to brush it off, instead, not really wanting to entertain the idea right this minute.
“Is that it for the living room, then?” Jayce called– prompting a topic change, giving Caitlyn the chance to get up from the floor near where the sets of lego laid. And she did as such– pulling up her long legs.
Caitlyn glanced across the room, at the unshown rest of the bookshelves, at the remainder of her and Vi’s collections of trinkets and other nerdy shit. She could show them to Jayce– but Jayce wasn’t really into the same type of nerd stuff that her and Vi were into. He’d probably be happy to see it all, anyway, as he’d never been the type of person to groan or complain when Caitlyn info dumped to him about her special interests. But, regardless, she decided that now would probably be a better time to move on.
However, instead of taking the time to verbalise all of.. That , she decided to respond with a rather quick, fairly simple “I think so..”
“Where to next?” Jayce asked, eagerly watching as Caitlyn exited the living room– bringing her back out into the grey carpeted stairwell.
“Uhmmm…” She paused for a second, flipping the camera back around so that Jayce could only see her face– just in case Vi was wandering around downstairs, where she likely didn’t expect to be seen. “I doubt you wanna see the bathroom, or the laundry room, or probably even the cupboard so– the dining room, maybe?”
“Not much of a house tour if you're gonna exclude half the rooms.” Jayce stated, somewhat jokingly, pushing himself a little further away from where he had been from his side of the line, grabbing a drink and then coming back into view.
Caitlyn only raised an eyebrow in response, taking the first few steps towards their carpeted stairs– beginning her descent down them. “You want to see those ones?”
“Not really.”
“Point proven.”
Caitlyn’s head bobbed up and down through the phone screen as she travelled downwards, the carpet soft against her bare feet. She was still in her striped pyjamas, actually– it was still only early morning, and she had yet to get dressed just yet. It was maybe a little lazy of her, but she’s sure Vi wouldn’t be dressed yet, either.
Eventually, she reached another dark, wooden door, twisting open the gold of the handle– revealing the expanse of her and Vi’s dining room.
It was a simple, maybe slightly boring, room– with the main centre of it being, well, the dining table. And there wasn’t much else to it other than that.
“We haven't really used this room much yet,” Caitlyn confessed, flipping the camera back away from her face– giving Jayce an eyeful of the scarcely decorated room.
Jayce hummed a little, his eyes flickering between all of the different aspects of it, before asking a rather simple, “Why not?”
“We got some cool stools in the kitchen which are like– the perfect height for the countertops,” Caitlyn explained– finally taking a step into the room, onto the cold stone floor. “So we eat there most of the time.”
“Why even bother with a dining room?”
“For when we have guests visiting.” Caitlyn replied as if it was obvious, tucking a lock of hair behind her ears while she scanned her eyes around the room– desperate for something even slightly interesting to show her friend. Instead, however, she ended up talking about Vi again, “Vi has a big family, so they wouldn't all fit on our kitchen stools.”
Jayce laughed– his eyes brightening when he seemingly came to some sort of realisation, “And your parents would probably have a few choice words to say about the lack of a 'proper table and chairs’” he mocked, putting on a fake, posh accent.
Caitlyn only chuckled in response– she had known Jayce for so long now that it was almost like he knew her parents better than she did, his description of them being perfectly accurate. “ Oh, wouldn’t they just.”
Eventually, the laughter died down– paving a path for Jayce to ask one, final question about the room they were in currently, “You got anything else to say about your fancy little dining room?” he queried, eyes still darting across his phone screen. Then, he stated one of his observations about it, one that Caitlyn had already been very aware of, “It looks like the least lived in out of all the rooms here.”
“Uhhhh” Caitlyn hummed, half affirmative, half contemplative, “Not really– do you wanna move on to the kitchen?”
“Hell yeah,” Jayce grinned– seemingly a little more enthusiastic. Caitlyn wasn’t quite sure, however, whether his enthusiasm was aimed at going to the kitchen, or if it was just for the house tour finally coming to an end.
Caitlyn strolled back out of the dining room, making her way over to the little kitchen door, which she swiftly pulled open, only to reveal–
To reveal Vi standing there, cooking bacon in nothing but her boxers?
She felt an immense amount of heat rise to her cheeks, quickly scrambling to switch the perspective of her camera around so that it was facing her and not the rest of the kitchen, just to find that she ended up dropping the phone face up in the process. Flustered out of her mind, Caitlyn hadn't even noticed that Vi had turned around– that she had said good morning, or given a sweet little wave.
A little taken aback, Vi furrowed an eyebrow, turning down the heat of the stovetop with a hand behind her back,
“ Cait?” She called out, allowing her eyes to trail downwards– towards where the loud crashing sound had come from.
Caitlyn took a second or two to respond– and when she did, it was light; breathy, “Vi.”
The two glared at each other for a beat, Caitlyn refusing to let her eyes trail any lower than Vi’s neck, with Vi still slightly confused.
All of her confusion, however, seemed to dissipate the second Jayce opened his mouth from the other end of the line, “Were those hello kitty boxers?”
Snapped out of her thoughts by Jayce’s sudden voice, Caitlyn abruptly reached down and picked up her phone– where Jayce’s eyes had gone wide from the other line, most likely not expecting… that .
Caitlyn had recognised them within seconds of catching a glimpse of Vi in the kitchen, carefully cooking away. She knew what they were– after all, Vi had been kind enough to gift her a matching, pink, hello kitty-covered thong of her own for her last birthday, absolutely delighting in the dark pink flush which spread across her cheeks in response to it. She wasn't quite sure what she had been expecting, considering the fact that she owned quite a few miscellaneous undergarments that were gifted to her by Vi.
“Yessir,” Vi answered, “Does the golden boy not fuck with my hello kitty boxers?”
Then, suddenly processing what had happened, Vi turned back towards the kitchen stove top, grinning as she did so. She took the spatula that had been discarded on the counter, flipping over one of the pieces of bacon which resided in the frying pan.
That brought a smile to the corners of Caitlyn's cheeks, brushing any dust off of her phone screen and checking for any newfound cracks or scratches, “Apparently not.”
“No, no– they're cool.” Jayce rushed to respond– throwing his hands up in defeat from across the line.
The silence that followed was maybe a little awkward, only the sound of bacon sizzling and Vi’s whistling there to break it up. The radio wasn’t on (like it usually was when Vi made breakfast) and none of them were really sure what to say.
Eventually, however, Caitlyn found herself being the first to part her lips– realising that she should probably make sure Jayce didn’t see her half-naked girlfriend. “You.. didn't see anything, did you?”
“See what?” Jayce, ignorant as ever, replied.
That earned a loud chuckle from Vi’s direction– one that likely would have been a full-blown, hearty laugh had it not been for the man on the other line. And Caitlyn couldn’t do much to hide the smile that curved onto her lips in response to Vi’s laughter.
“Well–” She continued to explain, not quite sure how Jayce could be that oblivious, “Vi is currently standing in my kitchen. Very shirtless.”
“ Oh.” Was all Jayce managed to say, his eyes widening while the cogs in his brain turned– finally realising what the whole situation was. He then nodded upon taking it all in, coming up with a reply, “If I did, then I didn't notice– too focused on the hello kitty boxers.”
“ Right.”
“ And the tattoo– cool tat, by the way.” Jayce complimented– beaming through the phone screen. Jayce had a time a few years ago where he almost considered getting a tattoo himself, and it had taken his and Caitlyn’s entire friend group to convince him not to. Usually, they were supportive of each other– but both the positioning of this tattoo, and the concept were such utterly awful ideas; not something Jayce would want to have plastered on his body within the next few years.
Vi grinned, flipping over another piece of bacon, spinning her head around to reply despite the fact that Jayce wasn’t in the room to see it and Caitlyn’s camera was no longer focused on her anymore. “Thanks– glad to know my time in prison wasn't a complete waste.”
“So.. you didn't see anything?” Caitlyn checked once more, the anxiety in the bottom of her stomach still eating away at her ever so slightly.
“Nope.”
“Okay,” she breathed out, “ Good.”
It had been her mistake, really, not to check where Vi was or what she was doing before showing Jayce around– but who could blame her? She hadn’t exactly expected Vi to be wearing little to nothing, that wasn’t something either of them did unless they were in bed.
“You hungry, Cupcake?” Vi called, turning herself around ever so slowly, still testing the waters as to where Caitlyn’s camera was. When Caitlyn didn’t scurry away from her, and instead let her eyes scan over her bare skin, she smiled sweetly– raising a hand to ruffle through her hair. “I uh.. I think I cooked too much bacon.”
“Just a second– let me wrap this up,” Caitlyn muttered out in response, trying her hardest not to ogle too hard, instead switching her view towards the plate of cooked bacon and the box of eggs that had yet to be opened.
Most times, before she left Vi by herself in a room, Caitlyn would press a quick little kiss to her cheek, or her jaw, or sometimes her collar bone– but today, she had to disregard that. Instead, making her way over to the door again.
“Oh, yeah– sure, see you in a minute,” Vi called– waving her off, giving Caitlyn the chance to exit their kitchen.
Now, she lingered around their hallway, still slightly in shock from it all, wondering how she’d describe that to Jayce.
“I suppose you’ll get to see my kitchen another time, then?” She began– trying to find a plausible excuse within the mess that was her mind.
Jayce, however, was straight to the point, not wasting any time entertaining Caitlyn’s small talk. “Does she do that often?” he asked, eyebrow raised.
“No,” Caitlyn hummed, “First time.”
“You seemed pretty unbothered,” Jayce noted– an observation most other people wouldn’t have really cared to pay attention to.
“Well, yeah.” Caitlyn tried to play it cool– considered passing it off as just a.. Thing.. Between two friends, “It’s just Vi.”
“You’d probably yell at me for being half-naked in your kitchen– why is Vi allowed?”
“Because she’s Vi.”
“Be careful making exceptions like those– I’m half convinced you two are fucking in secret,” Jayce groaned, throwing out an accusation. It wasn’t entirely wrong, but Caitlyn wasn’t really awake enough to admit that.
“Don’t be crude, now.” Instead, she chose to reprimand him. “Anyway– you heard her, I have breakfast to attend to.”
“So you do.”
“I’ll call you again soon?”
“Yeah,” Jayce nodded, taking one, final sip of the drink that he had acquired about halfway through their call, “I should be free on Tuesday.”
“Cool– Bye Jayce.”
“Bye, Sprout.”
Caitlyn swiftly hung up her phone, spinning back around on herself and eagerly twisting open the kitchen door– met once again with the view of Vi, in nothing but her hello-kitty covered boxers, this time making fried eggs.
She wouldn’t trade this for the world.