A Study in Music Theory (Wesper AU)

Nineteen: The Farmhouse Pt. 1

It took fifteen minutes for them to open all the windows and doors on that first floor. Together, Jesper and Wylan discovered a beautiful kitchen supplied with every pan and plate they'd ever need, a dining room with hand crafted chairs on a hand-woven rug, and a living room similar in style to the one in Ira's apartment (though much older and much bigger). The kitchen had a door that led to the garden in the back, which was thankfully still alive after being abandoned for who knows how long. Jesper decided he'd check their garden's inventory later.

The second floor was much more exciting. Jesper counted two small bedrooms, one master suite, and two very nice bathrooms. Each room was fully decorated and dusty, just as the living room had been. It was creepy, really, like the people that had once inhabited these rooms had just disappeared.

They also weren't very much to Jesper's tastes. The master bedroom had ugly rose accents everywhere, while the other rooms were decorated like nurseries for spoilt little girls. One even had a small bed covered in porcelain dolls that gave him the shivers.

The third floor had three additional rooms (guest rooms, it seemed by the lack of knickknacks) as well as an art studio, and study. Jesper called dibs on the master bedroom, and Wylan luckily didn't seem to care. He actually seemed to find the smaller bedrooms rather "cute" and "simple". It was obviously the words of someone who's never been poor a day in his life.

Wylan and Jesper quietly worked their way up the house, opening up as many windows as they possibly could and letting the house breathe. The farmhouse seemed grateful, too. It practically gleamed in the natural light, letting Jesper in on its secrets in every room.

Still, they certainly weren't done yet. Jesper stood with Wylan in the study after opening the last window and examined their work. He had rolled his shirtsleeves up to his elbows, his collar undone and exposing his neck and collarbones. Wylan was flushed from the work, but he refused to even take off his sweater, which now had a layer of dust covering it.

"Alright, I think we need to start making a checklist or something," Jesper said. "If we're gonna live here, we need to tidy some things up and set some ground rules."

Wylan wiped away a bead of sweat from his forehead. "Agreed."

"This whole house needs a good wash," Jesper said. "It's just covered in grime, and there's no way that's up to code. We should focus on one room a day, maybe, just cleaning as much as we can so it's at least habitable.
"We'll also need to make sure the water storage is full or at least useable. If we're good about keeping our hot water useage low, we won't need to refill it very often; four or five times a year at most.
"I also need to check the gardens, still. Fall is the worst time to start farming, but if we don't start our inventory now, we'll starve."

"That's lovely," Wylan said with a roll of his eyes. "What else?"

"Well, that's probably gonna be most of it for the next couple of weeks," Jesper said with a shrug. "We can keep adding to the list, of course, until we're satisfied. Unless you'd like the add something right now."

Wylan brushed his curls back from his face and huffed. "I saw a radio downstairs," he said. "I'd like to fix it."

Jesper clapped his hands. "Sounds good! Look at us, working together so well."

"You'd almost think it was meant to be," Wylan joked awkwardly.

"We'll see about that," Jesper said with a wink. "Give it a day or two before I drive you mad."

Wylan smiled coyly. "You already do, Jesper Fahey."

Jesper almost weeped when he stepped into the garden. He had been worried sick that he'd have nothing to work with — that they'd be starting from scratch just as winter was sweeping its chilly tendrils onto the world — but it was just the opposite. It would have been impossible to count how many overgrown vegetable plants claimed the farm as their home or how old the thick orchard trees looked. It felt like a blessing from the Saints themselves as the fear of starving this winter dissipated from Jesper's mind.