salute [h.s]

chapter 25 - stressful surgery & troublesome trackers

"No. No way. I'm not going in there."

Piper stopped halfway up the stairs and turned back. Marlow was standing at the bottom of the stairs, in the doorway to the building, and she was sneering at the peeling paint on the floorboards and the mysterious stain on the carpet.

"Come on, Marlow. Please?" Piper pleaded as she skipped back down the steps. The real estate agent who'd been showing them around gave a long sigh at the top of the stairs and began tapping her foot impatiently. Marlow narrowed her eyes at her over Piper's shoulder. "It's the last one, I promise." Piper took Marlow by the hand and attempted to drag her into the building. Marlow, it turned out, was stronger than she looked and didn't budge. "Please, please, please."

"Be serious, Piper," Marlow hissed so the estate agent wouldn't hear them. "You don't actually want to live in a place like this, do you? Your flat on Whitechapel is ten times better."

What Piper couldn't tell Marlow was that she had to move because there was a member of crime syndicate living a floor above her so she'd had to paint some excuse about bad landlords (which wasn't really a lie at all because Curtis was a wanker) and shoddy pipes. It was the only way she'd convinced Marlow to come out on this flat hunting expedition with her.

"The bottom line is that I need to move. Soon." Piper looked pleadingly at Marlow as she tugged on her hand. "Please, just come up and take a look with me? I need a second opinion."

"Fine," Marlow grumbled as she let Piper pull her up the stairs, her foot clomping unhappily on each step. "But only because I'm afraid you're actually going to lease one of these horrid flats."

They'd been to four that afternoon already and all of them were pitiful. Most were rundown and smelled weird. One of them had a bathroom so grimy and deplorable that Marlow had literally fled the premises, complaining about this being "the worst way to spend her day off". Piper wasn't all that happy about it either but she was working on a limited budget and a limited schedule — she couldn't be choosy.

They were shown into the flat and within seconds, Marlow was murmuring under her breath about mold and peeling wallpaper. "I don't know why you brought me," Marlow huffed as they both tried to squeeze into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and immediately shut it at the sight of whatever was sitting in it, sticking her tongue out with disgust. "I mean, Harry's practically going to be living at your flat too so shouldn't he have a say?"

That was pretty much the argument Harry had given Piper on Tuesday when she'd told him that she was going flat hunting. He'd shown up, ready to pack her things up and move her out because her lease was meant to be ending the next day. It hadn't gone well when she'd told him she extended it for two weeks and paid Curtis way too much money to do it. He seemed to be confused of her motives. She kindly reminded him that she didn't have a flat to move into.

"You're moving in with me," he'd said immediately like it was the most obvious thing on the planet.

"Oh am I? Remind me, when did I agree to that? Better yet, when did you ask me?"

Harry had spluttered for an answer that didn't seem misogynistic and controlling, and then finally he just sat down on her bed with a sigh. "Sorry," he'd mumbled. "I shouldn't have assumed. I just thought it'd be natural for you to move in with me once the lease was up. We used to spend most of our nights together anyway."

"Used to," she'd pointed out. "We're taking things slower, remember? And I sort of like how it's been going."

They'd been trying this new "slower" thing over the last week and Piper was really enjoying their new dynamic. Instead of being with each other all the time, they arranged to have tea or get dinner together. They went out on a real, honest-to-god date. The time apart was making the time spent together more special. Everything felt more meaningful because it was saved up and held onto until they finally had the chance to be together. There was a sense of thoughtfulness that had never been a big part of their relationship before.