I'm not sure exactly when I finally fell asleep but it was definitely late when I did. Or should i say early? The alarm on my phone startled me awake and i hurriedly shut off the annoying chime. With a yawn, I stood stretching running my hands through my hair. My fingers came back feeling slightly greasy so i decided to take a quick shower. Someone was pounding on my front door when i finally step out of the bathroom and i rushidly pulled on my robe before opening the door.
"Nice place you got here, decent neighborhood. Although real poor security, it took me like three seconds to get the pass code for the stairwell."
"Wrench?!"
"The one and only." He said with a mock bow.
"It's not even eleven, i thought we were going to meet up at noon." I murmured, self consciously grabbing a hold of the edge of my robe and pulling it tighter around me. I paused, "Wait, did you actually follow me home last night!?"
"No, that would just be weird." He brushed past me inviting himself in. "I put a tracker on your phone and traced the signal here." He replied before nonchalantly sprawling himself across my couch.
"Oh yeah, that's so less weird." I said shutting the door.
"Hey, at least if you ever get kidnapped i'll know where to find you." he said. "Then i can bust in and heroically save you...again."
"Not after i disable it and you sooo did not save me." I rolled my eyes. "And get your feet of my couch." I hissed swatting his leg until he moved his mud covered shoes off my furniture.
"Can't disable it, it's coded into the DedSec app. You'll have to delete the app or some pretty intense coding to disable it." I could basically hear the smirk in his voice.
"Whatever, why are you here." I sighed. I wasn't going to let that go though. DedSec may be my friends and allies but they didn't need to know where I was 24/7.
"I was hungry." he shrugged stretching, his hands under his head. I saw the way his legs twitched as though he was thinking about putting them up on the coffee table. I shot him a glare, crossing my arms over my chest as i stared down at him. He seemed to think twice about it. "But i wanted to keep our date soooo i figured we'd grab something to eat first."
"You could have texted me instead of barging into my apartment." i stated.
"You didn't answer any of my text from yesterday." He said raising his hands in defense. "Besides what the fun in that?"
"Fine, give me a minute to change." i muttered walking into my room.
"Why you don't want to go like that?" he yelled after me and I flipped him off as i turned to shut and lock my door.
I could still hear him laughing as I grabbed the last set of clothes out of my suitcase. I'd been in San Francisco for over a week and still hadn't had the effort to put my clothes away into the dresser yet. Instead the majority of them were laying on the floor in pile at the end of my bed needing to be washed. Which was something i was also to lazy to do yet.
"That was longer than a minute." he complained as i walked out still drying my hair with the towel.
"Oh, i'm so sorry." i cooed.
"You should be-" he sat up startling the gray cat that had been walking along the backside of the couch. Soviet slipped landing almost directly onto Wrench's chest. "What the shit!" Honestly, i can't tell which one was more spooked. Soviet took off across the room running into the kitchen to hide and Wrench more or less fell off the couch landing face first on the floor. I couldn't contain my laughter and had to lean back against the wall to keep my balance. Even so i slid down the wall, until i was sitting on the floor laughing.
"What the hell was that!" Wrench yelled supporting himself on his fore arms. The emoticons on his googles were exclamation points. He stared at me, but i just sat there with my hand over my mouth still dying.
"Soviet, my cat." I finally managed to gasp out, my eyes watering.
"What kind stupid name is Soviet for a cat." he grumbled getting to his feet and brushing his clothes off like nothing happened.
"He's a Russian Blue." i said finally regaining my composure, i pulled myself up from the floor. "And he was a gift from my very Russian uncle. And you scared him."
"Scared him? He attacked me!"
I walked into the kitchen a leaned down with my hand extended until Soviet came out from hiding behind the trash can. I picked him up walking back into the living room. "He didn't attack you, look at how adorable he is? Here."
I forcibly dropped Soviet into Wrench's hands. He held him awkwardly outstretched in front of him. "That's a good kitty, no don't move, ugh, claws and fur." he shivered before setting him on the ground as if Soviet were a bomb that was about to go off.
"Don't tell me you afraid of cats?" i joked tilting me head, an eyebrow raised.
"It's not really a fear, more like a healthy respect and avoidance."
"Wait, seriously?" i asked surprised.
"They are evolving to replace us on the food chain, Kit." he stated.
"Yeah, okay." i shook my head in disbelief grabbing my jacket off the stool by the counter. "Ready to go?"
"I'm telling you, they are." he insisted as we exited my apartment.
"Sure, bud." i said patting him on the back. "Let's go get something to eat while you calm down from that traumatic experience. "
"Don't you roll your eyes at me." he said pretending to be hurt.
"Oh, i know, that was truly a terrifying experience." I hummed. "Scarring even. I mean you were viciously mauled by a cat that's smaller than a loaf of bread."
"Facetious much?"
.....
A half hour later it had started to pour and we we're sitting inside of a Donut shop a few blocks from the Hackerspace. I sipped my coffee looking out the window, watching the rain fall and the people that hurried by with umbrellas raised.
"You never said where you're from." Wrench commented and I turned to look at him. "Or like anything about yourself really."
"Neither have you." I replied defensively.
"Hey, I asked first."
"Chicago." i murmured.
"Wait, seriously?" he asked sounding surprised. His chair clattered to the ground, he'd been sitting with his feet up on the bar under the table rocking back and forth.
"Yeah kind of had to leave, they've been cracking down on hackers hard there." I sighed. "Besides, i needed a change of scenery."
"What was it like, living in Chicago?" he asked.
"I don't know, not that different from any other city really." I shrugged.
"Yeah, but you were there when they shut down ctOS. What was that like-"
"This is exactly why i didn't say where i was from." I snapped cutting him off.
"Okay, sorry, your past is off limits." he said raising his hands in surrender. "You must be asked about that a lot, i can understand why it'd be annoying. Sooo, favorite color?"
"Green." I replied honestly.
"Really?" Wrench asked.
"What? A girl can't like green?"
"I'd assumed blue." he leaned forward briefly catching ahold of a strand of my hair.
"It would be a good guess, but no." I laughed.
"Which raises the question, why don't you dye it green?"
"I'd look weird with green hair." I said shaking my head.
"I don't think you would. You'd look good with green hair, any color for that matter." he said and i looked up at him. The one extremely annoying thing about his mask is the fact i can't read his facial expressions. Which I get that's the purpose of it but the fact his voice is also alter really threw me for a loop.
"Are you ready for the check or?" The waiter asked.
Wrench cleared his throat before answering, "Um, yes."