Nice bathroom was a suitable response. "Yeah, it's not half bad," she joked. "I don't know what the previous owners were thinking when they decided to renovate the bathroom into something of that size, but hey, I won't complain." The original blueprints of the house showed the bathroom at a different location, cutting partially into the current living room, and the current bathroom having been an additional bedroom of sorts. Seemed like they knocked down a few walls and redid the piping, but Claret wasn't about to criticize their decision on indirectly giving her a spa at home.

"It's a bit much for me, honestly, but I do enjoy it. At least it'll get more use now with someone else in the house. The bath is really nice, and I have bath salts and soaps for whenever you want to chill in there. I don't mind." Five struck her as being more of a shower guy, but she figured she'd extend the offer anyway. She felt like there was some unspoken rule regarding staying at someone's house and being too scared to take advantage of their bathtub, and she can remember all those times she envied her best friend's luxury bathtub in high school but always thinking it was way too awkward to just ask to take a bath whenever she slept over. Maybe it was an intimacy thing? Weird how you can shower in someone else's shower but you can't bathe in their bathtub. 

Shit, that just reminded her.

"I actually forgot to put towels in there for you-- Let me go do that real quick." She got up, making her way past him as she went to a small linen closet in the hallway, pulling out two blue towels that she thought suited him. This shade of blue really wasn't her color, anyway, so these towels didn't see much use. "The blue ones are yours unless you feel like buying your own," she'd call out. She took them over to the bathroom, setting them on the counter for him to use later. 

That's when a phone by the sink caught her eye. Oh-- this was his. Five must've just left it. She picked it up for him, but like many smart phones, the screen lit up as soon as she had it in her hand.

She almost didn't know what she was seeing.

Or maybe she just knew too well.

It was a photo of herself. A flattering one, thankfully, but not a photo she'd uploaded to her public accounts. No... while this was one of her more PG images, it was definitely one of the ones that only paying fans had access to.

She felt a variety of things in that moment.

The first thing she felt was discomfort. He'd just met her, and he had a photo of her on his lockscreen? Not only was it creepy, but it was entirely weird. She barely knew him!

The feeling that immediately followed was panic. Wait-- if this was one of her more exclusive photos, then that meant he had paid for them or knew someone who did. Was he a fan? One of those fans? She just invited someone into her home that had potentially seen her naked--

Oh. That explained it.

The last thing she felt was an overwhelming sense of smugness and pride. This was the reason he was so visibly flustered around her, wasn't it? Not only was he a fan, but he actively paid for her content. That was as devoted a fan as devoted gets. Her cute bodyguard, with cool powers and a sharp mind, was blushing around her because he regularly paid to see her adult content. He'd seen her god damn boobs and he didn't even say anything.

How long would he have been willing to pretend he knew nothing about her? She thought she'd been playing him like a fiddle, but he already had some sort of attachment to her that she couldn't have possibly expected. Did that make him more susceptible to her influence and all her teasing? She could imagine that might be the case.

For what felt like an eternity, she just stared down at his phone like it was a strange, foreign object.

How the hell do you bring up to your new roommate that you now know he's seen your p*rnographic images? There's really no way to approach the topic in a way that wasn't incredibly awkward.

But if she already had him under her thumb, then that opens up a plethora of different ways she could go about this.

"Fi-iiive~," she called out in a sing-song voice.

She made her way out of the bathroom, closing the door behind her as she made her way back into the living space. She leaned against the wall, a smug smile on her face. When she was sure she had his attention, she'd hold his phone up for him to see, tapping the screen awake. "Do you feel like explaining this to me?" There was a flirtatious hint in her voice, something confident and affectionate and deceptively sweet. She knew exactly what was going on here, she just wanted him to say it out loud.

His upbringing did seem incredibly strict. Things started to make sense to Claret, but she probably had to think about what he's told her about his life in order for her to really digest the concept of him having been raised like that. It didn't seem human to her-- undergoing strict training all your life, being named a number, living your life as a fixed facet of some... unit. She couldn't call it a family.

Claret welcomed the idea of being able to learn how to manipulate Renbu in a more relaxed setting. His powers seemed so surreal to her still, but she couldn't lie and say she wasn't immensely excited at the prospect of it all. A few minutes ago, she had no idea he was a Renbu user, and couldn't in a million years have guessed that was the case. Now he was offering to teach her?

This was going to be a lot more fun than she ever could have anticipated. 

"That I do," She said, smile still beaming and inviting. Oh, she had him to herself, alright. "I'd say I'm super lucky to have a bodyguard who's cute and willing to teach me all his cool tricks." Though equally flirtatious, the statement was more teasing and friendly.

"But you can show me more of what you can do later." She changed the subject. "I should probably leave you to get changed and unpack and all that. Unless you wanted to inspect the place, first. Up to you."

Claret was skeptical, of course, when Five handed her the knife.

And then she wasn't.

To say she was impressed was an understatement... one moment the knife was in her hand, the next he was twirling it about in mid air like it was nothing. She couldn't claim she knew much about Renbu-- the manipulation of it wasn't nearly as common back in her home country, and her exposure to Renbu users was extremely limited. This was the first time she had seen anyone do this sort of thing up close, and she was mesmerized. If she didn't think the knife thing was cool before, she definitely thought it was now. If she doubted his abilities at all, she really shouldn't have. No one in their right mind would dare fuck with someone who could telekinetically control an eight-inch knife like it was a leaf on the wind.

"Holy shit," she breathed out, her hand still lingering where she was just holding the knife. "You are the coolest person I've ever met, hands down." The truth. She couldn't hide her amazement even if she tried. It was as though her black eyes had a new spark to them, wide with all excitement and curiosity she hadn't felt since she was a kid.

She took both his hands in hers, unable to contain the smile that danced at the edge of her pomegranate-red lips. "How do you do that? Can you show me  more? What else can you do?"

"I know I can." Her smile was affectionate.

The best part of this arrangement is that he wasn't picky with his food and he at least listened to her advice. Whether or not he'd follow her advice was yet to be seen, but she dearly hoped he was as obedient as he came across. 

Man, the more she thought about it, the more soft he seemed. He spoke like a literature major, was pretty young to be involved in organized crime, and barely knew how to respond to playful flirting. Did he ever get out often? She didn't doubt his ability to do his job yet, but she couldn't help but think he seemed rather... was squishy the right word for it? He'd be eaten alive in the real world. Though if he made it this far, then clearly there was more to him than wholesome wit and red cheeks. Hiraeth City wasn't a city for the weak, and if he was a member of the Kenne family then... clearly that was something. 

"So what can you do?" She took a sip of her iced tea, leaning back against the counter. "As a bodyguard."

He didn't seem like raw muscle, so maybe he knew martial arts? Was he good with a firearm? Or was he more strategic? She was just curious is all-- she wanted to know what he was capable of.

He was kidding, right? There was no way in hell she was going to make him pay to stay here, especially not if she was already paying him. That was completely counterproductive to the whole damn thing! Why pay him at all if he was going to insist on paying her? 

"No. Having you pay to stay here would make no sense. You're already working full time." She didn't want to dispute this. She sighed. "You're not a hindrance, I promise. I appreciate what you're doing and I like the company. That's enough for me." 

She was going to change the subject. Luckily, she didn't have to, because a knock on the door interrupted her anyway.

"Oh shit, breakfast." She'd almost forgotten that she'd ordered McDonald's earlier. She rushed over to the door.

While she was talking to the deliveryman and getting the food she'd ordered, Lord Byron went over to Five, jumping up so that his front paws were on the man's legs, the little guy almost begging to be picked up.

When Claret came back, she put a carrier with iced coffee and a bag of McDonald's down on the counter. She took out a few sausage McMuffins and hashbrowns, setting them down near the bag. "Are you hungry?" She'd ask Five. "I got us breakfast-- I forgot to ask what you liked, so I took a guess." There were two drinks of iced coffee, though she wasn't sure if he even drank the stuff. Maybe she shouldn't have presumed he even liked McDonald's-- some people were snobs about this kind of thing and just didn't eat fast food. Oh, if he didn't like fast food, then they were going to have issues.

Claret was visibly overjoyed at how great Five was with Lord Byron. Nothing warmed her heart more than someone who was good with animals-- especially with her dog. Lord Byron was equally elated with pets and affection from this newcomer-- the little guy rolled right over, begging for belly rubs.

When Five explained why the hell he was dressed like a Ghostbuster, suddenly his strange get-up made sense. That way, if anyone saw him enter her home, they wouldn't think he was there for anything other than some sort of maintenance work. It was a good idea-- one that Claret would commend him on if he didn't look so damn silly.

"Well, hopefully you won't need to look like a plumber every time we step outside," she joked, making her way past him and into her living space. (As a writer, I hope I don't need to go to great lengths to describe what I did in the previous thread.)

The place was cozy. In spite of all the things she owned, it probably wouldn't be read as 'messy'. Things were precariously organized, stacks of things against the wall making it easily navigable, billowing fabrics and curtains hanging from the walls and over the small windows near the ceiling, brick walls pasted over by pictures and posters of every variety until no trace of wall was left to be seen. Fairy lights and colorful lamps were the only thing illuminating the place. Claret was sure that Five would need to adjust to living in relative darkness very, very fast, because there was no way in hell she was letting any bright light into her home, not even to accommodate someone else. 

Forensic Files was playing on the TV, creating ambient sound around them.

Claret went over to the kitchen, leaning back against the counter. "How was traffic?"

Looking forward to tomorrow

Goodnight, Five <3

She’d send out a final text before setting her alarm for the morning and putting her phone down next to her.

It took her a while before she finally felt her eyes grow heavy, and she’d drift off to sleep.