8am is fine.

That sounds good. Can double check to make sure I'm ready before I go too.

An extra hour of prep wasn't really ever a bad thing. At least Claret would be fine at home until he got there and the two basically had to self-isolate for a time outside of times they absolutely had to leave. He didn't have amywhere else to be but doing his job, and it basically would entail sticking by her side almost entirely like glue.

Joy.

Oh, she was definitely taking it in the direction he thought she'd take it in. Five stared at his phone as the text came in, and he was nervously shaking as he read her response. It was a little cool in his room, but he felt like he was sweating with how warm he was becoming. God, what was he doing? What was she doing? Was this okay? Was any of this okay? They had barely met today, and he was moving in with her tomorrow. What were things going to be like if they kept this up?

Still, if she was okay with it, maybe it was fine... right?

It just might be.

You are my client, so what you say goes

That was probably a very dangerous thing to say. What did he just do?

Claret

No forgiveness, huh? Five wasn't sure what he felt about his own Mother, or if he really even knew what unforgiveness even really felt like. All things considered, he was grateful to her for taking him in and raising him, rather than letting him die on the streets before he even really knew any better. But sometimes, he wished he had a semblance of a regular life. He had to have had a name before she picked him up, but it eluded him...

I'll take that as a compliment from you

It's nice to be memorable at least

I think Claret is a really pretty name though

One of those names that just sounds really nice to say

If that makes sense

He thought her name was pretty unique. Claret Vauleaux. It definitely made her sound high class if anything. And she seemed to carry herself like she was, though she was approachable, sweet, and caring rather than pompous and full of herself.

Claret

Siblings... They were his siblings, but the situation was quite unique to say the least. If she thought his name was strange, well...

I can't wait to meet Lord Byron!

I do have siblings. I guess you can call them that.

We're... well, adopted seems to be the right word for it

It's why I have a name like Five

He didn't want to go into too much detail yet. He felt more personal matters safer to discuss in person anyway.

Claret

Something like that haha

Shitty landlord... being Mother Kenne. He didn't straight up want to call her shitty, just that things were... really strict. Besides, someone like One would never let him have a pet of any kind either. He was a hardass who didn't believe in any sort of downtime or distractions. Five wondered if the man had any joy in his life at all.

I used to feed and take care of her daily

then one day I went to the same forest clearing and she just

stopped showing up, I guess. Have no idea where she might've gone...

was pretty sad by it. closest thing i ever had to a pet.

I just hope she's okay, wherever she is

That was a sincere and genuine thought of his. He also hoped the same for Seven. Maybe they were taking care of the cat, just on the downlow somewhere. Maybe that was too optimistic.

Claret

Lord Byron, her little dog.

Five received the photo not long after Claret had sent her texts, and his eyes lit up. A tiny, lil pug was on her lap staring up at the camera lazily, and Five was overjoyed to see this. Cute animals were a weakness of his, and a little pug in all of its huggableness and squished-face glory was going to be there at Claret's place. Oh, he had so many headpats to give the little guy.

That's a really cute pup!

Sorry, I call all dogs pups.

Lord Byron is an interesting name. Where'd it come from?

Five was definitely curious about such a unique name. Most people name their dogs things like Lucky, or Spot. Though, he'd once met a chihuahua named George Washington Carver. He still didn't understand why to this very day.

He wondered if Lord Byron was as random and strange as that, or if it was a name that had significance at all to Claret.

Claret

Just haven't really had the time, I guess

Work and all

But sure! Just give me a minute

Claret actually wanted to see some of the photos he's taken? The thought made him a little nervous, as he had never exactly shown his pictures to anyone. He had to figure out which of the photos that he wanted to send her, and thankfully the ones saved to his camera were uploaded into his laptop, which he had set up to be able to access remotely through his phone. He could have just got up off of his bed and headed to his desk to get to the laptop, but this was simpler for now.

Tapping through his gallery, Five would start to go through his photos. Some were somewhat recent, while others were several years old. After deliberating for a moment, he decided that he would send two to Claret for now, unless she asked to see more or anything.

So this first one I took a few years ago. In the forest by the city

Five would text her. A few taps on his phone and the file would start uploading to her. She would see a small, white kitten sitting on a turned over log in the middle of a forest clearing. The sun was shining down on it, and it was looking to the left of the photo, as if it were staring at something else. The shot was a little blurry, but at the time he thought it was pretty good. He was hesitant to show her this one, but it would be good to preface the next photo with this.

And then this one... was probably a couple of weeks ago.

The next file would start uploading, and Claret would see the river that flowed near and through Hiraeth City. The large cityscape itself was visible in the back, large and looming over the body of water. The sun was setting, and he captured the shine off of the building windows perfectly. He managed to find a good spot where the water was clear save for a single fish in the center of the water, and the riverbank was clean. It looked almost like a nature versus industrial era picture, and the quality was considerably clearer and less shaky. The lighting was done substantially better, and one could almost see the details of the fish rather vividly.

I realize they're not the best.

Environments and animals are most of my pictures

Mostly because I don't have someone to take pictures of haha

But I've gotten really good at lighting, photo cleanup, making things prettier, etc.

Five was a little nervous about all of this, but it felt good to be able to share one of his passions with someone, even if she might've just been asking to be nice.

Claret