The elevator doors slid open with a soft ding. Amy stepped through first, then waited for Ryan and Syd to enter before punching in the security code and the floor number.
"I could have carried something," Ryan muttered as the doors closed, feeling useless.
"You're a convalescent," Amy replied primly. "Didn't Cat tell you that you're supposed to be avoiding physical activity?"
With a jolt, the elevator lurched into motion.
"So, what's next?" Syd was practically bouncing on her toes. "Hold a strategy meeting? Figure out what to do with those extra Changers we took? A special training session with Ryan sensei where we learn how to use our new Abilities? Ooh, or maybe –"
"It's been a long day, Syd," Amy interrupted her, then yawned. "I've got a shift tomorrow, too. All I want to do right now is take a shower, change into clean clothes, eat something that doesn't come out of a bag and then call it a night."
Amy's apartment was on the seventh floor, at the very end of the hall. Thankfully, she'd left her keys in the police cruiser's ignition when she transformed, so they didn't have to suffer the indignity of waking the building superintendent to unlock the door for them. It opened with a click, and Amy waved them inside.
The interior was more spacious than Ryan had expected. Floor-to-ceiling windows framed the wall opposite the doorway, providing an amazing view of the city lights spread below. Laid out in an open floor plan arrangement, the apartment had a single combined main room, with a small dining table next to a spartan kitchen on one side and a sectional sofa on the other. Apart from a mess of coffee grounds, spilled around the machine and forming a trail that led towards the sink, everything he could see was neatly organized and immaculately clean.
How much do police sergeants make? he wondered as he looked around.
"Don't mind the mess," Amy said. Dropping the bags she was carrying on the table, she hurried over to wipe up the counter. "Somebody must have forgotten to clean up after herself before she left this morning."
Syd, who appeared to have suffered a temporary loss of hearing, busied herself with putting the groceries away. Deciding to ignore his convalescent status, Ryan moved to help her, and under Amy's watchful eye they soon had everything stored in its proper location.
"I'm going to shower now," Amy announced, indicating a door on the far side of the room. "Ryan, you'll be sleeping on the sofa out here. I'll bring you out a pillow and some blankets as soon as I'm done."
"Thanks. Do you mind if I take a shower too?"
"Please do," she said, wrinkling her nose cutely and pointing at the other door. "You can use Syd's bathroom."
"What? Why mine?"
"Raise your hand if you paid rent on time last month." Amy raised her own hand and waited. "...that's why."
Syd made a rude gesture at the door after Amy had slammed it behind her.
"I guess it's probably better for you to use mine, anyway. Amy takes the longest fucking showers. If you waited until she was done, there wouldn't be any hot water left."
"On deployment I promised myself that I would never take a three-minute trailer shower again!" Amy's muffled voice came through the closed door. "And besides, I'm the one who pays the water bill!"
"Okay, okay," Ryan said with a laugh, waving Syd on ahead. "No need to fight. Why don't you give me the tour?"
A paper sign taped to the far door identified the other bedroom as SYD'S LAIR and, below that in slightly smaller letters, encouraged visitors to FUCK OFF. Using another marker, a different hand had attempted to scribble out the word FUCK, trying (and failing) to obscure it completely.
Beyond, an absolute disaster awaited them. The room was cramped enough to justify the label of lair, mostly taken up by a bed and wardrobe. In the far corner, a fancy computer tower had been set up on a desk, the shifting rainbow glow spilling from its transparent sides providing the only source of illumination in the otherwise-dark space. Rumpled articles of clothing and discarded shoes were scattered haphazardly across the floor, piled onto the unmade bed, and even left dangling over the back of the gaming chair.
"Oh, shit," Syd blurted. "Um, give me a sec."
Pushing past him, she began frantically sweeping bras and skirts into the already-overflowing laundry hamper.
"Don't look!" she added, kicking a mismatched pair of high heels under the bed.
Hiding a smile behind his hand, he took in the room's decor. A ceiling fan turned lazily overhead. What certainly appeared to be a real human skull sat atop the wardrobe, empty eye sockets facing the entrance and the remains of a half-melted black candle running down across its forehead. Unsorted stacks of manga volumes and creased paperback books were piled around the macabre ornament. The walls were covered in tacked-up posters that he figured must be for bands, although he'd never heard of acts like SWEET LITTLE DEAD BUNNY or THEY'RE GOING TO GET YOU.
The sight brought back memories of his own college days.
"Nice place," Ryan observed mildly, after Syd's cleaning frenzy had tapered off. "I'm guessing you don't get a lot of visitors?"
"Not... really, no." Syd chuckled self-consciously. "The last time I tried to invite somebody over, she got into a fight with Amy before she made it this far."
"Oh. Sorry."
"Don't be." She made a face. "She was a dumb bitch. I found out later that she was trying to use me to get an in with my parents."
"Does that sort of thing happen often?"
Rather than immediately answer, Syd gave Ryan a long, searching look.
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"You really don't know?" she finally asked.
"...know what?"
"Who my parents are."
"Should I?"
"Every other person in this city seems to."
He laughed.
"Syd, in case you forgot, I'm not exactly from around here."
"Huh." Still staring at him, her expression turned thoughtful. "I guess that's true, isn't it?"
The conversation fell into a lull as Syd turned away. Humming tunelessly to herself, she opened the bathroom door, giving Ryan a brief glimpse of what lay inside.
Predictably, her bathroom was a mess, too. An enormous makeup kit sat open, precariously balanced on the edge of the sink. The white porcelain beneath had been stained by a permanent-looking ring of blue dye. What he could see of the shower wasn't any better. Half-used bottles of shampoo, conditioner, hair color, moisturizer and a variety of other mysterious feminine products sat uncapped or had been flipped over, with a few even left sitting in the tub. From behind a bar of purple soap, a device that appeared to be a small vibrator could barely be seen peeking out.
With a seemingly-casual motion, she shoved the toy out of sight.
"You're up next," she promised, speaking over her shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll be fast. While you wait, you can, um... sit on my bed, I guess?"
The door shut and locked with a click. A second later, it opened a crack and Syd's eyes peeked out.
"Don't touch my stuff!" she warned him before closing it again.
***
Ryan emerged from the bathroom with one of Syd's spare dye-stained towels wrapped around his waist and a contented smile plastered on his face. He felt like a new man.
The Zorvax concept of personal hygiene for their human subordinates hadn't included anything so fancy as private showers with individual temperature controls. After all the years he'd spent in captivity, it was a luxury just being able to stand under the hot water for as long as he wanted.
"I think I left the bag with all my spare clothes in the car," Ryan began in an apologetic tone as he stepped back into the main room. "Do either of you have something I can – oh, hey, you ordered pizza!"
The two women were standing shoulder to shoulder in the kitchen, hovering over a stack of steaming delivery boxes. Amy's blonde hair was still damp from the shower, and she wore a fluffy bathrobe that went all the way down to the cute slippers on her feet. Syd, her longer hair wrapped in a towel, had opted for a far more revealing camisole with a pair of shorts on underneath. At the sound of his voice, both looked up.
Amy's mouth fell open. In her hand, a half-eaten slice of pizza drooped, temporarily forgotten. Olives slid off, pattering to the floor one after another where they bounced and rolled away with unlikely enthusiasm.
Beside her, Syd was grinning, her normally-pale cheeks flushed bright pink. Below the table, she shot him a surreptitious thumbs-up.
"What?" He glanced down, checking to make sure his towel hadn't slipped off. It didn't quite reach all the way around his hips, but there was nothing he could do about that besides trying to pull it tighter. "Is there something on my face?"
Recovering, Amy mumbled, "They were in the back seat. I brought them in for you." She waved over at the sofa. The shirts and pants had been folded neatly and left in a stack on the armrest, along with a pink fleece bedsheet and a matching pillow. Clearing her throat, she continued in a more normal tone, "The couch is all set up for you to sleep on, too."
"Thanks." Walking past the kitchen, he moved over to the pile of clothes and pulled a set out at random. What a surprise, white t-shirt and black track pants. Again. If nothing else, the lack of selection made it simple for him to decide what to wear. "Whoa, save a couple pieces for me!" he shouted in alarm as he watched Syd cram the remainder of a slice into her mouth.
She swallowed, then picked up another slice and gave him a crooked smirk.
"If you're in a hurry," she suggested, "you could always change out here."
"No he can't," Amy immediately countered.
"Aww, c'mon, we could have dinner and a show." Waggling her eyebrows suggestively, Syd nudged Amy with an elbow. "Don't try to tell me you weren't enjoying the preview as much as I was."
"We are not turning my apartment into a... a strip club!"
Shaking his head, Ryan threw the clothes over his shoulder and turned back towards Syd's room.
His stomach grumbled in protest as passed the table. With an effort, he forced himself to keep walking. The smell was incredibly tempting.
Syd had only been joking around, Ryan reassured himself. The girl couldn't weigh much more than a hundred pounds... how much pizza could she really eat?
He got dressed as quickly as possible anyway.
You never knew.
Having made himself presentable to his hosts, Ryan came back out into the main room. The reactions this time to his appearance were a lot more subdued.
"Was I really in there long enough for delivery?" he asked as he grabbed one of the boxes and flipped it open.
Black olives, mushrooms and... are these artichokes? he wondered, peering at the contents skeptically. No thanks. He reached for the next. Oh, thank God. Pepperoni.
When the piping-hot mass of melted cheese and greasy meat finally hit his tongue, the taste was almost enough to make him cry. It had been years since he last ate human food. Before he'd finished the first slice, he was already reaching for a second.
"I called in the order while we were at the clinic," Syd said smugly. She was already most of the way through what had to be her sixth or seventh slice, and was eyeing the box in his hands with worrying intensity. "That's called advance planning. Now, if only we had some beer to go with it..."
"When you have your own place, you can illegally buy as much alcohol as you want," Amy replied in a resigned tone. "As long as you're living here, though, you'll just have to survive on juice or soda."
She blinked sleepily, and then yawned again. The act was contagious, and he found himself unconsciously mirroring it.
"It's pretty late... uh, early," he pointed out. "We should all probably head for bed."
"Good idea," she agreed, moving to put the leftovers away. "I don't know about you two, but I'm exhausted. Ryan, you're absolutely sure that we don't have to worry about any alien ambushes tomorrow?" When he nodded, she let out a sigh of relief. "All right. If you two need to leave while I'm out, make sure you lock up first. Syd has a spare key. Please don't invite any strangers over. Also, try not to get into any battles for the fate of the world without me, okay?"
He snorted.
"Go to bed, Sergeant Reid. We'll figure things out after you get back from your shift." She turned to leave, but hesitated as he continued, "And Amy?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks for everything today. I mean it. For saving my life... and for giving me your trust."
Looking over her shoulder, Amy met his eyes.
"You know," she said, fighting a smile, "I really like that about you." He waited, but she didn't elaborate further. "Goodnight, Ryan."
"Bleagh." Syd ruined the moment with a loud gagging sound. "You two are unbelievable." Helping herself to the last remaining piece of pizza in the box Ryan was holding, she swept off in the direction of her own bedroom. "I'm out. Later, losers!"