Writing prompt 4

Standing at the entrance, Sylvester knocked on the door reluctantly. As far as they knew, their flatmate was already in the building, so they didn't want to intrude, although their mind raced as to what this new person would be like. While they didn't want to be judgmental they were hoping it was at least someone quiet and could leave them alone to do their own work. Maybe it was another vendrent who hadn't socialised in a long time and understood their solitary nature, that would be nice for sure. Unfortunately their hopes for a quiet living companion seemed to evaporate following the loud crash coming from inside the house followed by several explicit curse words.

They weren't sure what they were expecting when the door opened, but a surprised and slightly concerned expression appeared on their face when they had to look straight down to see the smaller figure staring directly up on them.

“Hey, I'm guessing you're the new- oh shit. you're.. really tall.”

Sylvester stared down at the smaller person in silence for a moment, taking in their appearance before anything else. They were a human, probably not much taller than 5 '0 with a slightly unkempt appearance, sporting medium length choppy black hair under a hat, and wearing a plain white tee and worn down jeans. Their hair covered their left eye, but their right eye was silver, and upon a closer look, there were noticeable scars trailing down underneath it. Although they seemed to be pretty old due to fading, it definitely looked like it would have been a nasty injury when it occurred.

They were pretty scrawny, which contrasted Sylvester significantly, being on the larger side for a vendrent at 6 '6 and having a pretty broad build. Syl wasn't super muscular by any means, but part of them feared if they did so much as grab this human's hand too hard they'd risk crushing it if they weren't careful.

Syl guessed it made sense for them to be paired with a human given the fact that they were more accustomed to them from their work, but it still came as somewhat of a surprise. Mainly because humans aren't usually paired with vendrent for living situations unless the circumstances called for it. Maybe something to do with their injuries?

The awkward silence was interrupted with the human deciding to carry on their initial conversation.

“Sorry. I guess I was a bit surprised to see a vendrent at my front door. Uh, I'm Natasha but you can call me Nat for short.” They extended their hand for Syl to shake it, but the latter ignored it, keeping their arms to their sides.

“No worries.” Syl shrugged, “Sylvester Watson.”

“Not much of a talker are you.” Nat looked around awkwardly, “Well come on in. Sorry about the mess, I got here not too long before you did so I was just unpacking. Also if you could lock the door that'd be appreciated because I don't know how to.”

Confused but proceeding to do as they asked, Sylvester locked the door and started looking around.

It was a fairly modest house, with a hallway taking up most of the space alongside a staircase to an upper floor, with 2 rooms to the left and a kitchen at the end. Their focus was broken when they heard Nat at the end of the hall discussing the house layout.

“It's a three bedroom place, although since there's just two of us there is a spare room for whatever we feel like, which is pretty cool. I'm surprised they let us have that. There's the dining room, kitchen, and I guess a study? Which I don't really see the point of but I guess if you want it you can have it. The bathroom is down here, which I guess I won't question, but it's a bit annoying-”

“Are you just like this? I have eyes, I don't need a house narration.”

“Excuse me?”

Shit. Syl didn't mean to come off as that way, but they'd never met such a talkative person before, and didn't know how to react to it. As soon as they saw Natasha back down though, they immediately regretted their word choice.

“Sorry.”

“It's fine.” Natasha began to mumble their words while trying to remain clear. “I shouldn't have put a bunch of pressure on you anyways I mean- I'll just leave you be for a bit. My rooms already pretty set up so I'll be there if you need.”

“Just- let me figure my own stuff out.” Sylvester responded, hissing slightly while pretending to look around for the boxes with their name on. Natasha looked away trying to hide their own face, picking up what looked to be a couple of plastic boxes along with a bag filled with what looked like soil and headed upstairs.

After they seemed to be out of earshot, Sylvester sat down at one of the already placed down chairs. Even as a child, they were never good at maintaining a conversation and due to self isolation and quitting their old job, it had just gotten worse. They could get away with it with someone like Mary, whom they primarily only had a work or casual relationship with at best, but they couldn't keep at it forever, especially if they wanted to be close with someone. Sighing, they put their head in their hands.

“Fucking idiot.”

---

---

“Fucking prick.”

Natasha tensed up as they placed the boxes down in their room and looked into them to make sure the contents weren't damaged, a couple of tarantulas, complete with full enclosures including places to hide and water bowls and a generous amount of soil to burrow in. The lease didn't really specify the rules on pets, although Nat wasn't one to ever follow rules in their life. Besides, for the most part, spiders were relatively easily to hide in their room. Placing down the bag they carried alongside the enclosures, a bag of spare substrate, they started mumbling to themselves.

“Who's smart-ass idea was it to pair me with a fucking vendrent? they're having a fucking laugh. I guess I can't really pick and choose, though, huh.” Lying down next to the boxes, they put their hands up to the plastic, looking quietly at the arachnids walking around, trying to adjust after being carried around while moving. “If that guy walks in on me right now and sees me like this he's going to think I'm so weird-”

They paused.

Despite what happened, part of them didn't want Sylvester to leave. Nat was aware they themselves were a terrible flatmate, and the continuous evictions in their previous living arrangements due to the way they were was a permanent reminder of that. They didn't stay in contact with anybody either. If it wasn't related to their identity as an openly transgender person in Asten, something that was unfortunately still considered taboo, they were “too much”, “too weird”, or “too high maintenance” for a normal person to handle. Not to mention the spiders. Natasha was extremely attached to their spiders, and also petty destructive enough that they're willing to sabotage a friendship over an altercation caused by them.

Despite their initial avoidance towards the idea of living with a vendrent, maybe it was time for a change of scenery, while their several attempts to change their personality to become a more inviting person didn't seem to work, maybe they should give Sylvester a chance. They were being a bit overbearing after all.

With a bit of hesitation and needing some time to get back on their feet, Nat fixed their hair and slowly approached downstairs. Walking into the kitchen, they saw Sylvester looking around with an already half smoked cigarette in their hand and an exhausted look on their face. When Sylvester finally noticed them, they exchanged awkward looks and Sylvester was the first to speak.

“Uh. Do you have any aspirin?”

“...”