Isle of Ikea, Tuesday

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy and Raven had a new apartment in need of decoration and furnishing and they also had a lot of things to not think about and/or work their way through, depending on how they were feeling at the time. Conveniently enough, both of those things worked with the other. Kathy had spent her sleepless hours the night before making lists, flipping through magazines for inspiration (seriously, how many Williams-Sonoma catalogues did you need Eliot?!), and doodling layouts to try to figure our furniture arrangements. Then, once it had gotten bright enough outside that it wouldn't be weird to be up and about, Kathy had put together a trip to the Isle of Ikea. Because what could be better than combining a caffeine buzz, a ridiculously generous budget, and four teenage girls?

You were welcome, Ikea employees!

"So we need pretty much everything," Kathy said, as they landed on the shores of the isle. "Two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and our bedrooms. Pretty much the sky's...the..." She trailed off, looking at the building in front of them. She'd known the whole island was devoted to the store, but she hadn't really thought about how big that store would be. "And this looks like it has everything," she added. "Okay then."

[For those invited, and I have no idea whether the Isle has squirrels or not! Also open for phone calls]

Comments

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"Depends on if you're going to let me get away with painting it yellow!" Kathy asked. "A nice, sunshiney yellow with white trim and accents? Or, at least the back walls. We may need to find another option for the long wall that it shares with the living room, because having the living room yellow would probably be too much."

Probably.

[tigerundercover]

Raven had totally never thought this much about wall colors in her entire life. She didn't get to pick them growing up in New York or in the dorms at Fandom. And she didn't even have walls for a lot of the last year.

"Wait, how yellow is yellow here?" she asked. "Like, pale yellow or mustard yellow? We are not making the living room mustard yellow."

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Neither had Kathy. That was one of the reasons she wanted to paint so badly. Because she'd never had a space of her own before, not like this. Not a place where she could make her mark and claim it as her own.

"Ew. Definitely not mustard," Kathy declared. "Hmm, maybe a purple for the living room? That's across from yellow on the color wheel. They'll contrast nicely if we get complementary shades."

[tigerundercover]

"Lilac," Raven suggested. "With the white trim running all the way through to tie the rooms together."

She didn't entirely know what 'tie the rooms together' meant, but she'd read it in one of the many home decor blogs she'd ended up reading last night.

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They were alike in that regard.

"Oooh, I like that," Kathy said. "That living room with be lilac. And we can get a bunch of yellow accents to bring some of the kitchen in, too?"

They were both mostly making it up as they went along, weren't they? But it was one way that they'd end up with a living room they liked, even if it wasn't traditional.

[tigerundercover]

And if they changed their minds later, well. It wasn't like either of them was hurting for free time and spare energy to throw into something.

"Should we replace the couch? It's like, the only furniture they even left behind. Do you think they'd get upset if we donated it to charity or something?"

Raven wanted to just revamp the entire apartment. It was all Kathy's fault.

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"I'm not crazy attached to it," Kathy said, shrugging. "I mean, we can see if they want it before we give it away to someone, but I'm cool with getting something else."

She looked at the couches on display. "But not the slippery leather. That gets cold in the wintertime and sticky in the summer. Something big and comfy and cozy, yes?"

[tigerundercover]

"Soft and fluffy," Raven agreed. It was almost a mantra. "And maybe a neutral color, since the walls are already going to be so bright?"

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"Like a nice misty gray?" Kathy suggested. "Not white. White is impossible to keep clean unless you're crazy about cleaning or crazy about not letting people on the furniture."

And what was the point of having a place if you couldn't come home, kick your feet up and have a beer and a piece of pizza in your own living room?

[tigerundercover]

"Gray is good," Raven said. "it goes with everything. And we can cover it in bright happy throw pillows and things."

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"Perfect," Kathy said, eyes shining. "I want our apartment to be comfy and cozy and happy, you know? The kind of place where something tasty is always cooking and friends like to stop by, and it's all just welcoming after a long, day, you know? The kind of place that no matter what is happening outside, you can close the door and feel safe."

[tigerundercover]

"Wait, who's doing the cooking?" Raven asked. "Because I wasn't kidding about that pot roast."

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"I can cook, especially if you like Korean," Kathy said with a laugh. "And there's always stuff downstairs that we can raid and reheat so we look good."

[tigerundercover]

"Isn't the point of having your own place so you don't have to look good all the time?"

Kathy's dream for the apartment sounded exhausting.

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"Well...okay, fair," Kathy conceded. "But still. Food. It's important." Even to a human superball who wasn't eating much of it right now. Or possibly especially to those.

"How about fridges and cupboards always full, so we never have to be hungry when we're home?"

[tigerundercover]

"That I can definitely get behind." If she never had to hunt something furry for her own dinner, she'd -- well potentially she'd eventually get bored, but at first, she'd be very pleased.

[spin_kick_snap]

Yeah. Ditto. Only without the 'getting bored' part.

"Did I ever tell you how glad I was that you asked to be roommates after Flick left?" Kathy asked, quiet but intense. "Because I know exactly where I'd be without you and it isn't pretty."

[tigerundercover]

Raven ducked her head a little and shrugged. "You were the only roommate who didn't wander off on me. I wasn't going to just leave you behind."

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"It's not gonna happen now, either," Kathy promised, fiercely. "You're family now, Raven. Maybe even the only family I've got. Definitely the only family I can reach." So speaking she reached out and laced her fingers through Raven's. "I just need to make sure you know that."

[tigerundercover]

Raven stiffened ever so slightly, and the color of her mimicked clothing wavered a moment.

No way would Kathy still be saying that if she knew what Raven had done to her family.

She flashed Kathy a weak smile, then cast around for a distraction. Fortunately, they were at IKEA.

"Oh look!" She hurried across the showroom, dragging Kathy by the hand she hadn't actually let go of. "Check out this ugly couch!"

[spin_kick_snap]

And what a distraction that was!

"Oh my god, that's awful!" Kathy said, wrinkling her nose at it. Every thought about family was driven out by the need to reach out and see how spiky the couch actually was. "Is that part of their eye-searing collection or what?"

[tigerundercover]

"It's ridiculous." And Raven loved it. Not just because it was such a very good distraction. "We need one."

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"We do not!" Kathy argued laughing--though she wasn't going to argue too hard against it, especially if Raven insisted. "It looks like a siege weapon!"

[tigerundercover]

"I love it," Raven declared, and flopped right down onto it. It wasn't . . . the most comfy thing she'd sat on. Which actually just made it kind of perfect, considering the way she'd been reacting to actually comfy things since she got back. "We can put it in my room. Under the sky bed."

Loft bed, honey. Those things had names. And not just the silly Ikea ones.

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"...The sky bed?" Kathy asked, poking at one of the cushions. "This thing has almost no give."

You know, in case Raven had missed that.