New Country, New Life

Salone accepted his hug, he could feel her relax slightly as she rested her head on his shoulder, a cold feeling found his shoulder and soon shot down his spine, Salone was quite cold and she probably did not realize it. The hug wasn't going to miraculously fix her problem, whatever it was, but Sam could at least try to make her feel better and it sounded like it was working, she apologized for being the way she was and she pulled a tray seemingly out of nowhere containing cupcakes, what a surprise. Sam stood up and said "It's ok Salone, everyone has those days when they feel under the weather, it's all about bouncing back" Sam gave Salone a playful punch to the arm, of course he put in a lot less power than usual, she was already in a bad state, no need to give her bruises down her arms as well. As for the cupcakes, Sam was "commanded" to eat the majority of them, Sam could not remember the last time someone commanded him to do anything, he had been a free man that could whatever he liked back in England, and in his first official day in the United States, he was already being commanded, sure it was just to eat some cupcakes, but that was beside the point.

Sam stood back off of his knees and grabbed a few off the tray, resting 2 on the table next to him and one in his hand. He walked backwards and sat on the table whilst munching on the sugary treat. "Trust Salone to have hidden emergency cupcakes around the house, I bet there is a barrel full in the piano" he thought, giving himself a smile in the process. The cupcakes were good, really good, possibly the best cupcakes he had ever eaten to be frank, "Here's a question" he said as he swallowed a chunk of cupcake "I see you with these in your hands all of the time, who makes them? Because I can understand why you are so addicted, they are delicious!"

Salone cracked a tiny smile at being punched in the shoulder, "I was sick for a while.. But physically I am better... now we have to deal with the emotional damage and that sometimes affects the physical health of a person."
She leaned against the counter, watching the tall British man snarf down about five or so cupcakes.
"I make them... not as often as I used to but I made these yesterday on a whim... unfortunately most foods make me feel ill at the moment."
Salone purposefully did not go into detail about what had happened to make her like this, in reality she was quite secretive. Penny even had a hard time prying things out of her... Her eyes dropped and she messed with the hem of her shirt, twisting it around her long but thin fingers. A few strands of dark blonde hair fell down into her face while she was thinking. Another thing she did often, thinking and writing. She had a massive stash of notebooks under her bed in her room that was down the hall.

Sam was eating the cupcakes too quickly, he was giving himself indigestion in the process, he ate another one and moved some of them away, making sure he would not eat any of them anymore. He looked up to Salone with surprise as she said that she was the one that had made the cupcakes, they were pretty amazing and Sam was surprised to find out that she was an excellent baker. He looked back up after licking his lips whilst thinking about eating another cupcake to see Salone looking down and twirling the bottom of her shirt, strands of hair slowly fell down her face and Sam found her more endearing than ever before even when she was in such a bad state.

Salone clearly was not as excitable and energetic as she once was and she knew it aswell, that was the reason why she was so upset and Sam stayed there to try and cheer her up. Sam looked around the room to try and come up with something he could do to help, he looked to the guitar several times and told himself that he would not play it, it had been an a while since he had played it, but if Sam either succeeded or failed at playing the string instrument, hopefully it would still cheer Salone up. Sam pushed himself off of the table and walked to the guitar, he made a hand gesture asking if he had permission to pick it up and Salone gave her permission. Sam picked up the guitar, wrapped it over him and sat down, studying the strings for a short while to get himself accustomed to the different notes that he once knew. Sam picked up the notes pretty quickly after that, playing a very simple song, the first song that he learnt in music class, Smoke on the Water. His eyes remained on the strings as he plucked them, but he noticed Salone walking to a chair and sitting down in the corner of his eye, it did not phase him however, as he continued playing the attractive tune.

Salone looked up in surprise as she saw Sam looking over her guitar, he went over and hesitated as if asking her permission. Salone gave it and watched for a few seconds before moving over to a chair, the chair itself was worn and comfortable. For several moments she watched him play a song before curling up into a ball as she felt her worn mind drift off to sleep.
The back of her neck was exposed to Sam, the swirling silver white scars just barely peeked out of the edge of her t-shirt. It was not a deep sleep... just a light nap. Salone was clearly relaxing into the chair and her breath whooshed in and out of her mouth softly. She looked years younger while sleeping, her hardships melted away; erasing the almost permanent crinkle in her brow and the palm of her hand was pressed to her cheek.

The faint music gave her mind something to focus on, instead of the swirling dragon memories. Unlike when she was human, her form did not flicker between animal shapes.

Sam came to the end of his song, he had concentrated so hard on playing the song well that he did not realize that Salone had slipped off to sleep. Sam was disappointing that his rendition of Smoke on the Water had sent Salone of to sleep, but then he realized that Salone had been having trouble sleeping and took it as a great accomplishment, she looked cute as she was curled up into a little ball, but she did not look very comfortable as she was balancing herself on the chair. Sam slowly took the guitar off of himself and placed it on the chair, his gaze constantly locked on Salone to see if he had made a sound that would wake her up, he managed to get over to her as quietly as he could and she was still sleeping. Sam stood for a second and thought about how he was going to do this, in the end Sam just decided to rest one arm under her head, as he did so, he could feel strange markings scraping across his skin which made him shiver slightly, and one arm under her legs, giving her plenty of support and putting her in the safest position possible.

Sam slowly lifted her up, her hair tickling his arm as it waved side to side with momentum, but Sam did his best not to flinch because of it. He had no idea where he was going, there were a lot of rooms in the house, and it was even two floors, he poked his head into each room, hoping for a bedroom, he found one at the end of the corridor, luckily for him because it meant he did not have to carry her up the stairs which would have been a whole new problem. He placed her on the bed and slipped his arms away, allowing her to lie straight. Her head was on the pillow and Sam managed to maneuver the sheets from under her so she was laying underneath them, keeping her warm, as Sam stepped away, he accidentally nudged a book that was under bed, he got down to floor level to grab it when he realized there were loads of them, all with the same cover, Sam thought that they might be her diaries or something, so out of respect he left them where they were. Sam stood still again for a minute or so, he felt like a father who had just put a child to sleep after an exciting day, it then dawned on him how creepy it would look if she was to wake up. He sneaked back out of the bedroom and pulled the door to. Sam reached for his coat and noticed a pen and paper on the desk, he uncapped the pen and wrote "I live in Apartment 11 of an apartment block just down the road, feel free to come and go as you wish , Sam" on the piece of paper, he folded it up and wrote Salone's name on it so she knew it belongs to her, reaching into his pocket he pulled out the only spare key that was entrusted to him, he placed down on the table next to the note and left, thinking about Salone's poor physical and possibly mental state.

Salone made a soft noise as Sam transferred her from her reading chair to her room, his warm body temperature seeped into her skin. She pulled her quilt around her chin before rolling over as Sam left.

Penny came home at about 6:30 pm and spotted the cupcakes, she nicked one and put the rest away in the top of the pantry. She wandered down the hall and was very surprised to see Salone asleep in her bed. Penny barely glanced at the note before heading upstairs to her room, cupcake in hand.

(sorry for the short post but i figured this would give you some wiggle room on what happens the next day and i need to sleep )

Sam returned to his apartment which as not too far away from Salone's home, as he reached the top of the stairs, he noticed a large wooden box, no doubt it was the bed that he had ordered, when Sam noticed the box, he felt like a child on Christmas Day, it had been a long time since he had a regular bed, and he was excited to try it out. The only issue was that he would have to build it before he would get to sleep.

An hour and a half later, it was completed, it wouldn't have taken as long if his cat, Amber wouldn't have been bothering him throughout the trial. Mattress and duvet were placed and Sam felt like he had achieved something major, DIY wasn't his strong suit but he was pleased with the effort, he would find out if he did a good job or not when he would go to sleep later that night.

For the rest of the day, Sam had been looking online on his phone and flicking through furniture magazines to find the items that he wanted in his house, appliances, couches, cabinets etc. He was interested to find out that after all of that he still had $1000 dollars to spend. He stashed it under the matress of his bed, that money would be his living money, him and his cat would both need the basics and that is what the money was for, if that money ever went missing, they would be in big trouble.

The rest of the day had past when Sam finished his furniture search, Amber had already curled up on her makeshift bed, which was just a pillow at this point. It was clear that she did not want to be disturbed and Sam thought it would be a good idea to go to bed himself. He did not feel very tired, but he was just too excited to sleep in his new bed. He entered his bedroom and stripped down to his sleeping wear, he slid into bed and placed his duvet over him, Sam had not had a better feeling than this in his entire life, it was as if he was sleeping on a cloud and it did not take long for him to fall asleep.

Salone woke the next morning to sunlight streaming on to her pillow. She grumbled something under her breath before rolling out of bed, when her feet touched the floor she stiffened.
How did I get here?
The last thing she remembered was Sam and the guitar… oh… she must have fallen asleep and he must have put her in her room. Salone’s thin fingers itched the back of her neck before tracing the silver swirling scars at the base of her neck, following the pattern down to the line of her t-shirt.
After spending several moments in thought she spotted the note on her desk. Salone moved over to her desk and looked at the note, picking up the silver key in her left hand as she did so. She smiled a little bit before fishing out her keys and putting the new key on her key chain.
Then she got ready for the day, showered and put on her swim suit and shorts. Salone decided that she would walk down to the beach… and now that she was feeling better she would try surfing again. She wandered down stairs and proceeded to make herself breakfast… or rather brunch. It was a brief meal of cheerios and milk before she jogged downstairs to the basement and went surfboard hunting. Salone glowered at the empty space where it had been after a brief phone call to Penny she discovered Penny had gotten rid of it a while back.

Well then…. That put a little damper on her plans. She ran back upstairs and spotted the cupcakes sitting on the counter.

“I must have forgotten to put those away,” Salone mused and then she remembered how much Sam had liked them… since she would not be eating them might as well drop them off at his place. That she did, after putting on her sandals and a clean t-shirt over her swimsuit top.
Salone opened the apartment door and peered in, “Hello?”
Salone was greeted by a cat.

Sam had woken up a little bit later than expected, the new bed was so comfortable that he did not want to leave it, but he had things to do so he mustered up enough strength to pull himself out of bed. He opened his bedroom door after putting on a grey t-shirt and shorts and was greeted by a cat, his cat, who had apparently been waiting for him to wake up. Sam knelt down and began stroking Amber's fur "Sorry girl, didn't know I would be sleeping for that long, ill get you some food now ok?" immediately after Sam finished he was saying, Amber meowed to him, almost as if she was understanding what he was saying.

They both walked towards the kitchen, Amber split off and jumped onto the back of the couch whilst Sam poured some of her food into a bowl, he walked over to her and placed the bowl down, it was immediately smothered by her and the food was gone in a matter of seconds. Sam returned to the kitchen and starting making his favorite breakfast, Pancakes. He had made several before realizing he would not be able to eat them all, but he placed them all on a plate and left the ones he had not eaten on the kitchen counter. With a glass of water in his hand, he stared out of the window of his apartment and watched the people walking by, the sun shined causing only his chest to rise in temperature, a much welcomed change to the miserable rain he had endured in England. Amber was being a bit of a bother though, something was not right with her today, she was constantly bugging Sam, she leaped onto his shoulder and caused him to spill his water down his shirt, he did not moan at her, he simply sighed and took the shirt off and left it on the couch for the time being. Sam walked back into his bedroom, as he opened his wardrobe, he heard his front door open and heard a familiar voice just after that, Salone must have received his key and was trying it out. "Hi Salone! Make yourself at home!" he yelled all the way from his bedroom, "I'm just changing shirts really quickly, I'll be out in a second!" All she had to was walk to the couch and turn right to see him with his scars on his back clearly being shown, he left his door wide open but his top priority was to find a new shirt to wear, and he was having some trouble with picking one out.

Salone moved past the couch and placed the dozen or so cupcakes on the counter. She smiled when she recognized the cat as the little kitten she had found. She crouched down and picked the cat up, scratching her behind the ears.

Amber purred, recognizing Salone, and butted her soft head lightly against her chin. The young woman sat herself down on the couch, tucking her feet underneath herself. That was the point when she caught a glimpse of the shirtless Sam. He was very athletic looking; Salone had very good eyesight and could easily pick out the lines of muscle under his skin.

She felt the back of her neck heat up as Salone realized what she was doing and she looked quickly away from Sam, silently praying that he did not catch her staring. The girl had a very bad weakness for muscle- then Salone noticed the cat giving her a dirty look.

“What?” She asked defensively. The cat just meowed at her, jumped off her lap, and sauntered down the hall to go rub against Sam’s pant leg. Salone massaged her forehead before looking outside, attempting to keep her eyes from roving.

Sam was in the middle of replacing his shirt, he just needed to put his limbs where they needed to go, however he could not see, and he was given quite a fright when he felt something roaming around his ankles. He pulled his shirt down and looked to his feet to see Amber sticking quite close to him, Sam looked back to see Salone standing alone by a window, and then he looked back to Amber, he crouched down and started rubbing her head "What's wrong girl? You had a falling out with Salone or something? You two haven't seen each other in a while" he said, Amber then meowed in response, was that a yes or a no or a "I want some more food"? Sam did not know, he did not speak Cat...

Sam walked into his living area with Amber hovering very close around his ankles, he noticed Salone staring out a window which seemed very eerie to him, but he could barely walk without accidentally knocking Amber somehow. "Hey Salone, are you feeling better? What brings you 'round?" he asked her whilst letting Amber hop up onto his shoulder. Sam waited for a response, but he could smell something wonderful in the air, he turned to his left to see a plate of Salone's cupcakes waiting for him, he decided to resist temptation for now, it was only the morning, he did not want Pancakes and Cupcakes for breakfast, he had muscles to look after. Sam was trying his very hardest to block the cupcakes out of his mind and wait for Salone to answer.

Salone chuckled at Sam questioning the cat, she swiveled around (assuming it was safe and that Sam was wearing a shirt), and she smiled.

“Yeah, I am feeling better,” She stated, standing and tucking her hands into her short’s pockets. “I dropped these off because there could be no way I could eat them.”

Salone grinned crookedly at Sam’s eyes darting sideways at the cupcakes, it was very apparent that he wanted to eat most of them now. She kept her brown eyes fixed on his face and then she leaned against the arm of the couch out of habit. “I also wanted to apologies for my behavior last night, I should not have fallen asleep with you playing the guitar. For that I am sorry.”

The cat eyed her, as if wondering what she was up to… Amber had apparently staked out Sam as her territory and did not appreciate the intruding female… even though Salone was not in the market for a relationship… even though her luck seemed to be against her when it came to males.

"There is absolutely no reason to apologize Salone, you was ill, its understandable." Sam suddenly felt a strange itch in his back where one of his small scars were, with Amber sitting on his right shoulder, he had to reach around with his left hand and scratch it... Aah much better. "So seems that you are clearly in better health, do you have anything planned to do today?" he asked her out of interest, "If this girl keeps acting the way she is, I think I might need to stay at home all day and keep my eyes on you, am i right?" he said to Amber in a playful voice, he was scratching her behind the ears and she was brushing up against the side of his face, tickling his ear. "Something is different about her today, not sure what it is, maybe she's sick or something... huh? Are you sick sweetie?" he said again playfully as he rubbed her belly. Amber continued to meow whenever Sam finished a question, did she learn English over night?...

"If this little girl doesn't mind, I was planning on taking a drive around here to get to know my surroundings a little bit, although she will probably follow me anyway..." he said, this time with a slight hint of concern.

Salone resisted an eye roll at Sam baby talking to cat and she maintained a look of innocents as he looked up at her, seeming slightly concerned.

“You could just lock her in,” Salone suggested and she got another dirty look from the cat. “As for me I am going to look for a new, less demanding job as I get over my … illness,” She stated the word illness rather hesitantly. “I was going to go surfing but Penny got rid of my board, now I am going to look over at a few small cafes and stores. “
Salone reached up and tucked a strand of wavy blonde hair back behind her ear before wandering over to the kitchen and throwing open a few cupboards.
“You have got some really good storage here.”

"Aah, I always feel bad when I lock her in on her own, I feel like if she gets in trouble there won't be anyone to help her. I could do it back in England because there was not much for her to touch and break because most of it was already broken, but I guess I can let her stay here for a couple of hours" When Sam looked up he noticed Salone had moved elsewhere, to the kitchen to be precise, Sam quickly ate a cupcake before heading to the kitchen, she was helping herself by looking through some of his cupboards, an odd thing to do when you come into someones apartment for the first time, when Salone complimented him on his storage space, he was not sure if it was a serious compliment, "Erm thanks I guess... and I did not know you surfed, that's pretty cool, never been much of a water man myself, always preferred the relaxation of the beach to the waves of the ocean, and its a shame about your board, if I ever see one for sale somewhere, I'll pick it up for you" Amber hopped off of Sam's shoulder and walked to the plate of Pancakes and began to nibble on the top one slightly. Sam hopped onto the counter as well just beside Amber, he continued to watch as Salone helped herself and looked through more of his cupbaords, was she looking for something?

Salone shut the cupboards, her curiosity satisfied. It was an odd habit to have but if she was going to be over here, she might as well figure out where everything was.
Salone turned pink at the thought of Sam getting her a new surf board.

“You don’t need to do that,” She said, turning back around and leaning against the bar across the kitchen facing Sam. “I can get a new one myself. Yeah, I surfed back in my teens… before I got sick. Riley and I used to spend hours on that beach, Mom used to get so mad when I went midnight surfing.” She let out a half laugh half sigh, tilting her head back to look at the ceiling. “I’m rambling, sorry. I seem to be doing that more and more often. “
She looked back at Sam offering him a crooked grin.