[new house smell] Rob & Julian
It was a lovely little house by anyone's standards: a respectably middle class red-brick semi-detached two-up-two-down that was only a few minutes from Oxford city centre. The neighbours on the attached side were students - three Oxford Brookes second years who spent most of their nights on the town rather than making any kind of effort in their studies at home. This was a good thing in Julian's eyes; they would be too busy partying to notice the occasional shattered door from Rob or Julian watching Come Dine With Me at five in the morning.
The house was modern and warm with new kitchen fittings and a lingering smell of freshly-laid carpets. It was only partly-furnished but Julian had spotted an unclaimed Argos catalogue by a neighbour's front door and had temporarily borrowed claiming a greater need. Julian had every intention of returning it but still felt guilty as he thumbed through the thin pages on the hunt for a microwave. Of course he personally didn't need a microwave - but as well as things like making sure they had a good boiler for the central heating system and getting one of those mats in the shower that stopped you from slipping he knew that it was part and parcel of Making A Good House A Home. He would have done it even if his new house mate hadn't been a human but the thought that Rob might appreciate it was even better.
Julian had only brought a few of his old appliances from his Edinburgh flat down with him. He liked making a fresh start in new cities and there was something cathartic in shedding old possessions. He owned nothing that would have placed him further back than the mid-nineties (a few cassette tapes of radio plays he had enjoyed) and that was how he liked it. It wasn't for security or safety - that his forged birth certificates were routinely replaced when they made him anything over 25 made him secure enough - but for a sense of belonging to whatever decade he was currently enjoying.
He had only been awake for a few minutes when he picked up the Argos catalogue again and flopped comfortably on to the sofa. The television was one of the few things he hadn't handed over to a charity shop on leaving Edinburgh and currently it stood on an upturned bucket bearing a yellow post-it note reminder to buy a TV license. Out of a sense of civic duty Julian restrained himself from turning it on despite the sad realisation that he was missing The One Show. With a resigned sigh he stretched out on his stomach along the length of the sofa and began searching the index for TV stands.
The house was modern and warm with new kitchen fittings and a lingering smell of freshly-laid carpets. It was only partly-furnished but Julian had spotted an unclaimed Argos catalogue by a neighbour's front door and had temporarily borrowed claiming a greater need. Julian had every intention of returning it but still felt guilty as he thumbed through the thin pages on the hunt for a microwave. Of course he personally didn't need a microwave - but as well as things like making sure they had a good boiler for the central heating system and getting one of those mats in the shower that stopped you from slipping he knew that it was part and parcel of Making A Good House A Home. He would have done it even if his new house mate hadn't been a human but the thought that Rob might appreciate it was even better.
Julian had only brought a few of his old appliances from his Edinburgh flat down with him. He liked making a fresh start in new cities and there was something cathartic in shedding old possessions. He owned nothing that would have placed him further back than the mid-nineties (a few cassette tapes of radio plays he had enjoyed) and that was how he liked it. It wasn't for security or safety - that his forged birth certificates were routinely replaced when they made him anything over 25 made him secure enough - but for a sense of belonging to whatever decade he was currently enjoying.
He had only been awake for a few minutes when he picked up the Argos catalogue again and flopped comfortably on to the sofa. The television was one of the few things he hadn't handed over to a charity shop on leaving Edinburgh and currently it stood on an upturned bucket bearing a yellow post-it note reminder to buy a TV license. Out of a sense of civic duty Julian restrained himself from turning it on despite the sad realisation that he was missing The One Show. With a resigned sigh he stretched out on his stomach along the length of the sofa and began searching the index for TV stands.