When Nico woke up he was alone in the bed. The covers were thrown back on the other side when Toby had left but the side of the bed was cold so he must have been gone for a while. Nico groaned and stretched deciding he really hated going to sleep with someone and waking up alone but looking out the window Nico could see why. it was late morning, maybe almost afternoon definitely passed time to be out of bed. Remembering how high up he was he looked away from the window and slid out of bed.
He found his backpack next to it and changed into clean clothes. He ran his fingers through his hair wincing when he realized how badly he needed a shower. There was nothing he could do about that from the bedroom though so he slowly went out into the hall. Looking around himself carefully (he hadn't really seen anything the night before) he saw a medium sized apartment with what looked like three bedrooms and maybe a study and every wall he could see was covered with art. He went down the hall and came out into an open living room/kitchen space where he found two people he assumed were his hosts.
"Good morning." A girl said waving at him from where she sat at the table in front of a sketchpad. She had one bright green eye that he could see, the other eye was covered with her choppy bangs, her hair was long and brown. She was fairly small but that meant little. She was dressed in an open green plaid shirt over a white tank top, paint splattered jeans, and her feet were bare. She reminded Nico strongly of Rachel as she smiled at him, despite the stitches that went out from her mouth in a overly wide grin. "I'm afraid Toby left a little while ago when Hoody got back and he went straight to bed.
"I'm Clockwork by the way and this is Bloody Painter." She gestured to the boy with black hair and blue eyes standing in front of a canvas with a paintbrush in one hand. He waved at Nico silently but didn't look at him, too busy studying whatever he was painting.
"It's nice to meet you both, I'm Nico Di Angelo." Nico said hesitantly. He never knew what to do when meeting people for the first time but Clockwork didn't seem to mind. Bloody painter was too busy desperately trying to wipe a smudge off his canvas to pay attention.
"What would you like for breakfast? We have cereal, toast, instant oatmeal or I could make some eggs if you like."
"Toast would be good." Nico responded.
"Okay." Clockwork said, glanced at Bloody Painter, sighed and got up to go into the kitchen. "Would you like butter, jam."
"Jam please." Nico cut her off quickly before she could list more. "Would he mind if I had a look at what he's painting?" Nico asked Clockwork, he had the feeling that Blood Painter wouldn't respond if he was asked directly.
"Wait until he fixes whatever smudge he's after then he won't mind." Clockwork said putting toast in the toaster and getting jam out of the fridge. "He's been working on that one for a while but now we're on a deadline because the police of this town are beginning to put some puzzle pieces together and we'll have to move on in a few days."
Nico thought it was best not to ask. Instead he waited until Bloody Painter seemed to have gotten rid of the smudge and then went over to look at the painting from the side where Bloody Painter would be able to see him but he wouldn't get in the way. The painting was of a garden; Nico could pick out the different kinds of flowers even though most of them were red. Nico supposed that was why he was called Bloody Painter. But still, the picture was beautiful accented with gold, grey and shimmering bronze paint. Nico wanted to move closer to get a better look but he didn't want to get in Bloody Painter's way. It was true that the picture was obviously not done. There was a white patch in the corner and less detail leading up to it, if Bloody Painter was on a deadline Nico didn't want to interfere.
"It's beautiful." Nico told Bloody Painter who took a moment to smile at Nico before returning to his work.
"Watch it or he'll end up giving you some of his paintings. The two of us draw and paint so much we never have room for all the art we make." Clockwork said laughing. "Your toast has popped by the way. I think you should put the jam on yourself so you get the amount you like."
