IncuBUST

Laundry

"Okay then," I muttered before returning to my room and grabbing my laundry hamper. I carried it into Sissy's room and picked up the clothes I found on the floor. She had a hamper as well but she never used it. 

I stopped by the hall bathroom and picked up my clothes from last night and Barapha's. I threw them into the hamper and went to the kitchen where Octavia was still working on her essay. 

"I'm gonna do some laundry. You have anything that needs washing?" I asked and she looked up at me before hopping off her stool and going to the living room. She picked up the clothes she had been wearing yesterday and added them to my hamper. 

"I'll go with you," she said as I started towards the door. "I could use a break from AP Lang." I nodded and we left to go to the sixth floor laundry room. 

There were two washers and dryers on each floor's utility room and there was a human woman loading clothes into one of the dryers accompanied by her more than human child. 

Interbreeding was rare but not unheard of and Center Park Apartments was one of the more tolerant residencies in the city, home to humans and Mythics alike...and some hybrids apparently. 

The young woman smiled at us and Octavia and I smiled tentatively back before going over to the free washer. I dumped our dirty clothes into the washer and then realized I hadn't brought any soap. I looked around for the community detergent and found the bottle empty. I sighed and glanced over at the woman and saw a bottle of liquid detergent sticking out of her bag. 

"Um, excuse me," I said and the woman turned to look at me. Her small son was stumbling around playing with a toy sheep carved from wood making it soar through the air as he made propeller noises. 

"Could I please borrow some of your detergent?" I asked timidly and she smiled and nodded pulling the bottle out of her bag. The child suddenly dropped his toy onto the tile floor with a loud clatter and exclaimed, "Pretty!" before tackling my legs in a hug. 

The woman's eyes widened and she shoved the detergent into my hands before saying, "I'm so sorry. He's usually really shy." I handed the detergent to Octavia and she proceeded with the laundry. 

"It's fine, really. I work at a vets office and kids come in with their pets and kind of act like this. Especially Mythic kids," I said as she tried to pry her child off me. Octavia snorted and inserted several quarters into the washing machine before starting it. 

"Are you?" the woman asked and I nodded. She smiled softly and said, "My husband is a Blaiddgwaed. We live in 614A." I tried to nod conversationally, but her child was nuzzling my thigh and it was making me feel quite uncomfortable. 

Children really liked me for some reason. It might've had something to do with the fact that I wore bright colors and shirts with cats shaped like Pop-tarts on them...or maybe it was a characteristic of my species. Prepubescent children didn't react to Incubi and Succubi like adults did. They treated me like I was a giant puppy. 

"We're in 617," I replied and her eyes widened and she jerked her son away from me as if I were a dirty piece of candy he found on the sidewalk. He whined. She rushed out of the utility room leaving her bottle of detergent. I sighed and turned back to Octavia. She had an expression on her face that made me take a step back. 

"That was so rude! Why'd she walk away like that after learning which apartment you live in?" she gestured angrily. I shook my head and glanced at the timer on the washer. 

"She lives nearby and the walls are thin," I muttered looking at the floor. "She probably thinks..." I trailed off and shook my head again. 

"She probably thinks it's you making people scream and moan all night long?" she signed and my face went red. 

"Yeah, that," I said and she gasped with laughter. 

"What did she think you'd do? Seduce her three year old?" she continued and I blanched. 

"Uh, did you wanna stop by your old apartment and get more clothes before we turn in your key?" I asked desperate for a change of subject. She looked at me and signed, "The clothes I brought are all I have." My jaw dropped. What kind of teenage girl only had one suitcase worth of clothes? 

"That's it. When we're done with the laundry we're going shopping," I said and a large grin broke across her face. 

"Really?" she asked and I nodded saying, "We've got space in the hall closet. You can put your clothes in there." She gave a little hop of joy and then looked at me all serious like. 

"Just don't take me to whatever store you get your clothes from," she said and I looked down at my Nyan Cat shirt and pastel pink jeans.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked defensively. I wore plain teal scrubs every work day. The weekend was when I got to wear what I wanted. I liked my style, it was comfy and cute and made me happy.

"Nothing!" she signed hastily. "You look like a lazy weeb straight out of Harajuku. It works for you...but black's more my color."

"Black's everyone's color," I said. That was one of the few things Sissy and I agreed on when it came to fashion. Octavia nodded and reached into the pocket of her cargo pants. She pulled out the two keys to her former apartment and handed them to me saying, "We can return these and then once the laundry is done we'll go clothes shopping." 

She suddenly frowned and I asked, "What?" She sighed and signaled, "I don't have any money." I smiled and said, "It's my treat." She smiled back and I could tell she was a little uncomfortable that I was going to spend money on her, but she would have to get over it. 

"You stay here and watch the laundry and I'll return these keys to your landlord," I said. There were two landlords in building A. One owned the apartments on the first three floors and the other owned the apartments on the top three floors. They each lived in the last apartment on the last of their floors. 

"What will you tell them?" Octavia asked as I started towards the door. I shrugged and replied, "I'll just tell them I found the keys on the floor in front of your door." She nodded and I left. Hopefully I would be able to say as much to the landlord as smoothly as I said it then.