-- Vivian POV, New Fairhagen --

  She had seen photos of Tom's apartment before but she still was curious how it would be in real. Photos didn't tell how the place smelled, what background noises it had. There always was something more to it once being there.

  Tom's apartment was part of big apartment complex with hundreds of such apartments stacked in a skyscraper. Not one of the tallest, but not a shabby one either. Tom's apartment was no. 627. The elevator ride up was very smooth, at least to her four centuries outdated expectations of elevator rides. The whole complex made a very clean and well maintained impression, quite different from the rundown locations she remembered from her former life. While it was all clean, tidy and well lit, it was also very impersonal. Dirt and stains could form quite distinctive landmarks in corridors.

  Here one corridor looked like the other, one door looked like the other, just with ever changing numbers. As uniform as the corridors was a light hum which seemed to fill the entire complex. She could not locate a source, if was just everywhere. At least the light in here was soft and pleasant to her eyes.

  The walk from the lobby on this level had not been long and they stood in front of door #627 now.

  Tom pointed his communicator at it and the door slid into the wall with a faint hiss.

  The first thing she noticed once the door opened was slight wave of air which came with a scent of aftershave, the aftershave he used, a hint of cold sweat that all places with people in them acquired after a while and a few other things which she considered to be scented soap or cleaning agents. And of course a whole lot of "Tom" scent.

  The apartment wasn't very big, she had known that before. Three rooms, a kitchen and bath. He certainly had tidied up before he brought her here. Or he just wasn't the type to litter a place firsthand. She'd find that out soon. The door opened into what Tom had called the living room.

  A table in the center, on a carpet, six designer chairs around it. A couch at the right hand wall and across the room, easy to watch from the couch, an infotainment center. Picture displays along the walls showed animated scenes from different places and biomes, and one could easily mistake them for windows, they had a certain depth effect to them. They even showed the right colors for her eyes too. Very nice overall.

  The lights in the room were of the same type as outside in the corridor. Panels in the ceiling that shed a soft and pleasant light all over the room, which even softened the shadows.

  She took a few steps into the room and Tom closed the door behind them. She felt a bit trapped. If he had evil things in mind, she had no easy way to escape from here.

  "So, how do you like your new home, Vivian?" He came to her side and put an arm around her, which triggered her meanwhile usual reaction to press herself against him.

  "Smells clean, looks tidy. I like the displays on the walls with the nature scenes. I think I can sit and watch these for hours", she smiled at him, then sniffed the air again, "You don't cook and eat in here, do you?"

  "Nope, I'm usually eating out." He rubbed her side some, "Interesting that you can tell so quickly."

  She nodded at him, "It's important that a place smells nice."

  There were two doors leading deeper into the apartment, "What are the other rooms?"

  He pointed, "Over there is the kitchen. The next one is my office, then the bedroom and from there access to the bathroom. Oh, and behind the kitchen is the pantry."

  One of those room-snake constructions, she concluded. Easy to design, cheap to build.

  "Sounds good. So no torture chamber?" She was curious about his reaction.

  "Nope, if you want one, we have to rededicate one of the rooms", he deadpanned.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  She chuckled, "No, I don't think I'm that much interested in it."

  She looked at him again, "Now that I'm not allowed to leave alone, a question is bothering me. You said you'll work most of the time here in your office and only occasionally be away to meet your coworkers. How often will I be alone here?"

  He thought about it for a while, "Shouldn't be too often. Two times a week for a few hours each? Sometimes a full workday. Everything else but work related stuff we can do together."

  "Sounds good, Tom", she let him know and opened the next door to peek into his office. One big desk, not against the wall but positioned so that the chair was between the wall and the desk, the person who sat there could see both doors if needed, their back protected by the wall. A power position in some philosophies, if her memories were right. Across the desk another picture display on the wall, this one showing scenes from space. Ships landing, docking or passing planets.

  She took another two steps to enter the room fully. Besides the desk and chair there was nothing in here. Probably good to work very focused, "Tom, if you work here, I want something to sit or lay on and watch you while you work."

  He joined her again, "You want to watch me while I work? I doubt it will be very entertaining. I just write and draft schematics for documents."

  "At least I want to be in the same room as you, if you are around", she looked at him, head lightly tilted.

  He stroked over her hair and ears, which gave her this little twitchy lightning sensation, "Alright, I'll get you a couch or a resting chair to place in here. Just let me know what you like better."

  "A couch." That was an easy choice.

  "How long till you insist on sitting in my lap while I work?" He asked.

  She looked at him. Why did he say this with such an unserious tone?

  "Two days?" Nope, she would not wait two days if there was such an option.

  He laughed, "Then I'll need a more stable chair. Alright, let's check the bedroom."

  Another tidy room. A double bed, bedside cabinets, a huge wardrobe and yet another picture display, this one black though, turned off. Had it been set to show scenes which he wanted to keep hidden now? Maybe once she got access to the room controls she'd take a chance to find out what had been the last setting.

  More important, there were comfy looking cushions on the bed and blankets likewise. A stronger scent of sweat in here. She took a deeper breath to get a better impression.

  "You have a double bed, but I can only smell your scent in this room?" She looked at him.

  "Yeah, didn't get much company before you. You know there was a reason why I made you this offer", he sounded apologetic.

  "Hope you don't mind shed fur on the bed", she grinned.

  "I have a good cleaning drone, don't worry about that", he rubbed her shoulder.

  She hopped onto the bed, and bounced some. More the firm sort of mattress, not very springy. Good for the spine, probably. "You've got some quality furniture", she concluded.

  "Yeah. Be careful though with the bed. It's not stress tested for energetic persons like you", he let her know.

  She pouted but nodded, "I'll try not to crash it. Should be a good place to sleep though. So, bathroom is over there?" She pointed to the last door.

  "Yep. Combined shower and bath tub, sink, the usual. Nothing fancy. Might try to install a bigger blower to get you dry easily after showering. There are full height installations like that."

  She bounced some more and the bed creaked under her, "Sounds good. A normal hair dryer takes ages and I would hate to go to bed with damp fur."

  "Vivian, what do you think about this? I wanted to get you a communicator anyways. I can invite you to a chat group with some friends of mine. So if you want to leave the apartment while I'm busy, you can ask them if they have time to pick you up and bring you wherever you want to go. I don't want you to feel imprisoned here. Can't promise anything, but might be worth a try. I'm sure some will understand the problem and help out."

  She beamed, "Now that is something! Can I get a communicator with a display that works with my eyes? The colors are all weird to me on the normal screens."

  He nodded, "There won't be much choice, but it shouldn't be too hard either. Among the furries your eyes are quite standard. You're just a bit more geared towards night vision than the average, but you have the same color perception as most of the others."

  "Are there many furred persons in the neighborhood?" She wanted to know.

  "Only a few. I've seen some, but don't know any of them by name", he answered with a light shrug.

  She nodded, "So what do we do now?"

  "We'll buy some food for you and then we'll see if we can get a proper communicator for you. I don't know of any delivery service for meat like you need it. I'll just order something for myself later today so you won't be alone while I'm out, eating. I don't think any of the places where I'm usually eating has proper food for you."

  She frowned a little, remembering the food tolerance test, "Yeah, for a moment I considered going with you anyways even if there is no food for me to get there, but the test at the police stations says that's probably a bad idea. I can cook, though. Not very good, but edible enough. If you want I can try to cook for you?"

  "We'll talk about that later. Do you feel ready to go shopping? Might be a bit overwhelming to your senses, I don't know." He looked at her.

  She had to think about this for a while, "I want to try at least. I can't stay in here forever. If no one randomly pokes me or tugs my tail it should be fine."