Nearly reflexively and second nature, Brandon's arms came out toward her. They enveloped the petite woman the moment she stepped into him, and the tall man stooped some to plant the soft kiss to her lips in greeting. "Mn, that hits the spot," he teased, as if she'd been a craving he'd had all day and just got a taste of. His head lifted and spine straightened when she pulled back, his brows soaring with a rake of his fingers through her white-blonde hair. He knew she was concerned about him, considering the number of times she'd asked if he was pushing himself too hard. Or commenting on how many hours he worked. As much as he assured her he was fine, that he was strained, he at least<i>tried </i>to take it easy when he could to appease her. Truth be told, he'd recovered well and felt fine. But he'd missed all that time she'd spent at his bedside, the worry he wouldn't wake up from his coma or survive the bullet. He couldn't fault her or get annoyed with her fuss over him. If anything, it was just a reminder how much she cared about him, and it left him with a warm pit in his stomach.<br/><br/>"It<i>is </i>just a few things to pack. Crack open a box, toss 'em in and call it good," he flashed her a smile that was as impish as it was scruffy. Forget the fact a portion of it was glass, and needed to be wrapped. He was pretty terrible at this whole...<i>packing </i>thing. It was a good thing she'd missed him packing the rest of the house, or she'd cringe at the way he'd shoved things in boxes with utterly no organizational skills. Truth be told, he just hated packing. He wasn't usually the type to be so messy.<br/><br/>His smile spread into a full grin to her having gotten the keys, and he nodded. "Pizza sounds like an<i>amazing </i>idea. I don't think it'll take long to..." He trailed off when she leaned in to whisper in his ear, his head tilting forward to catch the whisper before his teeth sank into his bottom lip, contorting the smile that came with it. "Hm... Little housewarming party? Just the two of us?" He chuckled, having released his lip long enough to speak. His eyes ticked to her when she kissed his cheek, and he let her slip out of his grasp with that distracting thought cycling through his head.<br/><br/>Brandon raised his hands in surrender when she told him what to do, which... in another circumstance, he would've teased her and said<i>don't tell me what to do. </i>Even as he went to do it. But this time, she received no lip as he turned around and started walking to the bedroom. "I'm going, I'm going." She didn't have to tell him twice, but she also knew the magic words to get his ass moving.<br/><br/>Leaving her to get a jump start on the packing, and none the wiser to Mr. Moore and his wife's situation, his long strides swept him into the bedroom. He still had a couple outfits left hanging in the closet that hadn't been packed, at the ready in case they hadn't gotten everything over to the new place as scheduled. So far, they were on point, and he slipped into the nearly empty room to get changed.<br/><br/>He abandoned the ghostly, haunted room a few moments later. That was exactly how he viewed it. Even though he had built memories in this apartment for the past six years, with friends and colleagues. Drinking beers with Wyman and watching the football games on Sundays, the rare visits from his mother when she insisted on cooking him a homemade meal and despite his argument that grilled cheese sandwiches were homemade, she had griped at him and cooked her infamous pot roast.<br/><br/>Even with the memories like ghosts wandering through the rooms, the past year with Natalie had been the peak of them all.<br/><br/>Wandering out from the bedroom, in a pair of black cargo shorts and a thin, army green soft cotton v-neck tee, he paused at the gap of doorway bleeding into the kitchen. For a moment, he just stood there, leaning a muscular shoulder against the whitewashed wooden frame. As mentioned, those ever-observant eyes remained glued to her in with a warm expression as she wrapped plates and set them in the box.<br/><br/>Moving in together was a big milestone for them, and neither had seemed keen on the idea of simply moving in with the other in apartments they already owned. In which case, it would've felt less like<i>theirs. </i>He thought about their search, calling realtors and rifling through ad after ad until they found the perfect one, or at least perfect enough for them.<br/><br/>When she asked if it was the right place, he'd walked up behind her, slipping his arms around her waist and settled his chin on her shoulder. Instead of answering, he countered her with another question.<i>"Can you picture us living here? Maybe drinking beers on the sofa, or sitting at the table for dinner? Kicking off our shoes at the door after work, or walking the halls to the bedroom to sleep?.. But not <b>really </b>sleep?" </i>He'd laughed.<br/><br/><i>"I can..." <br/>
<br/>
"So can I," </i>he'd smiled.<i>"It's perfect." <br/>
</i><br/>They'd told the realtor they'd take it that day, and now, faced with the all too real fact that this was it, he was more excited than anxious.<br/><br/>Smirking from his stance at the door, he shrugged away from the frame to slip completely into the kitchen before she could catch him and scold him for standing around not helping.<br/><br/>Picking up a box leaned against the bottom cabinets, he unfolded it and put it together before stepping up beside her. The box was set on the counter, and he reached around her to grab a newspaper from the stack, pressing a kiss to her temple in the motion before smirking and settling into packing up more dishes.<br/><br/>It all seemed so normal. Two people, a cop and a kindergarten teacher,  packing dishes to start a new life together in an apartment they'd chosen. A milestone of a relationship.<br/><br/>And Brandon was utterly oblivious to just how<i>abnormal </i>the woman standing beside him truly was.<br/><br/><a class="username" data-user-id="1298" data-username="@Teneo Lupum" data-xf-init="member-tooltip" href="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/members/1298/">@Teneo Lupum</a>