Summary: It's been a few days since they moved in together. But there's always that pesky adjustment period when it comes to combining households... OCxOC, ties in with AmazonTurk's fics and mine.

Disclaimer: I don't own shit.

Queen's Quornor: Amazon recently mentioned that I should write a moving-in fic between Akalara and Revan, since she touched on it in her giftfic for me, "Reaction." She's also written a moving-in fic of her own between Rude and Kandi. So, I think for this one I'll try a different angle...

Adjusting

Lips pressed in a tight, thin line, Akalara surveyed her bathroom. Her neat and tidy bathroom. Her usually neat and tidy, currently scattered with wet towels and the toilet seat up bathroom.

This was, of course, ignoring the puddles of water on the floor, the dirty uniform soaking up part of said water, the black boxers hanging limply from the towel rack, and the mess of shaving cream and clouded water clogging the sink.

The green-haired woman took a deep breath and counted to ten, trying to control her famously hot temper. This was not a big deal. He just needed to learn how to clean up her bathroom after showering, how to put his laundry in the hamper, and how to clean out the sink after shaving. And of course, how to put down the toilet seat. He'd been a bachelor for years. She couldn't expect him to automatically know how to be courteous of his woman's wishes.

Her temper sufficiently cooled, Akalara entered the bathroom and began methodically cleaning up after her man. Towels, boxers, and uniform disappeared into the hamper, the puddles were mopped up with more towels, and the toilet seat lowered with the lid closed. All the while, she was reminding herself that this was not a big deal, and that she loved the man responsible for this unsightly desecration of her bathroom.

Just eleven days ago, Akalara and her silver-haired son, Azrael, had welcomed her boyfriend into their apartment. Their relationship had progressed to the point that moving in together was the next logical step, and Azrael hadn't voiced any objections. Revan had originally asked if they wanted to move in with him, but Akalara had been quick to point out that her apartment was bigger than his, and he had less furniture than she did. Besides, Sephiroth had bought this apartment for her. Unless room (or rather, a lack thereof) became an issue, she wasn't budging.

The move had been accomplished with much laughter and some help from a few friends. Rude, Joel, and Torr had helped Revan bring his furniture and belongings in from his place in Edge, and Kandi, Lily, and Brit had helped Akalara figure out where they should go. And none of their helpers had held back on the wisecracks. Kandi and Torr had even started a betting pool as to when the happy couple would be getting hitched, or start expecting a baby.

They weren't quite at that point yet. But Akalara couldn't deny that the ideas held appeal...

But first they had to figure out if they could live with each other for extensive periods of time. Revan and Akalara had spent the night at each other's places before, and back when Azrael had first moved in with his mother they had stayed at Revan's apartment while the paint in his room dried. But that had only been for a few days at a time. They'd never stayed in the same apartment for weeks before.

In spite of how much she loved him, and the mind-blowing sex they were having every night, Revan's little idiosyncrasies were starting to get to her.

He was messier than she was, for one thing. And while Akalara had been known to leave things like whiskey bottles and random clothes lying around, she always made it a point to clean things up when she was sober and thinking straight again. He just left them where they landed. Revan was also constantly moving her things around, leaving her cds and dvds out of order, and leaving the dishes to her.

She loved him. She really did. But if he didn't stop leaving thing lying around and start helping more with the chores, she was willing to go to extreme measures to help him shape up.

One more plate of smeared wasabi and dried rice grains, and he wasn't getting any for a year. From her or his hands.

"Mom?"

"In here, Az." She dropped the final sopping towel into the hamper and shut the lid, making a mental note to do laundry after dinner. Azrael came around the corner and took in the bathroom with wiser eyes than any nine year-old should have.

"Rev left a mess again, didn't he?"

"No, I'm just standing in here for no reason whatsoever, pretending to be a bathroom fixture." Akalara pulled the drain open on the sink, cranberry eyes narrowing as the shaving cream and water slowly began seeping away. "This is really starting to get on my nerves. I don't like messes, and the last thing I want is to constantly be cleaning up after my boyfriend. Bad enough that I have a son to do that for," she commented, managing a small smile as she fondly ruffled his hair.

"Mooommm!" Azrael whined playfully, smoothing his shoulder-length silver tresses back down. "I'm not messy!"

"Oh really?" She strolled across the hall and leaned against her son's doorframe with crossed arms, scanning his room with amused eyes. "Then what do you call that glass of water sitting by your bed, nearly empty? Or that sock I see peeking out from beneath your bed? And is that lint I see on your carpet?"

"I'm not even in the double digits yet, Mom. You can't expect perfection." Azrael snickered and leaned against the door opposite his mother, mimicking her posture and smirking up at her. "Besides, you're not so perfect yourself. I've seen bras hanging from your lamp before, and I'm always having to brush your hair off the sink in the mornings."

"I'm not the only one who sheds," the Turk pointed out, gesturing towards a few silver strands clinging to his shirt, independent of the rest of his hair. "And would you care to explain to me why your hair is always in my hairbrush?"

"You've got a better brush than I do." Azrael tossed his head and abandoned his post to walk down the hall towards the living room. "Mom, what's for dinner?"

"Lasagna. I made it while you were doing homework. Once it's finished baking, we'll eat." She glanced up at the clock and frowned. "But that's not going to happen for another two hours. And we can't eat until Revan wakes up."

"Was his mission really that hard? I mean, he's been sleeping since before we got home."

Akalara shrugged. "He's been gone a couple of days. He must not have gotten much sleep while tailing his target."

The silver-haired boy leaned against the kitchen counter while his mother started running water in the sink for the dishes. "Are you going to make him leave?"

Startled, Akalara twisted to look at him. "Of course not! Why do you ask?"

Azrael fidgeted, not looking at her. "It just seems like you're always mad at him for messing up your stuff. I don't like him leaving things lying around, either. I liked it better when he only came to spend the night."

The green-haired woman cocked her head, noting how her son was playing with his silver hair. "If it was your father moving in with me, and he was the one doing these things, would you want him to leave, too?"

"No way! But that's different. Father wasn't messy."

Akalara could attest to that. He was the one who had taught her how to keep house. "But what if he was? And what if he and I hadn't been together since you were born, and he was still alive? If he was the one moving in and turning our lives upside down, would you want him to move back out?"

"That's not fair, Mom. There's a big difference between Father and Rev." Azrael brushed some hair out of his eyes. "I wish it was Father moving in with us, though."

Turning back to the sink and reaching for a sponge, Akalara closed her eyes, feeling her heart clench painfully. "Me too, Az. But it isn't. It's Revan, and he's as close to Seph as we're going to get."

"Apart from my uncles, you mean."

Akalara shook her head. "They were completely obsessed with Jenova. Short of her total destruction, they weren't going to think about anything else."

"She possessed them, too?" Azrael grabbed a glass from the cabinet and pulled open the freezer, filling the glass with ice.

"Seems like it. And it only stands to reason that, since they were your father's clones, she would jump from his body to theirs after the battle at the Northern Crater." Akalara shook her head again and scrubbed at a dirty plate furiously. "Anyway, Revan's a good man. He's trying to fit into our lives, and we're trying to fit into his. It's not supposed to be smooth or easy. There are definitely worse Turks I could have asked to live with us."

"Such as Reno?" Azrael inquired, taking a drink of juice.

"Such as Reno."

There was the sound of a door opening back in the hallway, and a minute later Revan appeared outside the kitchen. "Ak, when did you get home?" he asked with a yawn.

"About an hour ago," she replied, rinsing out a glass.

"I'm sorry, babe. If I had known you weren't working late, I would have cleaned up the bathroom." He winced a little as his green-haired girlfriend put the glass in the dish-rack to dry. "And done the dishes."

"It's no trouble, Rev," Akalara muttered, plucking another plate from the pile of dishes submerged beneath the water. "You obviously didn't get much sleep during your mission."

She continued to scrub at the plate, ignoring the hot, shirtless blond behind her. Azrael, however, was not going to let anyone hurt his mother, even if he happened to be her boyfriend. Setting his juice down, the silver-haired boy stalked around behind Revan, placed his palms flat against the man's lower back, and shoved him forward, towards the sink. When Revan glared down at him, Azrael merely fisted one hand on his hip and pointed at his distracted mother, returning the glare tenfold. Revan shrugged, and Azrael jabbed his finger again. Understanding flashed in the tired Turk's eyes, and he finally turned his attention to his petite girlfriend.

Akalara jumped when Revan slid in beside her and took the sponge and plate. "How about this: I wash, you rinse?"

Cranberry eyes searched his blue-green ones, and a pleased smile spread across the female Turk's lips. "Sounds good. Can we discuss your habit of leaving the toilet seat up while we're at it?"

An answering smile lit up Revan's face. "Only if we can talk about your habit of sipping mouthwash directly from the bottle."

As the adults continued to talk about each others' bad habits, Azrael poured himself more juice and strolled out of the kitchen, into his bedroom. Shutting the door behind him, he turned on his television and put Demon May Weep 4 in his GS3. Sooner or later, now that his mom and Revan weren't arguing anymore, they'd disappear into their room. Apart from the third toothbrush in the bathroom and the extra laundry in the hamper, having Revan in their apartment full-time wasn't really all that bad.

He just wished his mom and Rev wouldn't spend so much time having sex and letting the lasagna burn.