There is nothing in the world worse than moving, and it was the last thing Iko wanted to spend her only weekend before starting her new job doing. But, there she was, lugging boxes one-by-one into the smooth and quick elevator of her new apartment building. She had a lot to carry, and she didn't even want to think how much it would cost to rent two androids to move her furniture inside, but it'd be worth it in the end. She'd finally be independent.
It took her an hour and a half to get all of her clothes inside, and then she was hauling her netscreen into the apartment. It was naturally light, made of mostly plastic, but it was 70 inches, and Iko was 5'3", 105 pounds soaking wet with shoes. The thing was taller long-ways than she was.
Iko breathed a sigh of relief when she'd made it to her apartment. She leaned the netscreen against the wall and reached to swipe her wrist, but the netscreen hadn't been steady and she watched from the corner of her eye as it began to fall forward, immediate panic rising.
"Woah!" She heard from behind her, and the screen stopped falling.
Iko turned around, her heart rate slowing instantly, as there was a woman there pushing the screen against the wall, "Oh, thanks so much!"
"I thought I heard someone out here," the woman said in a voice that was as lovely as a song. "Is it just you?"
Iko nodded, "Yup, just me. Thanks for my netscreen, I wouldn't have caught it in time."
"No problem," she shrugged. Iko noticed that she was wearing shorts and a tank top, but still had on black gloves that stretched to her elbows and socks that climbed up her calves and halfway up her thighs. They looked good on her, but it was kind of hot. Or maybe that was just because she'd been lugging huge boxes upstairs for the last three hours.
She dipped her head, "I'm Cinder, by the way."
"Iko! So, do you live alone, too?"
Cinder planted her hands on her hips, her face brightening, "No, I live with my fiancé. He should be home any min-" the elevator dinged down the hall and her smile widened, "Speak of the devil."
A man stepped out, all poise and business with a suit and slicked back black hair, a briefcase in one hand. He waved as he noticed them, and Iko was struck by how handsome he was. She wasn't surprised, given that Cinder herself was gorgeous, in that unconventional way that was almost surprising, but only if you were rude enough to think of it like that.
"Home early, just like I promised!" He walked over and wrapped an arm around Cinder's waist, giving her a quick kiss before turning towards Iko, "You must be the new neighbor. I'm Kaito. You can call me Kai." She didn't look at him as he spoke to her, but rather, her eyes traveled to Cinder, who was staring at Kai with a sort of wonder, as if every word that he spoke was a new discovery for her.
"I'm Iko," she replied with a quick bow. "Your fiancée kept me from dropping my netscreen just now, actually."
Cinder shrugged and glanced over at Kai. "I was just barely quick enough." She was only a couple inches shorter than him and they were the picture perfect couple. They kind of reminded her of her favorite couple from that one net drama! What was it called? She couldn't remember but stars, they were delightful.
Kai leaned over and kissed the top of Cinder's head before addressing Iko again, "Do you have anything else to move in? We'll be happy to help."
Iko pulled her fingers down a couple of her blue braids, looking down. She didn't really want to ask….
"Really, we will," Cinder cut in.
"I've got a living chair, a bed frame, box spring, and mattress, and then a couch."
She pulled away from her fiancé, "We'll go grab the box spring and bed frame, you get changed and then we'll all do the rest of it."
He dropped his arm, "All right, I'll be right down," and he disappeared into the apartment.
Iko turned to Cinder on the elevator, "You two seem so happy. What do you do? How did you meet?"
"He's great, isn't he? Kai's a lawyer. Fights for cyborg rights. I'm a mechanic. He brought his hover in once, and the poor guy doesn't know a damned thing about them. It was the magbelt! Easiest fix I had in a while. Apparently he liked me, though, because he asked me out. The rest is history."
Iko's eyes practically sparkled, "It's just like a net drama."
Cinder chuckled, "Yeah, something like that." They stepped off the elevator and headed to the double doors leading out to the hot, sticky August day. "Hey, a few of our friends are flying in today for the weekend. We're having a get-together tonight. You're welcome to join us, if you're not too exhausted from moving."
"Are they couples, too?" She asked.
"Yeah. Well, two of them won't admit it yet, but everyone knows. You have anyone to invite over? Boyfriend, girlfriend, best friend?"
Iko shrugged, "I moved here from Cairo. All my friends are over there. And I'm aroace, so a relationship isn't my thing, you know."
Cinder's eyebrows stitched together for only a moment, but she finally grinned. Her retinal display had taken over and did the research for her in 1.3 seconds, "Ah, okay. No, it won't be weird and couple-y. We're just gonna hang out and talk and drink and eat, probably. Want to?"
She nodded, "Yeah, yeah, sure. I'll be there."
Iko knocked on the door as lightly as she could, but ended up having to pound on it anyway before someone came to the door and answered.
The man who pulled the door open was at least two and a half times her size, and an entire foot taller. She looked up at him, completely intimidated, "Um, hi."
"You must be Iko," he said in a deep voice with a friendly grin. He moved to the side to let her in, "I'm Ze'ev, but everyone calls me Wolf."
Cinder floated over, and it was clear that she probably already had an ale or two. "Iko! Hi! I'm glad you're here." Her eyes dropped to the plate in her new neighbor's hand, "You brought cookies! You didn't have to bring cookies after spending all day moving!"
She took the plate from Iko's hands, gesturing toward the living room.
Iko shrugged, "I wasn't going to, but I was unpacking my kitchen and decided I didn't feel like unpacking anymore. I'll just finish tomorrow!"
They entered the living room and Iko spotted Kai sitting with two other couples. There was a redhead with the curliest hair she'd ever seen, freckles spotting her cheeks and chin and forehead. She was sitting next to the man who they called Wolf. She noticed now that his skin was a darker shade of tan, and he was covered in scars. To their right was a couple that stood out much less. The girl was tiny, tiny, tiny, even smaller than Iko herself. But she had gorgeous, short blonde hair and big, blue eyes. Her boyfriend, or whatever he was, was handsome. He had disheveled brown hair and a perpetual devil-may-care grin.
Iko knew already that she would like them.
"Iko just loved my story about how Kai and I met," Cinder said, a little too loudly and a little too slurred. "Tell her yours!"
Scarlet, the redhead, giggled. "Would you believe me if I told you he got into a bar fight while I was dropping off a shipment?"
"Only because I was sticking up for you," Wolf interjected. "Scarlet loves telling middle-aged, drunken men how wrong they are. I knew that before I even knew the color of her eyes."
"I've never seen anyone throw a punch so fast," Scarlet laughed. "It took a while for me to warm up to him after that, but it's all right now."
Iko's eyes were aflame, a smile frozen on her face. "How long have you been together?"
"We're not together," Scarlet said, a little too quickly.
Iko sat back against the living chair, regarding them with a critical eye. So they were the couple that Cinder mentioned wouldn't admit that they were. She noticed, too, that they were very obviously dying to reach out to each other, though at least 3 inches apart at every point. She smirked, "Yeah, sure." She shifted her gaze to Cress and Thorne, the blue-eyed duo. "And what about you?"
Thorne shrugged with a crooked smile, "Ours isn't nearly so violent."
Cress elbowed him, hints of a blush playing on her skin. "It was kind of weird, though. I'll admit that much."
"You practically stalked me!"
"I-I-I d-did not!" She stammered. "He-he's joking. That's not what happened at all."
Iko leaned over and planted her chin on her fist, as if she was watching a net drama play out on screen.
"Anyway," Thorne readjusted himself, "It was kind of an accident. Crescent here, our resident elusive hacker for the American Republic, hacked into the wrong port."
"Its ID number was one number off!" She groaned, "I completely destroyed 85% of his files before realizing that it was the wrong computer. Almost lost my job for it."
Iko quirked an eyebrow, confused. "And then?"
Cress laughed quietly, "Well, one condition of keeping my job was that I had to apologize to him in person. I expected him to be some grungy old man based on some of the stuff that I saw on his port but, nope, I found this loser. I couldn't even finish my apology before he was asking me out on a date! In front of my boss, of all people!"
Thorne guffawed, "You should've seen this lady's face. She was so caught off guard."
"So was I," Cress mumbled. "I said yes in the heat of the moment – he was handsome, after all, and I've never looked back."
Iko was beaming, and it was… pretty unsettling, to say the least. "That. Is. So. Cute." She clapped her hands.
Kai shot Cinder a look, but then laughed, "Did Cinder tell you the whole story of how we met, though?"
"Your hover broke down and you know nothing about hovers," she replied succinctly.
"Cinder made fun of me relentlessly when I brought it in," he told her, amusement in the crinkled corners of his eyes.
From beside him, his fiancée shrugged. "He didn't even know what model it was. They all have them on the outside and in two different places on the inside, and he still didn't know the model! I knew he was hopeless the second I asked him what was wrong and his face did this," she stopped talking and composed her features, and then made her eyes as wide was they could go, her jaw falling open. She could only hold it for a moment before she broke into a fit of giggles. "He was so charming, though."
"Swept her off her feet when I came to pick it up," Kai said proudly.
Cinder scoffed, "Only because you're such a romantic."
Kai poked her, "And you love it."
"I do, I do," she nodded.
Iko couldn't contain it anymore. It was too adorable, she loved it way too much. They were just – they were just – just – just –
"SO CUTE!" She squealed, palms covering her face as she fell back against the chair, her legs kicking out randomly in front of her.
Everyone watched in horror as her squeals divulged into crazed laughter.
"This is so much better than a net drama!"
Author's Note: This was for the Plus Iko tlcshipweeks theme! Yeah, I don't have much to say here. (PS! "Breaking Routine" is sort of Cresswell's backstory for this fic!)