Cassie and I have a tradition. Since that first night in the hotel room, when we realized that her staying with me wasn't a short term thing, we have snuggled up on the couch and watched a movie on the first night in every new room. Of course, we watch movies in-between, but always, always the first night in a new room. Hotel, apartment, random contacts spare room, doesn't matter. Sometimes its not even on the TV, we've watched things on her phone (Or, as much of it as we could. Her phones battery leaves something to be desired). But anyway, the point is that we always do. Somehow the physical contact and the simple domesticity of the routine helps.
In the beginning it was different, of course. We sat on opposite ends of the couch, talked very little, laughed politely if there was anything funny. After the first couple weeks, we were warming up to each other, and I read something somewhere that said that laughing really hard with someone causes a 'bond' between you, and so I went and picked up Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. She of course scorned my attempt at finding age-appropriate humor, citing the fact that "that hotel clerk out there thinks we're fucking " rendered my "patronizing attitude...useless and juvenile." I ignored her fit and put on the movie, then snagged a spot on the couch, knowing that my unfazed attitude would cause her anger to dissipate. Less than 10 minutes in her curiosity got the better of her, and somewhere in that hour and a half of laughing till we cried, sure enough, we 'bonded'.
Now the movie watching is more about reaffirming that evolving bond. I sprawl out, and she nestles herself between myself and the back of the couch. We know where this is going (she Saw it, and I saw her sketchbook) but we're not there yet. I don't know when her vision is set, but I know that she recognized this living room, when the landlord showed us around, and I can feel that right now, we're closer on the scale to the vision than we are to when she drew it. Its an odd mixture of contentment and excitement, but I can tell from the way she melted into me that she's only seeing the movie, which means that we'll probably be here at least a month, and that's enough.