It was right outside Paris; this apartment Arthur had bought. There was only three levels and he was on the third.
When you first walked in, there was a white poled hard wooden staircase that led up to the floors.
It angled around itself like a spiral as we walked up and you looked down.
It reminded me about the time Arthur was teaching me paradoxes. We would move up the stairs but then suddenly, the steps would change and everything would be unexpectantly different.
"Alright, now keep in mind this place doesn't have any furniture or other things. Its mostly just rooms." He told me as he put the key in the door.
"I know, and I will keep it in mind. Now show me." I said with excitement.
He turned the key and opened the door, letting me step inside first.
The apartment was an open area. It had a big center room and off towards the side it had a sliding door and balcony. To the right of the big area was a small peninsula counter top and an empty kitchen.
The place did however have a fridge and stove/oven.
"Well, you have some things." I joked as I glanced at the items.
I walked out of the kitchen and down the long hall way.
To the right was a bedroom. It was a pretty nice and big one. Their was a closet against the wall and windows facing you as you walked in. To the right of the room was a bedroom that was huge. It had a step in bathtub that was long and wide, a glass shower that could probably fit a group of people, and a nice countertop with a built in sink.
The toilet had its own little area; a closet like door was there to shield away any eyes and maintain privacy.
When I walked out of the bathroom and the bedroom, I looked off to the side slightly and found a closet. It was empty of course, but looked pretty wide and spacious.
Next to it was another bedroom; this one being smaller. It had windows facing you when you first walked in too, but had a closet almost right next to the wall that held the open door.
The second bathroom was at the end of the hall, also being smaller. It had a sink with a small hanging mirror when you first walked and off to the left side was a toilet and a shower/bath tub.
"This is a nice place." I complimented to Arthur as I walked out of the smaller bathroom.
"Thank you." He said with a slight blush.
"And you've never used this place?" I asked him as I wrapped my arms around his neck.
"Nope, not really. I've never really stayed in Paris for a mission."
"But you bought a place here anyways?" I asked confused.
He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know why I bought it. It just seemed nice and a good safe house."
"A safe house with no furniture." I added.
He flashed me a smile and kissed my lips.
"So what are we going to do with the rest of our day?" I asked in curiosity.
"You don't have any work or anything to do?" he asked.
"Nope." I said, popping the 'p'
"No finals?" he asked, knowing I had to do something.
I let out a groan and set my forehead on his shoulder. "Don't remind me about that."
He let out a chuckle and kissed my cheek.
"How about you get some studying done while I go out and get us a safe and something to eat"
I looked up at him confused. Why would we need a safe.
"The money Ari." He said, practically reading my mind.
My cheeks blushed and I rolled my eyes. How could I forget?
"sure, that sounds like a plan I guess."
He pecked me on the lips one last time before taking his keys and shutting the door.
I over to the door, where Arthur had put all of our stuff. I grabbed my bag which held all my papers and laptop and I set it on the counter.
Grabbing what I needed, I turned back to the big open space I called the family room and looked around.
"Where to sit." I said to myself.
Finding a perfect spot in the middle of the floor, I plopped myself down and began to study.
About a few hours later, Arthur came walking back into the apartment with a bag of food and a big box that had a picture of a very expensive looking safe.
"How's the studying going?" he asked me as he pulled out the food.
"How do you think studying is?" I asked with a groan.
I heard him chuckle a bit and walk over to me.
"That good huh?" he said with a diet coke and sandwich in hand.
"Yup." I told him and took my food from him.
"So what kind of safe did you buy?" I asked, looking up from my notes.
"A good one." He told me as he stood there by the door watching me.
"Funny." I said sarcastically.
"Where are we putting it?" I asked, swallowing my food.
"In the closet. You'll see exactly where I have in mind later, when I install it." He said, taking a bite of his own sandwich.
I nodded and then went back to studying.
After twenty more minutes of looking at my hand written notes, I heard something like a drill.
I stood up from the floor and walked to the noise with my sandwhich still in hand.
Arthur was in the hall, head in the closet with an electric drill.
"What are you doing?" I asked bewildered.
"Ow." He said as he hit his head against a shelf in surprise.
"Sorry." I said trying to hold back a laugh.
He turned around and looked at me. "I installed an old type of safe when I first bought the place. Unfortunately I didn't use it much, but I decided to get the updated one just in case this old thing couldn't hold up." He said.
I looked at him quite interested and nodded. He went back to work and soon he was pulling out something that looked like a hotel safe.
"Ahh, so that's the old thing." I said, watching him as I leaned against the wall across from the closet.
"Yes." He grunted, setting down the heavy safe on the ground.
Soon he began to install the new one, and I couldn't help to just be in his company. I ended up grabbing my notes and sitting across from him, just briefly watching as he installed the new device.
"So why on the right wall of the closet?" I asked him randomly.
He looked at me slightly, before drilling the safe into its spot.
"I thought it would be the most inconspicuous there. If I was to put it dead center, obviously someone would see it and try to break into it; if I put it on the left side, when you would walk out of the bedrooms or bathroom, you would be able to see it if the closet was open. So the right side was most inconspicuous."
"Interesting." I said and went back to my work.
The drilling finally stopped after a few minutes and then a few sounds of buttons being pushed.
"It works?" I asked, getting up from the wall.
"Yea, now come here." He told me.
I stood beside him, catching a look of what he was doing.
"Put your thumb here." He instructed, pointing to this rectangular thing.
I set my thumb right where he told me and felt as if it was sinking a little. The scanner's place to put your thumb had like this squishy plastic feel. It was almost like materials of a kid's stress ball. The fingerprint scanner suddenly lit up and scanned my fingerprint up and down a few times.
"That was cool." I said as the screen read 'scanning complete.'
Arthur hit a few more buttons and then made sure the safe was locked.
"Yea; now, only you and I will be able to open up the safe." He told me.
"The pass code is the address of the warehouse. Got it?" he asked.
I nodded, that is simple enough.
He gave me a quick kiss on my head and helped me pick up all my things.
"How long are you going to study for?" he asked as we stood up.
"I'm done for the day; No more." I told him as I put the things in my bag.
"Then lets quickly put this money in here and go shopping for some things shall we?" he asked.
I nodded to him and watched as he took my bag to empty out the money.
When he was finished he hung up the bag on the wooden coat rack behind the door and then held out his hand.
"Lets go." He said and we walked off out the door.
We ended up going to a place like Target. It was nice, clean, and had mostly everything we needed.
Arthur and I grabbed a cart and went down every aisle, finding we needed practically everything.
"blankets." I said, looking for a sign with home things.
"Blankets?" Arthur asked behind me with the cart.
My eyebrow lifted and I looked at him. "If you can find us a bed by the end of today, I will for sure call you superman." I said.
"But if not, we are going to need lots and lots of blankets to sleep on." I said and walked off to the home area.
"We so need another cart." I laughed as our items were stacked above the cart.
This time, he turned to me with a raised eyebrow. "Don't we have everything?"
"Arthur, we still need food and pillows and sheets." I said, still purely amazed how high this tower of things were.
"Hmm…alright. I will go get one." He said.
"No its ok." I said with a hand on his chest.
"Stay here, I will go get one." I smiled and then walked back to the front of the store.
Within minutes I was back with Arthur looking at all the different sheets.
"Which one?" I asked, holding up some beige linen colored sheets.
"What's the difference?" Arthur asked puzzled.
I looked between the two, then held up each.
"This one has a 750 thread count, while this one has 1000 thread count."
He stared between the two for a moment then spoke up. "750."
I nodded nonchalantly and then threw them in the basket. Next was pillows; they were actually quite easy. Arthur and I both found ones that we liked and threw them in the basket.
Two hours later, and a very expensive bill, we were finally done and in the car on our way home.
"Never again." I groaned with my head against the cold window.
"We still have to go to IKEA." Arthur reminded me.
I let out a groan and he squeezed my hand with a chuckle. Our bags practically filled the whole car. The back was completely jam-packed while the back had bags from the seat to the floor.
We pulled up to a parking space and the thought of walking them up made me groan.
"Please don't tell me we have to carry all of those bags up three flights of stairs." I said.
He looked at me and then gave me a smile. "No, we don't. There is an elevator right under the stair; you must have missed it when we first walked in. we can use that." He told me as he got out of the car to take in the bags.
The elevator was just as packed as the car. Both our hands were full of bags, along with the floor of the elevator.
"How did we buy this much stuff?" I asked with astonishment.
Arthur let out a laugh and leaned over to kiss my cheek.
"I have no idea."
The elevator dinged at our floor and I wondered just how we were going to do this.
"Alright, you stay here, I am going to drop off these bags and then come back for more. Make sure the elevator doesn't shut on you, got it?" he asked stepping out.
I gave a nod and watched him go. He came back fast, taking more bags with him each time. Finally, I had enough room to walk out and grab the last few.
"I was coming back." He said, taking some of the bags from me.
"And I was fine. I just wanted to grab the last few-spare you a trip." I told him.
He kissed my cheek as we walked in and set the bags down with the others.
"Well, if we start working now, im sure we will be done by midnight." I joked as we looked at all of them.
"Hey." Arthur said, bringing me to him. "We don't have to unpack these now if you don't want to."
I gave him a loving smile and kissed him softly.
"No, I want to. I want it to look and feel more like home."
A smile grew from his lips and spread across his face.
"I like the sound of that- home." He told me as he caressed my cheek.
"Me too." I whispered.
We kissed for a while, just enjoying each other, before we began the task of unpacking.
As I put some things in the closet, a thought crossed my mind.
"What do I do with my stuff at my apartment? Actually, what do I do with my apartment?" I asked Arthur who was in the kitchen.
He looked at me from across the room, formulating a plan in his head.
"We could swing by there tomorrow before we go to IKEA? Grab your stuff and drop it back off here." He said.
"Arthur, I have a bed and stuff." I told him.
He looked at me puzzled them.
"Hmm…well I guess we could just spend the whole day at your apartment then. Pick up some empty boxes on our way there and start packing it all up."
I gave a nod. "And I have class's tomorrow- early though, so I will probably be up and out before you get up."
He gave me a smile and then nodded. "Sounds fine. We can go when you get back."
We went back to doing whatever, and we soon had almost all the bags empty.
"I am officially beat." I said, lying on the blankets we spread out in the middle of the room. I grabbed the one off to the side and snuggled with it.
"I second that." He groaned, lying down next to me.
I wiggled over to his arms, laying my head on his chest as I heard his calm breaths. We shared the green microfiber blanket, keeping it over the two of us.
"Night Arthur, I love you." I whispered.
"Goodnight Ari, I love you too." He said and kissed my head before we both fell asleep.
I woke up to my phone vibrating and knew it was the alarm I set. I groaned and reached for the stupid thing.
Turning it off quick, I slowly pulled myself out of Arthur's arms and got ready for class.
With my clothes changed and my hair in a ponytail, I grabbed my books and was out the door.
I had the boring teacher again; I found he did the same thing every class. Do the assignment on the board and read.
When it was over, I walked to Miles classroom and found it empty.
Good, he's still on prep. I thought.
Walking into his room, I felt a sense of happiness.
"Well good morning Ariadne." He smiled to me.
I smiled back and sat on a student desk across from him.
"So the job is done?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.
"It is, and as you've probably heard, a complete success." I boasted.
"So how are you spending your days?" he asked me cautiously.
"You mean, have I been holding onto my totem to make sure I am awake and in reality? No, I haven't." I said.
"Really? Then care to share how you're spending your time?" he asked me with some surprise.
I blushed slightly and looked at him. "Im with Arthur. He asked me to move in with him the day the job was finished and I accepted." I said with a smile.
Miles's eyes glistened with happiness and he urged me to continue.
"He said he wanted to give us a shot and he didn't want to leave without me; So here we are."
"So you both are living at your small apartment?" he asked shocked.
I rolled my eyes. "My apartment is not that small. And no we aren't. Arthur bought an apartment just outside of Paris so we are staying there. But today we are going to grab my stuff and transfer it to his."
Miles gave me another happy smile, which was something I rarely see from the man.
"Im proud of you Ariadne. I was afraid you would loose yourself in the job, or that it wouldn't work out with Arthur when you went separate ways and you would be crushed. But im glad he gave you both a leap of faith, and im certainly glad you are happy." He said with true honesty.
"Well, I am glad you pushed me to succeed." I smiled. "Because… I get to graduate early!" I announced.
The professor's face went shell shocked and he was certainly surprised.
"My god Ariadne, you did it." He said with such amazement in his voice. He stood up from his desk, giving me a huge hug.
"I got the email yesterday, and they said that since I didn't fill out an address that they would send it here. They said it was a big honor and to be ready in a couple of weeks to walk down the stage and graduate." I gushed.
"How did Arthur take the news?' he asked.
I bit my lip and blushed a bit. "I didn't tell him yet. We were both pretty busy yesterday and then exhausted when we got home, so I decided to tell him today when he helps me move."
Miles looked interested yet proud. "Well, I am certainly happy for you." He told me.
"Thank you professor." I said hugging him. "I'm absolutely positive couldn't have done this without you."
He gave me a smile and then looked at the clock.
"Alright, well get out of here. I have a class coming soon."
With one last hug, I was dashing up the stairs in a hurry.
"Ariadne?" he called.
"Yes professor?" I asked popping my head back in.
"Don't forget to tell Arthur; im sure he will be over the moon for you." He advised.
"Don't worry professor, I plan to." I smirked and then ran off to go see my boyfriend.
I came back inside to a sleeping Arthur. He was still unconscious on the blankets sleeping like a baby.
Gently setting the keys on the counter, I walked over to him and laid back down in his arms.
"Hey." He groaned, hugging me.
"Hi." I smiled, propping my head up to look at him.
"What's got you so happy?" he asked groggily.
I opened my mouth to tell him, but then I felt like it just wasn't the right time.
"Nothing, nothing at all." I smiled.
He gave me a look like 'I know you aren't telling me something but I will let it slide for a few hours' kind of look.
"How was your sleep?" I asked as we laid there.
"Good, how was class?" he asked me.
"Boring as hell." I admitted. He gave a chuckle and then kissed my forehead.
"Come on, let's get up. I have a feeling we are going to have a lot of work to do." He muttered.
This time, it was me who let out a laugh. He was right about that.
Arthur changed his clothes, putting on a tight black short sleeved tee shirt and a pair of dark wash jeans.
"Ready to go?" he asked, taking a bite of my pop tart.
"Hey!" I protested, measuring the damage to my pop tart.
He looked at me, chewing with satisfaction.
"Yea, let's go." I grumbled and moved my pop tart out of reach so he couldn't eat is as I passed.