Laundry Room | Monday Night

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

When Nico returned to his room earlier in the evening, he had been distressed to discover pants on his bed. Pants that were not, in fact, his size. No, he would rather never imagine what Luke and Percy had done on his bed or to his bed or which of them was owner of the offending pants.

The thought of sleeping there made him long for the Underworld.

Cue a rather goth-looking boy perched atop the folding table on a Monday night. He had nothing to do but wait for the washer to quit spinning and chew at a hangnail. What a way to pass the time.

[It was necessary. And the laundry's open!]

Comments

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

People did their laundry on Fandom! It just wasn't a well advertized activity. Zatanna had some clothes to wash, and was positively surprised when she realized there was someone else there. "Hey", called as she started to order her clothes. "Everything alright?"

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Stellar," Nico replied, flashing a Luke-like smile at the girl he should probably know, but let's face it, he didn't hang around with others much. "Nothing better than waiting for sheets to wash."

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

Hey, pretty smile; good thing it wasn't last week. "The sheets...ooooh." And now she was giving him a knowing smile.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

Good thing it wasn't last week, Nico really didn't need to add any more complications to his already thoroughly flustered brain.

Like her knowing smile had done..."Oh gods, not like that! I mean, not me!"

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

Hm? "Oh, so you didn't...dude, I like my roommie, but I don't know if I would go to the point on doing her laundry...specially her naughty one." Of course, Ephaba wasn't the type to end up needing to clean her sheets...and she was getting all the wrong mental images now. "I mean, it's okay if you are the responsible roommate, I guess?"

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"No! They're my sheets," Nico said, sighing at how this all sounded. "But I think something happened on them while I was out last night, so I'm taking precautions." Now he just sounded lame.

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

Just give her a second so she can put it all together. "So your roommate ended up..in your bed? Damn, call that bad luck." She wouldn't tell if it was bad luck for him, or Luke. "Yeah, you better make sure there isn't anything suspicious there." See? She could be understanding. "Oh, I'm Zatanna, by the way. Zee, you know? The whole thing is a little ominous at times." And yet everyone called her like that...

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Well, Zee, people say I'm pretty ominous myself," he replied with some amusement. "I'm Nico. Sorry if it's cold in here." He couldn't help it.

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

"They do now? With fair reason, or someone has a grudge on you? And nice to meet you Nico." Even if they had met before and she didn't remember. Hey, it happens. "And it's okay, as long as I can't see my breath I'm not complaining."

[dontvotemeout]

The good news was, Jason was feeling a lot more like himself today. The bad news was, feeling more like himself meant that all the time he'd spent thinking dirty thoughts last week was open for thinking about what he'd actually done last week. A distraction was definitely needed, so Jason gathered up some of his clothes, and headed to do laundry.

Of course, it was just his luck that the person he was trying not to think about was there, but that didn't stop Jason from putting his laundry bag on an unused machine and giving Nico a small wave. "Hey," he said, aiming for being as casual as possible.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

It was excessively unfair situation, and still Nico couldn't really mind seeing Jason. "Hey," he repeated, waving his ring hand since that was apparently what was done. "Didn't know this was your laundry night."

Really? That was what he was going to say? Nico was thrilled with his brain right now.

[dontvotemeout]

"I didn't know it was yours either," Jason said, since he couldn't think of anything better to say. "I had a free night, it seemed like a good time. Are you sitting here waiting for your clothes to finish?"

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"That's right," Nico nodded, feeling totally lame. He so should've gone and found a book to pretend to read. "Free entertainment. Just wait for the spin cycle to hit and the whole machine over there starts trying to walk across the floor."

[dontvotemeout]

Jason snickered and started throwing his clothes into one of the machines. Doing laundry was kind of a new concept to him, so he was really hoping he wasn't doing it wrong in front of Nico. "Clearly, I need to stick around to see that," he said. "Unless you want the room to yourself." Or he didn't want to be around Jason, which wouldn't surprise him considering the awkwardness of last week.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

For his part, Nico was paying no attention to the laundry beyond wondering if Jason's armored underwear was in that batch. "Trust me, you're totally welcome. Unless you were hoping for some time alone with your laundry."

[dontvotemeout]

"I'm really not that attached to any of it," Jason said, falling silent for a moment as he searched for something else to say. "So, uh, how was your weekend?" That probably wasn't the right way to go, he realized too late.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

Right, the weekend of hormones gone wild. "Uh, it was...different? I don't know, I spent last night hanging out in a bar while Luke used the room. I dig the zombie thing." And sleeping in the stables hadn't been bad. Mrs. O'Leary was always happy enough to spend time with him. "Yours?"

[onapalebicycle.livejournal.com]

It really sucked that being a reaper meant you still had to do normal, boring, everyday household chores. Like laundry, once you were entirely out of clean socks and all of your not-very-clean socks were starting to smell a little ... off.

No time like the present. Well. There was always later, but later wasn't going to stop her clothes from smelling like something that was well on its way to sentience.

She wasn't surprised to see other students in the laundry room. She did manage an awkward nod or two before realizing that wasn't all that social, and she was trying to work on that. Some. Sort of.

"Evening," she said. Look, she was talking to people. Willingly. That was something, wasn't it?

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Nico said, giving a little salute to the reaper. "Big laundry night on campus. I hope you brought enough fabric softener to share."

[onapalebicycle.livejournal.com]

"I don't think I own any fabric softener," George said, plopping her laundry basket down on one of the available washers. And wondering if she really had to sort her clothes. They were all white-ish.

"If static cling is the worse thing to happen to me all day, I'm doing good," she said. "Besides, it makes my clothes smell all perfumey."

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"I can't imagine," he said, knowing full well he tended to reek of death. "Flowers aren't really my thing." No, seriously?

[onapalebicycle.livejournal.com]

"Me, either," George said with a shudder. "Why does everyone think girls want to smell like flowers? Not all of us are the delicate fucking wilting type."

George was not in that category. If the gratuitous swearing hadn't somehow already tipped Nico off. Or the complete lack of femininity, for that matter.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

"Blame my step-mom. She makes flowers grow everywhere." Even in his hair. So annoying.

[onapalebicycle.livejournal.com]

"She's ... a gardener hippie type, or do you mean she's some kind of god of flowers?" George asked.

All things considered, that required some minor clarification.

[deaths-demigod.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was so what he was calling her from now on. "Goddess of flowers, actually. Persephone, if you wanna be specific. Everybody knows the story about her and the pomegranate seeds, right?"