the house guest. (nel + murdoch)

[Nel Sayo]

"I just thought..." She shrugged, shuffling back over to her makeshift counter once he'd tasted the breakfast and approved of it. "...I dunno. Bananas. I thought that would be good. Cantaloupe is good. Just not what...I thought."

Not what she wanted, per se, she wasn't speaking as though she'd awoken with a craving. More that she'd awoken with a thought, and that was true. Also just because...he liked bananas. And she knew that, innately, though she couldn't have said precisely how. Maybe he'd told her. Maybe he'd told Sy, and Sy had told her. Why, well...who knew.

Since he only had one plate, she dumped half the salad onto it, and since he left her the chair, she gave him the fork. Then she fished her own fork out of her pack and flopped into the chair at the table with the mixing bowl in her lap, content to eat from that. Tea steaming at her elbow, the sunlight striking across the pale curls of her hair, loose from the usual ponytail, she looked...like she fit, actually, exactly where she was, inhabited the space as though she'd always been there.

Slumped over the bowl, she propped her cheek against her fist and dug in.

"You could'a kicked me outta the bed," she said, after a minute, glancing over to him as she doled a forkful into her mouth.

[Murdoch]

He wondered what this strange babbling diatribe on fruit was all about - but he was starting to just chaulk up the majority of what she said to Nel being a bit ditzy in the brainspace. He'd no idea about prophecy or seers, didn't consider how strange it was that she'd just named his two favorite fruits, because he had one of them on his plate, covered in cheese and delicious spices, and so he focused on getting that in his mouth.

"You coulda stayed onna floor," he mumbled around a particularly big bite of food, shrugging as he shot her a roguish smile. He pressed the back of one hand to his mouth as he finished chewing, then swallowed harshly and smirked. "Thus have we both sinned, and in doing so gained a good night's sleep. This is really good," he added, spearing an apple slice and nibbling on it.

[Nel Sayo]

"The floor was cold," she said, matter-of-factly. And she shrugged right back at him. "And I mean, I expected you to toss me out. So. Y'know. Next time, just don't squeeze so hard."

Her eyes dropped back to the food, and then Nel was truly committed to eating. And once she started, there was no interruption until that bowl was empty, and she was still fingertipping some of the juicy residue off the sides and up into her mouth.

Next time. It occurred to her that she said next time only after she'd finished eating. Swallowing down another gulp of the tea, therefore, she rounded back to that statement, twirling the fork thoughtfully.

"But I'll be outta your hair in a few hours."

[Murdoch]

He'd hidden a smirk at her little next time slip-up, because that meant she'd already started thinking of this as a resting point instead of a stopover. Which was fine by him, since it translated to Step One on the road to Making Money with Nel.

When she backtracked, he just snorted and shoved another chunk of melon in his mouth. "Really? Where you gonna go?" he asked, smirking as he glanced up at her.

[Nel Sayo]

She shot him a glance as she got up from the table, picking up bowl and mug, and went over to the fresh pail of water to start doing dishes.

"I dunno," she muttered. "Maybe I'll try to book passage to an island somewhere. What do you care?"

It came out more wounded-sounding than she'd intended it to. So she backtracked again, dropping into a seat on the floor over the bucket as she washed the plate.

"Or get a job on a ship. I can sail, y'know. I'm a pretty good navigator. Maybe I'll move to Falyndra and weave baskets, I mean, what other choice do I have?"

He was not a choice. A tiny apartment with a betrayer thief was not a choice.

[Murdoch]

"I don't really care," he said with a shrug, and the nonchalance in his voice was unfeigned, "I'm just saying it might do you some good to rest a while and get your bearings. Come up with a plan before you run half-cocked into the wilderness with no one to watch your back. I mean, how long ago did you even...?" he asked, giving a little wave of his fork as if to indicate the entirety of her situation - being shipwrecked and alone, the story of which he didn't even know, was just sure that Sy was dead somewhere and probably the rest of the crew with him.

[Nel Sayo]

She twisted in her seat to look at him.

Pale eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"What do you want?" she asked, an eyebrow rocking upward. He'd require payment, if she were to keep staying here, that much she was quite certain of. And she was pretty sure that he wouldn't take it in snuggles. "I mean, what would I have to do in order to keep staying here, because the price might be higher than what I'm willing to pay for a tiny room with someone who snores as loudly as you do."

[Murdoch]

He chuckled at all her squinty-eyed accusations, finishing off the last bite of his breakfast and leaning over to toss her the bowl and fork. "Always getting your panties in a twist, ain't you, little swan" he snorted, rolling his eyes. "What do you think? A distraction for my many devious deeds. Every now and again, you play 'pretty white ball of light that everyone looks at' while I take whatever I'm after. You can stay here and I'll even give you, let's say ten percent of the take. You'll probably only need to to do it once a week or so, just to keep it from getting too obvious. And then you've got the whole rest of the time to figure out what to do next."

He folded his arms over his still-bare chest, head tilting a little as he peered down at her. "And you've already seen that I won't stab you without a good reason, since you're still all in one very lovely piece. Not a bad deal, I don't think."

He could make money off her, pure and simple. And that was worth a lot to Murdoch.

[Nel Sayo]

"I don't like being used," she said, reaching to grab up his plate and fork and dump them into the water. "But I don't mind making deals."

Well and it was true that more often than not, she was easy to reason with. She understood making money; Murdoch wasn't the first to look at her and think she could be good as a distraction. She'd done that a lot for Rezar. Scream and fall down; cry and look helpless; just stand there, Nelly, and let this person talk to you. She could do that.

"Okay," she said, after a minute. And then she shrugged, and went back to washing the dishes. "Ten percent, and I'll help you out. But I get to decide what I do or don't do."

Like she'd flash a leg to lure someone down a dark alley, but would not lure someone into a bed so that he could steal the bloke's trousers. There were rules, and there were rules. She got up with an armload of the clean dishes, grabbing a dry rag to towel them off before setting them, just as they'd been, on his little shelf.

"And we're gonna hafta get another pillow, because the one is not cutting it, you know, 'cause you're totally a pillow thief, and that I just can't abide."

She shot him a grin out of the corner of her mouth, and then sniffed as if it'd never happened. Not all steel and serious, our Nel. Not when she could avoid it.

[Murdoch]

Murdoch snorted, and faked a pout in response to her grin. "I am not a pillow thief. I let you have all of it, didn't I? Ungrateful girl. So I used you as a pillow instead, let's not split hairs."

He chuckled, his smirk returning as easily as her grin disappeared, and slid to his feet to straighten the table back into its place. Then grabbed up the dishrag and gave it a good wipe-down just to be sure it was clean. "Nothing untowards, I promise you," he said in reference to whatever jobs he might need her for. "And if you want, I'll even help you get some gainful employment. I happen to know a shop or two that's looking for an extra hand," he said with a shrug.