The Vampire's Apprentice

Sam whined then grumbled softly, shaking his head and making it clear he did not appreciate getting left behind. Even so, he laid down in the shade and let out a huge sigh.
"Your dog is such a drama king," Norville smirked as he turned toward the library doors.
 
Kitty scratched him behind the ears in apology, then followed after Norville.
"He really is," she agreed. "But he's a good boy." She glanced over her shoulder at the dog until the doors clicked shut.

It was considerably cooler in the library than the outside heat. Feeling AC was refreshing, to say the least. Kitty inhaled deeply. It smelled of books. Paper. Learning. She let out the breath she held, reveling in the scent of the library. It was almost a woe that they weren't here simply because it was a library. No, they had a mission. Yet... it would be so easy to disappear into one of the isles; run her fingers across the loved spines of fiction and fantasy; open pages with untold wonders sprawling across a blank surface in black ink.

The second breath she released was a quiet sigh.
 
Norville watched her quietly then smirked. "Okay... a house as close to the library as we can manage. Got it. Why don't you go exploring, and I'll talk to a librarian about using the computers and finding houses?"
 
The glimmer was undeniable. She tried to smother it before it seeped through her expression, but she failed. Still, there was a moment of silence while Kitty tried fervently to find any reason not to leave. Some reason that she should deny herself and stick around.

The search came up empty.

"I'll meet you... there. Somewhere. Yeah?" The girl offered, agreeing finally to his terms. She could hear the books whispering already.
 
"Go, go, have fun with the books," Norville chuckled, waving a hand at her. He headed off in search of the check out station or reference or bank of computers. He knew exactly what was going on in Kitty's head, and he was perfectly okay with doing the primary search on his own.
 
Was it something in her actions that let people see her motivations as if they were spoken words? Had she simply been around Norville long enough that he picked up on these things? Perhaps it was both. Or neither.

Kitty waisted little time loitering. She scampered enthusiastically into the reaches of the library, familiarizing herself with the way it was laid out and where each section was. Confusing, in the beginning, but she discovered new things while she was wandering aimlessly. For instance, this library had a small few shelves dedicated to graphic novels, manga, and comics—things she hadn't seen before. These pages smelled good, though, so she took one as an experimental read. No harm in trying something new.

Many minutes later, Kitty returned to Norville, looking less like a deprived book-addict and more like herself. She had a "few" books with her, too. ((And we all know what a "few" books looks like.)) At least she had tried to minimize, but with so many new adventures—it was like letting Sam run around and smell things.

There were maybe four good-sized novels in her stack; in no way were they short reads, even though she'd likely be through with them by the end of the week. Kitty set the heap gently beside the computer and grinned like a child who had accomplished something praise-worthy. She was happy. She had found books.
 
Noville looked up from a site covered in maps and house images and grinned at the stack. "Really? All that in four weeks? Or are you the type to continually renew stuff?" he teased. He indicated the empty chair next to his. There were only two other people in the small room with three rows of computers, perhaps fifteen computers in all. So there was plenty of room for Kitty to stash her books and take a seat.
 
Her grin widened slightly as she settled into a chair. Kitty's attention was redirected to the computer's screen.

"Did you find anything interesting?" She inquired.
 
"A few, yeah," Norville nodded. He indicated the five opened tabs. "It really depends on exactly where we want to settle in, so I kind of tried to cherry-pick a few. Three bedrooms, at least one bathroom, and a reasonable amount of space. Does that sound like a good start to you?" He looked at her anxiously.
 
She blinked, then her expression scrunched. "You probably know more about houses than I do. You tell me, is it a good start?"
 
Norville sighed and rolled his eyes. "Seriously? And I thought I was clueless." Then he strengthened his resolve. "Okay, so, do you think each of the three members of our weird little family needs their own room? Or should we all three share a room?"
 
He was really making her more confused. Wether more confusion was even possible to express was moot.

"Are you asking for real? Or is this to make a point?" Kitty asked. "I don't think I can imagine all three of us in the same room." She bit off the what would happen if statement and left her answer at that.
 
"Okay, so that means we want more than one bedroom," Norville said patiently. "Do we want two bedrooms? Three? Or more? What is the minimum number of bedrooms we can survive with in a long-term living situation?"
 
Norville gave her a look bordering on cranky. "My point is we need to figure out how many bedrooms to get in a house! What other 'point' could I possibly be making?" He turned back to the screen. "Is one bathroom okay? Or do you think we'd just have to have two?"
 
Stifling a sigh, Kitty chewed gently at the inside of her cheek. "Maybe, since we're just exploring, we can look at both. But, if you're not in the mood, we can do something else for a bit and come back."
 
"I'm totally in the mood. I don't get why you seem to be having an issue," Norville said, rolling his eyes. He opened up the filters on the site. "Three beds, one bath, no less than 800 square feet. Now, let's see what comes up." He waited for the page to load the possibilities.
 
She chewed a little too hard and winced when she bit herself. It wasn't her attitude, she was certain, but the words still stung, as much as she tried to ignore them. Kitty waited silently for the page to load.
 
"Okay," Norville said as the page finished loading. "So we have... 30 plus houses matching our criteria of three or more beds and one or more baths. But I don't think that even as loaded as Mr. Clancy is he can afford these two million dollar mansions with six bedrooms and stuff, so, let's order this by price from cheapest to most expensive." He clicked on the filter and waited for it to update. "Alright, here's some decent houses. Some of these cheapest ones, though, are really trashed."
 
Kitty squirmed her her chair, then leaned forward a bit to better view the screen. Being herself, she wasn't exactly thinking this through as much as Norville might have been. Her train of thought was... everywhere. What little attempt to focus she did make on what he was saying, Kitty spent asking herself if she could see the four of them living in any given place and not much more than that. The more they looked, the more restless she became. There was something she felt she was supposed to be doing, but couldn't put her finger on just what. Sam also never left the back of her mind, but that was almost always true.
 
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