super paradise [aria]

Emery found it both comforting and nostalgic to walk up the broken cement driveway toward his family's house which, as it always did, looked like it was about to fall over.

As he finished his cigarette in front of the house, he looked down the block at all of the houses he'd grown up around. There was so much history -- so much of his history -- stuffed into the street and cramped houses that lined it. This place not only represented to him the way he was raised (which he was still emotionally unsure about), but his family and the bonds they shared.

He flicked the butt of his cigarette onto the ground, squishing it with the bottom of his shoe and kicking it into a nearby bush next to a bunch of other cigarette butts that he assumed were from his siblings.

He opened the door to the house and walked right in, looking around the halls for a sign of anyone. It was practically the same as it was when he'd moved out months ago -- not that he expected it all to be different once he left, but it was a bit startling. (He had narcissistically thought the whole place might fall apart.) He felt like he was walking right into a memory.

"Anyone home?" he called loudly, closing the door behind him. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his peacoat, walking slowly through the hall to take a good look at all of the crooked framed photos of him and his siblings through the years. He smiled at some of the ones of him and his younger siblings, Bailey and Aria, who he spent a decent amount of his childhood helping to care for.

"Aw," he said, reaching a photo of him picking his nose at age five or six. "How embarrassing."

"You're still pretty embarrassing," Ri said with a smile. She'd come halfway down the stairs and found her youngest older brother standing in the living room looking at some of the dusty frames that held pictures of their family from their younger years. None of that stuff had been touched in years.

She hopped down the rest of the stairs and walked to stand next to Emery. She bumped him with her hip. It'd been a few months since he'd visited, and she'd missed him. It was nice to see him here. Like a little piece of home had returned to the house.

"Aw, look at little me," Ri said, pointing up to a frame that hung slightly askew. Smallish Aria had big eyes and pigtails. Ice cream covered her face. "Obviously the cutest Lorenz on the wall."

Emery lit up when he heard his sister's unmistakeable voice coming down the stairs. He put his arm casually around her shoulders as they stood next to each other and looked at the wall of dusty photos.

"I know a few clio that might debate you on that," he said with a smirk, pulling Aria closer to him in a sideways squeeze hug.

"How've ya been, punk?" he asked affectionately. "I feel like I haven't seen you in like five years."

Ri let herself be squeezed, and gave a little "oomph" noise. She'd missed him, and it felt good to be hugged.

Em wrote:How've ya been, punk? I feel like I haven't seen you in like five years.

She looked up at her brother and raised her eyebrows in a stern sort of way. "And whose fault is that?" she asked. Aria, perhaps, had been the sibling most disappointed by Emery's decision to move away from The House. And then he'd run off for months without a visit. It was rude, was what it was.

Not as if you don't plan on doing the same thing, Hel pointed out.

Ri ignored him. She would visit.

"Maybe you'll come round for dinner on a Sunday like Case is always wanting and you can pretend like you actually miss us." Casen, their older brother, was always trying to have Lorenz family dinners with all the siblings, but it rarely happened.

Emery nodded in guilt, rolling his eyes (mostly at himself -- it was true that he hadn't visited as often as he imagined he would). "Yeah yeah, we'll see how often you come back once you fly the coop, huh?"

Maybe you'll come round for dinner on a Sunday like Case is always wanting and you can pretend like you actually miss us.

"Mm, I don't know -- I think I prefer dropping by unannounced and seeing who I run into," he said with a light laugh. "Having some weekly Sunday plated dinner sounds too tidy for this place."

He retracted his arm from around her shoulders, only to jokingly shove her lightly away from him. "I do miss you, though," he said with a little somewhat-embarrassed smile.

Aria was not sure how much of a coop would be left once she did indeed leave, but she didn't say anything. Despite her often outspoken personality, she had yet to tell a single sibling about her desire to leave the outskirts of Dian. Of the siblings that had moved out so far, not a single one had left the area they were born into.

She stuck her tongue out at Emery when he pushed her. "Alright you weasel, I believe you. And I missed you, too."

The two siblings settled down into some very worn-in couches in the front living room, where they brought cups of coffee that Ri had forced Emery to warm with his eilemaiden. She blew on hers and then took a sip before asking, "So, how has the *new and improved!* respectable job been treating you?"

He was obviously doing well for himself, and Ri was proud of him. Especially since he'd still been cheating and scamming clio just a few years ago.

Emery almost felt a sense of muscle memory as he moved through the house and sat in the couches that he'd grown up with. As a kid he'd both loved and hated this place -- it was a sanctuary for him, but also a constant reminder of how poor and desperate they were. And after his parents...

No, he said, intently sipping on his coffee. I told myself I wouldn't go there.

He had zoned out for a second, but came back to reality in time to hear Ri's question. He couldn't help but smile, in that sort of 'I know something you don't know' way.

"Well, I think I've given him reason not to fire me," he said with a shrug. "That's about all one can ask for, right?" He was obviously keeping something from Aria and it was evident in his expression that he was holding something back. He sipped his coffee to try and hide the slight smile he couldn't help but have on his face.

Ri's eyebrows drew together as she noticed the smirk he tried to hide behind his coffee. "Wait, wait, what am I missing here?" she asked, bringing her own cup down to rest in her lap.

"What's that supposed to mean? 'I think I've given him a reason not to fire me'?" Em had never been good at keeping secrets from her, and the way he was trying to hide this one made her insanely curious. Had this been the reason for his long absence?

"Yeah, I mean like, ya know. I've shown him my worth. As an employee." He was avoiding eye contact now and debating whether he should just come out and say it. This, in addition to a handful of other complicated feelings about the family and house, was definitely a major reason he'd avoided coming home. It was impossible to keep a secret (especially from Ri), and inevitable that his work situation would be brought up.

He sighed, crossing one leg over the other. "I'm sort of...sleeping with the boss. Strictly for the job, not as a cute romantic thing. He's like really old. And pretty gross." He sipped his coffee again, more casually now as he watched for Ri's reaction. He wasn't ashamed for doing what he had to in order to make a living for himself, but with the whole family aiming to be 'better, contributing clio to Amelia,' he was embarrassed that he wasn't able to do so as easily as everyone else seemed to.

Em wrote:Yeah, I mean like, ya know. I've shown him my worth. As an employee.

I'm sort of...sleeping with the boss. Strictly for the job, not as a cute romantic thing. He's like really old. And pretty gross.

Ri had been about to press him further when he finally came out and got to it. Her eyebrows raised, and her nose wrinkled up. "Really?" she asked. She was a little grossed out, not because of the fact that Emery was sleeping with his boss to get ahead--that she completely understood--but because Em had described him as "really old" and "pretty gross". If he had to get dirty for the job he might as well do it with clio he thought were attractive!

She paused for a second, mulling over the secret of her own that she'd successfully kept hidden. "You know, if you have to sleep with your boss, there are other jobs that probably pay better and have more attractive bosses." She laughed.

Emery smiled and nodded. "Oh believe me, I know." He set his mug on a table as he turned and dug through the pockets of the peacoat he'd taken off and thrown over the side of the couch. "But the printing press is pretty cool, it's like some new technology or something. Maybe I could take over his shop when he dies, or start my own someday." He rolled his eyes at himself. Like any of that would actually ever happen to a Lorenz.

He finally found his pack of cigarettes and, hand still in pocket, he turned to Ri. "You smoke yet? You know it's kind of a family tradition."

Ri stuck her tongue out and made a small gagging noise. "I think I'll skip this particular tradition," she said with a laugh. She'd tried a few cigarettes when she was younger, but they'd made her sick. She had no interest anymore, and preferred to pocket the extra cash it would cost her to start up such an expensive habit, anyway.

"Anyway, the printing thing sounds nice, minus the gross old man sex." She laughed, so Emery knew she wasn't judging him. It was just a way of life here--Ri knew that as well as anyone.

"Yeah, that's probably for the best," he said with a laugh, taking one out for himself, sticking it between his lips, and lighting it with his thumb. "You should probably avoid most Lorenz traditions, if you're smart."

He inhaled and exhaled as Ri spoke to him. "Yeah, it's honestly a small price to pay. I've done worse for less. At least this will give me some transferrable skills or something. What about you? Escape the factory life yet? You know you're too good for that place." He stood up to open a window so his smoke wouldn't be so overwhelming. He also liked the chilly breeze that came through -- he tended to be on the warm side.

Ri rolled her eyes and sighed. "I wish." It was not a secret that Ri hated the factory and everything that went with it. The long hours, the creepy coworkers, the dirty, cramped conditions.

"Soon, though, I hope."

She thought about her escort service, and how long she'd hidden it. Was she embarrassed, she wondered? Why had she kept it a secret for so long? Was she embarrassed about how far she'd go for the extra cash? Or was it because she was embarrassed that she wasn't contributing more to the family, despite her extra income?