Room 302, Monday Morning

[not_a_moonie]

Alana didn't have a roommate, so letting the room get messy wasn't really a problem. But when she tripped on a stack of magazines and noticed that more of her floor was covered by clothes, books and random junk than was actually floor, she decided it was time for some spring cleaning. So she put on a reggae CD and got to work

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[rebelseekspizza]

The music was... not Dante's style, exactly, but not bad. And he could hear Alana wandering around in there, so dropping by seemed like a perfectly sensible idea.

He rapped on the door and ducked his head in. "Yo."

[not_a_moonie]

"Yo back," Alana said, and if Dante thought her smile for him was a little sadder than usual that was clearly his imagination. Who got sad over chores? "C'mon in. I'm just trying to clean."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Aw," Dante said, slipping into the room. "I liked the old look. Homey."

[not_a_moonie]

"Me too, but you aren't the one who's going to break your leg on a copy of Cosmo getting out of bed some morning," Alana said. "I like homey, not a fire-trap."

[rebelseekspizza]

"The trick is to just clear a path and let the rest work itself out," Dante said, peering around himself.

Anders was lucky he didn't own enough stuff to let the clutter build up yet.

[not_a_moonie]

"It started that way," Alana sighed. "And then I realized I had a bunch of clothes to put away, which made me realize I was going to need to get rid of some of this stuff before I went home anyhow, and now I have this full-blown cleaningpalooza going on. Do you know anybody who needs a homecoming dress?"

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante walked over there, looking at what she was packing. "Maybe?" he said. "I don't know. I know a bunch of girls who'll be around by Homecoming..."

That was a mysterious world of which he knew nothing.

[not_a_moonie]

The dance dresses all tended toward the short, dark, and slightly sparkly: Alana wasn't one for princess fantasies, or for anything she couldn't walk in easily. There was also a calf-high stack of paperbacks (several of which had shirtless men on the cover) and some miscellaneous sweaters, t-shirts and scarves that didn't seem worth hauling to another universe.

"Maybe I should do a giveaway day in one of the common rooms," Alana mused, as she dropped a handful of papers into her trash bag. "I bet a lot of the senior class has dresses and stuff to get rid of."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Maybe you should," Dante agreed. "Bunch of girls don't have a lot of money to throw around." Well, except for what they stole, anyway.

Though now his attention was on the paperbacks. He picked one up and let out an amused huff.

[not_a_moonie]

"Yeah, the money thing's an issue," Alana said, and tried to pretend she wasn't turning pink. Of course he'd picked that book.

"Any chance you'd believe I read those to learn about Earth wars?"

[rebelseekspizza]

"Not a one," Dante said, grinning at her.

He got the hint that she was leaving soon, but the advantage of being wired to live in the moment was that he was pretty damn good at ignoring it. "So what's the big story on this one?" he said, picking a random page in the middle.

[not_a_moonie]

She still had a couple months, anyhow. It wasn't like she was leaving the next day.

"That's a good one," Alana said. She knew she was being teased a little, but she couldn't play it cool when she talked about books. "So, the earl's daughter falls in love with an injured soldier who wandered onto her estate, but she tries to hide it because she figures he only wants her for her money. And she gets ready to marry some dopey viscount, except she and the soldier can't stay away from each other and keep having ridiculously hot sex. The viscount spots them and tries to blackmail her about the premarital sex and she freaks out, but it turns out the soldier was, I dunno, some rich guy's son or something, so she gets to marry him instead."

She described this ridiculous bit of fluff without a trace of cynicism.

[rebelseekspizza]

"Really?"

Dante closed the book with a single motion of his hand. He looked like he thought it was kinda funny, but in a weirdly endearing way. "Hey, I can't blame her for going all the way for some seriously hot sex."

He grinned at her. "Mind if I keep this?"

He'd probably never read it, but eh, he weirdly liked the idea of having it around.

[not_a_moonie]

"Sure, and they're all kind of like that," Alana said, gesturing to the stack. "Boy meets girl, sparks fly, hot sex, circumstances threaten them, more hot sex, happy ending. Sometimes there's a battle somewhere in the middle."

She brushed her hair out of her eyes, looking up at him. "I didn't know you were much of a reader."

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, I'm not," Dante admitted easily. "But rampant sex and ridiculous covers? Kinda seems like fun."

[not_a_moonie]

"It is fun," Alana agreed readily. She shoved the fancy-dress stack to the foot of the bed and plopped herself down to sit on the blanket. "And sometimes you find somebody who can actually write, or has, like, a point to make, and that's even better."