A Fateful Encounter

[LadyTL]

Shautha sighed as she got out of the uhaul truck. She had just moved to this place and already it was creeping her out somewhat. She had never seen a city with so many shadows at noon in the middle of July and this was the nice neighborhood. Well as nice as middle class would get these days. But she was here anyways. The job ad had been very tempting with the high salery and definate rapid promotion oppertunities. She opened up the back and started hauling out her boxes to her new basement appatment. She was just getting the inside the door first though. She would worry about putting them away properly after everything was inside.

[The Infamous Frostbyte]

Ash, who lived in the apartment just above hers, peered out of the window as her U-Haul truck pulled up. Watching her unload boxes for a few minutes, he slipped out of his apartment, careful to lock the door behind him, and emerged on the front step.

"Moving in?" he asked, smiling slightly; his smile was hollow though, as if he really didn't have anything to be happy about. "Do... do you want some help with that?" he asked, indicating the boxes. As he spoke though, one could notice he was taking particular care not to take his hands out of his pockets.

[LadyTL]

She jumped and dropped the plastic bin she was carrying. "Oh. Hi there. Yeah I just got into the city and all. I don't need help but um...Is the city always like this?" She glanced around at the shadows.

[The Infamous Frostbyte]

He nodded, hesitating for a moment before reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a pair of heavy-looking leather work gloves. Slipping them on, he stepped down from the stoop and helped her by picking up one of the plastic crates, making sure his gloves and sleeves overlapped. "Sorry about the gloves its um... difficult to explain." He said, looking slightly flustered. "um... which apartment is yours?"

[LadyTL]

"The basement one. I'm not a big fan of direct sunlight when I am sleeping. Basements tend to only get indirect sunlight." She smiled at him. "so what is with the gloves though? Sensitive skin or something?" She kept on carrying stuff in though, as she had packed the uhaul tightly with her stuff.

[The Infamous Frostbyte]

Ash paled slightly as he carried the boxes inside for her. "Not exactly... bad things tend to happen when I touch stuff." He said, trying to avoid the subject as best he could.

[LadyTL]

She thought about what he said for a moment, climbing into the truck to start moving things to the edge. "Bad things like what? You don't look like you're a jinx or anything."

[The Infamous Frostbyte]

He smiled and chuckled slightly. "No not like that... I um... well, I think its better I show you." He looked around the saidewalk for an appropriate visual aid, and snatched up a discarded soda can. Balancing the can in one hand, he pulled off one of his two gloves with his teeth, locking eyes with here briefly.

"Watch." He said. Placing his bare hand on top of the can, he pressed down slightly. In a matter of seconds, the can was reduced to aluminium powder, which he dusted off of his hands before putting the glove back on. "Stuff like that happens."

[LadyTL]

She thought for a minute after seeing that. "Well if that happens with skin contact, what's so special about your clothes that keeps it from happening?" She looked up at him, slightly confused.

[The Infamous Frostbyte]

"Inherently unstable electron valence bonds..." Ash said, as if he'd recited it several times before. "I dunno what it means, but my clothes don't dissolve in inconvenient places or times." He said, suddenly blushing at the imagery that particular statement conjured. He coughed nervously and continued. "I buy the fabric direct from the manufacturer, and its really rather expensive..."

[LadyTL]

"Oh..." She blinked for a bit before shrugging and grabbing the last of her stuff. She would just research that later. This place had to have a public library somewhere. "Thank you for the help with my things." She smiled at him as she slamed the back of the truck down and heading for her place.

[The Infamous Frostbyte]

Ash smiled and nodded, blushing slightly. "You're welcome. I think I'm in the apartment directly above yours by the way... if you need anything, I'm usually around. I'm a work-at-home computer programmer. Mostly tedious debugging crap..." he said, shrugging. "Keeps me out of trouble; can't accidentally dissolve anyone in my own home..."

[LadyTL]

"I'll keep that in mind." She waved to him before heading inside.

A few weeks later she was settled in, working in downtown gotham for a university library. She had a fairly comfortable routine, go to work, come home, occationally go out to a movie or play somewhere. She was a bit relieved though at the fact of she hadn't been involved in any batman stuff so far.

[The Infamous Frostbyte]

Ash's days had been likewise uneventful; he had a certain distaste for the Dark Knight, however. When asked on the subject, Ash would merely reply that the costumed yutz could go take a long walk off a short pier, for all he cared. There had been an incident later that week in which he'd accidentally vaporized a neighbour's car; the insurance company, after some very colorful debating, relinquished and reimbursed Ash's neighbour for the vehicle. Other than that, it was the same old routine for him.

About 3 days later however, Ash's company sent him out to the university. Apparantly one of the networks there had crashed, and since Ash had been the one to get it running in the first place, he was charged with the duty of fixing it. Ash couldn't understand why the university's own sysadmin couldn't fix it, but it was his job, whether he liked it or not.

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