*After updating the current chapters of Meeting the New Enemy it's once more time for a new episode in this series.
(FYI, the first part of episode 21 has been written for volume 3)
A new home for all, with an unexpected nightly visitor.
*Literotica rules apply
*****
'This is it.' Guy said after taking the girls to the front of the highest building in the neighbourhood. 'All the way up there.'
The girls looked up at the nine-storey building, each floor alternating between white and a very light blue in colour and windows going all the way around. The double recessed front doors in the centre were flanked by slim columns going up to the top floor.
'Let's go up.' Guy said. 'The real estate agent is waiting to give us a tour.'
At the elevator he let Ara, Avia and Mami go to floor seven first, then went up with the rest. In the elevator hall waited the agent, a lady Guy estimated to be in her early thirties with her black hair tied up in a business knot to match her dark blue skirt suit.
'Mister Thorsson?' she asked, reaching out her hand.
He took her hand and shook it. 'Yes.'
'Miss Somogyi.' she said. 'I was asked by Miss Tesha to show you around the floors and write up a preliminary list of things that need to be done. These two top floors haven't been used in a long time.'
'Why that?' asked Feli while Guy introduced the rest to miss Somogyi.
'The previous owner kept the floors in case he needed them to expand one of his businesses, but unfortunately he got sick and used his last years to arrange the transition of his business to family.' miss Somogyi said. 'Since none of the family had any interest in keeping these they sold them.'
'Miss Tesha had heard about it and when I talked to her about getting a more suitable place for us to live she suggested this place.' Guy said. 'And she arranged to cover part of the expenses so I could buy it. She also made it possible to designate these floors as residential because it's officially an office building.'
'It'll be quiet then after hours.' Mami said. 'With no other people living here.'
Guy nodded. 'True. But still no loud parties allowed.' he said and chuckled.
'Aww..' Cani said with mock disappointment.
Miss Somogyi cleared her throat. 'Shall we have a look?' she said.
Guy turned to her. 'Of course. Go ahead.'
She unlocked the double front door and stepped inside the short hall behind them. And nearly cried out when she almost stuck her face in a large spider web.
The floor behind a second set of doors was mostly empty with just a few overhead lamps hanging from the ceiling. When they all walked further inside they saw they weren't the only ones there though. A couple of windows had their upper part partially open and a few birds had made nests on ledges below the ceiling next to the windows. Feli spotted a pair of mice running off.
'Ah, we'll take care of that of course.' miss Somogyi said, making a note on her pad. 'I'll have an exterminator come by to get rid of the vermin and bugs.'
Guy coughed and put his hand on her arm. 'I think we'll arrange something ourselves.' he said.
'But-' she said, then saw the disapproving looks on the faces of Avia, Ara and Mami behind him. 'Oh. Of course.' she struck the note on her pad. 'I didn't mean anything by it.'
Guy nodded. 'I know.' he said. 'But we're not your typical kind of clients, so some things are different.'
She cleared her throat. 'Okay.' she said. 'Then about the removal of part of the ceiling that you requested, it should be possible and we have contacted a builder who will check it and give us a definite answer.'
'Why do that?' Cani asked.
'For Avia.' Guy said. 'It will give her room to stretch her wings fully.'
'For me?' Avia asked with pleasant surprise. 'Really?'
He nodded. 'I saw how you had to go through some trouble to be able to stretch one wing at a time at home, and then even only sideways.' he said. 'So I wanted a place with a high ceiling where you could stretch all you want.' The next moment he was embraced tightly in her winged hug while she rubbed his cheeks with her beak and chuckled.
'Thank you.' she said and smiled as she let him go.
'No problem.' he said. 'I also realised it would make room for a large frame for Ara to spin her web creations in and test them.'
Ara looked back from a web in the corner of a window. 'You what?'
'Well, since you have no real room to try out things for the webbing you've been asked to make I figured you could use something like a large frame for that.'
Ara hurried to him and this time he got a tight embrace of spider limbs and kisses.
'You're really thoughtful.' she whispered. 'Thank you.'
He smiled at her as she let go. 'It just happened to coincide.' He saw Cani look at him with puppy eyes. 'What is it?'
'Do, we get anything too?' she asked.
He laughed once. 'I'm sorry, but I can't think of anything for you right now.' he said. 'The only other request that I made is to have a garden roof.'
Cani's eyes grew big. 'You mean we can go out onto the roof when the weather's nice?' she asked while her tail started wagging. 'And have lunch and sunbathe and look around at the horizon and see the sun come up and go down?'
Guy looked at miss Somogyi and she nodded. 'Looks like we can.' he said.
'I'll take it!' Cani said and nearly toppled Guy when she jumped, hugged and kissed him.
'We'll take it too.' said Feli next to Mami as they grinned at him. 'Hugs and kisses follow later.'
Guy chuckled. 'Thanks.' he said.
Guy received the floor plans the next day and sat around them with everyone to draw in an interior plan. The building was square with rounded corners, windows all around and elevator and stairs were in the middle at the back.
The girls agreed with Guy's suggestion to use high book cases as room dividers and have an option to rearrange things whenever they fancied. The corner in the direction where the sun came up at the front of the building was going to become the sleeping corner. A large square bed the height of the windowsill and a little away from the corner would go there with storage space underneath and provide a view of the horizon.
The opposite corner became the living room to watch the sunset and the corner at the other side of the elevator hall was going to be the place for the bathroom and kitchen.
Part of the free space on the lower and the upper floor would be used to create private corners for everyone for personal things and space, with one of the back corners for Guy to write when he needed to concentrate on it.
When a shelter on the roof was made with part of the roof garden, Avia, Ara, and Mami collected all the wildlife inside and moved them there to their new safe place before anyone was allowed to start working on the interior. Anna and Michelle had heard of their plan and were there to take pictures which made it to the school newspaper. The picture of Mami with her arms full of mice was especially popular.
The day had arrived when the builder had finished cutting out part of the ceiling and everyone came to look at the result.
'So much space.' Feli said, looking around at the rectangular open area with a ship-like steel railing around it. 'And so much light.'
Guy nodded. 'No surprise with daylight coming from two floors.'
Avia walked to the middle of the area and spread her wings sideways and up while she turned around. 'This is so great!' she said and smiled brightly. 'I can dance!'
'You dance?' asked Cani.
'Yes.' said Avia. 'Most of our species love to dance.'
'Looking forward to see that then.' Cani said.
'Well,' said Guy to Ara and gestured at one side. 'if we put up a frame on that side of the space, think you could use it?'
Ara looked up and down at the side Guy gestured at and smiled. 'I definitely can.' she said, already thinking of starting on her project for the entrance hall of a company in the next neighbourhood.
'Can we stay the night here already?' asked Cani, looking out the corner window where the bedroom would be set up.
'Why not?' said Guy. 'There's power and water, so we can make it a semi-camping trip when we take our futons.'
'All right!.' Cani said, her tail wagging. 'I'd love to see the first sunrise from here.'
Later that day after a few trips between the old and the new apartment, a large rug marked the place they'd sleep with futons laid on top, and another large rug was laid down in the corner that would become the living area. They had bought dinner from an exotic restaurant and sat in a circle around it on the rug as they ate and drank.
Guy lifted up his glass. 'To our new home.' he said.
The girls lifted their glasses in a resounding 'New home.' and drank their toast.
After dinner Cani leaned back against a stack of pillows. 'So, what are we going to do now?' she asked. 'The movies and everything are still back at the old place.'
Guy stood up. 'Would you girls be in the mood for a simple game?' he asked with a little devious smile.