The last of the luggage was finally hauled into their bedroom. Victor had to breathe a sigh of relief - they'd apparently moved into a building with no elevators.
Their new room was a relatively spacious one. It was certainly an improvement over the previous closet-sized cell Louise had found. There was even room for a desk, right next to the queen-sized bed.
"Not bad," he muttered, setting the case of his laptop on the desk.
"'Not bad'?!" Louise sounded playfully outraged. "This is the best room we've had since we left home!"
Victor sat cautiously on the wheeled desk chair, half expecting it to explode under his weight. When it didn't, his sister spun him towards her.
"Like I said," Louise said as she grinned, "our best room yet."
"Cheap too." Victor narrowed his eyes. "You're sure you told me everything about this place? No catch anywhere?"
"I
told
you, Vic. It's cheap because we'll live with the landlord and his family."
He looked at Louise uncertainly. She was close to his spitting image. Well, they
were
twins. Same auburn hair, same hazel eyes, same skinny build and slender hands. Thankfully, his sister styled her hair a little longer than he did. Plus, she'd taken to wearing contacts instead of glasses. And now Victor had grown a fraction taller, and his features had become slightly sharper than his sister's. Still, it had certainly been harder to tell them apart before puberty did its thing. He still recalled that time Louise had cut her hair short to try to pass off as him. Their mother had grounded her for a week for it. And Victor too, for good measure.
"That is a pretty big downside. How thick are these walls, anyway?"
"Oh no." Louise smirked, and placed her knee on his thigh. "You're not getting all paranoid about our new room until we're done unpacking."
"Maybe you can keep talking to me, I get out of the room, and we can test-"
She only groaned, before pushing him on the chest back against the chair.
"Victor! Look at me."
Louise widened her hazel eyes. She looked at him very seriously, if he ignored the way her smirk twitched at the corners. He rolled his eyes, but met her gaze anyway. Glaring, of course.
"The house is fine. You know I like my privacy as much as you do."
"Of course. You just don't like testing it," he muttered sarcastically.
"
And
you haven't even let me tell you about the reason why this house rules."
"I find it alarming that the thick walls are not that reason," he grumbled.
Louise had a very smug smirk on her face just then. She raised her brows at him.
"Think of something
better
than that."
"Extra thick walls," Victor retorted dryly.
"Better!"
"Just tell me," he said as he rolled his eyes.
"Two words," his sister said with a grin. "Huge tits."
"You're
so
funny, Lou."
She clicked her tongue in annoyance and smacked his arm.
"I'm serious! Our landlady's got some badoinkers! You'll see them when she gets home. Out of this world!"
Victor blushed. Louise was incorrigibly horny. Unfortunately, he was hardly any better. It was a competition he only wanted to win sometimes, and this was definitely not one such moment.
"I'm so glad your concerns were in the right place while you were picking the room we'd be living in," he scoffed.
"Okay, let me see if I can sell this a little better. Our landlady is not just jiggly and hot. She's
Indian
."
"So?" Victor raised a brow.
"So she's exotic!"
"That is
so
racist," he admonished with a chuckle.
"It's not racist." Louise put her hands on her hips. "Besides, her skin is probably whiter than ours. I'm talking about being exotic on the
inside
."
"Huh. Guess she might be Kashmiri."
"You're not focusing on the right things, Vic!" whined Louise.
Victor rolled his eyes and gently pushed his sister away from him. He stood up from his chair and moved towards the heap of boxes at the foot of their bed.
"What do you want me to focus on, Lou? You're really overestimating my imagination if you think I can get that excited about big boobs on someone I haven't even met yet."
"Well, you can at least stop grumbling until you see them." His sister grinned impishly.
There was only a scoff from Victor, but he couldn't quite suppress his smirk as they started unpacking.
Taking out their belongings was not a fun prospect. He and Louise were both a mess. There had been no real coherence in how they'd sorted their clothes, and now it was biting them in the ass. Both of them enjoyed similarly dark colors in their personal style, which made telling her clothes apart from his a difficult task. Victor suspected he'd worn his sister's clothes many more times than he'd realized. A consoling thought he often resorted to was that outsiders couldn't possibly be better than him at telling Louise's jeans apart from his own.
"Hey. Is this yours or mine?" Louise asked at one point.
A black t-shirt was bundled up and flung at Victor's chest. He gave it a sniff. "Definitely yours." Then, he threw it right back at her face.
Their effort settling in was only interrupted when the lock of the front door clicked loudly. Louise's head snapped up as if this was cause for alarm.
"It's
them
," she whispered excitedly.
She quickly crawled over the bed to reach the mirror, as Victor was blocking the way around it. In front of the glass, Louise hurried to adjust her spiky auburn hair, pushing its strands out of her face and even tucking some behind her ears. Victor was still glowering at the luggage - a mess of socks, pantyhose, and shirts that were too baggy for their ownership to be easily determined.
"Come on!" Louise gave him a light push towards the door. The smirk on her lips was just a little unsettling to him - the kind of unsettling he'd grown fond of several years ago. "Let's go and say hi!"
Victor chuckled. He
could
resist her pushing, but he usually found himself complying with her requests. Today was no different. He ended up leading the way out of the bedroom.
The corridor outside was a narrow passage that was roughly shaped like an S. On one end, the kitchen, on the other, the living room. Every other door between those two rooms led to either the bedrooms or a single bathroom. The walls were decorated with pictures, mostly of the same two children throughout varied stages of their lives. There
were
portraits of the couple too, but the angle did not make it easy to piece together whether Louise's... claims were true.
Not that there was much time to dally on the pictures. Not when the apartment door was open, and their landlords were walking in. It was immediately clear who was who. The mother's back was turned towards them while she hung her scarf and hat on the coat hanger. From here, little else apart from her long, jet black hair could be inferred. The father had already taken off his coat. He was a muscular, middle-aged man who'd shaven most of the hair off his face. Their two kids were hurriedly kicking off their shoes.
"Good afternoon!" Louise stepped gently in front of Victor and waved at the new arrivals.
There were general, absent greetings from the two adults in the family, still shrugging off their outside clothes. The daughter, a girl who couldn't be older than sixteen, barely glanced at them. She kept her eyes on the phone, before marching off automatically to her room.
"Afternoon," she muttered absently.
"Manners, Bea!" chided her mother, still fumbling with her own parka. It was as if the world was intentionally withholding the sight of her body from Victor.
Their son was younger, still. Victor estimated he'd be eleven, at most. He gave them a shy wave, before retreating to his own room too.
"Don't go starting any of those games, Will," the father said gruffly. "We'll be having dinner soon."
Only then did the husband turn their way. Dark, unkind eyes narrowed on them both.
"Hi, Mr. Evans." Even Louise was speaking with a more subdued smile now.
"You're the new tenants, then," he said as he scanned them both. Louise noticeably dialed down her own bubbly personality as they were inspected. Victor knew it well enough that she did not enjoy having to do this. "Don't forget to pay your rent on time. Day one, every month."
He didn't linger there much longer, instead walking past the twins to head into the kitchen. Victor glanced uncertainly at Louise, only for her to shrug her shoulders with an eye roll of her own, as if to say 'He is not the reason I chose this place.'
"Mario says that to every tenant, but he'll warm up to you," said another voice.
Finally, the moment of truth arrived. When Victor took his eyes off Louise, their landlady was standing right in front of them.
His sister hadn't lied. The woman before him
was
busty. Bustier than Victor had dared to expect. She was curvy, a bit on the plump side, but with breasts that size, her belly could not really stand out at all. She had long, black hair that reached the middle of her back. Big, brown eyes stared at him without a shred of malice in them, while her lips were curved gently upwards even before she uttered another word. Her skin was milky, pale. Paler than his, even, not that it made her any less stunning.
Louise must have noticed his blush. Or the way he was staring. Or both. Victor was not usually
too
bad while talking to women, but things definitely changed when his sister knew he was into them. It made him feel... weird, even after the dozens of times she'd assured him it was illogical to feel that way. And unsurprisingly, guilt and attraction made for a relatively poor combination.
"Hi, Monika," Louise said with a smile, gladly taking the lead.
Monika's expression brightened up with familiarity as she recognized Louise. His sister emulated her gentle grin - Louise was
good
at social emulation. It must have been with the wife that she'd negotiated their contract.
"Hello there, Louise. It's so nice to see you again," their landlady finally spoke. She had a low, melodic voice, and her English had close to no accent.
Those expressive eyes landed on him at last.
"And you must be Victor. It is nice to meet you at last. Louise has told me a lot about you already!"
"Hello, Mrs. Evans." He lowered his head gently as they shook hands. Somehow, the prospect of Louise talking about him with their landlady in his absence did not make him feel at ease.
Monika tilted her head sideways with that same warm smile, seemingly unfazed by the living arrangements of two adult siblings.
"Please, feel free to ask for anything you need. I'm hoping we can all become one family while you stay with us."
"You're already the sweetest housemate we've ever had, Monika," Louise gave their Indian landlady an impish grin. When Victor glanced at her, she raised her brows with that same facial expression.
