* COME OUT AND PLAY! [josh]

Having his own apartment when his parents had kicked him out the first time had really taught Joshua the necessities of keeping a place clean. He'd grown up with maids to pick up after him and a cook to make dinner but the experience two years previously had really domesticated him in a way. When he went into the kitchen with the intent of cooking himself something to eat (Nell wasn't home and he wasn't sure when she'd be back, so he decided not to wait for her) he couldn't help but take notice of the fact that it had been left in an unfavourable state. He wasn't exactly what you could call obsessive compulsive—only with a few things like making sure all the books were pushed right up against the back of their shelves and that everything was alphabetized—but he did value cleanliness. They had housekeepers but the place was huge and he figured they just hadn't gotten around to the kitchen quite yet. Guess I'm cleaning up, then. The smell of the lemon cleaning solution stung his nose in a familiar way as he scrubbed down the countertops, washed the dishes in the sink, cleaned the floors. As with all tasks, Joshua could not simply do part of the work and then let it go. He had started with the intent of just washing the dishes and wiping down the countertops so that he had a clean space for cooking but by the time he was finished the entire kitchen was spotless. Well, at least it had given him something to do, even if his hands were red from the hot water and smelled of lemons now.

He was just getting out of the shower when he heard the knock on the door, rubbing a towel aggressively over his face as if trying to capture even the most elusive drops of moisture. The good thing about having short hair, at least, was how easily it dried. He dressed quickly and took the stairs two at a time, pulling open the door and offering a smile to whoever happened to be behind it. He recognised Lieanna and his gray eyes were warm with greeting as he stepped back and gestured into the large front foyer. "Hey, Anna, come in." Since the kitchen was directly to the left upon walking in the door, he chuckled and said, "Sorry if it smells like lemons in here, I kind of went crazy in the kitchen." He didn't consider cleaning (or cooking, for that matter) to be a "chick thing" and so he admitted this without shame. He took pride in the home he shared with Nell, why not take part in making sure it looked nice? He'd been all on his own when he'd lived in his apartment so he'd gotten used to doing all of the work himself. Efficient and independent, that's what they called it. "Nah," he said apologetically, already having figured that Anna might be here for Nell. "She went out a while ago, I'm not sure when she'll be back." He didn't keep possessive tabs on her which was probably a good thing.

His stomach growled when she mentioned the pizza and he remembered that he'd went into the kitchen originally with the intention of cooking. Whoops. He often got so dedicated and focused on one task that he completely forgot about everything else in the process. If not for Nell he doubted he'd remember that he was supposed to eat three meals in a day half the time. He had his little black book of vegetarian recipes and a list of all the specific vitamins he needed and how to get them daily but that didn't mean he remembered to follow through. Unfortunately, pizza often involved pepperoni. "Looks like you're just in time, really," he joked, for his stomach had decided it wanted to be rather audible. "What's it got on it, though? I'm vegetarian so, well, I can't eat meat." Self-explanatory, really. It wasn't that he couldn't eat meat, more like he refused to. It made him feel ill when he thought about the fact that it used to be a living, breathing creature. Then there was the fact that fat was chewy and ugh, chewy things. No thanks. "Do you want to hang around and wait for a while? I don't mind." He would actually be willing to keep her company seeing as he had exhausted his to-do list for the day.

Joshua chuckled in reply to her comment. "Yeah, me too." He also loved the pine smell of a certain floor cleaner that he'd used to use at his old apartment. He'd lived for the first couple of weeks without doing much cleaning and when the dishes had started to pile up and the place had started to look and smell less than stellar, he'd realised there was a problem. He'd been so used to lazing around his parents' house while the housing staff did all the cleaning that the typical guys' apartment didn't suit him very well. He'd kept a spotless apartment afterwards and he'd learned to utilize cookbooks for his meals since he really wasn't a canned soup kind of guy. "I could tell her you dropped by if you need to get going," he suggested, wondering if Anna had been planning to drag Nell off on some kind of adventure that she'd still need to go to even if she was alone. But then again, Lieanna had a box of pizza in her hands. She probably had a few minutes to spare in order to eat it, even if Nell wasn't here to help her out. He said it politely, not wanting the girl to think that she was unwelcome in the house or in his presence. Nell had a few friends that he didn't really get along with but for the most part, his house was her house. Literally. Hell, he wouldn't even object if she brought people he didn't really like over as long as said people didn't do anything to his place. Which it was Nell's house, too, and she tended to befriend the nice types, so he really didn't think he had anything to worry about. Anna was someone that he got along with, too, even if they weren't friends or anything of the sort. So she was fair game.

He nodded. "For a while now." He didn't explain how long, never the type to say more than what was needed. He had been a vegetarian since he was six years old. His father happened to mention what they were eating in passing (it had been chicken, he believed) and he'd spat it out in surprise. "You mean this used to be an actual... chicken? Like alive and stuff?" The nod he'd recieved in reply had cemented his decision. Nope, never again. He was surprised to learn that Anna shared his diet. It wasn't often that it came up in conversation with people, so there was a chance there were vegetarians in his social circle he didn't even know about, but it was always a little shocking to find he had that in common with people he knew. "Ah, then I'd totally be willing to share. I'm starved." In the not-so-literal sense of the word. He was rich and his fridge was fully stocked. He was fit and healthy and he ate enough to keep himself as such. He was about as starved as a pampered show dog but the figure of speech was just that. He was really hungry and so 'starved' it was. "Conditions to hang around my house? Well, then." He wasn't offended, though, merely smirked as he took a piece of the pizza, trying to make sure the cheese didn't stretch too much and pull toppings off the neighbouring slices. He hated when that happened. "So what all is on this?" he asked curiously as he bit into it, tasting a medley of flavours. "It's good," he mused, though of course he chewed and swallowed first. The boy had manners.

He shook his head in reply, feeling no need to reiterate aloud that he didn't mind Lieanna staying considering he'd already said as much earlier. He didn't need her gone and she didn't want to be gone and so he supposed they'd already reached an agreement there. Besides, he was willing to have her around for the sake of the pizza since he'd forgotten all about his food when it came to taking a shower. He had a really bad habit of being too narrow in focus. One track mind, one thing at a time. Hey, at least he was really, really good at staying concentrated on a project. "It doesn't matter, really. I only remember because my family won't let me forget." That was a joke, actually. He remembered because he had a good memory but it was true that his parents often joked about his priceless reaction to the chicken at the dinner table. It was a common story that they'd tell relatives, much to his irritation sometimes. He didn't like being a laughing stock. "Could always have saved it for later," he pointed out when she mentioned eating the entire pizza herself. "Unless you don't like microwaved foods." A lot of people, Joshua included, didn't like food when it had been zapped by the microwave. "Then again, there's always the oven, too." Microwaves made some foods get soggy as well as hot and that was why he tended to avoid them unless it was for a drink. Ovens caused the food to retain their crispiness and Josh liked that. Crunchy foods were good. Satisfying. Especially when they were roast potatoes.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Being in my house is a privilege in and of itself, so unless you'd like to leave..." He sounded so genuinely stiff and serious that one could believe him without much incident. He wasn't being serious but he often forgot that Lieanna probably didn't know him well enough to tell which things he said were joking and which were real. Hell, even his best and closest friends had doubts at times. Joshua could be an irritable person and so some of the things he said were plausible either way. "I like onions," he said contemplatively, picking one off solo and popping it between his lips. He liked all the other toppings, too. Tomatoes were often a risky choice if you were trying to keep the pizza for a very long time, though, because they were soggy and that could bleed into the pizza and make it taste gross. Most other toppings were fair game except for anchovies and meats. Which reminded him of a question. "You're literally veggie, right? Not pescatarian or whatever?" It was curious rather than accusing. He didn't care if someone was vegan, vegetarian, a carnivore, omnivore... it didn't matter to Joshua. He wasn't an activist, the guy just didn't like meat. "They only eat fish, if you didn't know. Like, rather than other meats." If she wasn't one then maybe she wouldn't know the term so he took the liberty of explaining. "I haven't been up to much, really. Working. Studying for exams." Fuck exams. "You? You're graduating this year, right?" He was pretty sure Lieanna and Nell weren't in the same grade but he wasn't positive about what grade the younger Earth was in.