That made sense in a way. Niamh's home town had been relatively small, and she had never been to an actual city until she traveled through the main city of Solis with the Lumenari on their way out of the country. Light she'd never even been far out of her own town prior to that, the furthest she'd travelled being the temple a few towns over. She was used to small-town life, where everyone knew everyone, where it was a community, where there were no strangers and secrets leaked out and people talked. It was hard to wrap her mind around the idea that here no one would really give a care about two random people, yet what Nexus said did make sense...
And it was kind of a relief, too. Back home, all the gossip had drove her insane and there had been a lot social pressures, too. A city. The idea of everyone minding their own business and doing their own thing.
That sounded really, really nice. It would take some time to get used to that concept, but nonetheless Niamh relaxed as Nexus explained it, exhaling.
Just remember, Niamh. Big city. Thousands or millions of people, who knew? No one would remember her.
They could be themselves.
Well...Nexus...he could be...his good self. Not his depraved self. Ahem. After all, they had a deal.
The building was indeed huge on the inside and packed with a lot of stuff, as Nexus pointed out, and it never once occurred in her mind that this was a warehouse just like the building of her nightmares. It didn't look a thing like it, filled with goods and rather bright on the inside, with other people mulling about and inspecting various wares. The other warehouse had been run down, dark, and completely empty...so to Niamh, this was just another building to her. Nothing dangerous or ominous about it. Still, it was a good thing Nexus didn't call it a warehouse, otherwise no matter how bright and safe and populated inside it was, she would have bolted. No question about it, she would have run and refused to go back in. Maybe it was irrational, but as much as she'd moved on from that experience and put it behind her, she still had occassional nightmares and certain things could trigger the memories. Warehouses, for one, would probably forever be associated with very bad things...and of course whips and ropes, obviously.
She had come to trust Nexus with her life and she was starting to open up her heart--or at least, she was entertaining the idea--but she still had her...aversions to certain objects at least. That probably wouldn't go away. They were associated with pain, after all, and while pain might have turned Nexus on, it most definitely turned her off. And scared the hell out of her.
Holding the rug out to Nexus, she waited for Nexus' response as he seemed to study it, silent. And when he spoke...
Well. Niamh hadn't expected that. She'd pretty much just expected a simple "yeah, looks good" or "no, it's hideous", but instead Nexus launched into an explanation of...the values of color coordination? Whaaat? Niamh stared at Nexus as he spoke, seriously no less, and then, her lips twitched with the effort to hold back a smile. Oh...Light...was he serious? He...he knew more about decorating and color coordinating and matching than she did! Or, heck, more than a lot of women she'd come across! Her own mother hadn't really done much with their own house, since they really didn't have the money to spend on frivilous decorations when that money was to be used to put food on the table.
Niamh could feel the laughter bubbling up in her throat, and she slowly started to roll the rug back up. Finally, as Nexus ended his "lecture", Niamh set the rug down and clamped a hand over her mouth, though she couldn't quite repress the giggle. "It...it's alright...you don't...eheheh...you don't have to paint the house, Nexus," she managed to get out, shoulders shaking with barely contained laughter. She would not laugh at him. She would not laugh at him. Light, but he got so beligerant when she laughed at him, so it was best to keep things civil between them lest he want to get revenge on her. Which would be bad. Heheh. Still. Light, she learned something new about him everyday!
Just because she couldn't help it, she had been about to add that it might be better if he did the decorating since he had the more womanly touch between them, but luckily for them both Nexus seemed distracted and headed away from her, toward some bedspreads. Ah! Bedspreads. That was more important than rugs, actually, since she did so love her sleep and she did so love beds. Especially since she hadn't been in one since the inn. Oh man. She was so going to make her bed great! They had money to waste, right? She was really going to take advantage of it.
Heading after him and giving a glance at the one he'd picked out--which looked like him, he did seem to have a flair for the fancy--she headed for the pillows not far away. She'd deal with he bedspreads later, the pillows just looked great after a lot of nights sleeping on the ground. There had already been two on her bed, but a few more couldn't hurt, right? Besides, those ones had been white and plain, and Niamh was immediately drawn to a couple pastel blue ones. Those would be pretty...it was a neutral light color, too, and would go well with white. Hmm...maybe some pastel yellows for her room, too...pale blues and yellows went well together and they didn't clash with white. That could be for her bed.
Popular colors in Solis were light, cheery colors, though of course the main colors were white and gold. Heck, those were the standard colors and priests and priestesses wore, but aside from that, pastels were popular. Dark colors...not so much. After all, in the desert the last thing you wanted around you were a lot of dark colors--that would make it miserable. Light colors, and a lot of whites, reflected the sun on the other hand. Sure, Mother Sun was loved and Niamh didn't mind the heat, but not even she and the other Solisi were completely immune to it, and the desert could get unbearably hot especially at the peak of summer.
Looking over at Nexus and scooping up two big fluffy pillows, one pale blue and one a light yellow, she hugged them to her chest and headed back over to the bedspreads. Hmm...a light blue bedspread would work, and the sheets could stay all crisp and white. "Hmm...that's really pretty," she told him, looking at the bedspread. Hopefully her calling it "pretty" didn't turn him off of it. Guys could be weird about that! She did like the primarily gold and white side, though, but the black side was...a bit dark for her. It was pretty obvious that they had very different tastes--what she'd picked out was very, very plain.
"Whatcha think about pastels, by the way?" she asked, tucking on pillow under each arm and going around to where she saw just what she'd been looking for--a light blue bedspread. Perfect! Ugh, it was going to be hard to carry all this, though, that was for certain.
