How Green Becomes Wood

After Ciara returned back from her trip and had time to settle in, Dark made arrangements with her to drop off her bracelet. At any arguments about her coming out there way, Dark calmly explained some of his errands are closer in her direction, so there was really no point at her coming so far out of her way for it. Of course her family would love to see her, but he understood after a long trip, sometimes it was necessary to decompress a bit before visiting a large group of excitable people.
 
Ciara did attempt to argue, but her arguments were weaker than they normally might have been. She was honestly quite tired, and as much as she loved her nephews and extra niece and their parents, she was ready to hunker down for a while before dealing with any more people than strictly necessary. She arrived home late in the day, dropped her bags, and went straight to bed. She would deal with everything in the morning.

On the day Dark was to come, not even half an hour before he was supposed to arrive, Ciara was finishing up the dishes at her kitchen sink dressed in casual loungewear that was nicer than some people wore to the store and a rather formal-looking housecoat. Her hair was already done and her makeup perfect. As soon as she finished tidying up, she was going to go get dressed and wait for Dark to arrive. She did not expect him to stay long, but her small apartment needed to be ready for the arrival of an outsider.

It was a small apartment, but roomy enough for its single tenant. The leading color was white, closely followed by grey. It had two bedrooms, and one was her office, and the kitchen held all the appliances. She almost used most of them, but they were there, and she kept them clean. The kitchen sink, though, was making some very strange noises, as was the bathroom tub. The water pressure seemed completely off. She frowned and turned the water up all the way. An odd creeking noise emanated from the sink. She went to the bathroom to check the sink in there. The same thing.

The kitchen sink made an odd noise. Then the doors underneath the sink flew open as a gush of water fountained forth at max pressure. Under the bathroom sink, water had been leaking for several days, and now it, too, rained forth uninhibited.
 
Ciara did not hear the polite knock. She'd frozen momentarily, staring at the water flooding out around her feet, only then realizing how soft and damp the flooring was under her. What should she do??

Work emergencies she handled with skill and calm. Emails, phone calls, locked computers, shouting bureaucrats, panicking and fleeing coworkers, all of it she'd handled with aplomb. Missed flight connections, crossed wires, getting lost in less-than-developed neighborhoods, New York taxi drivers, directions written in the wrong language, none of it phased her. Twice she'd stood with a gun pointed at her and never blinked. Once she'd listened to a tornado pass over the shelter and come out to nothing but sticks. Three times earthquakes had rocked the building in which she stood. Not once had she so much as missed a step, handling it all with quiet yet forceful efficiency.

That was work. This, however, this was her home, and it was steadily filling with water! What was she supposed to do in the case of a plumbing crisis? Frantically, she tried to find some lever or something to turn off the water. It wasn't working. She ran to the kitchen and tried finding a lever there.
 
Dark knocked a second time after awhile, expecting she just hadn't heard him. Then he caught sight of her from the window, looking rather unlike herself. Knowing he was risking some things, he gently opened the door, taking the liberty of letting himself in, and seeing the water pooling everywhere, he softly murmured, "Ya Allah..." before more loudly saying, "...I hope you do not mind me letting myself in? You seem to be... having a issue."
 
Ciara whipped around, her cheeks pink, and pulled her housecoat closed in front - even though there was absolutely nothing revealing about her pajamas. "Mr. Dark," she said stiffly and formally as if there wasn't a stream of water filling her slipper. "Good morning. I trust you had a good drive? Have you brought my bracelet?"
 
"I have it here," He said, taking it out of his pocket. The clasp had broken, but he had carefully fixed it in his shed, the only evidence anything had changed was a different metal link holding it in place, but slight difference in colour wasn't noticeable unless one looked more closely than anyone but maybe the wearer would, "Do you have towels, by any chance?"
 
"Thank you for bringing it to me. If you could just leave it there on the table by the door, I am sure you have much better things-" A small wave of water lazily made its way out of the bathroom to join the fountain in the kitchen. "They are in the linen closet in the bathroom. I will fetch them." She turned and hurried to the bathroom to fetch the towels and sheets because it looked like she was going to need them all.
 
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"Do you know where your water main is?" Dark asked, following her and taking some of the towels from her before going to the kitchen sink and trying to first tie the towel around the break to try to at least slow the water since it certainly wouldn't stop until the switch was found. On this occasion, he left his shoes firmly on. His socks would surely get wet, but he didn't see a point in speeding the discomfort, and he wasn't wearing nice enough ones to worry about.
 
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"Yes," Ciara said and explained where it was. She should have thought of it first! Although, she reasoned with herself, it was not going to be easy to turn the switch. Dark would have a much easier time. She grabbed one of the towels and hurried to the bathroom to wrap a towel around that one like Dark had done under the kitchen sink.
 
"Okay," Dark said, nodding and getting to work using his towels to staunch the water where it was before going to the water main. All he had to do was get up, turn it off, and the immediate problem would be solved. They could figure out the rest after. He got up, planning to go to the water main, when he heard a nefarious creak. He turned just in time to see the pipe in the kitchen break open a little higher up the pipe. His initial instinct was to leave it leak while he went to shut off the water main, but... Ciara's cord management was excellent, but the water was still shooting out in the direction of an outlet, and he knew that could cause it to short circuit at best. Ciara didn't look like she could handle two simultaneous crises.

Scanning the room, Dark swore under his breath noting none of the towels would be any good, so after only a second of thought, he took off his coat and vest, tossing them aside to a dry area, and then removed his shirt and undershirt to stop this new break from frying the outlet. Then he sat, knees soaked in water, undressed to the waist, but the immediate problem was once more staunched, so he exhaled, pushed his hair back, and went and finally shut off the water main so the immediate catastrophe was finally over.
 
Ciara went to the bathroom and managed to staunch the flow until Dark turned off the water. As she was trying to stop the water, she realized her purse was slowly falling from where she'd left it on the bathroom vanity was sliding off and threatening to fall into the water. She snatched it up and quickly carried it to her room. Thankfully, her room and office were both spared the water, but it was spreading rapidly. Turning off the main had stopped the pressure, but it was still leaking out steadily. She wadded up the sheets and shoved them into the cracks under the doors to the bedroom and office in an attempt to keep it out of those two rooms.

She walked back into the kitchen, slipping now and then. "The water is off, but now- Oh, good lord!" she blurted, turning bright red as she stared at the tattoos covering a muscular torso. She pulled her gaze away and stared at the ceiling. "Where are your clothes, man?"
 
"Tha-" Ciara caught herself before she could say that it might have been preferable. "Thank you for saving us from a potentially hazardous situation. It was noble of you." She tried not to look at him at all as she surveyed the area. The water was at least an inch deep in the worst spots. "This is quite a mess. I never would have thought that water could spread so much in such a short period of time. I should call someone." She turned and found herself looking at him again. Her eyes went down to the water as she pulled her housecoat tighter around her.
 
"It might have started a fire. It seemed a better option than you needing to evacuate." Dark replied flatly. "I would call your landlord first, that is the benefit of renting as I recall." He glanced around at the puddles of water, "If you have a mop, it might absorb some of it."
 
"I have a sponge mop. I shall get it, if you do not mind giving it a try," Ciara said, though she was doubtful how much it would actually help. "I'll call my landlord." She went to get the mop and a small bucket, giving both to Dark before she found her cell phone and called her landlord.
 
Dark did his absolute best with the sponge mop. It didn't do a whole lot, but it did better than nothing. If the landlord didn't help, there was always Cooger. Or maybe the landlord would call Cooger.

The semi-futile work was good, because this was embarrassing. It didn't show on Dark's face, and he was doing his best to pretend like it was all very standard, but it wasn't any less awkward for him. It wasn't the first time he had been half-naked in a woman's home, but outside of pool parties or the rare drunken game of strip poker, it was the first time in many years that woman's home was not his wife's. And the fact it was Ciara's made it so much worse. It also did not help that it was February. The heat was on, but his pants were pretty well soaked in water and his chest hair didn't stop him from being cold.
 
The landlord was very confused when talking with Ciara. Water? Flooding the apartment? He wasn't even certain who she was at first since Ciara so rarely had any contact with him. Nothing went wrong, she didn't make any trouble, she always paid on time, and it was like she wasn't even there sometimes. When he finally understood what was going on, he told her he would send someone over to take care of things immediately. When Ciara hung up, he immediately called a handiman, agreeing to the higher price of emergency, last-minute calls since Ciara had always been a model renter.

"He is sending someone over," she said, walking back over to Dark. She looked everywhere but at his hairy, tattoo-covered body.
 
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