"So what about this one?" Ned asked, clicking into a new tab on his computer. Joey looked over the description of the apartment, frowning at the screen.
It felt kind of small for the price it was listed at, and wasn't in a great location for the two of them. The only bonus was that it came fully furnished.
"Have you found anything else?" Joey asked, thinking over the last five ads he'd seen. None of them felt great to him - whether it was because they were too expensive for him and Ned to afford, too small for two of them to comfortably live in, or just had a poor location. Even if he could fall down five levels on his way to work and be fine, he didn't really want to.
"Nope," Ned sighed. "Sorry. Working minimum wage doesn't get us very far, does it?"
"It should get us far enough, you'd think. There are two of us after all," Joey replied. Courtney had kept a decent apartment with Lillie while she'd been unpaid - at least, up until Paris invaded. They should at least be able to find something that wasn't their parents' house.
"It really doesn't help that my job's on the other side of the city from yours," Ned muttered, going back to the search website he'd been using.
"Hey, we take what we can get." Joey was just glad Ned had been able to find any job at all. He knew from experience that it was tough when all you had was a high school diploma.
"I found a good one, but before I could talk to you about it, someone rented it on us." Ned clicked through a few more pages, practically glaring at the screen.
"Darn. Next time, feel free to just message the landlord to say you're interested. I trust your judgement and we can always back out partway through if it turns out to be in poor shape or something." Ned nodded, flitting through webpages faster than Joey could read them.
Theoretically, Joey could try to set them up at Legion HQ as a temporary measure, or with Courtney or Louise. The issue there was that he was trying to keep his distance from the Legion, and Ned didn't know about his role as Jumper. Most of him wanted to keep it that way. With Cleo, now he could maintain that distance better, only appearing when she deemed it an emergency.
He didn't quite know how he felt about putting that burden on her, but last time they'd talked she'd been pretty excited about the role.
The other part was that he really didn't want to tell Ned - or anyone else he knew outside of Legion stuff. If he admitted to it, it would be like confirming that this was going to be his life. He still didn't want to take that step.
There was the issue of Ned's safety if Paris or another enemy found him, but keeping his distance from it all except in emergencies felt like a sound safeguard. They still didn't know how Team Chaos had found Lightning's place, so blocking all potential information leaks would be best.
Even so, the guilt gnawed at him. If Ned got hurt because of him, he didn't know if he'd be able to recover from it. Courtney's relationship with Lillie seemed like it was still fine, but would Ned be able to forgive him that easily? Unlike Courtney, Joey didn't have a history of getting mixed up in trouble.
"Joey!" Ned snapped Joey out of his thoughts and back to the computer.
"What?" he asked stupidly, slowly reading over the ad.
"I said this place looks really good. What do you think?"
They could barely afford it, it had enough room for the both of them, and it was about halfway between their workplaces, near an elevator to the Subways. Right below the Top, but that didn't matter as much as the horizontal location. The apartment came with a couple furnishings, but it sounded like they'd want to build up a collection of furnishings of their own - things like cooking utensils and seating.
"Message them," Joey replied, grinning. Ned clicked on the link provided and quickly typed a message.
"Done!" he announced as he hit the 'Send' button. Ned dramatically fell back in his chair and spun around to face Joey.
"Good job, kid," Joey said, barely containing his laughter.
"I always do a good job, sir," Ned said in mock offense, twirling back to the computer screen.
"Hopefully we get it," Joey sighed, hoping this would be it for him and Ned's search.
"Looks like we got in early, so here's hoping." Ned highlighted the date the ad had gone up. September 19. Just a couple days earlier.
Joey grinned at the computer, then frowned. Hopefully he could keep Ned safe without involving him in Legion stuff, but...
Just in case.
"Hey, Ned," Joey said. "Mind if I ask when your next day off is?"
"Hm? Wednesday. What's up?" Ned looked up at him.
"I'm thinking of introducing you to a friend of mine. We met kind of recently, and, uh...she..."
How did he explain this? He couldn't exactly say that he and Cleo were co-conspirators with Miracles or something.
"Wait, she?" Ned's eyes widened. "Is this, like..."
Joey could barely parse his own thoughts, so he just stared back at Ned awkwardly.
"Whoa. Congrats. Sure, if you want me to meet her, I can. This..."
"Wait, what?" Joey asked, frowning as he tried to catch up.
"I dunno, if you only met recently it seems a bit...early maybe? Then again, this'd be the first time either of us has had a girlfriend, so...maybe this is normal? Anyway, If you want me to meet her, I'm down." Ned looked up at him with a goofy grin on his face.
"Girlfriend...?" Joey muttered stupidly. "Uh, no that's not..."
"Then are you thinking of asking her out?" Ned asked, tilting his head to the side.
"Uh..." The idea made his face go completely red and his brain stop working. Him and Cleo? No. They were...co-conspirators. She just happened to be a pretty co-conspirator...
No, no, no! Don't go there, Joseph!
"Joey? Are you okay?" Ned stood up and stared at him in concern.
"Fine! Sorry. I just - it's not like that. We're just friends - I just thought you might want to be friends with her too." Joey took a step back and put a hand over his face. This had not gone the way he thought it would. Then again, he hadn't thought at all about this conversation before opening his big mouth.
"Oh. Okay then." Ned sat back down, a confused look on his face. "You're sure you don't...y'know, like her?"
"No, uh, we're just..."
"Is she pretty?"
Joey wanted to curl up in a ball.
"Yes..."
"Then can I ask her out instead?" Joey glared at Ned as his little brother stuck his tongue out at him.
"Bad idea, Ned." Cleo did not need any extra drama in her life right now.
"Got it. I'll let you take your time asking her out then." Ned put his hands behind his head, a cheeky grin on his face.
Joey didn't even feel like arguing anymore. Maybe it would be more convenient this way. Without another word, he walked out of Ned's room and back to his own, where he promptly faceplanted on his bed.
