Lesson 84- Every house has different rules, follow them just like your own.

It’s my night off and I’m sitting around in the kitchen watching Kyle prep for dinner. HE pretty much never takes a night off. He is clearly some kind of crazy workaholic. Luckily it seems like he enjoys his job. Not to mention he has to be here whenever Laura is so that he has an excuse to see her. There’s a knock at the back door. That’s probably her now. Torin did mention that he was stopping off somewhere on the way in tonight. I hop to my feet and go to get the door for her. As predicted, Laura is waiting outside and quickly rushes in. I pull the door shut behind her.
“Hey!” I greet her cheerfully.
“Hey Rina. Thanks for getting the door.” Laura says in way of greeting. I frown.
“I still feel kind of bad about that. You know, Torin not wanting you guys to be able to open the door yourselves. I mean, you’ve known him way longer than I have and you’re totally trustworthy. There’s no reason to deny you entry. I hope you’re not too offended by it…” I trail off with a sigh. Laura stares at me for a moment then bursts out laughing.
“Oh sweetie, don’t take this the wrong way. But there is no way in hell that I would be upset by that. To be honest, I don’t want the responsibility. I’m happy just being a bartender. I don’t need or want Torin to trust me with controlling who can access his territory.” She says bluntly. I stare.
“Huh? What’s so bad about that? I don’t get it.” I admit, totally confused.
“Well… The problem with having a demon’s trust, is that you then have the chance to break it or disappoint them. Torin doesn’t trust me, so I can’t really break his trust. Like when my wards failed. He was upset, but if he trusted me, REALLY trusted me, and the wards broke… He would have reacted a lot worse I’m sure. This way, I know exactly where I stand with him. Besides, I can’t really complain that he doesn’t want me to be able to let myself in here. It’s not like I trust him all that much either. I wouldn’t give him a key to my house, so why should I expect access to his territory?” She reasons.
“I suppose that makes sense…” I agree. But I’m caught up by her reasoning. She equates Torin giving me access to the wards as the same as giving a key to his house. But I wouldn’t do that… Would I? Damn. The more I think about it, the more I think I probably WOULD give him a key if he needed one. If I were living back at my place and for some reason Tori wanted a key, or even if I just had a spare I needed to give to someone, I probably WOULD give it to him. Well, actually I’d give it to my brother. But If I had two spares one would definitely go to him. Or maybe I’d give it to him anyway and just get another key cut for my brother. Okay, I’m overthinking this imaginary scenario that is not actually likely to happen. Still, I can’t quite get the thought out of my mind. I know I trust Torin a lot, but just how much faith have I put in him and when did this happen?

A couple hours later, I’m sitting in my room eating dinner with Torin. We were going to eat in his office but it was somehow even more of a mess than usual so I insisted we sit in here instead. Torin just shrugged and went along with it. Torin has finished eating and I’m about halfway through my meal when Laura sticks her head in.
“Uhm, hey…” She interrupts, looking at me.
“Yeah?” I ask.
“Well… You… There’s someone here to see you.” She says, looking kind of confused.
“Huh?” Who in the world would be here to see me? Pretty much all my friends work here. Or they’re human and have no idea where I am anyway. I guess it could be Eli or something, but I don’t know why he would be looking for me. Besides, if it were him, Laura would have SAID that he was the one searching for me. I get to my feet to go see who it is and Torin immediately does the same, trailing along close behind me. I’m curious, he looks suspicious. We step out into the bar and at first I can’t tell who Laura was talking about, but then hovering by the very corner of the room I see Lindy waiting nervously, clutching her pelt. She gives me a small wave and a tentative smile when I make eye contact. She looks more than a little uncomfortable. I glance up at Torin, silently asking if he minds me taking her back to my room so she can get away from the crowd. He shrugs and steps aside.
“Hey Lindy! Want to come hang out in my room?” I offer. She eagerly nods and I gesture for her to come around the bar. Torin politely opens the bar door for us then takes a step back. I suspect that he’s trying not to crowd Lindy since she is fairly jumpy. Still, he chooses to follow us back to my room. He takes his usual spot in the recliner, making it clear that he intends to stick around. I sit on my bed and gesture for Lindy to sit with me. She nervously sits.
“It’s so good to see you again Lindy, although I do have to say I’m kind of surprised. After what happened last time, I’m surprised you came back here.” I point out, curious as to her reasons. She gives me a nervous smile.
“Well… When I came here last time… It was because I was hoping to find a chance to maybe make some friends… Obviously the night didn’t go so great, but when I got home I kind of thought that, even though the whole bar thing didn’t go so well… Maybe I didn’t completely fail at making a friend?” She looks up at me through her eyelashes with big, pleading brown eyes.
“Oh! Of course I’d love to be your friend. But… Is it safe for you to come here like this? You know I can’t come see you.” I point out. I don’t want to talk her out of being friends with me or anything, but I don’t want to be responsible for some asshole enslaving her.
“I… I think it’s okay. I took a taxi straight here and came right inside… And inside the bar, Torin is here. So I should be safe, right? You trust him, he wouldn’t let anyone hurt me, right?” That last part of her question is directed more towards Torin than it is me. I glance over at him and gesture for him to answer for himself. He gives a single deep nod.
“Of course. It may be difficult to protect you out in the bar, but if you stay close to me when you’re out there I should be able to keep you safe, and if Rina is with you then you are allowed to come back here.” He tells her, his tone as gentle as I’ve ever heard it, but there’s an undercurrent of doubt. Like he doesn’t quite believe that Lindy is happy to trust him with her safety like this. She smiles brightly at him.
“Thank you so much! I’ll make sure I sit with you if I come into the bar.” She answers easily. Torin looks like someone just hit him with a truck or something. I can’t help but grin.
“See Torin, maybe you’re not so scary after all.” I comment. Lindy nods.
“Yeah. I thought maybe you were at first… But last time you were so nice to me. Plus Rina said you’re her friend, and I definitely trust her, so you can’t be bad.” She reasons. Torin blinks in shock and I nod.
“You’re totally right. In that case, I’d love it if you came to hang out sometimes.” I tell her cheerfully. Lindy beams a smile at me and you would think she had won the lottery or something. Then again, I’m pretty excited to be friends with her too!