#( aisling trying to advertise a free room and immediately the entire city is suspicious of her )

[clochanam]

is that a common fear? and the second he asks the question, it hits her like a bolt of lightning that actually, yes, it's extremely likely that the lack of response towards the advertisement has been because of actual and well-placed fear that there might have been a sinister ulterior motive. when she'd initially thrown it out for free, people had actually called the diner and interrogated her until she finally threw a price on it. now it's just been silent.

" god, no! look, let me just... i want to tell you something. " she's sweeping her hair back off her face and into a half-assed ponytail, exhaling wearily as she tries to find the best way to phrase it all. " i have more money than i know what to do with. i was going to find excuses to not charge you the rent in the first place. but free apartments in manhattan? they don't exist. it just makes no sense to charge people money to stay here, because you're staying above a 24/7 diner. we never close. i don't need rent money. but i do want to offer the room, because times are tough, right? if you want it, it's yours. and if you want to work at the diner, or help out in some way, you don't have to! but if you wanted to, i get it, and that's fine. i just... we're good people. you have my word. "

Marion stared. He didn't mean to, but, well, there he was. "What?" fell out of his mouth. One hundred dollars? a month? That had to be a mistake, she was gonna correct herself and say a thousand any second now, right?

But she didn't, and in fact she looked very expecant that Marion catch on.

Then, "What??" he repeated, his chest fluttering with something like hope. Orion's hand squeezed his arm from where he sat next to him. Marion didn't have to look to know his brother's breath was stuck in his chest. Yeah. Marion agreed mentally. I can do that. He was averaging a hundred a week. He could push a little harder, and Orion was wanting to work, too- "Sold," he blurted as his brain tried to finish its mental math.

"You're not gonna try and serve us in one of those dinners, are you?" he asked, mostly joking. There was a catch. There was always a catch. But this could work until they figured out what the catch was.