“Oh,” he said, looking unconvinced, though then looked pleasantly surprised.

A house. Even Zechariah was still renting, what with no wife on the horizon. Uriel was truly growing up. Wait...

When there was a knock at the door, Zechariah looked suspiciously over at Uriel.

“Do you have friends?” he asked, as though such a thing would be a new development.

Then, he went to the door and opened it.

A man answered the door. Even in Bill's desperate state, he couldn't help but notice that the man appeared to have money. He could smell something delicious inside the house; his stomach groaned.

"Excuse me, s-s-s-s-sir," Bill chattered. "I've b-b-b-been swimming for hours. C-c-c-could I, er, dry off?"

"Not here," he said with brows raised. As Zech took himself off to answer the door, Uriel helped himself to a small plate of food and a little bit of the wine he brought.

“Prayer first!” he called over his shoulder, and tried not to roll his eyes.

Some things never changed … and those things were far easier to handle than some half-drowned goy on his doorstep. A matter that needed handling immediately, lest he catch his death from wet clothes. He was wider than Zechariah, but of a similar height.

“... There is a wood stove in the parlor,” he said, nodding toward the parlor trying to figure out how to solve this quickly enough to not stain the wood. “You may start a fire if you wish. I will be back in the moment.”

He turned for the stairs, taking a deep breath. The thing about living this close to the water, apparently, was that drowning survivors would find homes like his first. A curse and blessing both, as most of God’s will tended to be.

"Thank you, sir!" Bill called after the man, then went into the parlor.

This place was nice. His eyes automatically darted around the room, looking for something he might be able to steal if he warmed up before this man kicked him out.


He placed some wood in the woodstove, then knelt in front of it and tried to steady his shaking hands enough to arrange tinder and kindling into a shape that would actually catch fire. Of course someone with money wouldn't bother to help him start the fire; it was miracle enough that he'd let him in, really.

It took him three tries to get a match lit, and when he dropped it on his awkwardly arranged tinder, the fire sputtered out within a couple seconds. He choked back a sob of frustration.

Uriel set the little plate down after being reminded of prayer, having gotten used to not doing so because he was not as faithful as his brother. When the soaked man came in and started struggling with the fire, Uriel was quick to move to his feet and he said, "Here, let me." He started the fire easily enough and then blew air at it until it came to life. Then he added a log or two more and said, "You warm yourself up."

"Thank you ever so much, sir," Bill said, and stood up to expose as much of his body as he could to the heat.

Did he want to put his nice silk bathrobe that he had never actually been seen in on some washed up human barnacle? Of course not.

Did he have any other choice? Of course not.

He did not meander, even if the thought was tempting that the fire would dry the newcomer some on its own before he stained the article beyond recognition.

“Change and lay your clothes out,” he said, holding the bathrobe out to Bill. “There is plenty to go around tonight.”

Well. He hoped his guests liked salad.

Bill was holding his freezing hands above the stove, almost relishing in the pain of warmth returning to them, when the man who had answered the door held out a bathrobe that was fancier than anything he'd ever touched before, even on a pickpocketing mark's clothing.

"You sure you want me to wear that, sir?" he said without thinking.

It only hit him after he spoke that the man seemed to be inviting him to dinner as well. He almost felt bad about sizing his house up for a theft.

Uriel watched the wet man with curious eyes until his brother showed up with a robe and handed it over. "Maybe I can come another day and tell you my news, Zech, things seem a bit busy." It was unusually considerate of the big man, but that was going to be happening a lot more.