After spending the next good long while searching Adam had a rather varied collection in his bag to show for it. Absolutely nothing of value, but since he had a home now, he could afford to get some random things like collectable coins, not-completely-ruined artworks, and things like lamps, desk fans, and typewriters. Overall it was nothing that was life changing in any way, but he had a whole Vault full of space to fill and now people sharing the space with him so figured it was best to have things on hand if they needed it. Besides, one of the things he got, a framed set list of a Dean Domino concert obviously meant for advertising outside a concert hall, would look perfect hung up on the wall of his living room. He was quite the Dean Domino fan after all, Domino had a number of classics and touches like this made his space feel like home, which was the whole point of getting all of this stuff. Not just because he was killing time.
After dropping everything off in a storage room, minus the poster, he headed to his room, hung up the poster on the wall, and then sat down and turned on the TV to play a movie. There were only a small number of movies available. After all, it's not like movies were portable in any form other than a full film reel, if one wanted to watch a movie at home prewar it had to be part of a TV broadcast. So, because Vault Tec thought ahead, knowing TVs would be useless in the post-apocalypse, the TV channels had, themselves, been turned into movies for viewing pleasure at a moment's notice. It was actually quite a novel idea to Adam. Imagine being able to play movies at the push of a button, who knew technology could advance that far?
Regardless the selection left a lot to be desired but it suited his needs for now, especially since his only alternative was going to Midway. However he did make a mental note to collect any film reels he found when going out to scavenge from now on. He had seen an unused film projector in the storeroom, as well as a second one in the school. So setting up his own little movie theater in the Vault was not out of the question.
It was precisely this sort of thing, the desire for more, the… greed, in a sense, that was yet another reason he could never simply sit in the Vault and never leave. Besides simply feeling restless and the desire to help his city more, he always had more things he wanted, more things he wanted to do, places to see, people to meet, there was so much world out there and even when he was just sitting on his couch watching an old western flick on his TV, a true luxury in this post apocalyptic world, he could only imagine how he would improve his situation further. A curse? Or perhaps a gift? Who knows, for now though, he was simply content with the idea and focused on enjoying the movie.
When he finished the movie he decided to spend the rest of the day relaxing, he truly had nothing else to do that he would do without Eric and he was fine to take it easy for the rest of the day. So, with nothing else pressing, he picked up his book, put on the only vinyl he had in his living room on his record player, and relaxed while reading and listening to songs by Billie Holiday.
The day ended without anything happening and, after checking to make sure Deccanus had made it back inside the Vault safely, Adam woke up the next day bright and early ready to tackle the day head on. After waking up in the morning he realized there was something he could do without involving a teaching opportunity for Eric. Cleaning the APC. It desperately needed it.
It would have been best to clean it before the blood had caked in but there was no way to do that since it was many hours in between when he abandoned it and when he reclaimed it.
So, after eating a meal from the cafeteria, he grabbed two buckets, filled them with soapy water, grabbed some sponges, cleaning gloves, and a mop, and then headed outside to get to work.
Needless to say this was backbreaking work, the APC was huge, there was a ton of gore to clean, and without a high pressure hose he was forced to scrub it all off by hand. Luckily it was not nearly as caked in as he feared. While the blood was not fresh, it was still easy enough to get it off once it was wet again. Regardless, while he was making progress it was taking a while. So long in fact that he was still in the middle of working when he saw Salvatore, Pearl and the others returning from Midway. What caught his eye though, was the handful of other new people he recognized from Naper who were in tow.
"Hey kid." Salvatore said slightly sheepishly as he walked up, everyone trailing behind him. He opened his mouth to say something but then seemed to change gears as he looked at the APC. "Decided to give it a thorough cleaning huh?"
"Yeah, I figured any mechanical issues can be worked out after I make it less gross for me to work with." Adam then looked at the crowd of people. "I guess something happened over in Naper."
"Ah, yeah so…" Salvatore looked back at the group and then back at Adam again. "When people were saying their goodbyes and such a few others caught wind and asked me if they could move in too. I told them it was your call but I figured I knew your answer already so…"
Adam sighed and then looked at the new faces, only 8 in total but that is 8 more people. The pros and cons of having more people living in the Vault was once more coming to the forefront of his mind, but, like Salvatore said, he already knew what his answer was.
"I do not mind if you want to move into the Vault. Just make sure you follow the rules and contribute to the community in some way." Adam said as he scanned the group. There were several nods along with an "I understand" and "will do" mixed in there.
Salvatore then nodded to Adam before gesturing for the group to follow him inside, everyone did, save for one, Eric.
Eric walked over slowly to Adam, who was still knee deep in cleaning, carrying all his belongings from Naper in a large makeshift backpack on his back.
"Did you start fixing it up?" He asked, curious.
"No." Adam said to him, putting the mop down in the bucket and then wiping some sweat off his forehead with his forearm. "I was waiting for you." He grinned. Eric smiled sheepishly too in response. "We got plenty of work to do, and I have so freaking much to teach you so go drop your stuff off in the Vault and then come back, you ain't gonna be taking it easy today. If I'm working, you are too, and believe me, I don't like to leave tasks unfinished." Adam grinned, slightly sadistically.
Eric's smile faltered a bit and stepped back in hesitation but then he seemed to steel himself and nod.
"Now go, I'm sure Salvatore is waiting for you." Adam said with a chuckle before he waved off Eric. He then watched Eric disappear into the tunnel that led underground to their home.