Chapter Text
Y/N never wanted to move from her old apartment. It was cosy, warm and felt like home whenever you stepped through the threshold. People always said that they felt welcomed whenever they would visit. The apartment oozed with joy and happiness and instantly put anyone in a good mood. Now, as Y/N remained in the middle of her practically empty new apartment, she had a blank canvas to start again, wanting to create the same friendly atmosphere that she had previously.
Moving apartments was hard for Y/N, one reason being that she was moving away from most of her friends and family and the second being that she didn’t know anyone in the area. Nevertheless, this was all a small price to pay for Y/N. Finally, at the age of thirty, she had managed to save up enough money to buy out and renovate a small cafe. To anyone, this may seem like a small thing, but to Y/N, it’s all she ever wanted. She wanted to create a safe space for everyone and anyone and she thought that a small, quaint cafe was the way to do it.
Only the television and couch were set up so she had a place to sit and sleep while everything else arrived from her old apartment. Currently, she was sitting peacefully with a music channel softly playing in the background, book in hand. Reading was Y/N’s way to relax, the stress of moving had taken a toll on her so she delved into the fictional worlds of her books as a form of escapism.
Meeting her neighbours was a thing she hadn’t done yet. Out of the many neighbours, she had only met one, and the meeting was very brief. Y/N had bumped into an old woman who lived down the hall as she was heading up the stairs to her apartment. Y/N didn’t catch her name but she hoped to formally introduce herself soon. Meeting new people wasn’t scary for Y/N, infact, she loved meeting them and hearing of their stories and life experiences vastly different to hers.
Stretching out her legs on the couch, Y/N let out a yawn. It was late in the day, normally Y/N wouldn’t feel tired at this time. She was what most people would consider a night owl. But the moving had really tired her out these past couple of days. As Y/N swung her feet and planted them firmly on the floor, she could feel nearly every bone in her body crack causing her to let out a small groan. If she were going to go to sleep, she was going to sleep in something comfortable, not a pair of worn out jeans and a shirt that would only get wrinkled as she tossed and turned in her sleep. After getting changed and slumping back down onto the couch, Y/N drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
***
When Y/N awoke the next morning, the only thing that she could think of was the pain in her back - her couch wasn’t the most comfortable thing in existence. If waking up was hard enough, actually getting up was even harder. Everything in Y/N wanted to have a few extra hours in bed but she knew that she needed to get down to her cafe and sort a few things out. Shoving on a pair of jeans and a thick jumper, Y/N collected her bag before leaving the apartment.
On her way out she noticed a gift basket by one of the doors filled with food, drinks and what appeared to be a large, colourful fluffy blanket. The curious side of Y/N wanted to go and inspect it further, maybe knock on the door and introduce herself to her new neighbour, however the more logical side of Y/N decided to leave it alone and head down the stairs. She took one last glance at the gift basket, noticing a card with the phrase ‘We love you’ scrawled with messy, yet neat, handwriting. Continuing down the stairs, Y/N headed to her cafe.
***
Y/N looked around her cafe. It needed a lot of work to get to the level she wanted, there were a lot of things that needed replacing as well but it could do for now until she saved up more money. With some time and effort, Y/N was sure she would be able to open in a few weeks. A phone started to ring on the counter top, cutting through the silence. Picking up the phone, Y/N answered.
“Hello?”
“ Hi sweetie, ” her mother said through the phone, “ How are you?”
“I’m fine, Mom.” Y/N answered, placing her phone in between her shoulder and ear as she got to work cleaning the wooden tables.
“ You haven’t called in a couple days, I just wanted to check on you,” Her mother answered, “ How’s the moving going?”
“Alright I suppose, I’ve got back pain from sleeping on the couch though,” Y/N answered, “Everything else from my old apartment should be arriving tomorrow, except for the bed frame, I ordered a new one, the old one made way too much noise.”
“ Are you sure you don’t need any help, ” her mother questioned, “ I really don’t mind taking some time off work. ”
“Mom it’s fine, travelling down here is too much hassle.” Y/N rejected her offer.
“ I really don’t mind. ” her mother said.
“Seriously it’s fine,” Y/N stated, “I’m working on the cafe today and sorting out my apartment tomorrow.”
“ Well if you’re sure, ” her mother said, “ Have you met your neighbours yet? ”
“I bumped into one of them but didn’t really make conversation,” Y/N answered, moving onto another table, “I will, just not right now. And as much as I want to continue this conversation, I need to work on the cafe, I want to try and open within the next few weeks.”
“ Okay sweetie, call me if you need anything, okay?”
“I will, love you Mom.” Y/N said, moving her phone from in between her ear and shoulder back to her hand.
“ Love you too, talk to you later. ”
Y/N bid goodbye before hanging up the phone and placed it back on the counter top. Sighing, she looked around the cafe. Even though Y/N always wanted to open a cafe, she only thought about the end result she never thought about everything in between. The tables she was wiping down weren’t even the tables she wanted but she would rather paint over them and save up to replace them all at a later date.
In her mind, Y/N could imagine exactly how she wanted her cafe. Plants all around, comfy couches and chairs mismatched in various different colours, people laughing and joking. The atmosphere she wished to create was one of serenity. The only obstacle on her way to that was actually creating that atmosphere. Deciding on wanting to get to that desired atmosphere as quickly as possible, she brushed hair out of her face before getting to work.
When it started to get dark, that was when Y/N decided to call it a day and head home. Even if she was driving home, she hated driving at night. Locking up the cafe, she hopped in her car before diving home. It didn’t take her long to drive home since she lived quite close but by the time she was home, it was almost pitch black.
When she climbed the stairs up to her apartment, she noticed a second gift basket outside her neighbours door. There were similar messages on it. Letting curiosity get the better of her, though everything in her mind was telling her that this was wrong, Y/N approached the gift baskets. Deciding against picking up the note, she crouched down next to it. Like the previous note, it read phrases like ‘we love you’, ‘get better soon’ etc. However, what caught Y/N’s eye were the notes reminding the person in the apartment to take care of themselves, don’t forget to eat, don’t forget to take care of yourself.
Y/N’s eyebrows furrowed, it was clear from the notes that the person in the apartment was going through something. Rising to her feet, Y/N contemplated. She didn’t know the person who lived in the apartment nor did she know what they were going through, but she wanted to help and offer if there was anything to do for them. Taking a deep breath, Y/N knocked on the door. There was no answer. She knocked again. No answer although she did hear a small shuffle.
“Hey, um, you don’t know me but I moved in a few days ago,” Y/N started talking through the door, she had no idea id the person the other side would be listening to her but she continued anyway, “I was just going to say that if there’s anything I can help you with I live just down the hall, or you can just shout my name and I’ll come to help. My name is Y/N by the way.”
Y/N listened for any indication that the person was still listening, or even listening at all. There was none. Sighing, she turned and walked down the hall to her apartment.
***
The following days were stressful for Y/N. Everything else from her apartment had been delivered and she was in the midst of making her apartment look more homely as she expected to be there for a while. Along with decorating her apartment, she had been decorating her cafe, it was finally getting to a point where she actually liked the decor (even if it wouldn’t last forever).
In the week, she had finally met her neighbours. She made conversation with the old woman she had bumped into previously and she was having coffee with her the following day. There were a couple of other neighbours that Y/N had introduced herself to although there was no indication of her ever talking to her again.
However, one neighbour that Y/N had yet to meet was the person who lived inside the apartment with all the gift baskets outside. Since Y/N had introduced herself, they had made no contact. It didn’t seem like they made contact with anyone. Even if Y/N didn’t know them, she couldn’t help but worry. They obviously had friends looking out for them but it was clear from the gift baskets that were never taken in that they weren’t communicating with them.
Even though this worry for a person she had never met was evident in her mind, Y/N pushed it to the back, wanting to focus on fixing up her apartment and cafe. It wasn’t until Y/N was on her way out of her apartment to her cafe when the feeling of worry resurfaced for her mystery neighbour. All of the gift baskets had been cleared up and to Y/N’s surprise, three people walked out of the apartment - two women and a man. Y/N could tell that none of these people lived in the apartment so her neighbour was still inside.
A wash of relief passed over Y/N as she saw these three people, friends of her neighbour. Whatever was happening in her neighbours life, she was glad that their friends were there for them. Y/N approached the stairs and the three other people did. Being the person she was, she gestured for them to go down first. The three people gave her a grateful smile in return, muttering quiet thank you’s.
As the three walked down the stairs, Y/N’s eyes were trained on the door of her neighbour. She was tempted to go and knock on their door and formally introduce herself but she felt weird about doing it at that moment, not after their friends had just walked out. With a shake of her head, Y/N descended down the stairs and out into the cool fresh air. In her mind, she promised to herself that she would introduce herself to her neighbour soon.
***
It was fate, or what Y/N assumed was fate. The morning when she decided to get an early start at the cafe, she quite literally bumped into someone. She was looking down not exactly noticing where she was walking, messaging back her mother as she did so. Luckily the collision didn’t give enough bounce back force for either person to lose their footing.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Y/N apologised frantically, “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
The person Y/N collided with turned around to face her. He was tall and lanky with shaggy brown hair. He looked put together with his shirt, tie and cardigan, although from the looks of the bags under his eyes it seemed like he hadn’t had a good night of sleep in weeks. From looking at this man, Y/N realised that she hadn’t met him before.
“It’s okay.” The man replied softly, hands holding onto his bag strap.
Y/N nodded before she descended the staircase, the man following behind her. As the two reached the bottom, Y/N turned to look at the man, “You live here, right? I just moved in a few weeks ago and I don’t think I’ve introduced myself to you yet. I’m-”
“Y/N,” The man said, “I heard your voice when you knocked on my door.”
Y/N’s eyes widened slightly, however not too much for it to be noticeable, once she realised that this was the man she had been worrying about. Not mentioning that she had been worrying about him, she nodded, “Yeah, that’s me. I’m sorry if I was too forward in asking you that, I just saw the gift baskets outside your door and thought that you could use someone to talk to if you wanted.”
“It was a kind gesture,” The man replied, “But I’m fine.” There was some hesitation in his voice although Y/N decided to ignore it, it wasn’t in her right to question him.
“Okay, well if you need anything, tea, coffee, sugar, you name it, don’t be afraid to knock on my door, I live in the apartment next to yours.” Y/N stated as the two walked out the building and into the cool morning air.
There was a hint of a smile on the man’s face, “Thank you,” The man said before gesturing the opposite way to where Y/N was heading, “I’ve got to go now.”
“Oh, me too, it was nice talking to you.” Y/N replied and gave the man a parting smile before turning and walking to her car.
As she pulled the keys out of her bag, she realised that she hadn’t asked the man his name. Turning to the direction he was walking, he hadn’t gotten that far away so she called out to him, “Hey!” The man stopped and turned to face Y/N. “What’s your name?” She questioned.
“Spencer Reid.” He replied.
Y/N smiled slightly, “Nice to meet you Spencer Reid.”