Work Text:
Stella sighed as she plopped her last box on the table. After hauling in every single package of her belongings into her new apartment, she felt dead on her feet and had just enough energy to fall on her new couch. She laid down and closed her eyes, taking her time in evening her breaths and allowing the aches to leave her overworked muscles.
Chicago was a new slate for her. It was her first time on her own and while it was scary, she was enlivened with the road ahead of her. She’d enrolled in the fire academy and was due to start her first day on Monday. There were no new friends made as of yet, but she had perused the area in her battered Jeep Scrambler and found interesting little coffee shops and hole in the wall restaurants she might explore in her off time.
And despite its desolate environment, she was proud to call this dingy old apartment her own. It was dirt cheap and probably had a broken health code violation or two, but it was the first place
she could call hers and that would have to be enough for right now.
She sought comfort on the leather couch she copped on sale from Walmart and her eyes were heavy, silently asking for rest. It was right when she was on the brink of a good ass nap, that she heard the miniscule pitter patter of feet across the dusty wooden floors. She recognized the sound immediately, due to her other previous abhorrent living conditions. The gasp flew from her mouth before she could even fully sit up and her elevated pulse left her just a little weary on her feet when she rose up like a rocket.
“Shit, shit, shit!” She exclaimed.
Her eyes raced around the room, looking for that nettlesome rodent that was somewhere spurting across her living room floor.
She’d give the big creature its credit, it was by the largest rat she’d ever seen in her life. And even still, it was moving rapidly around for its size.
“I don’t get paid enough for this shit,” Stella grumbled.
She actually hadn’t been paid anything at all. The landlord had allowed her to pay several months rent in advance with the money she’d saved up for the past year. But with her focus on excelling at the fire academy, she had no incoming cash at the moment, including the money it’d probably cost to get an exterminator here.
“Plan B, I guess.”
She actually didn’t have a plan B and she looked around her unpacked apartment for anything to kill the vermin with.
When Stella first came to look around at the place, she had noticed an abandoned hoe outside on the stoop. It hadn’t moved even after she signed her lease papers and was still there today in its corner as she walked in and out of the building to move her things in.
“Ding, ding, ding,” she said to herself as she walked outside to grab it.
She was so focused on her designated path that she hadn’t looked up with enough notice to collide straight into a hunk of flesh.
Hands were there to grasp her before she fell to the ground from the force of the impact. She groaned in surprise and looked up to be met with a smirking expression from a handsome, rugged man. Stella only took two seconds to admire how attractive he was considering she was still focused on getting that rat out of her apartment.
She apologized with a mutter, “Sorry, woman on a mission.”
Even as she moved to walk around him, he held onto her, “Wait. You’re my new neighbor?”
Stella looked at him again with a sense of confusion before looking out at the building next door and the classic Ford Mustang parked out front that wasn’t there before.
“Hmm, I guess I am. Stella.” She held out a hand to introduce herself.
“Kelly,” the man responded with a firm shake.
“Well, I’d love to stay at chat but I gotta go see a man about a rat.”
Kelly guffawed, “I think you mean horse.”
Stella grinned awkwardly, “No, I mean a literal rat.” She grabbed the hoe that was a few feet from her. “Wish me luck.”
She didn’t wait for him to leave, merely stalking back in like the rat axe murderer she would be for the next few minutes. Instead of walking back to his apartment, he stood there for a few minutes in both amusement and deep thought. He considered whether she’d call the police for him being a trespasser and he figured he’d take the chance, considering she seemed like cool-weathered.
He slowly ambled in, grinning at the curses he could hear from her while in the hallway. If the unit was anything like his own, he knew the hallway led to the living room and the kitchen branched off shortly before then.
He took that detour, hoping that what he was looking for would be there. It took a few glances into the unpacked boxes but he clicked his tongue in approval once he found what he was looking for. He grabbed it and then picked up a random container that’d be large enough for the creature.
Walking into the living room, Kelly was amused once again at Stella taking haphazard swings with the hoe while trying to capture the rat. He wanted to warn her that she’d potentially mess up her floors if she kept doing that, but the last thing he wanted was to scare her or the rat that was almost in the perfect position to be cornered.
So instead of speaking up, he quietly traipsed over to the other side of the room to put the vermin in the perfect position of being captured. Stella looked up at him and before she could speak, he held up a finger. He poured a little bit of the ammonium cleaner in the storage box and took a few more quiet steps towards the rat. He locked eyes with her again while doing so and their steps were in tandem until the pest was trapped between them. Attempting to make its run, Kelly dropped the container over it and watched its movements gradually slow.
“Huh,” Stella coughed out. Her eyebrows rose in surprise before she looked back over at Kelly, “Smart.”
Kelly merely shrugged in response.
Stella walked over to him, holding her hand out, “I guess I should re-introduce myself properly.”
They exchanged names yet again, this time with bright smiles and much more appreciation. Stella let out a breath of relief, “Boy, I don’t know about you but that kinda took the wind out of me,” she started walking back towards the kitchen, “You want something to drink?”
Kelly looked down at his watch, “Another time.” He adjusted his jacket and kicked at the box with the now dead rat inside it.
“Oh, well definitely another time! How else am I gonna thank you for potentially saving me from rabies?”
He simply chuckled, though it wasn’t something he was going to hold her to. She needed help and he was simply there to provide an assist. He hadn’t planned to say anything further, but only set to walk out her unit and back to his.
“Well, I guess, I’ll be seeing you!”
He nodded in goodbye, neither of them knowing just how soon they’d be seeing each other.