Chapter Text
“Poe! Hey, Poe!”
Poe groans, trudging the short walk from the bedroom to the front door where Rey leans against the frame. Hell if he knows how she got the door open. “Rey, it’s 9 in the morning.”
“And?”
“That’s way too loud for 9 in the morning.”
“It’s important.” She jams a cup of caf into his hand and crosses her arms. “Unless you’d rather have Rose tell you?”
“No.” He grimaces, taking a cautious sip of the steaming liquid. “Not after last ti— Rey, what the hell?”
“What?”
“Did you make this with the water in Rose’s room again?”
“Yeah.” She swipes the caf, tipping it back like a shot glass. “Too hot?”
“Rose’s room is on the no-drink list. Remind me how you’re still alive?”
“Fine, make your own caf.” Rey peers around him, taking in the unusually neat room. “Is Finn here?”
“He took BeeBee for a walk. What’s so important that you’re breaking down my door at 9 on a Saturday morning?”
“We’re getting a new neighbor.”
Suddenly the caf is forgotten. “We’re getting a what?”
-:-
“It’s true, I swear!” Rose practically has to yell into the phone for Zorii to hear above the cacophony of noise coming from the other end of the call, but some news is worth it. “Rey saw the landlord come in and put a lock on the door next to hers!”
“Yeah, and?” Zorii sounds much less excited about the possibility, though that might be because of the Saturday-morning traffic impeding her ability to visit her girlfriend. “Maybe he’s suddenly concerned about preventing a break-in.”
“There’s boxes in the lobby.”
“Maybe it’s the Bagel Man.”
“The Bagel Man already came, Z. This is something big, I’m telling you.”
“And I’m telling you nobody’s stupid enough to move into this apartment building. Have you been letting Rey make you caf lately?”
“Very funny.” Rose rolls her eyes, though the gesture is of course lost on Zorii.
“Thanks, I think so too. Look, traffic’s starting to move again. Call you later?”
“Sure, FaceTime when you get to Kay’s.”
“Always. Later, Rose.”
“See you soon.” She ends the call with a grin, already planning how to greet their new neighbor. Well… maybe after she grabs a bagel.
-:-
“How do you know for sure?” Phasma picks at her silver nail polish, brushing away the flakes as they land on her lap.
“I told you, the landlord put a lock on the door. A good lock.” Rey scowls, taking a bite of her bagel. “You want proof? Look in the boxes they put by the door.”
“Hell no. Anyone who doesn’t put mail in the mail bin is planting a bomb or something.”
“Go be a hero, then.” Armitage Hux— who goes by Arm or Hugs, depending on the person and their level of irritation with him —sits down at one of the lobby’s flimsy folding chairs, passing Rey a mug. “Poe says you need to stop drinking Rose’s water.”
“Poe can eff off.” She tips the mug towards herself, glancing at the dark liquid inside. “Tea? Really?”
“Come on Niima, I thought you were British,” Phasma laughs, holding out her hand. “I’ll take it if you won’t.”
“Go ahead.”
“I’m going to look in the box!” Rose’s declaration echoes down the stairway and all three of their heads turn towards the source of the outburst. Heavy footsteps thunder down the stairs, and Rose and Poe spill out into the lobby. She grins triumphantly, swiping a bagel from the folding table they’re situated at, then marches towards the trio of cardboard boxes stacked by the door.
“That seems illegal.”
“Oh, hey Ben.”
“Hey. We’re getting a new neighbor?”
Poe shrugs. “We are. Probably. If Rose confirms it.”
Rose, for her part, is tiptoeing across the room in an overdramatic fashion that has all of them struggling to keep straight faces. She pulls a pencil from her pocket, carefully using it to lift one flap of the cardboard box enough to look inside. Then she turns, utterly stonefaced, and walks back to them as if nothing has happened.
“So?”
Rose nibbles at her bagel. “We’re getting a new neighbor.”
“WHAT?”
-:-
It takes exactly forty-five minutes for them to set up a welcome party. Ten minutes to cobble together a guest list and run through the building inviting everyone. Twenty minutes to set up decorations. Ten more minutes to ransack each of their food storages to find something to feed the new neighbor. And about five minutes to listen to Padmé recount the story of the day she’d moved into the building. Altogether a pretty successful run.
Granted, their idea of party decorations is taping some tie-dyed bandanas Rose has on hand to the walls and letting Finn fold them into interesting shapes, and the streamers Gwen found in storage appear to be colored toilet paper from decades past. But’s it’s good enough, especially with the box of chocolates from Rose’s sister sitting on the folding table at the center of it all as a gift for the new arrival.
New neighbors always arrive at exactly twelve in the afternoon. Even Poe, who can’t help but be late to everything, had arrived perfectly on time. They’ve learned better than to question things like this, and so far the only plausible theory they’ve come up with is Finn’s adamant belief that it’s all just coincidence.
So when they finish preparations for the party just before 10:30, Finn is starting to think they could’ve afforded to wait a little longer to set up. It doesn’t take long for the others to realize the same, and by silent agreement they file up to their respective rooms to… well, really just to waste time until the new neighbor arrives. At Rey’s request, Poe sets a timer. Well, he tries. It takes about five minutes for Finn to realize his boyfriend has set the microwave to cook for an hour and a half. It takes another five minutes for them to realize their microwave doesn’t have an actual timer (and neither does anything else in their apartment, given that Rose is currently trying to fix their broken alarm clock), and so the microwave remains on.
All things considered, it’s still the least chaotic new-neighbor-prep he’s experienced here. So far.
-:-
This is going to be a good thing. Moving into a new home, branching out, meeting new people and trying new things, starting a new job as a vet tech… it’s all going to be good for her.
At least that’s what Jannah keeps telling herself.
The reality? She’s never left her home in Kef Bir, a town with an astounding population of exactly 300 or so people. Now she’s leaving behind everything she’s known to live in the outskirts of an actual city, thousands of miles away from her family and friends.
She’d planned to get to the apartment by 11:30-ish, but the trip had left her hungry, and so Jannah finds herself standing outside the door to the building holding her new home at twelve on the dot. Her hand trembles slightly on the door handle, but he pulls it open regardless. Here’s to a new life.
Any newfound courage immediately evaporates at the sight of about a dozen people standing around a folding table and staring directly at her. For a moment, everything is silent, and she feels as if she’s missed some sort of social cue. Then the small group at the front— all of them look around her age —begin discreetly nudging each other forward until one of them is pushed to the front. He stares at her blankly for a moment, evidently as clueless as to how this is supposed to go down as she is, then sticks out a hand. “I’m Poe.”
“Jannah,” she replies, and there’s another awkward moment as Poe realizes he’s trying to shake the hand of someone who is standing halfway across the room from him. “Are you the landlord?”
“The landlord?” He looks confused for a moment, then his eyes widen and he nods to himself as he gets it. “Oh, no. The landlord’s never here. Except this morning. He put a lock on your door.” It didn’t have a lock before?
“So where are you from?” Jannah’s attention shifts to the tall woman with short, white-blond hair standing towards the back of the small group.
“Nowhere, really.” She shrugs, shifting the bag on her shoulder. “Kef Bir.”
The woman nods. “Never heard of it. Want me to take your stuff?”
“Uh, I’m not really sure where my apartment is—“
“Don’t worry.” She flashes a quick grin, hoisting Jannah’s bag onto her own shoulder and heading for the stairs. “It’s the only one the landlord bothered to clean in the past month.”
Oh. That’s…nice? Jannah’s discomfort must show on her face, because Poe jumps back into the conversation and steers her to the table. “So, Jannah. What brings you to our humble apartment building?”
“Yeah, because that doesn’t make you sound like a creepy serial killer,” a middle-aged woman quips lightly before sticking her hand out for Jannah to shake. “It’s odd here, but I promise you’ll like it. We’re all odd as well, though I can’t promise you you’ll like us as much. Except Padmé, everyone loves Padmé. And if you need any of us, we’ll always be there for you.” She throws a glance to the others. “That everything?”
“I think so.” This from a younger man with distinctly red hair and what appears to be a naturally serious expression. “Unless you want to get into the specifics?”
“Those can come later.” Another new face, a young brunette with her hair pulled back in three buns. She pulls one of the folding chairs out and offers up the seat. “You look like you could use a break. Want something to drink?”
“Oh hell no, you’re not getting her a drink. We can’t trust you.”
“Fine.” The brunette pouts, rolling her eyes and plopping down in another seat. Then, just as quickly as it had come her annoyance vanishes and she offers a bright grin. “Welcome to the building, Jannah.”