Chapter Text
Hikaru had decided that hot chocolate at one am wasn’t really such a bad thing after all. Growing up she hadn’t really adopted the practice of being up at such an ungodly hours of the morning, but her kitchen was warm and sweet-smelling and most importantly quiet.
Blissfully quiet.
She was a flexible girl, she could adapt...
A loud, drawn-out crrk sounded from the direction of her nearby bedroom and she nearly broke a rib flinging herself over the counter to turn on the radio.
Quietness was overrated anyway, she thought desperately, reaching for an extra dose of sugar with trembling fingers. Yeah. She needed something more lively, she wasn’t really the quiet type anyway so maybe some-
“ Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir / Voulez vous coucher avec moi!”
Hikaru made a noise that was despair, as half of her sugar-filled teaspoon shook and scattered over the table, and plopped her head on the table with a muted thump.
Thump-moan.
“Don’t worry, Hikaru, it’s a good apartment Hikaru, you’ll see, I know a good bargain when I see one!” she muttered, half-imitating Caldina, half-feeling guilty that this was what she’d been brought down to.
Umi would’ve said that the universe was screwing with her, but Umi had also approved her new “little comfy nest” so she had no right to offer imaginary advice.
It was 2 in the morning now and - wow, whoever the guy upstairs was he had tons of stamina, Hikaru thought feeling the torrid heat in her face seep into the counter - the third day this week something like this happened to her.
And it was only her first week.
She wasn’t a spiteful person, people were free to have their own lives in their homes, but if this was gonna turn into a multi-weekly occurrence due to the thin walls (no wonder rent was cheap for this particular apartment), her chemistry professor would end up killing her for dozing off again through his morning class.
(she swore he’d been this close after her lab partner had stupidly mixed sodium phosphide with water and Hikaru had been forced to throw it outthrough window before the fire sprinklers could start)
A sudden scream of pleasure pierced through her hazy, caffeinated thoughts and Hikaru nearly shrieked herself (narrowly dodging a heart attack), toppling off the chair in a flurry of limbs and sweetened coffee.
“She said, "Hello, hey Joe, you wanna give it a go?" Oh! uh huh”
“OH MY GOD, JUST GO TO SLEEP!”
As she’d predicted, Hikaru ended up operating on a three and a half hours of sleep the next day (making coffee in the middle of the night did that to you), but luckily had escaped her professor’s notice alive (he’d been too busy trying not to kill all of them for making him grade their gibberish papers which ‘even high-schoolers should’ve been exempt from screwing up’)
This time Hikaru had skipped on actually sleeping through his rants, mostly because she’d been too weirdly curious wondering what about her neighbor's...vigorous activities...could actually induce a woman to scream loud enough to be heard a floor down (her neighbor was a guy, she was sure; their ac-activities together were the only time she’d heard a woman’s voice coming from upstairs and Hikaru was pretty darn sure that a woman with that set of lungs would make herself heard at all times).
Normally, the mere thought would’ve turned her into a tomato on the spot but she’d been too wired all day to care. And because she was so hyper - she accepted no other explanation - she kinda wanted to meet the guy
Die of shame on the spot, yes, but...maybe greet him like a good, new neighbor (try not to re-imagine any sketchy scenes while looking him in the eye), bring him some delicious store-bought pie or something (if she didn’t touch it, it couldn’t hurt anyone) and, uh, talk to him about her little dilemma of not being able to sleep in her bed anymore due to his extra-curricular activities.
At least maybe he could move them earlier or hopefully to another room?
Hikaru slammed the lid to her letter box more forcefully than she’d wanted, took a deep breath - tried not to think about suggesting sex on the kitchen table, oh God why did lack of sleep do this to her? - and took the entrance stairs two at a time so she wouldn’t have the drive to think about anything perverted anymore.
Haha, right, because that had worked all day long and she wasn’t suddenly feeling sexually frustrated or anything...
Despite wearing sneakers, Hikaru felt her foot slip against the top stair and the floor fly from underneath her at breakneck speed. She got only a squeak out before a large hand wrapped her wrist and pulled her forward fluidly and straight into someone’s body.
His abdomen to be more accurate.
Hikaru oomphed belatedly, trying to calm her galloping heart and shaky knees and only after a few more seconds of sitting there - like some smitten thing - realized that her free arm was wrapped iron tight around her mysterious savior’s waist.
He’s only mysterious because you’re just standing there like an idiot, not saying anything, get a grip- she pulled back abruptly and breathed (in some very nice cologne)
“Oh my God, thank you so much, I am so sorry,” she looked up...and up and up -holy heck, had she been saved by a viking? - “for a moment there, I swear my life flashed before my eyes!”
The viking - who was neither blonde nor bearded and didn’t even have the decency to have long, flowing locks - raised a brow at her and then raised her up, like a doll, and firmly pulled her two steps back. “You should be more careful where you step,” he rumbled softly, setting her down effortlessly.
Hikaru had the strangest feeling that she should feel insulted by something, but his eyes were...really, re-ally pretty. “Ah, yeah...” and blonde was, thankfully, not his style. “Thank you. I’m, uh, just moved here...” I’m just moved here, really? “I’m Shidou Hikaru. Not usually a klutz like that!”
She attempted to sketch a quick bow and nearly collided with his stomach again. Kill me now. “Pleased to meet you, I suppose you’re also from around here?” she squeaked out.
Stupid, it seemed, was the word of the day.
Her face invented a new shade of red when his eyebrow curved further up. The way he was looking at her, he either considered her a fascinating specimen or just a plain idiot. The blush became luminescent.
“Kail Lantis,” and with that totally not gratifying explanation - except that it was because she was acting like a ditsy lunatic and normal people usually avoided giving their names to those - he by-passed her, guiding her lightly forward with a pat on her shoulder, as if a breath would send her toppling her backwards on the dangerous dangerous stairs.
Hikaru remained, mildly twitching, where she was until she heard the front door open and close.
Then she groaned into her hands.
One neighbor down, everyone else to go, and she hadn’t even talked to the guy who’d started her slew of sleepless nights.
She couldn't imagine this getting any worse.