Chapter Text
“Moving in for the first time?”
Blue shook off their daydreams for a brief moment, glancing at their own reflection in the front mirror. His taxi driver had his eyebrows furrowed at the traffic jam in front of them, but when Blue responded to him for the first time in that entire car ride, there was a slight glint in his eyes.
“No, not really,” Blue answered, sitting upright, their hands sliding on their own lap. Blue’s hand drifts to the back of their neck as they lay back on the cushioned seat behind them. Cooler than the weather outside, the cushions were more relaxing than what Blue had initially anticipated. “I…” Blue continued, chuckling to themselves, “...I’m a doctor, and I went to university and medical school in different places, so I’m sort of used to this already.”
The taxi driver scoffed, snorting a little bit. He grabbed his bottle of water in the cup holder by the manual lever, and twisted the cap open with the same hand holding onto the plastic. The plastic crunched between his fingers as he pushed his arm to the back seats. “Want some?” The taxi driver asked, his eyes seemed to be more focused on the road.
“That’s…a little unhygienic.” Blue refused.
“Thought so.” The taxi driver nodded, slotting the bottle back into its original cup holder. “Did you go to John Hopkins?” The taxi driver asked out of the blue, slamming his hand on the steering wheel, with the loudest, deranged honk emitted from the car. They nodded slowly, making sure the driver could see through the window. “Ah, my niece wanted to go, but got rejected unfortunately.” The taxi driver commented, drumming his fingers against the leather of the steering wheel. Blue didn’t put much thought into whatever the taxi driver was doing, after all, as long as they got to Point B, it was good enough for them. They could see two mover trucks in front of them, which probably contained their newly bought furniture they didn’t bother buying from IKEA.
“You moving in with a girlfriend?” The driver asked again unprompted, laughing wholeheartedly at his own question.
“Can’t move in with one if I don’t have one.” Blue laughed it off with him. Truth be told, in almost every conversation Blue has had with anyone they have talked to, in around 9 out of 10 conversations, they were asked this exact same question or something equivalent. When you have a large following on social media who know you’re moving to another building, they tend to ask the same thing.
“I know one of your neighbours, they appeared on the news several times.” The taxi driver added, “I don’t know what they did, but I don’t want to know.”
Blue’s ears perked up as soon as they heard what he said. Sure, it was interesting how different life would be at wherever they were headed, but to hear one of their neighbours was someone who probably was a criminal led Blue to think about going back, and probably moving across the country.
“Eh, but you probably already knew them when you viewed the house, right?” The taxi driver dismissed, pumping his fist in the air to stretch his own joints, as his arm cracked for a second.
“It’s a cousin’s place. She recently got her dream home, so she handed this place to me since I was house hunting at the time.” Blue awkwardly answered, rubbing their hands together as the environment in the car suddenly became cooler for no apparent reason.
The taxi driver looked up into the mirror attached to the ceiling of the car, glancing at Blue for a moment, his eyes widening. Blue adjusted their hair, using their fingers to brush back whatever hair was poking out, staring at their vague reflection in the window to help. “I’m Merlin,” the taxi driver said out of nowhere.
“You can call me Blake,” Blue said to the window, but Merlin nodded along anyway.
“I’ve never seen someone with blue and blonde hair before,” Merlin commented on Blue’s locks as they were still meticulously styling their hair in the window.
Blue chuckled to themselves, softly but still focused a lot more on their hair which had alternating colours of blonde and blue, but they turned to Merlin anyway to reply. They had their hands on their lap , enthusiastic to answer. “My friends call me Blue,” Blue chuckled, rubbing a lock of blue hair between two of their own fingers, “Dyed half of my hair blue because of a promise I made with a patient.”
“That’s sweet,” Merlin added.
“Patient interactions are what made me want to become a doctor when I was younger,” Blue continued, twirling that same lock of hair, reminiscing back to their good old days during their first year of residency.
The engine of the taxi started up again, reviving quietly as the vehicle started moving again across the highway. Merlin was almost beaming with joy with a smile so bright, Blue could see its reflection of light from the windshield. Blue stared outside through the window, pondering about whatever came to their mind. Was this neighbour particularly dangerous? Were they going to get along with this particular neighbour in general? Was it all going to be a hassle? Nothing’s a hassle to Blue if it can be handled smoothly, even if it’s tedious. Though, that completely excuses medical school, but they don’t regret it.
“Hey, I just noticed you live close to one of the busier hospitals,” Merlin pointed out as they came closer to their destination. They began going close to the hospital symbol on Google maps, so Blue gave a good glance outside to find that hospital, because who knows if that’s where Blue was going to be working in the future. “Blake,” Merlin asked Blue almost immediately, “I hope you work here, I heard the pay here is high.”
“It doesn’t matter to me that much if the pay is high or not,” Blue replied, “but thank you anyway.”
“You're welcome,” Merlin said, a soft smile crossing his face.
Soon enough, Merlin was unloading Blue’s luggage right next to Blue’s porch. Blue never imagined for their cousin to offer up such a beautiful home. It was sub-urban, yes, but it looked like one of those large countryside barns you’d see at, well, the countryside. Neighbours were not right next to it as Blue expects, but they didn’t see it as a downside. In fact, it meant more privacy. The lawn was already mowed neatly, and paint was newly splatted on the walls. To Blue, it was already the all needed luxury they could hope for.
A lanky young individual in brown overalls with a durag tied on their head, covering most of their hair except for a few locks of brown and lime hair coloured hair, stepped out of the house right next to Blue’s, a German Shepherd puppy following them right behind. They had a leash in their mouth, biting onto it tightly as their hands were tying their ponytail Blue could visibly see from where they were standing. Merlin looked at where Blue was looking, and gave a look of disgust.
“That’s the guy I was talking about earlier.” Merlin whispered, leaning closer to Blue.
“Seriously?” Blue asked, not because they were expecting anything, but rather in disbelief and curiosity.
“I’ve got to go, they don’t seem to be good business,” Merlin skedaddled back to the car, opening the car door almost immediately, shutting it and almost driving it away, but Blue ran to catch up to the taxi.
“I haven’t paid you yet!” Blue shouted.
“Consider it on the house,” Merlin smiled, but it was a mix of nervousness and anxiety more than it was glad.
“But—”
“I’ve got another customer, see ya, Blake!”
The taxi drove off at unbelievable breakneck speed, leaving behind an godly amount of carbon monoxide as a black cloud, causing Blue to cough as they were engulfed in the black cloud. Another day, another guy who won’t accept payment… Blue sighed to themselves, turning behind to retrieve their luggage. Their day was already going splendidly, but of course, they had to bump into someone else.
The same German Shepherd puppy was panting with its tongue out, sitting right in between Blue and that same neighbour with brown overalls. They had an almost judgmental look on their face, scanning Blue like they were a TSA agent at the airport and Blue had drugs.
“You mind?” Their neighbour asked, tugging on their dog’s leash slightly as Blue moved out of the way to let a morning stroll between an owner and their dog go smoothly.
Blue left their stare on their neighbour, confused and in disbelief again at what just happened. No way that was a criminal of some kind, just casually walking their dog in the streets, not threatening Blue of any kind. Blue had treated many patients with a criminal record, defended said criminals, and even went out of their way to help find loopholes so they could pay their hospital bills, but this was the first time Blue didn’t have a strong obligation to put up a front of being that kind, hot, handsome and attractive doctor who did no wrong between them and another person.
Don’t get them wrong, their neighbour did nothing wrong, and neither did Blue, but it was just the way that their neighbour didn’t see Blue as a boy-toy like everyone else, including Merlin presumably, felt different…
Blue…felt normal.