In Another World

New Neighbors

Angel liked the quiet. He moved to an apartment complex with mostly old people for a reason and was lucky enough to get an apartment at the end of the hallway. Nobody threw parties, nobody was loud for the most part, and the most terrible of issues he got was the old lady above him tripping and falling on her ass every so often. His next-door neighbors were much the same, a nice old lady and an old man that would often bring him leftovers, complaining about how skinny he was.

However, one day, the old lady died and, unable to take care of himself properly without his wife's help, the old man decided to move in with one of his children. The apartment sat empty for a month before the next people moved in, and boy oh boy did Angel hear them before he ever saw them. Shrieks of two overly excitable people came from the hallway, as well as loud shouting from someone who was attempting to calm them down.

Angel, at one point, peeked out into the hallway, seeing the two teens who were causing the brunt of the ruckus. A girl with long, strawberry-blond hair and a boy with spiky blond hair were wrestling in the hallway. Before they could notice him, Angel shut the door and sighed, closing his eyes. His peaceful days were over if this was anything to abide by. Hopefully, they were a bit quieter in the mornings, when he was likely to be asleep.

Spoiler: they weren't.

Angel woke up with a start to the sound of something loudly crashing, as well as those two damn teenagers shouting that it was the other. He blearily groped for his phone, checking the time. It was seven in the fucking morning. Angel groaned and flopped back against his bed, slamming his hands over his ears. While it muffled the sounds of the teens' bickering, it didn't stop it, not by a long shot.

It took them thirty minutes before he heard their door slam, and the teens' voices faded away. Angel wanted to kill their parents, who didn't know how to raise polite children. Not that Angel was the most polite person on the planet, but at least he was a quiet asshole. These two... were terrifying.

Angel fell back asleep, finally waking up at eleven. He didn't bother getting dressed, wearing a pink sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. He got pre-packaged food out of his refrigerator and began eating dully, looking at his phone. His last post did well, which he expected. It was fanart for a fairly large series, and fanart almost always did well. He perused the comments, noticing how many people were howling for him to draw another character from the same series. He would consider it.

Angel, despite considering just lazing around and watching television all day, decided that he ought to work for at least a couple of hours. So, after he was done with his prepackaged meal, he went into his second bedroom-turned-office. He sat down at the computer and began to draw on the large tablet he treasured so much. Luckily, today was a shading day, which was his favorite part of the artistic process. He couldn't help but let out an impish smile as he added a ridiculous amount of blush onto the man he was drawing.

Several hours later, he heard a knock on the door, breaking him out of his focus. He frowned. Angel did not get guests, not after the old lady died who lived next door. However, he decided that he would drag himself out of his bed and go check it out, if for no other reason than to grab a soda on the way back.

Angel opened his door just a crack and was surprised to see nothing but chest. His eyes slowly went upwards, to see a devastatingly handsome man. Angel didn't want to admit that he had a type when it came to men, but he definitely had a type when it came to men, and this man fit perfectly within it. He had a severe look on his face, piercing blue eyes, and his hair was up in a stupid-looking hairstyle.

If he let it down, he would be so much hotter, Angel found himself thinking.

"Hey. I'm your new neighbor. My name's Hayakawa Aki. I hope we can get along from here on out," the man said, holding out a small box of traditional-looking sweets.