Hold My Heart (Scomiche AU)

2: Hungry

 It had been an excruciating and unrelenting week. Midterms week always was, but this week had been particularly brutal. Not only was Scott swamped with endless hours proctoring midterms for other classes and holding ridiculously over-time office hours for his students, but he also had to grade the midterms for his classes by the end of the week and, to top it off, he was in the midst of planning two separate wedding-related parties. His parents' 35th wedding anniversary was around the corner, and he was trying to surprise them on their special day. Unfortunately (for him), one of his sisters was on her honeymoon and the other was overseas, which left the party-planning entirely to him. If that wasn't enough, his best friends' wedding needed planning, and Scott had offered to do it, seeing as Kirstie and Jeremy couldn't afford a wedding planner and were both even more swamped at work than Scott himself.

By Saturday night at 11:45 PM, when he was finally finished grading his last midterm paper, Scott was beyond done with the world. He wanted nothing more than to collapse in bed and sleep for the next week, but he knew he couldn't. He hadn't eaten all day, and there was still more to be done for Kirstie's wedding. He had scheduled out his time meticulously, spreading his duties across the week to ensure that everything would get done. He'd gotten off track, however, when he found himself grading more below-standard papers than expected, followed by a stint of cheating that he had to deal with. Kirstie's wedding plans had been pushed to the back burner, but Scott knew he couldn't set them aside anymore. The date was quickly approaching, and if he didn't have everything done perfectly--if he let down Kirstie and Jeremy--he would never forgive himself.

It took him almost two hours to complete all of the tasks he had set aside for the wedding, but when he finished, he felt--miraculously--revitalized. He had always been a sucker for romance and love stories, and planning such a big moment in the story of his two best friends energized him and brought him a sliver of joy after his rough week. He was almost excited enough to call Kirstie with the news that her wedding was almost fully prepared for, but one look at the clock stopped him short. 1:45 AM. There was no way Kirstie would be awake; in their 18 years of friendship, Scott had never once known Kirstie to be awake past midnight.

Sighing, he let his phone drop back onto his desk and stood up, stretching out his limbs for the first time in hours. He was ridiculously sore and his right leg had yet to regain proper feeling, but he was still feeling the momentum of his incredible wedding-planning energy and couldn't convince himself that he was ready to go to bed just yet. Instead, he found himself flopping unceremoniously down onto his couch and turning on the TV, debating whether or not he should call for some semi-shady Chinese takeout from the 24-hour place down the street. He still hadn't eaten, but it was ridiculously late and he knew from experience that the food wouldn't likely settle well with him.

Five minutes into the episode of Spongebob that he'd lazily selected from the TV guide, Scott gave into his hunger and ordered the food he was thinking about. As he waited on the food, he absent-mindedly stared at the screen, not really watching the show. Rather, he was debating changing the channel, or even watching one of his recorded shows. He'd been meaning to catch up on Game of Thrones for nearly a week now, but he didn't want to watch it so late at night, when the likelihood of him falling asleep and missing something important was much higher. He just needed a good destresser, a cartoon that he could watch and understand with minimum brain power. He needed Spongebob.

The knock on his door came almost twenty minutes later, and Scott was almost asleep. He stood with a groan, looking down at himself to make sure that he was decent and sighing when he realized that he wasn't wearing a shirt. Glancing back and forth between his bedroom and the front door, Scott decided it wasn't worth it. He was wearing pants, and that was what mattered, right? He trudged to the door, money ready in his hand, opening it to a surprising sight. Rather than the grumpy woman who typically showed up at Scott's doorstep when he called late at night, Scott was staring straight at his next-door neighbor, the beautiful and elusive Mitch, who he hadn't seen since their brief meeting on Tuesday morning.

"Unless my other neighbor, Mrs. Greenburg, stays up to order Chinese food shockingly late on Saturday nights, I think this belongs to you," Mitch said, not even bothering to look up at Scott as he held out the bag of food. "I tried to tell the woman that I didn't order it, but she insisted that I had to take it."

Scott bit his lip, still staring, awestruck, at Mitch, who was still looking uninterestedly down at the nails on his right hand, which were painted a deep black. "Thanks," Scott murmured softly, clearing his throat a bit when his voice came out lower and raspier than usual due to his sleepiness. "Sorry about that."

"No big deal," Mitch said, finally looking up at Scott, his gaze faltering ever-so-slightly when his eyes fell on Scott's bare chest. "You shouldn't order food from there, you know. I've never eaten it and not gotten sick. It's nasty."

"I know," Scott said with a sigh, "But I didn't have time to eat earlier and this is all I can get in the middle of the night without going out."

Mitch hummed softly, looking deep in thought. "I've got some leftover pizza sitting on my table, if you want it. I just finished eating--it's still warm."

Scott's eyebrows shot up. "You just finished eating? It's 2:30 in the morning."

"Look who's talking. You haven't even started eating," Mitch shot back.

"Touche," Scott conceded, "But, to be fair, I don't usually eat at this hour." Mitch didn't reply, simply nodding and humming softly in acknowledgement. Unsure of what to say next, Scott looked down into the bag Mitch had handed him, crinkling his nose when he spotted the suspicious liquid that was leaking out of the takeout boxes and collecting at the bottom. "If you don't mind, that pizza sounds really good right about now."

Mitch grinned. "Come on over, then. Maybe we can finally get to know each other. We've been neighbors for almost a year now, you know."

"I know," Scott said, cocking an eyebrow, "You're hard to get a hold of, Mitch Grassi."

"I'm a bit of a night owl," Mitch admitted, smiling shyly for a moment, "Our paths probably don't cross often. I think Tuesday was the first time I've been up that early in the morning since 2010. No wonder I was late, right? My schedule's shifting now, though, so I'm betting you're about to see a lot more of me, Scott Hoying."

Scott couldn't help the grin that spread across his face that the prospect of running into Mitch more often. "Let me just turn the TV off, and then I'm all ready to finish your pizza," Scott said with a smile, enticed by the idea of finally having a real conversation with Mitch.

"Ooooh," Mitch said as Scott turned, gesturing for Mitch to follow him in. "What were you watching?"

"You know," Scott said with a sheepish smile, "The very mature and grown-up Spongebob. Did you know that none of my students watch Spongebob anymore? Clearly, I am in the right job, because the youth of America need some serious education and I am one of the few who truly appreciate the beauty of this show."

"Spongebob?" Mitch asked with bright eyes and a loud laugh, following Scott through the doorway of his apartment. "You know, Professor, I think we're going to get along just fine."