Thrown Together

Chapter 1

 NaLu

Rating - T

Genre - Romance & Hurt/Comfort

Word Count - 11,763 Words

Drip. Drip. Drop. Pause. Drip. Drip. Drop. Pause. Drip. Drip. Drop.

Lucy lay awake, staring at the ceiling. The plumber had just been in that day, and still there was a leak. She had even had the guy show her how to do it so she could fix it herself nearly two weeks ago. It stayed fixed for all of two minutes before it started dripping again. She had done everything she could too. Even going so far as to buy a new sink and new pipes, but nothing worked.

"Ugh!" She sat up in her bed. She had texted all of her friends to see if she could go sleep at their place that night. But all of them were either busy or out of town. Seriously? Are they ganging up on me or something? Do they want me to go insane? Well, that probably wasn't it, but still. She grabbed her pillow and a blanket and wrapped it around herself. If the doors to the apartments weren't outside she would have just stayed there and slept, but they were, and dire times call for drastic measures.

Grabbing her phone and charger off the nightstand, she looked at the time, grimacing. It was one in the morning. Tomorrow, she would start looking for another apartment; her lease was up at the end of the month anyway. So, steeling herself, she stepped out of her door, checking to make sure she had her keys. She locked it behind her and looked to her left.

There was only one other flat near hers, and it was where she headed, knocking on the door. She knew she was a mess, and had she known what was coming, she probably would have tried a little more before she left. But she hadn't, and her hair was a little crazy, blonde strands falling over her shoulders and knotted in some places on the top of her head from tossing and turning. Her white tank top, crop shirt was a little skewed, and her black sleep shorts were bunched up near her inner thighs. She had a pillow under her left arm, and was holding the blanket to her as well.

As the door opened, she really wished she would have tried harder. The man looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Her lax expression immediately changed to surprise. First of all, he had pink, spiky hair that was sticking out all over the place. On top of that, he was shirtless, and only in his boxers, probably because he had just been sleeping.

"Can I help you?" Oh, his voice! It was a little thick from still being half asleep and he leaned against the door jam with a heaviness brought by being woken up unexpectedly. "Or are you just gonna stand there checking me out all night?"

Lucy looked up, blushing. "Sorry. I really don't mean to be rude."

"Hm. Well, what do you want?"

Rude much? "Please tell me you don't have a dripping faucet that just won't shut up."

He eyed her in confusion. "Umm, no."

"Oh thank god. Look, I know we've been neighbors for years, and not spoken a word, but my apartment has this shitty ass sink that no matter what I do or how many times a plumber comes in just won't stop dripping. And it's getting on my nerves. My point is, is there any way I can sleep here tonight?"

"Don't you have friends?"

"Well, yes—"

"Ask one of them." He was going to shut the door, but Lucy put her hand out.

"You think I didn't go through my entire damn contact list before deciding to put myself at your mercy? I don't even know you, but I will beg if I have to. I can not stand another night with the dumb dripping sounds." The guy in front of her laughed, a grin lighting his face up.