Alternatively

Oh, The Stories We'll Tell

"So I noticed you're naked. Is that intentional, or..."

He shifted the mail to cover his lower parts more accurately. "It's a long story."

"Roommate issues?"

"I guess it's not so complicated," he grumbled, looking anywhere but the girl.

"You're lucky they fixed the heating yesterday."

Percy snorted. She seemed to be handling the situation fairly well for someone in an elevator with a naked man.

It wasn't like he tried to expose himself to his entire apartment complex. It wasn't like he wanted to expose himself to his pretty yet scary neighbor, emphasis on scary. It was more like...Grover was a dick with no limits to how far he would go for revenge. Luckily, he knew Beckendorf on the second floor kept his door unlocked and the man had several blankets he wouldn't miss.

The elevator shuddered.

He glanced up, heart stuttering in his chest.

"That can't be g-"

The elevator dropped and he grabbed for the rail, envelopes scattering on the ground and 6B's blueprints flying out of her bag. He squeezed his eyes shut when they jerked to a stop, his stomach left somewhere on the fifth floor.

"Are you okay?"

"Are we dead?" he breathed, hands tight on the rail. "Did we hit the bottom?"

She exhaled and his eyes cracked open as she squinted at the panel of buttons. "You wish we were dead."

"Is it because I'm bare ass right now? Because I'm comfortable in my body."

"Oh, I bet."

His lips quirked as he sank to the ground, staring up at the lights. He wouldn't consider himself a claustrophobic person; he didn't mind enclosed spaces (his favorite spot during hide and seek used to be a front loading dryer) and he certainly hadn't had a problem on elevators before.

Once the enclosed space threatened to end his life, however, that's when he began to take issue.

"The button's not working."

"What-" he looked at her. "Like, the button to call for help?"

She jammed the red button a few more times for effect. "It's not working."

"So we're stuck in here?"

"It'll be fine," she frowned, holding the button for good measure. "I mean, they'll notice something's wrong when the doors won't open, right?"

"God," he groaned, head thumping back on the wall. "What if we drop again?"

"We won't."

"You don't know that, we could-"

"We won't," she snapped, and her cracking facade made him feel a little better.

Like it was normal to freak out in a malfunctioning elevator.

She brushed her hair from her eyes and set her jaw. "Someone will notice, don't worry."

"Okay," he warily replied.

"Okay."

He watched as she pulled out her phone, frustration crinkling her nose as she encountered the issue of the building's shitty cell service. In all the times he had seen her in the lobby or passing her on the stairs, she had always been so cool and level headed, as though she knew the secret to getting everything she wanted.