[fic] i am running out of stuff to put here
ENTRY 05
TITLE: Co-existing
RATING: PG
WORDCOUNT: 1670
Warm slumber beckoning him after a restless night, his breathing evening out to the echo of steady footsteps; all coated in the crisp tang of January frost that lingered in the air.
The same sounds each night. The same key falling into the same metal lock, heavy sighs and tired, muffled groans that seemed to seep through the walls and into his skin.
The man next door was finally home to settle down for the night, and as had become his pattern, Sho gave in to exhaustion. He succumbed to the noises he had grown accustomed to over the last two years, his body finding its rhythm and falling in synch with its counterpart. The sound of a cough, of water boiling - of everyday activities that released him from his own reality.
The twisted parts of his mind, the parts he chose to ignore more often than not, would pretend that they were living together. Not every day. Just sometimes, in the moments before he fell asleep and the cold threatened to eat him away.
When Sho woke up each morning, he woke to silence; to the deafening sound of his clock beating through the empty rooms of his apartment. He had taught himself to keep quiet. To be considerate of the person next door who lived off a timepiece different to his own.
He would shower every morning, shave every second. The jacket of his business suit was always on a hanger by the door, and on days he fumbled and it clattered to the floor, he would freeze; waiting for a response just in the off chance that the other man knew he existed, even in some small way. The silence would greet him, and Sho would chuckle at his own stupidity, pushing aside the flicker of disappointment that tried to settle illogically in his gut.
It didn’t stop him from saying goodbye to his empty apartment each time he walked out the door.
~~~~
Jun woke to the same sounds each morning; the rumble of hot water travelling through pipes, the sound of hurried footsteps and occasional cursing.
“Late again,” he would muse to himself, a small grin sneaking out around the corners of his mouth as he lay in the rumpled cocoon of his sheets. He sometimes wondered if the man did it on purpose - knew he worked late and had to make up for lost time during the spare few morning hours in which everyone else was busy shuffling off to work.
He thought about the invisible man, battling the winter chill that Jun could never seem to shake from his bones. He thought about him rushing, and cursing, and trying to push through the endless crowds of people in the peak hour rush. He thought of him dressing; pottering around his apartment making more noise than was generally considered to be acceptable at this hour of the day.
If it had been anyone else, Jun wouldn’t have been impressed - but there was a sort of soft warmth that came with hearing these sounds each morning. And when he heard the front door open and close for the last time each day, he would murmur a sleepy “Have a nice day,” before closing his eyes again, as though a part of him had been waiting to say it.
~~~~
Sho liked days off. Days that they both had off; where for a few short hours it almost felt as though they were living off the same clock.
One day in Summer, Nino had come over to drop some papers off. “Considering how much you earn, you’d think you’d have moved into a better place by now,” his colleague had commented.
“I like it here,” Sho had replied with a shrug of the shoulders, pouring ice tea into oversized mugs. “I like the atmosphere.”
Nino had simply cocked his head to the side with one eyebrow arched beyond redemption, simultaneously rebutting Sho’s response and showing his displeasure towards the sounds of an argument currently leaking through paper thin walls. “And they call me a cheapskate.”
Sho had thought that was a bit of a low blow, but he didn’t think he would ever live it down if he tried to explain exactly what the benefits of living in this particular complex were. For some reason, ‘I like being able to hear people around me…particularly the guy next door,’ was not something he felt he should share. It would have been almost as bad as telling his sometimes-friend that he was, perhaps, ‘a little lonely’…
Honestly, there were days he even weirded himself out.
~~~~
Jun liked the in between months, where it wasn’t too cold, or too hot, and he could leave his windows open and listen to the sounds that filtered in with the breeze. Some days he would find his feet tapping along to a familiar song, only to get annoyed when the person in charge of the system skipped the track right before it got to the good part.
It was a comfort thing really; the same as waking up in your own bed after being away for too long. He never really thought much on the subject. There were too many other things he had to worry about, like order forms, house capacity, Ohno turning up, and whether or not the strobe lighting at work was finally going to shatter his eyeballs and leave him crippled.
Yet, there were times he would find himself smiling, filled with a warm buzz when the other began to laugh, and his brain would wonder a little ridiculously, if it meant more to him than he realised.
~~~~
Sho was flustered, and a flustered Sho was not a friendly Sho. Rushing back home during his lunch break, in the dead of winter no less, to pick up a portfolio he had left on his breakfast table, was not his idea of fun. It was all Aiba’s fault really. Sho had been prepared, he had been organised. At least up until the point his friend had called to invite him out to drinks for his birthday, and then he had wasted half of his allotted ‘morning’ time reminiscing over high school days.
He’d been in such a hurry after that, he hadn’t realised he’d forgotten the folder ‘til he was stuck in between an old man and a woman with too much perfume on, in a crowded train. He’d spent the rest of the morning fretting; up and racing out the door as soon as the clock struck one, with Nino chuckling at him behind his back.
Now, with critical documents in hand, Sho needed to try and get back before anyone other than Nino realised he was missing. With this, and only this in mind, he bolted out the door and down the stairs; bowing a quick apology to the man he almost barrelled over in the walkway.
Perhaps if he had been in his right mind, he would have stopped and acted a little more like a reasonable adult. As it was, he chose to run at full pelt, cursing and tripping most of the way to the station.
Jun however, stopped. He paused at the top of the staircase with the echo of footsteps and long since spoken words lingering in his ears. And even though it was all a blur and his brain was still trying to catch up, Jun would have recognised those sounds anywhere.
With a soft nod and a broken sigh, he let himself back into his apartment; his head trying to pinpoint the exact moment his heart had stopped beating.
~~~~
On the 24th of January, Aiba had taken Sho out to celebrate, claiming that no one celebrated anything on a Monday. When Sho had protested with the feeble excuse of, ‘I can’t go to work with a hangover,’ Aiba had simply replied with a “Why not? Everyone else does.”
Unfortunately, Aiba tended to drink faster, and thus find himself incapacitated at an earlier time than your average human, and thus Sho found himself alone and a little bit drunk on the eve of his birth. He had successfully shipped Aiba home in a taxi, and was attempting to get his house key to fit in the lock of his door.
Things were not going to plan, and as he tried for the fifth and last time to open the door that was barring him from sleep, Sho couldn’t help but think his birthday sucked more than a little. He said as much to himself as he sunk to the floor, his back propped up against the wall.
With an unsteady glance at his watch, Sho saw that it was almost twelve. If he waited a little longer, maybe the ‘Matsumoto’ that matched the name on the plaque of his neighbour’s door would be kind enough to let him in. He decided to plant himself rather obstinately in the walkway, vaguely wondering whether he was going to die like those hikers in the mountains. The silence of the night was broken by soft renditions of ‘Happy birthday to me’ under his breath.
Jun found him asleep on the floor.
~~~~
The first time he came out, he had done so to check for a pulse. The second time was to cover the sleeping man with a blanket. The third time, Jun had made it halfway out the door before shaking his head and going back inside.
He should have been well on his way to sleep, but for the fourth time in one night, Jun snuck out of his apartment, praying the other occupants of the building weren’t going to cite him for excessive noise violation. Muttering phrases like “I’m too old for this,” and “It’s the middle of frikkin’ Winter!?” under his breath, he hauled the sleeping man on to his back and took him inside.
As he lay the man down on the tiny couch against his back wall, he heard him murmur softly, “It’s my birthday.”
vote here! :)
TITLE: Co-existing
RATING: PG
WORDCOUNT: 1670
Warm slumber beckoning him after a restless night, his breathing evening out to the echo of steady footsteps; all coated in the crisp tang of January frost that lingered in the air.
The same sounds each night. The same key falling into the same metal lock, heavy sighs and tired, muffled groans that seemed to seep through the walls and into his skin.
The man next door was finally home to settle down for the night, and as had become his pattern, Sho gave in to exhaustion. He succumbed to the noises he had grown accustomed to over the last two years, his body finding its rhythm and falling in synch with its counterpart. The sound of a cough, of water boiling - of everyday activities that released him from his own reality.
The twisted parts of his mind, the parts he chose to ignore more often than not, would pretend that they were living together. Not every day. Just sometimes, in the moments before he fell asleep and the cold threatened to eat him away.
When Sho woke up each morning, he woke to silence; to the deafening sound of his clock beating through the empty rooms of his apartment. He had taught himself to keep quiet. To be considerate of the person next door who lived off a timepiece different to his own.
He would shower every morning, shave every second. The jacket of his business suit was always on a hanger by the door, and on days he fumbled and it clattered to the floor, he would freeze; waiting for a response just in the off chance that the other man knew he existed, even in some small way. The silence would greet him, and Sho would chuckle at his own stupidity, pushing aside the flicker of disappointment that tried to settle illogically in his gut.
It didn’t stop him from saying goodbye to his empty apartment each time he walked out the door.
~~~~
Jun woke to the same sounds each morning; the rumble of hot water travelling through pipes, the sound of hurried footsteps and occasional cursing.
“Late again,” he would muse to himself, a small grin sneaking out around the corners of his mouth as he lay in the rumpled cocoon of his sheets. He sometimes wondered if the man did it on purpose - knew he worked late and had to make up for lost time during the spare few morning hours in which everyone else was busy shuffling off to work.
He thought about the invisible man, battling the winter chill that Jun could never seem to shake from his bones. He thought about him rushing, and cursing, and trying to push through the endless crowds of people in the peak hour rush. He thought of him dressing; pottering around his apartment making more noise than was generally considered to be acceptable at this hour of the day.
If it had been anyone else, Jun wouldn’t have been impressed - but there was a sort of soft warmth that came with hearing these sounds each morning. And when he heard the front door open and close for the last time each day, he would murmur a sleepy “Have a nice day,” before closing his eyes again, as though a part of him had been waiting to say it.
~~~~
Sho liked days off. Days that they both had off; where for a few short hours it almost felt as though they were living off the same clock.
One day in Summer, Nino had come over to drop some papers off. “Considering how much you earn, you’d think you’d have moved into a better place by now,” his colleague had commented.
“I like it here,” Sho had replied with a shrug of the shoulders, pouring ice tea into oversized mugs. “I like the atmosphere.”
Nino had simply cocked his head to the side with one eyebrow arched beyond redemption, simultaneously rebutting Sho’s response and showing his displeasure towards the sounds of an argument currently leaking through paper thin walls. “And they call me a cheapskate.”
Sho had thought that was a bit of a low blow, but he didn’t think he would ever live it down if he tried to explain exactly what the benefits of living in this particular complex were. For some reason, ‘I like being able to hear people around me…particularly the guy next door,’ was not something he felt he should share. It would have been almost as bad as telling his sometimes-friend that he was, perhaps, ‘a little lonely’…
Honestly, there were days he even weirded himself out.
~~~~
Jun liked the in between months, where it wasn’t too cold, or too hot, and he could leave his windows open and listen to the sounds that filtered in with the breeze. Some days he would find his feet tapping along to a familiar song, only to get annoyed when the person in charge of the system skipped the track right before it got to the good part.
It was a comfort thing really; the same as waking up in your own bed after being away for too long. He never really thought much on the subject. There were too many other things he had to worry about, like order forms, house capacity, Ohno turning up, and whether or not the strobe lighting at work was finally going to shatter his eyeballs and leave him crippled.
Yet, there were times he would find himself smiling, filled with a warm buzz when the other began to laugh, and his brain would wonder a little ridiculously, if it meant more to him than he realised.
~~~~
Sho was flustered, and a flustered Sho was not a friendly Sho. Rushing back home during his lunch break, in the dead of winter no less, to pick up a portfolio he had left on his breakfast table, was not his idea of fun. It was all Aiba’s fault really. Sho had been prepared, he had been organised. At least up until the point his friend had called to invite him out to drinks for his birthday, and then he had wasted half of his allotted ‘morning’ time reminiscing over high school days.
He’d been in such a hurry after that, he hadn’t realised he’d forgotten the folder ‘til he was stuck in between an old man and a woman with too much perfume on, in a crowded train. He’d spent the rest of the morning fretting; up and racing out the door as soon as the clock struck one, with Nino chuckling at him behind his back.
Now, with critical documents in hand, Sho needed to try and get back before anyone other than Nino realised he was missing. With this, and only this in mind, he bolted out the door and down the stairs; bowing a quick apology to the man he almost barrelled over in the walkway.
Perhaps if he had been in his right mind, he would have stopped and acted a little more like a reasonable adult. As it was, he chose to run at full pelt, cursing and tripping most of the way to the station.
Jun however, stopped. He paused at the top of the staircase with the echo of footsteps and long since spoken words lingering in his ears. And even though it was all a blur and his brain was still trying to catch up, Jun would have recognised those sounds anywhere.
With a soft nod and a broken sigh, he let himself back into his apartment; his head trying to pinpoint the exact moment his heart had stopped beating.
~~~~
On the 24th of January, Aiba had taken Sho out to celebrate, claiming that no one celebrated anything on a Monday. When Sho had protested with the feeble excuse of, ‘I can’t go to work with a hangover,’ Aiba had simply replied with a “Why not? Everyone else does.”
Unfortunately, Aiba tended to drink faster, and thus find himself incapacitated at an earlier time than your average human, and thus Sho found himself alone and a little bit drunk on the eve of his birth. He had successfully shipped Aiba home in a taxi, and was attempting to get his house key to fit in the lock of his door.
Things were not going to plan, and as he tried for the fifth and last time to open the door that was barring him from sleep, Sho couldn’t help but think his birthday sucked more than a little. He said as much to himself as he sunk to the floor, his back propped up against the wall.
With an unsteady glance at his watch, Sho saw that it was almost twelve. If he waited a little longer, maybe the ‘Matsumoto’ that matched the name on the plaque of his neighbour’s door would be kind enough to let him in. He decided to plant himself rather obstinately in the walkway, vaguely wondering whether he was going to die like those hikers in the mountains. The silence of the night was broken by soft renditions of ‘Happy birthday to me’ under his breath.
Jun found him asleep on the floor.
~~~~
The first time he came out, he had done so to check for a pulse. The second time was to cover the sleeping man with a blanket. The third time, Jun had made it halfway out the door before shaking his head and going back inside.
He should have been well on his way to sleep, but for the fourth time in one night, Jun snuck out of his apartment, praying the other occupants of the building weren’t going to cite him for excessive noise violation. Muttering phrases like “I’m too old for this,” and “It’s the middle of frikkin’ Winter!?” under his breath, he hauled the sleeping man on to his back and took him inside.
As he lay the man down on the tiny couch against his back wall, he heard him murmur softly, “It’s my birthday.”
vote here! :)