New Neighbor

[on_ur_left]

It started with scuffles and faint thumping through the walls. It was a nice apartment, but Steve had pretty good hearing (understatement, that), and he knew the apartment beside his was empty, so it was—

Unusual.

Curious.

No one had ever blamed Steve of not being curious. The opposite had been said plenty of times, though, along with the requisite saying about cats.

Steve swept his pencil along his paper a couple more times, lips pursed, until there was an almost-audible-to-normal-ears thunk from the hallway.

Okay, he had to know. Setting his sketchbook and pencil down on the coffee table, Steve stood, absently brushing his hands down his legs to smooth out any wrinkles - despite currently wearing his 'around home' jogging pants, which didn't really do wrinkles. Force of habit.

Moving over to the door, he hesitated. Was it really any of his business? He'd lived in the 21st century for almost 2 years now, he understood that things were different. People kept to themselves more; yeah, you might greet your neighbor if you saw them, know them by name, but you didn't really stick your nose in anybody's business, unless they invited you to, first.

Still. He could go over and see if they needed help, whatever was going on.

Slowly, Steve pulled his door open, then stuck just his head out, before moving until half his body was out in the hall - if he was spotted, he didn't want to look like some disapproving asshole.

Comments

[on_ur_left]

If it's human nature to be curious, then Steve has been naturally gifted with an abundance of human nature. So it was that he instinctively found himself glancing around the apartment; it wasn't that dissimilar from his own, or at least what his had been when he'd first moved in; bare windows, bare walls, carpet in the living area and tile in the kitchen. Furniture was already delivered, but left mostly in the middle of the floor.

Placing the boxes on the counter, he carefully unstacked them to be set side by side, less likely to fall over and shatter their contents that way. "You need any help setting up your furniture?" he asked. "Not-- I don't mean to be nosy, or butt in where I'm not wanted. Just... offering, if you want it, later."

[theycalledmeacurse]

The furniture is all simple in design, IKEA quality without the modern lines. All of it had been purchased new over a number of years, slowly replacing the second-hand pieces she'd previously used, with the only remainder being the table. It was old and looked like something left over from the 1950s - she liked its character.

"No, that'd be great actually, thank you," she responded with a smile and a shake of her head. "I was a bit worried about it actually - the last time I put together my bed, I almost pulled a muscle."