centurytwitch:

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Prompts!

Kylo didn’t know much about the neighbours who lived on the floor above
him. He knew the guy directly up from his apartment was grouchy enough when he
had played his television too loud one night. He hadn’t intentionally done it,
just forgetting how loud he set it to the last time he had it on. Poe had sat
down on the couch, spending the night after a late night out drinking, but not
seeing the remote control the television blasted with the sounds of a movie
depicting a WWII battle.

Ever since then the old crock glared at him whenever he had the chance.
Normally when they bumped into each other, coming or going through the common
front door or picking up mail.

The man living beside Grouchy was a different matter. He hadn’t seen any
glimpse of him in all the time since Kylo moved in. At one point he thought the
apartment was vacant but the fact that items were moved around the balcony door
on a frequent basis suggested that someone did live there.

Another night, Poe seated on the couch beside him, trying to toss
popcorn into his mouth, he stopped once a kernel bounced off his forehead. “You
need company.”

“I have you,” Kylo pointed out, his friend more entertaining than the
movie they watched on Netflix.

“And we get together… once every two or three weeks? Do you meet up
with anyone else but me?” Ignoring the popcorn for the time being, Poe wiped
butter off from his face, forehead and chin.

“My schedule is hardly the best to regularly set up social calls.” He
had steady work but the gallery was open seven days a week, from morning to late
evening. His shifts came up at any time, never set in stone. Plus painting
happened in the hours left free.

“Rey has mentioned that she phones you, trying to get you to come out
with her and Finn.”

Kylo’s prompt sip was answer on its own.

Good intentions as they were Kylo had almost forgotten about Poe’s
conversation. Poe was all the friends he needed and when he was mentally
prepared for it Rey could be good company too, but deep down he was quite
content spending his free time at home.

It wasn’t until a few days latter, a light rainfall spattering the
sidewalks, that he spotted a dogwalker expertly wielding four leashes, leading
the four dogs who waggled and sniffed their way in front of her.

He phoned Poe to come to his place three days later.

He wasn’t sure who was more excited, the fluffball who accosted Poe’s
legs or Poe.

“What’s his name?” Poe asked once he and the dog were on the couch.

“Obi.”

Poe burst out laughing. “I’m not sure he would like that.”

The dog balanced in his lap cocked his head, red-brown hair and ears flopping
with the movement. Suddenly his tongue was back in his mouth and the puppy was
calm, golden eyes watching intently.

Puppy as Obi was he was easy to train. Outside he obeyed Kylo’s
commands, never snapping at other dogs on their walks, stopping at all
intersections before they crossed. Around strangers and friends he was a bundle
of energy but a firm no would still him from when he nearly crossed the line.
From morning into afternoon and evening he was ready whenever Kylo was.

Yet early mornings were a curious thing. Kylo would take Obi outside to
do his morning routine of relieving himself. Once inside he’d scratch at the
door to the balcony. The balcony wasn’t especially big and with the wrought
iron rails Kylo hadn’t let him out onto it without himself present. By now Obi
was big enough that him falling through wasn’t a risk.

Once Obi was outside he’d bark a couple of times. Grouchy complained at
first but had learned to ignore it.

On the mornings that Kylo had to go to work Obi would reluctantly
shuffle inside.

Those were the days Kylo was fairly sure he saw eyes peering down
from the not-empty apartment.

It took a couple of weeks for Kylo to find the green eyes on the
opposite side of the door, returning from work to see Obi waiting at the
balcony door. At least Kylo had thought it was waiting before realising there
was an animal out on his balcony and not just a reflection of Obi.

A short-haired red-furred cat who pawed at the door.

“Obi?” Kylo called, nudging the apartment door shut with his foot.

The sound of his voice and the door startled the cat. By the time Kylo
stood in front of the balcony, groceries still in arm, he watched the cat
balanced on the balcony railing leap onto the railing next over.

His heart was still beating hard in his throat, barely relieved.

He was still terrified several hours later, after watching the cat manoeuvre
his way up to the balcony above, slipping inside to the apartment by way of a
too loose door that it managed to paw open. He’d been pacing the hallway that Grouchy
and the cat shared. Grouchy was about to report him to their landlord but Kylo
nearly backed him into his apartment.

“I don’t want to be responsible for your neighbour’s cat falling to its
death!”

Whatever he’d been ready to snap back fell silent, mouthing silently
before lips formed a tight line. “He won’t be back until seven and I don’t want
to listen to you pacing for another four hours.”

Anxiously keeping an eye on his balcony, Obi whining at the door, Kylo returned
to the third floor. He attempted eating dinner but found his appetite lacking.
Or perhaps it was nerves that made his stomach uninterested in food.

Ten minutes after seven Kylo knocked on the door.

To his surprise he was greeted by another set of green eyes. “How may I
help you?”

He hadn’t prepared himself for what to say. He bit into his lip, frozen
for a few seconds, before finding his voice. “Do you have a red cat?”

The hand that had been steady against the door frame recoiled in
surprise, loosely clenching. “Yes I do, how do you know that?”

“Your cat has been visiting my dog on my balcony.” Kylo frowned for the
implication, which his neighbour quickly grasped onto considering his features
paled. “You need to call the landlord to fix your door. I don’t know how often
he’s been getting loose-”

“She,” he corrected, already stepping away from the doorway, striding
towards where his cell phone sat on a table.

“But I imagine it’s been… at least a week? My dog has been looking
lovelorn up to your door.”

“Star-crossed lovers,” he muttered under his breath, snatching up a pad
of paper and punching numbers into his phone with more force than necessary. “Come
in, I want a second source to give this guy shit.”

Stepping inside he closed the door in good time. Within seconds he felt
something brushing up against his leg.

Looking down he saw the cat, blinking up at him before meowing her
hello. A mirror image of her owner, truly, he couldn’t help but chuckle under
his breath.

Five minutes later, phone passed from neighbour to him and back, the
phone was turned off and set down again. “Thank you for letting me know. I
wouldn’t have known at all that Millicent was sneaking off like that.”

“I just want you to keep her safe,” Kylo explained, glancing back to
the door now that he wasn’t required for verification to their landlord. “She’s
a lot smaller than my Obi – my dog, and they seem to get along.”

“Thank you…” Hesitating, not for the gratitude, he waited a few seconds
before extending his hand out. “My name is Hux.”

“Oh, Kylo Ren.” Taking Hux’s hand in his own, which felt cool in his
grasp, perhaps from fright not worked off entirely, he jerked his head vaguely
to the left. “I live in the apartment below Grouchy.”

“I’m pretty sure he was responsible for the last guy who lived there
moving out.”

Unwilling to move away yet, wondering if that’s how Obi and Millicent
behaved before he caught them in the act, he slowly released Hux’s hand. “I
have dinner ready downstairs… do you and Millicent want to come down for a
safer play date?”

A smile pulled at the corner of Hux’s lips. “I think she’d like that.”