Based on prompt: "Someone needs to write a 'the fire alarm went off at 3 am and now the cute guy from the flat next door is standing next to me in his underwear' AU" by iggycat on tumblr.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Jezebel almost fell out of bed. Disoriented, she looked around. Everything was dark. The only light in the room came from the windows, where a bright, waxing gibbous shone high in the sky. Jez groaned. Why why she being awakened in the middle of the night?

BEEP BEEP BEEP

Oh. The fire alarm. Groaning again, she sprang to life, throwing a sweater on herself before fleeing the apartment building.

The late fall air nipped at her exposed skin. November was Jez's least favorite month. She hated Thanksgiving (not the food, just the family she was forced to dine with), loathed pumpkin-flavored anything, and it was only last November that her long-time boyfriend, Pierce, had ditched her for her arch nemesis, Lily Redfern.

These thoughts seemed to make her colder. She bundled her sweater tighter and let her loose red curls hid her face from the chill.

Looking around, Jez noticed her crazy cat-lady neighbor, Grandma Harman ("I insist that you think of me as your grandmother!"), the boy who lived above her and had loud raucous sex with several women over the course of the week (she thought his name was Art...no, Ash!), and several other familiar faces. Then she spotted him in the crowd.

He had a mess of black hair that was styled in a way that made Jez wonder if he could see. He brushed it to one side of his face and Jez noticed his brilliant green eyes, shining in the moonlight. Looking past his strong jaw line, Jez noticed that he was only in his boxers. She stifled a laugh. She wanted to make fun of him, but secretly she found it adorable. As she thought this, he hugged himself and began to jump up and down.

"Hey," she said casually. "It looks like you might need this more than me." She handed him her sweater. It was small to fit her slight frame and a light, feminine blue to bring out her dazzlingly blue eyes, but he looked like he was in need of it.

He looked over at her with a small grin. "No, I'm fine," she replied. "Thanks though."

"You're not fine," Jez insisted. "You're practically blue."

He gave her a sideways look. "Checking me out, huh?"

Jez turned red. "Do you try this trick on all the ladies? Sneak into apartment buildings at 3 AM in nothing but your boxers, then pull some fire alarms?" she countered, hoping he didn't notice her blush.

"I haven't yet, but it seems like a good idea," he said, chuckling a bit. Jez took this opportunity to drape the sweater over his shoulders. He huffed in protest, but didn't take it out. "How chivalrous of you."

Jez just shrugged. "M'lady," she teased, pretending to tip a fedora. The two of them smiled brightly at each other. After a moment, neither knew what to say anymore, so they turned their attention back to the building. Nothing exceptional was happening; The firefighters weren't even at the scene yet. While Jez yearned for her cozy, warm bed and central heating, she was glad that she had been able to meet...what was his name?

She turned to ask him, but he was gone. She looked frantically for him before she realized how uncool that was. She shook herself and then began to nonchalantly glance here and there, searching for the blue of her sweater or a spot of dark, untidy hair. She saw neither and figured that he had simply gone off to a late-night coffeehouse or maybe a bar. She knew that she wasn't interesting enough to hang out with while their building was on fire, but she thought that he was flirting with her earlier. She shrugged, hoping that he would eventually return the sweater.

While they waited for the all-clear to go back inside, Jez milled about, catching up with Grandma Harman, rolling her eyes at the extreme amounts of PDA that the new Mr. and Mrs. Rasmussen were displaying, and berating Ash about the time, two nights earlier, he had made such a ruckus with his new girlfriend that one of her lamps had fallen and broke. While she chatted, she discreetly began asking the others about this mysterious boy with her favorite sweater.

"Oh, yes," Grandma Harman said. "Yes, I've seen him around. He's cute. You and him should date. Oh, I love playing matchmaker!"

"But what's his name?" Jez asked. "What floor is he on?"

Grandma Harman frowned. "Now that I think about it, I'm not sure. But he's been here a long time. I remember seeing his mother in my younger years. She was beautiful, too. Ah, what a pity. I think that you could knock down all the doors in the place but with a Super like Hunter Redfern..." She trailed off, and Jez cringed. Everyone hated their Super, Hunter. He was the father of Lily and a real hard-ass. He was cheap, mean, and lazy. Jez absolutely despised him.

When she later asked Ash about the boy, he grinned wildly. "Why are you worried about him?" he purred. "You and me - we should get together some time. Maybe then you would stop complaining so much about the noise." Jez gagged and left. She couldn't stand even being near that idiot.

What seemed like hours later, everyone was given the OK to go back inside. Children and adults alike rubbed their tired eyes and Jez thanked whatever God or Goddess there was that tomorrow was a Sunday. She could sleep in and stalk the boy- er...watch Netflix.

She hit her pillow like a ton of bricks and lay there until the sun was high in the sky the next day. When she awoke, she was groggy and the night before seemed like a dream. She was almost sure that it hadn't been real. That is, until she went outside to grab the paper and found her sweater hanging on her doorknob with a note pinned into it. Intrigued, she reached for the note.

To the owner of this fine sweater,

Thank you for your kindness. Really. I probably would have frozen to death if not for you. So...we should get coffeewould you like to meet me here's that sweater back.

Thanks.

I don't really know what else to say. Sorry I'm so bad at these kinds of things. Maybe we should meet over dinner and talk about it. Hope to see you around.

-Morgead, 5F

Jez smiled to herself. Her face was red and she bit her lip to stop her laughter.

Then, she realized he was only a floor away. Here she was, standing in the doorway of her room, 6F, and he had always been there, right below her. Without thinking, she scribbled a note back to him and attached it to a takeout menu. Sprinting down the stairs, she shoved the menu under his door, knocked, then sprinted back up the stairs. She grinned the whole time. It all felt so...middle-school. But it was fun.

Morgead heard the knock and thanked God that he had just put on a shirt. He couldn't deal with the embarrassment of being practically naked in front of his apartment building again, like last night. He had even snuck over to his friend, Val's, apartment so he wouldn't have to stay out in the cold. He had ended up sleeping on the couch and had only returned fifteen minutes before, giving him enough time to talk to the apartment building gossip, Lupe Acevedo, about the redhead he had met last night and find out where she lived.

He was pretty smug about his plan to plant a note. While the note had come off as awkward and a little conflicted, it mirrored his feelings for this girl at the moment. This girl with the blue eyes and cute, fuzzy bunny slippers and her witty comebacks that made Morgead kind of crazy but also kind of interested. This girl...he couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed her before. He had lived here since he was a kid. Surely he would've noticed her moving in or sharing an elevator with her or holding the door open for her on a rainy day with an umbrella in one hand and a smile on his face...

But he didn't. So now that he had, he wanted to make up for lost time.

He opened the front door and was surprised when no one was there. He felt a little sad that the girl wasn't there, red hair aflame, blue eyes shining with laughter. Slowly closing the door, he slipped suddenly. His hands flew into the air and caught on the top of the door. He balanced himself and noticed the takeout menu on the floor. When he picked it up, a note fell out.

To Morgead,

My place. Tonight. Choose wisely from the menu. I don't cook.

-Jez

P.S. I'll supply coffee if you promise not to be an idiot.

Morgead felt himself laugh a little. "You're the idiot...idiot," he said both to himself and to the redheaded girl just a floor away from him.