Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

Have you ever noticed how slowly time passes when you're waiting for someone to answer the door you just wrapped on lightly but still bruised your knuckles? And how though it's not even really the person that lives there the door is so hard but the person that lived there before's but you still damn the current owner in your head? Well...maybe you didn't do that part, but Kai sure did. Said growled after waiting about a minute and tried the door knob. It clicked, and opened slowly.

He stepping in the small apartment quietly and quickly noticed the darkness. Sure, it was always dark in this particular refrigerator box - er, apartment - but...darker than usual.

"Dee-dee...Dee-dee...Dee-dee..."

Kai realized the beeps were coming from the flat screen computer. He walked over to it and saw AIM IM Boxes open, new ones appearing occasionally.

"Mmm..."

Kai looked down at the computer chair he was leaning over and saw Yuri, the current inhabitant of the apartment, slumped down and asleep in the chair. It was cute, really, but frankly Kai didn't give a rat's ass.

"What are you doing?"

"Huh?"

Yuri quickly shot up and turned his head left to right before bending his neck back to see Kai above him. "Hello, Kai," said Yuri, Russian accent a bit stronger than usual. "What are you doing?" repeated Kai. "Um, talking. To people. On AIM." Yuri ran a hand through his red hair which was usually nicely groomed and swept up with gel like phoenix wings, but was currently messy and falling to just bellow his shoulders, making it easy to mistake him for a girl with his feminine features.

"What are these?" Yuri got up from the chair and glanced at the paper Kai was holding up. "Eh, roommate things. You know, saying I have an empty room for use in here." Kai rolled his eyes. "So I've read. Yuri, what about me?" "What about you?" "Where am I going to stay?" "You live with Ray, Kai." "I mean when I'm drunk. You know he doesn't open the door when I am." "Perhaps you should stop drinking?" Kai glared at Yuri.

The redheaded boy sighed. "Look, I can't afford the rent here every month. If I have a roommate, I only have to pay half of it. Kai, you're my best friend, but living on minimum wage is hard...I'm sorry."

Suddenly, Yuri's phone began to ring.

"Hello, Ivanov speaking."

"Yuri, hello, is Kai over there?"

"Uh,"

'Ray' mouthed Yuri. Kai shook his head.

"No, I'm sorry."

"Well if you DO see him, could you give him a message? Tell him I'm not going to cook for the rest of the week if he isn't home NOW."

"Uh, sure Ray. No problem. Good bye."

Yuri hung up and looked at Kai. "Uh, you might want to go home now..." said Yuri, already walking towards the door. "All right. Well, I'll see you later, Yuri." As Kai passed his younger friend, Yuri leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. "Good bye, Kai." Kai, being used to this, simply turned his head and nodded at him before leaving the apartment.

A few seconds later, Yuri heard another knock at the door. He reached for the door knob and opened the door to see a boy about his age he'd never seen before looking at him.

"Hi, I'm here about the roommate offer?"

Yea, so, that's it for this chapter. That person mentioned at the end is an OC, and yes, Kai and Ray are dating. I have a drawing of the young man at the end but I don't have a scanner so I can't upload it yet. Oh well. Review anyway?

This Is How I Disappear