A/N: This story is a little oneshot that can stand on its own, but it can also be seen as a bit of a preview for another fic called "Degrees of Separation." I hope you will enjoy it!
Taxi
.
Alfred F. Jones was making his rounds around the city as he did every day. Being a taxi driver was one of the best jobs he could ask for, really. He learned the city's layout very quickly, for he went anywhere and everywhere, so he saw a lot more than any normal resident did on their morning route to work. The fact that there were so many colorful people who needed rides was always a perk, too. He met the most interesting folks in this profession…
As he was scanning the sidewalk for possible passengers, his eyes caught on a young man who was frantically waving his arms. The man's face was contorted in what Alfred could only guess was frustration and impatience. It was obvious that this man had been waiting for quite some time for a cab driver to notice him and by now he was getting desperate.
Alfred pulled up to the curb and the man immediately threw the back door open and flopped inside.
"Where to?" Alfred asked, looking at the man in the rear-view mirror and clicking on the taximeter.
Instead of barking out a location, as his normal customers were prone to do, the man simply shoved a piece of paper into Alfred's hand.
Bemused, Alfred began scanning it. All of these addresses are of apartment buildings all over town. I wonder what this is all about…? He placed the addresses on the passenger seat and flashed a smile into the rear-view mirror.
"Alright, then, we're off," he chirped, pulling out into the street. The man gave a soft grunt in response, but otherwise remained silent.
After about a half a minute of this silence, Alfred asked, "So, do you talk?"
"When I have to," was the curt reply. Alfred grinned. He already knew he would like this guy.
"I like that accent, there. Where are you from?" he asked conversationally, slowing for a stoplight and turning on his blinker.
"London, originally," the man replied briskly.
Alfred's eyes flashed to the rear-view mirror briefly to take a closer look at his passenger. He was staring out the window, arms and legs tightly crossed. His blond hair was unkempt, his clothes seemed slightly rumpled and his face held the most unbecoming scowl. He didn't seem sociable or even approachable in the least. Yep, Alfred definitely liked this guy.
"London, huh? I've never been there. Is it a nice place?" Alfred asked, turning at the corner and making his way down the next street.
"It depends. Do you enjoy a lot of people and a lot of rain?" the man in the back asked.
"People I can deal with, rain… not so much," Alfred laughed, "Hey, I hear that the food is terrible over there. Is that true?"
"What? Where did you hear that?" the man snapped, turning to glare at the driver through the rear-view mirror. Alfred glanced up and caught his eye.
"Well, you hear it all over; it's a pretty common perception…"
"Is that so?" the man asked.
"Yep," Alfred replied, "So… is it really as bad as people say?"
The man frowned, "Well, I never found anything wrong with it…"
"That so? I'll take your word for it, I'll probably never get there myself," Alfred chuckled. After a few moments, the cab rolled to a stop. Alfred looked into the rear-view mirror flashing another smile at his passenger, "Okay, Sir… here we are. Juniper Heights."
"Thank you," the man said, unfastening his seat belt. He looked at Alfred briefly, "Please don't go anywhere, I won't be long."
"You're making no move to pay me, so I suppose I might as well stick around," Alfred said with a grin, "Plus, I kinda figured you wouldn't want me to leave, considering you gave me a whole list of addresses." To illustrate, he picked up the sheet of paper and waved it.
The man nodded.
"I don't mean to pry, but are you going around visiting friends or something?"
The man suddenly gave a bitter bark of a laugh, then, without another word, opened the door and got out.
Alfred frowned, his eyes following the man as he made his way up the walk to the apartment building. Did I offend him or something? He asked himself, hands drumming absently on the steering wheel. He continued to watch the man until he disappeared into the doorway, then he ran out of things to do.
His eyes flicked out the different windows, but nothing seemed to catch his interest, so he ended up reaching for the radio. He hardly ever had the radio on when he drove, mostly because the quiet would cause his passengers to try to strike up a conversation to fill the void. He always loved it when his customers initiated the conversations. Those people were always more fun to talk to. However, there was no passenger here and Alfred had nothing to say to himself, so the radio was finally going to be put to use.
As soon as Alfred had found a suitable station, the man he was waiting for walked out of the apartment building, looking disappointed and slightly annoyed. Alfred quickly clicked the radio off before the man flung the back door open and slumped inside.
"Well, that was fast," Alfred remarked. The man gave a snort in response. Alfred shrugged and continued, "So… on to the next one, then?"
"Yes," the man replied.
"Alright," Alfred replied, pulling out into traffic. He glanced over at the list again and frowned. There certainly were a lot of addresses, now that he noticed… "Hey, do you really want me to take you to all of these places?" he asked.
"Maybe," the man replied.
"You do know you're paying me by the minute every time I wait for you, right?"
"Yes," the man said.
"Well… wouldn't it just be cheaper for you to just flag down another cab after you get dropped off at one of these places? Not that I mind, really. I like the money… it's just that…y'know…"
"Don't think that I wasn't going to do that," the man replied crossly.
"Well, why didn't you?"
The man scowled, "It took ages for me to finally flag this one down!" he snapped, "I'll gladly pay more money if it means I will actually have a cab when I want one."
"Makes sense, makes sense," Alfred said, expertly weaving through the traffic, "Ah, Sir, if you don't mind me asking, what's your name?"
"Huh?" the man asked, bemused.
"What's your name? I don't want to just call you 'Sir,'" Alfred said.
"Why not?"
"Well, looking at all of these addresses, we're going to end up spending a lot of time with one another… I might as well know your name."
The man frowned and crossed his arms, but he still said, "You can call me Arthur. And yours?"
"Alfred."
Arthur blinked in surprise, "That's a rather unusual name…"
"Yeah, Mom said it was to make me stand out more," Alfred said with a smirk, "It made me stand out all right… I was one of the only guys in school with the name of an old man. Oh, hey, look at that," Suddenly, the cab stopped, "Here we are."
Arthur nodded briskly and got out.
Ten minutes later, he was back in the cab, looking a little angrier and more disappointed than when he had left the first.
"What are you doing, anyway?" Alfred asked, as he pulled back out into traffic.
Arthur frowned, "I'm looking for a new apartment," he said, "I wanted to evaluate them before I decided on anything, though. These buildings have good rates and decent locations, but I want to see the state of them."
"I guess the last ones didn't measure up?" Alfred asked.
"No. The first one reeked of dogs and cigarette smoke… and the other's floors didn't look like they had seen a mop in years," Arthur frowned, "Disgusting."
"If you don't mind me asking, what's wrong with your apartment now?" Alfred asked, "Bad location? Bad housekeeping?"
"None of that, it's just my roommate," Arthur replied curtly.
"Your roommate?"
"Yes, I can't stand him."
"Why is he your roommate, then?"
"I know him."
Alfred frowned as he turned a corner, "You're his roommate just because you know him? I know a lot of people, but that doesn't mean I ever want to live with them."
Arthur looked down, his face turning slightly red with embarrassment, "Well, I didn't have enough money to afford an apartment all to myself at the time, and he was the only person I knew who was offering a place to stay. In hindsight, it wasn't a very good idea, but it wasn't like I had much choice in the matter."
"I see…" Alfred said, nodding slightly, "…and he's a bad roommate because…?"
"There are a lot of reasons." Arthur said shortly.
"Hmm… oh, would you look at that…" The cab rolled to a stop yet again, "Here we are."
"Thank you," Arthur replied.
As before, it only took around ten minutes before Arthur was back in the cab, looking even more miffed, "I didn't like the owner," was his only explanation.
"Hey, Arthur, can you tell me a little about your roommate?" Alfred asked.
"Why?"
"Oh, I don' t know… just something to talk about, and I can tell that you want to complain to someone," Alfred said as he pulled back out into the street, "I've been known as a great substitute psychologist… or at least bartender."
Arthur smirked in spite of himself. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt…" he tapped his chin in thought, secretly feeling excited that someone wanted to hear him complain, "Now… where to begin…? He's a journalist. He graduated University with a Bachelors' degree in the subject, but what he really wants to do is clothing design. He tried to use me as his personal mannequin more than once… something about me being 'the perfect size' or whatever. He tried to force so many horribly gaudy outfits onto me…"
"It sounds awful," Alfred replied.
"It is," Arthur agreed, "We also can't agree on anything. We're at each other's throats almost daily… about who he brings home, the thermostat, that awful perfume he likes to spray everywhere..." Arthur shook his head, "…and to top it all off, sometimes tries to do some highly inappropriate things to me…" Arthur's tone made it clear that he didn't want to elaborate.
"Huh… sounds absolutely awful," Alfred replied, "how long were you living with him?"
"About six months," Arthur mumbled, looking embarrassed.
Alfred gave a low whistle, "You put up with all of that for six months?"
"I didn't have anywhere else to go, alright?" Arthur snapped. He folded his arms and turned away, "…but last week, he did… something… and I couldn't take it. I just couldn't take it anymore."
"So, now you're finally out looking for a new place," Alfred said, turning a corner.
"I had to," Arthur said.
"I would think so," Alfred agreed, "Okay… here we are…" he said, pulling up next to the curb, "Hopefully this one will be better than the others?"
"Hopefully," Arthur agreed, slipping out of the cab and onto the sidewalk. He lasted about twenty minutes before he was back in the cab. He didn't care to explain why, but his face looked abnormally pale in Alfred's opinion.
Their adventure continued in a similar fashion, chattering about who knows what in the cab, and having Arthur last five to twenty-five minutes in each apartment building he visited. Alfred guessed it was because he didn't want a hefty cab fare… but the expressions Arthur made relayed that he was seriously unimpressed by all of the buildings he had seen.
Before they knew it, they had reached the end of the list.
"Here's the last one," Alfred said, pulling up to the final building, "I hope you find what you've been looking for, there…"
"I hope so, too," Arthur responded, getting out of the cab and walking up the sidewalk.
However, per usual, he came back out of the apartment building in around ten minutes, looking completely disappointed. He slunk to the cab, opened the door slowly and slumped inside.
"Maybe my standards are too high…" he mumbled, rubbing his forehead, "I guess number seven wasn't that bad….perhaps… ugh, but that awful woman…"
"Nothing doing?" Alfred asked.
"No… none of these are right. If it's not the state of the rooms, it's the people," he grimaced, "I guess this means I'll have to keep looking…"
Alfred frowned and drummed on his steering wheel, looking outside and noting the landmarks. Y'know… it's not too far from… his sights rested briefly on the taximeter. Without much warning, he reached out and stopped the timer.
"What are you doing?" Arthur asked, sounding a little alarmed, "You still have to take me home."
"In a minute, in a minute…" Alfred said, waving him off and pulling out into traffic, "There's this apartment building that you haven't looked at yet… it just opened up recently so not very many people know about it, but it's really nice. I'll take you there on the house."
"You really don't need to do that…"
"I insist," Alfred said, "I don't want you to have wasted your day for nothing…"
Arthur looked at him quizzically, "Well… if you must."
"I must," Alfred agreed with a smile.
It wasn't very long before they had already arrived. Arthur looked up at the building skeptically. It was new, so the outside was in relatively good condition. He got out of the cab, and to his surprise, the cab driver got out as well.
"I want to personally show you around," Alfred grinned, quickly locking up his vehicle.
Arthur cocked his head, but sighed, "Alright, if you must."
Alfred went ahead, and Arthur followed, feeling rather odd about the whole situation. Since when did a cab driver get out of his cab to show a passenger around? Come to think of it, he hardly ever saw a cab driver leave his vehicle at all…
"Oh! Hi, Lovi, Feli! You guys just heading out?" Alfred's voice snapped Arthur out of his thoughts. He glanced up to see Alfred talking to two other men who had just come out of the front door. The two looked very similar to one another… brothers, Arthur guessed. On one's face was a rather soft, serene expression; the other's was harsh and bitter.
"Yeah, we're heading out," the bitter one said.
"We're going to see a movie," the serene one explained.
"Cool. Oh, hey…" Alfred said, suddenly grabbing Arthur's wrist and pulling him quite literally into the conversation, "This here is Arthur. He's looking around for a new apartment."
Arthur shook off Alfred's hand and glanced at the two men, "Hello," he muttered.
The bitter one seemed unimpressed, but the serene one immediately lit up at the words.
"This is a great building!" he said excitedly, "I'm sure you'll like it!"
"Er…" Arthur said uncomfortably.
"Alright, alright, that's enough talk, we're going," the bitter one said gruffly, shoving past them and making his way down the walk.
His brother gave Arthur a smile, "Goodbye, Arthur," he said, and then hurried to catch up.
"Goodbye… you…" Arthur said awkwardly, waving halfheartedly after him. He turned to Alfred, "Who were…?"
"They were Lovino and Feliciano Vargas," Alfred said, opening the door and letting Arthur inside the building, "Feli's an alright guy, but Lovi can be a bit of a jerk sometimes… they're my next-door neighbors."
"Oh, you live here?" Arthur asked.
"Well, yeah," Alfred replied with a grin and a shrug, "That's why I'm showing you around."
"Right, right…" Arthur said, feeling his face heat up. He looked away to hide his embarrassment, disguising the action as looking around the foyer.
"Huh…" He said as he began taking in his new surroundings, "This isn't too bad." The walls and floors were clean, it was surprisingly quiet and the only smell he could detect was a lingering scent of lemon cleaner. Already, it had outstripped the competition.
"Here, let me go get Kiku," Alfred said, "He can show you one of the empty rooms."
"Kiku? Who's…" Arthur turned and realized he was alone, "…that?" He frowned and began looking around. How could that man disappear so quickly? A small feeling of nervousness suddenly crept into his chest. Here he was in a strange building and the only person he knew there had just vanished. Come to think of it, he hardly even knew Alfred. Yes, they had talked a fair amount the time leading up to this moment, but did that really warrant this sort of trust? What had possessed Arthur to follow that man here, anyway? What if this was all a trap? Was something terrible about to happen?
Arthur mentally slapped himself. He was being silly. Those sorts of things only happened in…
"Here he is!" Alfred's voice suddenly rang out from behind him, scaring Arthur from his thoughts. He turned around, to see that Alfred and a new person had suddenly materialized out of nowhere.
"This here is Kiku. He's the owner," Alfred said, motioning to the other man and grinning.
"Hello," the new person said, "Are you interested in renting out an apartment?"
"Er…maybe," Arthur replied nervously. The man's dull brown eyes were a little unsettling… they seemed to just stare right through him. Without knowing what much else to do, Arthur stuck out his hand and said, "Pleasure to meet you, I'm Arthur Kirkland."
"Kiku Honda," was the reply as the man took Arthur's hand and shook it.
There was an awkward silence between the parties.
"Should we show him around?" Alfred asked after a few seconds of quiet.
"Yes," Kiku said with a nod.
It turned out the whole place was perfect. Arthur couldn't find anything to complain about. The layouts were nice, the place was clean, the people didn't seem too annoying, and the location was great… yes. This could definitely work. Alfred could definitely pick apartments.
"How much is rent?" Arthur asked, turning to Kiku hopefully.
"$2000," he replied.
...and thus, the fairytale came to an abrupt end.
"Awful… expensive, isn't it?" Arthur asked nervously.
Kiku shrugged apologetically.
Arthur sighed, I figured it would happen like this…I suppose it really was too much to hope for… he turned to Alfred and smiled apologetically, "Alfred, thank you for trying, but I think I'll still have to continue to…"
"Would you pay a thousand dollars?" Alfred suddenly interrupted.
Arthur paused, "What?"
"If the rent was a thousand, would you pay it?"
Arthur blinked, "Well… I suppose…"
"Then would you be against being my roommate?" Alfred asked hopefully.
Arthur blinked in confusion, "What?"
"Well, uh… if you don't think you can pay for it, I can always share my apartment. I don't have a roommate, so…" Alfred shrugged, "Y'know, if it makes any difference at all... it's a two-bedroom."
Arthur frowned, "You do know I'm a stranger to you, right?" he asked.
"Well, I guess…"
"You're offering a stranger to live with you? Don't you think that's a tiny bit dangerous?"
"Well, you don't look that dangerous," Alfred said with a shrug, "…and I like you, and you want to live here… so why not?"
"Why not…? You hardly know me!"
"Does it really matter that much? I mean, they do this stuff all the time in colleges," Alfred reasoned, "…and what about all of those 'roommate wanted' ads they have in the newspapers?"
"Just because other people do it doesn't mean that you should," replied Arthur.
"Well, then, are you someone I should be afraid of? Are you a serial killer or something?"
"Even if I was, why would I tell you?" Arthur asked, "And how would I know that you're not a serial killer, come to think of it? What if you're just trying to lure me in so that you can kill me in my sleep?"
"Why would I kill someone who would pay half the rent?"
"Well, if you were a psychopath…"
Kiku looked back and forth between the two of them, and something flashed in his dull brown eyes, "If you two share an apartment, I'll knock the price down to… sixteen hundred." He offered.
"Wha…?" Arthur asked, turning to the owner and blinking in surprise, "Why?"
"Wait, then I would only have to pay eight hundred a month?" Alfred asked.
"Yes."
Alfred turned to Arthur and gave a hopeful smile, "Come on, you know it's the best apartment building you've seen all day... and eight hundred a month? That's practically a steal!"
Arthur frowned and crossed his arms. "I'm still apprehensive about living with a virtual stranger!"
"…and living with someone you knew beforehand worked out so well in the past," Alfred said.
Arthur frowned deeper, "Well, I…" he struggled to find a clever response, but couldn't, so, he lapsed into silence.
Quiet persisted for a half a minute.
Suddenly feeling slightly awkward, Alfred began speaking, "If you don't want to, I get it," he said with a shrug, "You just seemed to really want to live here, and I could help if you wanted me to. I guess you're right, though… inviting someone who you know nothing about into your home is pretty risky business. Well, it's your call. If you don't want to do it, I'm not going to force it on you…"
"I guess I could give it a try," Arthur said.
Alfred broke off his thought and stared, "Wait, what?"
"Well, continuing to live with my old roommate was never an option for me," Arthur said thoughtfully, "…the rent I'll pay being your roommate is at a better rate than my current one, and I suppose you can't be much worse to live with than he is…" his face mussed up.
"Wait… you hate your roommate so much you'd rather live with someone you know nothing about... someone who could be a thief or a serial killer…?" Alfred teased, "Man, you're all over the place, aren't you?"
"I'm taking you up on your offer, stop making me want to change my mind," Arthur snapped. He placed his hand over his forehead and gave a sigh.
"When can I expect you to move in?" Kiku suddenly asked, taking out a pen and notepad from his pocket.
"I don't know…" Arthur mumbled, "Soon, I guess…"
"Here, my room's on the third floor, follow me," Alfred said, suddenly grabbing Arthur's wrist and pulling him toward the staircase, "I don't have much stuff, so I think you'll be able to move in pretty easy… and don't freak out too much when you see the mess…"
"I…er…"
…and so, quite abruptly, their adventure together began.
"Hey, Arthur…?"
"Yes?"
"Don't think because you're letting me pay less money for rent means I forgot about your fare."
"Wha-? I never… What would make you think that I would… Ugh, yes, I know…"