'What eyeliner brand do you use?'
That was the note taped to the apartment door of Roman Torchwick.
Frowning, Roman ripped the note off the door. It was written in a glittery pink ink, the tape was light pink with flowers on it, the 'I' was dotted with a heart along with the question mark.
Okay. That wasn't mildly creepy. He glanced up and down the hall to see if someone was about to pop out to yell 'gotcha!' Nope. Nothing. Nada. Didn't help the creepy angle.
Once he had searched his apartment to make sure no freak was hiding inside, he started texting his friends.
Roman: Haha, Cinder. Didn't think pink was your color.
Cinder: I'm busy, Roman.
Roman: Why are you so curious about my eyeliner?
Cinder: … I'm not. What are you talking about?
Roman: Someone left a note on my door asking what I used.
Cinder: Do you really think I'm a fan of pranks?
Roman: You are a fan of creeping me out.
Cinder: Ask someone else.
Roman: Caught you!
Mercury: Oh come on! No one's even commented on the status yet!
Roman: What are you talking about?
Mercury: Nothing. What are you talking about?
Roman: A note on my door. Asking about what kind of eyeliner I use.
Mercury: Gaaaaaaaaaay.
Roman: You wish.
Roman: It's literally just the cheap stuff at the drug store. You didn't have to put a note on my door and ask about my eyeliner.
Emerald: What.
Roman: … You didn't put the note on my door either.
Emerald: If I really needed to know what eyeliner you used, I would've texted you. Not put a note on your door.
Yeah, after a while that got nowhere. So Roman did the only logical thing he could do-
Answer the question.
It's whatever's on sale at the time, I'm broke. Who is this?
Taping the answer to his door, Roman headed off the class and figured that would be the end of that.
Yeah. No.
I'm one of your neighbors. :) I wanna be your friend.
What kind of person wrote smilies on paper?! With an irritated grumble, Roman ripped the note down and hurried back into his apartment, locking it.
Once he'd calmed down, he looked over the note again. It was still a glittery pen but this time it was silver. And… huh. Roman brought it closer to his nose. It smelled like vanilla and strawberries, maybe a hint of chocolate.
Ice cream.
Roman smirked. There was a family or two in the building, clearly some teenage girl had seen him, an attractive college age man, and had the most rational reaction- they were crushing on him. Well, might as well reply back. He grabbed a fresh piece of paper and wrote back a note.
That doesn't sound so bad. What's your name?
He taped the note back on his door before he left for classes, and actually felt quite pleasant when he saw glittery lettering on his door again.
People call me Neo. Do you like ice cream?
Okay, definitely some sort of teenage girl. Roman traced his finger over the looped letters. Any irritation from his mystery admirer had faded to smugness. Man, Mercury was going to be green with envy when he heard about this!
I like ice cream, sure. More of a pumpkin pie fan though. It's perfect with a scoop of ice cream on top though.
"What are those?"
Cinder pointed to the growing stack of notes on Roman's table. He glanced up from his DS. "From my secret admirer, remember? Gotta say, it's nice to be appreciated."
"Of course it is." Cinder rolled her eyes before she pulled a random note from the pile. "'I've graduated high school and have moved out of my parent's place. I work but only part time, I have an Etsy to help.' Interesting… I thought you said she was a high schooler?"
Roman shrugged. "Guess I got her age wrong. Bummer though- I thought she was that girl in the red hoodie the floor up. Little too young but hey, I can be flattered."
The woman tapped a nail against the table thoughtfully. "Well, if she's graduated, she's above eighteen. How do you feel about her?"
Roman nearly jumped out of his skin, causing the little character on his screen to fall into a pit. "Ah crap, I died again. But what do you mean? I mean, it's just some girl with a crush on me, why are my feelings part of this?" Was his voice a bit high there? Maybe?
Cinder smirked before going back to her homework. "How long have you been exchanging notes?"
"Few weeks now, but that doesn't answer my question, sweetheart."
Ignoring the petname, Cinder's burning yellow eyes looked up. "So, you've kept all of them. How adorable."
Oh, that implication was not approved. Roman scowled and hit the restart button. "They're air fresheners, she sprays them all with perfume. That's why I keep them."
"Of course you do. When will you ask to meet her?"
Cinder was evil. Roman cleared his throat and changed the subject. "Why aren't you doing your homework at home?"
"Because I have a night class and your apartment is closer to the school. I'm just using you, you should know that."
Evil. Like he said. Pure evil.
Cinder did bring up a good point though. Roman should meet this 'secret admirer'. This note passing thing had been pretty nice, but he wanted to know what this girl looked like. Out of boredom, he would imagine her appearance- probably innocent, with round eyes and curly hair, with a sweet, sing song voice. She definitely smelled like that perfume. Hummed songs under her breath.
Yeah, so Roman spent a little too much time thinking about his admirer. So what? It meant nothing. Nothing!
It took over an hour to write the note, intermingled with several curses of frustration and filling the trash bin by his desk. But finally, he managed to write the perfect note.
Like I told you, Padme just died of a broken heart. There is no theory here.
Hey, we've been talking for over a month now. Why don't you come over so we can marathon Star Wars together? I don't bite. I want to talk in person.
He taped the note to his door and left for class with an odd bounce in his step. He couldn't wait for it to be over though, god, could Dr. Oobleck ever shut up? Least he allowed his students to record the notes, no way could anyone write fast enough to keep up.
Roman bolted home, almost running in front of a few cars to get back to his apartment to see the new note.
What shocked him was that there wasn't a note at all.
His note was gone, and if Roman breathed in carefully, under the smell of cigarette smoke and typical apartment smell, he could smell that ice cream perfume… but another note hadn't been returned. He searched down the hall, in worries that it had been knocked down. Not a scrap of paper. No pink flowery tape.
Had Roman screwed up?
He felt numb as he walked into his apartment and flopped on his couch. What had he done wrong? He wasn't creepy. He just invited her over. Why was he even hurt about this? This was just some girl who liked video games and movies and made cute jokes and had adorable handwriting and smelled like sweets…
Why was it getting to him so much?
"Ouch. Dumped by someone you've never even seen. That hurts."
"You know, I really should've called Emerald. I've actually taught her to pretend to care."
Mercury snickered and kicked a pebble on the sidewalk. "Come on, Torchwick, you don't even know if this person's a 'she'. Maybe they were yanking you along and realized the game was up."
That didn't help. Roman raised a hand to smack him when Mercury glanced to the side. "Ooh, the Sweet Vice is open!" Mercury took off across the street to a small pink cafe. It was amazing how fast he could move with his prosthetics. Still feeling glum, Roman followed the hyperactive teen.
The place was almost cavity causing to just look at. The sign was bright pink with bouncy letters, the storefront was a paler shade of pink. Snorting, Roman walked in.
The store's scents wafted over him and almost made him run back home right then. Vanilla. Strawberry. With just a hint of chocolate. The perfume on the notes. He was already taking a step back to the door when Mercury yelled, "Over here! I'm broke and I had to hear you bitch for ten minutes. You owe me!"
Great. Dragging his feet, Roman slumped down. "Nothing over five bucks or I'm going to rip your arms off." He threatened.
Mercury just snickered and looked over the adorably cute pastel menus. "I'm thinking about a banana split, Neapolitan ice cream. This place is great for picking up chicks, by the way."
"Hey, whatsup, Merc?" A orange haired girl roller skated up. "What's with grumpy Gus here? He looks like he could use some pie."
Roman snorted and looked away. Mercury rolled his eyes. "He got dumped by a girl he never dated. Lame, I know. Neon, just bring me out the Neapolitan banana split, give him the special." Neon saluted before she roller skated off. Mercury looked back over. "Seriously man. You have to get over it. You never even knew her."
Even Cinder would be better than this. Roman continued to sulk and ignore Mercury when he heard roller skates again.
"Um, someone just paid for your order, if I just gave you this." A plate was sat in front of Roman and he tore his eyes away from the wall when he smelled pumpkin spice.
It was a slice of pumpkin pie… with a scoop of ice cream on top.
Roman couldn't breathe for a few seconds before he looked up. "Who bought this?"
"Someone who works in the kitchen a few days a week, I never get her name but she's super quiet. Kinda creepy quiet though, why?"
Roman bolted from his chair and ran into the back.
The kitchen was just as pink as the rest of the place. A girl with long brown hair squeaked. "What are you doing back here? This is staff only, please-"
"Who sent out the pie?" The place smelled just like her. It wasn't perfume after all, it was just the smell of this cafe. "I have to know."
The girl adjusted her nametag, which read Velvet. "Oh. Neo?"
Yes! It was her! "Where is she? I need to-"
"Her shift's finished, she's headed home now." Dammit!
Velvet looked curious. "Are… are you Roman?"
Roman sighed and leaned against the wall. "How'd ya guess?"
The other waitress smiled broadly. "Oh, Neo speaks about you so fondly, it's rather sweet. She seemed really down today though, can you tell me why?"
Huh? "Er, yeah… she's never actually approached me. Just pasted notes to my door."
Velvet's eyes widened in surprise before she came to a realization. "Oh… so you don't know."
"Know what?"
The waitress glanced out the kitchen to make sure no one was coming before she spoke quieter. "Neo is mute. It's why she works back here instead of as a waitress. Only me and the manager really know, everyone else just thinks she's really quiet. She's a little strange, but she doesn't mean any harm, I promise."
… Oh.
Roman stared blankly before he managed to find his voice again. "I… oh. I asked her if we could meet to talk. Think she took that wrong?"
"She probably just didn't want to ruin the illusion she had set up." Velvet bit her lip before she looked determined and pulled a notepad out of her apron, scribbling a number on it. "Her apartment number. Please go see her." She ripped off the paper and offered it to him.
Not even bothering to stop to tell Mercury what was going on, Roman bolted from the shop.
Roman knocked several times on the door before leaning against the wall to catch his breath. The scent of the cafe had sunk into her door, she probably cooked the same goodies at home. It smelled so good.
Please, Neo, answer the door…
The door finally opened up and Roman forgot to breathe.
She was petite, Roman was more than a foot taller than her. She did indeed have curly brown hair, but half was pink with white streaks. The heterochromia was more off setting, the pink and brown eyes that stared in surprise. Her hands were currently covered in ink, and she was wearing pink sweat pants and a white tank top that had even more ink stains.
Neo was beautiful.
"… H… Hi." That was impressive. Roman swallowed. "Hi Neo. Can I come in?"
Neo opened the door more and gestured him in. Roman nodded and walked on through.
The apartment was cute. The couch was fluffy and white, with a few pink pillows. Neo skipped over to the couch and sat down, gesturing to the spot next to her. Right. Better sit down. Roman sat down and glanced around the room more. Posters with cartoon characters were hung carefully on the walls, the TV was still on and playing some sort of adorable anime, probably that one Neo told him about with the girl everyone thought was a boy and she was in something called a host club. The kitchen had pink sticky notes or papers taped to the walls with that familiar tape, all of them looked like recipes.
Neo tapped his arm and he whipped his head back over, slightly embarrassed. "Sorry. You have a nice house."
The girl nodded before she pulled a paper off the table and started to write. Roman's attention now drawn to the table realized this was where she had written all her notes. The tall stack of the paper, the selection of pens, and a small trash can that was overflowing with papers. Had she just not known what to say?
He looked back over in time to see her lift the note.
'Thank you. I try. Did you talk with Velvet?'
Right. Roman cleared his throat. "Yup. Found out you can't talk. Is that the only reason you didn't want to meet me?"
It was a little longer to hear her end of the conversation, but her handwriting was still flawless.
'It was. I'm just like you, Roman. I'm not as loud, that's all. People always treat me different though :('
No, not the sad smiley! That was just heart breaking. Especially now that he could see her face- she was really troubled by this. Roman reached over to set a hand on hers. "It's fine. Swear. You're actually pretty close to what I imagined."
Neo blushed a little and started to write again.
'You imagined me?'
Shit. Roman turned red. "Only once or twice! I, fuck, I-"
Neo pulled him down to kiss his cheek. Only quickly. Now Roman's face was bright red. Curse being a ginger. Curse it. "… So, you do like me!" Get the focus on her.
A few seconds later a note was held up.
'Of course. And it's obvious to our whole building that you like me.'
No smiley face needed this time. The smile was across Neo's face.
This was probably the weirdest way to get a girlfriend. Ever. But Roman didn't give a damn.
"So, I'll get my Stars Wars movies, you order the Chinese?"
Scribble, scribble, scribble.
'… I can't talk on the phone.'
Right. "Order online, here." He took one of the notes off the table and wrote down the web address. "I'll answer the door when it gets here."
Neo looked pleased.
'Thank you. Be ready to accept the obvious theory Darth Sidious stole Padme's strength with his powers to save Darth Vader.'
Not this again. "If you think I'm going to just lay down and accept that because we're going on a date-"
Another kiss to the cheek.
"… I'll consider it."
All the response needed was that adorable grin across Neo's face.
There does happen to be a second part to this... that is NSFW... but I'm a lil hesitant to post it here. Does anyone really want to see the smut fest I wrote? Let me know in the comments! As always, remember I am reachable at my tumblr imburiedincats-send help, and if you follow me there, I post previews of upcoming fanfictions and that's always nice. Bye for now!