Juvia sat on her balcony listening to the commotion next door as a moving truck unloaded into the long-vacant apartment, there were a few people talking inside but it was hard to know who had actually rented the unit, there were at least two male voices and one female so Juvia assumed it was a couple moving in.
"Hey," a silver haired guy in a hoodie slid out the door onto the neighboring balcony, "I'm Lyon, what's your name beautiful."
Juvia flushed with embarrassment and replied softly, "Juvia."
A second voice yelled from inside the apartment "Damnit you idiot, get back in here and help, you aren't here to flirt with whoever you can find."
"Well, Juvia, I will see you later," Lyon said with a smile as he went back inside, only to end up arguing with the second guy.
A third, clearly female, voice shouted above the others, "Stop it, both of you, act your age." and suddenly the commotion died down into the sounds of scooting furniture and murmurs of talking.
After a few hours Juvia saw the moving truck leave and the apartment next door was silent, she wondered if the tenants had all left despite the balcony door still being open. She glanced at her phone as saw that her boyfriend, Bora, still hadn't read her messages or called about their plans he was hours late for now. Juvia had to admit that he hadn't been making it to most of their plans over the last few months, but she had hoped that he was going to turn things around and that this was really not his fault. A loud knock rapped at the door and Juvia unlocked the deadbolt to see Bora already strolling inside her apartment. "Sorry Babe, I was busy with something else," he said casually as he flopped onto the sofa grabbing the remote.
Juvia went into the kitchen and started pulling out pans to make dinner, she turned on a burner and put oil into a pan as Bora shouted at her, "dammit Juvia, did you really not make dinner yet? You knew I was coming over, it should have been done by now." he tossed the remote onto the glass coffee table with a loud clink and walked back to the front door, throwing it open, "you are useless." He slammed the door and stomped off down the hallway.
Juvia stared at the door for a few minutes wondering if she should have tried to calm him down when she was startled back to the moment by the shrill sound of a smoke alarm, "Oh no," she climbed atop the counter and ripped the battery out of the smoke alarm tossing both pieces onto the floor out of frustration. Her apartment filled with a haze of smoke quickly, she pulled the pan from the stovetop tossing it inside the oven to contain the billowing while she turned the burner off and began to cough, struggling to breathe with the amount of smoke in the air.
"USE A FAN!" a voice called from outside.
Juvia coughed before asking, "What did you say?"
"Use a fan, point it toward the windows and balcony to push the smoke out," a shirtless guy with jet black hair stepped onto the neighboring balcony, "my mom would do that when she burned things."
"Oh, okay, thanks!" Juvia said cheerfully as she rushed inside to plug the box fan in to attempt to move the smoke out of the apartment.
Twenty minutes later she had cleared most of the haze from the air and say in her patio chair to try to relax. She saw movement to the side of her and the handsome neighbor was back outside looking at the ground, "here," he said handing over a clear plastic tupperware.
"What is this," Juvia asked, standing and leaning over the gap to take the container.
"My mom left this after helping me move in, and there is way too much for just me, take some. I doubt you want to cook after that mess anyway." he stropped as he went to go back inside his apartment, "I'm Gray, you met my brother Lyon earlier."
"I'm Juvia," she said smiling, "I appreciate this."
"Yea...sure," he said walking inside, letting the curtains drop in front of the open door Juvia paused before going inside to warm her food, there was something about this guy that made her feel happy despite the rough evening she had just had. Juvia sat on the sofa with a fork and dug into the food while watching a quiz show, she would call out answers between bites until a category was called that she did not know the answers to, sports was not her strong suit. The announcer asked, "Who was the first owner of the Blues hockey team?"
Juvia sat waiting for the next question she could answer when a voice from outside answered in unison with the contestant on the show, "Sid Salomon Jr."
Juvia giggled, "I guess you know sports then?"
"Hockey mainly," Gray answered.
"You could always come watch with me instead of listening from out there," she wondered how he would respond to that, but it was only a split second before he hopped the railing onto her balcony. :Oh! I could have opened the door Gray, that was dangerous!"
"Nah, it's fine." he sat next to her on the worn-out sofa and continued answering trivia with her until the end of the show. He made his way back to the balcony and climbed up to hop back to his own side, "Thanks for having me, I didn't have my cable set up yet."
"Need a wifi password?" she grinned.
"Would you mind?"
"Not at all," she hurried over to her counter and jotted the login onto a notecard. "thanks again for the food."
Once he had entered his apartment and slid the glass door closed Juvia followed suit, ready to call it a night she prepared for a shower and bed, almost having forgotten about her earlier trouble with Bora.
