Hello!...Hello everyone!
I am already 2 stories late!...but don't worry I'm giving up that easily!
30 AU Challenge:
2 – Roommate AU
She ran around her apartment making sure that everything was clean and tidy. After all, a good first impression is the most important, and she didn't want to chase away a potential roommate just because she forgot to dust or pick up her clothes from the couch and the floor. Six months ago, Seras moved out of her old apartment because she was no longer safe in her own home after her drunken neighbor tried to enter her apartment thinking it was his, several times. The area itself became dangerous with all the news of the criminals who started to steal and hurt people in the daylight. She did not wait until something bad happens to her and so she moved out the moment she found a new place to stay and it was here, at her current apartment. Of course, she didn't live here alone. She had a roommate, which she didn't get along with for she was a self-absorbed person. She doesn't do her part of the chores, doesn't cook dinner, but the worst was what she did a month ago. She snuck out of the apartment when Seras wasn't around, leaving only a letter that said that she was going to go live with her boyfriend. Seras was furious because one of her bad habits is never paying her part of the rent. She talked to the landlord and explained to him why the rent was going to be hard to pay now that she was alone, He was a nice man but still fair. He Gave Seras until the end of this month to find a new roommate to help her pay the rent, or else he will have to ask her to leave. Seras tried her best to find a new roommate. She put out her number in order for others who seek a home call her so they could meet and there were calls many of them, but none of them were good for a roommate. Seras didn't want to end up with a roommate like the one before, she searched for someone who isn't just able to pay in time and clean after themselves, But also a person she could get along with, so that when a problem did spark between them they would be able to talk it out like civil human being, and not have a screech fight like with her previous roommate.
And so whenever someone called her, asking to meet her and see the house, Seras was ready with a list of questions for them, in case they decided that they wanted to live here. So far, none of them passed. They always end up being a careless person whom seras knew won't be able to clean after themselves, not able to keep a job so seras knew that they won't be able to pay the rent in time or ever but the worst once was the sexual harassment. After a week of asking only women, Seras grew desperate and started to let even potential male roommates to come and see the house. The moment Seras thinks that she might have found a new roommate they would start making pass at her saying that they are going to show her a "Good time" or that if she felt "Lonely" she can come to them. Whenever one of them showed one hint of that disgusting behavior, she would scratch the paper in her hand and won't wait until the end of the interview to kick them out. Now one week away from the end of the month and after the stern talk of the landlord to her to not be so picky with her roommates, made Seras anxious and afraid that she might be the next one to be kicked out of this apartment. The ringing of a doorbell pulled her out of her thoughts.
"Coming!" She called to whoever was behind the door. She turned off the stove that was warming the tea that she had prepared for her guest, then walked to the mirror to make sure that she looked like a decent human being. She wore a Black T-shirt with Yellow jeans. She shrugged thinking she looks acceptable before walking to the door and opening it.
"Hello-" Seras was cut off when she stared at someone's chest, she looked up and saw the owner. It was a tall man with messy black hair that almost reached his shoulder, His eyes were Green and pale skin. He wore black khaki pants, a black blazer, and a white shirt underneath. Seras almost thought that he was a businessman.
"Is this Seras Victoria's place?" he asked with a baritone voice that made seras jump.
"Y...yes! I'm Seras Victoria you must be mister Alucard, whom I talked on the phone with?" She asked and a simple nod was her answer." Right, I'm sorry please come in." She moved away from the door letting him in, before closing it.
"He doesn't look like someone who needs an apartment, let alone a roommate to share it with." Seras thought to herself, she shook her head from such thoughts and put on her best smile.
"How about we start with a little tour, although it won't be much of a tour since the place isn't that big." She joked to him. She used that joke almost every time someone came to see the apartment. She was either meet with being ignored or pitiful small laughter. Alucard just smirked to her, which made a shiver go down her spine and the first red flag against him being waved.
"Right this way." She began, and he followed. The first was the living room, and across from it to the left was the kitchen, there was a space in front of it where sat the dinner table with four chairs around it. she walked forward to the small hall, pointed at the first door to the left which was the bathroom, the first door to the right was her bedroom and at the end of the hall was his soon-to-be bedroom. Seras opened the door for him and showed him the room, it already had a bed, a closet and a dresser with a mirror. The room was clean and empty as if no human stepped in this room, Seras made sure it looked that way so that whoever came wanting it can imagine themselves in it without all the previous feminine items that her previous roommate left behind that she happily threw away. Alucard walked into the room and looked around, he sat on the bed, which earned a quick frown showing that he didn't like it. that made seras nervous. He then walked to the mirror, it was too short for him making him sigh. This didn't look good.
"Would you like to have some tea?" Seras asked when she knew that he had seen enough. He nodded following her to the living room. He sat on the armchair while Seras sat on the sofa, she gave him a cup of tea that he took only one sip from it before placing it on the coffee table and didn't touch again. He didn't like the room and now he doesn't like her tea too. Never the less, she still kept smiling to him.
"So what do you think?" She asked him, getting ready to hear the complaints and how he won't stay.
"It is a nice place, it's small but not in an annoying way." He said with a smirk making seras sigh in relief mentally.
"Then what about the room?" His smirk flattered. This wasn't good.
"The bed is too stiff and small, the dresser's mirror was also too small. But nothing that can't be replaced." He said with a shrug.
"That's great to hear." Seras began. "I am happy that you liked the place and the room mister Alucard. However, because of a bad experience with a previous roommate, I made a list of questions to see if not only are you capable of fulfilling your duties as a roommate but if we are compatible to live together, not only for the gender reasons but personality as well. If you don't mind."
"You can drop the formality, just call me Alucard." He said with a smirk, making Seras think that he was actually having fun with this.
"Very well, Alucard." She took the small pile of papers from the table and clicked her pen." First question, how often do you clean?"
"I always clean after myself, after I finish eating when I make a mess in the living room or the bathroom. After all, if I did start living here I won't be alone." He said looking at her dead in the eye. "However, the only mess I leave are in my own room. I'm normally I'm not a tidy person, but I clean after myself out of respect for the other person in order to be met with the same act." Seras nodded to him with a smile, she was very pleased with that answer.
"It is your territory and we're grown adults we don't need to follow each other around and demand that the room be clean." She joked as she wrote what he said down." Second question. Have you ever had any difficulty paying the rent on time?"
"Only when my payday gets delayed, which thankfully doesn't happen much, other than that I always pay my part in the end." He said confident, Seras not seeing or hearing any hint of lying wrote what he said down.
"That's good not a lot are committed to paying their part of the rent." She said sounding a bit annoyed but not at Alucard. So far he showed that he was going to be a good roommate.
"Do your friends come over often?" This question was one of the most important once to here. She didn't want to wake up to loud scream and laughter or having to take long walks at night because there was a party going on. Alucard shocks his head.
"I don't have a lot of friends only a hand full. Even so, I don't Like to invite my friends over to where I live, and even if I did it will only be work and study related, Of course, if there was the time you will be informed of their visit beforehand." Seras looked up from the paper.
"Thank you that would be nice." She smiled to him, Alucard nodded. "This building allows animals, so Do you have or intend to adopt any pets?"
"I do have a dog." Alucard reached inside his blazer in his breast pocket and got his wallet out, opening it he pulled a picture and handed it over to seras. It was Alucard kneeling beside a big black shaggy dog he didn't have this crazy smirk of his but had a normal smile, the dog's tongue was lolling that showed his own smile. Seras covered her mouth. "He looks so adorable."
"Do you mean me or my dog?" Alucard Laughed when he saw her red blush. She handed him the picture.
"I mean the dog of course!" she quickly said. He was still chuckling at her, which made Seras grow irritated.
"His name is Baskerville," Alucard said putting the picture back in his wallet. "He is well trained doesn't make a mess but he is still can be very demanding."
"Demanding?... How ?" Seras asked confused.
"He would scratch on the door and start barking none stop when he wants a walk, or whine so much when he wants a belly rub or to be petted," Alucard said with a tired sigh. Seras laughed and couldn't help the big smile that spread on her face at the idea that there will be a dog around that she would be able to take out on walks and spoil with belly rubs. That is if Alucard passed this interview and so far he is doing great.
"He sounds very adorable and if it's alright with you I don't mind taking him on a walk once in a while, every day I would go for a run across the park so it wouldn't be a problem." Seras was genuine with her proposal even though part of her felt that she was pushing it.
"My work and studying don't allow me to give Baskerville as much attention as I used to, so if you did do that then I'll be very grateful to you," Alucard said making seras anxiety of offending him go away.
"I would be happy to, if I was completely honest I always wanted a dog so to have you move in with Baskerville would be very delightful," Seras said excited making Alucard grin.
"Does that mean I passed your interview?" he asked expectantly with a raised brow. Seras's smile flattered a bit as she averted her eyes.
"Not exactly, we still have two more questions to go before we decide." Seras looked down at her paper, a bit embarrassed to have given him hope before making up her mind, even at the last second something could go wrong. Alucard leaned back with a nod, showing that he understood.
"What would your previous landlord say about you if I called them?" it was a weird question but in Seras's opinion, it was necessary, who knows maybe Alucard was lying this entire interview and it's actually a bad roommate. Maybe he has something that he was hiding, and his landlord knew about it. But most importantly how would Alucard react would he be angry at the mention of the landlord, he can be a good roommate but would fight with the landlord. To her delight, Alucard was calm about it.
"He would probably tell you that I'm rude because there are bad days for me that I wouldn't be able to tolerate anyone, or how I can get on any person's nerves easily." He chuckled in the second one finding it amusing. "However other than that I don't think there is anything more, but who knows I could be wrong." Seras wrote what he said down, remembering to ask about what Alucard said when she did call his previous landlord and ask about him.
"Everything seems to look good, but Alucard there is one last question if you answered it correctly I think we will have a deal." She said with a smile putting her pen and paper down not needing them for this one.
"And what is it?" Seras licked her lips and looked him dead in the eye.
"Do you think that we would get along well?" Alucard gave her a look of bewilderment, not expecting that kind of question, his look turned serious there was something else in his eyes that seras couldn't tell what was it.
"I think that if I did start living here, that our first few weeks would go with you reminding me of the rules and I'm sure most of them would be of how I should remember to put the toilet seat back down. There will be a lot of arguing at first. However, I do believe that in the end, we will come into an unspoken mutual agreement, to who's turn to cook, or clean, or even on the television." Alucard shrugged as his playful smirk came back. " Two different people can't get along that fast just because one of them interviewed the other beforehand but I'm sure that we will settle in the end." After a moment of thought, seras smiled at him pleased.
"That's exactly what I wanted to hear." She stretched her hand to him. "Congratulations, you passed with flying colors."
Alucard smirk widened as he took her hand shocking it. After that, the rest of their talk was about simple house rules, questions of if he had any food allergies that she should know about and what is the landlord like and how Alucard should meet him soon. What does he study and what kind of job does he have, what is his schedule like, but then it turned to talk about her previous roommate and how she put her in such a difficult place, and that Alucard was a godsend to her.
"When will you be able to move in?" Seras asked as she followed Alucard to the door.
"In few days," he answered. "I just need to get movers to get the bed and dresser out and bring mine in and after that, I'll bring the rest of my belongings." Seras nodded in understanding.
"I'm looking forward to having you and Baskerville around." She said excitedly.
"You know, I'm starting to think that the only reason you accepted me as a roommate is because I have a dog." Alucard teased and seras went along with it.
"Well, of course, you are a terrible person to have around but I'm sure Baskerville will make up for it." he laughed and seras laughed along with him.
"I'll see you soon then?" Alucard asked stretching his hand to her, which seras returned with a smile.
"Yes, I'll see you soon."
Seras's eyes widened to what happened next. Alucard lifted her hand up, leaned in and gave the back of her hand a gentle kiss, before letting go and walked away. Seras just stood there looking at the back of her hand in shock, and when she finally processed what just happened her face turned deep red with embarrassment.
Outside of the building, Alucard walked to one of the red phone booths and started to type a number quickly and waited as it rang, making him tap his feet impatiently.
"Hello?" A male voice answered.
"Sebastian!... It's Alucard, I'm in." Alucard said with a wide smirk in his face. There was a thud a noise that came from the other side signaling that Sebastian fell, and Alucard laughed.
"HOW!?" Sebastian screamed over the phone making Alucard move it away still grinning. "I can't believe you actually gone and done it, and above that your crazy idea worked."
"I told you that's gonna work and it did." Alucard bragged, his smirk never leaving."And now I'm her roommate and soon if I played my cards rights I'm gonna be her lover."
"When do you think I could meet her?" Sebastian asked. "Do you think she will like me?"
"I just left her home how can you meet her so soon." Alucard sighed, although he understood his excitement they have been trying to reach seras for a long time now. "Anyway, I gave seras this phone number and she is gonna call soon. I want you to pretend to be the landlord and when asks about me tell her what I told you, alright?"
"Yes yes, I know the plan," Sebastian replied before hanging up.
That twist though!
I hope you like this one, and don't forget to check out "Oxford Not Brogues" version of this AU!
Bye bye!
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