Disclaimer: I do not own SGA.

Neighbor From Hell

Part 2

-x-

Rodney stood impatiently in the line at a Starbucks that was only about five blocks from his apartment. All he wanted was to get in there, quick buy a black coffee, nice and simple, but of course even -that- had to go wrong. Life working as a scientist (one of the world's best, if Rodney wasn't wrong or just bragging) was interesting and exciting, but also annoying to the point that Rodney would just -love- to strangle his assistant Radek Zelenka on some days. Today happened to be one of those. The hylictrolgic generator that they were working on had almost been complete, but then that moron Kavanagh had to go and disobey Rodney's order of "no touching it for even one micro-second, do you hear me?", resulting in a major set-back. Needless to say, Rodney had exploded at the man, threatening to cause him pain worse than death. Radek was also very annoyed at Kavanagh, but he could control himself enough to stop himself from hurting the man, and he didn't trust Rodney to not kill the man, so he forced Rodney out of the building, insisting he could handle it.

"I am competent worker, no? I fix it in no time, no trouble. You go home, relax, no kill anyone, alright?" Zelenka had said right before closing the door on Rodney.

Rodney had huffed angrily, but decided to take advantage of the rest of the day. He'd figured that stopping for a nice cup of coffee would help to improve his mood, but that was before he'd had to stand forfifteen minutes in line without even ordering yet. Finally the person in front of him stepped aside to wait for their own order, and Rodney stepped forward to order his. He opened his mouth.. and shut it. In front of him stood his ('very sexy,' his brain thought) neighbor, the ex-pilot.

"Uh, hi," he said awkwardly, remembering what had happened the day before at his apartment.

"Hiya neighbor," John replied cheerfully. "What can I do for you?"

Rodney looked at him warily, looking for signs that he was being mocked. As far as he could tell, he wasn't. "Um, yes. I'd like a grande-sized coffee, black."

"Ok," John muttered while ringing the small order up. "Would you like anything else?"

"No. Well, actually, yes. Would you, um, mind coming to my place later?" Rodney sighed. "I think we got started off on a bad foot yesterday," he offered as an apology.

"Nah, it's cool," John assured him. "But I wouldn't mind talking some more. I get off at seven. See you then?"

"Yeah. Sure," Rodney said.

"Okay, great. That'll be $5.13," John replied, happily taking the man's money and going to get his order. "Here, one black coffee."

"Well, I guess I'll see you later," Rodney mumbled and left the store.

When Rodney got back to his apartment he realized it was already pastfive o'clock. That gave him less than two hours to eat, clean, and shower. He quickly shoved a pizza in the oven and began working on clearing his table. There really hadn't been much reason to clean his place before. He wasn't even there too much, and he was the only one living there with no visitors. At least, before his next door neighbor had come over and made him feel slightly guilty.

Rodney frowned. He had no idea why the other man had made him feel guilty. Afte rall, Rodney never felt guilty after yelling at his incompetent workers, but maybe that was because they were his collegues, not his neighbor. Yes, Rodney decided, that must be why. Shaking his head at his own stupidity, he pulled the pizza out of the oven and ate it as quickly as possible. Looking at the rest of his apartment, and with only an hour before John would be arriving, Rodney deemed it a lost cause and went to shower. He'd always found hot water to be enjoyable and extremely relaxing; the water didn't let him down.

Stepping out of the shower and wrapping a towel around his waist, Rodney thought he heard a noise. He made his way to the frontroom, where the door was making noise. No, Rodney thought, it's not seven already. Is it? Glancing at his watch Rodney cursed. It was. He'd have to quick invite the man in and get changed. He opened the door to greet his neighbor who, once he'd caught sight of Rodney with only a towel on, began smirking.

"What a lovely way to greet a guy," John drawled.

Rodney flushed. "Just come in and I'll go get changed."

"Why bother?"

"What?" Rodney squawked.

"Eh, I'm just teasing you. Go get changed. I'll see what's on TV," John waved him off.

Rodney quickly retreated to his room with wide eyes. "What the hell was that?" he muttered, "Is he insane?" But he couldn't deny; his heart had begun beating faster.