Rosemary was mortified to say she had seen it all.

And by that, she means ALL.

She thought moving to Magnolia away from her strict family would benefit her, expand her views on the world.

Expand her views, oh dear Lord.

Moving day was uneventful at the beginning. She finished arranging most of the furniture by noon on her own, adamant to hire help. Now all that remained was additional decor, the dishes and fitting her clothes in the closet. The pretty red-head decided to eat out for lunch and had only stepped out her porch when she gazed upon the finest specimen mankind had to offer.

His windswept blue hair made her swoon internally as he appeared to have returned from a jog. And those pectorals... her eyes glazed over as she checked him out.

He just pursed his lips, gahhhh!

Gosh, run your hand over your hair one more time and I might jump you.

Her internal tirade was interrupted by her stomach. It growled. And by growled she meant growled like a whale in heat. And by that she meant hot guy just heard her stomach growling. And by that-

Okay, we get the point.

She straightened her posture and tried to look intimidating as she took long strides toward him and stood on her tiptoes (so much for intimidating). She reached out a hand toward him in lieu of a greeting.

And he grimaced at her as if she was the piece of gum stuck on the sole of his shoe.

Wow, great first impression dude! I almost want to be your neighbour. Not.

"And staring at your neighbour like a creepy stalker is? A great first impression, that is, since you seem to know all about those." He pointed.

She'd said it out loud then. She kicked herself and winced, making the hot jerk wary of her sanity.

Like he had reason to be! Ridiculous! She was only talking to herself! It wasn't as if- WHAT IN THE-

"WHERE ARE YOUR PANTS?!!!!" She yelled, horrorstruck.

His eyes widened as he looked at his- well, lack of covering- and cursed under his breath.

"DON'T LOOK!"

But it was too late.

Too late.

The whole day she spent bemoaning the loss of her innocence. (Who was she kidding, she secretly enjoyed it. Just because she was a Bio major. Nothing more. And now she stopped making sense. Again. Ughhh.)

Needless to say, their blossoming friendship (or relationship??) had been nipped at the bud. He now avoided her like the plague (it wasn't like she'd flashed him!!) but she swore sometimes she'd catch him staring at her.

But the truth remained that she'd mucked up her chance at making new friends at the first try.

Hey, at least she had Ricardo, the extremely stupid squirrel living on the acacia tree in her backyard.

Well, on second thought, she thought as she saw him try to woo the woodpecker on her tree for the 978th time this month, (take a hint, Ricardo!) maybe he wasn't the best choice of companionship.

I'm gonna end up a cat lady, aren't I? Her shoulders drooped as she stared at the tree vacantly. Maybe moving out wasn't one of her best ideas...

Maybe it was the internal Erza in her berating her for wallowing in her self pity, or that she'd realised she and Ricardo had more in common than she thought. Either way, the next day she'd adopted a bunch of kittens.

Yes, you heard it right.

And she wondered why she hadn't done this sooner.

Mayonnaise, Guacamole and Nacho. The little balls of fur were adorkable, as was expected of cuddly little munchkins, and fawning over them did wonders to her self esteem.

The kicker however, happened a week after.

She groaned loudly as she struggled to get out of bed and stumble to the door, her fluffy slippers in hand. She put them on as she wobbled down the stairs and rubbed her eyes of any pending sleep. Who was the fucktard that dared disturb her sleep at bloody 8 in the morning on A WEEKEND?! She grabbed her baseball bat as she opened the door.

"WHAT?" She growled at- wait that's a chest... She glanced up and met the eyes of her very amused neighbour.

Now that she thought about it, she must've looked like quite the escaped convict with her neon orange pajamas-don't ask, a gift from her annoying friend Nashi- and bedhead. He must've finally noticed the fluffy bunny slippers because he suddenly doubled over, banging the doorframe with one hand as he let out one of the most adorable laughs she'd ever heard (he sounded like a dying llama actually, but sureee, whatever you say brain)

When he'd finally stopped laughing, (which was an embarrassingly long time later) he leaned against the doorframe-Oh good God -and shot her a gorgeous megawatt grin that had her squinting in suspicion.

"I heard you adopted kittens."

She blinked at him, "And you come here at frigging 8 on a weekend to state the obvious?"

"Well, not exactly," he chirped, the subtle quirk of his lips proving he knew how much he was irking her, "I want to meet 'em. Please?"

5 minutes later, Rosemary found herself making breakfast as her hot neighbour cooed (I kid you not, cooed) at her kittens as she also simultaneously managed to convince herself she allowed it only because he asked nicely. No doubt about that.

"What are their names?" He asked as he scratched Nacho behind his ear.

"Mayonnaise, Guacamole and Nacho."

"I'm sorry, what?" He spluttered, making Rosemary shuffle her feet partly out of embarrassment and partly out of defensiveness.

"What's wrong with those names?" She threatened with her red hot spatula pointed at his neck. He raised his hands and gulped.

"No complaints, ma'am!"

She turned to flip the pancakes. "That's better."

"Hey, I'm-uh Rin. Rin Fullbuster," he said as if he'd just remembered to introduce himself.

She smiled to herself as she flipped another pancake. "Rosemary Fernández."

"Hey, I LOVE ROSEMARY!" He cheered obliviously.

Rosemary choked as she whipped her head toward him so hard it cracked. She accidentally touched the hot pan and let out a yelp of pain. His eyes widened as he realised the implications of his statement.

"I meant the-Gah- the plant, I mean-Ah fuck, your hand!"

13 minutes and one burnt pancake later, Rosemary had learnt quite a bit about Rin.

For instance, he nonchalantly mentioned that he was studying medicine as he treated her hand without batting an eye. He also said that he lived with his twin sister Sylvia and had an elder brother.

His eyes flickered as he blurted, "Can I treat you to dinner? How does um-tonight? Yeah tonight," he looked her in the eyes with so much enthusiasm she might've melted if her palm hadn't been so severely burnt.

Her eyes crinkled as she nodded in agreement, "Sure, I'd love that!"

Bonus:

"So you're telling me that Ricardo shouldn't get his hopes up over the woodpecker even when she lets him stay in her hole and even eats from the same tree as him?" Rin raised an eyebrow at the red-head who scrunched her forehead.

"That doesn't have to mean anything. Maybe she just wants to be friends!" She gestured unbelievingly.

"What? That doesn't make sense! Of course there's something else! You don't just share your food with friends! That's the equivalent of going out in the animal world!" Rin blinked at her as if she was the one sputtering nonsense.

"No it isn't! You can go out for dinner platonically too!"

He frowned. "I can prove it!"

Rosemary tilted her head to look at him, "How?"

"We've been going out to dinner for 2 months now. Does this mean that we're just friends?"

"Um yeah! We are? How is this proving the point?"

Silence.

Silence again.

Rin stared at her like she'd grown two heads and yelped, "WAIT YOU'RE SERIOUS?!"

Rosemary flushed, "Well, yes. I didn't know you were interested in uh-You like me? That way?"

Rin looked like he'd been living a lie as he squeaked, "UH- YES! I DO! LIKE YOU! And here literally everyone was calling me whipped and telling me how obvious I was being, but haha!"

He suddenly whipped his head in her direction like a man possessed. " YOU LIKE ME TOO, RIGHT? SHIT, DO YOU? I MEAN I DON'T WANT TO FORCE YOU OR-"

"I DO! I DO! I mean I've never really thought you liked me Ughhh you know what? Fuck this."

She tugged on his shirt as her lips met his and all was forgotten.

Though, Rin never hesitated to tease her and her obliviousness at every given opportunity. She didn't mind.

She had her blue-haired squirrel of a neighbour in the end anyway.

...