Skye set down her last box and collapsed on her small sofa with a tired groan. Moving in by yourself was exhausting, and she was trying her best to work up enough energy to get up and close the door to her apartment. A serial killer could just walk in. Theoretically, he would be able to walk in even if it was closed, because she had broken the cheap lock on her first attempt to unlock it. It was probably bad that she had been able to break in through the window in her bedroom so easily, but Skye wasn't able to afford the other apartments she had looked at. At least not yet she wasn't.
When the scream erupted from the apartment next to her, Skye had been attempting to close her door using the force (Not that she'd ever admit it). Skye leapt to her feet and ran out of her apartment. Maybe that serial killer had decided her neighbor was easier prey. Her neighbor's door flew open as Skye emerged from her own apartment, and the boy stumbled out of his place so hurriedly he crashed into the wall across from his door.
"What's wrong!?" Skye demanded, brandishing the wooden bat she had brought along with her solely for the purpose of fending off serial killers.
"IT'S-IT'S...OH GOD...ITS IN THERE-!" The curly-haired boy ran a panicked hand through his hair and pointed with a trembling finger towards his apartment. "IT TRIED TO KILL ME!"
"What? Where? What is 'it'?" Skye was beginning to wonder if she should have invested her money in something like a taser.
"IT'S-OH GOD! THERE IT IS! IT'S COME FOR ME!" The boy grabbed Skye by the arm and hauled her in front of himself as if she was a human shield. Skye held her bat at the ready, waiting for the mysterious 'boogeyman' that had reduced her neighbor into a quivering mess. Nothing. Then, she lowered her eyes to the ground where the boy was now pointing, and she lowered her bat, feeling like the universe's second biggest idiot (The boy was definitely the first biggest idiot).
"It's a spider." Skye said flatly, watching the tiny arachnid calmly crawl out into the hall.
"DON'T JUST STAND THERE! KILL IT!" The boy pleaded, still cowering.
Skye yanked her arm out of his grasp in annoyance. "You're freaking out over a common house spider? I thought someone got murdered!"
"He tried to murder me!" Her neighbor jabbed a finger of accusation at the spider, making sure to maintain a proper amount of distance. A proper amount of distance being ten feet down the hall and watching Skye from behind the corner where the hall turned.
"This particular species of spider is far from venomous." Skye shook her head in disgust. "The most it's doing is actually keeping your place free of fruit flies."
"It crawled onto my arm. It was going to crawl into my ears and lay it eggs in there." He shuddered and gagged at the thought.
"Spiders are way too intelligent to do something that idiotic. They're smarter than that when it comes to recreating life."
"Will you stop lecturing me on the positives of having a twitchy-legged creature of evil invading my personal space and just kill it please?"
Skye rolled her eyes, but stepped on the spider obligingly. No way was she going to waste her bat on that. "Are you happy now that I've participated in your quest for carnage?" She asked sarcastically.
"Thank you." Her neighbor sighed and walked back down the hall meekly. "I'm normally not someone to freak out like that, but I loathe spiders with a burning hatred."
"You mean you're terrified of them." Skye corrected, resting her bat across her shoulders carelessly. "I have to admit when I heard a scream coming from next door I wasn't expecting anything less than the zombie apocalypse."
"Next door...You must be my new neighbor." The brunette cocked his head, as he finally really took in what Skye's appearance meant. He held out his hand. "My name's Jeffrey. Judging by the bat, you were looking for a Demogorgon?"
"The way you were screaming? Yes." Skye raised a cool eyebrow, but shook his hand.
"Well you saved my life; so, thanks for that?" Jeffrey chuckled weakly, but his smile was wide.
"No problem." Skye said dryly, way too tired to be in the mood to make friends. "I'm just your friendly neighborhood Spiderkiller." She trudged back to her apartment, making sure to close the door this time.
...
Skye's first day working at the observatory was pretty hard and exhausting. First days were always the worst, but to top that off was all the boxes waiting for her to unpack. Not to mention the apartment had no elevator, which meant she had to climb four flights of stairs. She was in a horrible mood, that only got worse when she saw who was waiting out in the hall next to her door.
"Hey.." Jeffrey waved rather awkwardly.
Skye mumbled something and avoided eye contact. Maybe it would discourage him from saying anything more. Skye was never that lucky though, and she knew that from all the times Hound had chosen her name last for everything.
"Um...so. I know you don't even really know me, and um...you already did this once, but..." Jeffrey's hands were fidgeting anxiously.
"Please just spit it out." Skye groaned. She had a feeling she knew what was coming next.
"There's another spider." Jeffrey sucked in a deep breath. "And it's just sitting there on my counter laughing at me. I know you're probably still annoyed at me for last time...and this was stupid. Sorry, I shouldn't have-"
Skye ignored him and stalked into his apartment, Jeffrey trailed on her heels but made sure to hang back. The spider wasn't hard to notice, it was actually slightly larger than the last one. Skye grabbed a piece of paper off of Jeffrey's table- much to his protest- and scooped up the spider with it. She carried it to his open window and shook it off outside.
"There you go." Skye slammed the piece of paper into Jeffrey's chest, perhaps a little too roughly, but he grabbed it.
"Thanks. I don't think I'll be able to look at the 'Moonlight Sonata' the same way ever again. But thanks." Jeffrey flourished a little dramatically with the paper that looked like it was covered in music notes.
"Just don't make this a habit." Skye shook her head, still rather irritated and her thoughts still filled with work.
"Right." Jeffrey smiled sheepishly.
...
Skye didn't see a sign of Jeffrey for a whole week. Sometimes she'd hear a piano as she walked upstairs, but it always stopped as soon as she closed her apartment door after her. She decided Jeffrey must have learned how to cope with his arachnids. That was until she stumbled down into the laundry room at one in the morning to grab her clothes out of the dryer, and found Jeffrey sitting on one of the washing machines.
Skye stared at Jeffrey, and Jeffrey wincingly returned her eye contact. It was way too early in the morning for Skye to even begin at trying to figure out what he was doing.
"What on earth-"
Jeffery ran a tired hand over his face and wordlessly pointed at the floor below him. It was a spider. Of course. Skye was so tempted to leave the boy to his own devices. Not out of spite, but because this was the third time, and at one in the morning it was kind of funny.
"Sorry to interrupt you two. I'll just grab my clothes, and let you guys be in peace." Skye snickered slightly.
"You're not funny. At all." Jeffrey emphasized with a huffy frown. He couldn't pull an upset face without looking like a toddler for the life of him. The way he had his knees drawn up to his chest didn't help either. "I think you brought the whole spider mafia down on me when you killed that first one."
"And that's my fault? You were the one shrieking 'KILL IT! KILL IT!' as I recall." Skye supplied, turning as if she was going to leave.
"Wait! You're not going to leave me here with this...this...monster are you?" Jeffrey appealed.
"I don't know. It seems like you have this under control. I'm sure you don't need my interference at all. Maybe you two just need to talk this out, make a real connection."
"There is no trying to get through to a cold-blooded killer. Please?" Jeffrey pleaded.
"What's in it for me?" Skye crossed her arms.
"I've got..." Jeffrey rummaged in his pockets. "Two quarters and a piece of lint?"
"Nope."
"I've got this etude in D minor?" He pulled out a very crumpled piece of sheet music.
"Good luck with the spider."
"No, wait. I've got a package of oreos up in my room. Unopened. Kill the spider and their yours." Jeffrey bargained hastily.
"Unopened?"
"Okay, so I ate four of them, but that's still like ninety-five percent of the package left." Jeffrey charmed winningly.
It was a decent deal; so, Skye killed the spider.
She found the package of cookies outside of her door the next day, with a scrawled thank you post-it-note and five oreos missing.
...
One month in, on one of her nights off, Skye discovered the roof. Or rather she discovered that it was as easy to break onto as the rest of the apartment building. She didn't even hesitate to bring her telescope up there the first chance she got, and every night that she didn't have a shift at the observatory was spent up there. She even began leaving her telescope, it was a pain to keep lugging up the stairs. She didn't think anyone else went there, until she had- for the first time in forever- a Tuesday night off.
Skye was tipped off to the intruder's identity before she even opened the door, when she heard a clarinet. Skye would recognize that horrible instrument anywhere, she was still haunted by the music lessons that had been forced on her as a child. Jeffrey played a lot better than she had. A lot better.
"Sorry." Jeffrey pulled the clarinet out of his mouth in surprise when Skye interrupted him. "I thought you worked Tuesday nights."
"No, it's fine. I just thought nobody else came up here. Do you come here a lot?"
"Every now and then..." Jeffrey shuffled his feet slightly. "That your telescope? I figured it was, when I saw it last week."
"You don't come up here, because I'm up here." Skye realized. "That's why you're up here tonight, you thought I was at work. Sorry, I didn't mean to hog the place."
"No, it's fine." Jeffrey hurried to assure as he backed up towards the door. "It's not like you're here every night and I don't mind sharing. It's not like it was really mine to begin with."
"You don't have to go if you don't want to." Skye blurted before she could stop herself. "And you don't have to always stop your music whenever you hear me get home. Maybe just from like three a.m. to like eleven while I'm asleep, but not the whole time I'm home. I appreciate it, but I don't want you to police your life because you're scared of me or something."
"Who said I was scared of you?" Jeffrey huffed after along pause.
Skye gave him a look over her shoulder as she adjusted her telescope with twitchy fingers, a little embarrassed by her speech.
"Okay, so maybe you're a little intimidating with the whole bat-toting, spider-killing, and impressive scowling aesthetic going on, but I'm not scared of you." Jeffrey crossed his arms.
"I don't scowl." Skye scowled. Jeffrey grinned broadly at that. He did have a nice smile.
"So you're a fan of the whole star-gazing, huh?" Jeffrey sat on the edge of the building. He might have been terrified of spiders, but he appeared to be perfectly comfortable with heights.
"Kind of have to be, I'm an astrophysicist, or an intern to be one."
"Knew it had to be something like that. You kind of have an intelligent, nerdy vibe going on." Jeffrey was disassembling his clarinet and cleaning the pieces.
"And you're obviously a musician."
"Obviously?"
"You've got the whole fragile and sensitive constitution going for you. You practically swoon at the sight of spiders."
"Spiders are skittering demons from the pits of hell." Jeffrey was indignant. "And being slightly nervous around them is a perfectly reasonable response. I am not weak."
"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Skye drawled. She enjoyed pushing this boy's buttons, the way he flared up was hilarious.
"I'm stronger than you." Jeffrey his voice challenging.
"Alright, let's settle this then." Skye tossed off her hoodie and rolled up the sleeves of her shirt. She settled her elbow on the roof vent and wiggled her hand. "Let's arm wrestle."
"What are you? Some kind of college frat boy?" But Jeffrey sat down across from her and grasped her hand anyway.
Jeffrey won, much to Skye's chagrin. But then he panicked when he put his hand down to stand up and accidently touched a spider web; so, Skye felt that they were even.
...
Two months in, and Skye was in her bedroom setting up the bed for Rosalind and Tommy; so, it was Tommy that answered the door to Jeffrey.
"Did you check out our Instagram pictures?" Rosalind finished telling Skye about her honeymoon.
"A couple of them. You know I don't spend that much time on the internet other than for research. I'm too busy. I saw the ones of you two on the beach, though. It looked nice."
"You need to start updating your social networks." Rosalind told her. "It lets us see what you are up to."
"But I'm not up to any-" Skye looked up as Tommy walked in. "What is it? Is the wifi down again? Sometimes you have to hit the server a couple of times."
"No, just some guy at the door looking for you. He didn't say what he wanted, just jerked his hands around and said to tell you he stopped by."
"What he look like? Old and bald? Was it my landlord?"
"No, he was young and had hair." Tommy was cramming a sandwich into his face.
"Beard?"
"No."
"Must be the guy next door. Wonder if we're making too much noise, I'll be right back."
Jeffrey answered the door as Skye was mid-knock.
"Hey, Tommy said you knocked on my door ten minutes ago?"
"Yeah, um...sorry to interrupt that...It's nothing now, I'm taking care of it." Jeffrey shrugged and looked over his shoulder in distraction. Skye understood immediately.
"It's a spider isn't it?"
"Um..."
Skye pushed her way past him. "Where is it?"
"It's fine, really." Jeffrey protested.
"Oh, please. Knowing you, you're going to let the spider take over your apartment and you'll move out." Skye rolled her eyes.
"I don't want to ruin your date just because I can't handle a stupid bug."
"Spider's are arachnids not bugs. They have eight legs and only two body parts: the cephalothorax and an abod-" Skye finally registered the first part of his sentence. "Wait. Date? What date?"
"You know, the guy who answered your door." Jeffrey gestured with a thumb towards Skye's apartment.
"Tommy? No, thanks." Skye shuddered at the idea. "He's my brother-in-law. He and my sister are staying over for two days, as a stop-over on their way to their new place."
"Oh." Jeffrey looked like he was trying not to smile in relief. Probably because he had been so worried that he had interrupted something for Skye, Skye reasoned to herself. "The spider's there on the piano."
...
Jeffrey was in the hallway, feverishly stomping the floor like a maniac.
"I think it's dead." Skye told him from her doorway, her arms crossed.
Jeffrey leaped and spun around with a hand on his chest, as if Skye had almost given him a heart attack. His face was oddly pale and he looked far more stricken over killing a spider than he should have. There was something deeper going on, Skye sensed.
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, fine." Jeffrey let out a long breath, trying to collect himself. His words sounded like he had said them between gritted teeth. "Sorry I disturbed you. I was trying to take care of this one myself and I still bothered you, I didn't mean-"
"Hey, it's fine." Skye felt awkward. She wasn't used to situations like this, and she didn't know whether to press Jeffrey or not. Would he think she was being too nosy? "I meant, is everything else okay? You seem..."
"Paranoid? Deranged? Off my rocker?" Jeffrey's laugh sounded high-strung and inauthentic.
"-Stressed." Skye corrected, and even though she knew she was going to regret it, she offered: "Want to talk about it?"
Jeffrey's face softened slightly and he shifted as if about to comply, but then his face hardened again and shook his head firmly. "No, it's-Everything's fine. I don't want to bother you with my problems. I already bug you enough with the spiders and invading your time on the roof."
"You're not invading me on the roof, you barely go up there when I'm up there."
"I don't even know your name." Jeffrey shot back. "You've been killing my spiders for three months now, not getting annoyed with my music, and kicking soccer balls at my head every time I step out into the hall, and I don't even know your-"
"Skye."
"What?" Jeffrey blinked and looked taken-aback.
"My name is Skye." Skye tried to shrug indifferently.
Jeffrey's mouth turned up a smidgen, almost a smile. "Of course it is. Rather fitting since you're always staring up at it."
The irony had never been lost on her, but Jeffrey catching that right away left her pleased.
Skye pushed forward again. "Do you want to talk about it now that we're on a first name basis?"
Jeffrey clearly hesitated.
"I don't mean to pry. If you don't want to, it's okay. We could always kick the soccer ball around the hall again, until the landlord tries to catch us, or we could-"
"Could we go to the roof? I could use some fresh air." Jeffrey blurted out. "I mean if you don't-"
"Sure. Bring that ukulele of yours too if you want."
On the roof- once Skye got him to open up successfully- Jeffrey began to rant about his mother and he couldn't stop. He started with what had happened that day- he had gotten into an argument with her over the phone- and from there he described how they had had issues from when he was just a kid. Skye would see why Jeffrey was always worried that he was bothering her. Not many people had listened to him as a child.
"She just sent me off there. To Pencey. I was shipped there for two years until I was finally able to convince her to stop." Jeffery waved and raved.
"How did you get her to stop?"
"I ran away. I had some stupid idea in my head about going off to Boston, that I'd somehow find my dad there. I don't know what I was thinking. Like he'd want to see me. I'd never heard from the man, I don't know why I fantasized that he'd even want to meet me. Anyway, I ran away and slept under the tomato stand of this man I knew. He brought me back to my mother and was able to get her to listen to me for once. I got to go to a school in Boston, even got to take a few music classes. She was mad when I went off on my own, the second I turned eighteen."
"I don't blame you though, you had it rough."
"It's just...this always happens. I think I'm doing fine, and just when I'm starting to get ahead again. She calls up or walks into my life and finds away to shatter everything. All my plans and all my work. Is it bad that I've tried to break off contact with her?"
"No, it's healthy." Skye assured him. "You need time to recover before you're able to face her, I think."
"Thanks. I needed to hear that." Jeffrey mumbled and ran hands over his tired face. "And I think I needed to talk that all out without anyone trying to fix me for once."
"I get that." Skye cocked her head to show that she understood. "I'm not the most patient person in the world either."
"Yeah, I can hear you yelling at your wifi sometimes." Jeffrey gave a weak smile, barely a fraction of his usual cheeky grin that Skye had grown accustomed to and missed.
"I've been trying to watch Doctor Who and it keeps crashing on me!" Skye scowled. "They're taking it off Netflix soon, and I've got ten episodes of the latest season to catch up on."
"I should have known you watch something like that." Jeffrey snorted. "You're such a nerd."
"Says the person who made a 'Stranger Things' reference the first time I met him."
"Says the person who made a 'Spiderman' reference right after that." Jeffrey mimicked and dodged as Skye tried to punch his shoulder. She didn't make too much of an effort though, his smile was back and that was enough.
...
Skye's whole body felt wracked with pain, and every time she made the slightest adjustment on her couch one of her limbs screamed in response. She had a blanket wrapped around herself, but it was only a matter of time before she got too hot again and would have to shake it off. The flu sucked. She felt too tired to even get up and move to her bed, no matter how much she wanted to. Her head was too light, she felt so dizzy.
Vaguely, she heard a knock on her door and she dimly registered herself calling out to whoever it was. Suddenly, Jeffrey was standing over her and looking worried. He must have said something, because Skye saw his mouth move and heard something through her fog, but she didn't understand his words.
"I'm sick." She said, her tongue feeling large and sluggish.
"I figured that out." Jeffrey frowned and put a hand on her forehead. "You're really burning up."
Jeffrey's hand felt nice and cold on her forehead, but he took it off too soon.
"What?" Skye asked dumbly aware that he had said something again, but suddenly Jeffrey was gone. Skye had begun to wonder if she had imagined him there, when he returned with a facecloth that he dropped on her forehead. Skye felt an almost instant relief, not enough to ease the discomfort completely, but it helped all the same. Jeffrey propped one of her pillows behind her head, and the crick in Skye's neck began to dissolve.
"Here." Jeffrey handed her a glass of water and some ibuprofen. Skye obediently swallowed the pills with a sip of water; though, her hands were trembling so weakly that Jeffrey was quick to take the water from her again. "Try to sleep, I'm going to go make you some soup for when you wake up."
Skye wanted badly to tell him not to go again, but her eye lids were already drooping and she couldn't muster the energy to talk. Her head snuggled against the familiarity of her pillow and she fell asleep.
...
Skye was feeling well enough to sit up the next day and talk to Jeffrey while she ate more of the soup he had gotten her, only because he had promised that she could have chocolate pudding afterwards.
"This your family?" Jeffrey looked over the pictures resting on Skye's desk.
"Yeah. That's my dad and step-mom, Iantha. The older girl there is my sister, Rosalind, that's Jane, and Batty's that short one right there. That's my little step-brother Ben, and Lydia's the youngest." Skye said, swallowing the lump she had learned awhile ago was homesickness.
"I always wanted some siblings." Jeffrey murmured, not like he was sorry for himself. But just as a conversational point.
"Is this your Mom?" Jeffrey held up the picture that was by itself. "You look just like her."
"Yeah." Skye's face dropped like it always did whenever her mother was mentioned.
"Divorce?" Jeffrey winced at her expression.
"Cancer." Skye corrected, staring down at her soup.
"Sorry." Jeffrey sat down across from her. "I didn't mean to bring up something that-"
"It's fine. It was years ago, when I was six." Skye cut him off. "It could be worse."
Jeffrey caught her meaning, and lowered his gaze thoughtfully. He didn't speak for the longest time, but when he did, it was slowly. "You mean like never knowing my father. Don't you? You think that's worse?"
"Well...isn't it?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. I think learning to love someone only to have them leave so soon, is probably worse." He corrected. "Maybe it's the same amount of pain, but just a different kind."
Skye finished her soup and pondered Jeffrey's words with care as he took the bowl away from her and put it in the sink. His clattering around the kitchen filled in the silence comfortably. That was the way with Jeffrey. Every time Skye was around him, they somehow slipped seamlessly into something like a friendship that was ten years old, instead of only five months. It was nice.
"How'd that interview on Friday go?"
"Good? I don't know exactly, they haven't called me back yet. I'm hoping that's not a bad sign, but there were a lot of applicants; so, I don't exactly have my hopes up high." Jeffrey called back over his shoulder, as he puttered around washing her dishes. "It'd be nice, though, after only being an assistant for two years to have my own music class and the professor did recommend me."
"That should give you an edge." Skye hummed absently as her mind wandered. When exactly did Jeffrey become the biggest fixture in her life, and why hadn't she noticed it sooner?
...
With Jeffrey's busy schedule teaching, and Skye's job responsibilities picking up- because she graduated to a full-time paid position- they didn't get to see much of each other. Even their weekends weren't completely free, because Jeffrey had to work on planning and correcting homework, and fielding emails from his students. So, Skye was surprised when Jeffrey burst into her apartment on her day off.
"Jeffrey? Don't you have to work today?"
"Spring vacation." He panted, leaning against her door with wide eyes.
"What's wrong?" Skye was used to him walking in all the time now, but not without a knock first, and definitely not like he had Satan on his heels.
"I've made the biggest mistake of my life. It's so big, and I didn't want to do it at first, but I couldn't say no, because he's the dean. I thought I could handle it, I've gotten better and-"
"Slow down." Skye wasn't sure she could laugh or if the situation demanded seriousness. "Start from the beginning. What happened?"
"My school's dean was going on vacation, and he had no-one to look after his very large pet tarantula."
Skye's mouth dropped slightly. "You of all people offered to watch one of the biggest species of spiders?"
"YOU KNOW I CAN'T SAY NO!" Jeffrey practically wailed, he was all fidgety. He always got really twitchy after running into a spider.
"Calm down." Skye was laughing now. "Relax, just bring it over here and I'll take care of it."
"That's the thing!" Jeffrey was practically tearing his hair out. "I can't!"
"Do you want me to go get it then?"
"You don't understand!"
"Because you're making it exceptionally hard to do so."
"The spider's name is Houdini!"
"So-Oh." Skye's eyes widened. "Jeffrey. Don't tell me it escaped."
Jeffrey winced. "It did. I don't know where it went, and I'm terrified that it's going to leap out of nowhere and chew my face off. I couldn't stay a second longer in there."
Skye laughed herself weak.
...
After an hour scouring Jeffrey's apartment- he only agreed to accompany her when they left his door open, just in case they needed to make a quick escape- Skye had to agree the tarantula was gone. Jeffrey swore vehemently that the tarantula was only hiding and waiting for him when Skye wasn't around; so, she let him stay in her apartment until Houdini decided to get himself caught in the trap they had set for it.
"Why do they actively seek me out?" Jeffrey demanded mid-way through their 'Star Wars' marathon.
"Like attracts like, I suppose." Skye tried to ignore how close they were sitting next to each other on her tiny couch. Jeffrey's hand was almost touching hers. "You've got the long sprawling limbs, and you do twitch a lot."
"I hate you." Jeffrey huffed and crossed his arms. He was pouting.
"I know." Skye grinned. On screen, Han Solo echoed her words as he was being lowered into the carbonite pit.
Jeffrey lowered his hands again, and he and Skye jumped when his landed on hers. Their eyes met, and after a tensed moment Jeffrey jerked back and leaped to his feet. "I'm going to grab the cookies. Do you want anything?"
"Could you grab me a drink from the fridge?" Skye had to clear her throat. Jeffrey nodded and walked into her kitchen as fast as he could without running.
Skye tried to focus on the movie as best as she could, but her mind wouldn't stop running in another direction. She couldn't get the sensation of Jeffrey's hand on hers out of her head, and she wanted to slam her head in the wall. They were just friends. They were just friends. They were-
Jeffrey's scream ripped through her apartment, and Skye once again found her reflexes forcing her to grab her bat on the way into the kitchen.
"Where is it?" Skye asked.
Jeffrey had vaulted onto her counter. "RIGHT THERE! HOW COULD YOU MISS IT! IT'S GOING TO KILL YOU!"
Skye looked down, and the next second she was joining Jeffrey up on the counter and trying to draw her feet up as far as possible. "THAT THING'S HUGE!"
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET IT!" Jeffrey protested, even though he was holding onto her arm for dear life.
"Why do I have to get it?!" Skye demanded her eyes following the impressively large tarantula.
"You're the one who's supposed to protect me from spiders!" Jeffrey insisted burying his face into her shoulder.
"Yeah, spiders. Not some freakin' mutant creature with pincers that could take one of my fingers!" Skye held her bat out uselessly toward the large arachnid.
"What are we going to do then?" Jeffrey asked helplessly. "Are we just going to sit up here and starve to death?"
"We're going to have get past it somehow." Skye reasoned. "We'll get to your apartment, get his tank, and then lure him into it somehow."
"That's a terrible plan. He's right in front of the door."
"Hey, who's fault is this in the first place? He wouldn't be in here if you hadn't agreed to watch him. We could be watching movies and eating junk food right now if you weren't such a nice person."
"Fine, but you go first because you've got the bat." Jeffrey nudged her. Skye crouched on her counter, poised to make the first move as soon as the tarantula turned around.
"It's literally got eyes all over its head." Jeffrey read her mind. "I think it's going to see you no matter which way it's facing."
"Alright, but if you stay on the counter instead of backing me up, I will kill you before the tarantula does." Skye leaped over the tarantula and into the next room, stumbling over her own feet at the end. Jeffrey landed with a thump behind her, right on her heels. They both made a break for his apartment and grabbed his tank.
Skye was grateful that the spider hadn't hid itself again when they got back to her place, until she realized something. "Um...how are we going to get him in the tank again?"
"I'm not touching him!" Jeffrey threw up his hands and took a step back. "Maybe he'll feel homesick and just crawl back in the same way he got out?"
Skye gave him a look. "Would you just crawl back in there if you were him?"
"I don't know! I'm not evil incarnated." Jeffrey shrugged hopelessly. "Maybe we can cut off one of our fingers and lure him back into the tank with the scent of fresh blood."
"You need to stop panicking."
"I'm not panicking! You're panicking!" Jeffrey hissed back.
"Yes, you are. You always ramble a whole bunch of nonsense when ever you get the slightest bit anxious."
"At least I don't yell at-"
"Look, we're going to get nowhere with this conversation." Skye took a deep breath. "We need to focus on the problem at hand."
"We're not going to have any hands left, if that monster gets us." muttered Jeffrey, but he shut up when Skye shot a glare at him.
In the end, Jeffrey managed to borrow a fishing net from the bearded Harrison that lived in the other apartment on their floor, and Skye was able to scoop the tarantula up and then quickly dump it in the tank. Jeffrey pounced with the tank screen before Houdini could even make an attempt to jump out, and they duct taped it down so he couldn't escape a second time.
"That was the most terrifying thing I've ever done!" Jeffrey whooped and swept Skye up into a congratulatory hug that left her feet dangling above the ground. "You were brilliant!"
"Thanks." Skye felt breathless. "You weren't bad yourself."
Jeffrey set her down gently, as if Skye was something breakable. His smile was the widest she had ever seen, a welcome change from all the stress she had seen crossing it lately. It was that stupid, idiotic grin that made her stomach twist, and annoyed her because she was way too old for crushes. Besides they were just friends. Just friends. Just...
"Are you alright?" Jeffrey cocked his head in confusion. Even bewilderment looked good on him.
Skye wanted to tear her eyes away, but she couldn't. She wanted to assure him that everything was fine, and punch his shoulder just like she always did whenever she was at a loss around him. But she couldn't. Not when he was looking at her like that. Instead, she found herself closing the distance between them and doing something she had wanted to do since that time she had arm-wrestled Jeffrey on the roof.
Skye kissed Jeffrey. Or at least she tried to, but because her eyes were closed and she moved with such a jerk, she missed and kissed his nose. Skye pulled back with an annoyingly high-pitched sound of embarrassment and ran a hand over her face, afraid to look Jeffrey in the eye. Then, Jeffrey made a strangled wheezing sound and Skye couldn't not look at him. There was a wide range of conflicting emotions crossing his face. Shock. Disbelief. Awe. He touched his nose gingerly.
"You just kissed me." Jeffrey informed Skye, as if she had somehow missed that fact.
"Um..." Skye couldn't think of a single thing to say no matter how hard she tried, and the silence stretched painfully. Skye was good at a lot of things. Killing spiders, understanding rocket-science level calculus, and memorizing every fact about the night sky that existed. Heck, she could recite pi up to it's 35th digit. She was not good at feeling like her heart was going to implode in her chest every time she saw Jeffrey. "I...uh..."
Jeffrey didn't even seem to notice that she couldn't think what to tell him, he was still struggling on his own. "You kissed me. You kissed me?!"
"It's not a big deal?" Skye tried weakly.
"Not a big deal?!" Jeffrey was on a full blown freak out. Full blown-running-his-hands-through-his-hair-and-rambling freak out. "Not a big deal?! I've only had a crush on you from the first time I met you, but oh that's not a big deal. I've only been hopelessly head over heels for you since you told me your name, but I guess that's not a big deal either. I've only wanted to kiss you every time you-"
Skye couldn't contain herself anymore, she grabbed Jeffrey's face with both hands to make sure she didn't miss this time and kissed him squarely on the mouth. Jeffrey stood as stiff as a board for a second, but when Skye moved to pull back he settled his hands lightly on her hips and leaned forward to return the kiss.
Skye pulled back first, and watched Jeffrey's eyes flutter open. "Um...I kissed you." It was intended as a gentle jab, but it sounded way too much like Skye was trying to convince herself of the fact.
"Yeah. You did." Jeffrey breathed. They were both lost in the moment, not quite sure what to say or do. The grin was slowly returning to Jeffrey's face and it was making Skye's own mouth widen with an insanely large smile of her own. He needed to smile more, but as soon as she thought that, Jeffrey's face darkened once again. He reluctantly tore his gaze from her and grimly eyed the tarantula in the tank.
"So...what are we supposed to do with that...thing?"
Skye blinked and brought herself back to reality too, "It's not staying in my apartment." Skye read his mind, and Jeffrey wrinkled his nose in disappointment.
"I can't live in the same space as him!" Jeffrey clasped his hands together pleadingly. "He's twice as angry now, and probably out for revenge!"
He was being ridiculous, but even Skye grew uneasy whenever she looked at the arachnid. It's eyes were really unsettling. She wasn't even sure she would be able to sleep thinking about how easily the tarantula had creeped its way over into her apartment, and that gave her an idea.
"Why don't we camp out on the roof? It's warm enough now, and he can't get us up there if we leave him in your apartment with his lid still on." Skye suggested.
"What just you and me under the stars?" Jeffrey wiggled his eyebrows ridiculously at her. "Sounds romantic. Are you trying to seduce me?"
"If so, it's technically worked hasn't it?" Skye crossed her arms defiantly. "According to you, you fell head over heels for me, just from me telling you my name."
Jeffrey reddened and opened his mouth to protest weakly, but Skye cut him off with a quick peck on the lips. He blinked rapidly, trying to recollect himself. "That's not fair. You-you can't just keep throwing me off like that by kissing me!"
He didn't complain when Skye pressed forward again though.
Let's face it, what we really want to know when we look at relationships is which one kills the spiders and which one freaks out over them.
KoalaLoverABC-123: Trust me, you never make me feel pressured. I enjoyed writing that chapter just as much as you did reading it. The soulmate idea was a thing I'd toyed with for quite awhile, and I might be tempted to attempt another one again since everyone liked it so much.
GM01: Thanks, and no, you're the awesome one. I'm glad you liked the concept.
Readwriteedit: You flatter me so much. I'm glad you liked the chapter so much, that you broke your sabbatical from fanfiction just to review it. You made me squeal in delight.
Nijibrush: You bring the Jane in me out, every time you update you're own story so fair's fair I suppose. The fact that I got you musing makes me incredibly proud and delirious with giddiness.