Kisame looked up at the looming building before him and then down at the back of a crumpled receipt where he had scrawled the address of the location where he was meeting his potential new roommate.
"This can't be right." Kisame muttered and looked back up at the behemoth before him.
He counted the stories. It was ten stories tall, maybe eleven; he couldn't say for sure without walking backwards into the street to get a better view. He looked at the address again and then at the address listed on the golden plaque on the building.
The number he had and the number on the building matched, but Kisame couldn't bring himself to believe that the address he had been given was correct. When he saw an ad requesting a roommate, he imagined something like the sandwich shop – a brick building squeezed between other buildings like it with cracks scaling up the sides, and air conditioning units hanging out of windows or something like that. In fact, if the residence above the sandwich shop were vacant, he'd be content living there, but this…this is where people who had money lived. And people who had money, at least, as far as Kisame knew, didn't need roommates to help pay their rent.
A smile spread across Kisame's face. Unless they didn't need the money at all and just wanted somebody to keep them company. If that were the case, that'd be a bonus.
Quickly settling upon the idea, Kisame smiled and headed for the entrance, pausing briefly at the gold plaque that read the address, before walking inside.
The interior was dark, the walls lined with dark wood paneling, illuminated by a single glass chandelier and a few wall lamps here and there.
On his right sat the front desk, which was currently left unintended. On it, sat a tiny bell to ring for assistance, if needed. Further down were a pair of elevators, and a crowd of people gathered around; men wearing expensive suits, some donning briefcases, and the women wearing clingy dresses.
Across from the elevators was a wall that was entirely dedicated to mailboxes, proving that this was, in fact, an apartment building and not some cooperate office. In front of them, four chairs sat around a square glass coffee table.
Seated in one of them, a man wearing a gray suit was reading a paper. That man, Kisame decided, must be the one who placed the ad in the paper since he specified to meet him in the lobby when they talked over the phone the other day.
"Hi, did you place an ad in the paper for a roommate?" Kisame asked politely.
The man lowered the paper and gave Kisame a quizzical look before reading again. "Sorry, no."
"Thanks anyways." Kisame waved, and walked towards the entrance where there were another set of chairs – all of them vacant.
Kisame sat down in one of them leaned back. They weren't the comfiest chairs in the world to sit, which was a let-down since most of the chairs back at the auto-shop were stacked crates or tires. He leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees and lacing his hands together in anticipation as he waited to meet his potential roommate, who seemed to be running late.
There was always somebody standing at the entrance to the elevator, Kisame noticed, and at times there were waves of people who would walk through the class entrance and wait for the elevator to pick them up. The waves of people must have been the result of different professions ending at different times, he guessed.
"Kisame Hoshigaki?" A man asked in a rushed voice from behind him.
At the mention of his name, Kisame looked up and only saw the back of the man's black sport coat before he was in front of him. "That's me." He answered the air and turned around so that he was facing forward.
"Excuse my tardiness, I had a lot of work to finish today." He said, and set his lap top bag on the floor so he could reach out to shake his hand. "Itachi Uchiha. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
And so they meet...
Until next time!
~Sasori33-001