It was a clear and warm night. At about 2am, Neku was still awake. He was thinking about all that had happened in the past few weeks. Leaving home, moving into his new home, meeting new people. It was great, but it put quite a bit of stress in his life. Deciding that just lying on the bed wasn't going to put him to sleep, Neku stood up, turned on a nightlight, and sat on his windowsill sofa. His room was the only room on the second floor, and it had a large window lined with cushions and pillows along the bottom, creating a comfortable bed-like windowsill. His family wasn't short of money, that's for sure. Neku sank into the cushions and looked up at the stars, wondering if he'll be lucky enough to spot a shooting star and wish himself a better sleeping pattern.
Neku wasn't the only one awake at this time. Amethyst eyes watched Neku's silhouette from across the street in the least creepy way possible in this situation. Joshua pondered as he sat by his living room window.
Why is he still up at this hour? His previous personality wouldn't lose a wink of sleep for anything, except his headphones. He recalled a certain situation where Joshua wanted to see how far Neku would go to retrieve his headphones, but that is a story for another time. The silhouette from the adjacent house slowly slid down until it slumped out of view. The egotistic blond found himself looking forward to what he will discover about this 'new' Neku.
How will I make him mine?
A mess of orange hair tumbled onto the ground with the sounding of the horrible screeching of an unexplainable source. Groaning and rubbing his head, Neku peered outside the window to find the origin of the noise.
Oh shoot! Neku thought. Today was garbage pick-up day! He sprinted to his kitchen and bathroom, scooped up the garbage bags and booked it outside, in his pajamas. Miraculously, the garbage truck seemed to have not moved very much. Neku ran up to the driver, and almost ran back into his house. The driver was tall and lanky, wearing punk-y black attire with scars on his body.
"What do you want, radian? I have a job to do, so this better be worth my time." The garbage man snarled.
"Uh, I just wanted to drop off my garbage bags?" Neku answered meekly, really not in the mood to offend the man.
Surprisingly, the man seemed satisfied. "Crunch! I'll add it to the heap! Thanks, hectopascal, all of this will really help out my art!"
And with a salute with his cap, he drove off into the sunrise— Neku blinked, it was already 9am so Neku wasn't exactly sure how the sunrise happened. To be exact, he wasn't really sure what to think of the situation that just took place either. Meanwhile, a few houses away, a certain smirk took place, followed by a giggle, and then, a genuine laugh.
As Neku was about to head back into the house, something shiny caught his eye. He turned around to find Joshua with his hair reflecting from the sun, confidentially strolling towards him. What now? Neku thought. He waited until Joshua was a few meters away before giving him salutations.
"Hey, what's up?" Neku asked, trying to be as casual as he could.
"Oh, nothing much, just decided to visit my dear neighbour." Joshua replied, with that same smirk.
"Do you really have to come early in the mornings? Can't you come in the afternoons like normal people?"
"Well, I wouldn't call us 'normal people', I mean, who would've thought that you loved garbage trucks so much you would chase them in your pajamas?"
Neku sputtered. "Y-you saw that! No, I wasn't trying to chase it! I mean, I was, but not because I wanted to!" He huffed, and tried to defend himself. "A-and, speaking of pajamas, I'm going to go get changed now, so butt out for a while!" Neku stomped into his house and slammed the door, though careful to cushion it a bit as to not wreck the nice door frame.
Joshua chuckled to himself, but then donned a serious expression.
He isn't responding to provocation as intensely as before. Joshua feels a huge, evil, and unexplainable need to get on Neku's nerves, to constantly be on Neku's mind. He feels that his past feelings are starting to resurface, though he knows that this 'new' Neku is not the same person anymore; he would never be able to stand just giving up. He starts to concoct a plan to get Neku to return the feelings that he had.
Meanwhile, Neku fumed while changing out of his pyjamas.
That arrogant jerk! What's up with him? Does he enjoy bothering all the new people on the block? ..Ugh, man.. I'm not gonna waste any more time thinking of him. And yet, Neku couldn't stop that part of him — deep inside — that desperately drew his mind towards the other boy.