Shorties

Axel was pouring a cup of coffee, half-smoked cigarette hanging from his mouth, when there was a knock on his door.  His already-low mood plummeted.

Most days, Axel had no problems with the occasional unannounced visitor.  In fact, he usually welcomed social calls from his friends, and would greet them at the door with a smile.  Most days, Axel hadn’t just woken up after a night of hard drinking, with a pounding headache and a queasy stomach.  The cigarette had taken the edge of the nausea, and the coffee was the first of several steps in quelling the headache, but he hadn’t gotten much farther.  He hadn’t even managed to get dressed yet, and when another knock sounded at the door, he let out a low curse and decided that, whoever it was would just have to deal with seeing his bony ass in his drawers.

“Coming!”  Axel’s voice was hoarse around his cigarette.  He wiped a hand over his face, fairly certain it would do nothing, and not caring.  He just wanted the knocking to stop.

He fumbled with his lock for a moment, registered that the deadbolt wasn’t locked—he must’ve forgotten it in his drunken haze—and pulled the door open.

Admittedly, his synapses were running on a lag with his hangover, so for a moment all he did was stare at the person standing on the other side of his door.

“And here I thought I was the only one that could pull of that shade of red so well.”  The man smiled, an expression that turned his already sharp features into something approaching vulpine.

“Huh.”  Axel blinked some of the haze away as he took in the raucous red hair of the stranger.  Blue eyes framed by a slash of ink on either cheek.  “Who the hell are you?”

“Reno,” and with his name, he offered a hand.  “Your new neighbor.”

Axel stuck his own hand out to shake the offered one.  “Reno.  Right.  Okay.  What do you want?”  Axel had a moment, realizing he was still only wearing yesterday’s boxers, and that his hair was a disheveled mess, and resisted the urge to run a hand through it to straighten it.  It would be futile, anyway.

“Just wanted to introduce myself, y’know?  Uhm, did I catch you at a bad time?”  Axel didn’t know this Reno yet, but he had a feeling that the little up-tilt of his lips was a smirk, amusement at his expense.

“Yeah, no, it’s fine.”  Axel gestured with his nearly-spent cigarette and tried not to frown.  “I just woke up, see?”  He jerked a thumb back to indicate the interior of his apartment.  “Coffee just finished.”

Reno’s smirk widened into a grin.  “Then I’d better leave you to it, eh?”

Axel let out an inarticulate grunt, maybe an agreement, maybe a dismissal.  He wasn’t quite sure himself, still trying to catch up to the moment and taking in Reno’s tall figure.  Let his eyes rest on the sliver of chest visible through Reno’s half-buttoned shirt.

Reno’s voice pulled him away from the glean of sweat on pale skin.  “If you’re free tonight, you could come over for a beer.”  He crossed his arms, and yeah, Axel was pretty sure the man looked pleased with himself.  “I live right across the hall.”

Axel groaned at the thought of beer.  At the moment, he was pretty sure he was willing to swear off alcohol for at least the next year.  Or maybe a month.  Then again, he’d had similar thoughts before, only to go out the very same night and do it all over again, so he decided not to refuse just yet.  “Mm.  Beer.  Yeah.”

Reno’s bray of a laugh was harsh in Axel’s ears.  “Catch you later, then?  Just knock, yeah?”

Axel nodded, a movement that he instantly regretted, and returned the wave Reno sent him before disappearing behind his own door.

He was thankful, at least, for the dim lighting of the hallway.

Axel resumed his morning-after ritual, more determined than ever to rid himself of the hangover.

Later that evening, when he crossed the hall to Reno’s apartment, his neighbor greeted him with another smirk,  his shirt fully unbuttoned this time, and Axel had some thoughts that were less than pure.

And as the night wore on and they sat shooting the shit, an easy camaraderie already growing between them, Axel’s thoughts turned even more impure.

“So do you always greet people at the door in your briefs?”  Reno’s voice was thick with alcohol, his grin wide and teasing.

“Naw.  Why, would you be jealous?”  It was easy to pick up a bantering tone with his new friend, to smile along with him, and maybe hint at some of his less-than-pure thoughts while he was at it.

Reno slung an arm over Axel’s shoulders.  “And what if I was?”  They were near enough that Axel could smell the beer on his breath.

Axel took in the glint in Reno’s eye, lips quirking into a slanted smile.  “Then I’d say you should give me a reason to focus my attention only on you.”

There was a flash of teeth, something predatory, before their lips crashed together.  The alcohol dulled the heat a little, made the kiss sloppy, but that made it more interesting, made something that might’ve been a flash of fire into a slower burn.

Axel spared half a thought about whether he might regret it later, going at it with a newly arrived neighbor, and then flung the notion aside without a care.  He’d always been one for living in the moment.

He didn’t have a hangover when he woke up the next time, and with a clearer head, he mused over the fact that, yes, Reno’s hair was almost the same shade of red as his own, and yes, he did pull it off well.