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Chapter One
Shit. Shit. Shitshitshit!
Raven didn't even have time to react. She felt her ankle roll underneath her as she heard an angry crack from her shoe, and her body weight teetered like a top on its last spin. Yelling loud enough for it to echo down the empty street, she pitched forward and fell onto the pavement, her hands barely catching herself as she hit the ground with a sickening noise. Her skin yanked and pulled with the force, and she was pretty sure that she had bruised her entire forearm. Raven cursed and pressed her forehead to the sidewalk, praying that this was all a really, really bad dream.
Her eyes opened.
It wasn't.
Raven couldn't believe it. It was like something out of a bad romantic comedy, the poor little heroine left brokenhearted after a bad break up, waiting for the hero to find her and make her right again. Only this was no comedy, and she wasn't laughing, and there certainly was no handsome knight to pick her up and set her right. No, instead she was left to lay there on the dirty sidewalk outside her apartment, with a broken high heel, and hearing his parting words echo through the silence in her head as if they were left on replay.
"I just think we should see other people."
"I'm not right for you and you know it."
"You're a great girl, but we're headed in different places…"
"You'll find someone better suited for you."
It was all so disgustingly cliché that she thought she might actually vomit. It was scripted and rehearsed and completely ingenuine, and it left Raven feeling like someone pulled the rug out from underneath her feet and the heart from her chest. Not that she ever anticipated her life with him would have been perfect, but she honestly thought he'd at least give it more effort for more than just a few months.
She fought against the tears building in her eyes, and pulled herself up onto her knees, staring down at her scraped and bruised legs with a low, exhausted sigh. This day just needed to be over with. The sooner she could just get into her apartment and get into her own bed, the sooner she could forget that this day ever happened. And maybe forget that the entire world had ever existed.
Kicking off her heels, she dropped them into the nearest trashbin and made her way through the small courtyard to her apartment building, staring up the windows lit with warm, yellow glow. They were all bright and beautiful, and many of them had couples watch TV and snuggling, making dinner, being-
Raven's eyes and mind skidded to a halt and she could practically hear the screeching sound in the back of her head as her breath was knocked right from her lungs. Was she actually seeing this? This. Of all the things she could possibly have seen at this exact moment. Three stories up, two windows in… there, right in front of a window, the blinds raised proudly, stood a man.
Completely and utterly naked.
And good lord it should have been illegal to be built like that.
He had one thigh propped up on the windowsill as he fidgeted with something in his hands, completely unaware that Raven was standing three stories below him watching him move around as if he were a very, very interesting movie. She licked her lips and let her eyes follow every line of his Adonis-like body. Lithe, toned muscles, like those of a gymnast, roped up and down the length of of his arms before stretching across his chest and ending in a set of abs that Raven could have washed her panties on. Her stare drifted lower to that fine line of hair starting just below his navel, and framed by the perfect V leading down to-
Raven blushed and pulled back, her eyes widening as he turned to face the window fully. A perfectly arched eyebrow raised up towards his hairline as his stare turned down to face her. She looked up at him, watching in horror as water slid down that sharp, angled chest, dripping over the curves and hollows of his abs before tangling in that interesting trail of hair. His smile curled up at one edge and he leaned against the window frame.
She could only stare, completely entranced with the sight in front of her.
His chuckle echoed between the two wings of Raven's apartment building, and he called out to her, "Do you like what you see?"
Raven's face burned bright red and she quickly looked away, staring at her feet as she started to head toward the front door, throwing up her hand to hide her embarrassment from him. She just needed to get in the door. She really didn't need to think about his broad chest, or his strong arms, or his washboard abs, or his narrow hips, or his-
"You know, normally I charge for a view like this."
Raven's bare feet stopped on the pavement and she whipped around, meeting his laughing eyes again.
He leaned out the window a little, grabbing onto the frame as he inched over the edge of the building and closer into the courtyard. "But you're pretty cute so I'll cut you a deal. How about you take me out for a cup of coffee instead?"
Raven's mouth fell open and her cheeks darkened even more as her stare glided back down his chest and back up again. Unable to respond to his bright, echoing laughter, she raced for the door, fumbling with her keys as she reached the threshold. As her key slid in the lock, she heard him call out to her again.
"The name's Jason, Princess… I just moved in today!"
She looked over her shoulder as he gave her a little wave.
Oh god. What kind of neighbor did she have now?
Bleeding Writer and I (Xaphrin) have lost ourselves in AUs that we write on Tumblr. So, we thought it might be nice to put them all into one place. This particular one gets a little racy at times, but won't get super dirty for a while, and we'll give you a heads up before that happens. So until then, we'll keep it listed at "T"
Anyway, I hope you enjoy, feel free to leave a review! Thanks!