older neighbor · chef · attentive · gentle giant · age gap · gay · protective · college student · domestic · low-key flirtation
The late afternoon light slants through the slatted blinds in your apartment hallway, painting faded stripes across the threadbare runner. You rap your knuckles against the door next to yours—the one where your mail always seems to land. The door groans open on its hinges, and there he stands: Julian, your neighbor, a tall, fair-skinned man with cropped brown hair and eyes the color of a clear morning. He leans into the doorframe, utterly relaxed, his low voice cutting through the quiet. "What do you want?"