Chapter 0 - Fresh Start; Fresh Sheets.

City Air could choke you, if you let it. It was thick and full of the sweat and pressures of everyone living in buildings of stacked boxes and labyrinth roads. Most people sensitive too it moved out into the countryside, moving the population of cities, and employers desperate for steady workers. People who stuck around and worked hard got what they deserved.

That's what they told him when he moved out here, three years ago. It's what his newlywed wife told him when he took a dawn to dusk cubicle job to make ends meet while his wife... He pinched his nose as the metro train came to a stop.  The City was vast enough that he could ride the metro for an hour and it was practically another state. 

Perfect.

He stepped off the train so quickly his bags knocked against the door frame before the announcer had finished the usual safety warnings: City Air can be dangerous to those not inoculated, please use filter masks when traveling below level three, please do not buy non government issued filters.

Same old crap. The man stopped in the middle of the hallway, but foot traffic was so sparse; nobody was bothered. These halls had been the arteries when the City was teeming with life. Now it was suffering from low blood pressure.

The man pulled out his phone and could see his face reflected in the flat screen. Hair clipped short and uneven, beard growing in slowly, eyes looking tired and bloodshot. 

"Perfect Janitor." He groused and dialed the brightness up on the screen. Enough to see the battery warning flash again. He had several messages,:

<Annabelle Stewart> (12) Resident Attendant Application (3 Attachments) (1 Unread)
<Sis> (8) I don't wanna say I told you so... (1 Unread)
<Mom> (14) Come home...
<Mollock&Mollock> (39) Re: Case arrangements... (24 Attachments)
<BITCH> (2) So this is how you're gonna do this?

The man glared at the screen and clicked his sister's message first.

"Glad you found something, I looked up the place; It seems legit."

The man laughed under his breath, flicked his eyes up to make sure he wasn't about to walk into traffic, then slowed his pace to text a reply.

"Land lady sounds nice, but hey who am I to judge character, at this point?" He hit send then flicked up to the message from Annabelle.

"Glad you got things hammered out so quickly; I felt bad with you staying at those cheap motels when you could already be moving in here."

His conversations with Annabelle had been, and the man smiled at this, a balm; given his situation. He'd applied just so he could find a place to live once he decided to give up on the house, and the stains attached to it. 

"Off the train, it's just two blocks north, right?" he paused then backspaced, "...two blocks north, correct?" and hit send. He looked up at the variosu residentials and saw the one he was looking for. He quickly texted another message and headed off.

This part of the City had taken its design elements from Asia: and if the man guessed right: Japan, in particular. He did feel like some of architecture resembled things he'd seen in 2D up until recently. The apartment tower he was staying at had a particular design that was proving itself popular, and effective.

A ground floor for administration and maintenance, two floors of residencies with small shared laundromats, then a third floor with gardens and places for people to open shops and sell wares to other residents, or visitors. Then two more floors of apartments and another Garden, shop floor.

All in all, not a bad looking building either.

"Eric?" A woman's voice brought his gaze down to ground level and he was stunned. Not simply at how beautiful the woman he was looking at was, but how quickly his brain could stir in this way, so soon after what had happened. "Eric Wire?"

"Wyre." Eric Wyre smiled despite the correction, "Annabelle Stewart?" He shuffled a dufflebag to offer a hand when she nodded and moved closer, and every step she took made his heart jump; well, not exactly his heart. 

Her skin was a dark chocolate brown, and had a slight gleam from the warmth of the afternoon. Her long legs carried her in a few strides, Eric could guess she was used to being on her feet, even if the toned muscles were surrounded by lush flesh that held in check by her sheer pants. Just a stripe of her belly peeked out between her belt and not quite short shirt, and Eric caught the hint of a well defined abs. The shirt might have covered her stomach entirely if it weren't being stretched up, and forward, by the incredible, barely restrained, yet not quite contained, breasts that were big enough for Eric to bury his face in them, or so he was imagining.

Oh lord, he was staring this whole time.

"I'm so sorry," His face burned as he looked away and Annabelle just laughed.

"Boy, don't worry. I'm just glad the girls still work." She clapped him lightly on the shoulder. "This isn't all you have, is it?" She asked, concerned. He looked back into her face, round but with lines from years of worry and other peoples' problem. She was gorgeous and Eric was having trouble stringing thoughts together.

"No, I've got more. This is just the stuff that I got back from the cleaners. My stuff." He'd paid for alot of his personal effects to be sanitized. Most of it was stuff that he had an intimate attachment too, but the first night in the motel, he felt like he could still smell some of her perfume on some of those things.  "Rest is in storage." He shrugged.

Annabelle gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. 

"Well, don't worry. Everyone gets theirs in the end. Come on, let's get you settled in." She lead him into the building, but walked straight past the offices to the elevators. Eric looked at the offices and realized that some of the female residents coming and going we giving him lingering stares. 

"Isn't there some paperwork we need to do first?" He got in the elevator and the beautiful woman hit a button.

"Oh there's always paperwork." Annabelle shook her head. "You plan on running off with half the building, tonight?" Eric shook his head, not even sure what she meant by it. "Then the paperwork can wait." The doors closed and cut off the light noise from the afternoon bustle. "Is it bad?" She asked him.

"What do you mean?" Eric asked, shuffling his bags to be a bit more comfortable.

"That stiffy you're not exactly hiding," She whispered into his ear. Eric froze and looked down, His pants were worn in, and the fabric had certainly acquired some slack over the years. 

That being said, the throbbing tent that was pitching down his right thigh was more than visible. The doors opened and Eric pulled one of his bags hard over his tented erection, and swore as something hard and heavy, probably his laptop, knocked against his cock. "Ouch." Annabelle winced sympathetically. "Want me to kiss it and make it better?"

Eric winced and spoke from the hip, "Maybe once I get a shower." He blinked and closed his eyes, "Fucking hell." But Annabelle just laughed again. 

"Oh, boy, you are just a treat." She clapped him on the back and he flinched and nearly stumbled forward, pain shot from his back across his body. "Eric?!" He just shook his head and stood straight. "The hell happened?"

"Took some lumps, getting an explanation out of... the 'other man'" Other men, actually. If he hadn't been outnumbered he might have been the one with the assault charges. "So, these are the rooms?" He nodded and walked forward, out of the elevator

The interior of the building was open from roof to ground floor, with a square of balcony walkways ringing each floor in front of the apartments. They had risen to the second highest floor, just below the roof garden. 

"Right." Annabelle followed him out and gestured around. "This is Flour Six, Residential Four, you'll be responsible for this, and once you're settled in, Residential Three as well. Your qualifications came back good on everything so once you see what we've got here, you should be fine." She took the lead Eric noticed almost half of the apartments didn't have  name plates beneath their numbers. 

"We're filling up, but not quite there yet. That's why this floor is a good start for you. New residents, mostly. A teacher, a police officer, not one, but two newlywed couples, a construction worker and I... really don't know what Gene does, but apparently it involves a lot of electricity because I had to install new surge protectors when she moved in."

Eric blinked as she led them around the level. Indeed most of the rooms WERE empty and the handful of residents she described by their jobs, and 'Gene' were the only people on the floor.  "And here we are." She stopped at a room designated for the RA. Eric looked and saw that on either side were occupied residencies. "You've got a double all for you, lucky stiff." She winks at him and Eric feels more of the tension snap. It was just so normal, so goofy and off beat. Not the stiff formality of the office or the choking atmosphere of the courtroom, it was just... normal.

"Thanks for this Annabelle," He decided to skip 'boss' or Ms. Stewart and go right for first names. She beamed when she handed him the keys to his room.

"Call me, Anna, sweetie." Her smile touched her eyes, but then she leaned close and he felt her breath on his neck. "Unless you wanna call me Belle," And the hand that had given him the key brushed down his right pants leg, or rather against something tucked there. She pecked him on the cheek and chuckled at his stunned silence. "We do things fun, here, Eric. Don't fret much." She let her hand drag over his stomach, feeling across the muscles that hid under the shirt and grinned as she practically skipped back to the elevator. 

Eric felt a little sad that she left, but his eyes, and pants, bulged as he watched her go. 

"Fuck me." He whispered as he thumbed the edge of the key. He waited until Anna was in the elevator, and out of sight, before he turned back to his door and unlocked it.  Inside was a fine looking apartment, definitely in a East Asian-Japanese style. The entryway had a shoe shelf, and a half step into the rest of the apartment. 

On either side were doors, one to the kitchen, not a simple half kitchenette installation but a full, if tight, kitchen. He smiled and looked further in, and into the living room. There was a table with an odd sort of comforter 'skirt' around it and on top of it, a small bunch of little gifts and small cards.

All had welcome on them and Eric took the time to read them all. 

"Welcome Eric! (It's Eric right? Anna said it was Eric) I hope you stick with the building for a long time! Well if you want to be here for a long time, I like it. Come talk to me once you move in! -Maz, Room 609"

There was a bit of dust and the heavy writing was in a thick sharpie. Construction worker? Probably.

Hello, Mister Wyre. I'm Cornelia Woolrick, Room 611. It's great to have a RA for our floor now, especially since there's a drip in the laundry room. I know there is. I can't find it but it IS there. Sorry to give you a problem already. It's just I keep odd hours with Police work and the sound is messing with my sleep.

Eric nodded and filed the Officer's 'Dripping' problem for later. 

Welcome to our lovely little floor, from Professor Joanna Landry, 603. If you ever want to play a game, I've got plenty of spare time while school's out.

Well there was the teacher, he nodded.

From Rooms 612 and 602, the Amberlys and Andrews welcome you! We're new here too so if you need someone to get lost with around the neighborhood just ask! (Though 'some' of us are going to be away on business soon, so if we miss you; REALLY SORRY!) And if it's the night we head out REALLY sorry if we keep you up. IGNORE THAT!!!

Eric smiled and felt a pain in his chest. Apparently the Amberlys and Andrews were already fast friends, getting put between two newlyweds. He hoped his bad luck didn't rub off on their happiness. He closed his eyes. Business trips RIGHT after the honeymoon glow was just fading, sounded familiar. 

Who knows, he might be able to keep an eye on things and be a word of advice here or there. He scoffed at how pretentious that sounded in his own head. He reached for the last card, Anna welcomed him enough as it was.

Yo. This is Gene from 606. DON'T TELL 'Corny' but I picked your lock to switch the card I left you before with this one. Cause this one has something you should PROBABLY know.

Oh hell. Eric squeezed his eyes.

Belle is normally great with keeping secrets-

Wait 'Belle'?

-but sometimes when she gets drunk she gets a little... loose. In fun ways, yeah but also in ways that she feels bad about. SO.... you applied like, RIGHT when the lovebirds showed up and we were having a big drinking party up on the roof and she sorta vented about stuff and ... well she kinda mentioned your situation. 

Yep. Fuck.

I don't want you to be all paranoid if the other ladies tip toe around subjects or if you make a pass. The newlys were so dorky about it though. I think they still might make a lot of noise tonight (if its the night before the bread winners go on their first big trip), so stop in. I got good shit that make all your problems float away. (Safe shit).. I mean not SHIT-SHIT that's disgusting... I GOT POT. Knock if you wanna get high.

Eric was laughing through wet eyes as he read the note. Okay, so Anna was pissed off enough, and pissed drunk enough, to let that bit of his history slip. Fine. It wasn't anything that wouldn't come up soon anyhow. He looked at his left hand and the pale ring of skin where his tan contrasted where his ring once sat. Sold that lump of gold, he did. Splurged on the ring and it was a nice little deposit for the single life.

He slipped Gene's card into one of his bags, just in case Anna checked in on him, and set them down in front of the skirted table. The bedrooms had fold down beds in the walls, with linens already fitted. Eric wondered what he was going to do with the extra bedroom. Invite Gene over? Maybe he should meet these ladies before he made any kind of rebound plans.

He smirked when he thought that besides the two married men on either room beside him, he was the only guy on the floor. "Everyone gets theirs in the end. But here I am starting all over, once again." He absently walked into the kitchen and checked the cabinets, and when he saw some jars of food he stopped and took a stare. There were numbers on the jars, and he guessed that mean which tenant provided the food. After looking through some, and seeing that there was more in the fridge, he made his way to the bathroom.

His eyes were red but his smile was goofy and the short bursts of laughter were stringing together. He found some soap and a basic hygiene kit along the sink. After a shower an some time in front of the mirror: his face was smooth and his hair had been evened out as much as a person can do on their own.

He changed into fresh clothes and let himself pad out, barefoot, onto the squared middle space and looked down toward the bottom of the structure. They probably could have fit four apartments in the space they cut out, but looking down at green gardens that spanned over the open space and looking up at another, he felt like this added much more to the space. 

((Going for some more 'realism' kind of story to break up the spaaaaaaaaaace plot))