Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

On a random Tuesday evening, your world had crumbled apart. 


You finally channelled through every cell of your body to muster up the words ‘I think we should break up’ to your boyfriend of 3 years over the phone. He was in a different country, he was constantly busy pursuing his dreams in some aerospace academy in another country. You were busy too. You guys had pulled and pushed each other like a game of tug of war for the past year trying to make the long distance work. 


All you got in response was a belated sigh and your boyfriend Caleb murmuring, “I understand.” 

He didn’t fight or even question the break-up. He must’ve been contemplating your relationship just as you had. Those thoughts only added to your sorrows.

The dial tone ran for longer than that conversation had. 

The buckets worth of tears that you shed for the next few months mended your heavy heart. What you really wanted was to be with Caleb again, to have him next to you folding paper planes to launch around your room or blast his music through your shared earphones. 


The distance made him quieter, he was harder to reach out to. After the point where all your calls would turn into arguments caused by petty comments, the gap in your relationship matched the physical distance. It became unbearable. You tried so hard to pull him back to your side yet it felt like he had already severed his end and walked off. 

That wrapped up your longest relationship to date. 


You’re pretty much over that now. Once in a while, really, maybe once a year the thought of Caleb comes crawling back into your mind.


You wonder if he fulfilled the dreams he would ramble to you about. The question of what kind of adult Caleb may have turned out to be gnawed at your mind. Curiosity is a damned parasite.


You had spotted an aeroplane in the air and it revived your annual thought of Caleb. Your eyes were glued to the sky as you walked out of the cafe you visited while on your break. You were due to return to work. Your distraction blinded you and you ended up bumping into a passerby, their cup of coffee acting like paint that splashed on the canvas which unfortunately became your shirt. You tried not to dwell on it too much. The random lady apologised profusely but you assured her it’s alright.


Arriving at the office wasn’t so forgiving either. A new stack of files was introduced to your desk and according to your supervisor that was all your responsibility to sift through. You weren’t about to forget the amount of overtime you’ve been subjected to for the past week either but you decided to zip your mouth before the complaint could reach anyone’s ears. 

Apparently that wasn’t enough inconvenience. As soon as you stepped out of the building, rainfall that wasn’t forecasted started pouring down. The lack of an umbrella in your hand told you exactly what the world thought of you today.

You came home to your lone apartment at a time that was too late. You were soaked to the bone and utterly exhausted. Your hand reached out to your light switch to flick it on, but your apartment didn’t get washed with illumination. In a desperate attempt to see your apartment, you flicked the switch on and off a few times. To your dismay it became palpably real that the power was out. 

It was enough to drive you to tears. 

You peeled your clothes off, took a depressing shower in the dark and threw yourself into bed hoping that the day would just end. 

Today feels a little more promising.

You bask in the peacefulness of your apartment, allowing your body to fully relax on this day off. No errands to run, no responsibilities you’re tied to today. 

It would be entirely enjoyable if there wasn’t a cacophony of sounds that reverberates from the other side of your wall, coming directly from your new neighbour moving in next door. The tea in your cup ripples from the disturbance. Your patience slowly wears thin with each clammer and clatter that drowns out the sound of your show. 

You eat your words. Today is not promising. 

You already miss the neighbour you used to have. A friendly woman who loved to bake and would pass you any of her extra cookies or pastries to try. She moved to another city after finding an opportunity to start up a new bakery. You wished her well on her endeavours but you would’ve taken it back if you knew her replacement would be a freight train for a neighbour. 

Your composure snaps like a rubber band at the sound of a drill resonating from behind the walls combined with the shuffle of boxes being moved outside. There’s more than one person causing a ruckus now. There’s no way you’re letting them ruin this day. 

You march to your door and swing it open. Lo and behold, the culprit behind half the noise hoists up a box on his forearms. His back is facing you. You note the loose black t-shirt he wears with the sleeves chopped off, his short brown hair, and his staggering height when he straightens up. 

When you slam the door shut behind you, it catches the attention of your new neighbor. He turns around. You stiffen.

Oh?


A pair of violet eyes greet you. They widen a fraction more than yours, blinking furiously as an air of awkward silence surrounds you both and the drill dies down right on cue. 

You almost don’t believe that the man standing in front of you is the very same Caleb you broke up with over the phone a few years ago. Yet the evidence is damning. From the way his brown hair is parted to the familiar glimmer of his favourite chain necklace resting against his chest. The unique shape of the dog tag and apple pendants affirms the wearer. It’s definitely the same Caleb.

That’s just great. Your entire week has been a catalyst for this exact moment.

You never rehearsed how you would react to bumping into your ex again. First of all you feel sad, flooded by the nostalgia for the guy you spent all your teen years with. You feel anger for how abruptly the relationship ended despite the time you poured into him. You’re also confused by the coincidence of him ending up moving into the same apartment complex you reside in after so many years. The myriad of emotions is overwhelming, to say the least. 

“Pips…” His meek voice breaks the silence but his words die on his tongue. The familiar nickname makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand. 

“What are you doing here?” You ask back, a bit too sharply and Caleb flinches a little at your tone. You want so badly to go back into your apartment and forget you ever saw his face. That bubbling curiosity in your gut will curdle into a bad ache if you don’t get some closure.


“I… I’m moving in-” 

“I don’t mean next door,” you cut him off to clarify. You clearly remember him making a grand plan to settle down somewhere overseas, dragging you along with him too. You thought he would’ve pursued such plans without you.


Caleb rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.


“Found a job. Found a place. It would’ve been silly to turn it down,” he explains. His voice is a little less nasally than in high school. His posture is straighter, his hands aren’t adorned with rings on every second finger. His freckles are less visible. There’s something more mature about the air around him. 

“How have you been?” Caleb asks, his voice dipped in equal parts of curiosity and longing.

You shrug your shoulders, brushing past his question. “What the hell was that drill sound from five minutes ago?” 

“My friend’s buildin’ a shelf,” Caleb murmurs. “Sorry about the noise. I can give you compensation for the disturbance? Maybe coffee?” He plants the box in his arms on top of another box on the floor. He claps his hands together, not daring to make direct eye contact with you. His bait to get you to talk more to him is so obvious you almost roll your eyes. 

“I’m good. I don’t drink coffee,” you say the first excuse that comes to your mind.


His lips press tightly together. It’s clear he was expecting the cold shoulder but the awkwardness between you two still stung like a scab that has been picked at, the skin that was healing over the past few years is raw and bleeding all over again. You weren’t interested in finding a plaster to slap over it and forget about it. Part of you wants Caleb to feel every second of the pain. 


“Just… keep it down,” you cut off the conversation there. You retreat back into your apartment, heart thudding loudly in your chest and clammy hands sliding off the doorknob as you close the door.

Chapter Text

A rhythmic knocking resounds through your living space right when you’re about to head out. You tug on your shoes and swing the door open, your eyes flick upwards to your new neighbour. He’s holding a plate of cookies. Chocolate chip cookies.

“Howdy neighbour,” Caleb chirps, a bit too happily. He raises the plate as an offering. “Cookie?”

You raise an eyebrow at his demeanour. Although he changed in appearance as he got older, it seems like his personality hasn’t changed a bit. You remember when Caleb would surprise you with baked goods as an apology when you two were dating. The scent of the cookies wafting into your apartment made your mouth water but you didn’t want to just give into his cookie propaganda. 

“You’re just going to ignore the elephant in the room?” You accuse. Caleb’s expression immediately falls, his lips pulling into a small frown and his eyes becoming downcast. He looks at his feet.


“Alright, alright. Maybe I was bein’ deflective,” he admits. He still keeps the plate of cookies stretched out so they’re in your reach. He continues, “I just don’t want my neighbour to hate me because of my past mistakes.” 

“Mistakes?” 

“Letting you go was a mistake. I thought you’d be better off with someone who didn’t make you feel like shit.” Caleb’s voice grows quieter as his explanation goes on. He clears his throat, “I wanna make it up to you. As friends, I mean. I don’t want you to keep believing I’m that same immature loser I was back then.” 

You try not to let it show how much his words affected you. If you heard these words after you broke up with him all those years ago, you would’ve taken him back in a heartbeat. You knew that you were weak in his power, that’s why you blocked him on everything after you separated.  

“So these cookies are your first step…” You swipe one off the plate and nibble on it. You could almost cry. That’s how good his baking was, and it has only improved since he was a teen. 

“Whaddya say? Give me a chance?” Caleb says, his puppy eyes are on full display to sway you. You make sure to glue your eyes to the cookie in your hand so you don’t fall back into old habits.
“I’ll think about it,” you simply state. It’s not a yes, nor a no. You do need to rake in your thoughts, weigh out the pros and cons and maybe phone a friend. Caleb doesn’t seem completely deterred by the grey answer and instead silently nods. He places the plate of baked goods in your hand and closes the door himself with a whispered ‘okay’.

---------


You fix the strap of your bag around your waist, fumbling with the key to lock your apartment door. You have work today, after you ran into Caleb the noise had miraculously died down and you were able to fulfill a successful weekend of relaxation. 

As you were leaving your apartment, you ran into Caleb who seems to be lingering around the outside of your door. His violet puppy-like eyes widen in alarm upon seeing you.


“Did you think about it?” He blurts out. “I can make us dinner. We can go to the arcade, I know how much you-”


“I have to go to work right now, but I’m not sure if I’ll have time to catch up any time soon,” you finally muster up the words to say. It’s your rejection. Caleb physically deflates when he realises that. You speed past him and head off to work for the day, leaving the melted puddle that is your rejected ex behind in the hallway.


Caleb’s not entirely used to rejection but this is the first time he isn’t surprised. In fact, he anticipated such a response from you. He knows you. He knows it wasn’t going to be easy to convince his ex to become friends with him. Hell, when he puts it that way he sounds absolutely pathetic. What exactly does he want from you? He lugs himself back into his apartment and his hands begin the process of baking something while his mind runs rampant to organise his thoughts.


Two trays of muffins, a rack of brownies, and one apple pie later Caleb deduces that he just really wants to get to know you again. He doesn’t want to jump the gun and say he wants to get back together so suddenly (even if he wouldn’t mind that), he just wants to catch up as adults and renew the image you have of each other.


That’s right. Caleb wants to smooth out uneven bumps in the road. He wants to oil some cogs in your relationship. He definitely doesn’t intend to poke into your love life and prove that he’s the best option. He’s just a reliable, kind, responsible, charming, tall, attractive… friend. 

He’s going to work towards that.

You heard the heavy pelting of rain outside the building but prayed it would clear up by the time you got outside. Oh, but why would it? That would mean that mother nature would have to pity you and do a favour, and she’s never been lenient enough to do that for you. 

Your boots stick to the wet pavement as you fumble with your umbrella that you thankfully didn’t forget. As you make your way over to the bus stop, the loud echo of a car horn startles you from your thoughts. You whip your head around and stop in your tracks once the car comes to a halt and the tinted window rolls down.

“So it is you! What’re doin’ strolling in the rain?” Caleb asks as soon as the window is out of sight. You never imagined Caleb would be into sleek black cars, he always rambled about having a fiery eye-catcher back in high school. His younger self would’ve scoffed at the boring choice adult Caleb settled for.

“I take the bus. Parking costs too much,” you briefly explain. You’re ready to resume your walking path but Caleb beeps his horn again to recapture your attention.

“I’m on the way to the apartment anyway. Let me give you a ride,” he suggests. On a normal day you would turn his offer down. He must’ve calculated his approach, as always, because the light breeze that accompanied the rain initially is picking up and now forcefully threatening you to part with your umbrella. 

“Fine. But only just this once,” you relent.

You shove your umbrella into his backseat and sit behind the passenger's seat. Caleb casts a side glance to you. 

“Am I an uber? Come sit in the front,” Caleb says. It sounds like a suggestion but there’s a subtle command behind his tone. 

“It’s fine, I prefer–“

“Are you planning to assassinate me then? I should warn you, I used to be a fighter pilot. There’s no trick I don’t know,” Caleb continues with that teasing lilt in his tone. He makes no move to start driving again.


“It’s not that big of a deal,” you grumble. When a silence follows, no talking and no movement of Caleb’s hands on the steering wheel you just sense that he won’t let it up. You look at him. He looks back. He points at the passenger's seat.


“Seriously?” You ask, exasperated.


“I’m not gonna bite,” he urges.


You wish the rain would just die down but it seemed to have grown more violent. You want to rip those stupid sneaky purple eyes and throw them back into a cave with all the other amethysts of the same colour.  

Begrudgingly, you slide yourself into the passenger's seat. You see some satisfaction in his smirk and you scoff at the sight of it.

“You planned this?” You accuse.

“What do you mean?” Caleb inquires, acting clueless as he finally swings the car onto the road.

“This ambush. How did you know where I work?” You turn your body towards him, arms crossed over your chest.


Caleb doesn’t take offense to your accusation. He chuckles, “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about. I just happened to be driving by.”


“Where’d you come from?”


“I was out havin’ dinner with a friend. You remember Gideon?” Caleb inquires, sounding as casual as ever. The name Gideon flicked a switch of recognition in your head. You heard his name a few times as someone that Caleb was roommates with when he had moved away. They didn’t entirely hit it off at first but it seems like Gideon and Caleb have become pretty tight knit since then.


“That name rings a bell,” you lazily respond. Caleb taps his finger against the steering wheel absentmindedly.


“He helped me move into my apartment. He was the one assembling my shelf for all my things,” he rambles. You try your best to make it obvious you look pretty disinterested but even if Caleb had caught on, he doesn't care at all. 

“Did you enjoy my cookies?” Caleb asks. He’s just as talkative as you remember, maybe even more now. You lean against the car window. You notice that he’s taking awfully long to get back to the apartment complex.


“They were good,” you nod along. You can’t lie to him and say you didn’t enjoy them. The pile of baked goods had disappeared a good twenty minutes after you received them. You can just feel Caleb thinking of something further to say, something to really prod you. 

Luckily for you, the complex comes into view and you’ll be free from the confines of Caleb’s small talk for today and hopefully forever. You know that’s impossible. He seems dead set on making things right between you two. Unfortunately for you, you know better than anyone that Caleb will do anything he sets his mind to.

Chapter Text

“Could I have my plate back?”

Caleb stands in your entryway, wearing a leather jacket and matching pants looking like some wannabe biker. You give him a once-over with a small judgemental glare in your eye for disturbing your evening peace.

“I… only have about two plates in my apartment. I can’t really afford to lose that one,” Caleb admits sheepishly. You nod.

“Right. I have it in the dishwasher. Stay here,” you tell him. You retreat back into the kitchen to organise the dishes in the dishwasher that you haven’t touched all day. Caleb doesn’t listen, he follows you in and stands on the other side of the counter.

“I like how you’ve done up your place,” Caleb comments. You take the plate he lended you, wipe it clean and place it before him. Caleb decides to linger a bit longer, test out the limits of how long it’ll take before you get pissy.

“Thank you,” you simply say. You expect him to take the plate and go.

“I’m feelin’... inspired,” Caleb says, leaving the plate on the counter forgotten as he rounds your living area. “My place is pretty barren.”

You roll your eyes. You knew this was just a scheme to get to see the interior of your apartment.

“I never see you on your balcony,” Caleb quips.

You shrug your shoulders, “I used to stargaze a lot before but I haven’t lately.”

Truth is, the balconies are way too close together. You know Caleb stands on his balcony a lot. In the mornings with a mug in his hand, during the day with earphones in and at night to water the small flower on the side. You’ve been avoiding standing on your balcony knowing that if Caleb catches you there he’ll strike up a conversation.

“You still stargaze? Do you still have that telescope?” Caleb asks.

“No, I lost it when I moved to my apartment.”

Caleb frowned. “That’s a shame. I have mine somewhere packed up in a box. Maybe I can lend it to you?”

“Really?”

Even though Caleb is constantly scheming ways to strike a conversation, you can’t help but think he isn’t as bad as you envisioned he’d turn out. He’s not super pushy, his tone is always so casual it’s like you guys never had any bad blood. He’s really driving his point that he’s not that immature kid anymore. You almost believe him.

Your slight interest made Caleb rush back into his apartment and rummage through all the boxes just to find the one containing a disassembled telescope. With his drill and a couple screws, he got it together and knocked on your door once again.

“Should I just knock a hole in the wall to save you from your travels?” You muse as Caleb sets up the telescope on your balcony. The sun has only just set so there aren’t any visible stars just yet.

“How long did that take you?” You ask, referring to the readily built telescope Caleb said he didn’t know the location of before.

“Oh, y’know. Ten minutes. This is a great view for a lot of good constellations, it’s one of the reasons why I like having my apartment here,” Caleb says. He’s a mild astrology geek, even if he doesn’t know all constellation names by heart he still loves recognising shapes and patterns in the stars. 

“That didn’t change about you,” you say.

“That’s the only thing. My love for the stars. Oh, and for flying,” Caleb says and he adjusts the telescope. He bends down slightly and looks through it.

“Hm. Nothin’,” he reports.

“Of course there’d be nothin’, dumbass. There’s no stars in the sky yet.” 

Caleb chuckles at your words.

You don’t know how Caleb ended up staying longer than you thought he would. It was around midnight and you were sitting on two chairs you pulled outside to the balcony. Caleb was constantly through the telescope, pointing out anything he finds interesting.

You were both nursing your own cigarettes in hand. You were both equally surprised to find you both smoked, the habit being something uncharacteristic for the two of you.

“See? I’m not so bad,” Caleb says as exhales a cloud of smoke amongst the dark, still air. It drifts and twists away like your thoughts as you take a drag yourself.

“I wouldn’t say that,” you sigh.

“Why not?”

“Isn’t it weird that we’re exes?”

“I told you. I wanna prove I’m not that immature kid who let you go.” Caleb shrugs his shoulders. He’s always been straight-forward about how he feels but the smoke is loosening his tongue.
“I’ve evolved.”

“I mean, what exactly do you gain from that?” You flick the ash from your cigarette.

That’s the question Caleb was preparing himself for. What exactly does he want? He wants many things, but he needs to filter out what he can’t admit to you right now.

“A mature adult friendship?” He answers, sounding more like a question. You can’t help but chuckle. At least he gave you somewhat of an answer.

“Sure. To our mature, adult friendship,” you raise your cigarette.

Caleb mirrors your actions and mutters, “to the friendship.”

“...And nothing more,” Caleb thought to himself bitterly as he inhaled.