Hugh stood at the door, his nerves starting to get the better of him again. He shifted from foot to foot, fidgeting. He eyed the doorknocker, noting its age, and decided, for whatever reason, he disliked this paltry doorknocker more than anything yet. It seemingly mocked him, taunting him by hiding it’s contents behind the door it rested on.

He shook his head. His nerves were clearly getting the better of him, and now wasn’t the time to chicken out, as that was 30 minutes ago when he was still in familiar territory. Now was the time to man up, and at least try and impress this man.

The door opened.

Standing inside the dimly-lit apartment, stood a rather tall and well-built young man. His chocolate hair swooshed right above his left eye, his glasses making his green eyes shine and shimmer. He was wearing a comfortable t-shirt with a pikachu on it, and his blue jeans fit his form exquisitely, leaving very little to the imagination. Hugh’s eyes ended up landing onto the tattoo on his arm, with the most adorable Charmander in a onesie ever sketched onto the muscled skin.

“Uh, I’m guessing you’re Hugh?”

Hugh snapped to attention, his face lighting up in embarrassed heat after being caught checking another man out.

“I, uh, I mean, I, uh…” Hugh stammered out, his blush creeping over his entire face now, as he felt his ears start to burn.

Jack just laughed quietly, a small sound that resonated off the thin door and it’s evil doorknocker, filling the stairwell with mirth. Hugh, however, was decidedly not laughing, as he had just checked out his new friend, got caught staring at him, and was now starting to feel overwhelming panic fill his stomach again. This man was CLEARLY out of his league, and he knew it, and his first real sentence to Jack was incoherent gibberish. Jack’s chuckle died down, instead looking back into the apartment, and waved his hand inwards, nonchalantly inviting Hugh in.

Stepping into the entryway, Hugh immediately noticed a handful of things. One, this place was reasonably spacious, at least compared to what Jack had been telling him. Two, the place smelled vaguely like chinese, and something unmistakably manly. Hugh really liked it And lastly, the darkness of the place was due to no lights being on and the curtains darkening the windows to near absolute, with only the light from the TV illuminating the comfy-looking couch.

As Hugh took his tennis shows off in the entryway, bent over his shoes, he peeked around his shoulder, finding Jack staring at him, seemingly looking for something in his face. Hugh quickly turned away, slightly blushed, and stood back up, shaking off some of his nervousness. Once Hugh worked the nerve back up to turn around towards him, Jack motioned over towards the couch, walking carefully around the reclining chair and the controller sitting on top of it, and plopping himself onto the couch, leaving space for Hugh to sit next to him. Hugh decided to sit in the chair across from the couch, where he could still see the TV, but be sitting far enough from Jack to give him some breathing space. He didn’t think his heart could take any more surprises today.