Yellow

When Alex stepped into the apartment, suitcase forcibly bumped over the strip of metal at the front door, he immediately noticed three things. 

The first was that even though it was rapidly growing dark outside, there still weren’t any visible lights peeking out from any corners of the complex.

The second was that the living room, kitchen, and hallway looked suspiciously like how it was a month and half before, when he was leaving for his trip. 

The third was that a certain messy, bleached bed-head with sloppy, loose, crinkled clothing and crimson, thick rimmed glasses was nowhere to be heard, much less seen. 

Raising an eyebrow curiously, he shut the door, slid his shoes off, and began to stride towards the furthest bedroom in the back, leaving his suitcase unattended by entrance. He approached a plain dark blue wooden door, and slowly opened it, creaking noises filling the silence.

It was all dark, excluding the soft blue, green, and yellow, flashing glows that came from the laptop sitting on the carpet in front of a messy body. He could feel his annoyance rapidly rising at this sight.

With a twitch of his eye, Alex mercilessly flicked on all the lights to bathe the room in a sharp golden brightness, earning a quiet hiss from the unmoving pile on the floor. The aforementioned lump turned out to be a lanky person with fluffy pale yellow hair that stuck up at random angles, a plain highlighter-yellow shirt wrinkled and riding up to show an extremely pale stomach matching the pale arms and the pale legs that showed from under the baggy basketball shorts. The person was twisted into a strange position that looked quite uncomfortable; something similar to an ungodly cross between a curled up snake and the arched curve a stretching cat has. The images continued flashing on the computer screen as the apparently alive person blearily blinked up at Alex behind red framed lenses. 

Alex just stood at the door, arms crossed, exuding an air of irritation as olive eyes stared, slowly flashing from confusion to recognition.

The pile spoke, exclaiming, “Oh! You’re back!”

Alex’s eye twitched again, grinding out, “Yes I’m back, Dennis. Mind explaining?”

The boy, Dennis, clambered into a sort-of-sitting position with stiff muscles, before looking up at Alex with a wonder filled tilt of his head, asking, “Explain what?”

Fists clenched, and something seemed to crack into two as the cloud of smothered anger around Alex finally broke. 

He stomped up to loom over Dennis, jabbing a finger into the blonde’s forehead, shouting, “The apartment looks like it’s been uninhabited this entire time! Did you even leave your room the seven weeks I was gone?!” 

Cringing a bit, Dennis muttered back hesitantly, “….Not….really?”

This fueled the other brunette’s rage even more as he began ranting.

“You have got to be kidding me!!! Do you really have no survival skills at all? I can’t believe it! You’re like a kid. Do I really have to take care of you for the rest of your life? I feel sorry for whoever marries you! You’re lucky you get paid for sitting around all the time! Did you even eat?! Why do I always have to be the one to clean the apartment?!?! I can’t believe it why are you such a stupid idiot you idiot!!!!”

He had begun throwing his arms around to exaggerate his points while pacing in agitation as Dennis sat cowering next to his laptop. 

Pausing to catch his breath, Alex swung around to glare at Dennis with flashing brown eyes. Said victim winced.

“I’m sorry Alex….I just didn’t see a point….”

“What do you mean there’s no point?!?!?! Do you not know humans need to eat and exercise and sleep to survive?!?!?!! Idiot!!!”

Dennis curled up into a ball, hiding his face in his knees before murmuring, “I did eat what you left in the fridge before you left….”

Huffing loudly, Alex put his hands on his hips, retorting, “That was only two week’s worth of food stupid. Why didn’t you order take out?”

There was an awkward silence as Alex calmed down and Dennis buried his face even further into his knees, the back of his neck slowly turning red, the heat spreading to his ears.

Calmer now, Alex kneeled down to sit cross-legged in front of Dennis, waiting for an answer.

Eventually, Dennis managed to meekly shove out, “I ended up getting to embarrassed so I would hang up.”

Now it was Alex’s turn to stare at the blushing male in bewilderment. The clock on the left wall ticked on, before the weary traveler began to chuckle. Dennis peeked up to look at his now guffawing flat-mate, and weakly glared, flustered. 

“Stop! It’s not that funny! Socializing is hard!!!”

“Ahhhah!!! That-hah- that wasn’t even socializing!!! That was just- ahhahah!!-talking over a phone to order food!!!”

By now Dennis was red like a fresh, ripe strawberry, and Alex was gasping for air as he rolled around on the carpet in laughter.

“Ahhhhh, my stomach hurts hahhah!”

Clearing his throat in false seriousness, Alex went back to his previous position, wiping a few tears of amusement away. Dennis was still pouting. The laptop’s screen had turned dark.

“Really, you idiot, you can’t even order takeout? You’d die without me around, wouldn’t you?” Alex said in feigned frustration. The fond smile on his face betrayed his emotions, however.

 

Dennis stopped pouting as he sat up straighter and chirped back, “But you are around, and that’s the point!”

Alex sighed and shook his head in exasperation, but he couldn’t help the wide grin that mirrored Dennis’s that stretched across his face. 

Grunting, Alex stood up, and walked out of the bedroom talking over his shoulder, “Come on, you must hungry, huh, you fool?”

Dennis’s face lit up in excitement and he quickly shut his laptop before running down the hallway cheering, “Yay!  Alex, you rock!” 

Smug cackling echoed through the apartment as warm yellow lights began to turn on one by one, and the home filled with life.