TICFICS

- Rival scientists

- Civilian x Villain

- Angel x human

- horrible influence x person that makes them a better person (idk how to say this one with less words)

- Social raver x loser nerd (inspired by S3rl’s music)

- hippie x punk rocker

- cop x criminal

- young teenage villains in love (it’s always the adults I want some young love)

- lost their memory x remaking / making new memories

- artist x musician

- Soulmates meeting through their dream

- bar singer x gangster

- hates holidays/special events x loves holidays or event planner

- fashion designer x model

- Dj x singer

- workplace rivalry (I’m not sure if this is common or not but whatever)

- lavender marriage (not really sure how to classify this but I want more)

- from the future x from the present

- struggling journalist x villain who likes the attention

- killer x obsessed sidekick

- magician x acrobatic

- steampunk x cyberpunk

- academic rivals with benefits (again i think this is common but i barely see it)

- dark villain x their caring and friendly partner

- patient who loves to annoy their psychiatrist x their psychiatrist who is done with their shit

It’s been a week since your near death encounter with your upstairs neighbour after being locked out of your apartment.

But since that encounter the more you think about him the more you can’t shake off the feeling of familiarity which causes you to notice things such as him leaving late at random times in the night, how others in the building don’t know much about who he is and that he smokes just before midnight. All these questions having reasonable answers but it didn’t seem right especially when your first encounter with him is with a gun to your head. It wasn’t until another late night on your escape going to have a drink you’d get your answer.

It had become a habit that whenever you had a bad day you would sit out on your fire escape with a bottle of whatever you had in your fridge. So after another bad day you’re currently on the fire escape drinking some vodka cruisers as the news is playing out in your living room as it fades out when you relax.

It wasn’t until a voice snapped you out of your relaxed state. “You look like shit.” You look over to where the voice came from to see your upstairs neighbour standing on the ladder. “A bad day does that to you.” You watch as he climbs down, walks over to you and squats down in front of you.

“Ever heard of personal space?”

“Yeah, but i was interested on what someone at their lowest looks like”

He stands up again and leans slightly on the railing before taking out a cigarette and lit it. As you watched him you couldn’t help but stare at him and his physique wondering what this guy does to maintain it.

“Didn’t your mother tell you that it’s rude to stare.” This instantly causes you to take a sip of your drink and turn to listen to the news when the news anchor mentions something that catches your attention.

“News about this week’s villain recap. Two B-grade villains were stopped down on Main Street on Tuesday, local crime syndicate was raided on the docks on Friday with the crime leader out on bail and there being multiple report of sightings of A-grade villains roaming around if you have any information about any sightings please inform the heroes…” as you look over at the screen showing pictures of the sighted villains one sticks out to you.

A sense of dread passed through you as you looked back slowly at the man who sitting on the opposite side of your fire escape, smoking as if he wasn’t one of the most wanted in the city. So what do you do in this moment, you try to remain calm; while trying not to panic. But the sudden change in demeanour caused him to catch on.

“So… now you know my secret.” He says with a blank expression as the lit cigarette sits between his fingers. With this sudden confrontation you decide to play it off as if you didn’t know what he was talking about.

“I don’t know what you mean. What secret?I don’t know any secret.”

He starts to approach you as you try to back up more into the wall. “You’re a horrible liar.” As you look up at him with a panicked look.

“It wasn’t like I was going to turn you in or anything, honest!” Now slowly lifting your hands slightly. Watching as he got closer and squatted to your level and leans slightly closer.

“Good and that’s how it will remain…right sweetheart?” How he said it made it sound more calmly threatening so you nod. “You’re not gonna report me to the heroes and you’re going to live just like how you were before.” He says before you nod again.

“Good. It’s getting late, best you head inside, sweetheart.” He stands up finishing his cigarette before looking at her. Along with your panicked expression you had a slight blush on your face caused by the closeness. He turns and heads back to his apartment with no further words while you rush inside.

Although there are many pros to living in the city there’s cons that follow along side such as the view of the beautiful city lights just outside your window but it means lights on 24/7 that you can’t turn off or the ability to be able to have places easy to access cause it’s down the road but they either all close by 8 o’clock or they are the same thing every few buildings.

But I’ve learnt how to deal with pros and cons except for this. As of right now I’m sitting on my fire escape thinking about how I can get back into my apartment without breaking the window.

Another con is that finding affordable housing is hard when living in the city. Though my apartment is fairly decent and affordable it’s also got issues such as a faulty window and a broken fire escape. Why it’s broken is because I live in a slightly shittier part of the city and after some crooks were escaping the heroes they broke the lower ladder and my landlord refuses to fix it so I’m left stranded unless I can unjam the window or until you get lucky and a hero is around to help.

I sigh as I look up at the fire escape above. “Hmm, I wonder if someone’s home maybe they can help me or at least have a crowbar…” say to yourself as you climb the ladder to your unknown neighbours escape. She steps on the escape to find the window open slightly but you take a moment to look at the escape to figure out what this neighbour is like.

“Cigarettes tray with finished cigarettes, small carton of empty glass bottles and a old looking blanket over the railing so it could be a old lady with a smoking problem, lonely old guy or a stressed out middle aged parent.” You knock on the window as you awaited a response. Nothing.

You peer inside only to find no one there so you knock louder this time thinking they didn’t hear you. So you decide to lift the window open more to get a better look inside. As you peer inside you see a similar building layout only differently designed furniture and more cluttered.

“Hello? anyone home? I promise I’m not breaking in I just need a crowbar or maybe an old knife to open my window, I live downstairs and I’m locked out.” You spot on the table, a metal screwdriver so with no one there you decide to sneak in quickly and retrieve it.

“To whoever lives here I’m sorry but I need that screwdriver.” You say In a hushed tone as you climb in. Lightly stepping to make it to the rod once in arm’s length you go to lean down to grab it only to feel something pressing against the side of your head and the sound of chamber loading. “Shit, I’m gonna die.” You say in your head.

“Who are you and who sent you.” You turn your head slightly to see a man of similar age to you dressed in dark clothing.

“I’m Y/n, I wasn’t sent by anyone, I’m your neighbour from downstairs and I was locked out of my apartment and needed something to pry the window open. Please don’t shoot me.” Your voice slightly shakes as a cold dread went through your body.

He begins to slowly lowers the weapon before speaking again. “You’re the one who smokes that fruity shit on the escape and watches those shitty hallmark movies?” His facial expression stays blank as the question hangs. “Yep! I’m not a burglar only a neighbour! Honest!” It was rushed how you said it as you waited for him to say something but as you waited you couldn’t help but feel like you’ve seen him before somewhere.

“You know it’s a crime to break into someone home, right? I could’ve shot you.”

“I’m now very aware of that but if you don’t mind I just need that screwdriver to get back into my apartment.” You watch as he picks it up and hands it to you. With that you nod, walk backwards to the window and climb out.

After that near death encounter you try to pry your window open, trying to pry it open from one side then the other. “Ugh! Stupid window!” The frustration finally getting to you.

“You know it’s better if you try from the middle instead of the sides” as his voice startled you.

“Tried it. It doesn’t want to budge.”

He sighs before climbing down to have a try.

“Move let me. The trick is to hit the screwdriver until it hits the bottom of the window then pry.” As he begins to pry you still try to think where you’ve seen him.

“You know I could be a burglar breaking into this apartment.”

“But you aren’t so.” As if on que the window slides open.

“It’s open! OMG thank you! thank you! thank you!” Out of happiness you hug him before climbing into your apartment. You are so relieved that you’re back inside that you don’t realise he’s staring inside until he makes a comment on your apartment.

“Huh… emptier than what I thought.” You turn back to face the window remembering he’s there. “Well, my old roommate kept half of everything when I moved out so.” He takes another gaze before going back to his apartment leaving with a final warning. “Also if I didn’t know you were my neighbour I would’ve shot you so don’t go breaking into peoples apartments again…” with that he climbed up the escapes ladder and heads back into his apartment.

“Immortality sucks.” Is something you probably don’t hear that often.

Why? you may think that being able to live forever is a great thing, you’re able to witness the future, take time to do all the things you want to do and never miss out on anything that the future holds. But what you then realise is that those around you will grow old, you’ll run out of things to do and you’ll be forever alone… not so great huh? Pair that with magical powers with healing abilities faster than the average person then you have me.

Although I haven’t been immortal for long I’ve tried my best to leave this world behind but to no avail. As to who I am. I’m Ezekiel, it is 6:43pm on the 18th of November 2001 and as of right now I’m 29 and sitting on the gutter with a bleeding nose and a bent cigarette hanging from my busted lip. As for the bleeding nose and busted lip is because I decided it was a good idea to call out a guy at the bar.

He goes to light the cigarette only for his lighter not to work as a soft sprinkle of rain begins to pour.

“Just my luck rain. go figure.” He grumbles as he tries to light it. “Need a light?” A soft voice says from in-front of him. He looks up to see a woman with short white hair and a soft smile holding out a lighter. He takes a moment before leaning in to light the cigarette then thanking her with a nod.

“We need to stop meeting like this.” She smiles.

“You need to stop appearing”

“Hard for me to do that Zeke, when you keep getting yourself in trouble.”

He doesn’t say anything just starring at her with a blank expression.

“Bad day?”

“No. Shit life.”

“Come on now don’t be like that. All because you don’t like your life currently.”

He lets out a puff of smoke before asking the question he’s been itching to ask since their first meeting years ago.

“What are you? cause I know you ain’t human. So what are you? Ghost? A hallucination? Something else entirely?”

“Oh? what makes you say that hmm?” She smiles softly at him for a moment before he continues.

“You always appear when I am practically on my last straw, you know a lot about me although we’ve never truly talked and you look the same every time we meet. so, what are you?” He waited a moment as she formed an answer.

“I’m afterlife.” She holds her hand out for him to shake “I’m like a guardian angel but not quite in a way. it’s confusing.”

“So an angel in human form… I’ll take it” he gets up as she starts walking away.

“I’m a soul keeper protector whose job it is to help souls pass on safely and before you ask you’re not dead and neither am I. Now come on! It’s a nice night for a walk or at least to have some fun.” She says happily as he begins to follow her down the Main Street. “You know life is best when it’s lived then if it’s not.” She spins around and skips as people pass.

“So you’re here to convince me to live?”

“Yes and because I need someone to help me with keeping track of souls and be by my side. Besides from what I’ve gathered you don’t have anything else going on with your life.” She then grabs his hand as they walk through crowds that seemed to be endless before he stops.

“How can you be so sure? Why me and not someone else” She stares at him for a while before she smiles.

“Cause me and you are similar souls trapped by immortality needing a reason to live a little with this curse and because if anything you need someone just as much as me so do you want a reason to live a little or are you gonna be lonely and sad forever?”