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The Newlyweds Next-door

Chapter 01

Two men are sitting at a table in a small restaurant, an uncomfortable silence fills the air as the older of the two, a blonde man with short hair and oval glasses, keeps looking up anxiously toward the entrance of the restaurant, waiting for someone to arrive.

The other, a younger teenager of Asian descent with short black hair styled just enough to keep it from looking flat and piercings in his ears, nose and right eyebrow, sits back in his chair playing a game on his playstation portable while he waits. The noise from the videogame surrounds the table that the two waited at.

The older man with blonde hair and oval glasses shakes his head, having just finished checking the entrance to the restaurant to see if anyone is coming, he begins to apologize to the young man he is with. "Sorry about the wait Noah, I really don't know what's taking him so long."

Noah doesn't bother looking up from his game, continuing to press the buttons on the handheld and play while responding to his friend. "To tell you the truth Martin, I really don't mind if he doesn't show up."

Martin seems a little disheartened with the response. "Come on Noah, I really think you're going to like this friend of mine, David is a good guy, and I'm serious here, I think the two of you will hit it off."

Noah still doesn't look up from his game, even though he has made the effort to come here this meeting it still isn't something he is really looking forward to. "I don't want to meet him!"

Martin lets out a sigh, it had been difficult enough to convince Noah to come here in the first place, the friend that he has wanted to introduce him to not making the situation any easier by being late, something that is usually not normal for him. "Just give him a shot will you? David's a good guy!"

Noah flicks the power switch at the side of the handheld, putting the system into sleep mode and stopping his game play before putting down the game he has been playing and looks Martin in the face, explaining exactly why he thought this meeting is such a bad idea. "Look, do you understand how horrible homosexual hook-ups organized by straight people are? "Oh, you're gay? I know a gay guy!! You should meet him!! You guys will hit it off I know it!"

Martin lifts his hands up motioning for Noah to calm down, that not having been the only thing he has set this meeting up on. "Oh come on Noah."

Noah continues on ignoring Martin, still unable to believe that this would turn out to be any good. "It doesn't work like that, that's as stupid as me saying to you. "So... you're a heterosexual, you know what, I just happen to know a girl who's straight, I'll introduce you some time. I think you two will be great together!"

Martin speaks up trying to overpower Noah's babbling. "You are over reacting, like you usually do when you're shy or worried. Come on you know me better than that, I've put more thought into it then you might think."

Noah stares back at him with a frown. "Oh, really?" He seems completely unable to believe him, his past experiences with dates set up by his friends never turn out good. "Do you remember when Richard tried to hook me up with one of his gay friends? I had a creepy, balding guy stalking me for weeks!!" He shivers at the thought, the mere memory of the incident horrifying to recall. "He carried around a homemade doll he named after me, A DOLL DAMN IT!"

Martin starts to laugh at the story. "Oh yes! I remember that guy! So that's how the two of you were introduced was it?"

Noah nods his head, it the PERFECT example as to why straight people would never be able successfully hook up homosexual couples, despite their good intentions. "Yes, through a terrible hook up organized by a straight guy! So please forgive me if I'm a little reluctant about all of this."

Martin tries to reassure Noah that he has nothing to worry about. "You are forgetting that Richard is an idiot, while I, most clearly, am not."

Noah picks up his game shoving it in his pocket as he begins packing up his things. "Ok, you know what, I'm leaving now." He points to his watch after sliding his arm through his jacket. "I have eight minutes before my bus home gets here, I'm not going to be stuck here for another hour and a half waiting for it to come in an awkward conversation with someone that I have nothing in common with, BUT DO because I'm gay!"

Martin watches Noah prepare to leave. "Come on Noah."

"You're not changing my mind!" He steps back from the table turning around to leave, but comes to a sudden stop when he hits someone that has been standing behind him and goes crashing to the ground.

The man that Noah has run into looks horrified over what has happened. "Are you alright?"

Martin looks from Noah who is now sprawled on the ground and up to the person that has just arrived, a smile filling his face when he recognizes him. "David! It's about time you got here! He just about ran away on you!"

David watches Martin approach him. "Really?"

Martin nods his head while holding his hand out to the guy that has hit the ground, David looks back down to the floor of the restaurant to find Noah pushing himself up while letting out a moan of pain. "Ow..."

David kneels down reaching out and grabbing onto Noah's hand, helping him up and back to his feet while speaking to him. "I've scared you away already? But you haven't even met me yet."

Noah stares up at David, he's tall with black hair and has a somewhat darker complexion, his face very handsome and almost too perfect to be real, holding a closer resemblance to a videogame character than anyone in real life.

Martin nods his head as he looks back to David, Noah could sometimes act a little bit odd. "It's a rather baseless caution of his. He's all scared that you're going to stalk him and make a voodoo doll out of his hair."

Noah quickly looks back to Martin, this attractive stranger not needing to hear about something as embarrassing at that. "Shut up Martin!"

David gives Noah a smile, assuring him that he isn' the type to do things like that. "Well... I promise I won't stalk or make voodoo dolls of you then. Does that make you feel any better?"

Noah looks back to David, stammering as he tries to respond. "Ahh... er... well..." He brings his hand up holding it out for David to shake as he tries his hardest to speak, having trouble doing so right now. "Hi... I'm Noah."

David gently takes Noah's hand shaking it in greeting. "My name's David."

Noah grins back at him with a nod of his head. "And my names Noah..."

David stares at him, having already gone through that. "... yes... you told me the first time."

A horrified look fills Noah's face when he realizes that he has repeated himself, quickly jumping back from David and scurrying back to Martin, placing his hands on him and pushing him back so that David would not hear them, Noah starts to speak to Martin in a low tone as to not be easily overheard. "You never told me that he looks good enough to be a character in the Final Fantasy series!!"

Martin looks from Noah to David, and then back to Noah again, really not understanding the reference. "I can't say that I know what that is..."

Noah looks back to Martin, this guy way too intimidating for him to try and talk to. "I can't talk to him!! He's too pretty and perfect looking!!"

Martin sighs as he places a reassuring hand on Noah's shoulder. "Yes you can talk to him, and you're going to."

Noah shakes his head no. "He's out of my league!"

Martin frowns, there is no reason for Noah to be jumping to this assumption. "No he's not, just talk to him like you would any normal non-Final Fantasy person. Trust me you'll do just fine."

Noah lets out a frightened whimper as he looks back to David. "What if he doesn't like me...?"

Martin turns to the table as he pushes Noah back towards it, holding his hand out to David as he speaks. "You're never going to know unless you try Noah, come on, what do you have to lose just by talking to him?"

Noah nervously looks back to Martin, finally taking his seat once again at the table across from David and looking back at him, Martin leaves his side and walks up to David, asking him about Noah. "So David. What do you think?"

David pulls up a chair taking his seat at the table across from Noah. "I don't know, I'll tell you after I get to know him a little better."

Noah stares at David for a moment longer before finally relaxing a bit, smiling at him and beginning to talk to him, the two of them easily get into a conversation with the other, Martin not even having to bring up a topic to break the ice between the two of them.

My name is Noah... and even though this is something I hate to admit... my good friend Martin... who is quite possibly the straightest guy that I know and because of this thought he would never be able to ever set up a date for me right, managed to not screw up... and that night, I met the guy that I would be spending the rest of my life with.

_ _

Me and David started up as any couple did, we got along well, went to movies, dinner all that jazz. We would talk and talk for hours on end, he was pretty interesting and I guess to him I was interesting too, and eventually yes, David decided to that we were getting along so well that we would give the whole marriage thing a try.

_ _

Ok I admit... maybe the whole marriage thing happened... a little too fast. We had hit the nine month dating mark when he asked me, and naively we, at the time, had thought it was a good idea.

_ _

Now don't get me wrong, the two of us worked well together and we had reached the point where we really couldn't see ourselves being with anyone else, so this just seemed right thing to so, you know, the next step in the relationship.

_ _

I'm not going to lie, everything with us wasn't all rainbows and sunshine, there were some things that we didn't agree on, and of course there things that were awkward between us. Like... our family history.

David and Noah are sitting across from each other at a table in a café, the two having met up again this time without Martin around acting as a third wheel, the two have been telling the other a little about themselves as they got to know one another.

Noah seems pretty happy as he explains his family to David. "Well, my parents were both born in Japan, so that makes me Japanese, but they were also both raised here in Canada, and they met in Canada, and when they got married and had me, it was in Canada." He laughs to himself. "So even though my nationality is Japanese, my heritage is actually Canadian. It's a little confusing to explain at first but after a while, you just get used to it do you know what I mean?"

David responds to Noah in a rather pleased tone of voice. "You're Japanese? Hey I'm Japanese too!"

Noah stares back at David awkwardly, David is rather tall, not having a light complexion and well, no other Asian features to speak of. "What? You... really don't look it."

David laughs at the comment nodding his head and giving a light shrug of his shoulder. "Well, that would be because I'm only part Japanese, from my dad's side. You see he is part Japanese, part Chinese, part Vietnamese, part Thai, part Indian, part French. While mom my is part Irish, part German, part Mexican, part Spanish, part English, part Polish, part African, part Cherokee Indian."

Silence fills the air as Noah stares at him, eventually slowly beginning to nod his head. "... oh... I see... that is very confusing..."

David smiles, it's not that confusing to him. "Not really, I suppose you get used to it growing up. That was one of the most common questions I was asked when growing up after all. 'So David... what the hell are you?"

Noah continues on, intending not to fall into an awkward silence because of this. "I see... so about your parents." A happy smile crosses his face. "Oh! This morning my mother made me the most delicious breakfast! She was trying out a recipe she had got from a friend of hers so-" He stops remembering that some people might find a living situation odd for someone they are looking into dating. "Oh yeah, I don't think I've told you yet, but I still live at home with my parents."

"Really?"

Noah begins to get a little bit nervous over how David would react to this. "You don't think that's awkward do you?"

David shakes his head no, in fact thinking the opposite. "On the contrary, I think that's nice. I would love for my family to be close like that." A frown fills his face as his eyes shift to the side upon thinking about his own parents. "Unfortunately my parents kicked me out of the house when I was fifteen... and they haven't really talked to me since then."

Noah falls silent, having not meant to throw the conversation into such an awkward and dark hole.

David shakes his head as he continues to explain. "They're pretty angry with me, and It's not just my sexual preference, though they're not too happy about that either. They've just never agreed with the decisions I've made throughout my life, so I guess it's to be expected."

Noah tries to find the right words to say, this obviously not a comfortable thing for David to be talking about, feeling pretty bad for bringing it up. "Oh... I'm... sorry to hear that... it must be hard."

David shrugs his shoulders; it's not a predicament that's exclusive to him. "Well I don't think it's anything different then what most people go through, a lot of people don't see eye to eye with their parents after all. So I'm in a no different situation that then most people."

Noah looks to the side, that not really making the fact that it has happened to David any better. "Well... I guess..."

David crosses his arms leaning back in the chair he has been sitting on. "Sometimes dad will even drive by me and shoot me with a paintball gun."

Noah laughs for a moment. "You're kidding right...?"

The serious look does not leave David's face. "No." Noah quickly ends any trace of laughter, David giving a disappointing shake of his head. "No I am not..."

And of course there are the many things we don't have in common. Like... he has a job as well paying job as an editor in an entertainment magazine. While I have a job... okay I don't really have a job... I'm an aspiring musician so all the work I do regarding that I don't get paid for. But I do volunteer at a kid's summer camp if that helps my situation any, I'm one of the camp supervisors and I get to play the guitar for the camp fire songs... it is hell... I mean a delight...

_ _

Another big one is that David owns and drives his own car, while... I take the bus everywhere, because I neither own a car nor have the license to drive one.

_ _

David likes to keep things neat, tidy and organized. If his books or DVDs are not in alphabetical and numerical order he will get pretty stressed out. If his shirts aren't organized by colour and pattern it's very possible that he might just have a mental breakdown. While I on the other hand, see organization in things by throwing them on different piles around my room.

_ _

In his free time David is usually found reading a book, or writing a book. He's a pretty big on nerdy fiction, fantasy stuff like Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and that stuff. Whiles my hobby is something far less geeky, I choose to spend my free time playing videogames.

_ _

When David answers his cell phone, there's a good chance that he's going to be in an argument because it's either Bob, his lawyer or his ex-wife. When I answer my phone... well actually I don't really use my phone as a phone very much at all, I just text on it, I text lots of cool stuff to people... David is still figuring out the whole texting concept, as he hasn't had to do it until adding my number to his phone.

_ _

David hangs out with his friends by going out to sophisticated dinner parties with them, or really boring get-togethers at his friend's houses for old people card games or to play pool. I hang out with my friends by, well first getting drunk, going to very loud clubs and bars, then standing on a bridge and spitting on the cars that drive under us, setting fireworks off in Richard's back yard and... sometimes streaking... depending on the day and how much energy we have left of course.

_ _

Ok, ok, so now as I'm explaining I realize that maybe there are a LOT of things different about us, but we don't let those differences interfere with our relationship. Heck even when our differences clash and turn into disagreements it is still all ok.

David and Noah are standing outside of David's apartment as he unlocks his door, David looks back to Noah before opening it, this is Noah's first time visiting his apartment, so it's only fair for him to inform him of what to expect. "Noah I have to warn you before you enter my house, it might be a little filthy."

Noah rolls his eyes while shaking his head, their ideas of messy two completely different things. "Please David... you're idea of messy isn't actually messy! It's a single dish in the dish rack that hasn't been put away and a book on the wrong spot on the shelf."

David continues to try and explain, it's a little worse than that. "No, no. You see, I have a dog, and he sheds... he sheds a lot. Fur gets into everything. I try to get rid of it but no matter how much I do I can never seem to ever get rid of all the dog hair."

Noah grins at the information, who cared about the mess from a dog? The fact that David has one meant that the two of them have something in common. "You have a dog!? You never told me you had a dog David! I have a dog too! I love dogs!!"

David seems relived to hear this information. "Oh really? Well that's good then, I just want to warn you though that he can get a little excited when it comes to meeting new people. He's very hard to keep down."

Noah laughs waiting while waving his hand at David, there's no need for him to get so worried over a jumpy dog. "Oh don't worry, I can handle an excited dog jumping up on me no problem."

David reluctantly nods his head to Noah, looking back to and opening the door to his apartment, a huge shaggy dog bursts through the door with a deep woof, leaping past David and landing on Noah bringing him crashing to the ground.

David looks down to Noah who is now being slobbered by the huge dogs. "His name's Goliath."

Noah is trying to push Goliath's slobbery head away from him as the dog licks his face. "Well he's a bit bigger then I was expecting for someone that lives in an apartment." He pushes the dogs head back and begins spitting to the side, the dog has licked his mouth when he had been talking. "David and Goliath... I get it... cute... get him off me please!!"

David grabs onto Goliath's collar pulling him off of Noah, the dog's entire body wagging back and forth in his excitement. "He's an Old English sheepdog cross, my friend who works as a veterinarian gave him to me when he was just a little puppy." He turns the dog around leading him back into the house. "I know it's not a dog you expect to find in an apartment, but he's actually very quiet and good tempered, it's just first impressions that he's not to great with."

***

David is standing outside of Noah's house, having very recently rung the doorbell and now waiting for him to answer, it's not long before Noah opens the door to his house greeting him. "Hey David!"

David puts his hands in his pockets while greeting Noah with his usual smile. "You ready to go?"

Noah nods his head yes. "Yeah of course!! Oh but first! Since you introduced me to your dog the last time, I thought I would introduce you to mine."

David seems more than happy to meet Noah's four legged companion. "Ok that would be great."

Noah gives him an excited grin before disappearing from the doorway, returning shortly with a small dog in his arms. "David, meet Mr. Princess." He holds up a Yorkshire terrier with a pink bow on its head, the small dog lets out a growl when he sees David.

David stares at the tiny dog a little surprised by it. "Oh... my god... it's a decorated rat."

Noah is offended by the comment. "What??"

David looks past the small dog and back to Noah. "And... why would you name your dog Mr. Princess...? Of all the things you could have named the poor thing."

Noah frowns having not exactly given the dog that name on purpose. "I thought he was a girl when I got him alright! When mom let me pick a puppy from the litter she thought that I had pointed out a different one so she said the name Princess was ok. It wasn't till later that she found out I was pointing to the puppy beside it. I didn't want to change his name though 'cause he was already learning to respond to it. So I named him Mr. Princess."

David shakes his head. "... that name is pretty bad... even for a gay person... you do know that right?"

Mr. Princess lets out a high pitched growly yap, Noah almost matching the dogs tone as he responds to David. "Shut your mouth! Mr. Princess is royalty!!"

David sighs shaking his head.

Noah puts the dog down, the small animal scurrying around his feet while still growling and yapping at David. "He's also a hundred times better than your dog."

David frowns as he shakes his head, crossing his arms as he begins to defend his dog, which he thought to be much better than this one. "That's impossible. Mr. Princess is not better than Goliath."

Noah crosses his arms staring back at him, there are about a hundred ways that Mr. Princess is better than stupid Goliath. "Mr. Princess doesn't shed fur all over the place for one."

David looks back down toward the small terrier. "Yeah? Well I don't see him doing any good if a burglar broke into the house."

Noah points down to the dog. "He doesn't need to be! He's too pretty and refined for commoner dog tasks like that."

David takes a moment to look back to Noah. "He's not actually royalty you know..."

Noah lets out a laugh, David is wrong about that. "That's not what his papers say."

"Papers?"

Noah nods his head, not sure why David would be surprised, paper a mandatory addition to any dog that descended from a long line of prize winning pure breeds. "Yeah, his papers. He's pure breed you know, he could be a show dog if I wanted him to. My mom and dad own his parents and they have their own trophy case in the living room filled with awards from dog shows for being so perfect."

David stares at Noah, really not understanding the whole concept on how a dog could win award just for being born a pure breed. "Really...?"

Noah continues to speak proudly of his pooch, there is nothing the yappy dog could do wrong! "Yes! Mr. Princess descends from greatness! Unlike the giant mongrel horse you keep in your house."

It is David's turn to become offended by Noah's comment. "Goliath could eat your dog in one bite!"

Noah holds his arm out to the small dog while speaking in a proud voice. "Your dog is not worthy of even gazing upon that which is Mr. Princess!"

David is about to say something but stops, realizing it would just be pointless and stupid to continue this conversation, he just shakes his head as he turns away from Noah beginning to walk away from the house. "Come on, let's get going before we're late for our reservations."

Another way of clashing we have is that David is a handyman, and could find a way to fix almost anything if it was broken or not working properly. While I am not good at fixing stuff in the least, and could not repair anything if my life depended on it.

_ _

I know what you're thinking... isn't being able to fix things a good trait to have? No!! It is not!! It's one of the most annoying traits ever! You see, if something breaks on me that only means one thing.

Noah opens the door to his room, a surprised look fills his face when he finds all of his laundry gone. "I guess mom is doing my laundry toda-" A horrified look fills his face.

Noah runs through the house and into the laundry room screaming, he quickly opens up the washing machine putting his hand in and pulling out a pair of his pants quickly beginning to rummage through its pockets, pulling out a soaked mp3 player.

After letting it dry for twenty four hours, Noah begins pushing buttons on his mp3 player to see if it would work, nothing happens. "Damn it it's broken..."

Noah gets up walking over to the door of his room and yelling out of it. "Dad!! I need a new mp3 player!!"

***

Noah is pushing buttons on the rice cooker, nothing happens like it should, he frowns as he looks it over before turning away from it walking to the doorway that leads to the hall of his house and yelling down it. "Dad we need a new rice cooker!"

***

Noah is staring at a wiimote lodged in the screen of the TV, he lifts his finger and poking at it a few times, the television flickers for a moment and then shuts off, Noah stares at it for a moment longer before walking up to the doorway of the living room and yelling down the hall of his house. "Dad!! The wrist strap on my controller broke so I need to get a new one! I'm also pretty sure that we're going to need a new TV!!"

David on the other hand instead of buying new things, found a way to fix the old stuff, meaning that he never bought anything new!

Goliath trots around David's apartment with his tongue hanging out while David help's Noah back to his feet after his first introduction with the dog. "I'm really sorry about that."

Noah grins at David, though being completely flattened by a dog that is twice his size was unexpected it isn't something he couldn't deal with. "No problem... I'll be fine..."

He walks into David's apartment for the first time, coming to a stop as he looks everything over, his place is not exactly what he has expected for someone like David, all the furniture old, damaged and barely holding together. "Uh... interesting place you've got here..." He looks from one article of furniture to another, it outright horrifying to look at. "How much did you say you make at your job?"

David looks back to Noah, this issue is one that always came up when someone came over to his place. "You're wondering about the furniture aren't you?"

Noah nods his head, that is exactly his issue. "Yeah..."

David looks around his place as he begins to explain. "Well when me and Nancy were going through our divorce she kind of hit a point where she got a little bit angry and happened to get her hands on a chainsaw."

Noah stares back at David, again giving him a nod of his head. "... right... so why didn't you replace the stuff that got destroyed?"

David grins at the thought, there is no need to do something like that. "It's a waste of money to buy something if you already have it. All I had to do was fix it, a few nails, screws and brackets and everything works just like new!"

Noah stares at David with his mouth hanging open, really not sure what to say in response to that, he looks back to the mangled furniture mumbling to himself under his breath. "Doesn't look like new though..."

He turns his head staring at the sofa, Goliath now sprawled on it sleeping with his feet in the air. Patches are all over the sofa to keep the stuffing from coming out. "Hardly even looks like it should be used by human beings..."

David motions Noah forward, there is no need for him to stand in the entrance the whole time he's here. "Make yourself at home, I just need to finish up a project from work on the computer really quick. I'll be with you as soon as I'm done."

Noah doesn't move from his spot, still taking in his surroundings. "What's with the unwound coat hangers all over the place?"

David looks to the coat hangers that Noah is talking about, that easy to explain. "Oh, the antenna on my TV broke, so I have to do that if I want to watch any cable."

Noah gasps as he looks back to David with a horrified expression. "YOUR TV STILL HAS ANENNA'S!?!?"

David nods his head, not seeing the problem with that. "It still works just fine."

Noah stares at David, for someone that is into all the new electronics like him it's absolutely horrifying. He shakes his head, trying to push all this to the side. David is a sweet and kind person; he couldn't let something as odd as this come between them.

Noah finally leaves the front entrance, walking into the kitchen and dropping off his leftovers down on the counter, looking over and staring at the microwave, the glass on the door broken, it still though plugged in and clearly being used. "... that cannot be safe..."

_ _

But despite all of that, everything still went well for us, and we thought that we had everything covered. I mean we were able to put up with all of that stuff between us and we were still madly in love with one another. In all honesty, we thought that we knew everything there was to know about each other, and could handle anything that was dished out between us.

_ _

That is until... we got married... and got a house and moved in together...

David and Noah are standing in front of a nice suburban house, Noah opens a deluxe doggy carrier and taking out Mr. Princess, holding him in his arms as he makes his way over to David while Goliath rolls around in the lawn getting filthy from the grass and dirt.

David takes a deep breath of fresh air, obviously very happy to be here, things working out just perfectly, he looks back to Noah when he notices him approaching. "Isn't this great Noah? From now on, we'll be calling this place home."

Noah nods his head as he looks the house over, it's pretty big for just the two of them, the whole situation still a little unbelievable even though the two of them had done the house hunting together. "So what was wrong with your apartment?"

David looks back to Noah it's pretty obvious that they couldn't stay there. "Not enough room you know that. Goliath is a big dog and needs a yard to run around in, you need your space too. Plus there's no way that we would have been able to fit the kids in there, it was only a one bedroom apartment."

Noah nods his head in agreement. "Oh yeah... I guess that makes sense..." He takes a moment to think over what David has said, something not sounding right. "Wait... kids?"

David nods his head yes still all smiles. "Yes, you know, my kids. Timothy and Alex, come on you didn't think that they wouldn't be moving in with us did you?"

Noah stares at David about to enter a state of shock. "... you have kids...?"

And that's when I realized... I actually didn't know everything about him.

A car drives by the house, a man sticking his head out of the driver's seat and pulling out a paintball gun, shooting David in the back before quickly driving away. "Burn in hell!!"

Noah looks back to the car watching it drive down the street. "Why would you give your parents your new address...?"

David still stands in spot, having barely flinched when being hit, used to it happening to him by now, a tired look on his face as he slowly begins to shake his head. "I don't know..."