Parallel - LeviHan

A  young woman sat in front of her computer blankly staring at her screen, her paper due in little less than 9 hours. With a sigh she leans back in her chair to survey her work, checking her word count and frowning. This was not an uncommon occurrence for Hanji she was prone to all-nighters and last minute handins but today was different, today no matter how hard she tried she couldn't keep her mind focused on the screen as her eyes drifted passed it and out the window, to him.

It had been almost a year since he moved into the apartment in the building next to hers but she knew very little about the man. The only thing she was sure of was that every night without fail he would prop up a canvas near his window and paint. On this particular day the man wore his usual disinterested scowl and stepped up to his canvas, she watched him pick up his pallet and mix his colours together. With one swift movement his brush made contact with the canvas moving randomly in different directing with different colours. Blue, Green, red, purple a whole array of colours landed on the canvas. Hanji watched in awe at his confidence with a brush, his hand unwavering, wising she had such confidence in her own work.

A buzz from her phone broke her from her trance, she picked it up to see who was texting her in the middle of the night. It was her friend Petra checking in on her progress with her report. "almost done" she lied. The fact was that Hanji was far from done, she had barely begun.

Making a loud frustrated noise and throwing her hands in the air Hanji got up from her chair and closed the curtains, hoping that if she could not see him she could concentrate on her own work. She returned to her seat and began pounding the keys on her keyboard.

Meanwhile for the first time that night Levi put his brush down and stepped back from his canvas it was his turn to stare blankly at his work now and it vexed him. With a 'tch' sound he leaned against the window looking out into the street, he watched the busy New York streets bussing with people. His grey eyes travelled up and into the building across him to closed curtains, he observed a thin stream of yellow light peeking through the chink in her curtains. His eyes travelled to his canvas and then to his pallet, selecting a bright yellow colour and cut through the painting in a vertical line.

Hanji stretched in her chair with a big smile on her face, she looked at her work pleased and then at the clock 2 am it read. She printed out her report and set her alarm and threw herself on her bed and fell into an immediate slumber.

Levi quickly packed his things away neatly and cleaned his work station, he stepped out of his day clothes and into his pyjamas. Setting his alarm he climbed into his freshly washed sheets and went to bed.

And so this had gone on for the past year, going through good times and bad, living in parallel.