Lightly Chilled [Dr.Freon x Your Little Project]

[Your Little Project]

Alexandra(1 2) was more than thrilled to finally be able to move into a place all on her own. She had finally earned a promotion, freeing her of any necessity to deal with room mates. Sure, it was nice to split bills, but Lexie's patience only went so far. A small townhouse was up for rent at a steal, likely due to the fact that the majority of the appliances were older and decor wasn't as modern. Either way, Lexie was just pleased to have privacy.

It was obvious she wasn't planning on leaving any time soon. Having moved in a few days ago her goings-on were average for the new neighbor sort; dreary old blinds were replaced with bamboo shutters, decorative wreaths hung on the front door, she even scrawled her own name on the mail box name tag. "Alexandra Connor," the purple script was almost too decorative, it likely threw the mailman off at first. She was quiet thus far, little more than a few lights on at night, accompanied by the occasional flicker of a television.


After tapping gently on the display control for her air conditioner to cool the room, Lexie quickly settled onto her couch to watch a movie. Spring had rolled through unusually early this year, allowing her to pack away the majority of her snowy outfits and replacing them with more of a summer-like vibe. It wasn't until she was fifteen minutes in before a terrible groan shuddered into the air ducts followed by a light pop. It took her several minutes to realize what the problem even was but finally her eyes flickered over the control on the wall. It was blinking and listing nothing more than an error code. Murmuring curses, she searched through her kitchen drawer, the assumed location of the on-call handy man for the property. Of course, it was nowhere to be found and of course, it was after four PM so the front office was closed.

She debated waiting until morning, but ultimately chose to take action simply due to how stuffy her entire place would become. Grabbing her phone and sliding on a pair of sandals, Lexie made the short walk to her nearest neighbor. She hadn't actually met this one yet, or at least she was pretty sure. Only a handful of people had actually introduced themselves, mostly just while collecting mail.

 

[Doctor December]

His living room still and quiet, save for the faint hum of his own (functional) AC unit,
Danny Maples heard the front door to the townhouse neighboring his creak open, then softly shut. Next, a few light footprints pattered along the concrete walkway outside. Though normally this of course didn't mean much, Danny knew exactly, or at least hoped he knew, where his neighbor Alexandra was headed.

He peered out his peephole to catch an early glimpse of her, and her outfit made his heart sink a little in disappointment, as it reminded him that winter had seemingly packed up and left overnight with a summery springtime taking its place. True, he didn't have much room to talk, wearing nothing but sneakers, jeans, and a light blue V-neck T-shirt himself, but when he'd spied her coming in and out of her new home during the moving process, he'd felt an inexplicable twinge of excitement at the sight of her in the layers of cool-weather clothes she had sported, and the vulnerability they implied. But if Plan A didn't work out for him, he assured himself, Plan B would see her back in those clothes so he might be able to peel away the layers himself.

While Alexandra had been busy earlier, Danny gave her AC unit a little tweaking in anticipation of the warmer weather. It wasn't the conventional way to approach a beautiful woman, no, but in the long run, he thought his method might be a little more effective. Danny worked for his family's business, "Mercury AC", a heating and cooling company that specialized in designing, installing, and servicing refrigeration systems for grocery stores, restaurant freezers, meat packing plants, and other facilities that required cool storage. Alexandra had by now no doubt seen his small truck parked outside, boasting the company's name and logo on the sides. With all the pieces in place, all he needed to do was wait for her to make the move of stopping by to ask if he'd mind taking a look at her air conditioning.

Clutching his mail key to make it look like he was coincidentally stepping outside as well, Danny opened his door and walked over with a nod and friendly but closed-mouthed smile before greeting, "Hey, good afternoon! I'm Danny." He gave her mailbox a nod, its purple tag visible even from here. "You're 'Alexandria', I presume?"

After a pause for her to return the introductions, he noted, "How about this change in weather, huh? The heat really dropped in on us."

 

[Your Little Project]

In truth, the girl hadn't taken notice at all of the logo plastered over her neighbor's vehicle until she was half way to her destination. The original intent was to see if he had the contact info for the company on call for their housing division, but an immediate house call would be so much more convenient... With a new plan of attack, Lexie checked her hair and straightened her outfit before continuing on. The girl was pleasantly surprised to find someone more her age, if not a few ahead and she greeted him with a sincere, if not intentionally manipulative smile.

"Nice to meet you," she started, only to wrinkle her nose up at the use of her name. "Oh, no. My parents call me Alexandra. My friends call me Alex, but you can call me Lexie." She shot a playful wink his way before extending a soft hand out for a shake; her only subtle chance to touch at this point.

Mentioning the weather earned little more than a baffled shrug. "You've got me," she started, her tone light. "What's worse, I'm not even prepared for it all." Lexie casually waved a hand in the general vicinity of her home. "I tried to use the air conditioner for the first time and I just can't figure out what's wrong..." Trailing off, she made the damsel in distress tone rather natural for something on the spot. Rather than immediately ask for the random repair man's number, she let her plight hang in the air between them for a time, offering the blank opportunity to offer his services of his own fruition. Little did she know how perfectly this rolled into his original plans.

She really was thankful that he was easy on the eyes. It would have been difficult playing the coy girl with an older gentleman. At least this way things seemed more plausible for all parties involved.

 

[Doctor December]

"Well, nice to meet you, 'Lexie,'" he told her, adapting a jokingly corrective tone when he said her name. He tucked his key in his pocket then returning his hand to shake hers.

Danny could barely stop himself from smirking when she set him straight up for the proposal to examine her cooling system. "If it's any consolation, it's supposed to cool back down tonight," he shrugged. "But as it happens, AC's are my line of work, so, if you'd like, I can see what's up with it. C'mon," he said, leading her around back to look at the cube-shaped box at the back of her townhouse.

He knelt down to examine the the chords and hoses that fed through the hall and into the house, speaking to her over his shoulder. "While controls have been updated, the actual units are still from the 80's or 90's. These older models are alright, but they have a mind all their own. Sometimes they down work at all, sometimes, they work a little too well." This was only partially true, of course- the units used on their townhouses were in fact older, but they were more than just "alright" in function, and any problems, at least for the time being, weren't the AC's fault at all.

He gave the chords he'd unplugged earlier a push back into their respective receptors and stood up, turning to face Lexie. "All looking good out here. If you don't mind me coming in, I could give the vents and the thermostat a look, too."

 

[Your Little Project]

The girl couldn't have been happier to have her neighbor fall right into her flimsy plot. Perhaps they truly deserved each other.

There was no complaint offered as he turned and stepped back towards her building. Following at his side, Lexie simply leaned her weight to one side as she patiently allowed him to look over the unit. She wasn't stupid, it would have been rude to just walk back inside and leave him to his own devices. "I'm just so ignorant to all this stuff..." She shrugged, looking helpless. "I can put a PC together blindfolded, but I wouldn't even know how to start approaching something like this." It was important for her to stress she had some type of practical knowledge; she didn't want to look absolutely stupid in front of a cute guy.

Asking for permission to come inside rang zero alarms. "Oh, sure."

Rounding the building, she opened the door and motioned for him to follow. "The control's over here," she led him past the kitchen and into the living room. The interior had been freshly painted and new carpeting was installed, customary for newly renovated houses in the development. It was also obvious that she was still working on unpacking; the only areas of her living room that were set up were her computer and television. Small boxes holding the rest of her personal items hadn't been fully unpacked yet, but a few he could peer into seemed to contain various collectible knickknacks and gaming memorabilia.

"Do you think you can fix it?" Lexie had quite a large amount of faith to be trusting a stranger's word.

 

[Doctor December]

After running inside to get a small toolbox, Danny followed his new neighbor inside and couldn't help but look around to get a feel for her interests and style, noting what he could see of her gaming goodies. Combined with her aptitude for computers, it seemed like she was more on the geeky side than he'd pegged her for by her looks and her somewhat flirty demeanor. Interesting, he thought to himself.

He gave the thermostat controls a quick look (knowing there really wasn't much he could do to them), and noting "Hm, seems pretty normal here..." and wandering over to the grating for one of her vents that peered out from the top of the wall close to the ceiling, overlooking her living room. "Do you mind?" he asked, pointing to a dining table chair, which he then slid over to the vent and unscrewed the grated cover of the vent with a Phillips head screwdriver from the box.

With his back to Lexie, he put the screwdriver back, but took out a small, white device that looked like a small speaker (with a little fan in place of the screened part) about the size of a baseball. Keeping his head and shoulders in the way of the vent's opening to hide what he was doing, he slid the sleek, white fan-nosed device an arm's length into the vent as he pretended to feel around.

When he was done, he replaced the vent's cover and stepped down. "Well, looks decent to me. Hmm..." he pretended to ponder as he adjusted the thermostat controls, and the air hummed to life. "Seems to be doing fine now. But, like I said, sometimes they work too well. Sometimes, not at all. Anything else I can do while I'm here?"

He did feel a little bit bad about his deception. After all, she seemed normal enough. But then, his prototype needed testing. And what's more, Lexie's behavior really gave him a 'playing helpless for free help' vibe, /especially/ after the revelation that she was adept with at least some types of machines. She wanted to cool down, but we all know the old saying about wishes...

Danny's device would need time - and wind power from the cool air blowing from the vent - to charge. But in a couple of hours, it would have the living room down to 40 degrees. Buy midnight, 20, and probably literally freezing. If it worked, it might mean cooling industrial freezers and storage spaces at a percentage of normal energy costs. And it might also mean a certain new neighbor would be begging for his warm company unconditionally.

 

[Your Little Project]

While Danny was busy inspecting the controls and vent, from the kitchen her cell phone began to ring. She turned and stepped away, retreating down the hall and leaving him to his own devices. The conversation was muffled, but her tone was casual, likely a friend. Just as he was replacing the vent and stepping down, Lexie returned with her phone at her ear. Realizing that he seemed to be done, she interrupted whomever was on the other line. "I'll call you back, 'kay?" There wasn't even time for the other person to respond, she just hung up and placed it on a closed box.

She could already feel a difference in the air, a sure sign that he knew what he was doing. Having proven himself, he offered to help out more. "Well," she trailed off, crossing her arms and casually gripping at her elbows. "I do have a leaky shower up stairs, but I understand if that's a little out of your scope..." It was a veiled barb, daring him to prove himself. Slowly, Lexie was revealing that she wasn't just sugar.

Unaware of the entirely separate game he was playing, she almost felt cruel for phrasing things the way she did, but she was hoping for shock value to keep him interested. If he backed down, he'd get some speech about how she understood and would show him the door. But if he chose to try and help out, the actress within her would come alive. She grinned and grabbed at his wrist, beckoning him to follow her up the stairs to the second story. The short climb gave him an opportunity to really examine her curves and the way her hips swayed with each step. The stairs opened up to the entire second floor, allowing him full view of her bedroom.

There were very few boxes, and there was a well-planned pastel filter over the entire room. Almost every free surface housed a colorful trinket of some sort, but breaking up her collectibles were framed pictures as well. A few were likely family members, but there were several of her dressed up in themed outfits, posing with semi-celebrities, all game artists or voice actors. If she caught him peering, an explanation was tossed over her shoulder on the way to the bathroom. "I'm a booth babe whenever there's a convention near by, it's a great way to get paid to meet people." Finally at the bathroom, she pulled back the pink polka-dot curtain to reveal the next unsuspecting culprit: a small silver shower head that, as she revealed, dripped right before their eyes.

"See? It's so agitating! It was all I could hear last night..." Yeah, sure.

 

[Doctor December]

"Well, plumbing isn't really my forte, but I can give it a go..." he said, but before he was even done, she was pulling at his arm, leading him upstairs toward her bedroom. Hm. Maybe he wouldn't even need his experimental trick in order to sway her.

"That's pretty neat!" he said, leaning his head to dip into the doorframe of her bedroom as they passed it. As she explained her occasional side work at cons, he tried to imagine what kinds of cosplay outfits she wore. Maybe, if this all played out well, she'd even put on a few of her costumes for him. "I'm kind of a movie fanboy more than anything. I've never really been to a con. Always seem to be working."

He slid past her, through the narrow bathroom, to look at the shower head. "Yeah, mine did the same thing..." And this time, he wasn't making up the technical difficulty. There was a wide ring, the same chrome color as the shower head's neck, that rested around the neck at the point at which it fed into the tiled wall. "I think... I saw the landlord try one of these..." He pulled a wrench from his belt and widened it as far as it would go, then gave the ring a few turns until it was further up against the wall, less relaxed and much more snug.

With an anticipation he was surprised to have found over the matter, he looked back to the nozzle, and the drops of water slowed, until the last one took a full ten seconds to fully form then plummet with one final "click" against the floor.