No. He wasn't going to storm upstairs and shout at the person making all the noise in the apartment over his. He wasn't going to lose his temper after only a week at his new place. He was going to do some Zen breathing and forget about the noise—
BANG!
Oh, hell no.
Alexei Novikov twisted away from his yoga mat and shoved his feet into the slippers by the door. There was a shriek from above and another series of stomps and thumps, rattling the light fixture over his head. Growling, his frustration upping several notches, Alexei ripped open the door and stormed up the single flight of stairs to the next floor of his apartment building.
At the door he heard laughter, high and feminine, right before he knocked — probably a little too hard— with one fist. The laughter ended and a moment later there was a patter of footsteps approaching the door before the lock turned and the door opened.
Alexei looked down a good six inches into eyes the color of aquamarine. They tilted up a little at the outside and under the thickest lashes he'd ever seen were round cheeks covered in a smattering of light freckles. The face smiled at him and he blinked, wondering how in the world this angel had been making all that noise a minute ago.
There was a blur of color out of the corner of his eye and his gaze darted down to see an identical face framed in identical hair peering up at him from around the woman's thigh. The little face was the spitting image of the woman standing with her hand on the door, though the child was obviously two decades younger, at least.
"Hi." The woman tilted her head to one side, the curtain of her dark red hair falling over her shoulder.
Alexei's gaze caught on the wavy strands and he clenched his hands into fists, dragging his eyes to the woman's. "Can you keep it down?"
"Oh." She caught a stunningly full lower lip between her teeth and her cheeks turned a shade of pink Alexei couldn't identify. "Are we making too much noise?"
"You're making my lights shake."
There was a little giggle from the woman's side and Alexei's gaze darted down to the small face. She made a noise as their eyes met and buried her face in the woman's thigh, little hands clutching the bottom of the woman's shirt. He could tell she was still laughing from the way her little body shook.
"I'm so sorry. My daughter and I were practicing our gymnastics."
"Inside?" He crossed his arms over his chest and his scowl returned in full force. "Is that smart?"
This time it was her gaze that narrowed. "When it's raining cats and dogs outside so we can't go to the park to practice, yeah, it is."
"Well, it's too loud." Alexei took half a step backwards, ready to flee. He didn't do well with other people, never mind women with doppelganger children. "Don't be so loud."
Her expression was mild and she nodded. "I do apologize. We'll try to keep it down."
Before he could retort that 'trying' wasn't good enough, she stepped back and closed the door. A moment after that, the deadbolt clinked shut with a resounding
thunk
and Alexei was left staring at the numbers on the front of the door.
Cursing under his breath in his native Russian, he stalked away, heading back downstairs to his own apartment. Inside, he stood in the center of the main space, the combined kitchen and living area, and listened, scowling at the ceiling.
It was quiet. He heard a series of normal footsteps to one side, then it fell silent again. He stayed there, glaring at the ceiling, for longer than he should have. By the time he stopped, the time over the stove told him he had a mere twenty minutes to shower and get to his meeting at the arena.
Grumbling under his breath the whole time, he stalked to the bathroom, showered, dressed, and was out the door nineteen minutes later.
At the arena, Alexei nodded in greeting to his teammates as he walked through the building towards the team meeting room. There, he took a seat next to his friends, Tarik Hassan and Olle Norberg. They'd all been traded to the team at the same time during the off-season, a few years ago and it had made for a quick friendship to develop, even though their backgrounds could not have been more different.
"How was the day off, Al?" Olle held his hand up for a fist-bump as Alexei took a seat next to him.
Alexei grunted, making the Swede grin. It was no secret that Alexei was a man of few words. He'd probably done more than his fair share when confronting the upstairs neighbor earlier but he was in no mood to recap that for his teammates.
Tarik leaned over and squinted at Alexei. "He looks like he's in a good mood, so I'm guessing it was a good day off."
Olle snickered and nodded. "Yeah. He looks slightly less constipated than last week."
Alexei rolled his eyes and relaxed back in his seat, choosing to ignore his teammates' jibes. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched the rest of the team as they filed into the room around them. About ten minutes after he'd arrived, the coaches walked in and the meeting began.
They were facing the Detroit Red Wings the next night, always an exciting match-up. Same as any game between any of the original six: the six original teams that had formed the NHL back in the early twentieth century.
Growing up in Russia, Alexei would never have dreamed of playing in North America, let alone one of the most storied franchises in the league. And yet, here he was. The thought, as it usually did when it occurred to him how far he'd come in his life, made him smile.
It startled Olle when the defenseman glanced in his direction again, which made Alexei smile wider.
The Swede leaned close to him. "Stop it. Halloween is still two weeks away."
Chuckling, Alexei elbowed his teammate and they focused their attention on the game film now being played in front of them.
Later, Alexei let himself back into his apartment and his relaxation after spending hours with his teammates and friends faded. He scowled into the dim light of the space and waited, expecting a thump or bump or anything from above. But no. It was silent.
Breathing out in relief, he turned and locked the door before heading to his room to change into sweats and a T-shirt. As he did, he ran through his to-do list for the rest of the evening. He needed to get his smoothie and morning oats ready, and finish with his laundry because he was out of socks and would need them before his morning run.
As he was measuring out the protein powder for his smoothie, there was a distinct shriek followed by a BANG from above. This time, also rattling the single picture he had hanging on the wall over his couch.
Glaring at the measuring cup in his hand, he carefully tipped it into the blender and slapped the lid over the powder canister. While he moved on and tried to finish measuring out his vegetables and fruit to add, there was more banging, thought not quite as loud. Some stomping, more rattling, another thump, all with an accompanying loud childish laugh. Finally finished with his smoothie prep, Alexei washed his hands and jumped when there was another loud thump.
