Chapter Text
“And this is where the mail will be dropped off, keep in mind any large packages will be dropped by your door or returned to the post office if you don’t pick those up.” The older lady explained, guiding Branzy to what would become his brand-new apartment.
“Got it!” Branzy smiled, carrying a large box with him for unpacking, that he had already forgotten the contents of. (Maybe dinner plates? It was heavy, he should have labelled these…) “Anything else I should know?”
“Hmm…” The stout old woman ran her fingers along her chin in contemplation, settling on shaking her head, “Nothing that comes to mind, but don’t worry! You can always pop in on the bottom floor with any questions you may have.” She laughed, putting in keys to the apartment 2A and swinging the door dramatically open. “Welcome to your new home!”
Branzy side-stepped past her and stepped into the apartment, the sunlight beamed through the open windows, the wind waving the curtains calmly. It was open planned, a kitchen with an island to the left and a living space to the right, maybe Branzy could squeeze in a dining table with some smart planning.
“Wow, awesome! Thanks!” Branzy smiled, looking over his shoulder to smile at the landlord as he placed his box on the counter.
“No problem dearie, I hope you settle in nicely! Don’t worry, I let all the neighbours know you’d be moving in today, so they won’t complain about any noise! Do try to keep it down usually though, Oh!” She gasped, hand covering her mouth and a slightly amused smile settling on her face, “That does remind me…”
“Hmm?” Branzy probed, opening the box and smiling, it was dinner plates, he was right.
“Your neighbour in 2B is… an unusual character. I never really got his name come to think of it, I just call him Clown because he’s always wearing this silly mask!” She laughed joyously, and Branzy smiled nervously in response.
“A… mask? Like a face mask?”
“Oh no like a full face mask! Well, once he was only wearing a face mask when he went to get the mail, it was a silly cartoon grinning mask, very funny.” She giggled again, “But no, he sometimes plays music fairly loudly, it seems to only really reach people on this level though, and he encourages you to just knock on the wall to ask him to stop.” She explained calmly.
“Oh, that seems fine! I tend to be a little bit loud with my video making, so maybe we can work something out.”
“Fine by me, just make sure not to blast music so loud the whole apartment block can hear it!” She laughed, waving as she started to head out, throwing the apartment keys to Branzy, “Good luck moving in Branzy, I hope you enjoy living here!”
“Thanks, miss!” Branzy called, catching the keys in one hand with a flourish. As he heard her head down the stairs, he poked his head out the doorway, shutting his new apartment door and stepping back.
The place was barren, but had been cleaned a bit for his arrival, and he relished in the lack of dust as he walked across the carpeted floor into his new bedroom. He nodded in approval at the size, and collapsed on the bed, lying like a starfish and grinning giddily at the ceiling.
“Home sweet home.” He mumbled to himself, relishing in the privacy he had earned. He hoisted himself off the bed and rolled his shoulders, “Time to get some boxes.” He smirked confidently.
-
The last box was tossed to the side, Branzy eagerly placed the small decorations he had brought along, just dumb little things to make him laugh, a Minecraft goat plush, an obnoxiously gaudy purple flowerpot that he had no flower for and even his brand new ‘Live Laugh Love’ sign, which he bought ironically but now realised he had to display.
He stepped back and admired his apartment, it wasn’t anything fancy or that well decorated, but it was his and his alone. Plus, it had what he needed, he thought as he stepped into his new study.
Branzy was a streamer, and he was making it a point to commit more time to it, this was the first major step. Trying to make it now in his own place with a proper set up and room for it, he added some purple lights to the back too just to make it extra obvious what his career was. His dream setup was finally achieved, and he was excited for this new start to his life.
But… Living in an apartment and not a house did come with different… complications.
Branzy paused in his admiring when he heard soft music through the wall, nothing too obnoxious, a sort of ethereal sound with some clear beats. He listened in silence for a while before he leant his ear up to the wall between him and his neighbour, the strange music continued before it switched entirely to what Branzy could only describe as circus music.
He scrunched up his face in confusion, “What the heck?” He murmured. I mean, better then heavy dubstep? But a weird as hell thing to play on the regular, who actually LIKES circus music?
His new neighbour, apparently, Branzy shrugged it off and went about settling in. He’d surely grow used to it.
-
He did. Surprisingly he had grown accustomed to the frequent bizarre music, ranging from ethereal ominous music with instrumental lifts that made Branzy feel like dancing to, to classic circus music that Branzy imagined an elephant would balance on a ball too. (Did circuses still use animals? They really shouldn’t.)
The problem, however, with growing accustomed to something unusual, is you often don’t see the weirdness in it when you’re used to it.
Branzy was streaming, he was playing Minecraft and talking with his chat, explaining his new apartment and how cool it was to have a place to himself, if a bit lonely.
“It’s been super nice, I even got a live, laugh, love sign chat, I’ve truly peaked.” He laughed, and distantly registered the circus music drumming against the wall. “Yeah! It’s been great, and, huh? Why are you all spamming ‘music?’” Branzy asked, creasing his brows and looking around himself and on his set up, “I didn’t hook any music up to my soundboard yet- Oh.”
He laughed as it clicked in his head, “The music! Yeah, that’s my neighbour, I haven’t met him yet but so far, he just plays circus music all day on and off. No idea why, I’ve gotten so used to it I didn’t even notice it had started again.”
He watched the chat spam ‘wtf’ and ‘lol’ respectively, giggling to himself about the whole situation.
“Even at night? Thank gosh, no, I haven’t heard him play it later then like, 9pm, so I usually sleep soundly without dreaming of circuses.” He chuckled, “My landlord lady told me to knock on the wall if it gets too loud, but honestly he hasn’t blasted it yet, I’m surprised you guys can hear it.”
He nodded along to the chats comments.
“Wow can’t believe you have a clown as a neighbour,” He read out, cackling loudly, “it’s actually so funny you say that, my land lady said she literally doesn’t know his name and just calls him clown because he wears a, and I quote, silly mask.”
The chat continued to spam WTF and LMAO as well as a few CURSED APARTMENT comments, Branzy played along, enjoying the atmosphere.
Then the music abruptly stopped, and a knock was heard through the wall, Branzy tensed and looked at the wall in fear.
“Sorry!” He said, voice just above speaking level, assuming he had laughed maybe a bit too loudly for his neighbour.
They knocked thrice and Branzy knocked back as a second attempt at an apology, it must have worked because no more sounds were heard through the door that night.
“Cannot believe he just complained about me laughing yet has the audacity to play circus music all day every day.” Branzy whispered to his mic whilst locking eyes with the wall, as if his neighbour would feel his gaze.
Branzy slapped a hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter as almost immediately the circus music started up again, Branzy gestured to the wall aggressively, silently raging as the chat hollered with laughter, (or a chatters equivalent).
Oh well, made for some lovely comedy.
-
This continued for a few weeks, Branzy streaming, managing to now maintain a level of sound that didn’t breach their thin barrier, and his neighbour continuing to play circus music and other strange otherworldly songs. It had become a meme in Branzy’s community, he even added a honking noise to his soundboard, whenever the music started up again, he would hit it and exclaim “Clown time.”
(His chat encouraged him to engage in clown-like behaviour whenever it was clown time.)
Despite the sort of silent agreement, the two had, knocking frequently at each other to establish their sound boundaries, Branzy had never actually seen ‘Clown’ yet. And he had made an effort to greet all his neighbours on his level, but his neighbour at apartment 2B, never opened his door.
Which was odd, because when he knocked on the wall directly after knocking on his door, he responded.
Maybe he’s just shy, Branzy settled on as an explanation.
But that didn’t change his drive to make peace with him.
It was a hot day, swelteringly hot, so hot that Branzy had to shut his windows because there was no breeze coming in that didn’t feel like the waving heat of a furnace. He simply lay against his wall in a tank top, sipping on cold water and groaning in frustration.
It seemed his neighbour was in a similar situation, he wasn’t playing ANY circus music, and he hadn’t been all day.
“Hey neighbour,” Branzy murmured, slapping the wall lightly, “You okay? Where’s your funky music?”
He received, about a minute later, a knock in response.
“Hey!” Branzy greeted, gaining a bit of energy and leaning up slightly to press his face against the wall, “You okay?”
He waited for a bit, only his own tired breathing filling out the empty sound.
“I’m fine.” The wall responded, and Branzy grinned.
“No music today?” He called back, making sure he was loud enough to be heard.
“…You can hear the music I play?” He heard the muffled voice respond, and Branzy laughed.
“Of course! You only play it every day!”
“Oh, I assumed you couldn’t hear it because you rarely knocked.”
“It never bothered me, so I didn’t see a reason to.” Branzy admitted, smiling as he slumped into the wall, sipping on his water, “Too hot for music?”
He heard a slight chuckle, “Yeah, something like that. Way too hot to move.”
“I hear that.” Branzy said, raising his glass up as if cheering.
“What are you always laughing about over there?” His neighbour asked, a teasing edge to his tone.
Branzy blushed in embarrassment, “Oh uh, I, I stream playing games, try to be entertaining.”
“Ah, that makes sense, I just assumed you were crazy, always talking to yourself with no one ever responding.”
“Wha- Hey!” Branzy huffed, and the wall laughed. “You cannot talk, I have no idea what you do but anyone who listens to that much circus music is insane!”
He laughed a bit louder, “I gotta agree, it definitely drives me crazy.”
“Then why do you do it?”
“I need to memorise them.”
Branzy paled, “That sounds like a nightmare, why, why do you need to do that.”
“My job requires me to stay on beat.”
“What the heck is the beat in circus music?!”
“It’s not always circus music, well, technically it is, but it isn’t always traditional circus music!”
“What do you mean it’s always circus music?! That wishy washy ominous stuff is also circus music?!”
“Yes!”
“Why?”
“Because I work in a circus!”
Branzy found himself sucking in a breath and holding it, trying to hold in the giggles that threatened to escape as he realised, his neighbour, could definitely be, a legitimate, clown.
He failed miserably and exploded with cackles, “Are you actually a Clown???” He asked with a wheeze.
“Professionally? No. In my heart? Yes. The proper term is circus performer.”
Branzy continued to giggle, finding himself calm before thinking about the situation again and reigniting his bouts of laughter. “My chat is gonna laugh so hard at this.”
“They can ALSO hear the music?!”
“Yes! These walls are very thin!”
“Clearly! No wonder all my other neighbours kept moving out so fast!”
“They never told you?”
“For some reason after meeting me they just wouldn’t talk to me or knock or anything, no idea why.”
“Weird.” Branzy muttered.
“Agreed.” He heard something from the other side, “Welp, I’ve got to get back to work, or at least converge with my colleagues, nice talking with you, neighbour.”
“Nice talking with you too, uh, Clown!”
The room's overwhelming heat and awful atmosphere slowly reformed, nearly palpable in its suffocating qualities. Branzy curled up, frowning slightly, he didn’t realise it until actually talking with someone but…
Living alone, was, kinda lonely.
He sighed and tried to stay positive, standing up and deciding to try what Clown was doing and at least get a vid of work done, he could probably edit up some highlights for his Youtube channel. Who knows, maybe with Clown around and willing to talk, it wouldn’t be as lonely.
-
“I actually have no idea how much he is able to hear now, because he said he could hear me talking to myself, which I am not!” Branzy said, gasping in mock offense as he retailed the encounter to his chat whilst he waited for some streamer buddies to join his call.
He rolled his eyes at the chats antics, “Chat, stop saying you’re not real- Stop, are you gaslighting me right now? I know you’re real! I can see you!” He laughed loudly before he quietened, listening for a knock. He sighed in relief when there was none.
“So yeah, basically, he had no idea I could hear the music, and I had no idea he could hear me.” He explained, humming at a few comments, “Does that mean clown time is over? No, definitely not. He keeps playing music, we’re good, also, get this, he is LITERALLY A CLOWN!” He cackled.
“NO I’M NOT!” A shout said through the wall, and Branzy screamed, falling off his chair, leg still on it so he was at an awkward angle.
He snorted, and cupped his mouth, “YES YOU ARE, YOU WORK AT A CIRCUS!”
“AS A PERFORMER, NOT A CLOWN! STOP LYING TO YOUR CHAT!”
“THAT’S SOMETHING A CLOWN WOULD SAY!” He yelled back.
“THAT’S IT!”
Branzy struggled to get back on his chair, before falling off again as circus music was blasted at a far louder frequency then usual, Branzy covered his ears.
“OKAY NOT A CLOWN!” He shouted over the music, and he sighed in relief as it lowered in volume.
“GOOD.”
Branzy chuckled quietly, “So uh, yeah, that’s him. The Clown.”
The chat was even more excited during clown time then ever before, knowing that the person on the other side of the wall was reasonably funny.
-
Branzy yawned, pulling himself from his bed and fixing himself some coffee, he pulled at his night shirt as he waited for it to brew, and scrubbed a hand over his face and through his hair. He always took a bit to wake up, so the coffee definitely helped.
He decided while he waited, he would check his mail, it had been a good while living in his apartment, to the point he didn’t need to call it his ‘new’ home anymore, just ‘home’ would do nicely. He knew bills and regular junk mail were sure to be ending up in his letter box by now.
He opened his apartment door and froze instantly, because a man was right outside of it, facing the small black, in-the-wall letter boxes they had, he was sifting through his mail.
Branzy gripped the knob in his hand tightly, confused out of his mind on how he had not met this neighbour yet, he’d surely remember someone so damn HOT.
He was wearing a tank top, a crime to be sure, it was lower at the back exposing beautiful back muscles under slightly tanned skin. He had some leggings on, leggings, lord have mercy, that framed his form lovingly. He had dark brown hair around medium length flowing from his head. Branzy gulped, he had already opened the door, he needed to get his mail.
But… The man hadn’t turned around yet, so maybe there was still a chance he could just shut the door and not face this gorgeous and intimidating man before him.
Branzy took the slightest step backwards, and his floor creaked. The mans head snapped around to face his and Branzy screamed in surprise, because the face was entirely covered by a horrifically scary mask, displaying a large toothy grin and strange mime-like eyes. Branzy flailed at the jump scare and slammed his door shut, the person on the other side laughed maniacally.
Wait a second… He recognised that laugh!
Branzy opened the door slowly, squinting at the man, whose shoulders still jostled as he continued laughing at Branzys overreaction. Hang on… Familiar laugh, wearing a ‘silly’ mask… Branzy stared at the letterbox he was getting his mail from, 2B.
“What the- Clown?!” Branzy hissed, glaring at him, “Is that you?!”
The man, now glaringly obviously being Clown, continued to laugh, leaning on his knees before composing himself, “Yes, obviously, hello neighbour.” He waved, and Branzy gaped at him.
“Why- How did the landlord ever describe your mask as ‘silly’?! That’s terrifying!” Branzy squeaked, hiding his face partially behind his door.
“It is silly! It has a silly little smile, see?” He said, and Branzy could tell he was grinning the same smile beneath the mask.
Branzy sighed and shook his head, smiling despite himself, “You’re not the classic party clown at all, you’re more like the horror clowns, like in IT!”
Clown chuckled at that, “Mm, I do enjoy my fair share of scary clowns.”
“You are one!”
“Not a clown.” He corrected with a pointed finger.
“Just accept your title as clown, Clown.”
Clown was still for a moment, “I’m rolling my eyes, if you can’t tell,” He informed, “But I’ll accept that title, only because I do love Clowns.”
“Good.” Branzy grinned smugly, and Clown stepped forward, making his eyes widen.
“Stop looking so scared I’m just trying to get a look of who I’ve been talking to the past, what, month?”
“Month and a half.” Branzy corrected, having kept count of how long he’d been living there.
“Yeah, come on out, I assume you wanted your mail?”
“Uh yeah…” Branzy suddenly felt incredibly self-conscious, the man before him was clearly incredibly fit, very put together, and Branzy was… well he was in his pyjama shirt, boxers, and had the worst case of bed hair imaginable.
Clown stared at him and sighed, “Never pinned you for a scaredy-cat,” He grabbed Branzy’s mail and held it out to him, “There, happy?”
Branzy took it sheepishly, “Thanks. Sorry, just not well dressed right now.”
“I’m literally in my workout clothes and super sweaty and you’re worried about being improperly dressed?”
Wow if that’s what he thinks is bad then Branzy did not want to imagine him in his regular clothes.
“I never got your name, by the way.” Clown said, tilting his head.
“Oh!” Branzy said, pushing the door open slightly more so he could stick out his hand in greeting, “Branzy! Nice to meet you Clown!”
Clown laughed, “It’s Pearce, nice to meet you too.” He looked up and down and Branzy realised the door was showing a bit more of his shame, he hastily closed it a bit more. “You’ll be glad to know I’m going out today, so no circus music, you can be as loud as you want.”
Branzy’s eyes lit up as he thought of the possibilities, “Oh no, my wall buddy is gone.”
“I can tell you’re excited.”
Branzy smiled guiltily, “I’m excited I get to scream, maybe I’ll do a horror stream.” He joked.
“Oh no, you gotta do that when I’m here, that’d be hilarious.” Clown- Pearce, said, a villainous laugh following.
“You are literally an evil clown.”
“You know it!” He said, stepping toward his apartment, “I’ll be gone in an hour, have fun streaming Branzy!”
Branzy waved as he shut his apartment door, and then brought his hands to his face to feel his cheeks.
Warm. With dimples from smiling.