(Untitled)

[lights_midnight]

Apollo was slightly confused when he woke up.

He opened his eyes and distinctly noticed a lack of body in bed with him. Okay, not too strange. He was in bed. His bed. The sunlight spilling over his side of the bed confirmed that. He felt warm.

He closed his eyes again.

Chains, hanging by his arms, hands against his skin, burning cold and blood-

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[anothercoldwar]

He steps through the door, and suddenly, the dull buzz of the Carrier and all her power is gone from the back of his head. He's standing in the middle of his yard, a patch of mostly dead grass surrounded by trees. He's glad it's semi secluded--most of his neighbors no longer remember he was a 'superhero.' The Door glowing on the front lawn would have required some interesting explanation.

He unlocks the front door and lets himself inside, not bothering to flip on a light despite the gloomy interior caused by the curtained windows. He glances back over his shoulder at Apollo. "This won't take long."

[lights_midnight]

"No hurry. Once Jenny's down she'll sleep for an hour or so. And I doubt they'll let me back on active duty for a few days."

Apollo steps in behind him, casting dim sunlight against walls and furniture as he enters. He doesn't comment on the place, doesn't show any emotion beside vague curiousity of his surroundings.

Apollo's incredibly non-judgmental like that.

[anothercoldwar]

"Probably wise." Of course, he always fought his way back on active duty as soon as possible, but he never claimed to be smart when it came to such things.

He walks down the short hall into the bedroom and opens the closet to pull out a bag for packing. He frowns at his old uniform hanging there for a moment before tossing the bag on the unmade bed and going over to the dresser. "I'm sure you could use the down time."

[lights_midnight]

"For what? To sit on my ass and get more paranoid? Last fucking time they left me watching Buffer for ten hours while they did other stuff and then told me to go and defend Washington from the bastards who'd done me over anyway."

He doesn't seem aware of the fact he's cussing a lot more than normal as he wanders to the beroom door and leans in the doorway, staring off outside.

"What am I meant to do with time off?"

[anothercoldwar]

"I suppose that's a point. I got beaten by someone of your caliber, and was sent off to kill his colleagues later the same day. I never wanted to stay behind."

He throws some clothing onto the bed in the general vicinity of the bag they were meant to go into. Nearly ten years, and the house might as well be a hotel room for him. There's nothing personal anywhere in it.

"Crosswords, maybe?" He shrugs. "It's generally a way of making sure no one does anything rash."

[lights_midnight]

"I was on duty and singlehandedly defending North America against invading superheroes within twelve hours of being flat charged and raped. Face it, world stops for no man. I assume you won, though."

He drums his fingers on the door frame. He suspects Winter just maded a joke. Not a good one, but a joke nonetheless. "I don't have the patience for crosswords. Maybe I should take up knitting... even if I suck at it, I can stab people who annoy me with the needles."

[anothercoldwar]

"Bendix ordered Hammerstrike missiles dropped on them. I don't call that a victory. Once we got SkyWatch fully operational again, I went back to my room and passed out for twelve hours. One of the worst days I ever had."

Not the worst, but that's pretty obvious, really. "Neither do I, frankly. And my English spelling is no good." He stops pulling clothing out of the dresser and starts putting it in the bag instead. "That might make it worthwhile, yes."

[lights_midnight]

"That- sounds really, really shit. I wish Bendix were alive so I could kill him. Jeroen and I were going to make him explode by force feeding him his own testicles over and over again." He sounds almost nostalgic at the idea.

"I don't get the point of cross word puzzles. Whereas knitting, I can make terrible sweaters and socks for people I don't like and have burning metal projectile weapons in one. Shh, I know I have eye lasers. Not the point."

[anothercoldwar]

"Jenny electrocuted him. Made a absolute mess of the transfer bay. ...and then the two of us had to try and fix it all because Christine was locked in her room by accident and Jackson was dealing with his brother. It didn't help that neither one of us wanted to be in charge." He remembers Jenny standing outside Christine's door shouting "How do we fix this goddamned thing?" at the top of her lungs and feels faintly nostalgic.

"I think they're supposed to be intellectually stimulating." More clothes get put in the bag. "Weapons and badly constructed clothing items. Perhaps you could start knitting scarves for everyone."

[lights_midnight]

"Yeah, that's our Jenny S. Was she sober at the time? I'm pretty certain she was drunk when we took on Sliding Albion. And I know she'd been drinking when we dealt with God, but we'll forgive her on that one given what was coming."

He wanders back into the other room, floating himself up into the air lazily. "Yeah... I could make sweaters that resemble straight jackets and gloves big enough to hit on your head. Jesus, why are we will discussing me knitting?"

[anothercoldwar]

"We had bottles sitting right there on the console. She'd just fried Henry and waded through corpses in the cold penitentury while I watched the damned Hannerstrike payload disolve the people I was trying to negotiate with. Neither one of us wanted a clear head."

He leaves the bag to retrieve items from the bathroom. "I have no idea, to be honest."

[lights_midnight]

"That's it! Topic change! I'm sick of talking about dead people and raping people and knitting, it's depressing."

He turns lazily, floating on his back.

"You been here long?"

[anothercoldwar]

He blinks, dropping his toothbrush into the bag. "It is, yes. Although it is a fairly fond memory, all things considered."

He arches an eyebrow. "Quite awhile, actually."

[lights_midnight]

"Wish I'd seen it..."

He looks to the boxes in the corner of the room. "You haven't finished unpacking, yet, Nikolas. How can you not have finished unpacking?"

[anothercoldwar]

He looks at the boxes. They've been sitting there so long now that he'd actually stopped noticing them.

He shrugs. "Never got around to it, I guess. I'm not sure what is in those, to be honest."

[lights_midnight]

Well if that wasn't an invitation...

Apollo drops back to the floor and wanders to the boxes. Pokes them idly and then slides a finger under the tape of the top one and pulls.

Frowns and yank harder until it snaps. "Interested to know?"