"I gotta get going... don't tell my girlfriend, okay?"
Lucius's eyes creep open, two slender blue orbs adjusting to the light from the window and the fully-dressed boy standing by the door. He then rolls his eyes, slowly rising from the bed so his chest is slightly slumped but enough to look awake. The boy, Jake, stands by the door in the outfit from the night before, his wide brown eyes filled with worry.
"I don't even know your last name, how am I supposed to know who your girlfriend is?" Lu's raspy sleep voice rolls from his tongue, the sarcasm making his voice sounds slow and deep. Jake seems to realize the same thing, and relaxes physically. He plants one more kiss on Lu's lips, and then leaves.
"Call me?" Lu calls after the boy facetiously, falling back into the soft, fluffy pillows he spent so many hours trying to find. Mavis was actually the one that found them; after all, she helped him stock most of his dumpy little home.
Why don't you just get an apartment? Amber had asked him. He had only one reason: Baby, his spoiled rescue cat. Lu can already hear Baby's padding over to the room, like he could read Lu's mind. Lu slowly rises from the bed, snatching a cigarette from the pack in his bedside drawer and lazily sauntering through his house to the living room, where his backyard is waiting for him.
"Alright you beast, potty time." Lu opens the back door, then the porch door, watching his cat saunter around the yard and up onto the fence. Lu stays on the porch, watching his cat roam about the surprising large backyard while lighting a cigarette. Camel Menthol.
His tired eyes drag around the yard, watching for the moment when Baby would start batting at the local squirrels and he would beckon the cat inside with his favorite treats. Another sleepless night, save for the hour of sleep he somehow achieved right around sunrise. The sight was beautiful, pink and light blue beads of light shining down on the bare-chested boy beside him, his feathery black hair splashed against his forehead, which wrinkled in his sleep.
Baby wanders back around when the squirrels don't come down to play, his soft fur tickling past Lu's ankle. Lu makes sure to refill the food bowl and set out a water bowl before disappearing into the back of his house for a shower.
Looking in the mirror, slowly steaming into a translucent mess, he fingers the tattoo on his collarbone.
912347104.
If he dwells too long on anything that reminds him of The Hole, he is attacked with memories. He runs a damp hand through his hair, trying to think of something else. He has a "date" with Mavis today, as he calls them, and then he supposed to have a meeting with the Deadmen tonight, to welcome new members and lay out introductions for their next big mission. He doesn't really feel like doing anything of that, except meeting with Mavis of course, and considers asking her to go on lookout for vigilantes with him tonight. Now
that's a rush, saving a family from losing one of their precious members.
To stop them from becoming someone like me. Lu is suddenly gripped by the memory of the night he was taken, and he gasps, suddenly breathless and tearing up. The image of his father, surrounded by a pool of blood, while an older man is forcing him out the door of his childhood home, brings him to his knees. The showerhead pounds water on his crumbling body, and he can still feel the difference of salty tears and shower water on his face.
The sound of a phone call wrestles him from this living nightmare. Lu rushes out the shower, tripping on the wet linoleum and his underwear on the floor, catching the phone just before the final ring.