apollo rising

yours is the light by which my spirit’s born: yours is the darkness of my soul’s return –you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars”

Jared couldn’t help the amused quirk of his lips as the doctor unloaded her current plight. “I hadn’t noticed,” he promised. The hair was loud, but it wasn’t unsightly on Charlotte Martin; not truly. Jared put his clipboard down, hand moving to right under his chin to take in the situation. “It’s not very bad,” he said. “I fact, I’d say that it’s pretty.”

Jared went quiet as he changed from his glasses to his contacts. He had made the mistake only ONCE to not change his glasses, and it had ended in him halfheartedly trying to explain to Lake Grimstone’s doctor that he had accidentally left his glasses on top of a frozen pizza when he put it into the oven, and that was why they were melted and warped beyond most recognition. His contacts weren’t perfect, and he was certain that if he could feel heat as pain, his eyes would surely hurt, but he was blind as a bat: there was no getting around that. He wasn’t going to flex his powers without being able to see where he was going. He made an amused noise at Larissa’s words, finishing putting his left contact in and blinking it smooth, glancing at himself in the mirror. He looked like he had when he was twenty-three: a little bedraggled, a little worn, with nothing masking his face. He looked wider-eyed, more innocent. Younger. Whoa. He finished in the bathroom, giving his hands a quick rinse before meeting Larissa in the hallway. “Piggyback it is,” he said. “I think we’ve spent enough time waiting around, right? Let’s get going.”

“The suit doesn’t really breathe during training,” Jared admitted with a grin. The Suit ( it felt like it needed a capital S; it was a proper noun at this point ) was like wearing armor: he felt like he could do just about anything in it. He could keep private what he needed to, and it took the thought out of what to wear for the day. But he got what she meant: the Suit had become a part of his identity at Lake Grimstone, and he was surprised with the ease with how he now wore it. Not for the first time, he briefly thought of his friends from outside: the free-spirited adrenaline-seekers with whom he had traveled the world. He doubted they’d even recognize him in the Suit and glasses. “Oh, shit,” he murmured, feeling the frames on his face. “Almost forgot.” On his way to the bathroom, Jared pressed a kiss onto Larissa’s cheek. “Gotta grab my contacts,” he said. “And then I’ll carry you if you’re feeling sluggish, Lar.”

At first, Jared thought that she had been talking about that hard-to-define aspect of the night in that tenth-grade, Hawthorne kind of way. –– And then came the tangent. He blinked, trying to keep up, only realizing that it had been a quote from a book after she gave her citation. A brow raised, and, “Quoting a book… doesn’t that make you a reader, rather than a writer?”

It took every muscle of his practiced, professional features to not smile in amusement at her words. –– After all, it was only funny to him because he knew that the moon didn’t have to always be absolute: if he wanted to, he could keep pulling the sun back, and back, and back, keeping it daytime. And messing with the Earth’s… everything. “You’ve still got a bit of time; curfew isn’t with sundown,” Jared said. “Not a lot of time, but enough to enjoy the nighttime for a while longer.”

“More often than not, it’s you having your way with me,” Jared pointed out with a sly grin, knowing it was true. Their relationship had started with Jared asking Larissa what she wanted, and giving it to her. He liked when he told her what he wanted; he liked it even more when he could deliver whatever it was right to her, whether it was himself or strawberry ice cream. As she did what she needed in the bathroom, Jared tied a pair of beaten-up sneakers to his feet –– rattier than anything Larissa had ever seen him in –– and grabbed a jacket and his gym bag from his closet, zipping the jacket to his body as she stepped out. When she had put her feet into her shoes as well, he placed a kiss on her lips, wishing part of his power could help her wake up. “Right this way, Miss,” he said, offering his arm. “We’ve only got twenty minutes to get to the building now,” he finished, checking his watch. “Since it’s interior to the town, the guards are pretty much on a routine. People don’t usually try to make a break for it by running into the town.”

“Good, good. That sounds good,” Jared replied. He’d always wondered about Miss Hendricks. Speaking to her now, all of her pauses made her seem even younger than she was. Making a note to check in on her when there was still daylight left, he gave her a small, professional smile. “I hope the nightfall didn’t disappoint.”

Jared laughed when Larissa pinned him to the bed for a moment longer. “I think I can help in that department,” he said, knowing that his natural heat would warm her right up. They lay for a moment longer in the silence before Jared gently extricated himself from Larissa’s grip, rolling swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and standing up. Throwing a shirt on, he glanced back at Larissa to explain a bit further what training looked like for him. “There’s a building that was supposed to be a new resource warehouse,” Jared began explaining. “Construction was paused while they talked about logistics, and it just… was never picked back up. There are really few windows, so I use it to train so I don’t wake anyone up with sunlight. –– Hmm. I think that’s about it. This is the last chance to stay in bed.”

Larissa’s never-ending ability to surprise Jared was one of the things that made her so perfectly suited for him. She reminded him of who he was under the suit of without the glasses on. She reminded him of the headstrong boy who couldn’t keep a secret to save his damn life, who jumped out of planes to feel alive; she reminded him of why he had loved to take risks in the first place. He now lived in a place where his taking risks wasn’t possible –– not the same risks he had taken, at least –– and so having someone who surprised and delighted him on a daily basis was… WOW. He hadn’t realized just how much he needed it. He rolled over, resting his head on his hand while he listened to her, an amused smile pulling his lips upward. “Somehow, I remember the carnival a little differently,” he said. “I remember you stealing my clipboard and holding it hostage so that I would have fun without giving me the criteria for what you’d consider fun.” He took a mental note of the chocolate part, thinking that he’d have the ability later that day to pick some up for her as a surprise, and as a thank-you for coming out in the dead of night, breaking the rules Jared tried to live by. “If you want, you can stay and keep dreaming,” he said. “We can do this another night.”

His alarm went off all-too soon after a fitful night. –– Or, rather, part of a night. It was one-thirty in the morning, and Jared had been nervous all night for the alarm to go off. After all, it wasn’t every night that you took your girlfriend to your clandestine training session, right? Jared’s ability wasn’t something that often came up in conversation, and if it did, it was done so using vague, roundabout code words which cut the conversation in half. Three nights ago, when they had just been about to fall asleep, Jared had turned to Larissa and questioned, murmuring, if she’d want to come with him to his training session. He knew Larissa well enough to know it was likely that she would say YES, but that hasn’t stopped the hard, stony knot of tension from growing in his gut. He turned the alarm off, and rolled over, kissing Larissa’s temple to wake her up, assuming that she was all-too used to his alarm going off for training that she may sleep through it. “Lar, if you still want to come, I’ll be getting up now,” he murmured, voice still thick with sleep, bereft of that professional tightness that it had in the daytime.

While Jared certainly couldn’t train in public, he could –– and did –– go to the gym. Figuring out his ability without any outside assistance at all meant there were more valleys than peaks on his journey toward control, but very early on he had realized that he felt like he had more of a grasp on things when he was in better condition. –– However, going at the very beginning or very end of the day meant that he tended to only run into very few residents, and not very regularly. Standing from the weight machine he had been using, he saw another walk in, making the current population of the gym two. Figuring it would be strange not to, Jared raised a hand in greeting. “Mister Hunt,” he said. “I hope you’re well.”

It was growing late; the town would need to be indoors shortly. Jared, on his way back from the office, ran into one of the residents –– nearly literally. “Miss Hendricks,” he greeted. “I hope you’re well. –– And I hope you’re heading inside soon.”