A screen rested as a man stood from his desk. His face opposed Kiorif’s, soft, clean, never faced a battle. Although his eyes showed some form of his own battles. A mix of red lines and heavy purples forced themselves to his eyes, with a faint sting with each close of his eyes.

But for him, they would be temporary compared to the thoughts written in his mind.

‘It’s always what we want first,’ though his thought was cut off when he heard the faint tap of the shower through his door. Opening the door the smell of the kitchen had crawled up to the second floor and filled his nose with life.

When he entered the kitchen he saw Tomobi’s creations, a stew with slabs of toast for a welcoming dinner.

“Tomobi this looks stunning as always,” When Tomobi heard these words instead of a frightful and lifeless response, his jade markings hued under his clothes.

“You are just saying that Si-” Apollo looked over to Tomobi.

“I mean Apollo,”

“It’s fine, come sit,” Apollo sank into his chair, the steam danced in his face, pushing his face up to smile.

“Would you like me to call in soldiers?” The steam retreated to let his smile fall.

“They are here? Argh, that was who was in the shower,”

“That would be Rookie, Apollo,” Apollo freed himself from the hooks of dinner to rush upstairs, Tomobi went outside to get Kiorif.

Apollo tried to flatten out his worn clothes to make himself presentable.

‘Wait should I be greeting them when they leave the shower? That could make me look weird,’ he stopped himself and went down a step.

‘But it’s rude that I haven’t introduced myself,’ a step up.

‘Though at the shower,’ a step-down.

‘I mean, what customs does the earth have now?’ a step up. The click of the door though kept Apollo’s pace upwards.

“Ah good that we finally get to meet. Please to meet you si-” but his image of a rugged soldier boy was replaced with a smooth soldier girl.

“I mean Miss, I am Apollo please to meet you,”

“Oh don’t bother calling me Miss. Rookie’s cool,” She went to offer her hand but took a whiff of the air.

“What’s that?” A trickle of drool almost leaked from her maw.

“Tomobi’s cooking. He had prepared dinner for us,”

“Say no more,” Rookie slipped and slid through the hallway to her room, erupting seconds later with more layers of clothing attempting to wrap around her.

With Apollo following her, they came to a shift in the kitchen. The faint bubbling smell of lime came from the pots being filled with soap, with Tomobi gluing himself to the sink.

Kiorif meanwhile already had torn through his bread and his soup half empty.

“Guess you were too hungry huh?” Apollo tried to spark a conversation but Kiorif’s eyes washed away the thought.

“Don’t mind him, we are both starving,” Rookie took her seat, breaking into her bread.

“I see. Tomobi, come join us,” Tomobi placed the soap, replacing it with a towel. Only when Tomobi sat down did Apollo finally dive a spoon into the soup, and when Rookie realised this she choked on her bread.

“Oh, were you waiting for him? I’m sorry about eating-”

“It’s fine you both haven't eaten anything. You are our guests, you shouldn’t worry about those things” Apollo waved a hand to cool Rookie’s reaction.

“It’s just something that we do,” Apollo beamed to Tomobi, who kept his head low as he drank his soup.

“So how was the trip here?” Apollo redirected himself to Rookie and Kiorif, who were more likely to respond. Kiorif ignored him while Rookie smiled.

“It was crazy. We spent three days on a ship from earth, it was big but then we were told that we had to take another ship. Something about being a target, then we were placed in a random field with a whole bunch of trucks-” Rookie’s story continued with the dinner, and as the last droplets of soup rested at the basin of their bowls Rookie story began to close.

“Whew, that was some good food, let me tell you. The trip was one thing, but the food,”

Her laugh caused Kiorif’s temper to raise an eyebrow

“But what can you do,” she proceeded to grab her bowl.

“Oh don’t worry about it,” Apollo stood up, with Tomobi collecting Kiorif’s instead. Both went to the sink and worked in unison.

“I’ll be helping Tomobi pack everything away. Could you two go into my office? It’s the big room with books and desk,”

“Sure,” Rookie followed Kiorif out of the kitchen. Once out of view Apollo turned to Tomobi.

“What do you think of them?”

“I believe that they are both fine soldiers,” Tomobi focused on drying his own bowl.

“Come on, you know that isn’t what I meant. Like on a personal level,” he looked back to when he saw Kiorif, and in the short time, it took for Rookie to try to connect with him.

“Miss, I mean Rookie is nice,”

“And Kiorif?” he remembered his cold remarks, and an old feeling twisted inside him.

“I’m unsure,” Noticing a faint twitch in Tomobi’s hands, Apollo patted Tomobi’s shoulders to overrule Tomobi’s feelings.

“It’s alright. He just seems cold, I’m sure that he isn’t that bad,”

“Y-yeah,”

“Anyways,” Apollo dried off his hands.

“When you finish, could you do the curtains in their room? I'm pretty sure they aren’t used to our long days. After this, I’ll do the rest, consider it thanks for thinking ahead for me,”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course, why make you do all the work in the house? I don’t wanna get lazy,” Apollo left the familiar to the alien conversation appearing, opening the door to see Rookie and Kiorif. Both sat for his entrance. Apollo's breaths eased him before entering the battle.

“Let us get on with it shall we,” at his desk, he pulled out a brick of paper.

***

Tomobi sunk into his bed with books for companions, it would be all he did when freed from the drags of playing servant. The pages would swallow him, showing him cities of green, battles of the ancient, and beasts that cheated themselves into the game of life.

But what did that matter, all he would do is confine himself to the mocking walls of the city. Forcing himself to be chained to a man who wanted to free him, but that was his nurture.

While wrapped in the book he remembered Kiorif’s grimace, the broken ice tone, and his soulless body.

The thoughts latched themselves to the sounds of air cracking and a heartless crackle.

Tomobi clamped his book shut. A cold shiver slid its finger down his back.

To try to get rid of the thoughts, he decided that he would try to burn them with water. With faint twitches, he forced his body down to the kitchen.

“That’s all I know about VitaNavs,” that sentence shattered through the thoughts and even the notion of water.