There was a man sitting in front of him. A familiar face; strong nose, eyes like the depths of the ocean and high cheekbones, the entire thing framed by brown curls that wouldn’t look out of place on an ad for some hair-care brand.

Suffice it to say, one had to grant it to Nik, the guy was a handsome bastard. Not like Solon would ever be caught dead admitting it out loud, of course. No. The SOB was already aware of it, and he was more than smug enough, no need to add fuel to the fire...

Mistakes had already been made in the past, like that one time he had insinuated that, ok, maybe, perhaps, Nik might have been slightly better than him at M*rio Kart, after Solon got his ass completely handed to him thrice in a row. Never mind that that had been the first time, ever, that his ten-years-old-self had even come close to an N64 -or that, as a child, Solon hated to lose, and had made sure to get good enough to have his revenge soon after-.

Honest to goodness, the guy still rubbed his ‘vidya superiority’ in his face, from time to time, never mind that it had already been what, fifteen years?

More like twenty.

He took a drag from the cigarette that hung from his lips.

Fucking time.

In the blink of an eye, he had gone from trading pok*mon cards at school, to trading his lifeblood for an overpriced college degree, to trading stock for a living.

And now I’m trading my mental health, and whatever’s left of my hairline, for a house I no longer have any real use for.

Not like he could really complain about any of that -except maybe the early onset baldness-, at least he had no money problems. His college debt was already done for, and the mortgage for the pricey house Helene had repeatedly insisted they needed was... probably about halfway through? It’d been a while since he had cared enough to check.

His eyes idly took in the empty -but comfortingly fancy?- walls around him.

Hell, I should be jumping for joy I somehow managed to keep most of it after she left. Well, I did pay for pretty much everything, but...

No. That line of thought wouldn’t bring him anywhere.

Whatever the case, although things seemed like they were going pretty well for him, for the most part anyway, he couldn’t help but wonder if that was all there was to it. If-

Well, actually putting his finger on the issue wasn’t exactly easy. But, if he just had to put it into words... maybe, it all felt a bit pointless?

Absurd. Sounds better.

As the smoke slowly trickled out of his mouth, his eyes idly followed the whitish tendrils dancing around the embers at the end of his stinky nicotine fix. He would hardly be finding an answer in them, before they dispersed into nothing, but... For some reason, a part of his mind felt that the image almost looked like a beacon of things to come.

A smirk curled his lips as he caught hold of his own mental rambling.

Yeah, right! A ‘beacon’ for incoming lung cancer, if nothing else.

Just for the irony of it, he punctuated the idea with another puff.

Not like he cared much about the latter; he was still young, or on the younger side anyway... Whatever the case, if he had to be honest, he had no intentions of making it into old age, so a bit of a smoking habit was unlikely to have the time to develop into much of a problem.

Maybe two more decades? Definitely less than three...

Perhaps it was a bit morbid but, even back in his teens, he had failed to understand why people seemed so desperate to cling to life no matter what. Illness, weakness, and possible dementia had never sounded like a fun prospective to him. No, he, for one, was going to leave the stage well before that, one way or another...

Distractedly, he focused back on Nik, who was still talking, gleefully oblivious to Solon’s lack of attention and rather nihilist musings.

”... Aaaand, ‘Ello? Earth calling here!” Nik paused, glaring at him. “You even heard any of it?”

Okay, maybe Nik hadn’t been that oblivious.

“Honestly? Nope.” Solon frowned. “Nikiforos Theodoropoulos, my good, good friend, I seem to remember a ‘Hi!’, somewhere.” He vaguely gestured towards his right. “Maybe near the door?” After a properly dramatic pause, a Cheshire grin parted his lips as he pointed at his ears. “After that, though, I’m afraid it all seems to have gone right into one, and straight out the other.”

Even as he spoke, in a practiced movement, his hands grabbed an unassuming cardboard box that had been sitting on the table the entire time, deftly exposing the golden treasure that hid inside. “Pizza?”

If looks could kill... well, Solon wouldn’t exactly be dead, but, maybe a bit maimed? Hard to gauge. Suffice it to say, Nik didn’t look too pleased, although his cheesy peace offering did seem to mollify the guy somewhat.

“Dude,” Nik started, snatching the box out of his hands. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you, but you’re kind of an asshole, you know? And, Hawaiian, really? You know that’s sacrilege!”

As far as Solon was concerned, the former was a fact of life, but the latter was debatable. Quite so.

“So, anyway,” Nik continued again, swallowing a mouthful of pineapple-covered deliciousness despite his previous protest. “As I was trying to say... the eclipse. What you said over the phone, about ‘not caring for any of it’, that was a joke, right? And you are going to come and watch it your good old brother and his friends, right? Friends, let me add, a few among which are women, you know? Single girls, subtle hint. Like Samantha, -before you ask, that would be the lissome brunette, just out of college, I introduced to you back in August- who repeatedly asked me if you’d be coming. Very subtle hint.”

“Hmm...” Solon lit the second cancer stick of the evening, pointedly ignoring his friend’s usual attempts at playing matchmaker. “No?”

“Don’t tell me...” Nik stopped mid-bite, gawking at him as if he had just grown a second head. “You somehow already had plans?”

“Hmm...” Solon tilted his head. “No? I wasn’t joking, I’m just not going to watch it.”

“Bro...” Nik gave him the look.

Silence followed, for a while. Eventually, though, Solon let out a tired sigh.

“No Nik, this is not about me having caught my ex-fiancee cheating on me with her female best friend. It’s been two years, I’m already over it.”

Nik still just silently stared at him, the look never leaving his face.

After another moment, Solon sighed again, rolling his eyes. “I swear to god, sometimes you’re worse than my mother, may she rest in peace. Fine! Maybe I’m still feeling a bit murderous, but only from time to time, and my life doesn’t revolve around it! I’m just busy.”

”...Busy?” The Greek fucker didn’t sound too convinced, but Solon considered himself lucky enough that he had been willing to drop the other topic so quickly.

“Very.” Solon nodded. “Plus, what’s there to watch? Isn’t the entire point of it, you know, just not seeing the sun?”

In all honesty, Solon still didn’t get why there was so much hype around it, but, for the last couple of weeks, it seemed to be the only thing on everyone’s mind.

“Oh, come on!” Nik’s hands shot into the air, either begging the heavens to bring clarity to his dull-minded friend, or asking for patience to tolerate him. “You bitter fuck! Grinch! There you go with your stupid reductionism again! That’s just bull, and you know it too! It’s not even only the eclipse, there’s that weird anomaly with the comet at the same time too. Come with us. Hell, forget about the girls, if you want I’ll tell Sam you’re taken or something, it’ll be fun anyway!”

Solon silently held the guy’s gaze for a moment.

“Okay, fine, here’s why I’m not going.” His pupils thoroughly scanned the immediate surroundings, as if to make sure there was no one else around. Of course, it was a pointless exercise, since, unless he had already completely lost it, he fairly certain he lived alone. “Let me tell you in on a little secret.”

“What?” Again, his friend didn’t seem too convinced, but there was at least a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

“You remember how my family was deep into that esoteric crap, right?”

It was pretty much a rhetorical question, never mind their own friendship, their fathers had always claimed to be ‘brothers from another mother’. For all intents and purposes, they had grown in a single, big, slightly weird family.

As expected, Nikiforos nodded his head, giving him a bit of a stink-eye.

Blatantly disregarding his interlocutor’s obvious annoyance, Solon winked. “Well, here’s the thing.” His voice died down to a confidential whisper. “I’m told that, when I was born, they did some rituals. ‘Sigils’, or something, don’t ask me, I’ve no idea. I also can’t tell if it worked, but, every day, I get an exclusive opportunity.” He raised a finger, feigned enthusiasm tinting his voice. “Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve been told a few obscure, ancient manuscripts call it... ‘Night’. Long story short, I get to not see the sun... Every. Single. Day.” He gave Nik a shit-eating grin. “I know, crazy, right? But, some of us are so privileged we can’t even help it!”

“And you dare to call that a joke?” Nik snorted. “Sol, you used to be cool... but you’re getting lame as you grow old! And, ah, it’s a terminal illness!” He shook his head in mock sadness. “‘Knock, knock’ crap is the next stage and, from there, all kinds of dad jokes are just around the corner.”

Solon gave him the bird.

“Shut up, thirty-two’s still young, I’m in my prime! Plus, who are you to speak! You may have better optics, you massive genetically cheating freak, but I’m far from old enough to have started forgetting you were born before me!” He shrugged. “Regardless, I’m not watching the stupid eclipse. Believe it or not, I do have a meeting at that time. Seems like the Aussies don’t care for ‘unprecedented astronomical events’. Well, either that, or it’s that it can’t be seen from across the globe.” He stood up, taking his plate to the sink. “Anyways, I’ll stay here, wallowing in my misery. Maybe, I’ll also make myself some good old cash, just to have something to wipe my tears with.” He frowned. “Although, on second thought, forget about that last part, who knows what kind of crap I could be getting into my eyes...”

“You-” For a moment, Nik seemed to be about to protest, but ended up just chuckling. “Alright, alright, your loss then, just forget about it! Please tell me you’re still hiding some booze around here? I sure could use a drink, you know, before getting an aneurysm from trying to take you too seriously. By the way, with remote working and stuff, I’m gonna bet you haven’t left the boomer-cave since last time, so next pizza’s at my place, even if I have to come drag you out of here! Don’t give me that look, Sol, I’ll make it worth your time, I swear! Look, Anita makes one hell of a Pisco Sour! Sooo... How does Wednesday sound?”