Clair de Lune

16. Breakfast

The sound of birds chirping woke me up the next morning. I blinked a few times, shaking away the grips of a nightmare when I realized I wasn't at the facility. I was in a room with dusty walls and warped hardwood flooring, the smell of rain and decay sweet and yet sour at the same time. It made me smile and I sat up in the blankets, my chest length curls fanning out around me. It felt good to not be behind steel doors and be able to sleep for once.

Voices reached my ears from downstairs and I decided it was probably time I go make sure everything was going just as smoothly as it had last night. I rolled out of bed and pulled my socks back on, the fabric having been laid out to dry while I slept, and left my shoes where they were. The insoles were still soaking wet and I didn't want to walk in that. My steps were practically silent as I descended the stairs, finding that the boys were squabbling quietly over something. Necro was holding a pan and Marshall looked incredibly hungover. They both looked up when I entered the room though, Necro's face lighting up with a smile and Marshall's falling into a scowl.

"Well, good morning." I laughed quietly. "What are you two fussing about?"

"Marshall went and picked up a deer from the trap, but we don't have any way of cooking it." Necro huffed, and I just raised an eyebrow at them. "They turned off the gas for the stove last week apparently."

"I'm literally a walking furnace, hand me the pan." I held out a hand and he gladly gave it to me. I placed my palm on the bottom of it while I gripped the handle with the other, watching Marshall as he disappeared into the kitchen for a moment and came back with sliced strips of venison. The fire beneath my skin and the heat rising from my touch was more than enough to warm up the pan, and he poured a small amount of cooking oil into it before using tongs to place the meat down on the metal. The sizzle and the smell made my stomach practically scream.

"Well, at least you're useful for somethin'." Marshall chuckled as he took a seat on the ground beside me while Necro disappeared upstairs. "How'd you sleep sweetheart?"

"Fine," I narrowed my eyes slightly, "better than I have for a while, actually." I looked him over a bit more closely, noticing in the sunlight pouring in through the windows just how raggedy he actually looked. Marshall was tall, taller than Necro, and he had a small crook in his nose from where it had been broken sometime before and there were scars scattered amongst his stubble. "So...you used to be an agent."

"Sure did," he nodded as he flipped the strips, "got left for dead and never looked back, not much else to it besides that."

"What are you doing out here then? Just waiting around for nothing at all?" I questioned him, and he narrowed his eyes at me.

"What's with all the questions? Can't a man just live off the grid?"

"Not when he's associated with PASCI, ex-agent or not." I said evenly. "You obviously have some ulterior motive to keeping around this place or you wouldn't be staying here."

He was quiet for a moment, just as Necro returned from his adventure somewhere. He was clothed in something besides the PASCI given items, now wearing slightly torn blue jeans and a green coat with a brown fur lined hood. I had to hold back a giggle when I saw his socks, both different colors and mismatched to all hell.

"Didn't we used to have a portable stovetop that ran on batteries?" Necro asked as he took a seat beside us after grabbing some slightly chipped china plates and silverware.

"Yeah, until you fuckin' broke it." Marshall huffed. "What'd you find out while you were in there anyhow?"

"Well, you were right about subjects getting shipped off, I was getting ready to go to Iran when Hellfire came in, guns blazing." He snorted. "They're keeping the S Class to themselves. There's been whispers about Arcane, something about using her to their advantage."