Gregor the Gearhead had taught him how the whistle. It was hard at first, where Ares blew out spittle instead of music. But Ares persistence commanded that he not give up, and soon he was whistling passably well to the point where he would do it casually. Those crisp, cheerful notes announced his arrival in the sleeping quarters, the loudest sound amongst the whistle of the wind against metal and distant drum of a hammer.
Dawn had just breached the horizon. Ares, the excitable nuisance that he was, thought it a perfect time to pound on Etienne's door and inquire about a trip outside of the gates. He usually did this, albeit other, as the other was not typically in his bed to answer the incessant knocks. It was more a journey of habit, where ten years ago he would run to Ettie's doorstep on scraped-knees and lanky legs, overjoyed that someone closer to his age had arrived at the Junkyard, a breath of fresh air in a dust storm of anxiety and austerity.
Or, you know, just any excuse to be around Etienne was fine.
Ares rounded the corner of Ettie's container, which would lead to his front door. Yet he unexpectedly ran face-first into a wall. No, not a wall. A person. A man.
The looter stepped back, eyes widened in surprise, a flurry of apologizes poised at the tip of his tongue and ready to spill out. He thought it to be Ettie and his heart leapt in his throat. Pink threatened to dust his freckled cheeks. Or perhaps it another member of Eclipse, come to inquire what the looter was doing out so early, sneaking around Etienne's trailer.
He was neither.
Ares paused, still as a deer struck in headlights. He was trying to put a name to the unfamiliar face that stared back at him- clear eyes under a sweep of dark hair, handsome with broad, strong shoulders. He was shorter than Ares, though still carried an imposing figure.
His eyes trailed over the man's shoulders, to the door that languidly creaked closed behind him.
A thousand questions fluttered in his mind, yet all that he managed to stammer out was a diffident, "Uh.. hi...".
Posted 05-11-2021, 09:26 AM
This post was last modified: 05-11-2021, 09:29 AM by Ares Wheeler
not that kind of mistress
