"Oouuuuaaaaahhh"
The less-than-graceful yawn escapes Lux's mouth as he pries his eyes open through the boring ramblings of his history teacher.
World wars, conquests, and the invention of a stick of butter, none of those things interests Lux.
What makes him excited---makes him feel that deep burning desire to accomplish something in his chest, is...SUPERHEROING (as he likes to call it).
The thrill of jumping from rooftop to rooftop, fighting any ne'er-do-wells who are...never doing well. It makes Lux giggle with joy as he puts on his superhero suit as fast as he possibly can, not wanting to waste a single moment.
Though---he's not very graceful when doing that as well. The narrow alleyway he thought would obscure him from any passersby's vision to put on his outfit seemed to be more like an obstacle course, designed with death traps.
Changing his attire seemed to be a bit harder than usual; the alleyway felt like a puzzle to navigate through.
Sometimes his shoulders were too wide to turn, other times there'd be a hole on the ground he'd accidentally step into and almost trip.
The dark brown puddles on the shifted ground disgusted him as he accidentally stepped his foot into them.
"Damn it!" He squeaked as he took his drenched sock out of the mysterious puddles of...water? He can only hope.
"Guess we're going barefoot." Trying to hide his disappointment, he takes his socks off and throws them behind him.
"Hey! You didn't tell me about the sock, asshole!"
Shellshocked, Lux spins his body around, scraping his shoulder on the jagged wall.
To his surprise, a tall, well-defined man is at the edge of the alleyway, standing with a soggy sock on his forehead that he disposes of as quickly as he possibly can.
Lux, with his pants down to his ankles, has several things running through his mind right now: "Who is this guy? How long was he watching for? Is it weird for me to have my pants down for this long?"
All sorts of important questions were running amok throughout his brain, but the most important thing he could ask at the moment was:
"Tell you about the sock?"
The man walks closer, and as he does, his figure becomes more visible. His green eyes shine through the alley's dark shadows, and his long grey hair waves as the wind passes through.
Lux takes his eyes off the man for a moment and decides now is a good time to pull his pants back up, which completes his Superhero outfit fully. Then he tries to get a better look at him.
The Man's outfit, on the other hand, is ragged, a worn-down button-up shirt, decorated with holes, tears, and no care for sewing.
His pants reflect the same attitude, frayed at the hems, patches riddled in the most abnormal places they could be.
He looked homeless.
Or like he'd just been through something BIG, and didn't feel bothered to fix it.
The only thing that showed the man had even the slightest bit of wealth was the silver watch on his wrist, in the most pristine condition it could be in; it could probably fetch thousands, if not millions!
"Remind me to remind you to remind me about the sock when this round is over, yeah?" the man jokes, a happy smile on his face-but the bags under his eyes tell a different story, and so do the scars on his neck and chin.
"Anyway, let's get straight to showbiz, yeah?" He does a little twirl-step around the puddle Lux just slipped through, and the next words that come out of his crooked smile feel unbelievable to Lux.
"I'm stuck in a time loop, and you're gonna help get me out."
.
.
.
"Lemme get this straight."
Lux crosses his legs as he sits on the roof's edge, his back turned toward the ledge, as if a five-story drop was just a scenic view for him.
"You've been in a time-loop for..." He pauses as he glances at the man, expecting him to fill in the blank.
"4 years, 10 months, 23 days, 15 hours, and 43 seconds." The man doesn't flinch as the numbers slide out like muscle memory.
"44 seconds now," he adds, a little too proud of himself for making the slight remark.
Though he's not nearly as brave as Lux, sitting on the nearby AC unit with his legs folded on each other.
"And you're here because?" Lux quizzically asks, as if he hadn't already heard the answer.
"Because YOU told me to come here, said this is where you'd be, and...Voila!" The man widens his arms and waves them around as if gesturing to a giant elephant.
"And by before you mean-"
"Yes! Before I died! Or before the clock strikes 10..." The man seems frustrated, like he's already explained this the same way thousands of times over. His green eyes pierce through Lux's skin as he stares at his brown eyes.
"10? You mean..." Lux looks down at his phone, the shining light glares the numbers 1:48 at him. "You only have 8 hours?"
"Indeed, sweet summer child! Though really, 8:30 if you count me walking over here."
"And all of this started because-"
"Of GREED!"
The man cuts Lux off and flamboyantly swings his chest as he flops back onto the edge of the air conditioner. "The worst of the deadly sins!"
He raises his arm and looks somberly at the glowing watch on his wrist. The smile on his face disappears.
"This sparkling little watch right here, as soon as I put it on, it bonded to me, and to time as well, I suppose."
Lux looks at the man, and something in his chest tugs at his brain. But the brain doesn't budge.
"How am I supposed to know you're telling the--"
"Truth?" The man cuts him off once again, like finishing his sentences for him.
"Hey, we've done the whole schtick---me saying what you're thinking, predicting everything like déjà vu on repeat. Thousands of times over."
Silence looms between the two momentarily, spreading thin with each second it lingers.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"BANANAS!"
"BANANAS!"
They scream in unison, the man smiles as he yells the word, as if he expected it. Lux doesn't know whether to believe him or toss him off the roof and call it a night.
The man, however, seems not to care at all, playing with his fingers, fidgeting atop the AC unit. Since he knows what will come next.
"Alright, let's say I do believe you. What do I have to do with anything? How do you even know me? Why me?"
"Because..." The man's eyes grow soft, he jumps up and walks to stand next to the ledge with Lux,
"You're the only one who's ever helped me."
Lux thought his brain couldn't be any more scattered, but he's been proven wrong for the past 15 minutes now. The man leans his shoulder against Lux's, their eyes on the city crawling beneath them.
Towering skyscrapers glow with fluorescent veins, hologram billboards flicker like ghosts, and neon signs claw for attention on every street corner.
To Lux, it's beautiful, it's the city where he can live his dream to his heart's content, the place where he can truly roam free. The smile on his face fades as he glances at the tired look on the man's face; instead of an indescribable love for the city, it shows a contented, wallowing feeling, a face that tells many stories, stories nobody would call happy.
It only took 35 minutes, but Lux made up his mind. He understands the man in a weird---estranged---kind of way; he knows what it's like to be stuck, to feel like you're driving in circles.
To want something so bad, it burns a hole through your chest.
To be trapped in a loop.
He checks the time once again, the glow of the numbers stretches across his face as they shine, "2:05."
He glances at the man once again, and he's smiling again, looking at Lux's phone.
"Ahh, we're going the '2:05' route, huh? Sure! Let's see where the road takes us!"
Seemingly already knowing what Lux is thinking, Lux isn't surprised anymore, but Lux decides to ask one last question.
"What's your name?"
The man pauses, almost like he forgot something in the car.
"That's...That's the first time you've asked that this early..." he says, blinking, "Usually you'd ask after we get coffee, well---soda for you, but...this is new."
The man paces back and forth for a while, contemplating something Lux just can't figure out.
"Alright! New route! New moves!" He says with a silly little spin and one finger pointed dramatically to the night sky.
"The name's Peter! You can call me Pete, though!" He finishes his introduction with a quaint bow, one arm squared behind his back and the other squared on his stomach.
Lux's face distorts with disgust. He only says one word,
"Cringe..."
Peter doesn't seem to hear---or mind---as he straightens his back and stretches his legs.
"Alllllright~ now! Time for a little improv!"
And before Lux can say anything, the man leaps off the roof, twisting his body mid-air to face Lux sitting on the edge of the rooftop.
"What are ya gonna do now, kiddo!"
The sadistic man laughs as he plummets headfirst down five stories.
Lux twitches at the sight, a flicker of glowing blue creeps around his eyes---then he follows.
Lux, instead of jumping off, falls near the wall, sliding down it with a magenta-ish blue aura flaring around his feet and hands.
Then he propels himself off the wall, gliding through the air like a bat, arms stretched out and heading directly toward Peter, who hasn't taken his eyes off of him.
That damned smile is still somehow growing.
He makes it to Peter. His jump was timed perfectly, his speed? Not so much.
He catches Peter mid-air, wrapping his arms around him, but his momentum is too strong, and he slams into him like a truck.
Lux didn't account for Peter's weight, and his body folds under it, making the two of them spiral out of the sky.
"YOU SHOULD'VE DONE THE ONE WHERE YOU CATCH ME FROM BELOW INSTEAD!"
Peter's snide comment gets lost in the wind roaring in their ears. Lux tries to think what to do next, but the ground is inching nearer and nearer, scrambling his thoughts.
"HEY! DO SOMETHING WE'RE GONNA HIT THE---"
Peter's screams don't do much to cushion the 70-foot fall to solid concrete, but instead---a pulse of blue light bursts from Lux's body as they crash, just enough for them to---instead of splatting into thousands of meat chunks---slow their fall into a barely-controlled heap.
Lux lands hard on his back, groaning as he rolls over, but Peter is sprawled atop him like a blanket, giggling uncontrollably.
"That..." Peter gasps, pausing for a breath of air, "Is WAY better than the coffee route!"