Luke's apartment was a sorry little studio, barely big enough for the bed and desk that were the main furniture pieces.  The kitchen sink leaked, like the bathroom sink, the appliances barely worked, and the heating system was a joke while the AC was simply opening the windows...  But for some reason it seemed nicer, like Luke was looking through rose-colored glasses.  Or beer goggles.<br/><br/>He saw Eddy's smile as he waved back, and that smile stayed with him even as he stumbled around, trying to get ready for bed (or at least enough to not sleep in his clothes).  The young man's day had started horribly, but had turned out quite different...  And he was very, very glad for it.  Though the morning might feel different.<br/><br/>Luke stripped down, leaving his clothes in a meandering pattern as he went about the room-- shirt by the door, pants on a chair.  He did an attempt at brushing his teeth, but his coordination was abysmal, and instead caught himself looking in the mirror.  The lighting was dim, the mirror cracked.  Luke stared at all the freckles on his face, the tiny spatterings and the larger dots, and wondered if Eddy had liked them.  Had he thought he was cute?  Would he come up next time, if there was a next time...?<br/><br/>Tiredness hit Luke like a train, like a sack of stones on his back, and he suddenly only wanted to sleep.  Just to sleep for a hundred days, and then wake up and have everything be ok.  The young man stumbled to bed, staring up at the ceiling, focusing on a corner that was peeling from water damage.  It usually looked like nothing to him, but tonight, it looked like a flower... like a blooming, bleeding poppy.<br/><br/>Luke closed his eyes, and let the whiskey do its job, drifting into a dream that was full of calloused hands and crooked smiles, and a gleaming sword.