The stars shone bright as Jules watched them from where he was laying on the roof of his house. It was a beautiful night as ever, the lights of the city far below and dim enough to not obscure the night sky above.

He had wanted to go home some hours ago, but the empty house held no longing for him without its other inhabitants. The victory of the successful break-in that afternoon was a far away thought in the back of his mind.

Life truly got lonely without others to spend it with at night.

The plans for the next missions laid haphazardly around him on the floor. The ones concerning taking over the government and placing a horse on the president's seat on top.

Caligula was truly after something. Positively insane, but that was beside the point.

The government needed to be extinguished before they managed to truly burn down the world, with the heroes of society following the same fate. Hypocritical bastards as they were. His methods might not be the cleanest, but they gave results, and in the end that's all that matters.

Heroes of the dawn, the villains of the dusk. Different lives without any resemblance of similarity.

It was the sad truth of his life as Jules watched the moon and stars rise high above the horizon, barely visible within the city of light. Life would be so much better, happier, together with someone else to enjoy the little things.

Robbery for example, like the one he committed that afternoon. It had been no fun on his own, though the satisfaction that some people would be able to sleep safely that night was nice.

"Why did you have to leave?"

No one answered the question, the only answer a soft echo created by the surrounding buildings. Every slightly sane person was asleep, or at least at home, in the wretched city he called home. It was truly a sad sight to behold.

Life was too lonely this way, no evil plans, nor uprisings weighing up against the loneliness of an empty home. His house full of family didn't count, it was different when they weren't his people.

"How did I ever manage before you graced this city with your light?"

He hadn't, he had muddled through day after day. Never truly satisfied with any victory, not that he could have called them that to begin with.

For a victory you have to fight.

The moon was sinking below the edge of the skyscrapers, dawn not too far away, yet still Jules was alone on top of the building. Everything pointed to the fact that it would stay that way too, no midnight wanderings from a local vigilante to reward his insomnia.

He had waited long past midnight for some company, what would a few more hours matter at this point. So long as he was home before the morning traffic would clog up all the roads in town. He did in fact not enjoy traffic driving, even villains have some self-esteem; thank you very much.

The bright reds, oranges and yellows of a rising sun appeared above the buildings and Jules reluctantly stood up. Several of his body parts loudly protested, proclaiming his rising age for the world to hear. He was truly getting too old for this all, and yet the world didn't look that much better than during his own youth.

"Leaving without me?"

It was a good thing Yuna knew him well enough to not stand too close when surprising him, otherwise they might have been in need of some rescuing. The buildings were awfully tall here and had no railing to speak off.

"Yuna! Don't scare me like that, you know I hate that."

Yuna merely smiled and floated closer, the resident hero of town wasn't ever afraid to show their power.

"Well, everything took a bit more time than anticipated. But I still wanted to meet up with you, and see it is still dark outside."

It was in fact not still dark outside, but Jules wasn't going to say that. He was far too happy his partner had shown up after all.

"Indeed, it has barely been midnight. We still have the entire night laid ahead of us."

-

August 8, 2023