Shadow Boxing

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Illya watched impassively from the doorway as Napoleon bid goodbye to the Valdar woman.

"Thank you my friend," Napoleon said later that night, when they were more than halfway drunk. "One day I'll return the favor."

Illya blinked, nodded. I have no ghosts to whom I owe allegiance, Napoleon, he thought to himself.

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Napoleon was stretched out on the sofa, head pillowed on the armrest, top button of his shirt undone, glass sitting on the floor within easy reach. The trip back from the Middle-East had been brutal. Illya was prowling, sleeves of his black sweater pushed up, one hand cradling the bottle of vodka against his ribs. He stopped in front of the bookcase and picked up the photo he'd paid scant attention to before. Napoleon, with his platoon in Korea. He recognized him immediately. Third row from the top, second man from the right, face serious. Morgan, relaxed, smiling, stood on the left. Illya studied the picture dispassionately.

"You were very young," he said.

Napoleon's silence filled the room.

Illya put the photo back on the shelf, face down. And what other ghosts do you think you owe allegiance to, he wanted to ask.

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Napoleon had fallen asleep. Illya stood by the window looking out into the night. Odd the things you remember. He doubted he could pick his grandmother's face out in a photo now, but her stories stayed with him. Never look into a mirror at night she had warned him, it will be full of ghosts. How he'd wanted to see them then. He stared at his reflection in the window, insubstantial, eyes shadowed, the lights of the city visible behind it. It was the only ghost he'd ever seen. He put out his hand as he had as a boy, to see if he could touch it, but all he felt was smooth, cool glass. He wondered again what Napoleon saw when he looked into his mirror.

He turned from the window and sat on the floor, leaning back against the sofa. Napoleon shifted in his sleep, and his arm drifted across Illya's shoulder. It was heavy and warm. Illya drained the vodka with one last swallow.

It is not ghosts I feel allegiance to, Napoleon.