It was nine in the afternoon in the beautiful town known as Astoria. The streets were dark, but not too dark. Moths gathered around the occassional light. The mayor of Astoria, Zack, was making his way to Main Street, the area with all the shopping districts. He finally had enough money to pay off the loan for his house. Well, he had enough bells almost all the time, but most of that went to public works projects. Because Zack was a selfless mayor, and he cared about his citizens.
Some more than others. Katt was definitely his number one priority. He'd fund any projects she wanted made fully by himself. Thinking about Katt made Zack smile. She'd agreed to going out with him after weeks of begging.
A slight rustling sound could be heard from the bushes as Zack approached the way up to the shops. The mayor wondered if it could be a serial killer, but that would just be silly. He shook the paranoid feeling off and continued walking.
Just then, the shadow of an eagle jumped out in front of him. Zack stumbled back, taking out his net out as an impulse. The net was grabbed out of his hand just as quickly as Zack had pulled it out.
"Give me all your money!" the shadow commanded, his eyes glowing in the dark. There was no mercy in them. "Please! I need to pay back my debt-"
"I DON'T CARE if you have bills to pay." The eagle pulled out a gun and cocked it. "Bells or your head goes off."
"JESUS! Fine, alright!" Zack was distressed and hesitant, but took out the bellbags nontheless. With the money in his hands, Zack glanced up at the guy who was mugging him. "… Apollo?"
The eagle took the two 99k bags and sprinted off.
Zack was in shock. He couldn't believe that Apollo of all people robbed him of his bells. That was so Tom Nook-like of him, but without the mindgames.
It was the day after the mugging of the mayor, and it also happened to be the anniversary of the day Astoria was founded. Isabelle was hosting a celebration party at the plaza, with lots of snacks to go around and fun things to do.
Apollo was sitting alone by a table. He stared down at his food and poked it with a fork. It was so unlike him to play with his food. But he couldn't help it, the man had lost his apetite. He looked over to Zack, who was sitting next to Katt, making her laugh with his dumb jokes.
The eagle felt like going right up to her and stabbing her in the tail with his fork. Which was a bad idea.
He calmed himself down, humming K.K. Lullaby quietly to himself. It wasn't Katt's fault. He didn't hate Katt, not in reality. She started dating Zack out of pity. Apollo knew she only saw him as her little brother. But the way they acted together… their relationship was perfect.
Apollo didn't even know why he felt this way. Why was he so jealous? He'd hadn't been this crazy about someone since high school, and that was a really long time ago.
Zack stood up from his seat and said something to Katt that Apollo couldn't make out. Tilting his head to the side, he wondered what they were talking about. How did they keep their relationship so fresh? His mind trailed off and he didn't even realize that Zack was now standing in front of him. He was lost in thought.
"Apollo!" Zack yelled, taking the seat in front of the other guy. Apollo snapped out of his trance and stared down at Zack, his eyes wide. "Didn't notice me there?" the younger man grinned, crossing his arms.
The eagle could feel a blush creeping up to his face. "Hmph." was the only thing he replied with, narrowing his eyes. They were both silent for a while, just staring at each other.
"Katt said you looked lonely, she wanted me to tell you that it's okay for you to come over and hang with us! This is a party! You gotta have fun and not worry about the rest."
"Thanks but no thanks." the stubborn eagle said, his tone uninviting. There was nothing wrong with his wording, it was polite, in fact. It was the way that Apollo said it. It sent a chill down Zack's spine.
Silence filled the room between them again.
Zack decided to speak up, "You know, if you weren't so cold maybe you'd have more friends. Maybe you'd have a girlfriend."
Apollo didn't seem affected in the least by his words. The expression on his face was rigid. Zack figured that was how Apollo would react. "You're hopeless. I try being nice to you and include you-"
"You wouldn't even have fucking noticed I was here if Katt didn't mention me. I could be all packed up and ready to leave tomorrow and you wouldn't even fucking realize." Apollo sounded harsh.
"That's not true-" Zack protested, but was cut off by Apollo once again. "It is. It is and you don't even fucking know it. That's it, I'm leaving. Screw this shit."
The eagle stormed off, heading for the train station. Katt watched Zack with a worried look. Zack just shrugged. He was a cranky bastard, and nothing was going to change that. He returned to his girlfriend and they kept the party going like nothing had happened. Like Apollo didn't just start swearing to Zack and then ran off. It doesn't even matter when he has Katt.
Zack stood outside of Apollo's house. It was 1am and the eagle was still away. Zack debated on wheather or not he should break in. Apollo himself had showed up in Zack's house without an invitation multiple times.
And it was always when he was busy and doing actual work. The citizens in Astoria had it really easy. They were slackers and didn't deserve a mayor as good as him, making him run around like he was their own personal delivery boy.
His mind slowly filled with anger, blocking off any other thoughts. Apollo was so ungrateful. After all Zack had done for him, he dared to accuse him of being ignorant and just leave like that?
His fists shook with rage. He punched the window to the house with all his force while yelling out. The glass must've broken to at least a million pieces, some of them stuck in Zack's knuckles. His hand was bleeding.
Zack breathed heavily, his breath ragged. He stared at his fist with blood dripping down from it. That felt good. It was stupid of him, but felt good. Now that the window was wide open he might as well go in.
With lots of 'ouch's and 'ugh's, he made it through the broken window. The first thing that caught Zack's attention was a book sitting on the modern cabinet to his right. He took the book and started flipping through the pages.
'Oh my god. This is a diary. Apollo has a diary!' Zack laughed to himself.
'Captain's log, entry number 26; Today I visited Amelia at her place. She was very welcoming. She and I haven't really gotten along well in the past but I found out something about her that made it easier for us to hold conversations. Some sort of a common ground. I like the rainbow she keeps in the corner of her house.'
Zack furrowed his eyebrows, trying to figure out what it could be.
'Captain's log, entry number 27; Today Amelia intoduced me to her girlfriend, Purrl. We all drank coffee at The Roost together. She said she enjoyed being in Astoria, thinking of setting up a tent to camp. I'm happy for Amelia.'
Now he raised both of his eyebrows. 'Wow, I had no idea. I guess the common ground thing is that they both like women..?' he shrugged and started reading the next page.
'Captain's log, entry number 28; Today I went to my highschool reunion. I didn't really want to go, but Zack said he'd go with me, so I figured why not. Until he ditched me to go on a date with Katt. Ugh, some friend that guy is. I met my ex-boyfriend Pierce-' Zack dropped the journal.
"HE'S GAY?!"
Zack quickly covered his mouth with his sleeve. Fuck. That was loud. Picking the book back up, he continued reading.
'-he seemed to be doing well, he's engaged to another eagle named Keaton now. They invited me to their wedding in June, but I declined. I can't see the love of my teenage life getting married to another man. It's just too much.' Zack finished, his mouth hanging open. So that's why he'd never let him be his wingman at Club LOL. Zack was looking for women that wanted to hook up, when he actually should have been looking for…
'Captain's log, entry number 29; I've done my best to try and hide it, but I think Zack is starting to figure out that I have feelings for him.'
