The clock told Apollo just how far into the morning his delayed awakening was, but if it hadn't been for that familiar digital display, he wouldn't have guessed from the dreary look of the sky beyond the window blinds.

A small part of his mind felt disappointed in himself for sleeping in so very late, but the time he'd needed to stay awake to the previous night made it reasonable just this once.

As expected, the space on the bed to his left was vacant. A mess of blankets and a lopsided pillow told the story of his partner's considerably earlier departure. Apollo sat up, and a generous amount of his brown hair drooped over his face. He'd tried to work out most of the gel the night before, but he'd been too tired to give it his best effort. He blew a sharp breath of air upward, and when that failed to disperse his rogue bangs, he brought up a hand to brush them away directly.

This bed wasn't really made for two people. It was comfortably large for just one occupant, but the effort to fit someone else in as well meant that a lot of space needed to be shared. Fortunately, neither of the bed's two occupants had any major complaints on the matter.

Apollo shifted to drop his feet to the floor. Shirtless and wearing only a set of comfortable shorts, the cool air stung at his skin for the first few seconds. He groaned as he brought his arms up, holding them behind his head to stretch left and then right.

"Morning!"

Apollo jerked in place at the unexpected feeling of a pair of arms looping around him from behind. They settled just between his chest and stomach, and he gently gripped a hand on the soft upper arm of the young woman joining him.

"Snuck up on ya, didn't I?" Athena Cykes asked him in the kind of voice that plainly spelled out the smirk on her face. Apollo didn't need to look back to recognize Athena's expression.

"Lucky you can." Apollo quipped in reply. Athena's sharp hearing made it quite impossible to approach her unnoticed unless she had something to keep her ears distracted, like a set of headphones playing sufficiently loud music.

Judging by how he hadn't even felt the bed shifting under Athena's weight until she was already on top of him, Apollo guessed that she'd jumped right across the mattress to grab him. Athena's chin dropped onto his shoulder, and Apollo felt a wave of red hair ghosting over his right arm. The scent of strawberry shampoo hit him instantly.

"OK, sleepyhead," Athena said as she nuzzled her cheek gently into his exposed neck, "You've had your beauty rest. Time for breakfast."

Apollo tried to answer her, but his voice dissolved in a yawn. He instead nodded slightly, and Athena's arms released him as he got to his feet. The hardwood floor felt cool on his skin.

"Anything you have in mind?" he asked, turning at last to face Athena. The nineteen year-old was wearing a loose shirt she'd borrowed from Apollo's own closet, but had only her underwear and socks on below that. Apollo felt a little twinge of warmth lighting his cheeks in spite of himself. Athena had clearly only finished her shower quite recently, going off the shine of dampness remaining on her red hair.

She crossed her arms and tilted her head thoughtfully, and Apollo smiled. Athena was beautiful, even with her incredibly long hair just dangling loosely wherever she could get it to rest. Apollo sometimes wondered how on earth his girlfriend could possibly manage her hair, given that without Athena taking the time to style it, it hung down nearly as far as her knees.

Still in the middle of thinking her answer over, Athena jumped when a chirping voice piped up from the pale-blue device dangling from her necklace.

"Bacon and waffles, please!"

Apollo chuckled, while Athena cast an irritated look down at Widget.

"High-maintenance morning, then. Gotcha." Apollo remarked, moving past her to exit the small bedroom. Athena followed closely behind him.


Twenty minutes found Athena waiting eagerly at the little table as Apollo set two plates down before her. A stack of waffles, exactly as requested, drew her attention first, leaving Apollo to take his portion of the mildly-burned bacon opposite first. He preferred taking the extra time to fry bacon to a soft brown, while Athena was all for the crunch of well-done. Apollo smirked as Athena didn't even wait to take the other plate before tearing a chunk out of her first waffle with her teeth alone.

Whenever she was over for the night, Apollo fully expected to cook breakfast for Athena. He hadn't realized how hopeless she was in the kitchen until they'd begun dating nearly a year ago.

Most of their mealtime was quiet. Athena tugged Widget off of her neck once he chirped another loud comment, leaving the device next to her glass of orange juice.

When the time came for them to clear away their dishes, Athena headed for the sink to get the faucet going.

"See you after my shower." Apollo said, placing his dishes on the counter. He was just on his way out of the kitchen when he uttered a startled yelp. Sneaking up behind him again, Athena had surprised him with a very noticeable pinch of his backside.

"If you'd been up earlier, you could've just joined mine..." she remarked in a low and teasing voice.

Apollo scoffed. "Then we'd just have a flooded bathroom."

For all Athena's flirting, Apollo knew the spacial limitations of his apartment quite well. Fitting two people into the bed was hard enough - there was no way to fit two into the shower.

Still, he couldn't deny that the comment had a certain appeal. Judging by Athena's voice, Apollo suspected he knew what sort of mood his girlfriend was in on this particular morning. He was privately glad for the extra rest he'd had, considering.


Yeah, earn that T rating, guys

This chapter didn't start off so intimate when it was just an idea in my head. Not sure what happened after that.

I love Justicykes, but it's not quite my favourite pairing for Apollo.

Next on the board, we've got Apollo with a certain friend of Athena's, instead.