A few pages from a rough draft of min. Enjoy.

Eyes opened to a bed filled with his wife her hand in his as he glowed at her radiance. Life was good and it was finally the dream he had been chasing brought to life. When it got tough he had been able to finally get up time after time and when he could gather his funds and step out without fear of being found he had taken his funds and began to start by getting a few pieces of property including this small thing out near the plains where the house had been built just needed some small upgrades to make it a home. He had found his way of living happily enough and it had been some solace that he was no longer known for the technology that hid his identity. For all that all the others in the area knew of him he was just a father for his kids who already had enough money to make his property and way of life to be written in stone with enough to spare. Sleeping in that bed with her had been enough to give him solace from the worst moments and he had a few, but holding her hand had made all the rough times,the issues with others in his line of work and those that would stop him, people who would slander his title for one reason for another, those even that would take his work and use it trying to stoke their own fires of hate.

No one knew of his race or family, no one knew his sexuality or his life experiences, because, from inside the armor he was not a man he was a monster. A tool of destruction based only on his enemy and his mission. Despite everything he had been the one to be called on by some in times of great need, a safety valve formed form ones honorable ways when it came to how one did business. When one did work in such quality there was little people could do except try to besmirch the name, and try to make people hate him, well, more then they already did. It was not exactly hard to be hated when people think you are living a life you have not earned. He did not care as it was something if they could stop they had tried their best and he had come up ahead. From what he was tapped to do something truly good from the various heroes using his technology and in truly severe issues. Being a technological maestro whether he was on the heroes or on the villains that particular week he had been one of those where he was consulted and he had been able to help with proper clauses and on the odd case someone tried to take what he had they could never remake it.

Some people would try to trick him and hijack or hack his tech but they were playing checkers when he was playing liar’s dice, they did not play the same game to even make any progress to what he had. Other technical savants would always chuckle when someone would try to copy what one of them built only for it to burn up, explode, or fail right in their face in the first test. Down in the basement of the house his little lab had been able to handle all of his testing and if it had been with a few more dangerous materials he had something installed underground away from the house just in case anything would go badly. It was just one of those things that made the home truly perfect, he could go and do what he would want to and work with some of the more difficult fuels or circumstances without an issue of a child or wife getting hit in some blast as well. He doubted that he would ever get so brazen that it would happen but seeing her in that bed and smiling happily there had to be certain things taken care of for the sake of security.

Being there in their house, in their bed, while their child slept in her room made everything just be able to take a breath and enjoy the moments slowly slipping by. When she opened her Green eyes and looked at him with a small smirk it seemed to make his heart flutter just a little bit, her eyes seemed to sparkle like a gem and it was something that their relationship felt like added a charge to their life. Everything had just been done so well and all he could do right now as he lay in bed is to look across at his beautiful wife and wonder what adventures he could get into today with his daughters familiar pitter-patter coming down the hall. Before, tossing her body into the sheets of her parents sleeping forms she had taken the time to try and stop and jump in only for a small bump to be felt from the foot of the bed where she had been trying to pull the bottom half of her body up wiggling her legs in the air trying to not drop to the floor until he pulled the sheets up until they were tight against them carrying his daughter further up the bed.

All of it meant the child was soon trying to climb over the bodies of her father and mother trying to get them up so she could start her own and day consequentially she did not know how to do so without turning the pair of sleeping bodies into giggles at her attempts to shake them at the shoulders. When they could no longer keep their stifled giggles hidden from her she soon dropped into the bed and pushed her shoulder in her stomach and began to start pushing as hard as she could before her mother decided to begin moving out of bed.

He did not have to do a single thing, the money was already coming in from his work and if he did anything extra it would only add to the kingdom he had built from that bench in the old warehouse. From there to here he could just let the air fill his lungs and have the moment exhaling slowly trying to tickle his daughter before getting up himself. Letting the feet land on the warm wood had been enough for him to see where the day would go but first as he looked back on to the bed and saw his child he realized she could not be left alone in the room considering what else could be in there. Her mother had a few minutes head start on them but pulling the child up to his shoulders where she could sit without issue he began his way down the stairs to the sounds of breakfast being made.

She had beautiful eyes and her hair no matter what always seemed ready for a snapshot. Already in her dress for the day the red hugged her hips that looked flirty yet professional. Part of her was also fiery enough that if he had ever set foot in the kitchen and did not make something to her standards it would be an ass chewing meaning he would simply stay out of the cooking portion of all parenting as it was something she enjoyed and if it was something that made her happy, then he could not understand why not. All of it was something he could enjoy, and he could enjoy his wife no matter what she dressed up or down in and with his kid ready to go to school there was going to be a whole day that he could enjoy with his love and even get some work done.

Breakfast being made his girl wriggled off her seat and slid down his back to go get ready for school. She had been such a fan of the lessons and the playing with the other kid it had been more of a problem to get her to sleep on the days before school then it would be on the weekend. It was not a surprise as she was bright, both of her parents were he was in tech and engineering and she had been great in the realms of numbers and words where from basic accounting to articles in papers she could handle herself as if she had done it her entire life. Others could state how their color would hold them back but both of them had been able to make themselves so skilled in their fields that it was less about color and more about if they wanted the best for the job then not taking them was a poor decision and it was shown time and time again that while some people did not learn, some never would.

It was a point in his life where everything seemed to click in place, there was still some problems in the day, how the coffeemaker burbled a little too vigorously or the toaster always wanting to go one shade darker then he preferred when he set it despite all the attempts he made to work it out. It was so small though when he tried to get aggravated about it all he could do was smirk and chuckle to himself before continuing to enjoy it. All that it took was just a shirk and suddenly he was back in the moment for as along as he had it and no matter how much he chewed he could sit and value such things no matter how soon they flit away in the work of the coming days. He wished he knew what to do but in the time he did not he would figure something to make and his wife had been asking about a new flower bed to grow a smaller garden.

Musing on what he would need there had to be some planks at the local home improvement store. He had the tools to do it he just needed to get the materials he was missing.

“I think I am going to get the small garden bed you were asking for done today, if you can make sure our little sprout doesn’t try playing with the tools” he explained.

“Mmmhm, I think I can finds something for us to do while you get that finished and my big handyman can come back and get some food while we fill it up, she can have her own plant to take care of.”

“What have you decided to grow in it”

“Oh? Green Onions and some flowers that were on sale, the green onions are pretty hard to kill so she could learn easily and the flowers I heard from another mom that it was pretty easy and the cost worked for it.”

“Just try it, works for me enough times. She have school today?”

“Papa, papa I don’t got school on Saturday silly!” she chirped from behind her plate of half eaten eggs and bacon.

“Ah Saturday, well I guess I need to get ready and get what I need so you can work on planting what you want before dinner”

Finishing the plate he knew the old truck had enough gas for the trip and was pecking his wife on the cheek before walking out to the garage where the smell of oil and lubricant were light in the air and the old red truck he had bought and brought back to life with a polish that made it shine under any light except for the small smudges where his little girl had been running around trying to pat down some invisible enemy. If she was running away then it could have meant either he was chasing her playing the part and not caring as her hands would buffer out with a quick wipe or that her mother had taken the get her run in.

After the door button was pressed a bright light had begun shining from the crack until the whole garage was filled with white and before he could run back to check on his family the light had flooded the room and he was lost to it.

He opened his eyes slowly trying to blink the memories out of his mind and them isery out of his surroundings. There was no loving wife warming his bed nor a daughter claiming he was silly. There was no house and no fence, no red truck and no happy life. It had been the happiest he had ever been and it was all a dream, a fantasy his mind had put together. Looking up from his bed the scene had been of his apartment with the bedroom illuminated with hard lights against worn polished floors and redbrick walls that kept as much heat out as spirit lending itself to feeling more like a dour tomb at times then his actual home.

At the foot of his bed there was a single large foot locker paired off with a couple of them setting in the bottom shelf of his wide book case. No one else was in the apartment and no one would be as far as he knew as he saw it there was just nothing to even trying as the eyes flit from the shadows cast from the ceiling to the alarm clock to show that it was close enough to the usual alarm time that going back to sleep would only be an exercise in futility. His life had been long gone since anything exciting and he knew he had a shift coming up and that meant it was better to get breakfast.

Walking out of the bed slowly he closed the door to the living room and kitchen behind him and begun setting to what would be his breakfast. Opening the fridge while shielding his eyes from the light coming from it he had pulled a couple of tomatoes tossing them to the cutting board on the left of the sink before the sound of cheese and green onions had landed next to the tomatoes. Pulling the eggs out he had begun the start of cutting the top and taking a small spoon to scoop out the insides of the tomatoes. Oiling and salting them lightly he had tossed them to begin their bake at 400. There was no real recipe to it as he began taking the knife from where it had been rested on the right side of the cutting board and took to slivering the green onions. One burner had been turned to medium high with the pan over it waiting for the eggs and cheese.

He did not remember where he even got the recipe to put it together but it was something of a comfort when he was feeling bad without all the fat of worse options. Finishing the pile of slivered green and white he had noticed the seasonings light before taking the green onions back where they rested in the refrigerator. There was no light in his life here, there was no daughter to pick up and hold and there especially was no honor that left the husk of a man alone with his breakfast meal before beginning the routine to become another of the normal people he once hated so much. When everything began to fall apart and the memories cast themselves to his eyes between bites there was no anger, there was no rage. Just the emptiness of a man forgotten by the world and left out in the cold when the idea of a hero was needed most. He knew better though between bites of those eggs that true heroes were rare. Everyone was a villain he was just the honest one about it. Outside the wind shifted just so and a whistle could be heard almost cutting through the silence breaking from his mental prison watching the errors of the past and making him wonder what was left for him other then more disappointment. Disappointment or no as he looked down at his half eaten plate, with the hunger that reminded him to eat silenced enough that he could continue he got dressed easily and made his way out the front door.

Hoped you enjoyed. Stay strong.