Chapter Text
It starts off with a headache.
Rather, the headache had been present since the events that unfolded at the broadcasting station had died down. It was nothing that Thaddeus couldn't get over, since it was only a headache, after all!
He'd assumed that it was because of the effects of Polar Night being used to hypnotise him, and figured that it would go away on its own, especially since Apostle Andrew had perished. Besides, it wasn't his first time having a headache to deal with, since those migraines had come around before when he was younger and still lived within the Kowloon walled city.
He continues to train, decimating the steel pipe in front of him with a flurry of kicks, brushing aside that strange symptom that would go away. Even Nathaniel, well, both old and new, had cleared him, so it was probably nothing.
The top half of the pipe goes flying across the room, a projectile set into motion by a swing of his leg, as it digs into the edge of the wall of the abandoned warehouse.
"Sheesh! That could have taken my head off!" Simon's voice catches his attention, though Thaddeus finds himself frowning at the sharpness of his voice against his own ears. It causes his head to throb.
Still, he schools that expression back into an excited smile, eager to meet his senior.
"Uncle, are you here to spar with me?"
Simon halts midstep. "Nah, I'm pretty sure you'd take my head off or break my sword if we got down into a fight. Not that I wouldn't mind sparring with you, but it's better to have someone watching us to break up the fight just in case things get a little…too intense." The swordmaster shivers, recalling his encounter with the God of Kowloon back when they were enemies then.
The other man pouts.
"To be frank, I have no idea how Sun-gu manages to go a few rounds with you. You're on a whole other level yourself, and well, with the recent mission, it really gave us all quite a scare."
Thinking about Apostle Andrew instinctively causes him to clench his fists. The headache in his head reminds him that it was still there. In fact, it seems to throb at the moment the previous mission was brought up.
"Well, then you just have to get stronger, Uncle!"
"Hey, I could probably go a few rounds against you as I am! I'm pretty sure I pushed you to use a few of your techniques, so that counts for something!" Simon calls out, as Thaddeus chuckles.
As his uncle goes on to talk about the state of the makeshift training room within the warehouse, his thoughts cannot help but drift back to the night at the broadcasting station. Or well, what he can remember of it.
As it turned out, being under Polar Night's hypnosis meant that his memories would be full of holes.
Not that he thought it was that important to tell the others, since he figured it would return eventually.
The headache persists into the night.
In fact, it follows him through lunch, dinner and a round of desserts, all camped out in Jiwon's base, as he tries to brush it off or push it aside. Sun-gu was out chasing a lead with Kageo, leaving him alone with Jiwon, Alexander Mcking, and uncle.
They had put on some romance drama on the large TV in the living room, with Uncle enjoying himself the most whilst Jiwon listened to it and made comments every now and then. Every bit of noise grates at his ears, from the sound of plastic utensils scraping against the bottom of their takeout containers, to some choose one liner about the male lead having a bout of amnesia and not being able to remember who his fiance was, alongside the comments his seniors made throughout.
He recalls trying to finish his food quickly and dismissing himself back to his quarters quickly, trying to avoid having to listen to anything more. Mcking had brushed against his side, and while it was appreciated, the dog seemed to sniff him a lot during dinner and Thaddeus hoped it was not because of the food he was eating.
"Okay, this is getting ridiculous." He mutters aloud, trying to sleep so that the headache could go away quickly, and yet it had already been two hours since he laid down on his bed.
Not just that, but he felt that his entire body was tense. His heart raced for no good reason, despite the lack of danger and excitement in his room, a restless energy in his limbs that had him wanting to go out and go on a mission.
This marked the third day of unsuccessfully getting anymore than two hours of sleep.
The past two instances he had fallen asleep, he'd woken up much too quickly after, the sensation of hands around his throat, an inverted sea in the sky in his dreams, and the sight of his mom's burning pearl cabinet all too vivid in his mind. He would rather not think about that.
It was a good thing he could function on this little sleep, though it wasn't really the best for his body in the long run. Even Apostles needed to sleep too.
He thinks of what he can do to pass time.
Train? That's all he had been doing the past few days. The warehouse was a wreck since he had lost himself in his own moves, tearing apart the wreckage and abandoned equipment within it until Uncle complained that he had nothing to train with.
Eat? Nothing was open at this hour, apart from those 24 hour convenience stores. If he really wanted to, he supposed he wouldn't mind getting something sweet and cold to ease the headache.
Maybe some fresh air would do him some good. Perhaps being stuck indoors for the most of the day was the source of his problems.
Putting on a jacket and his shoes, he yawns as he gets out of his room and makes for the closest convenience store.
A while later, he looks at the melon flavoured ice bar in his hand, slowly consuming it as he leans against the edge of the rooftop overlooking the area their base was close to.
The sweetness satisfies something within him initially, but as he feels his tastebuds growing used to the taste, he begins to find it overwhelmingly, sickeningly sweet instead.
"...I can't even enjoy my ice cream now?" The headache refused to let him partake in life's simple pleasures.
What should have been a simple outing to satisfy his sweet tooth becomes another source of annoyance, as Thaddeus leans against the railing and forces himself to finish the ice cream, lest it go to waste. He hated it when food went to waste.
Maybe the lack of sleep combined with the headache was getting to him.
And he blames this sorely on Apostle Andrew, except, the man was six feet under and somehow had been helpful towards Sun-gu?
He dislikes thinking about that Apostle.
Of what he did to him, putting him under his hypnosis, turning him against his precious xiongdi, and nearly killing him in the process of doing so. From what he could remember from his time being hypnotised, he recalls coming to blows against the new Nathaniel, the sensation of blood dripping down his cheeks and the copper taste in his mouth, and…fighting Sun-gu.
And that wasn't even including the weird hallucination he remembered bits and pieces of!
Now, he really felt like fighting someone. Thinking about Andreas only made his headache worse, and the dull ache of his migraine was staying on much longer than he imagined.
In the end, he decides to leap over the railing, descending down the stairs of the fire escape and heading over to the warehouse.
At some point, he ends up knocking down an entire wall (a non load-bearing one), whilst staving off the headache and the thought of Apostle Andrew hanging over his head.
Simon notices the darkening bags beneath Thaddeus's eyes first.
That, and the fact that he seemed more glum than usual. At first, he had chalked it up to his nephew staying up to do some extra training, because as much as he had been cheerful after the whole Apostle Andrew incident, Thaddeus had been training himself harder than usual.
Simon understood, to some extent, why his nephew would feel that way. The mission had nearly gone wrong on so many levels, and he knows that Thaddeus blames himself for falling victim to the otherworldly hypnosis that Andreas inflicted on his victims.
That, and the fact that Peter was going to be gone for a week, leaving just the three of them, and the two Nathaniels (if they dropped by to visit the base), for company. Between all of them, Thaddeus was the closest to brother Peter, whereas Jiwon and he got along because they had more time to get to know each other prior to this.
He finds his nephew seated cross legged on the carpet of the living room, almost staring off into nothing but the vast blue expanse of Jiwon's fancy aquarium and her shiny fishes. Clearly, if his nephew wasn't gonna pay attention to his surroundings, he might as well seize the opportunity.
So, he uses the tip of his sheath to gently tap at his nephew's shoulder.
He's pretty sure Thaddeus would dodge.
Instead, Simon finds the tip of his sheath caught between two fingers, a darkened gaze in his nephew's eyes, followed by a slight tremor in the hand which caught onto his sheath. In the light of the living room, the darkened rings beneath his nephew's eyes are worrying, blending into the shadows as Thaddeus flicks his sheathe away.
"...Uncle…" His nephew seems to force a smile on his face, "You didn't have to try and sneak up on me like that," Thaddeus whines, as Simon raises an eyebrow.
"I would hardly call that sneaking up on you. Plus, isn't the living room everyone's shared space?" Thaddeus's gaze shifts from the wall of glass to the television on top of the cabinet.
"But never mind that! I found some nice pastries at this new shop that opened up, and they had an offer, so I thought of getting some to share with everyone! Well, except brother Peter and Kageo, who will just have to miss out on it this time around-"
The plastic bags slung under what remains of his right arm rustles, as he sets them down on the coffee table. Anytime now, and Thaddeus would be trying to sneak a hand in to take a whole box of the pastries for himself, and Simon is pleasantly surprised when his nephew seems to watch him open up the two boxes patiently.
Simon opens up both boxes, revealing two boxes of a half dozen set of assorted pastries, from fruit and chocolate danishes to cream filled eclairs and stuffed breads decorated with pistachio green sauce and crumbled nuts. He hoped that this would raise his nephew's spirits somewhat, as he invited Thaddeus to help himself.
"Please, help yourself!" The first sign that he should have noticed was how Thaddeus looked at the sweet treats on the table, and hesitantly, no, almost reluctantly took one, a plain chocolate danish into his hand.
He studies his nephew carefully. But Thaddeus smiles, as he takes a bite out of the pastry, and between his chew manages a "Thanks, uncle," which Simon would like to think was his nephew getting better at his manners, since a whole box would have been gone by now.
As his nephew finishes his pastry, he dusts his hands clean, and gets up to move off.
"...Nephew, are you alright?"
"Yep, I'm right as rain!" Ouch, that came a little too fast.
"Are you sure you don't want more?"
"One is enough for me for today, but I appreciate the offer, uncle!" Simone watches his nephew leave the living room, and makes a mental note on this strange behaviour.
Later that night, he talks about Thaddeus's strange behaviour with Jiwon, who brings up the fact that perhaps the pastries weren't as good as they had been. He counters such an accusation by offering her the same pastries, and that had her change her mind instantly.
"...do you think we should call Nathaniel? Ask her whether this is some side effect of that fight with Andreas?"
"...That's the thing, it's been a week since, and the first few days after that my nephew has been himself, it's only now that he seems like he's been more glum than usual."
"You sure it isn't because Peter isn't around? Maybe Thaddeus misses his xiongdi." Jiwon pets down Mcking before he takes a bite at the remaining pastries sitting on her desk.
"I'm pretty sure he won't miss his xiongdi until the point that he's losing sleep, Jiwon! Looking at him now, he seems like his father when he's trying to hide some sickness or illness. It doesn't help that the two are so alike either," Simon sighs.
Jiwon closes the box of pastries. "Either way, if he trains, you should tag along and follow him. Make sure he doesn't push himself too hard. I'll send out a message to Nathaniel and ask her what her thoughts are."