The Hawk Warriors

IV

"You gotta keep pushing yourself, Hades!" I hear Hazel shout at me as I finish my last rep of leg presses. My knees nearly touch my chest as I relaxed. "How're your arms?" She asks me. I look at her before getting off the machine.

"Still can't feel them," I answer her with a fake smile.

"Well, then tomorrow, I'll go easy on you." She says with a sympathetic smile.

"You'll go easy on me, but you won't give me a day off?" I say as I sit down next to her on the matted floor.

"Days off are for losers." She jokes with a small grin.

"Well, I'm a loser, so I deserve a day off." I try to persuade her.

The look in her eyes made me drop the case. "What is your occupation?" She formally asks me.

"I'm a janitor," I reveal to her. I could see the edges of her lips twitching up and down. "It's not funny, okay! I have to clean up the mess everyone makes!" I defend my job even though I kind of hate it.

"I'm not judging you!" She says with wide eyes. I roll my eyes at that, and she sighs. "Look, I just find it funny how a messy person like you could be a janitor." She explains to me.

"Do you have a job?" I ask since she asked for mine.

"I'm doing it right now." She says with a straight face. I could almost slam my face against the floor for my dumbness. Her smile stops me from doing so. "This is my first time teaching someone fitness. Nobody but Mr. Lambert believed in me. Heck, my boyfriend laughed when he heard what I was planning on doing." She suddenly reveals to me.

"For what it's worth, you are a great teacher. A strict teacher but an effective one." I say, smiling at her. That gained me a smile of hers, and it made me smile.

"My heart is overflowing!" She sarcastically says as she dramatically places one of her hands on her heart.

"Oh no, I'm the only sarcastic one here!" I say, laughing a bit.

She looked at her bronze watch and frowned. "He's late." She mummers were loud enough for me to hear.

"Do you want me to take you home?" I ask her. Her eyes widen as she shakes her head.

"No need!" She immediately says. "I can do it myself." I watch as she stands up and grabs her bag. I could see a slight panic in her eyes when I offered to walk her home.

"Wait, let me give you my phone number," I say as I stand up.

"Why?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.

"So that you can call me instead of pounding on my door. My neighbor finds it annoying, so I'm complying." I explain to her.

"To think you're a hawk who has heightened vision and hearing." She says with a smirk.

"Only when I activate my powers of a hawk are they heightened. My eyesight and hearing may be slightly better than normal people, but I'm still a deep sleeper." I tell her. She nods her head before handing me her smartphone.

I type in my number and put my name on the contact. "There now we're connected," I say, handing it back to her. She eyes me carefully before letting a small smile form on her face.

"You really are a weird person." She says with a small laugh.

"Is that a bad thing?" I ask her.

She shakes her head. "I like weird people more than average people." She laughs before walking away. I could say the same for her.

Unlocking my door, I hear something coming from Tyler's apartment. Locking my door back up, I make my way to his door. "Tyler, are you alright?" I call out to him. When I don't get a response back, I felt my heart pound faster. Going through my keychain, I find his key and unlock the door. Opening it, I see Tyler on the floor with an empty beer bottle in his hand.

He slowly turns his head to look at me and smiles. "Hey, bud!" He greets.

I let out a sigh of relief, and bend down near his body. "Why didn't you answer me?" I ask him with a serious face. Tyler rolls his eyes and sighs deeply. "Tyler, you could have been hurt."

"I'm fine!" He says as he tries to sit up. I help him up and look at him. "Don't look at me like that!" He scolds me. "What I do is honestly none of your business Hades."

"It is Tyler," I answer him.

"Ever since you were a kid, you were like this. 'Tyler doesn't do this' and 'Tyler take care of yourself.' Let me live my life how I want to." He says, stumbling on some of his words.

"How many beers did you drink today?" I ask him.

"One or two." He clearly lies. I know when he has more than six. Looking around the room, I see empty beer bottles and a small pack of eight beers. The box is empty, and a bit damp. "Okay, okay, I may have drunk an excessive amount." He says already knowing I'll scold him.

"Tyler, you've recently started cutting down on your drinking, so what triggered this?" I ask him. He looks down, and I could see his broken heart through his eyes.

"It's almost our anniversary of when we first started dating." He sadly informs me. "My beautiful Marissa," I watch as he puts the bottle to his lips, and lowers it. "Gone too soon, you know." He says with a small smile. "I didn't care that she was a mouse, and I was a tiger. Her family did, though."

"Tyler..." I softly say, making him shake his head.

"No, not you. I don't want you to pity me like that." He says as he tries to stand up. "I'll go take a shower." He pats my face before walking away. Quietly I put the beer bottles in a garbage bag and clean up the mess.

After I went to check up on him only to find him passed out on his orange bed, I noticed his tiger sat next to him, and his golden eyes look into my eyes before lowering his head slowly. The tiger turns his attention back to Tyler as he covers his sleeping body with an orange blanket. I knew from his eyes that he would keep an eye on him.

Hamlet flies and lands on my shoulder. "Don't worry about Tyler. He's in good hands." Hamlet reassures me. I nod my head and close the door.

Tyler is a good guy; he is just a broken man. It hurts me to see others in need. I don't do it to make me feel better. Instead, it's to make the other person feel better.