Chapter Text
Bright, angry, stupidly aggressive sunlight trying to assault people’s eyes through their blinds- showing every single speck of dust in the house, and making any unfortunate soul unlucky enough to have a window in their way burn to a crisp from the sheer heat coming off the glass. Gordon Freemind, our lucky guy, lays on a couch, admiring this awful and unusual sight from the darkness of the curtain-closed living room. Of course, this guy had been through literal days of being trapped underground in a science lab, fighting off aliens and monsters and military, etcetera- but by god, he enjoyed every millisecond of just laying down, hands behind his head, asleep on something other than a concrete floor. It didn’t matter that his entire body screamed for just an ounce of vitamin D; this guy was out like a light for three straight days so far, and he planned to keep it that way for as long as he could help it. Which, by his estimates, was not long at all at this rate.
See, after that whole alien-fighting-military-killing fiasco, that idiot in the blue suit Freemind kept seeing around Black Mesa had just strolled in, yanked him into a train cart flying through space, and offered him some sort of job that even Freemind didn’t understand. Keeping it cool, Freemind just told this briefcase wielding dumbass that he didn’t want to be a part of whatever secret service-cia-fbi bullshit he had going on behind the scenes, to which the suit guy took.. harsh. Like, way harsh, like- he threatened Freemind with another alien boss battle kinda harsh. Figuring he had literally no other option, he shrugged his shoulders, and said “Why not work for the secret service-cia-fbi bullshit this guy had going on!”
As soon as Freemind forced himself to walk through the door on the train cart, he immediately got assaulted with bright neon green strobe lights not even a second after he closed his eyes, and after a couple moments he somehow ended up face down on a sidewalk in Nevada. “How could he tell it was Nevada?” you may ask; well, when Freemind looked up to see just what the hell had happened, he was met with none other than a run-down apartment complex which felt very, very familiar to him. That’s when his half-dead, extremely tired, hungry, and desperate brain remembered that this was his friend Eddie’s apartment place! Freemind thought this was perfect! He’d tell Eddie about the weapons stashed in Black Mesa, get a cut of the money the two would get from selling them, and catch a bus to Massachusetts to get a bit more “help” in getting him back on his feet. Ah, yes- he could just touch the gold bars buried under that huge oak tree!
This glorious, genius work of a plan was soon forgotten in a millisecond when Freemind fell unconscious soon after trying to stand. Oh well, sucks for him- he’d be on that sidewalk for around an hour before Eddie looked through their window and found this orange heap of metal and mullet just on their fucking sidewalk. Of course, Eddie went down and dragged Freemind up to their apartment, setting the unconscious mess on their couch until they could figure out just what the hell to do with him.
That led onto a whole other series of complicated events with trying to pry the HEV suit off Freemind while he was still unconscious, and then that whole hospital trip he had afterward because he had a complete and utter lack of a right eye, but after that- that’s where we are now! Freemind just laying on Eddie’s couch, sacked out, at least fifteen dozen blankets on top of him while he slept.
In the back of Mind’s head, he knew that Eddie wasn’t gonna let him stay there for much longer. It’d been around three days, give or take, and Mind figured he was just taking up space at that point. Ed wasn’t the biggest on hospitality, and at some point they would probably want their damn couch back- so while one part of Mind’s brain was out like a light, the other part was worrying about how the hell he would get to his own home in Arizona. Hell, he still had the threat of the military, that suit guy, the police most likely- and hell, maybe even Black Mesa was still gonna be on his tail for a while, provided they were still standing! Despite sleeping for three straight days, Mind’s.. mind.. wasn’t clear at all.
Luckily, or unluckily, Eddie had woken up and made their way down the tiny hallway that had been smushed into their apartment, stopping Mind’s thought process cold in its tracks.
“Are you up, asshole?” They yawned, furrowing their brows at the Freemind on their couch.
“.. Nooooope.” Freemind popped the “P”, snuggling into the fifteen blankets he had just a little more. Eddie just snarked, hands stretched out in front of them to try and wake themself up. Eddie started rolling their hands around, their wrists making this god awful popping noise that Freemind just couldn’t fucking stand. It was so gross how Eddie could move any part of themself and somehow sound like they’re dislocating a joint or something.
“How are we feeliiiiin’?” Eddie asked in this fake intrigue tone, rolling their shoulders back. Freemind cringed again as Eddie’s shoulders popped loudly from across the room.
“Fine, until you came in. You’re terrorizing me. Aren’t people supposed to be nice to their guests?”
Eddie snickered, stepping into the kitchen. “Who am I, if not the asshole who becomes your alarm clock? Also, get the hell outta here with that shit- I’ve let you sleep for three days straight, right there.” Eddie grabbed a knife from a drawer, and gestured to the couch with their newfound weapon. Half of Freemind genuinely thought that Eddie was about to stab him before Ed pulled down a loaf of bread from the top of their fridge.
Holy shit.
Breakfast…
Augh, god, the last breakfast Freemind could remember having was the two shots of vodka he had before he went in and caused that whole alien invasion.
“I think I can bother you just a lil’ bit while you continue to leech off’a me for a couple more days.” They continued.
“I’m not leeching.” Freemind sat up. “I wormed my way into letting myself stay here for a bit, because I deserve it. I don’t wanna drive to all the way to fucking Arizona right after I got released from the hospital.”
“Why, because you’re a pussy?” Eddie smirked with their teeth.
“Because I deserve at least a week of sleeping after going through all that shit! Need I remind you, I am eyeless.”
“You still have one eye.”
“Eye. Less. I have this badass eye patch and everything. You dare disrespect the hero with an eye patch? Fuck you, man, that’s low.”
Eddie cackled quietly. “Ooh, I’m the evil villain showin’ you a taste of hospitality- I’m so sorry, forgive me, your protagonist majesty.” They shook their head, starting to make their breakfast.
Freemind just flopped back onto his pillows, glaring at the angry sunlight that was trying to bust its way through the blinds. Mind’s last thought before he fell unconscious once again was most likely something along the lines of, “god dammit, why couldn’t I have been an astronaut so I could go into space and extinguish the sun with a water gun?” Followed by a long, rambly thought process on why that would backfire horribly on himself. Ah, yes, being free from Black Mesa, but not free from his own horrible subconscious. “Freemind” my ass.
He could tell whatever future this shithole universe had planned for him was just gonna be perfect!