. . .
"According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves..."
—Plato, the Symposium
. . .
...she looked like she'd been with him all along.
Alastor can feel the all too familiar chill radiating off of her very being now, goosebumps forming on his skin at its wake. It was what one can only expect from the presence of something powerful and... and something that no longer belongs to the living world.
The goddess of shadows. Proserpina.
...His mate.
The solid and very much real press of her smaller body as she remains firmly seated by Alastor's side so there is no lingering space to be crushed between them leaves him with a sort of cold feeling, a numbness creeping down his spine that he was so sure wasn't there before as he slowly turns his head to look at her, wide eyed with surprise.
His voice was hushed, startled–
"...Where were you?"
The question came off as a demand.
"Gloucestershire," at the reasonably confused look on his face, she immediately deigned to add: "... it was somewhere in Southwest England. Cayden notified me of a lead in the Ancient Ram Inn. There were vampires. I had to personally step in."
"Oh, I see," Alastor murmurs, deflating a bit on his seat, "I'm just... w-well, I'm glad to know you're okay... welcome back, Winters."
She must have been away for some important business then, if she personally had to step in (whatever 'lead' Athena's kid was supposed to have over there) and that was in England, so far away from this place and... Alastor has to consciously keep the resentment out of his tone... because he knows, okay?
He's aware that her work was serious.
That people could really die if she just ignored it. But it's really not okay that there wasn't so much of a word on her end.
Cellphones exists for a reason, damn it!
"And yet, you don't seem pleased to see me," she notes, rather bluntly. "You... are upset with me. What did I do?"
His eyebrow twitched.
She just really had to ask, huh?
Very astute.
"Not that I'm complaining but why are you here now?"
"...You."
"Me," he said flatly, "What about me?"
Her void-like eyes calmly met his through those distractingly long lashes, "...You weren't with my brother. When I got to Japan, I couldn't find you. You weren't there. Why?"
He feels his heart begin to shake at the idea that she was looking for him, his stupid heart hoping for stupid things, such a fragile thing. And now, that he really thought about it, he suddenly felt really stupid, "It's just... I thought... well, I assumed w-we'll go together, the three of us, I mean. I didn't know you were going to wait for us there and you or your brother didn't really say anything about splitting–"
"So... you were waiting for me?"
(The word 'always' was sitting on the tip of his tongue.
Because these days... waiting and not knowing if he'll still see the very few people he had allowed himself to care for feels like what Alastor has been doing all his life.)
