"to attack?!" donghyuck gasped, looking at his surroundings but seeing nothing else than his friends and the mist.
"chenle, do you have your flying sneakers with you?" renjun asked his chinese friend.
"yeah." he replied, tapping his foot on the ground twice, and making two little white wings appear on each side of the sneaker.
"can you fly there and tell us what they are up to?"
"i'm on it." chenle nodded, jumping over the edge and falling into the mist, disappearing from their sights.
"are you sure he isn't going to get hurt?" jisung asked right after his crush jumped away.
"chenle is a fully capable boy, don't worry about him." xiaojun told, reassuring the boy.
"yeah, i swear you'll have time to ask him out once we'll have thrown all those demi titans in the tartarus." jeno added.
"w-what?" jisung stammered, his cheeks getting red.
"come on, stop teasing him. we don't need him distracted if we have to fight." renjun rolled his eyes, interrupting the teasing.
"it stinks." chenle announced as soon as he landed on the platform again.
"how?" yangyang asked quickly.
"they have put mist on the whole tower. also, most of the tourists left because they started sending monsters on the champ de mars." chenle explained.
"what kind of monsters?" jaemin raised a brow.
"all sorts of monters." chenle replied. "chimeras, harpies, griffins, manticores... i even saw a sphinx."
"what are they doing?" hendery questioned.
"how could i know?" chenle snorted.
"you saw them. what were they doing?" hendery continued.
"i don't know. they were all walking towards the four feet of the tower." chenle told. "i'm not inside their minds."
"they're escalading the tower to block us at the top." renjun declared simply.
"how the hell- "
"he's athena's son." jeno cut xiaojun's question. "now, shouldn't start to fight?"
"he's right. let's fight." jaemin nodded, pulling his sword out and making it spin around his hand. "a strategy to propose?" he asked looking at his oldest boyfriend.
"me?" renjun asked surprised. "i thought you were the specialist in terms of war and fighting."
"yeah, but you always have the best ideas, baby. so, i'll trust you on this one." jaemin winked at renjun, making the smaller male giggle.
"guys, the strategy." yangyang said, interrupting their sweet boyfriend talk.
"we're going down to fight. donghyuck stays up here with mark. and chenle, you make sure that no one gets to the very top as you can fly around." renjun said professionally. "any questions?"
the boys shook their heads in unison.
"great. there are three demi titans left. hendery, you're in charge of throwing them back in the tartarus. and for the others, focus on the monsters. they can't reach donghyuck." renjun continued his speech. "now, let's go."
with that said, all the boys left to fight, leaving mark, chenle and donghyuck alone on the plateform up in the air.
"what do we do...?" donghyuck asked.
"we wait." chenle replied.
"but- "
donghyuck was cut by a loud roar, resonating in his ears.
they could hear the creatures getting up now, their cries, their growls.
they seemed to be a whole lot.
"stay up here, you two. i'll try to help them." chenle said quickly as he disappeared in the mist.
donghyuck stayed silent, his eyes staring in the void.
they couldn't see anything around them because of the thick mist that made everything that was not normal seem to be normal.
donghyuck felt sick, knowing that he was up there, doing nothing but waiting while all of his friends were risking their lives, fighting monsters and demi titans.
he felt completely useless.
all of this was because of him, and he wasn't doing anything to help.
"do you really hate me...?"
donghyuck turned around violently, his teary eyes meeting mark's sad ones.
"do you really think it is the moment to talk about that?" donghyuck asked, quite irritated.
"i... i just... it's hurting me..." mark lowered his head.
"well, endure it a little bit." donghyuck replied, leaning against the border.
mark's brows furrowed at donghyuck's statement.
something was wrong with him.
he was never violent like that usually.
and he seemed to have tears in his eyes.
"what is troubling you?" mark asked, placing one arm on each side of donghyuck, caging him between his veiny arms.
"everything is my fault..." donghyuck declared, still facing his back to mark. "i am the reason my friends are risking their lives at the moment."
"this is absolutely false, donghyuck. you're absolutely not to blame." mark replied immediately.
"of course, it is!" donghyuck turned around, his body being glued to mark's body. "i was born of a forbidden union. i have powers that i don't know about. i can't even fight... and people are fighting to use me as a mass destruction weapon." he continued, tears rolling down his cheeks by the end of his speech.
"donghyuck, you never asked any of this to happen. you didn't ask to be born..." mark tried reassuring him as he wiped his tears away.
"sometimes i wonder if the world wouldn't be a better place if i wasn't born at all..."
mark silently gasped, placing his finger under donghyuck's chin and lifting it up slowly so that their eyes could meet.
how could donghyuck say such things...?
"the world would never be better without you." mark whispered. "and my world would simply be hell."
donghyuck sighed. "nothing of this would be happening if i wasn't born."
"you're wrong donghyuck. this would have happened. if you were never born, i would still be on the titans' side, ready to kill the gods for good. i would never have changed my mind if you weren't here. you are the one who made me realise how wrong what i did was. you made me understand that my real family wasn't the divine father that i could barely see. my real family is the half-blood camp. and more particularly my new circle of friends." mark explained, cupping donghyuck's cheeks with his palms so that the boy couldn't look away. "you made me so much better..."
mark let his body guide his actions as he leant forwards, his lips meeting donghyuck's soft ones for the third time.
the kiss felt wonderful as donghyuck melted completely into it, allowing mark to guide him slowly yet passionately.
their lips danced together slowly, as if they were taking all the time they had to discover each other.
both boys poured all their love in this kiss, making their hearts beat erratically inside their chests and their minds go completely crazy.
they were forced to pull out after a long minute because of the lack of air, but they kept their faces as close as ever.
"i love you, donghyuck. and i love the person i am when i'm with you, which is why i'd like us to go further." mark declared. "i do know that you won't say yes because of everything that happened, and the fact i lied to you, but i want you to know how sincere i am, and i really want ot show you that i changed for the better. i promise that- "
"you talk too much." donghyuck placed his finger on mark's lips, making hades' son squint to stare at the finger.
"mmh?" he raised a brow.
"i can't answer right now, mark, but i think i want that too." donghyuck smiled. "and even if the others still have a problem with it, i trust you with all my heart, and i know you won't ever betray us again."
Ω
"there are too many of them!" xiaojun yelled as he blew fire on one of the creatures to try pushing them away.
"no shit!" jisung replied, planting his trident inside the neck of a griffin, making it fall back at the bottom of the tower.
"we need to do something. we won't be able to hold them for long!" jaemin nodded, looking to his left at jeno who was electrocuting a manticore with his whip.
from the other side of him, yangyang had glanced at zeus' son too, and an idea had suddenly popped up in his mind.
"hen, what is the eiffel tower made of?" he asked in the middle of his fighting.
"what?!" hendery asked, looking at his boyfriend for a quick second before concentrating on the beast trying to kill him once again.
"the material of the tower." yangyang repeated, shooting an arrow right into the creature's head, making it fall off hendery.
"why do you want to know?" hendery raised a brow, pushing the dead body of the monster away.
"god, what material is it?!" yangyang repeated again.
"it's iron i think!" hendery replied on the same tone as another beast tried to kill him.
"i need to find renjun."
"wait- ahh!" hendery yelled as the harpy on top of him slammed him onto the iron structure.
"woof!" a dog appeared next to hendery, biting the monster at the throat and killing it in a few seconds.
"mavros?" hendery said, surprised. "mark sent you to help us?"
the dog growled, hendery understanding that it was a positive answer immediately.
"thanks for saving me." he thanked his brother's dog before going back to fighting.
Ω
mark and donghyuck were still on top of the eiffel tower.
they had stopped kissing a while ago, because the groans and growls of the mythologic creatures had become louder, meaning that they were getting closer.
"something is coming up..." mark declared, pulling his scythe out as he prepared to fight, placing donghyuck behind him.
"woof!"
mark lowered his scythe as his hell dog appeared, jumping next to him.
"mavros you scared me." mark declared, caressing its head.
the dog barked and growled in return, mark's brows furrowing as he listened to what he had to tell him.
"what?!" mark exclaimed.
"what's wrong?" donghyuck asked immediately, looking between mark and the dog – he had understood nothing the dog had said.
"right now?!" mark yelled again, earning another positive answer from the dog.
mark sighed, pulling donghyuck towards the railing.
"i'm sorry, baby." he said, sitting donghyuck on the barrier.
"what? mark?!" donghyuck panicked, looking at the mist surrounding him.
"i love you." mark declared.
"why- ahhhh!!"
and with a gentle push of his hand, mark made donghyuck fall back in the void.