Gaius, a name without a last name, was his most cherished treasure, something of his own that no one could steal.
At a young age, his family was famished, his mother caught a deadly disease and his father was an alcoholic. No one, more accurately, no adult in the family could provide to sustain the house.
Even though he was only six, he was still the oldest and most mature among the three children. He sneaked out of the house when his father went out, telling his siblings to take cats of mother. Only then could he work with a peace of mind.
He found some very simple jobs, it was either cleaning the street or delivering newspaper. The pay was not enough but the employers were still nice enough to pay a child of six like him.
All his money, none could be saved as he had to buy food and medicine. All this went unnoticed besides his siblings.
Until one day, the drawer where he hid his emergency fund was wide opened. Alarm sounded in his head as he ran out to confirm his suspicions.
And it was true, his useless of a father took his money to buy some alcohol that could last them a month. He was furious, a kind that would let his fist do the talking.
When his father got home, he immediately lunged at him. He got a few knocks in before getting overwhelmed by the body of an adult. What could a 6 years old do?
His father, out of his mind with alcohol, attacked back mercilessly, his punches carried full strength and blood flew whenever it landed on his body. The siblings could only watch and dare not come forward.
Even if he screamed for help, no one could hear it. Their shabby house was too disgraceful according to the villagers and had to be near the forest.
As he was about to lose his consciousness, a shadow flashed by, he could see a glint of golden thread floating, shining bright and warm, in the air before completely blackout.
When he opened his eyes again, he could no longer remember anything. He felt pain all over his tiny body as he tried to move. Besides him was a sleeping fat man reek of alcohol, if he looked a little closer, there was a big lump on the man's nape. There were also blood on that man's knuckles, seemingly not from the man but himself. He figured that he fought with this man.
Looking at such a dangerous situation, he dragged his tattered body out of the house, not knowing three pairs of eyes were looking at him from the window, waving their hands.
As a 6 years old with no memories, it was difficult to survive by himself. He tried to be hired but no one accepted such an incompetent small boy. He wandered and wandered until he stumbled upon a gladiator rink.
He was taken in by the rink owner and called him 23. At first, he was grateful for the owner but slowly, he realized why he was taken in. It was to be trained to fight in a battle of life and death with much stronger opponents. He overheard how it would make a lot of money to watch a small child struggle against beasts.
There was nothing he could do, he still felt the grace from being taken in. He had to fight and fight countless of battles, each battles carried new wounds. From a scrawny body, his muscles firmed, hands and feet were full of calluses, each parts of his body had scars.
Even then, he was only 14. Thanks to his continuous victories and partly his loyalty towards the owner granted him a day off outside, but he needed to wear a tracking device.
There was a small festival at that time. He was quite excited to join with some coins given by the owner. But soon, his enthusiasm disappeared.
He realized how different outside life was compared to his gladiator life. Looking at the children happily playing with each other, all the laughter of people around, the smell of delicious food, all these, these were 'normal'...
"Hm? You, kid." A cold but childish voice appeared from behind him. He jolted and immediately got into defensive pose. Years of fighting and he could not feel this person approach?
But soon, he somehow relaxed at the beautiful blue eyes with fluttering lashes looking at him, the slightly opened rosy lips magnetized him, and the beautiful golden hair flying in the wind as if they were sun rays radiating. He had seen beautiful people who were the owner's clients, but to make him realize what the word 'beauty' meant, it had to be this spectacle in front of his eyes.
The person, seemingly at the same age as him, leaned his head to one's side since he had been silent while staring at the person.
He soon snapped out of it and quickly rubbed his sweaty hands on his new clean clothes.
"H-hello!" Mm, did he sound too enthusiastic? "Do you... know me?"
The beautiful person said nothing but continued to stare. It made him nervous. Was there something dirty on his face? Were his clothes too shabby? Was the person scared because of his scars?
"I don't know you." The voice that still had no fluctuations snapped him from his spiraling questions.
"Oh... then why did you call for me, my lady?" He thought this should have been proper etiquette when talking to a lady.
"!!!" Instead of replying, the person's eyes widened in shock, he could finally see some other expressions besides the cold face that he had been seeing. But seeing that reaction, did he say something wrong? Would that person want to leave because he offended them somehow?
"You... what do I expect from human...I'm not a lady." The first part he could not really hear but when he heard the last part, it was his turn to be surprised.
This... boy was so beautiful that his heart was beating so loudly when he first saw him. However, he dared not do anything because he was afraid of offending a girl. It was a different story when it was a boy.
It was not uncommon to have a male lovers. He had seen many of the clients brought young pretty men with them, but he did know that those relationships were never recognized in society. And most of them were only plaything of the nobles, and their 'true love' was always a woman.
His heart was only complicated for a while before feeling it was all nonsense. He was in no position to think about a relationship with a person he just met. There was still his survival to be worried about. When thought of that, he felt a little relieved but also a little helpless for no reason.
"Your name." The beautiful blond boy suddenly said.
"Huh?" And he blankly asked back.
"I'm Aeson. Your name?"
"Oh... uh... I'm..." There was a lump in his throat preventing him from saying the number he was assigned by the owner. An incredible surge of shame crashed him when he could not even introduce himself.
Aeson kept waiting but there was no answer from the boy. However, he just shrugged it off since it was not too important. He would not be here for long.
As he was hesitating, he finally looked up to see that Aeson had disappeared. A feeling of lost remained on his rare free day.
However, to his surprise, Aeson could somehow sneak into the resting quarter of the gladiator's participants. He was scared that Aeson would get caught so he urged him to leave, but Aeson only shook his head and said nothing more.
Slowly, his worries lessened as Aeson kept coming and going like it was his home. His presence was never caught by the guards. He did not know what Aeson's purpose was, but he was happy, he felt...normal. Like, he finally had a friend.
Aeson did not talk much but he would usually bring strange devices to show him. He, who was curious about the world beyond the gladiator, was always excited. This was also a chance for him to befriend Aeson. It was mostly him doing the talking, but he could feel that Aeson was attentive to what he was saying. And he appreciated it very much.
He wished that this moment would last forever.
But good things usually came to an end.
One day, after three months, Aeson said goodbye. As quiet as he usually was, he shared no reason for his departure.
At that moment, he finally saw that only he cherished their friendship. And Aeson never knew how he had become his sun.
He was not sure if Aeson felt any pity for him, but he got to keep all of Aeson's devices as memories.
Unfortunately, those devices were confiscated by the owner later on when he found out, and then he never saw them again.
Those three months felt like fleeting dreams.
He no longer was the young 12 years old boy, but became a tall man at 18. Those memories for too good, too nice, too beautiful that he kept away from his heart, no longer wanted to remember it during the 6 years without Aeson.
One day, his owner changed, no longer the gladiator's owner but a kind and beautiful girl called Liliana. He did not know what happened, he only heard that the owner was charged with some crimes and the gladiator was taken down.
Even though he considered the beautiful lady as his new owner, she always gently told him that he was no longer a slave or had to fight those terrible fights. She even gave him a name, it was Gaius.
He was no longer confined to the bloody and violent gladiator. He got to travel the world with his lady, learning so many new things. He got to learn about his lady was an escape saintess. He got to learn that there were some formidable forces lurking that could harm her. He got to learn that aside humans, there were many other species.
He got to learn that Aeson was an elf when meeting him while he was looking for the missing World Tree fruit. But Aeson did not recognize him. He changed a lot, he even had a name now.
However, this blank slate made him feel more confident, this time he could introduce his name to this elf and become true friends.
Who knew that this meeting would develop into something more.
War against the Demon Cult happened, with most species united with each other to fight them. He got to fight with Aeson side by side.
The more time he spent with Aeson, the more he realized that his feelings for him was not of a friend. And he also realized... that Aeson also considered him special.
Aeson's rare giggles were always shown to him when he made a lame joke. When he was hurt after fighting the cult members, Aeson would always storm off to seek vengeance. Or when Aeson, who was an assassin elf always on high alert, fell asleep on his shoulder.
He also found out that both were similar to each other. Both were lonely people without parents. Only that he was more heartbroken at Aeson's tragic past, losing everyone in his previous village in a fire caused by the Demon Cult.
He had never felt such anger! He swore that he would help Aeson to avenge which somehow made Aeson smile.
"Thank you... You're the only one I shared this with besides the Elf King." Aeson held his rough hands riddled with scars. "Actually... I also want to help you get revenge."
"Hm? Revenge on what?" His heart was beating loudly at Aeson's soft touch but he could still try thinking of what revenge was Aeson talking about.
"You know, the gladiator... I didn't want to mention it because it might not be a happy memory for you."
"!!!" His eyes quickly widened and his hands gripped Aeson hard. "Y-you remember?"
"Hm? Of course, I even remembered when we first met. Some bad guy was hitting you so I knocked him out." Aeson nonchalantly said.
"Some bad guy? W-wait..." He vaguely had some memories of his past as time passed. However, it was too distance to even recall his birth name and birth place, he had accepted to let go of the past a long time ago. But one thing for certain, he always felt like there was a sun ray in his life.
So it was Aeson all along. He continued to hear how Aeson was at the gladiator to collect more information on the fighting rink and the owner's crimes since he was one of the Demon Cult's sponsors. It took a long time but Aeson managed to work with the saintess to free him.
His mind was blown away. Not because of the overwhelming information, but the fact that the cold face elf cared about him so much that he would go such lengths to someone he only met for some time.
Aeson shook his head at Gaius's words, confirming him that he had been important to him a long time ago.
Being so overcame by happiness, he immediately did something he impulsively did something that he had only ever dreamed of. That was kissing the soft lips that he had his mind on the first time he saw it.
Only after feeling the warmth of Aeson's lips that he finally felt scared that he might have offended the elf. But to his surprise, Aeson did not push him away, only closing his eyes tightly with his face beet red.
In just one night, Gaius had experienced so many surprises and happiness that he felt like he could die. He wished things could be like this forever.
Whenever he made that wish, nothing ever went his way. Aeson died in his embrace when he was also taking his last breath.
Something happened in the Demon Cult's side. A huge explosion carried strong dark energy wiped out everyone. From the dying powerful wizard's words who was beside him when being caught in it, this seemed to be the last attempt of struggle from the Demon King to survive. The Demon King used the forbidden magic, rewind time.
...
Gaius remembered it all after being purified.
His relationship with Aeson had just blossomed during that moment of war, only to be ruined by the damn Demon King. His heart was full of hatred. He even felt sick when he remembered being bewitched by that 'Luciel'.
Even if there was a restart, everything was different. The was was easily over in just a few years. Especially his Aeson, it was not his Aeson at all. Even though they looked and acted the same, he could tell that was not the person he loved.
'Ah... I didn't even have the chance to tell him I love him...'
He hated the person acting as his Aeson, but he could not do anything against him. Not just because of the damn wizard's protection but also... that face was too much like his Aeson.
The only way to let out his anger was to eliminate the source of his misery.
'Maybe, I could even ask about that rewind time thing...'
A/N: Such an open ending for Gaius right? Actually, I wanted the ogAeson and Gaius to have more scenes to explain how significance ogAeson really was to Gaius. But too much details would not be an extra! But if you have any interpretations or theories, feel free to comment and I will discuss in more details with you.
P/S: I wrote this and posted it right away. Forgive me for any inconsistency.