Chapter Three
Okay, now I knew why that sounded ominous.
"And this one. This one will make your eyes pop." I winced at that description. I didn't want my eyes to pop. They were big enough as it was.
"Oh, and these ones. These ones will make you look taller, not that you need it. But everyone loves a tall man. I know I like my man tall." Akin continued on through the racks and kept throwing clothes at me until I felt as if I was going to fall over from the weight of them. What the hell was I supposed to do with all of these?
"Akin..." I started, trying to get his attention. Akin paused, touching a rack about ready to look at another shirt when he turned to look at me and his eyes widened. He laughed, touching his cheek in a dainty fashion that reminded me a lot of Clymene when she was flirting with Iapetus-- back when that was a thing.
"Oh, sweetheart, I'm so sorry about that. I get carried away sometimes. Let's try on what we have and see what else we can find afterwards." Afterwards? What happened to one outfit? I think I was beginning to understand why Hannibal didn't like shopping.
I sighed, frustrated as I followed Akin to the fitting rooms. I scowled at the size of them. How did they expect someone to fit in such tiny rooms? Even worse, all three walls inside were made of mirrors and the thought of being assaulted on three fronts by my own image made my skin crawl. Unfortunately, Akin was not having any of my refusals as he handed me several shirts and pants to try on.
"And I want to see what you look like in every single one, you hear me? Every. Single. One." Akin pushed me into the fitting room before I could argue and shut the door behind me. I instantly felt claustrophobic, holding my breath as I dropped my eyes to avoid my reflection, placing the clothing on the small bench.
Why did I have to do this? What was the point? I was going out to eat, once, with Arikos. He wasn't a prince, or a god, or anything else special. He was just Hannibal's cousin, a hybrid god... and a weirdo. Akin was making this out to seem a lot more special than it was. What I should be doing is figuring out where Tiberius was. The sooner I got rid of him, the better.
Once he was gone, I would have only one reason to exist-- help Hannibal destroy Atlan.
After everything was over... Well, if the battle itself didn't kill me, something would.
I closed my eyes as I grasped at that one thing that kept me going. In the end, none of this stuff would matter. None of these new clothes would matter. It was a waste of money to spend it on me. I could think of a dozen other things Akin could buy with his money. Still, I didn't want Hannibal to blow a gasket because I hurt Akin's feelings... and even though Akin drove me nuts, I also didn't want to hurt him either, and that infuriated me. Once upon a time, I wouldn't have a rat's ass about his feelings. Since my rebirth, I'd had to regain control of myself slowly over time. Even now, I had difficulty finding an outlet for my temper, so I had revived the daily ritual that made things bearable in the past, and just thinking about it made my wrists itch.
I pulled my shirt off over my head and hung it on one of the hooks over the mirrors, relieved to block my image. I paused at the sight of my forearms, marred by rows of cuts that ranged from one or two fingers in length. The only person who'd ever seen these marks had been Anexius, and thankfully the Atlantean had enough common sense to keep his damn mouth shut about them. Otherwise, it'd be a pity to have to bash his head in after all we went through to keep him and his lover safe.
I fingered on the of the more recent scars, which had become a light scar racing from one side of my wrist to the other. I cocked my arm, studying them for a moment before putting on one of the shirts. Thankfully, due to the snowy weather, Akin had only grabbed long sleeved shirts. The Fates had provided me with at least a bit of luck in that respect.
Unfortunately, the jeans pissed me off. Whose brilliant idea was it to make pants out of fucking potato sacks? Worse, the pair I had changed into had holes in them. Did Akin not realize that? Then again, now that I thought about it, it wasn't a rarity to see people walking around with holes in their jeans. Surely not everyone was blind, so was it another strange fashion of this time period?
If you're going to walk around with holes in your clothes, just walk around naked.
I pushed the door open, just a short bit to see Akin sitting on one of the benches across from the fitting rooms. The only other people at the fitting rooms was a girl sitting outside while her partner was inside one of the rooms changing. I kept the door open at an angle to avoid her, looking at Akin, who brightened as he stood up.
"Come on! Let me see the whole thing." Before I could stop him, he was opening the door fully, completely exposing me and the girl's head snapped around to stare at us. Uncomfortable with her stare, I kept my eyes on Akin as he studied me from head to toe. I didn't enjoy being scrutinized.
"Oh, this is perfect," Akin gushed after a moment, making me frown, "Those jeans look great on you! Maybe not for tonight, but definitely as a casual thing. We can get you a pair of black thermal pants to wear underneath of them for the weather, but this was seriously a good choice. Your butt looks great in a pair of jeans. And here I thought only Hannibal had that talent. And Raven, but Raven looks good in everything. So does Hannibal. Gah, why do I know so many sexy people? This is unbelievable." I felt extremely self-conscious with his commentary, and even more so when the girl sitting nearby had gotten up to wander over to us with a coy smile on her face.
"Oh my gosh, he looks super good in those," she commented, and Akin beamed proudly, "Is he your boyfriend?" Akin laughed.
"No, he's my brother-in-law. But he does look good, doesn't he?" He asked.
"Very," the girl agreed with a nod. Akin gave me a smile, eyebrows going up like he was encouraging me to say something, but I just inclined my head and she grinned before flouncing back to her seat. Akin waved me back inside to try on more clothing. And then more, and more until I felt like my legs were going to give out before finally Akin's cell phone rang and I was allowed a break as he went to speak to Hannibal, who I assumed was on the other line given Akin's reaction, and to check out what we'd bought... which was far more than one outfit.
I sat down on the bench to pull my boots on when I felt a presence approach me, and I tensed, glancing out the corner of my eye to see the girl wandering over to me. Her partner had gone to a nearby rack to study the clothing.
"Hey," she greeted, making me cock my head toward her, but I didn't look up at her directly, "So you're totally single, right?" I frowned at her.
"Yes?" It was more of a question. I wasn't sure what she was referring to, but my assumption was on my availability romantically. In which case, leave, woman.
"Oh, cool," she said, then sat down beside me, biting her bottom lip, "Are you free tonight?"
"I've a prior engagement," I answered. She pushed her lower lip out in a pout now, and she put her on my thigh, sliding it dangerously close to my groin. Instant alarm went through me and I snatched her hand off me, shooting to my feet and taking a step away from her. She tsked in irritation, getting up and raking me with a scornful glare.
"Ugh, fine. You could've just told me you're not interested. Men are such pigs... and you didn't look that good in those jeans anyway," she said snidely, then stalked off toward her partner, whom I expected to be angry at her advancements on me, but his eyes only showed pity and anger shot through me at that.
Men were pigs? I don't recall being the one who touched her inappropriately. Worse, she'd done it in public. While this modern era seemed to approve of public displays of affection, I certainly did not and I definitely didn't want her hands on me. I hated being touched... And I didn't care how I looked in those jeans. I didn't want them.
Annoyed, I went to Akin, who was about to hand the person at the register his strange shiny card that he called a credit card. Apparently it contained electronic money called credits... yet another thing that left me in confusion.
"I don't want any of those things," I told Akin, making him blink and look at me in surprise. The person behind the register frowned instantly and Akin sighed, offering him a quick apologetic smile.
"Sorry, just give us a minute," he said, and the person nodded, moving onto the next customer as Akin stepped out of line.
"Menoetius, it's fine, really. I want to buy you these--"
"Why?" I demanded. Akin looked surprised.
"Because. It's fun shopping for someone. I love buying things for people."
"Why?"
"I need a reason to be nice?" Akin asked, appalled. I clenched my jaw and said nothing more. There was no point in hassling him about it. He was going to buy them whether I wanted them or not. Of course, no one said I had to wear everything he bought. I could easily return it the next day once I got Akin off my back. I'd feel guilty for a while sure, but I felt worse with him buying me things that I wasn't going to need.
Akin bought the clothing, and unfortunately that left us with several bags to carry between the two of us, and I suddenly regretted not telling Akin to put half that shit back where he found it, but he sounded so thrilled at having bought things for me... which continued to baffle me.
"Oh, crap," Akin sighed as his cell phone rang in his pocket and he set down a couple bags near a bench at the center of the mall to answer it, "One sec." I said nothing, but set the bags down and folded my arms over my chest as I watched Akin discuss his phone call. Judging from his annoyed expression, it was one of his siblings. Probably not Raven. Akin adored him. And while he adored the rest of his siblings as well, he tended not to get along well with Jaques.
No one did, from what I'd heard.
Suddenly, the sound of a child sobbing reached my ears and I scowled, confused at the source of it as I scanned the crowded mall. Surely someone would have noticed a crying child by now. The thing sounded like her entire world had fallen apart. I finally spotted the tiny screaming child sitting on the floor almost smack in the middle of the mall, but not a single person stopped to bother with her. They walked on as if they hadn't even noticed.
Irritation crept up my spine and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I suppose I wasn't surprised at people ignoring their crying children. At least they weren't beating her for it. Still, a strange ache tugged at my chest as I watched her sit there and weep and not a single person stopped to see what was wrong with her. All these people, and not one person was paying attention to her.
I glanced at Akin, who was plugging one ear and talking into the phone angrily, probably an argument. I looked back toward the child, waiting another moment to see if someone was going to help her. And no one did.
Goddamn it.
I made sure the bags were close enough to Akin that no one would mistaken them as being abandoned, then made my way over to the small girl. When I approached, I realized how truly tiny she was. My god, I could hold her in one arm and she wouldn't be heavy. She had to be no more than three-years-old. Her curly black hair framed a chubby cherub face speckled with freckles, and big green eyes were red with tears. She wore a strange dress made of red velvet.
"What's wrong?" I asked her. She blinked back her tears, looking up at me.
"Mwt go bye-bye," she replied tearfully. I blinked, surprised that I finally came across a language I understood here. She spoke an ancient dialect of Egyptian. Relieved I'd finally found someone to communicate with, I knelt down in front of her as I switched to her language.
"Where did you last see your mother?" I asked. She sniffled and pointed up at the several stories of shops that stood over us. I grimaced. Why did a mall have so many levels? There had to be last thirty shops on the bottom level. What more could these modern people want? I looked down at the little girl, who tried to sniff back a stream of snot from her nose. I pulled my sleeve down and wiped the snot off her face, then used my thumbs to wipe her tears away.
It was something I had always wanted my mother to do, but she had taken to beating the tears off my face at some point. As for Iapetus... crying in front of your warlord father was grounds for brutality, so I had never done it.
"I will help you find your mother," I offered. The little girl sniffed tearfully.
"Yes?"
"Yes," I said. She reached her hands out to me, and I hesitated. I'd never held a child before in my entire life. What if I dropped her? Still, it was extremely difficult to say no to her, so I clenched my teeth and reached out, picking her up under the arms and bringing her against me, cradling her with one arm while the other wrapped around her.
She caught me off guard as she wrapped her arms around my neck, and for a split stupid second, I swore she was going to choke me, but then I realized she wasn't trying to hurt me. She was trying to hug me. I had only seen that kind of gesture a handful of times in my life, and it made me uneasy, but I wasn't going to tell a weeping child not to touch me.
"Menoetius?" I tensed at Akin's approach, looking up to see him staring at me in surprise.
"She lost her mother," I answered. Akin's features softened and he smiled at the little girl, who sniffed and pressed her face against my shoulder, wiping her nose on me.
"Aw. Alright, why don't you stay with the bags? I'll go find security and see if we can find her around here somewhere," he suggested. I nodded and went over to the bench where our bags were and sat down. It was much easier to hold a child sitting down, I realized. She seemed to delight in sitting directly in my lap with her back to my chest, her hands gripping my thumbs in front of her.
She was so tiny. I was having difficulties coping with the idea that someone could be so small, but then, Hannibal had been very small when he first arrived with us as well. Now, he was gigantic. Would this tiny girl grow to be tall as well? It was a little disconcerting. For some reason, I didn't like the idea of her growing. She was okay small.
That was a stupid thought, though.
Still, I could enjoy her this small.
"Uwah," she exclaimed suddenly, making me blink and look down to see she'd pulled up my right sleeve, making my eyes widen, "So many owies! Are you okay?" I tensed, sliding my sleeve back down against my pant leg before clearing my throat.
"Battle wounds," I answered briefly. She tilted her head back against my chest to stare up at me in awe.
"I seen lots of those on my yt. But not like those. What kinda battle?" She asked. She was strangely intelligent for a tiny thing.
"Internal battle," I said after a moment, but she just looked at me in confusion, and I glanced around at our surroundings before looking back down at her, "Fighting myself." Her green eyes grew big.
"You can fight yourself?" She asked, looking amazed at the concept. Her innocence was oddly endearing. Who knew I'd ever have a conversation with such a tiny person? I nodded.
"It's much harder than fighting other people."
"Why?"
"I'm not sure," I admitted honestly. She stared up at me for a while longer, then looked back down at my arm before she lifted my hand up and put my index finger to her lips, her other tiny fingers attempting to roll my other fingers in a loose fist.
"I hope you win," she said, then kissed my finger. A shudder went through me. Her innocent gesture sent a whirlwind of emotions rushing through me. I'd only seen that gesture in hieroglyphs, never in actuality, but it was so much more meaningful in reality. It was a gesture a child often made to indicate love in its most innocent form. I hadn't even thought it was a real thing.
"Why did you do that?" I asked, confused. She tilted her head back against me and beamed up at me.
"Cuz everyone gots to have someone who helps. I help you, sir." I didn't know what to say to that. She'd never met me before in my life. I'd never met her. She was... she was incredibly sweet. I didn't know what to do with that. All I could muster was a mumbled "thank you" and she smiled up at me.
"Amenti!" A woman's voice cried. I looked up to see a woman that was almost an identical copy for her daughter came running over. The tiny girl in my arms held her arms out eagerly, kicking her legs and laughing happily. Her mother swept her up into her arms, tears welling up in her eyes as she cradled her. I stood up as Akin came over to flash me a smile.
"Thank you so much," the little girl's mother choked, looking at me gratefully, "I just-- I left her alone for just a second and she was gone. I was terrified her father had taken her." I frowned curiously at that.
"What do you mean?" I asked. Akin grimaced.
"She divorced her husband and he's been trying to get custody of the little girl for weeks now, but the courts keep denying him. Apparently he's been seen following her to school a lot," he explained. Now that infuriated me. Who the hell did that prick think he was? In my day, had such a thing happened, the man would've been castrated for it. No woman should have to be scared like that. I almost asked why she didn't have a man around to protect her, then I remembered Akin's little run down about the modern customs.
Women were extremely independent now. And I could respect that; Clymene, despite being married, had always valued her independence and freedom. Still, the thought of this woman being alone with her daughter and no protection bothered me.
Don't do it.
Could I really let this alone, though? What if something happened to them? What if I saw them on the television thing and there were pictures of them dead? I'd seen enough pictures of dead people on that talking box than I cared to remember... But as I looked at Amenti, who smiled at me and clapped her hands, my heart drew tight in on itself.
You don't have time for this. You have your own problems to deal with. They are not your responsibility.
And then I remembered Amenti's gesture of affection, and my resolve was solidified.
"Here," I said, taking a receipt out of one of the bags and turned to Akin for a pen. He took one out of his bag and handed it to me. I scribbled my number down on the back of the receipt and handed it to the mother, whose eyes widened.
"If her father should show up, should he threaten you at all, please call me."
"Oh, no," she managed, obviously flustered by my offer, "No, sir, I can't trouble you-- You've done enough already--"
"I insist. You have a very kind daughter. It would be a shame to have that taken away from her," I replied. The woman hesitated, staring at the receipt in her hand before looking at me gratefully.
"Thank you," she whispered. I nodded and started to pick up some of the bags so we could leave.
"Wait, sir, may I know your name?" The mother asked before we could leave.
"Menoetius," I replied. She nodded, and Amenti made a noise of delight, clapping her hands.
"Menny, menny!" She exclaimed. I offered her a smile and her mother waved at Akin and I before we left the mall and went outside, where I was met with a blast of icy cold air that nearly took my breath away, but I gave myself a moment to cope with it, finding it to be oddly relieving. It'd been ridiculously toasty in that building.
"That was really nice of you," Akin said. I frowned at him to see him smiling at me as we headed down the street toward the apartment.
"What?" I asked.
"What you did for that woman. Most people would've just told her good luck and walked away."
"Her daughter gave me a gift I had to repay."
"And what gift was that?" Akin asked. I wasn't sure how to answer. He'd probably find it trivial if he didn't understand ancient Egyptian customs. He probably didn't know much about them. A strange part of me wanted to tell Akin what Amenti had given me, because it was strangely exciting that someone had finally not touched me in a way that meant they were going to hit me, but I didn't really want to bring bad luck down on my head for it. So I just shrugged and fell silent. Akin sighed, but he thankfully didn't push me for more information.
We continued to the apartment and the security guard was forced to assist us taking our things to the elevator. We arrived at the apartment and we dropped the things off in my room. I didn't put anything away, though, because I still intended to return some of the items the next day. While I appreciated Akin's attempts to be nice, I wasn't going to need all that clothing. I'd probably only hang onto one outfit from the collection.
I was just coming out of the room to see if there was anything to drink in the kitchen when I was suddenly grabbed and thrown up against the wall.
"You son of a bitch!"
Before I could react, a fist slammed into my jaw and snapped my head back against the wall. My vision danced with stars and I coughed, turning my head away to reach for my bruised jaw, but my hand was shoved back and I was caught by the front of my jacket, slammed against the wall again.
"Hannibal! That is enough!" Akin exclaimed angrily, coming out of the kitchen. I blinked a few times, focusing in on Hannibal, who'd grabbed me by the lapels of my jacket and had me pinned against the wall, his eyes flashing angrily. For a second, I swore they'd turned red. Despite the pain throbbing in my head, a sick thrill went through me as Hannibal invaded my personal space to slam me against the wall again.
"What'd I do this time? Was it the vomit on the carpet? Because I cleaned that up," I told Hannibal, who bared his fangs and slammed me against the wall again. I half-groaned and half-laughed at the pain shooting up my spine. I'm pretty sure he cracked the wall behind me as well.
"Hannibal!" Akin shouted, this time his voice more forceful. Hannibal was breathing hard, glaring at me like he wanted to tear me apart. I ran my tongue along my teeth to make sure he hadn't knock any loose with his right hook before I knocked his arms off me and he stepped back as Akin came over to grab his arm.
"What has gotten into you?" Akin demanded. Hannibal glared at me.
"You've been killing people!" He snapped. Akin froze for a split second, then turned to look at me, then he quickly shook his head and looked back at Hannibal.
"Hannibal, he's been with us the entire time. There's no way--"
"All those times you disappeared," Hannibal seethed, making Akin stiffen in realization, "You weren't going back to the apartment or going out to drink. You were killing people, one by one."