Chapter Eight
"So? Did you do it?"
I gritted my teeth, standing in my tent with my back facing the entrance where Epimetheus and Atlas were standing eagerly. I rolled my eyes and polished off the front of my helmet before replacing it on the straw dummy nearby.
"Yes, she was feisty," I muttered, making Atlas burst out laughing. Epimetheus made a noise of delight, then smacked his fist into Atlas's chest.
"I told you she was the perfect fit!" He laughed. I resisted the urge to throw my helmet at them while they preened and cooed over the idea of my getting laid. Why it mattered to these morons was beyond me, but they had decided to take it upon themselves to make sure I got my ass out into the world.
It was the night before our second major battle against the Atlanteans, and when I'd let it slip that I had yet to lie with anyone, Atlas had been furious over the idea. His thinking was that obviously I didn't have enough time with all the blood letting to find the right woman, so he and Epimetheus had banded together to raid a nearby Atlantean port on one of the outermost islands, snatching up several women who they all tested out first before bringing to me. I had turned down almost all of them before I realized that my brothers were not going to let up on this stupid crusade, and the more I denied their choices, the more they were going to go out and find more.
Not fond of the idea, I finally pretended to accept one of the younger girls they'd managed to snatch up. She wasn't particularly friendly, but I had yet to meet an Atlantean who was. Epimetheus had cuffed her with gold slave shackles and thrust her into my tent just after midnight, then gone off with Atlas to go drinking with the leftover women they'd kidnapped.
"I won't let you touch me," the woman snarled, holding back against the tent wall, her hands thrown out in front of her in preparation to fight me. She was almost amusing, thinking she could take me on, a trained soldier, and her a bound hostage. Her long black hair was mussed around a beautifully exotic face, skin a deep rich caramel and eyes the signature ocean blue of the Atlanteans. Aside from her cuffs, all she wore was a long brown peplos that was torn along the sides, revealing full rounded hips.
To be honest, any other man in the camp would've snatched her up and raped her in a second, but I had never been fond of that practice. It always made my stomach churn whenever I saw a woman weeping as she left one of the tents, or the way they curled up into a ball afterwards. Even worse, the ones who took their lives and their souls went screaming to Hades.
"I'm not going to touch you," I told her, turning back to the desk to unroll a map. There was a short silence.
"And why not?" Now she just sounded offended. Jeez, was there no pleasing her? I shook my head, turning partway around to look at her, and she stiffened, lifting her hands back up against as if to attack me. I frowned.
"Because I'm not interested," I replied. She narrowed her eyes on me.
"Would you prefer it I had a cock?" She asked. I glared at her.
"I would prefer it that you shut up and stand there."
"Why," she demanded, lowering her hands, a sign that she no longer perceived me as a threat, at least, not one she would fight off, "Your brothers snatched me off my father's ship and brought me all this way for you to rape. Your people have destroyed our families. And now you want nothing to do with me?" I gave her a droll stare.
"Do you want me to take you?" I asked. She tensed.
"Absolutely not!"
"Then why are you bitching?"
"Because you Greek dogs confuse me," she sneered, making me roll my eyes and turn away again, "Don't you look away from me!" I stiffened at her angry tone, turning back to glare at her as she took a step toward me. That was awfully brave for a woman who had no way to defend herself, but she seemed to know I wouldn't hit her. For some reason, the idea really turned me off, so I stood there and she approached me warily, tilting her head to stare up at me, studying me as if I were a creature in a jar, and that succeeded in irritating me.
"What?" I demanded. She tilted her chin up, meeting my gaze squarely.
The woman certainly had spunk to be able to look at me like that without flinching. Then again, Atlantean women, from what I'd heard, had far more rights than Greek women. They were fighters, harsh and brutal in battle, and the most passionate of lovers. Iapetus, when Clymene was out of earshot, often boasted about the Atlantean women and their ability to please a man. However, he tended to counter that claim with how treacherous and cold they were afterwards.
Apparently Iapetus liked pillow talk.
Ew.
"You are not like your brothers," she said at last. I narrowed my eyes at that. That's just what I wanted to hear. How much worse I was than my brothers; how I wasn't nearly as strong as they were, how much better they were. Iapetus really liked to kick me where it hurt, and now that same bitter praise was being thrown in my face by a woman.
"Women should keep their mouths shut," I told her coldly. Her eyes flashed.
"And men should keep their pants shut," she returned unexpectedly. Before I could stop myself, I was laughing, then quickly sobered when she quirked a brow at me. I cleared my throat and looked away from her.
"Sit in silence," I told her, making her huff, "I mean it. If my brothers think I'm having my way with you, they'll leave you alone. You're safer here than you are with them." She snorted.
"They won't believe for a second that you've taken me," she said. I scowled.
"What makes you say that?"
"Sweet Greek," she said, rolling her eyes and moving closer to me, making me tense, "You sound like a virgin." When I glared at her, she stared back at me before her lips formed an O of surprise. I clenched my fists and she studied me for the longest time, then cocked her head.
"You are saving yourself for someone?" She asked. I said nothing. She took that as her answer and nodded, then stepped up against me, making me tense. She put her arms around my neck and pulled me down to her lips.
"Then we'll just have to make it sound believable," she murmured before kissing me chastely on the lips. Confused, I said nothing until she cried out and I tensed. She thwacked me in the chest, jerking my face down toward hers.
"You better start making some noise before they realize you're not interested and decide to have their way with me," she warned. Now understanding her intention, I nodded and grunted, reaching up to snap the chain connecting her gold cuffs. She smiled, then cried out again, then jerked at my hands to urge me to do something. I picked her up, moving to my desk and dropping her on top of it, knocking everything off, and she threw her head back and moaned. I resisted the urge to smile at her acting. It was strangely attractive, but unfortunately, my body didn't react to her the same way it did with Hannibal, and that brought a darkening to my mood.
However, I didn't want this woman to end up like the others, so I kept up the ruse for as long as I could before she sighed and rested her forehead against my shoulder, her hands reached up and tangled in my hair.
"That was actually a lot more exhausting than actually fucking," she said, making me arch a brow at her crude term and she gave me a droll stare, "Your Greek women are too fragile, Greek. Atlantean women don't whisper sweet soft words. We know how to fucking curse." I smirked at her. She smiled, tilting her head again. I wasn't sure why I liked it when she did that. Maybe it was the way her long black hair slid over her shoulder, the way the candlelight made her blue eyes shimmer like the ocean in the sunlight.
She was extremely beautiful. Almost tempting, but still there was no reaction from my body.
Suddenly frustrated with that, I leaned in and captured her lips. She froze for a moment before her eyes slid shut, her arms tightening around my neck as she parted her lips for me, allowing me access. I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing, but she certainly did as she took control of the kiss, stealing my breath away. I closed my eyes, trying to lose myself in the sensation of her soft lips and the smell of wine on her breath, but I just couldn't.
Her lips weren't the ones I wanted to feel. Her lips were too soft, feminine, and demanding. They weren't like Hannibal's; chapped, still somehow soft, innocent. Her touch was sexual, soothing. Hannibal's... well, whenever he did touch me, it was to punch me or shove me or bite me. And while it wasn't particularly pleasing, I'd prefer it over her romancing.
"I can't," I said at last, breaking away from her. She pulled back to study me, her blue eyes suddenly looking hurt and I grimaced. Maybe I should've just tried. Maybe if we'd gotten further, I would've been able to be normal, if just once.
But her expression softened with understanding as she reached up to touch my face, and I froze at that strange gesture. It was so foreign to me, that gentle softness, that comfort that poured through her fingertips.
"I understand," she murmured, "Maybe in another life..." I took her hand away, uncomfortable with that gesture of kindness as I moved away to the chest in the far side of my room, taking a small pack out and filling it with necessities. She frowned, sliding off my desk and approaching me.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Helping you escape this place," I replied, making her eyes widen as I stood up with the pack, tying it shut, "There should be enough in here to help you make it back to the mainland of Atlantis. I added your ship fare as well, and once I melt down those cuffs, you can use them to buy whatever it is you wish." She stared at me in awe.
"Why? I'm Atlantean."
"You are a woman in foreign territory. Should my men decide they don't want to leave you to me, they will attack you. Once they're finished with you, they'll send you to a fat rich Greek king and you will live the rest of your short human life in his bed. I would not wish that kind of hell on anyone." She considered my words, then gave me a single nod. I took the cuffs from her wrists, using magic to melt them down into jewelry for her, then placed them in her bag. I waved my hand, stitching up the sides of her peplos, then conjured a dagger for her, placing it inside a sheath and handing it to her.
"Keep that on the thigh of your dominant hand. Should anyone attack you, do not hesitate to use it," I told her. She nodded, watching me as I knelt down to secure the holster to her thigh. I felt her hand touch my head and hesitated before peering up at her. She looked down at me, her eyes glowing with a strange warmth I'd never seen in a person's eyes before, at least, not directed at me.
"What is your name, Greek?" She asked. I frowned.
"Menoetius," I replied. Her eyes widened for a moment, as if she recognized my name, but her body relaxed a moment later. I rose to my feet as she removed her hand, having to tilt her head back to stare up at me.
"Do you not wish to know my name?" She asked. I shook my head.
"Best I don't. Names hold power. And I'm not fond of such a thing." She smiled, then rose on her toes and placed a kiss on my lips before I led her to the back of my tent, giving her direction on the best route. And she disappeared into the night.
The next morning, my brothers had come in to praise me on my skills and when they questioned her whereabouts, I'd informed them I killed her for trying to fight me. Their laughter rang out and my stomach churned, even more so when I had left my tent to train for the day, only to see Hannibal sitting in his usual spot, chained to a post by a tree, his head held down, eyes staring blankly at the ground... and my damned body reacted the moment I saw him.
Why couldn't I have fallen in love with the Atlantean woman who had first shown me kindness? Why couldn't I have been normal? Why did I have to be in love with that damned bastard?
The Fates are cruel, boy, remember that.
In all my father's life, I'm sure that was the only time he'd ever spoken wisdom. The Fates were cruel bitches and fucking me in the ass was their source of mindless entertainment. Just like another god I know... My stomach pitched forward.
I woke up with the worst fucking headache in the morning. It didn't help that I opened my eyes and was nearly blinded by the vicious sunlight that poured in through the windows of the apartment, made only brighter by the white blanket of snow outside. I cringed away from it, turning my face into the side of the sofa, pulling the blanket over my head.
To make matters worse, I could hear voices in the kitchen. I frowned, recognizing Akin's voice first.
"Baby, it's not your fault. You have every right to be angry. It doesn't make you a bad person, it just makes you a normal person," he was saying. I could hear him moving around in the kitchen, probably making his god awful coffee, and when I heard the dripping of the machine and the smell of coffee filled the air, my suspicions were confirmed. I heard a wary sigh and my heart stopped when I realized he was talking to Hannibal.
"But it is my fault," Hannibal was saying, his voice nearly a whisper and the pain behind his voice wrenched at my heart, "He's right, master, I should've never taken him out of there. I should've just let him stay there."
"Don't do this to yourself, Hannibal," Akin murmured softly, "You couldn't leave him there. You were doing what any normal brother would do. It's something I'd do for all of my brothers... even Jaques. And Jaques is a butthead half the time."
"Jaques never branded you with a cattle prod or drugged you."
"No," Akin said dryly, "He didn't. Hannibal, that's not the point I'm trying to make here. Menoetius is your brother. Of course you're both going to have disagreement. It's part of being brothers. It's practically in the handbook of siblinghood that we're supposed to go at each other's throats sometimes. Sometimes we say things we don't mean."
"He did mean it," Hannibal countered, "Everything he said was right. I was being selfish. I didn't do it out of some noble ability to forgive. I did it to get Ares off my back, and I did it so I could protect you. None of it had to do with Menoetius himself. I forced him here, when he doesn't even belong here."
"You're letting what he said in a drunken rage get to you," Akin disagreed, "You know why you did it. You are a good person, baby. You brought him back because you wanted to give him a second chance. The fact that he can help us get rid of Atlan is just a bonus to having him here. You could've chosen anyone else. I fought alongside three other brothers and Iapetus. You could've brought any of them back, could've chosen anyone else to fight at your back, but you chose Menoetius because he was the only one who wasn't nearly as bad as the others. Granted, he's made some mistakes and forgiveness isn't just something you plop in someone's lap and walk away from. Forgiveness is like your mother's garden, Hannibal. It takes a lot of tending to, a lot of trial and error. Sometimes the garden starts to wilt and sometimes plants die, but baby, if you keep taking care of that garden, it's going to be big and beautiful."
How could he do that? How could he look at this situation and see any kind of hope in it? Who exactly did Hannibal marry? A bloody saint? The angel had more hope in his left pinkie finger than Hannibal and I put together.
I wanted to be angry. I wanted to get up and smash Hannibal's head into the counter, maybe throw him off the balcony for added measure, but I just couldn't find it in me to be angry. If anything, I felt incredibly guilty. I couldn't remember everything I'd said to him last night, but what little I could confirmed that I'd done more than sting Hannibal's ego; I'd crushed him. Maybe he did have good intentions behind bringing me back, but it wasn't working. There was no good in bringing me back, and there was no good in giving me a second chance. I was already shitting all over it and there was no way I could turn back and correct everything I'd done since I had been brought back, and the worst part was that I didn't really want to go back and change what I'd done.
I did get a sick pleasure out of killing those people who hurt Hannibal.
And I did get a sick pleasure of pissing Hannibal off enough to hit me. Because that was the only attention from him I was ever going to get, and it was better than having him avoid me.
I'm so fucking disgusting.
As if loving my own brother wasn't bad enough, it was loving the fact that I was so desperate for his attention that I would even settle for his abusive attention.
"I love you, sweetheart," Akin whispered a second later, and I could hear him kiss Hannibal, and my heart shriveled even further. Anger rushed through my veins with a hot fury, but it only faded when I heard Hannibal whisper those words right back to him, and now it was just simmering pain.
My wrists itched.
Get me out of here.
I yawned loudly, acting as if I was just was just waking up, and I could hear shifting around in the kitchen. I opened my eyes, rolling away from the back of the sofa, then grimaced when I saw Hannibal looking at me over the back of the sofa.
"Oh, gross," I growled, making him glare, "What makes you think the first thing I want to see in the morning is your face?" He rolled his eyes, then handed me a glass of water. I eyed it suspiciously.
"You didn't piss in that did you? Or drug it? I've had enough drugs for a millennium," I muttered, taking it anyway. Hannibal shook his head, but said nothing. I sat up and downed the glass, relieved to soothe to dryness of my throat. I frowned, glancing around the room before looking at Hannibal.
"Where's Arikos?" I asked. I could vaguely remember him doing something last night, something that I should thank him for, but I couldn't quite remember. Hannibal frowned instantly.
"He's sleeping in the guest room. Are you alright?" He asked. Well, that was weird as hell. I pushed the blankets off me, swinging my legs around the side and getting up, trying not to stumble at the pain shooting up and down my back and into my head. I stretched, hissing through clenched teeth.
"Aside from feeling like I was thrown off a cliff onto jagged rocks, I feel great," I replied sarcastically. Hannibal scowled.
"I told you I wasn't in my right mind when I did that," he said, and for a second I had no idea what he was talking about until I realized he was referring to the time I'd been trying to calm one of his rampages and had just managed to get the herbs down his throat when he'd tackled me off a cliff and into the ocean where the waters decided to bat us around against the rocks like a cat with a mouse. I almost laughed in remembrance, then shook my head as I picked the blanket up and set it aside.
"I'm going to grab some things from the guest room and shower," I said. Hannibal eyed me.
"And after?"
"What? You want to know my shower routine? Well, you see, I wash my ass--"
"I meant what are you doing for the rest of the day," Hannibal ground out. From the kitchen, I heard Akin laugh and Hannibal and I stared in his direction. He held his hands up in surrender and went back to making his coffee. I shook my head, moving away from Hannibal, who watched me.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to ruin your reputation in this lovely little city, hybrid. I'm probably going back to sleep afterwards. I just feel like shit," I tacked on. I expected Hannibal to find something to bitch about with my day's schedule, but he just nodded and went back to the kitchen. I rolled my eyes, heading to the guest room.
He just wanted to get back to Akin.
Fuck you.
My wrists itched.
I went to the guest room, very quietly coming in when I realized Arikos was still fast asleep on the bed that had been changed and cleaned since the other night. Humiliation still burned like acid on the back of my tongue at the thought of that, and I quickly ducked into the bathroom, opening the cabinet and taking out the bottle of pills. I left the room after grabbing my bag and went to the bathroom out in the hallway to avoid disturbing Arikos, rinsing off in the tiny shower inside.
After stepping out, I waited until the steam had cleared so I could open the bottle up, taking the razor out and rinsing it off in the sink. I once again paused to admire the way it glinted in the lights, then held it against my skin to see the contrast between shiny clean metal to scarred dark skin. I grimaced.
If the Atlantean woman could see me now, she would change her mind completely about wanting to have me. I wouldn't blame her for it.
I took a deep breath, tilting the blade in toward my skin, biting my bottom lip at the sharp pinch of skin splitting open, only to have the blissful moment cut short when my cell phone rang. I cursed, my hand slipping and slitting my wrist open, blood pouring out onto the floor.
"Son of a..." I growled and snatched the towel off my wrists, wrapping it around my wrist and using another towel to mop the blood up off the tiled floor. Meanwhile, I groped around in my bag for the cell phone that continued to ring at a volume that I was more than sure would wake Arikos, and alert Akin and Hannibal. I finally managed to fumble with the phone in my hands, turning it on and holding it to my ear.
"It's about fucking time," I snapped at the only person who'd call me. Kristoff breathed out a long, irritated sigh.
"I had to take my time. See, Hannibal decided to come over and basically harass me into telling him what you were up to."
"Oh, I'm so sorry about wasting your obviously precious time," I sneered, leaning over the sink and rinsing the towels off after the cut in my arm healed, leaving behind an unfriendly looking scar that was deeper than the rest. Any harder and I would've cut my own hand off. Now that would be a lot harder to explain than a few cuts.
"I thought Hannibal told you not to contact me," I muttered after a moment, shutting off the sink.
"Hannibal is not my master," Kristoff replied dryly, "And while I took his suggestion to fuck off into consideration, I decided that aiding you would be in my best interest. Besides, with one last man on the hitlist, it would be stupid to just abandon the mission now. I just want you to be a lot more careful with this one. Tiberius isn't like Fritz or Joseph or any of the other ones. He's deadly."
"Yes, yes," I said in irritation, "I've heard all about him on the talking box thing. He's very evil and scary. Now do you have any updated information or was this call just to get me back for wasting your time?"
"Well, since you asked so nicely," Kristoff drawled, "Yes. I had to wait a while since the investigators are getting dangerously close to connecting the victims, but I managed to sweet talk my way into the authorities good graces. I have a file on Tiberius that outlines his most frequented spots in Hell. And according to rumors and a good friend of mine who's dealt with the prick before, Tiberius has a favorite whorehouse in Hell called Blingg. While it's under protection by the law, the owner is still in his good favors and lets him make illegal deals under the table there. My guess is that he's holed up there, waiting for the heat in Styx to cool off after his recent scandal."
I tried to remember seeing such a place in Hell, but honestly, it was beyond me. Then again, Hell was a huge realm, and a huge city to begin with. It was going to take time to find some place like that without provoking suspicions.
"You don't happen to know where this whorehouse is, do you?" I asked. Kristoff snorted.
"No, that's what Google's for."
"Why does everyone keep telling me to Google shit? I barely figured out how to use it the first time Akin slapped a laptop in front of me. The only thing I find it really good for is looking up pictures of turtles."
"Why turtles? You know what, never mind. I already know too much about you as it is. I'll Google a map and send it to your phone, but make sure you don't let Hannibal get to it before you get to Tiberius. If he finds out I'm still feeding you information, he's going to tell Akin."
"You're scared of Akin?"
"I'm scared of no one... except Akin." Click. Well, alright then. I shook my head and hung up the phone, setting it aside. I grimaced at the mess I'd made of the bathroom, breathing out a long, irritated sigh before I started scrubbing the blood out of the tiles, as well as soaking the towels in the shower, washing the blood out of them and down the drain. The last thing I needed was Hannibal finding out about my daily ritual.
My phone made a strange noise, making me frown and pick it up. I tapped the screen and an image came up. For a moment, I wasn't entirely sure what I was looking at until I realized it was some kind of brightly colored map with a green line that traced the roads I would need to take in order to get to Tiberius's location. I frowned, however, recognizing one of the street names from eavesdropping on Akin and Hannibal once.
That was the road Arikos lived on. He was extremely close to Tiberius's location, a very unnerving thought. I didn't want Arikos involved with this mess... However, it would provide me with a very good cover story. Now if Arikos would just go home, so I would have an excuse to go to him, that would be great, but of course, it probably wasn't going to be that easy.
Chewing my lip, I stepped out of the now clean bathroom, closing the image on my phone and looking up to see that Arikos was in the kitchen with Akin and Hannibal, the hot smell of breakfast frying on the stove, filling the air with the mess of potatoes and eggs, along with coffee.
"Menoetius, ready for breakfast?" Akin asked. I nodded absentmindedly.
"So, what's the plan for the day?" Arikos asked me, resting his chin in his hands, watching me with a smile on his face. I frowned.
"A fun exciting day of staring at a talking box that speaks in a language I don't understand in a place I don't want to be in. You?" I asked. I noticed Hannibal wince and Akin cut me a dry, unamused stare, which I returned with a bitter smile. Arikos rolled his eyes.
"That sounds boring. We should go somewhere," he added eagerly. I hesitated. Now that was a good way to get Arikos home, and have an excuse to get to the other side of town.
"Absolutely not," Hannibal deadpanned, making Arikos groan and I glared at Hannibal, who glared back at me, "I'm not doing it to punish you, Menoetius. I'm doing it to protect you." Arikos snorted and I concurred with that noise as I rolled my eyes, folding my arms over my chest.
"You keep saying that, but you don't ever elaborate, which keeps leading me back to the mindset that you honestly love pissing me off. It can't possibly be that you want me here because you like me," I added. Hannibal ground his teeth together and Akin gave me a chiding look.
"Menoetius, behave," he said, then he turned to Hannibal, "Baby, you're gonna have to talk to them both sooner or later. You might as well do it now." Hannibal averted his eyes and took a drink of his coffee. Arikos looked at him expectantly, but I was in no mood to hear these excuses as to why I should be a prisoner in a place where I'm not wanted.
Besides, something told me it had to do with this stupid rumor going around that I was the Key to Atlantis. Just because I had a freaky dream did not mean I was some kind of special key. Hell, they were just making speculations. We never found out whether or not I could use the Orb, since Atlan had taken off with it after Anexius made the trade for Apollo.
"I don't want to stay locked up here all day," I told Hannibal, changing the subject back to the real problem, making him frown, "What's the point of giving me a second chance if I can't go out and do anything?" Hannibal hesitated and Akin frowned, glancing at him.
"He's got a point," he admitted innocently, taking a sip of his coffee and looking the other way. Hannibal looked at me, and for the first time, I saw honest to god nervousness in those mismatched eyes that cut me to the quick.
"Fine," he said at last, something that should've made me breath a sigh of relief, but instead made my chest ache, "But don't stay out all night. Stay with Arikos. Call me if anything happens." I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, mom, anything else?" I asked. Hannibal glared.
"Goodbye," he deadpanned. Arikos grinned at him, then flashed me a secret smile that told me he was looking forward to spending the day together-- that or he was plotting my demise. Who knew with this guy?
We ate our breakfast and managed to get out the door while Hannibal was in the shower with Akin shooing us out. Judging from the way he kept clenching and unclenching his fists, he was going to spend the day with Hannibal. In their bedroom. Alone together.
Ugh! My wrists itched.
I shouldered my backpack on my back as I stepped into the elevator with Arikos, who looked positively giddy as he hit the elevator button so hard that the electronic panel squeaked in protest. He passed me a sheepish smile. I didn't say anything.
"So, what should we do today?" He asked. I shrugged. I had no idea. I hadn't really thought out that part of the plan yet. In order to get to Tiberius, I'd need to ditch Arikos. There was no way I could drag him into this, and even worse, he'd probably run and tell Hannibal everything I was doing. Best not to risk that catastrophe.
"Well, have you ever been to a museum before?" Arikos asked. I frowned.
"A what?" I asked. Arikos stared at me, then shook his head, waving his hand at me, like he couldn't stand the idea of explaining it to me. I rolled my eyes.
"BCE soldier here, you'll have to explain things to me if you want to do them," I reminded, and Arikos sighed.
"A museum. It's where they have a bunch of old historical stuff for you to look at and learn more about. There's one in town that has a special Greek feature, one that's taught by an actual Greek demon that fought in the Titanomachy." The idea of that made me cringe. The last thing I wanted was to have a tour guide throw the loss of the Titans in my face, while probably also telling everyone all about my humiliation at the hands of their king. It made my skin crawl.
"Uh, how about something that doesn't remind me that I lost the Titanomachy?" I asked dryly. Arikos smirked, then tapped his chin as the elevator doors opened, letting us out into the lobby. The security guard at the desk passed me a dirty look and I just gave him a sarcastic military salute that he responded to by putting up his middle finger, something that told me was an obscene gesture to go fuck myself.
"Oh," Arikos exclaimed, making me look at him as we walked out of the building, "We should go to the park! They set up a huge Christmas tree and decorations and everything! It's like a winter festival constantly. It's really cool." I frowned.
"What the hell is a Christmas tree?" I asked. Arikos smiled.
"It's this huge pine tree that people decorate in honor of the Christian holiday on December twenty-fifth. Supposedly it's to celebrate Jesus Christ's birthday or something weird like that. I have no idea who that is honestly, but apparently he's friends with Jaques, Akin's brother. Anyway, I just like it because of the lights and the food and the music," he explained. I was still at a loss over excitement involving decorated trees, but Arikos seemed particularly ecstatic about it, so I just nodded and he lit up with excitement.
"Great! Afterwards we can grab something to eat at the mall that's just down the street. There's a new pretzel place I kinda wanted to try," he added when he saw my weird look. I had no idea what a pretzel was, but okay. Sure. Why the hell not. Anything to make this day go by quicker so I could get to work on the real reason I had come out.
While I felt strangely guilty about using Arikos to get out of the house under Hannibal's nose, I was doing it for a good purpose. If Arikos knew, surely he wouldn't protest my actions. Then again, Arikos was a surprisingly entity, which he seemed to take delight in proving to me over and over again.
It didn't take more than a few minutes to walk to the park that Arikos was referring to, and I could see why he was so excited. It was a strange feeling to come across this strange spot of paradise in the middle of the city. Though everything was blanketed in snow, it was mystical and shimmery, like a fantasyland of some sort.
As Arikos said, there was an extremely large pine tree at the center of the park that was covered in bright colorful strings of light, some blinking and some holding their golden twinkle. At the very top was a star with an angel standing at its center, holding a torch out. Several smaller versions of this tree were scattered around the park, along with strange white and red canes sticking up out of the snow, strange smelling garlands connecting them and draped over benches and street lamps.
An odd combination of smells wafted through the air; hot chocolate, frankincense, roasted meat, and vanilla. There were small speakers mounted along the lamps that were playing a strange music that combined odd sounds, like bells, something akin to a tinkling sound, and some sort of smooth key music. There were an uncomfortable amount of people in the park, several large families and people running vendor booths.
"This is extremely odd," I said, frowning at a creepy gnome figure that was stick in the snow by a scene with men and a woman surrounding a baby. Arikos grinned, catching me off guard when he came over to link his arm with mine. I expected to react violently, but for some reason, it didn't really bother me. If anything, it felt nice since it was so bitterly cold outside.
"What is that strange music?" I asked, eyeing the speakers. Arikos followed my line of sight, smirking.
"Christmas music. I like it! Something about it is kind of cheesy, but I like it. It's beautiful."
"What are the instruments used in it?"
"I'm not sure," Arikos said, looking at me curiously, "Why?"
"Just wondering."
"Do you play any instruments?"
"No," I said, trying not to laugh at the thought of me sitting down to play a drum or flute, or worse, a lyre, "Only instruments of bloodletting were allowed in the house. And the only music Hannibal listens to is this god awful screaming music. The music of this time period is very strange and diverse." Arikos laughed.
"Oh yeah, Hannibal's really into that kind of thing. It's alright, but not really my favorite. I think I like this kinda music best. It's perky. Do you have any favorites?" He asked. I frowned, tilting my head thoughtfully before shaking my head.
"No. Didn't really listen to much back in the day. Just war drums."
"Jeez, Menoetius, you really need to embrace society a little. Come on, let's buy a decoration for the tree," Arikos said, pulling me toward a vendor. For some reason, it didn't really bother me that he was dragging me around the place. I had no idea where to go and I felt uncomfortable with the amount of people in the area, so I stuck close to Arikos anyway as we approached a vendor selling decorations.
"Oh," Arikos said, looking at the catalog, "These are kind of nice. Are these ones engravable?" The vendor nodded and pointed to a couple more, speaking in a language I didn't understand. I frowned instantly as Arikos spoke back to him in that strange language. The vendor giggled when Arikos said something that sounded strangely flirty, and for some reason that annoyed me. Arikos just smiled at her and said something else and her cheeks turned pink as she cast me a shy smile. I frowned, confused, but she just burst out laughing and said something to Arikos, who grinned.
Goddamn their foreign languages.
"Okay," Arikos said, turning to me as the girl went to the tent behind her, "I got us this really cool owl duet that I'm going to have her engrave our names into. It'll take about ten minutes."
"What did you say to her?" I asked. Arikos smirked.
"She was asking about us."
"It sounded more like you were flirting with her."
"Are you jealous?" Arikos returned. I said nothing to that, just frowned at him and Arikos raised an eyebrow.
"Menny! Menny!" Arikos's smile faded and I turned to see a familiar little girl racing through the snow with her mother trying to snatch her up, but missing every time when Amenti ducked her mother's arms and jumped up at me, making grabbing motions.
"I am so sorry, Menoetius," the woman said as she approached, appearing flustered and out of breath, "She's like a slippery eel sometimes."
"Menny!" Amenti cried impatiently, grabbing at me. Unable to resist those big green eyes, I set my bag down and picked her up in my arms, managing to fit her onto my hip after glancing around to see a couple other men holding their children in a similar fashion. Amenti snuggled against me and I froze, looking at her in confusion. How could she do that and not be afraid? Or at least disgusted?
"She hasn't been able to stop talking about you since we ran into each other," Amenti's mother said with a tired smile, then her eyes shifted to Arikos beside me, who was frowning at her, "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't know you were with someone." I shook my head as Amenti reached up to rub her little mittened hands on my cheeks.
"It's fine... Uh, this is Arikos," I said, gesturing to Arikos, who gave her a nod, then I turned to Amenti's mother with a frown, "This is..." Wow, that was embarrassing. What the hell was her name? She laughed.
"My name is Shukura. It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, inclining her head to Arikos, who smirked at me. Amenti looked at me with wide eyes.
"Menny, your face is cold! And your handsies! You gots to put mittens on or you gonna fweez!" She exclaimed, taking one of my hands in hers. She took one of her little mittens off and tried to put it on my hand, but her mitten was just so tiny that it barely fit over the tops of my fingers.
"I don't think those are gonna fit, sweetie," Shukura laughed softly. Amenti made a noise of distress and quickly put her mitten back on before taking my hand into her tiny ones, rubbing it and blowing her hot breath on it.
"You need mittens!" She exclaimed again. I felt the corners of my mouth twitching. She was so amusing for a tiny thing, and... extremely unjudging. It was one of the reasons I admired children so. They saw through the eyes of innocence, through eyes of clarity. You'd think having grown up with my brothers that I wouldn't have the mindset, but when I really thought about it, I realized that they weren't seeing things the way normal children would; they were seeing things through a tinted window, a window tinted by the beliefs Iapetus had hammered into us.
Amenti, on the other hand, had a mother who adored her and seemed to have taught her daughter well. I was surprised Shukura even let Amenti near me, or smiled at me the way she was doing when Amenti began to list things she wanted for Christmas. Most people tended to be turned off by my presence, be it because I was a Titan, or because I didn't look particularly friendly. It was hard to keep assholes away dressed in pastels and smiling.
Then again, Akin seemed pretty good at it.
"Menny," Amenti squealed suddenly, making me tense at her shrill cry in my ear, "Make a snowman with me!"
"I don't know what that is."
"Oh my gosh, Menny," Amenti said in exasperation, then kicked her legs and waved her hands around so I would let her down. As soon as her little boots crunched in the snow, she snatched my hand and pulled me toward the tree. I glanced at Shukura and Arikos helplessly, but they laughed.
"Go ahead," Arikos said with a smile, putting his hands in his coat pockets, "We still have some time before the ornaments are done." I nodded, then followed Amenti over to a place where she threw herself down in the snow and started gathering it toward her in a mound that she tried to roll into a ball. I reached out and helped her smooth it out, watching her mouth open wide in surprise.
"Your hands aren't cold?" She asked in awe, staring at my red hands. I shrugged. Sure, they were freezing as hell and I wanted to stick them in one of the fires lit at a booth for roasting meat, but it seemed it was worth it to help her get her strange snow ball perfect.
"I'm fine," I replied. Amenti eyed me suspiciously, then reached out and took my hand off the snowball and surprised me when she kissed at my fingertips before smiling up at me.
"Okay. Lemme show you how to make a snowman!" She exclaimed, then quickly returned to rolling another snowball. I followed her around in a strange sloppy circle around in the snow, watching her roll snow and pat it down with me until we had three perfect round balls that she instructed me to pile on top of each other. Then she ran to the tree and dug around for broken branches and pine needles. Watching her curiously, I stood near the snowballs while she gathered her supplies, then came scurrying back.
"Up, up!" She said, jumping up and down in front of me. I picked her up under the arms and pulled her against me, bringing her toward the balls so she could stick the branches in the sides. I scowled, confused until I realized she was making a person out of the snow. Amazed, I watched her use the pine needles for a crooked mouth, a piece of pinecone for a nose, and then she wedged small stones in for eyes.
"I see why they call it a snowman," I said at last. Amenti giggled, then added a pair of eyebrows using more pine needles, then more stones she told me were buttons for his snow coat. I smiled as the snowman's face and form began to take shape. How strange to see something so massive and detailed come from the hands of a small child. It was strangely endearing to watch her create this masterpiece.
I glanced over to see if Shukura was watching what her daughter was doing, and she was saying something to Arikos, who frowned for a moment, then smiled and laughed at her before they turned back toward us and waved. Amenti waved back with both mittened hands before she yawned widely.
I smiled at that, then carried her back over to her mother.
"Thank you," Shukura mouthed as Amenti nestled against her and stuck her thumb in her mouth to suckle while she napped. I nodded, then froze when Shukura leaned forward and pecked me on the cheek before giving us a wave and leaving. I watched her go, bewildered by her actions and her tiny child.
"That was very nice of you," Arikos said, making me turn to him with a frown, "You're very good with children." Without realizing it, I tugged at the sleeve of my jacket to ensure my wrists were covered, glancing back in the direction Shukura had disappeared with Amenti.
"Children don't judge. I prefer their presence over that of adults," I replied. Arikos tilted his head to catch my eye and I looked at him curiously, then hesitated when he took my hand in his. I looked down, confused at the sight of his small delicate hands in comparison to my own. His were pinkened from the cold, his fingers long and slender, not a callous on him. My hands were already scarred, nails chewed to the skin, bigger... and had drawn enough blood to fill the Mediterranean. Still, he gave my hand a squeeze and smiled at me.
"Not all of us are bad, promise," he said. I didn't know what to say to that, even more so about the fact that his touch didn't bother me. Once upon a time, I would've told him to stop touching me, would've gone out of my way to avoid it, but it felt strangely comforting. Warm... Dare I think safe?
"Sir, your ornaments are done," the vendor behind us said. I tensed for a second and Arikos released my hand to fetch his purchase. I looked down at my hand with a frown, turning it over and trying to figure out why Arikos's touch hadn't bother me when he came over to me and placed a very small figurine in my palm of a snowy white owl with gold eyes and gold glitter sprayed across its back, and a small sign clutched in its talons that read my sunlight.
"Come on, we'll hang it on the tree," Arikos said, gesturing me to follow him. We went to the tree and hung the small ornaments amongst the hundreds of others that hung around the tree in glittery decoration. The ornaments had sayings that ranged from language to language, from saying to saying, and it suddenly hit me how diverse this realm was. I was so used to being surrounded by Greek culture. It was what I knew-- all I knew. Everything else was too foreign to comprehend, too difficult to take in, yet seeing all of that diversity on one tree was stunning.
"There," Arikos took a step back to admire our ornaments on the tree, "The owls were a good idea." I looked at our owls hanging on the same branch together, and noticed his was engraved with a sign that read his moonlight and stars. I looked at him and he looked back at me.
"I keep getting this feeling you're trying to tell me something," I said. A huge smile came across Arikos's face, his eyes sliding away. My comment apparently amused him because a second later, he laughed and turned to face me.
"What do you think I'm trying to say?" He asked, sobering. I looked back at the ornaments hanging together, cocking my head with a frown. I had no idea to be honest. A tiny part of me wondered if what Arikos had said before was true; that he liked me. Did he truly appreciate my presence? Surely he wouldn't ask to spend the day with me because he didn't like me, but then again, the idea of someone even tolerating my presence for more than a few minutes baffled me. No one had ever liked me before, so it was difficult to discern and I was only guessing from things I'd seen other people do.
"You said you liked me," I said after a moment, turning to Arikos now, watching him raise an eyebrow, "What did you mean by that?" Arikos smiled, then took my hand in his again and I stared at our hands, then at him.
"And why do you keep touching me like that?"
"Does it bother you still?"
"No." But it certainly bothered me that it didn't bother me. I wasn't sure I wanted to get close to Arikos. There was a terrifying sensation in my chest, a tightening, that honestly liked the idea of getting close to someone for the first time in my entire life, but it was uncharted territory for me. What if it went wrong? What if I fucked it up? What if Arikos fucked it up and left me and forgot about me like everyone else did? What if Atlan did win and took Arikos away? What if I hurt Arikos when I left after the war, if we won? It was making a surge of anxiety creep through my veins.
"Menoetius..." Arikos's voice drew me back to that moment, and I blinked, looking at him to see that he'd gotten dangerously close to me, and our fingers were laced together. It felt even stranger to feel his long slender fingers between mine, his warm palm pressed to mine, and his breath against my face.
Suddenly my cell phone and Arikos actually flinched at the sound. I frowned.
"Just answer it," Arikos sighed, stepping back. Giving him one last look of confusion, I reached into my pocket and drew my phone out of my pocket, touching the screen and holding it to my ear while Arikos averted his eyes, rubbing at the back of his neck as if he were suddenly stressed, and for some odd reason, a pang of pain erupted in my chest at that gesture.
Did he not want to spend the day together anymore?
Or was I over thinking his gesture completely? Then again, was there even such a thing? Several centuries of fighting in wars, both in home and out of home, had taught me there was no such thing.
"Menoetius," an unfamiliar voice said. I scowled.
"Who is this?"
"Who the hell do you think it is? Your mother?" Okay, I knew that sarcastic ire anywhere.
"Hades," I said dryly. Arikos snapped his head to look at me, appearing slightly alarmed. I frowned at his reaction.
"Ding ding ding," Hades chanted sarcastically, "Give the Titan a fucking prize. As much as I'd love to stand here and insult what little intelligence you have left, I'd rather do it in person-- Come to Lucifer's overcompensating palace."
"Why should I?" I asked. Something told me it wouldn't be a good idea. I couldn't quite remember why, but something told me my last encounter with Hades had gone quite badly and I wasn't sure I wanted to repeat whatever experience that may be. Apparently it was so awful my brain had blocked me from remembering whatever trauma it was.
I was going to chalk it up as another reason my head hurt.
"Because I just love spending my fucking holiday weekends drinking tea with an angel, a Titan, two Atlantean big mouths, oh and a couple of first demon assholes." You'd need a fucking xiphos to cut through the amount of sarcasm that went into coming up with that bullshit response. Resisting the urge to smash the cell phone into a million pieces, and remembering that Hannibal was the one who bought it for me in the first place, I took a deep breath, counted to ten, then responded.
"Fine. Give me two minutes."
"You have thirty seconds." He hung up before I could even argue his illogical request. I rolled my eyes and hung up, making Arikos frown.
"Is everything alright?" He asked. I nodded.
"Hades has decided once again that he brought me back to be a pet dog, not a person, but then, I don't know what made me think otherwise. I have to go to the palace for some meeting that I'm sure involves bloodshed and misery," I said. Arikos's eyes sparked a strange fire as he narrowed his eyes, folding his arms over his chest.
"Why?"
"I don't know, Arikos. I've learned to stop asking him, lest he poison me with the venom of his tongue."
"I don't want you to go," Arikos deadpanned. I frowned.
"I'm sorry. If it has to do with the war, I can't miss it. It's the whole reason I'm even here, Arikos," I said, and Arikos looked away, looking surprisingly hurt by my comment, and I felt strangely guilty about it, "But, when it's finished... If you would like, we can go to dinner together. Wherever it is you wish to go." Arikos perked up.
"Really? You'll go to dinner with me? Anywhere?"
"Unless you choose Italian. I'm allergic to anything related to the Romans," I tacked on, remembering the news of that particular nightmare passing through the Tartarus gossip chain. Arikos grinned at that, then nodded.
"Awesome! I'll pick you up around eight, is that okay?"
I nodded.
"Ah, sweet! Okay, this is gonna be great," Arikos made a fist pumping motion that I'd come to learn meant delight. Not knowing what more to say on the subject, I vanished from the park and teleported to the gaudy palace on the hill.