Chapter Text
While it had been nice to see Teacher again so soon, Phainon couldn’t help but feel a little well of frustration curdle inside his chest. This was supposed to be part of his honeymoon, a small trip to see his home, to actually lay his eyes on his parents after so many cycles of… He shook his head and pulled Vigethos a little closer to himself. The white chimera made a muffled sound, adjusting a bit before settling down again. This whole trip felt a bit like a mess; the first little unexpected drop in had been nice. A gentle reminder of his friend, and Tribios had brought the chimeras with her. He couldn’t blame Mydei for that little intrusion; he didn’t, he was grateful for it, truly.
Still… it seemed like every day something new came up, someone new, an unwelcome party that had caught him off guard, secrets coming out that he wasn’t quite ready to talk about yet, and now, on top of all of that, he had another uninvited guest, and this one he couldn’t handwave off as having good intentions at heart. It just wasn’t… he just wanted some time to unwind. This was supposed to be his time with Mydei and reconnecting with his family. He had known some parts of this weren’t going to be easy. Still...
He bit his lip hard between his teeth as he stared out onto the placid lake ahead of him before letting out a deep breath.
He missed Mydei…
His husband was still talking to the two intruders, and Trinon had taken one look at him before letting him escape quietly while she distracted his parents. So here he was, sitting on the broken-down dock overlooking the lake, by himself.
A little warning growl in his arms was his only warning before there was a soft thunk next to him. “Why aren’t you hanging out with your friends?” Scratch that alone part.
Letting out a deep, internal sigh-- because one didn’t do those kinds of soul-crushing sighs in front of children, he knew that-- Phainon tried to force a small little smile on his face for Livia, but found he couldn’t. “They aren’t my friends.” He offered, not taking his gaze away from the horizon, if he couldn’t at least smile for her.
She hummed slightly next to him. He could see her feet kicking as they hung off the deck next to his own, still ones. “So they are Mydei’s friends?”
“No.” He huffed a little at that thought. While Mydei certainly got along better with those two than he did, he certainly did not treat them as friends.
“So who are they?”
The endless curiosity of a child could sometimes be grating, Phainon found, yet he couldn’t find it in himself to be that annoyed, even though he did want to be alone until Mydei came back. “They are more like… colleagues…” Did she know that word? That seemed a little advanced for her… “Ah, work friends.”
Livia remained quiet for a long moment after that. “Aren’t you supposed to be on vacation?”
A small huff of laughter escaped him at that. “Well… technically, I am working right now.”
“No you aren’t! You are just sitting here holding your weird white thing.” In his arms, Vigethos squirmed and hissed a little at being called a ‘weird white thing’. “Work is like… farming, or fishing, or hunting like Galba does.” She sounded so indignant and sure of herself.
It was so amusing to hear his young friend scold him like that. He felt the annoyance from before start to fade away inside him. “I didn’t say I was working very hard.” He couldn’t help but taunt, something he had gotten quite good at since he spent so much time with Mydei.
Just like he predicted, she rose to the bait, puffing up next to him like a bullfrog. “You!” Still, she calmed after a moment. “So… what do you do?”
‘Well, I just spent 33,550,336 cycles hunting down my friends and killing them.’ Was what he thought bitterly, but wisely kept his mouth shut. “Well.. my official job is Okhema City Guard Captain.” He muttered. It was a fairly consistent one for him anyway. “Though I am on my last job before I retire.” Which was more true and far more novel to think about. He didn’t think he had ever retired before. That was new. So was marrying Mydei, though. That had never happened. The two of them had never really… in all the cycles, the feelings that they had for the other had always remained in the background. Duty far more important then their feelings for the other.
“Isn’t retiring something old people do? Like… when they can’t work the fields anymore? Just because you have white hair, that doesn’t mean you are old Phainon.” She chided him, wagging her finger in his vision.
Unable to help it, a sharp bark of laughter escaped Phainon at that. He was far, far older than anyone here could really comprehend. “Ha! Well… for most people, yeah, I guess you are right.” At his side, he could see her little head nod in satisfaction at his agreement. “Well, I can’t really be the Okhema City Guard Captain if I am going to be living at Castrum Kremnos with Mydei now, can I?” He teased. It was a convenient excuse as to why he wasn’t going to be working, contributing, or helping. In reality, it felt more like a dismissal. He knew it wasn’t, that they would keep him on and make it work somehow. But he wasn’t sure if he wanted to stay on anyway.
The truth was he was so very tired and felt so very numb whenever the love of his eternal requences was not near him. It felt so cliche, so stupid to think that another person's presence made such a difference in his life, but it did. When Mydei was there, his radiance seemed to push all these thoughts to the side. How could he dwell on this when he had to be vigilant to see if Mydei’s tiny smile made an appearance? There was simply no time for this when there was another challenge he had to issue to the other. How couldhe find the air to breath any of this when he couldn’t help the endless compliments that dripped from his lips around the other man? None of this fog ever stood a chance when Mydei’s brilliance burned it away like Kephale’s eternal light.
“Hm, I guess that makes sense. Though it seemed kinda romantic.” She giggled slightly, leaning forward to meet his gaze through the reflection below them. “What with a knight marrying a foreign prince and all.”
“Have you been listening to Cyrene’s stories again?” Phainon groaned. Those words certainly didn’t sound like the Livia he knew. Or maybe he didn’t remember her all that well…That was depressing.
At his question, she only giggled harder, her tiny hands flying to her mouth in a futile attempt to disguise her mirth. “Hehehe, no~” She answered between snickers in a very convincing manner.
Groaning, Phainon flopped back onto the dock, spreading his arms wide and freeing his chimera captive, who had been surprisingly well behaved. The chimera lept off of him before sitting next to him and began to lick one paw clean. Reaching out, Phainon’s fingertips were barely able to catch a small touch of Vigethos’ soft fur. “Did you need anything, Livia?” He asked after a moment. It was rude, he knew that, but he felt so tired, he missed Mydei, feeling drained and at the same time restless when away from the other man.
“Um… no…” She answered quietly as if suddenly unsure, or shy in a way that Phainon had never sensed from her. “I just, erm, saw you here and you looked a little lonely.”
“Mydei isn’t here.” Phainon offered. He paused as he thought of her words, then felt a little worse as he now had a child spending their time trying to cheer him up. Geez, how useless could he be? All but fired from his job and now making his young friend comfort him. He let out a loud sigh before tilting his head and glancing over to where Livia was still sitting at the edge of the dock, her back to him and something in her hands that she seemed to be trying to hide from him. “What is that you have?” He asked in search of something to say.
“Eep!” She almost jumped, the tips of her ears getting very red as she scrunched in on herself. “Nothing!”
Feeling curious now, Phainon sat himself up, using his size to try to peek over her shoulder to see just what she was hiding. “Come on, Livia, let me see.” It was some sort of paper…
“Stop tormenting your friend, husband of mine.” A taunting voice cut through Phainon’s attempt to get Livia to reveal just what she was desperately trying to hide from him with indignant shrieks.
His head snapped so fast behind him that he almost gave himself whiplash, only to stare wide-eyed at his beloved. “Mydei.” He could barely breathe the name out as he scrambled to his feet and over to the other man's side.
~~~
Letting out a sigh of relief, Livia pulled the somewhat crumpled piece of paper from her chest and stared down at it with a frown. She had missed her chance again to give it to her friend. Swallowing hard she looked at down at it and wondered why she had chickened out this time. The first time she had forgotten in all the excitement of seeing her old friend all grown up with his pretty golden husband. This time, though… She had no idea what had come over her. She had wanted to give it to him; she had run back home to grab it when she saw him sitting there alone at the docks. It had seemed like the perfect opportunity only she had blown it.
Sniffling a little, she did her best to smooth the paper out over her knees before a little tongue licked at her hand. “Huh?” Looking over, she noticed it was that weird white creature that Phainon had been holding earlier. Rubbing her eyes a little, she stared at it while it met her gaze with its own weird-looking half-circle eyes. They stayed like that for another moment before suddenly the weird white thing snatched the paper from her hand and dashed off with it.
Frozen in shock, Livia could only stare with her mouth agape as the long-legged little monster ran off. “Ah! Give that back!” She shrieked, scrambling to her feet and giving chase.
~~~
The afternoon was well on its way when they finally got a moment. Their morning guests had long since left, Mydei escorting them out of town before leaving to find Phainon, who had at some point left without a word. It had left Audata and Hieronymus at a loss as they sat there in their home. They had finished cleaning up, the two of them sharing a far too large breakfast for just them. They sat there at their new table, unsure of what to say as they stared at the large basket of fruits, vegetables, dromas meat, and cheeses. Far greater variety of food in that tiny basket that the little redheaded child was carrying than she was used to seeing in one place, which was also apparently the holy maiden. However, this one made much more sense, being small and childlike as the legends had always said.
There had been a small explanation from her about feeling a little bad for intruding and stealing their groceries the other day with the surprise visit. Since the Imperator had all but demanded to be brought to where Tribios had gotten the bread the other day, she decided that this time she would come with a little welcome basket. The tiny redheaded child had explained happily how she had gone to all the merchants asking for whatever regular items De-- apparently Mydei’s nickname-- picked up. They had all been happy to oblige, piling her up with various foods upon hearing it was for Prince Mydeimos. It was a kind gesture for sure, and it certainly solved Audata’s food problem, for now anyway.
With a sigh she got up, might as well put this treasure trove of food away at least. Not that she knew what half of this stuff was.
“Mydei invited us to go with them to Castrum Kremnos,” Hieronymus said almost out of the blue. Glancing back at him, she found he was running a cautious hand over the crystalline red table. “I said we would go.”
Pulling out a large jar of honey, Audata froze a little. While she did not like her husband agreeing to things she was not consulted on, in this case, she found herself nodding along. “Of course we will.” She murmured in agreement. There was no reason not to leave for a while. Winter was approaching, and with it a lull in the activities of Aedes Elysiae. It made sense to go. “I just…” A sudden nervousness hit her. Castrum Kremnos was big, it had to be. It was important, and the fact that their son's husband was the soon-to-be king of it was suddenly important once more. “I just hope we don’t embarrass them.” She murmured under her breath. Today had been an eye-opening experience as to just how important her son and his husband really were.