Greece x Japan x Turkey: Caught between two.
Summary: After a long day of work and being caught between the lust of his friends Heracles and Sadiq, Kiku returns home waiting to go into a peaceful dreamless sleep. Yet night after night, he is tortured relentlessly with a reoccurring dream that forces him to choose between his love-struck friends. Kiku can either give into his dreams biddings and give into desire, or allow the fighting to literally kill him.
Yuka's rant: Yeah… based off of the myth of Apollo and Zephyrus' love for Hyacinth. Will be rated M for later chapters and other obvious Greek reasons. By the way, I couldn't think of a title. So this cheesy one will do.
Chapter 1: Sleep well, Hyacinth.
This was the first time in so many years that I've been this drunk. After I managed to land a job at a world-renowned American manga publishing company, I decided I would take responsibility and give up drinking all together. But I couldn't say no when Heracles offered to take me drinking. I made the mistake of inviting Sadiq as well, but when I accidentally told him I was going out later he sort of invited himself.
Like any moment when the two of them collide, all hell breaks loose—excuse my language please—and they began to fight. And when alcohol was added to this fight, it became a lot worse as they almost got violent and I had to mediate by sitting in between the two of them.
I forgot a long ago why the two of them went at each other's throats like dogs, but I do remember them telling me. The reason resurfaced that night, during a fight.
Sadiq was completely drunk and slurring incomprehensibly at Heracles, who tried to refrain from fighting Sadiq although he too had some alcohol. I had a few drinks myself, but I was trying to be the level one between the two. I can hardly remember what exactly happened, but I do remember the argument turning over to me.
Through my fuzzy memory, I recalled sitting down at a table next to Sadiq with Heracles across from me.
"Kiku, tell this loser, that he doesn't have a chance!" Sadiq commanded drunkly as he slung an arm around my shoulder. I tried to move his arm from around me without appearing rude.
"A chance with what?" I asked him. Sadiq took another drink of his beer and looked back at him. "This idiot actually thinks he has a chance with you!"
The sound of a wooden chair scraping against the floor was heard as Kiku looked up at Heracles. Heracles was standing now and leaning over the table to glare at Sadiq.
"You should shut your mouth, Sadiq." Heracles said between clenched teeth s he struggled to keep his balance. I simply looked back between the both of them, not fully understanding what the argument about to form was about.
"Why should I? You know it's true, don't you. You can live in your silly Greek fantasy all you want, but all it will it ever be is a stupid fantasy."
"You seriously need to shut your mouth, Sadiq, before I reach across this table and close it for you." He laced Sadiq's name with enough verbal poison to take down a ram in full run.
"I'd like to see you try!"
And it continued on like this for a while, and as the waitress walked by, I made the mistake of ordering a glass of wine. It was just one glass, I had told myself. But then one glass turned into two, and the two began to multiply as the arguing continued.
Eventually, I became intoxicated and time seemed to be flying by, and Heracles and Sadiq were talking to me once again.
"Kiku, if you had a choice would you rather do me, or Sadiq?" Heracles asked me.
"…What?" I asked dumbly. He couldn't have been asking something as vulgar as that in a public place.
"Come on answer the question Kiku! Which one us would you rather screw?" Sadiq asked me.
My cheeks were already red from the alcohol, so I doubted it would be noticeable if I blushed even more; which I did.
"Um… I'm not sure if I could make a decision like that." I had answered in an attempt to dodge the question.
"There's no shame in saying that you want me Kiku." Sadiq said and then playfully hit my shoulder.
"Stop pressuring him." Heracles said, and he had some how moved to my other side when I wasn't looking.
"I'm not pressuring him! I just want to prove a point to you." Sadiq retorted
"I think you mean that the other way around. I'll be proving a point to you once it's obvious that Kiku doesn't see you as anything more than an annoying co-worker.
"Oh," Sadiq stood up and towered over me as he stared down Heracles. "And you think you're any different?"
"I know for a fact that Kiku wouldn't want to be with someone as loud as you." Heracles said as he stood over me as well. I was starting to get annoyed over all the fighting they were doing., and the fact that I was pelvis level with both of them was also very uncomfortable. Not to mention that this argument was embarrassing for me. I decided to stand as well and I gathered my coat and other belongings.
"I think it's getting late." I said, trying my best to keep my words un-slurred, which was turning out to be a difficult feat. "We should all be getting home now."
"I'll drive." Heracles offered. I didn't oblige, as it was the smartest thing to do. He had the fewest drinks, fewer then me, so it was smart for him to drive. However, it would have been smarter to plan a designated driver beforehand. I wanted to smack myself for not keeping control of my urges, but it was too late to do anything about it.
"Fine… but only because I'm too drunk to give a damn." Sadiq said and gathered up his own coat. Heracles shrugged and put his coat around his shoulders as he headed for the door.
That's how I ended up in the doorway of my apartment, leaning against the doorframe for support. My shiba-inu, Pochi, ran to my feet as I closed the door. I tried my best not to step on him as I made my way over to the bedroom. All I remember doing before falling onto the covers was taking off my coat and hanging it on the hook by the door.
I sat down beneath a tree of some kind and stared down my hands, which were resting in my lap. I looked up and surveyed the land around me. I was sitting atop a hill which looked down into a grassy valley that was dotted with trees much like the one I was sitting beneath.
As I looked around, I began to notice how detailed everything was. If I reached up and felt the trunk of the tree, I could make out every course indentation in the rough bark. The tree was relatively short and the leaves were small and glossy. They grew in large clumps and covered most of the branches so that the tree itself was hard to see. I could feel each individual blade of grass as they tickled my feet. This was unlike any dream I had felt before.
I should wake up now, as a matter of fact. It is said that once one acknowledges their dream, the dream ends. So I sat there beneath the tree, soaking in the imaginary sun's rays before I would be launched back into the world of reality.
But I didn't leave. Instead, I sat in the same surreal place with my eyes closed waiting to feel my mattress beneath me. I leaned against the tree and absently wondered if it was possible to take a nap in a dream, and then I dozed off.
When I opened my eyes again, I was startled to see that the sun was already setting before me. Over the horizon, the sky began to turn a mixture of oranges and purples as the sun sank below the hills. I watched for who knows how long as the sun finally slipped out of view and darkness descended.
I began to panic now as the light to see by was slowly fading and I had nowhere to go. It was too early after sunset for the moon to come out. I sat and looked around myself for the light of a village or town.
As I stood up a strong wind coming from the west—where the sun had set—blew at me, and I cover my face to avoid getting debris in my eyes. But I took note of something as a felt a slight chill from the wind. I looked down at myself and realized I was hardly clothed. I was wearing a deep blue piece of silk that wrapped around my shoulders and waist, but it did a horrible job of covering my important parts. Although there was no one around, I quickly closed my cloak and tried to wrap it more tightly around my waist.
I kept trying to retie the robes so they didn't show any part of my lower half, but the best I could manage was leaving part of my chest and my left leg open. Yet still, I felt so exposed and I wanted this dream to end so badly.
"What is it that has you so worried?" A gust of wind blew around me and sent goosebumps down my arms. I looked up and turned in a small circle as I searched for the source of the voice.
"Who's there? Where are you?" I asked as I felt both scared and relieved. I was relieved that there was someone else here with me; even in a dream, I didn't want to be all alone.
"I don't understand you mortals, always worried over something or another." Another blast of wind blew across me and I shielded my face and held back my robes. When I opened my eyes again, a tanned-skin well-built man was standing a few feet in front of me.
It didn't take me long at all to figure out who he was. The medium colored skin and the short brown ruffled hair was a dead give-away. Not to mention the adamant split hair that sprung out from the back of his hairline.
"Sadiq?" I questioned out loud. This wasn't the first time he's appeared in one of my dreams, but this one was so vivid it felt like reality. Time changed so fluidly, and everything was so detailed it was a sensory overload.
"Sadiq?" he asked and lifted a eyebrow puzzled. "My name is not Sadiq. It's Zephyrus."
"Zephyrus?" I asked, now just as confused as he was. The name sounded familiar to me, but I'm not sure where I heard it.
"That's right, Zephyrus!" he walked ever closer to me, and it almost seemed as if he was gliding with the wind. "I am the great god of the west wind, how could you not have heard of me?" He was now moving in slow circles around me; inspecting me it seemed. He stopped and a grin spread across his lips as he looked at my exposed chest and legs. Immediately I reached to close my cloak and backed away from him slightly.
"What is your name?" Zephyrus—Er, Sadiq asked me. I opened my mouth to say my name was Kiku, and he should already know that, but instead something else escaped my lips.
"Hyacinth. My name is Hyacinth." This wasn't what I wanted to say at all, and I didn't know anyone by the name of Hyacinth. But I had a striking sense of déjà vu when I heard the name, just like before.
"Hyacinth is such a beautiful name, as fitting for a beautiful person such as you." Sadiq whispered in my ear. I felt a shiver go down my back and my heartbeat began to speed up.
"Are you cold?" Sadiq asked as he walked around to my other side and placed a forest green cloth around my shoulders. "Here, take my robes."
I held the cloth snugly against my shoulders, until I realized what he said. "Y-You're robes?" I quickly took the cloth off my shoulders and thrust them to Sadiq's bare chest.
"Hm? What's the problem?" Sadiq asked as he held the cloth in his hands; not taking the hint that I wanted him to dress himself.
"You should cover yourself up! It's indecent to expose yourself in front of someone." I said as I averted my gaze to the far right. My back stiffened as I heard him laugh and he took my chin in his hands and forced me to look up at him.
"You seem very odd." He said and tilted his head slightly to the side. His trademark smirk spread across his face and he pursed his lips slightly. "I've decided that I like you, Hyacinth."
Very quickly and swiftly, he pressed his lips against mine and all thoughts left my mind. My eyes widened and I found it hard to fight against him as his other arm went around my waist to trap me against his body.
Before he could go any further, I began to think rationally. Even as his lips moved against mine, and even if this was a dream where anything could happen without repercussions of the real world, my mind knew I shouldn't be kissing one of my best friends. I reached up, pressed both of my hands against his, and pushed away from his embrace. Sadiq took a step back and looked at me with question in his eyes, as if I were the one at fault, and now him.
"Is something the matter?" Sadiq asked me. I pressed a hand to my chest to try and calm my beating heart and looked back up at him.
"Quite frankly, yes. Something is the matter." I said with just a hint of my anger showing. "It's very rude and inconsiderate to ki—to do something like that to another person."
"Is that so?" He asked in a very amused tone. He laughed a bit before grabbing my wrists with both of his hands and holding my in place. "Because if that's the problem, then I'll happily do it again."
He was leaning in to kiss me once more, and immediately I turned my head to the side and tried to escape. I managed to break free from his grasp and sprinted to the left, not looking back in fear that he might be chasing me.
I sat straight up in my bed sweating hard and panting as if I was running in the Olympics. My hands hurt and my head was pounding, and in addition to that, my throat was parched and every muscle in my body seemed to ache.
I looked down at myself and sighed as I realized I was still wearing my work clothes—suit, tie, and all. I looked over at my digital clock which sat on my bedside table. It only read 2:00 AM, at least five hours before I had to wake up for work.
But that couldn't have been right, I thought as I tried to remember my dream. Unlike most, I remembered the dream right down to the miniscule details, like the tickling feel of the grass beneath my toes. I remember taking a nap and watching the sunset. All that happened in a measly one or two hours?
I felt as if reality and dream were clashing. It was similar to the feeling you receive when you wake up a from a dream; you a receive a gift from someone and you expect to see that gift, but after a few seconds you remember where you are and real life sets back in. Or when someone crosses you in a dream and you remain mad at them even after the dream is long over.
But this wasn't going to be as easy; my dream was scarily vivid and I'm not sure of my feelings towards Sadiq anymore. I'm not sure if I want to go to sleep again, either.