Eusebios stared into the dark forest. Everyone else was asleep around the fire as it was his turn to keep watch.
"You're so deep in thoughts one could mistake you for a philosopher." Eusebios startled when Ixas suddenly appeared behind him.
"Maybe I'm a philosophising warrior." He replied, trying to cover his surprise. Ixas lay a hand on his shoulder and sat down next to him. His already messy hair was even more unruly now that he was fresh out of bed so to speak. Seeing him like this, Eusebios was struck with the desire to detangle the knots and braids in Ixas' hair until it fell down smooth and soft around his face and shoulders like a lion's mane.
"Come on, tell me what had you so deep in thoughts tonight?" Ixas grinned and nudged his shoulder against Eusebios'. Eusebios felt himself blush against his will and, ducking his head, he murmured: "Nothing."
"Please don't tell me you're homesick already." Ixas teased him lightly.
"Of course not." Eusebios protested, glaring at Ixas. He felt his face heat the longer he felt Ixas' eyes on him. Eusebios liked his eyes. "Sea-kissed" the people in Argos called them and they had the same shade of blue as the waves on the shallow beach near Argos where Eusebios had grown up.
Finally he gave in to Ixas' intent stare.
"It's something Draco said," He didn't look at Ixas while he spoke. He knew himself that it was ridiculous he spent this much time thinking about Draco's words. Ixas laughed softly.
"Draco says a lot of things when the day is long enough." When Eusebios looked away, embarrassed, he amended: "But that doesn't mean the things he says are pointless." He nudged Eusebios again: "What was it?"
Eusebios hesitated for a few moments until he, still avoiding Ixas' eyes, said: "Before we were leaving Argos, in the armoury, Draco said that we were only an honour guard. Young men who look good on the reviewing stand and old soldiers heading towards retirement, but where does that put you?"
"Me?" Ixas looked like he didn't understand.
"It seems like Draco considers you...expendable." it took a moment but then a smile broke out on Ixas' face.
"That's how you interpreted his words?" He laughed and Eusebios felt even more ashamed but Ixas caught the look on his face and stopped.
"Hey, "he said more gently: "Draco implied that we're all expendable compared to Perseus. That doesn't mean we won't make it home."
"Do you think so?" Eusebios asked, still uncertain.
"You're not afraid to die, are you?" Ixas' tone was light, teasing. They were warriors. It was expected of them not to be afraid of death.
"No." Eusebios answered and it was true. He had been resigned to it, accepted it as his eventual fate when they had put him into training when he had still been a small boy. But he was lying at the same time because a part of him was afraid to die - a part of him was terrified if he was honest with himself. It was the part of him that was desperately in love with Ixas, the part of him that was afraid to think that Ixas would die, possibly before him: "Are you?"
Ixas was silent for a moment before he answered staring into the flames.
"I don't want to die, "he finally replied carefully: "but I'm not afraid, no." Then he looked up, grinning, and added: "Someone has to tell our story anyway. And Perseus, demigod or not, is a lousy storyteller."
Eusebios laughed at that because it was true. Perseus was too prosaic, too straightforward in his stories, at least in the few he had told when Ixas had teased him about being familiar with sea-monsters already.
Ixas on the other hand seemed to know all the stories about every God, hero and monster that had ever walked the earth. Every place in and around Argos had its own myth, even though Eusebios suspected that Ixas had made most of them up himself. Solon had called him the 'forgotten son of Calliope and Poseidon' more than once for that and his blue eyes.
"You're the best storyteller of Argos." Eusebios more or less murmured and blushed.
"I'm glad you think so." Ixas answered and leaned in to kiss him. Ixas' beard scratched against his skin. He didn't break the kiss but instead searched with his free hand for Ixas' and tangled their fingers together.
They only broke apart when they heard steps behind them and someone clearing his throat.
"Solon," Ixas said, looking up: "Do you want to join us?"
"Do I look like I want to join you?" Solon asked disgruntled.
"We were only telling stories." Eusebios muttered. Solon, the most experienced of all of them even including Draco, always made him feel flustered.
"So, that's what you call it these days?" Solon asked with raised eyebrows. Despite his protests he did sit down next to Ixas. He looked sceptically at Ixas' and Eusebios still tangled hands. Eusebios, feeling self-conscious would have pulled back but Ixas answered Solon's look with an unimpressed one of his own and kept their hands where they were.
"Go away, it's not your shift anymore anyway." He told them.
"If you insist." Ixas answered with a wide smile and pulled Eusebios up with him.
"Don't get eaten by dryads." Solon called after them.
"We'll be close by." Ixas assured him.
"But not so close that I can hear you." Solon warned them before they slipped between the shadows of the trees. The last thing he heard from them was Eusebios' light laughter.
They stumbled through the woods, Eusebios following Ixas' lead without a question.
"Right," Ixas said when they finally stopped: "Where were we?"
"I think you know." Eusebios grinned, leaning against a tree and pulled Ixas towards him until he was caught between Ixas and the tree.
"Really?" Ixas asked with a grin that hovered only a few inches from Eusebios' face. He let go of Eusebios' hand to slowly slide his own up Eusebios' thighs. Eusebios wrapped his arms around Ixas' shoulders to pull him into a kiss after he had said: "I think you do."