Woohoo! This is for CuzImBatman. She was awesome enough to dedicate an Anubis/Nico story to me and now I'm returning the favor. Cause it seems like we are the only two willing to pick up the torch and run with it for this couple. She aslo helped me smooth bits of this out and edit a few errors here and there so a huge thanks to her for that!
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Anubis followed the trail of blood through the graveyard, not quite certain what he was expecting to find at the end of the trail. He frowned when he approached a mausoleum that had previously been closed. The blood lead him inside and he was shocked to find a young teen curled up against one of the walls. There were strips of cloth tied tight to stop the blood flowing from claw-like wounds. Besides the blood covering him, the teen was attractive: pale angular face, short wild black hair, and a slender but built body. Anubis knelt next to him, sensing something more to this boy, something familiar in the curve of his face. It took him only mere seconds to determine that he was looking at a Greek half-blood which could have explained the familiar appearance, but there was something more tugging at his attention. So he looked closer, looked deeper, and his whole body jolted in shock.
He knew this soul. Had loved this boy once, in ancient times when Greece and Egypt had first begun to mingle with each other. Anubis was pulling out linen wraps to bind the other's injuries before he'd even realized he'd reached for them. A memory surfaced of when they had first meet. The situation had been much the same but this soul had been conscious and talking to him.
Hazy onyx eyes stared up at him from under long black lashes. "I may have taken a blow to the head, but I am quite sure you are not the god who I was expecting to claim me."
Anubis smiled as he undid the bindings the demigod had made so that he could examine the wounds and wrap them properly. His heart ached, trying to keep his mind in the present but still drifting back to the past.
"It does not bother you to have me bind your wounds?" The god looked up from the wicked cut the half-blood had on his calf. It surprised him to hear a low chuckle from the younger male.
"No other could do a better job. I believe I should feel honored that you would take the time to do so. I am still living after all." An amused smile shaped the Greek's full lips while he tried not to move and disturb the other's work.
"I don't recall introducing myself- and neither did you." Anubis started tying off the linen so he could start on the next wound. A shudder wracked his body when the half-blood ran the tip of his finger along the edge of his jackal ear. He hadn't realized his ears were so sensitive to touch. That smile grew wider at the reaction.
"I have a decent guess as to who you are. My name is Adrian."
Stirring caught his attention and he found himself looking down into hazy black eyes again, his breath caught for a moment as the teen's lashes fluttered with the effort of keeping his eyes open. "Be still. I mean you no harm but I need to bind your wounds to keep you from losing more blood."
Those hazy eyes were unwavering as they watched him and had he not been so used to it from the first time they had meet he would have been highly unsettled. As Adrian had pointed out millennia ago, he was unused to wrapping the living. Anubis' brown eyes flicked up to meet the onyx ones that had finally focused on him. "Do you have anything I could use to clean this one with?" He lightly touched a gash on the half-blood's side. It stretched from the back of his shoulder around to the front of his hip, suggesting that he had managed to turn with the blow to avoid being cut in half but the edges were tinted red meaning that it might be infected.
"Backpack over in the left corner. The healing supplies are in the front pocket." Anubis tried not to react to the sound of the voice while he went to get the backpack and brought it over. There were obviously differences from Adrian and the body the soul resided in now but the voice was still so much the same. He quickly tended to the injury and realized that it was already partially healed which confused him for all of three seconds. Nectar or Ambrosia- of course... It explained how he was still alive with such injuries as well. He had taken some to stay alive but was unable to take more without risking incineration. The god shivered when he felt a gentle touch caress his ear, running up along the back to smooth along the soft fur.
"Anubis." The teen said, as if he was confirming what he already knew to be true but had been unbelieving until he had felt the jackal ears the god had even in human form. "I would not have expected you to show up for a Greek."
"I have done so occasionally in the past." At least I have for you. "What is your name?" The binding was done and he carefully helped the teen to a sitting position.
"Nico." The half-blood, Nico hissed, as he sat up. After taking several deep breaths to steady himself those onyx eyes opened again. "Thanks for the help." Those eyes studied him for a few moments longer and Anubis noticed his fingers twitch as if he were holding himself back from reaching out to him again. "I have the oddest feeling I know you as more than just a story but I can't recall ever having met you. Which isn't really surprising given that I've had my memories washed in the Lethe. But I'm kinda getting those back and I don't think you're in them."
Anubis sat back, debating on his choices. He'd loved Adrian all those centuries ago, claiming him in a way that was totally different from what the Greek had first meant when he'd shown up, and loved him still. But it had hurt beyond imagination to have lost him to death, not because of the death but because as a Greek he'd gone to the Underworld and not the Land of the Dead like the Egyptians. The god had never looked for Adrian though he knew that the demigod had planned to be reborn if he passed his judgment. But after losing him Anubis hadn't been sure he could survive losing him over and over again. Which he would have, because even if Adrian was half immortal he still had a mortal's lifespan. Now he was faced with that same soul, teetering on the edge of having what he'd lost back. It was so tempting to be with his lover again, even if it was a different incarnation. If Nico wanted him, he reminded himself, just because Nico's soul remembered didn't mean he still loved Anubis. But the chance was there and after a minute of internally debating he decided that it might be worth the risk.
"Your name was Adrian when we first met. You were injured and I wrapped your wounds for you, just as I did this time..." Something flashed in those beautiful, dark eyes and he paused waiting to see what it was. Adrian had also been a son of Hades and if Nico had his memories washed in the Lethe but was regaining them it suggested that he could possibly recall Adrian's life as well. The children of Hades were not as strongly affected by the Rivers because of the power they inherited from their father to control them. At least to some extent. So maybe with some prompting he would remember...
"I touched your ears that time too." Nico reached a hesitant hand out to touch the god's ear again, gaining another shiver in response. He was hit with a memory of laying against this god, skin to skin, petting his ears because he loved how soft the fur was and the response it got out of his lover. Briefly the scenery changed, becoming golden toned stones with the scent of incense filling the air. He knew this place, it was where they arranged their meetings. He remembered the bed set across from the window. The burning fires were low in their braziers, giving off a muted glow that mixed with the smoke from the incense to create a dream like haze.
Nico turned his head away and closed his eyes, trying to focus through the memories that were bubbling up in his mind. Of their first meeting, when he'd stumbled through the sand to collapse against a pyramid. Their first kiss, he'd gone to the other after an argument with an older half-brother and the jackal had kissed him under the light of the full moon to silence his rant. Their first time together, he'd been willing to give the god his virginity and had been surprised (and secretly pleased) to find that the other was a virgin as well. Thankfully the Greeks had not been shy about their intimate lives so Adrian had known what they needed to do even if he had no actual experience. Nico's onyx eyes opened and meet chocolate brown ones. He remembered his (violent) death as well. And he remembered how Anubis had looked when he'd seen him in his last moments. He'd been fourteen when they'd first meet and had been day's short of his sixteenth birthday when he'd been killed.
"After what happened are you really sure you want to go through this again? I'm not Adrian. Not exactly but he is a part of me. And I'm still a demigod, a son of Hades. There is every chance that my life will be just as short this time around." And my death as brutal...Nico clenched his hands, fighting down the urge to reach for the god as the memories continued to try to overwhelm him. Almost as if Adrian was fighting to try to come forward and take over. But Nico was sure as hell not about to let that happen. He would accept the other as a part of him but it was his life and he was going to live it.
Anubis sat back further, resting on his haunches while he thought about the past. This was a serious question, one he hadn't fully found the answer to. Being with Adrian had been the best thing he'd ever experienced, but losing him had been the worst thing of his existence. Could he risk it again? He thought back to the nights when he waited by the window, watching any shadows in his sight for that darkening that signaled his lover's shadow travel with his heart racing. Adrian had so often picked a shadow that was just out of sight so he could watch Anubis for a few moments before revealing himself, a teasing smirk on his tempting mouth. It had taken the Greek some time to learn how to shadow travel without alerting Anubis but it had been worth the few times he'd been able to sneak up on the god.
He breathed deep; catching the demigod's scent, beneath all the emotions was his base scent. One that was quite similar to Adrian but it was different he could tell. He took another deep breath to figure out what it was; deciding Adrian's had been deeper, musky even. Nico's was sweeter, but not feminine. And oddly, he preferred Nico's scent to Adrian's. He would have thought it to be the other way around since Adrian had been his first (and until Nico, only) love. He leaned forward, ears twitching at the gasp Nico let out, and ran his nose along the curve of Nico's neck to get a stronger dose of the demigod's scent. As he ran his lips along the teen's jawline he made his decision. "Whatever differences there are I can live with. It will take some time to adjust, but I can't let you go now that I have you back."
He caught Nico's lips with his own, swallowing whatever the demigod had been about to say. He deepened it, feeling and tasting the differences and the more time he spent with the teen, the more he liked Nico over Adrian.
How curious.
Maybe that would continue to be true as things progressed between them. For now though, he pulled back to look into dazed onyx eyes. Giving a small smile he slung the strap of the pack over his shoulder and slipped his arms under Nico, scooping the demigod into his arms. An indignant squawk made his smile grow as the demigod spent a few seconds flailing before latching on to his neck.
"Just what do you think you're doing!?" Nico hissed, blushing furiously. Of course being kissed by the god had brought all sorts of memories to the forefront of his mind. Now he was being carted off like some damsel in distress (which he refused to think he was even if he was too injured to move on his own) and that brought up a whole new slew of memories that really didn't fit with his mood right now. Especially when it felt like Adrian was still hovering in the back of his mind, but he refused to be overtaken. Not by a past self anyways; the god who had him in his arms could overtake him any day. And he really needed to get back on track.
"I'm taking you somewhere else to rest properly." Anubis was also plotting, he liked Nico just as he was and though he was willing to risk it- he didn't want to lose his lover again. Once Nico was back to full health they could start looking for a way to make him immortal. Demigods had been gifted with immortality... So had a few magicians. So why not Nico? They could do this; it would just take careful planning.
"And where would that be?" He settled, accepting that he wasn't able to fight back, and not really wanting to if he was honest with himself. Nico trusted Anubis with his life, just as Adrian had but he was still in control and he was determined to keep it that way.
"Home." Anubis answered quietly, having no other way to explain their room that he had moved to the Duat after Adrian's death. It seemed to be enough though as Nico sighed and laid his head on the god's shoulder. "Why don't you tell me what happened to you?"
Nico let out a quiet huff of laughter before he started. "Well, Echidna spawned again and..." As Nico began telling the story as Anubis stepped into the Duat with a smile that he couldn't hide and wouldn't have wanted to anyways.
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Yay! It's done... ::: does a happy dance ::: These two really should have hooked up in canon but we all know they won't. Oh well, that's what fanfiction is for. Until next time! ::: waves :::