Warning: yaoish DM/Dite

Two: Capricorn

Sweden was cold. Why he had agreed to train his pupil there was a mystery to Deathmask, but he had done so at Aphrodite's insistence. It would be good, he said, for the kids to be trained together. Secretly though, Deathmask knew that Dite just wanted them not to be apart for so long. At the moment, he sat upon a large boulder in the middle of a snowy field, watching his pupil dance from stick to stick with a grace earned after only four months of training. When he had chosen his pupil, he knew the Cosmos would be strong, and by the accelerated speed with which the training commenced, he knew he had not made the wrong choice. Even though, in the history of the Gold Saints, there had never been a female in the highest position. When the Cancer Cloth was finally attained, his pupil would be the first female Gold Saint.

On a whim, he used his Cosmos to throw large snowballs at her. The first one hit her in the back and toppled her from the long sticks, but she quickly regained composure and leapt back. When the next one sailed through the air, she was ready, and deftly avoided it. She had speed, he gave her that, but she did not have the Cosmos yet to correctly perform his greatest move, the Sekishiki Mei Kai Ha, of which she would have to be taught sooner or later. He opted for later.

"You'll have to do better than that, Atlantis!" he called out.

The eight-year-old girl, face covered in an expressionless steel mask, made a crude Italian gesture with her hand, then continued to leap among the sticks. He threw another snowball at her, but it missed.

Cosmos flared beside him to alert him to the new presence. Aphrodite and his pupil, Ingmar, strode up the hill to where Deathmask was seated. As Aphrodite took a grand seat beside Deathmask, Ingmar bowed shyly then looked with wide eyes at his teacher, who said, "Go play." The seven-year-old boy wasted no more time, and ran as fast as he could to join Atlantis. He tried to climb up onto the sticks, but fell each time. The girl laughed and pointed at him. She was more superior to him in more than just a year of age.

"They will be the best of friends," said Aphrodite as he snuggled against Deathmask's side.

"Cancer and Pisces always are," answered Deathmask as he crossed his arm over his chest and took hold of Aphrodite's. "Though I think she's going to kick his ass before that happens."

Aphrodite chuckled. "It's only because Ingmar is so shy. He really does have powerful Cosmos."

"You would not have chosen him otherwise."

The air stilled between them like magic as they watched the kids begin a snowball fight. They could relax in their training only because the eminent danger to their goddess Athena had been averted. The only reason to have Gold Saints now was to pass on the lineage. Already two had ascended from Bronze to Gold, and three more were still in training. Once the year was finished, all the Gold Saints would return to Sanctuary to present their pupils. Deathmask felt confident that both pupils could succeed the rigorous training regime and thus take over their respective Cloths.

Lost in their own thoughts, neither of the Gold Saints realized what was about to happen until they felt frozen snow land square in their faces.

The children laughed. Aphrodite could not hide his shocked expression while Deathmask grew angry. He stood from the rock, upped his Cosmos and brandished a fist. "You two are so going to pay for that!" he yelled.

Ingmar hid behind Atlantis, who put her hands on her hips as if protecting him from her master's rage. "Don't you lay a finger on Ingmar, Signore!" she yelled. "If you touch him, I'm going home!"

Aphrodite hid a chuckle behind his hand. Deathmask ground out, "Don't encourage her," through clenched teeth. Staring squarely at her, he said back, "Do you think I'll allow you to go home if you continue to behave like that? You have not even finished one-tenth of today's training. Get back to work or you'll sleep out here." He smirked, adding, "And I won't feed you," as an afterthought.

"Whatever," she said back. She grabbed Ingmar's wrist, whispered something to him to which they both giggled, and they took up a stance to fight each other.

"Obnoxious little minx you have there, Deathmask," said Aphrodite when he was joined once again.

Deathmask could not help but smile proudly. "She's great."

"You're fond of her!"

"Why wouldn't I be? That attitude of hers reminds me of somebody else I know."

Aphrodite looked affronted, but Deathmask could tell it was in jest. "I hope you're not referring to me."

"You? Never."

"Just for that, you can sleep by yourself tonight."

Deathmask leaned over and kissed Aphrodite on the cheek. "See what I mean."

Aphrodite punched him in the arm.

Training ended well after sundown, after the elders exhausted their pupils. Deathmask cooked like always, meals rich with the essential ingredients they all needed to keep up their strength, with none of the excess fat and calories they did not need, even though he occasionally baked a couple of small fruit custard pies. They ate and spoke among friendly atmosphere, where both Aphrodite and Atlantis ganged up on Deathmask most of the time and Ingmar remained silent and shy except when he was spoken to harshly by his fellow trainee. Never in his life had Deathmask remembered having so much fun; not even killing those who deserved to die brought such elation to his life. He guessed that it took the love of Aphrodite and the tutelage of Atlantis to make him find his true place in the world. Besides being a Gold Saint of Athena, of course.

"Signore," began Atlantis as her and Ingmar cleaned the table.

Deathmask sat back against large fluffy pillows with Aphrodite, lounging after the delicious meal to allow the kids to do their chores. "Mm?"

"Who is Shura?"

Deathmask shrugged. "Don't know. Who is it?"

Atlantis shrugged back. "Don't know. You said that name in your sleep last night. Kinda loudly, too."

Aphrodite hit Deathmask in the arm. "Are you dream-cheating on me?"

Deathmask flinched from the blow and widened his eyes at Aphrodite. "What? No, I would never dream-cheat on you." The words were his first response, and it was not until he heard Atlantis giggle that he realized what just happened. "What kind of stupid comment was that, Dite?"

"You said some guy's name in your dream," responded the Pisces. "What else would you have been dreaming about?"

"How do you know this 'Shura' is a guy?"

Aphrodite rolled his eyes. "Since when do you dream about women?"

The Cancer Saint sighed. "You got me there."

"So who is he?"

"I don't know." Deathmask turned serious. "I don't remember ever meeting somebody with that name." He turned his attention to Atlantis. "Do you remember anything else I may have said?"

The girl shook her head. "No. And I don't think you were having the kind of dreams Mister Aphrodite says you were."

"How do you know what kind of dreams I was referring to?" asked Aphrodite in clear shock.

"I may be young, but I'm not stupid. I've known about those kinds of things since I was five."

Deathmask ignored what he already knew. "How did I sound when I said that name?"

"Sad. Very sad."

Which only served to confuse Deathmask even more. He turned to Aphrodite. "Why would I be sad about a person I've never met?"

It was Aphrodite's turn to shrug.