Mephisto felt his jaw drop. The young man in front of him – Jodan, Tiana had said his name was – was gorgeous. But the look on the other teen's face shot a pang of sadness through his chest. Jodan was staring at him like he had seen a ghost, a monster, or someone he hated. Jodan shot a quick glance at Tiana.
"Can I speak with you for a second?" he asked, taking her by the wrist, not waiting for a response.
"Wait…" Tiana said as she was pulled out of earshot. Mephisto stared intently at the two talking. He inspected the young man. He was wearing a dark, short-sleeved tunic with two bands of different shades of orange draped around his broad shoulders. The lower half of his tunic was a deep, rich burgundy, with another set of thick bands creating a half circle where his abs would be. His orange hair was shaved all around the sides with a mop of long hair on the top of his head swept to the left side of his face.
Jodan was lean, but muscular, and not at all lanky. He kept himself fit, and he knew how to do it effectively. But it was his biceps that caught Mephisto's attention. His biceps – oh his biceps – were long and toned, and had a perfect curve when he folded his arms across his wide chest. Mephisto felt blood rush into his face as he stared at this beautiful young man.
And then he quickly looked away. Shame continued to plague him, but for different reasons this time. He… he shouldn't be looking at other guys that way. He liked girls… didn't he? If he did before his memory loss, well… not like he could remember it now. He stole one more glance at Jodan, who was now looking in his direction. Mistrust and suspicion still were perfectly visible on his face. He was talking to Tiana, but about what, he couldn't tell.
It was Tiana's turn to shoot a look back at Mephisto. Hers wasn't completely as suspicious as Jodan's as it was concerned and troubled, as if she was torn. They were talking about him, he realized. Fed up, Mephisto made his way over to the two.
"I don't particularly like being talked about right in front of my face." Despite how Jodan looked, that didn't mean Mephisto would forgive him for clearly voicing some kind of concerns to Tiana. "Whatever you have to say, you can loop me in." Mephisto's eyes fell on a circular, orange crest resting on Jodan's chest. It had a hole to the right side of it, that made it look like a crescent moon, but the ends of the moon were touching one another, connected by a pale orange bead.
"Auriana, Princess de Volta!"
"You're from Volta, aren't you?" Mephisto asked. He wasn't sure how he knew that piece of information, but he knew that that crescent moon was the official Voltan symbol.
Jodan didn't say anything, but the question clearly caught the young man off guard. He looked over Mephisto quickly before turning back to Tiana.
"You go check in with Izira. I'll take Mephisto to the medical tent."
Wait, how did Jodan know his name? Tiana nodded, and gave one last look at Mephisto.
"I'll see you in an hour, tops," she said. She gently placed her hand on Mephisto's arm and squeezed it. Even if they just met, and even after whatever Jodan had just told her, she clearly still saw Mephisto as a friend.
"Come on," Jodan said brusquely. "Let's get you to the medical tent." He didn't meet Mephisto's eyes and kept his pace slow enough for Mephisto to keep up with him. Curiosity was getting the better of Mephisto.
"How do you know my name? Do we know each other? Were we friends? Enemies? Did I do something to you? You can't even look me in the eye." All of this was tumbling out of Mephisto's mouth. He wanted to understand why Jodan was giving him the cold shoulder. Partly because he found Jodan extremely handsome, but it also seemed like if anyone could give Mephisto information about his lost memories, it would be Jodan. Jodan's body tensed when Mephisto spoke.
"You ask a lot of questions," was his only response. Jodan kept his gaze forward.
"Well I did lose my memory," Mephisto said, adding a pathetic, pouting tone to his words.
"Yeah, Tiana told me." Jodan shot a glance over his shoulder at Mephisto.
"You… you don't believe me."
"Oh, did you figure that out all by yourself?"
Mephisto stopped, the words stinging. Anger bubbled up his chest. Insulting his intelligence was causing a visceral reaction inside him. He tossed his crutches aside and charged up to Jodan, ignoring his bad foot, and grabbed him by the shoulder and flung him around.
"What's your problem with me, huh?" Mephisto also found himself giving Jodan's shoulders a bit of a shove, to accentuate his statement.
"Watch what you're doing with your hands," Jodan said, pushing Mephisto back. Unfortunately, Mephisto didn't see that coming and his weight was off center due to his cast. Flinging his arms around to keep himself steady, he grabbed on to Jodan's tunic, and before he knew it, Mephisto was on his back staring up in to Jodan's eyes.
Jodan had managed to extend his arms in time to keep him from completely falling on Mephisto, but he kept his gaze locked with Mephisto's. Jodan's eyes were a bright, glossy green. A kind of green that made one think about a special occasion, or a green that invited comfort and the desire to spill your deepest, darkest secrets to without judgment. The two stared at one another for a while, longer than they should have, actually. Jodan's expression started out angry and frustrated, but something broke inside him. His hard expression melted away by an unknown revelation.
Mephisto could tell his face was red, but he didn't care. He didn't care if he shouldn't be looking at Jodan this way. All that he could think about in this moment of time was cupping Jodan's face with his hands. He wanted to study that face. He wanted to learn about the faint beginnings of smile lines forming around his mouth and the things that made Jodan smile. He wanted to run his fingers through that beautiful, messy orange hair. Most of all he wanted to kiss those lips.
But he did none of those things.
"Get off of me," he growled, pushing Jodan off. Jodan almost seemed hurt at Mephisto's comment, but he hefted himself off of him.
"You're the one that pulled me down," Jodan said. And then he did something unexpected.
He laughed.
"Why are you laughing?" Mephisto spat. Jodan's laughter was short lived, but when he looked at Mephisto again, he no loner was looking at him like an enemy.
"I honestly don't know. This situation is just strange for me, I guess." He stood up, dusted himself off and extended a hand to Mephisto.
"I can get up fine." It took a few minutes and some creative placing of his broken foot, but Mephisto finally stood up.
"Tiana told me you have some memory loss?" Mephisto rolled his eyes. Had Jodan already forgotten that he literally just mentioned that?
"It's the one thing right now I'd actually like to forget about myself," Mephisto said through grit teeth.
"See, before you lost your memories, we did know each other." Any snark Mephisto was feeling evaporated. He knew Jodan before? "I wouldn't say we met under the best circumstances, however. You were basically blackmailing me into doing something I didn't want to do."
"Oh."
"So I guess I'm laughing because someone who wronged me the way you did… suddenly needs my help and can't remember anything he did? It's… weird. And I guess the only thing I could do was laugh at it.
"You see, the thing is Mephisto, I don't think- no I know I don't trust you right now. It's kind of hard for me to forget you telling me to bait my sister so you can send her off to Gramoor." Jodan's expression re-hardened as he recalled memories. Mephisto wasn't sure he wanted to hear this, especially if it involved that name. "I hadn't seen her in years. We could have been happy again, and… and you took that away from me. And honestly, for all I know, you could be lying to me right now. About this memory loss of yours."
"But I can't remember anything!" Mephisto shouted. "I know you're from Volta, I know that the name Gramoor terrifies me, I know something about Princess Iris, but I CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING!" Mephisto's voice got louder as he spoke. When he realized he was shouting, he took deep breath. "I'm telling the truth," he pleaded.
Jodan turned around and continued walking. With his hand, he gestured for Mephisto to follow him, to keep moving. Mephisto eventually limped after Jodan. He only caught up with him when Jodan pulled back the entrance of a tent.
"I want to believe you," Jodan said. "But I don't."
Jodan stayed with Mephisto while medics looked over him. Some of them were a bit unforgiving in their treatment of him, clearly sharing the same suspicion as Jodan. But they patched him up eventually, gave him a proper cast (though Tiana's was quite well put together, they had to admit) and he found himself staring at the dark cloth ceiling of the tent.
Soon after a medic had put the last bandage over his eye, Tiana's bright red hair appeared in the entrance to the tent.
"Is he okay now?" Tiana asked, ducking as she entered and looking at Jodan.
"See for yourself," he said casually. Tiana turned and her face relaxed when she saw Mephisto. She walked quickly to his side and pulled up a chair.
"Can barely tell you're hurt, now," she teased. It wasn't quite effective in lifting Mephisto's mood, but he appreciated her effort. He managed a soft smile.
"Izira fill you in?" Jodan asked with arms crossed.
"She did," Tiana said hesitantly. She reached out and took Mephisto's hand in her own. "I'm going to stay with Mephisto overnight, if that's okay."
"Your choice," Jodan said, uninterested. "Just remember what I said earlier." Jodan shot a weary look at Mephisto before resigning himself to stand and leave the medic tent. Tiana had a worried – or was it actually pity? – smile on her face. She squeezed Mephisto's hand.
"I'm getting the feeling before I lost my memories I was not a great person," Mephisto said, staring up at the dark tapestry above him. The medical tent was large and took up quite a bit of space. And even though it was a tent, it was well furnished with expertly made cots of the finest materials, and medicine stations filled the space between the rows of cots.
The cots were lined in a perfect square, eight rows by eight columns. There were four medicine stations in each row. Medics tended to other injured Ephedians, but other than that, it was quiet.
The sun had set and lanterns lit up with soft light, giving of an intimate din. Mephisto felt Tiana let go of his hand after a long, pregnant pause.
"I've been told some things," she said. "But honestly I'm not sure what to believe. I know Izira and Jodan have dealt with you personally in the past but… I don't know." Tiana kept her gaze on Mephisto. As uncomfortable as it made him feel, it equally made him feel comforted. "I may have just met you hours ago, Mephisto. And believe me when I say that my trust is not easily earned…" Her voice trailed off. Mephisto finally brought himself to look in her eyes. "But I know there's good in you Mephisto an I want to help you."
Tears pricked Mephisto's eyes. He quickly blinked them away. Tiana's words didn't make him feel better about himself.
"I have a feeling I'm going to disappoint you, Tiana."
