A/N: And this is story 5 of 13 for the Birthday Collection...Yipe. This is Aiolos's story...It's also my favorite one so far. Enjoy!
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There were two things Aiolos of Sagittarius hated. The first was being cold. This, unfortunately, was unavoidable, as it was nearly December. Biting cold made him shiver and long for warmer days where he could run around in the sun. The second thing he hated was seeing people miserable, especially his friends, and boy, was Shura ever miserable. Aiolos had been in Capricorn Temple for over two hours tending to his sick best friend, but Shura's fever was refusing to budge. Finally Aiolos left him alone for a little while so he could get some sleep. It was rare for a gold saint to get sick, but when they did, the illness knocked them down for a few days.
Aiolos contemplated going back to his temple and staying there for a few hours until he could go back and see how Shura was doing, but found that to be rather boring. He didn't want to be alone. Unfortunately, other than Shura, there weren't too many Saints in the Sanctuary. Kyoko-sama had told the five of them that by the end of next year all the prospective gold saints would be five, and therefore ready to occupy their respective temples. Aiolos was very excited, too-his own younger brother, Aiolia, would occupy Leo Temple. Aiolos wondered what the new young saints would be like, particularly the Scorpio saint, as he would be his new neighbor. Besides his own brother, the only other trainee Aiolos had seen was Kyoko-sama's own student, Mu. Mu had seemed like a very shy, quiet boy, but Saga, the Gemini saint, thought the shyness would go away once Mu had regular interaction with children his own age.
Speaking of Saga...
The Gemini saint was walking by himself, his head lowered towards the ground. He was carrying a book in his arms.
Aiolos hurried to catch up with him. Saga was the closest to his own age-twelve, while Aiolos was eleven, and a complete mystery. Well, that would change, Aiolos decided. After all, the day was his birthday, and he'd be damned if he let Saga deny him his company.
Saga glanced at Aiolos curiously. He had the kindest eyes Aiolos had ever seen before, blueish-green set in a pale face. There was something about his features that looked lost. Aiolos was taken aback.
"What do you want?", Saga asked him finally.
Aiolos feigned a hurt look. "It's my birthday today..." he said slowly.
Saga's eyes widened. "Oh. Happy Birthday...", he murmured awkwardly.
Aiolos grinned. "What have you got there?"
Saga showed him a book of stories by Edgar Allen Poe. Dark, depressing stuff. Somehow, Aiolos was not at all surprised.
"Where were you going with that?", the Sagittarius saint persisted.
Saga sighed. "Please, I don't want to sound rude, but I really wish to be left alone."
Aiolos's bright smile faltered a bit. "Oh, I see. You're a loner."
"No, it's not that it's just..." Saga gazed at the ground again. "I was sneaking off to see my brother, all right!?"
Aiolos shrugged. Saga acted like he was doing something terrible. He himself left the grounds to visit his own brother. "I didn't know you had a brother."
"We're twins..." Saga looked uncomfortable, so Aiolos didn't push anymore.
The Sagittarius and Gemini saints walked together for a few minutes, then Aiolos turned to leave Saga alone so he could visit his brother in peace. Saga, however, surprised him.
"Wait, Aiolos", he called. His cheeks flushed. He seemed embarrassed. "Come with me...You can meet my brother."
"Are you sure?", Aiolos asked.
Saga nodded. He looked uneasy-Aiolos has the feeling that Saga didn't want to be alone with his brother for some reason.
"Ok..." He fell into step with the Gemini saint once more.
They walked until they spotted a boy with long blue hair. As they got closer to the boy, Aiolos saw he and Saga were identical down to the last strand of hair. It'd be too easy for the boys to swap places without Kyoko-sama noticing.
"Hello, Kanon", Saga said in a soft, barely audible voice, his gaze going to the floor one more.
The boy, Kanon, glared at Aiolos, dislike evident in his blue-green eyes. "What'd you bring him for, Saga!?"
"I'm sorry", Saga replied, in a tone that suggested he wasn't sorry at all.
"I thought we were going to leave together!", Kanon cried, completely ignoring the fact that Aiolos was there. Probably he hoped Aiolos would tell Kyoko-sama what he saw and get Saga kicked out of Sanctuary.
Saga shook his head. "No, Kanon. I have duties here. I will not leave the Sanctuary. My job is to protect Athena."
Kanon's hands balled into fists of rage. Without warning, he lunged forward, hooking Saga's jaw with such force his twin fell to the ground, his hand pressed against his face. He ran off.
"Kanon!", Saga screamed after his brother, tears in his eyes.
Aiolos shook off his shock and knelt down beside Saga, feeling sick at what he'd just witnessed. "Are you alright?"
"This is why I didn't want to be alone with him. He's unpredictable", Saga murmured, ignoring Aiolos's question.
"He had no right to punch you...", Aiolos said. He still couldn't believe what he'd seen. He couldn't imagine ever striking Aiolia for anything, let alone hitting his brother so hard to knock him to the floor and make him bleed. Saga's cheek was swelling rapidly, and Aiolos could see the start of a nasty bruise at the side of his chin.
"He's done worse...", Saga whispered, standing up and wiping blood from his mouth.
Saga's blue-green eyes were so full of grief Aiolos himself felt like crying, but the last thing he wanted to do was push the Gemini saint deeper into a pity party.
"He wasn't always like that", Saga continued. "Something about me being picked over him for the Gemini saint set him off..."
Aiolos picked Saga's book up off the ground and handed it to him. "Let's get some cold water on that cheek of yours."
"You sound like a mother", Saga muttered.
"Nope. Just an older brother." Aiolos gave him a bright smile and brushed his dark brown bangs out his eyes.
Saga smiled back, granted very slightly. "So, what do you usually do on your birthdays? Surely hanging out with anti-social misfits isn't your norm."
Aiolos ran the words "antisocial misfits" around in his mind. "I don't find you a misfit or antisocial. You're just quiet. I usually hang out with Shura..." Aiolos's eyes widened. "Oh, no! I totally forgot about him!"
Saga gave him a questioning glance.
"Shura's sick. I left him to rest, but I was supposed to go check on him!"
"Oh..."
Aiolos slung his arm around Saga's shoulders. "You come with me. If Shura's feeling better the three of us can do something together."
"I don't want to get in your way...", Saga muttered. Aiolos caught in his voice a hint of wistfulness and realized the Gemini saint was probably very lonely.
"Nonsense", Aiolos replied.
He guided Saga towards one of the wells they used to pump water from and tore a strip off the bottom of his shirt. The water flowed out, ice cold, over the Sagittarius saint's hands and on the scrap of cloth. Shaking out his freezing hands, he offered the cloth to Saga. "Press that on your cheek otherwise you're going to look like someone stuck a marshmallow under your skin."
Saga gazed at him, his eyes shining with gratitude. He didn't say anything-he didn't need to.
The two boys then headed back through the temples, towards Shura's. It was a little depressing to walk through so many empty temples. With Saga walking beside Aiolos, Angelo of Cancer out, probably torturing the poor Pisces saint, and Dohko, the Libra saint in China, all of the temples leading up to Capricorn temple were empty.
Keeping quiet, in case the younger boy was sleeping, Saga and Aiolos crept into Shura's bedroom.
"Shura", Aiolos called, loudly enough that Shura would hear him if he was awake, but not loud enough to wake him up if he was asleep.
Aiolos heard scraping in the dark and then Shura's oil lamp bathed the small sleeping chamber in an eerie light. Shura's olive complexion, paled from his illness, looked yellow under the wan lighting.
Aiolos crept closer to his friend's bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Not so good..." Shura peered blearily through the dark. "Saga, is that you?"
Aiolos grinned back at Saga. "Yeah, here's here. We had quite an interesting evening."
"You need to stop wearing ripped clothes...we represent Athena", Shura scolded Aiolos softly.
"Ah, well. They're comfortable." Aiolos shrugged.
"I see...I'd like to go outside. It's so warm in here"
"You're going to be the death of me, Shura", Aiolos teased. "It's freezing outside."
"Good. It feels like a furnace in here."
Aiolos frowned. "That doesn't sound good. That suggests your fever went up."
Shura shrugged and climbed out of bed, wrapping his blanket around himself and grabbing his pillow. "If you need me, I will be sleeping outside."
Aiolos laughed. "Why don't we all stay outside? It'll be like camping."
"I think I'll pass", Saga said softly.
"Aw, come on, Saga. It'll be fun. Surely you must get bored by yourself all the time", Shura said.
Saga sighed, looking from one dark-haired boy to the other, and agreed to spend the night with them.
The trio passed back through the temples, stopping briefly in Sagittarius, where Aiolos packed up the stuff to make hot chocolate and grabbed his own blanket and pillow, and in Gemini, so Saga could grab his things.
A few minutes later, the three sat around a small fire outside. Aiolos boiled water in a kettle to pour into three clay cups that held powdered cocoa mix.
"What we need", he said. "Is some entertainment. A good story."
His eyes drifted over to Saga, who was still holding his book in his hands. "You look like you have some scary ones there."
Saga smiled at them, what Aiolos felt was his first true smile of the evening. "Well, I COULD read you the Pit and the Pendulum."
Aiolos poured the water into the mugs and handed out the hot chocolate. "That sounds creepy."
Saga opened his book and began to read to the younger boys in a low, spooky voice. Aiolos was awe-struck.
Shura fell asleep before Saga finished reading, but Aiolos was wide-awake at the end of the tale. He stared at Saga, his emerald eyes huge. He thought his heart would never stop racing. "Wow."
Saga smiled again-Aiolos decided that he rather liked Saga's smile. "Pretty creepy, huh?"
"Yeah. That was intense", Aiolos agreed. "Oh! Saga, look! A shooting star!"
The older boy gazed up to where Aiolos was pointing. "You don't see those every night."
"Make a wish!", Aiolos said cheerfully. He closed his eyes.
Aiolos had no idea if Saga made a wish that night or not, but it didn't matter. Aiolos had two wishes of his own, both of them involving Saga.
His first wish was that whatever conflict Saga and Kanon had was resolved.
His second was that the night he shared with Saga and Shura would not be the last one they spent together.
His friends had made what could have been a lonely day a very happy birthday indeed.