Announcing, or How Saori Nearly Deafened Saga and Shion.
The first step to having a wedding, in Milo's opinion, was going and bragging about his new fiancé to anyone who would listen—then getting piss drunk with said person and having the previously mentioned fiancé drag him back while mumbling about what he had gotten himself into.
Unfortunately, Milo had known he had been lucky to convince Camus to have a wedding in the first place, so trying something like that just wouldn't fly with the aqua haired man. Beyond that he had pulled a similar stunt when Camus and him had first begun dating, and the blue haired man seemed to remember it not being his proudest moment when he had vomited and passed out in the Gemini Temple along the way.
Besides, in Milo's opinion it was far too early in their relationship to take advantage of Camus that much. Soon, Aquarius, soon, Milo mused, giving a devious smirk.
Camus turned to give his fiancé a strange glance, before sighing and looking back towards the stairway to Athena's room. Despite Milo's insistence that getting drunk and screaming how they were going to be married from the top of their lungs was a good idea, Camus couldn't truly see it ending well. Thankfully, the Scorpio Saint also hadn't put up too much of a fuss when Camus had said they would tell those in Sanctuary and those who mattered to them—such as Hyoga, in Camus' case.
Being saints of Athena meant that, of course, she really did have to be the first to know. For the first time in a while Milo was authentically grateful that she had opted to stay there rather than return to Japan for a while. The truth was that, as much as the Gold Saints had pledged eternal loyalty to Athena, none of them had a thing to talk to the girl about beyond duties and what had happened in the past, leading to more than a few awkward discussions. Passing Athena on the stairs and being forced to make small talk was a situation he really didn't enjoy.
Milo reached over and grabbed Camus' hand suddenly, smiling when he saw Camus' expression quickly go from shocked to relaxed. "Thank you, Camus." He said quickly, squeezing his partner's hand.
Camus gave him one of his rare smiles. "I've wanted to marry you for a long time. If a ceremony will make you happy then I'm happy to do it." He replied.
Milo felt his heart clench for a second. He was definitely marrying Camus for the right reasons. He turned his head and gave Camus a quick peck on the cheek, feeling a bit of satisfaction as he saw the Aquarius Saint blush lightly.
"We're here." Camus stated, walking up the final few steps, approaching Athena, who was sitting comfortably on her throne, simply gazing up over Sanctuary.
"Goddess." Milo greeted, him and Camus both bowing instantly—out of instinct more than anything else at that point. Saori had never quite been comfortable with the saints bowing when they greeted her, but she had long since learned to accept it really never could be stopped.
"Milo, Camus." She replied, turning to both of them and nodding, "Please be at ease." She said calmly, smiling to herself as both of them followed her instruction.
"Goddess, we come bearing some… rather important news." Camus explained, gripping Milo's hand in his own. The Scorpio Saint smiled, leaning slightly onto his fiancé's shoulder.
Milo, not being patient enough to wait for Camus to go over the formalities he would insist upon using gave a smile and thrust out his hand, "We're getting married!" He said immediately, blatantly ignoring the fact that he had just shoved a hand into the face of a goddess. Milo had roughly the same amount of respect for Saori as Seiya had impulse control.
Athena, to her credit, didn't seem to even flinch at the probably filthy hand flailing itself in front of her face. Rather, she immediately clasped her hands together and gave a loud, high pitched squealing sort of noise.
"!" She squealed, rather uncharacteristically, grabbing Milo's hand and examining the ring on his hand, "When did it happen?" She blurted out, "This ring is beautiful!" She exclaimed.
Milo held an amused expression, allowing his hand to be fawned over by their resident goddess. Camus held an expression of shock and veiled fear, not used to such dramatic emotional displays from anyone besides Milo. "About a week ago." Camus replied, shifting his eyes towards the floor.
Saori let out another excited squeal, pulling Milo into a tight hug. This, however, proved to be one of the goddess' worst ideas ever, as Milo's armour happened to have many, many sharp pieces sticking out of it, and Athena quickly managed to give herself a rather large, but painful, wound on her shoulder.
The three descended into an awkward silence as Saori pulled herself away from the Scorpio Saint, cursing inwardly at the unnecessarily dangerous armour the saint wore. She took a moment to truly ponder exactly how Camus managed to ever lean close to his fiancé, but quickly decided it didn't really matter.
Camus coughed for a second, growing less and less comfortable as the two, talkative saints seemed lulled into silent states, "Yes, well," he began, "What we came here to say is we want a wedding." He finished, gripping Milo's hand for support as he did.
Saori's noise in response to this news was loud enough to startle Aphrodite, injure Shion and Saga's ears, and kill a good selection of the wildlife that lived around Sanctuary. (Saga and Shion were affected due to their insistence to abuse the Pope's Spa as much as both men could without getting heatstroke. At the moment of the commenced attack, both had been sitting on opposite sides of said spa, pretending the other one didn't exist.)
Athena almost hugged Milo again, but quickly remembered that doing that had caused her to bleed previously. She occupied herself by hugging Camus instead, thrilled to find out that his armour wasn't nearly as pointy as Milo's.
"That is perfect! I insist you two have a wedding! We can have it in Sanctuary! Have you thought of what you're wearing? We can make the Silver Saints—" Saori rambled on and on with more and more details that both Camus and Milo didn't understand.
"Ah, Athena, sorry to burst your bubble, but Camus and I don't really have enough money to throw something that big. And a lot of the Silver Saints hate me." Milo replied.
Saori shook her head, dismissing this immediately, "Don't be stupid, I'll pay for it. I'll get the Silver Saints to behave even if I have to threaten them, so don't worry about it for a single second." Athena continued to ramble off a few more details that neither saint could even begin to understand, "Now, have you two found a wedding planner yet?" She asked, eyes sparkling.
Milo and Camus exchanged a look, "Uh… Athena, would you do us the honour of organizing our wedding?" Camus asked, almost fearfully.
Saori's eyes widened like a kid in a candy store's, and the goddess allowed herself to give a noise similar to the one earlier. Camus idly noticed a bird falling straight out of the sky, poor little guy's system not able to handle such noises.
"Of course! Oh my gosh there is so much to prepare! When are we going to have it? A month? Perfect!" She rambled off, giving more and more details that she seemed to have decided within their ten-minute conversation.
"Goddess, with all due respect," Milo interrupted, "Before we decide any of this, Camus and I both need to spread the news to some of our closest colleagues." He explained, giving a small smile.
Saori stopped, taking a deep breath, "Oh, that's fine, but come back as soon as you can! We have a lot to do and no time to do it in!" She exclaimed.
Camus and Milo walked down the stairs of Sanctuary, leaving an overly excited goddess with too many ideas on her mind. Milo idly leaned onto Camus' side, keeping his hand linked with Camus'.
"Any idea who you're telling about our engagement?" Camus asked.
Milo paused for a second, "I'm sure Athena'll tell everyone soon enough, but I'll probably mention it to Aioria, Kanon, Aldebaran, and Mu." He finished, giving a small smirk, "I'll bet you won't have the same problem as me. I'm your only friend." He teased.
Camus gave a small smile, "Oh, of course." He replied sarcastically, "Contrary to what you might think, I actually do have a few friends."
"Oh really?" Milo teased, "Such as?"
"Well, I'm telling Hyoga, to start," Camus explained, receiving a nod from Milo, "Besides him, probably only Shura, Saga, and Aphrodite." He finished, glancing over at Milo.
Milo quirked an eyebrow, "Aphrodite?" He asked, "Seriously would've never thought you two would be close."
"I could say the same about you and Mu," Camus replied, "Our temples are close together, we used to drink a lot." He explained. Neither of them chose to address Camus' budded friendship with Saga and Shura. What happened with Hades was still a fresh wound between the two of them, and fighting right after the promise of a wedding was never a good idea.
Milo shrugged, "There weren't many saints left after the Sanctuary fights, remember? We all got closer to each other." He replied, pausing for a second, "I'm glad you're back, you know. I swear I got more amusement running laps of Sanctuary than I did trying to talk to Shaka."
Camus gave a small chuckle at that, letting go of Milo's hand as they approached the Pisces Temple, "I'll let you run off and talk to Aioria. We should meet up with Athena in the morning, before she comes up with too many ideas." Camus finished.
Milo grabbed Camus' chin, pulling him in for a quick kiss, "Don't drink too much with the fish." He teased.
Camus smiled, "Will do. Don't annoy Shaka when you pass his temple. It'd be pretty hard organizing a wedding with someone who can only smell sounds."
Milo groaned, remembering when Shaka had felt compelled to take away his senses and give them back in a random order, "You're never gonna let me forget that, are you? But relax, even if I do wake up feeling sights Athena will deal with it all."
"The mixed up senses or the wedding?" Camus asked, "Because if she fixes your senses I doubt you'll learn anything."
Milo snorted, "Considerate, Camus." Milo leaned in and whispered in Camus' ear, "Your temple or mine tonight?" He asked, brushing a lock of Camus' hair behind his ear.
Camus pecked Milo on the cheek, pushing him off, "Neither. I'll be drinking with Aphrodite." At Milo's disappointed look, he added, "I'm sure you can abstain for one night, Milo."
Milo smiled, beginning to walk down the steps towards his destination, "Who knows, Camus, maybe I'll find some nice girl out drinking tonight!" He called out, smiling to himself.
"You go ahead and do that, Milo." He replied, smirking to himself despite it all. He gave a final glance at Milo's departing form before shaking his head and walking inside the Pisces temple.
Aphrodite sat in his temple, throwing roses at a target on the wall with a bored expression. When not training others, bothering Shaka, or fighting, there was really nothing to do in Sanctuary at the best of times. Sure, the Pope's spa was recently opened to all of them, but there was only so long one could spend watching Saga and Shion glare at each other before the atmosphere in the room became far too tense for most of the saints to handle.
(In reality, there were only two saints, four if one counted Kiki and Kanon, who could deal with the blatant tension lying in the room. Mu was the student of Shion, and as such could talk to the Pope with ease. Kiki, only being allowed into the spa at the same time as Mu, mooched off the atmosphere Mu managed to set. Dohko was one of the others, being a friend of Shion's and in the same boat as Mu, in that sense. Finally, Kanon managed to escape the awkward tension simply by using his time in the spa as an opportunity to piss off Saga to his heart's content via pretending to drown. Beyond that Kanon held the belief that whenever he was involved, everyone else was quickly reduced to being a surplus addition, and therefore wouldn't have cared if he had to lie in the same spa as his enemies.)
Camus flared his cosmos slightly, alerting Aphrodite of his presence.
"Aquarius Camus," He greeted, turning around, "Nice seeing you around. Coming to spar?" He asked, twirling a rose between his fingers.
"Not exactly." He replied, motioning outside, "Come with me to grab Shura and Saga. I have news and a few bottles of wine to share it over."
Aphrodite gave a knowing smile, "So you finally proposed?" He asked.
Camus widened his eyes, "How did you—"
"We had a pool going on. When did—"
"Wait, 'we'?" Camus asked, looking increasingly irritated by the second.
Aphrodite flipped a lock of hair over his shoulder, paying little attention to Camus' foul mood, "All the Gold Saints. The saint with the closest date gets his temple cleaned by the saint with the farthest date from when it happened."
Camus frowned at this, "Seven days ago." He replied, sighing and rubbing his strange looking eyebrows.
Aphrodite pulled a piece of paper from his pocked, frowning, "Well, at least I didn't lose." He muttered.
Camus sighed, "I'm going to hate myself for asking this, but who won, exactly?" He asked, resisting the urge to grab the piece of paper from Aphrodite.
"Dohko, somehow." Aphrodite replied, frowning, "Looks like Deathmask is going to have to clean out the Libra temple. Good luck to him, that place is a nightmare." Aphrodite shuddered, thinking of the dark, dreary, never used temple that was probably carrying bugs from a hundred years ago.
Camus frowned, looking more than a little disappointed at being robbed the opportunity to drink and brag about his engagement. Milo might've been more upfront about his bragging, but that didn't mean Camus didn't enjoy showing off the fact that he was dating one of the hottest saints in Sanctuary every now and then.
Aphrodite sensed this and gave a small smile, "No reason to stop drinking because of this, mind you. I'm sure I can bully Deathmask into making us a huge meal. Afterwards, we can go down to Athens and drink."
Camus smiled, rubbing his forehead with his palm and following Aphrodite down the mountain, collecting Shura and Saga, who had been playing cards with Aiolos in the Sagittarius Temple, along the way.
While this incident was ongoing, Milo had bolted down the mountain with a truly impressive pace, disturbing numerous saints along the way, until he finally had reached the Leo Temple.
Milo had burst in with reckless abandon that could've rivaled Seiya's. Unfortunately, this proved to be very annoying for the Leo Saint, as he had Marin pressed against the wall in a rather passionate make out session that was very close to progressing into something more, if Marin's legs pinned around Aioria's waist were any indication.
"AIORIA!" Milo shouted, surprising the couple and causing Aioria to drop the Silver Saint in shock. Marin grabbed her mask from the ground, sliding it on before Milo had a chance to see her face.
Aioria turned around, frustrated beyond belief. It wasn't enough that his own brother cock blocked him on a daily basis, was it? No, he had to have one of his closest friends doing the exact same goddess damned thing!
Marin stood up, putting a hand on his shoulder, "I'll see you some other time, Aioria." She whispered, wrapping her arms around him in a quick hug before exiting his temple.
Aioria took the moment to wonder exactly how long it would take to snap Milo's neck, and if enduring Camus' rage was worth it. "What do you want, Milo?" He asked, malice lacing his voice uncharacteristically.
Milo let this bounce off his shoulders, "I'm getting married!" He exclaimed, flinging his hand in front of the Leo Saint's face.
Aioria had a very good idea of where that hand had been, and as a result immediately flinched away from it. "Oh… Uh, great I guess." He replied, looking in the direction Marin excited before remembering about the bet and pulling a sheet of paper from his armour, "Hey, when did you say he proposed?"
"Last week—wait, how did you know Camus proposed?" Milo asked, "And what is that?" He asked, pulling the paper from Aioria's hand.
Aioria rolled his eyes, irritation from Milo's recent cock-blocking still seeping through, "It was obvious, Milo. We all knew."
"We?" Milo asked.
"All the Gold Saints and probably a few of the bronze ones." Aioria replied, peering down at his sheet, "Damn it, I had two weeks ago." He replied, sighing and tearing his sheet in two.
"Wait, what?" Milo asked, raising an eyebrow, his buzz sufficiently drained, "You had two weeks ago? What the hell does that mean?"
Aioria rolled his eyes, "All us Goldies had a pool going on. Seriously, even Shaka was in on it." He explained, "Winner gets the loser to clean his temple. So…" He paused, laughing slightly, "Deathmask gets to go clean Dohko's temple."
"Seriously? Even Dohko was in on it? Does he even use his temple?" Milo frowned, shaking his head. "Were we really that obvious?" He asked.
"Yeah, you guys kinda were. Does Camus even have friends other than you?" Aioria asked.
"Weirdly enough he's friends with Aphrodite." Milo replied, still confused by his fiancé's choice in friends. "He's also friends with Saga and Shura… But uh…" Milo and Aioria looked to the side, a silent agreement to not discuss what had happened with Hades passing between them.
"So… Uh… Proposal huh?" Aioria said abruptly, trying to halt the awkward silence between them, "How did you get Camus to agree to a wedding, anyways?" Aioria asked.
Milo shrugged, "It's easy when you know someone. He really wasn't up for it at first, but I wore him down eventually." He finished, giving a lewd wink to top off the story.
Aioria laughed, patting Milo on the shoulder, "You're disgusting. Y'know, I would be fucking Marin into a pole if you hadn't walked in." He joked, looking wistfully at the column in question for a brief moment.
Milo smirked, "I figured it wasn't a big deal. If I hadn't Aiolos was probably on his way to anyways." He joked, thinking of the many times Aioria had complained about his brother walking in on him and Marin.
Aioria groaned, "He's having problems remembering I'm twenty, and old enough for sex. Anyways, I'm sure you came here for more than bragging, didn't you?"
"Actually… Not really. I mean, yeah, I want to celebrate a bit but," Milo started, "Me and Camus have to meet Athena first thing in the morning and Camus has already planned to go out and get drunk with Aphrodite." He explained, "So I figured it was better to save the booze for later."
"That's shockingly mature of you." Aioria replied, giving Milo a suspicious look, "Have you been possessed by some sort of god?" He joked, tension about Saga having finally faded between all the saints.
"Depends, is my hair white?" Milo joked.
Aioria smirked, pretending to examine Milo carefully, "Nah, I think you're good. Still ugly, though." He paused for a second, enjoying the sound of Milo's protests, "So what do you want to do for celebration, anyways?"
"Besides bragging today?" Milo asked, "Nothing. When Athena's done doing all her early morning planning I'll go out and get drunker than I ever have been."
"Again, really shockingly mature for you, Milo. You sure you haven't been possessed?"
Milo shrugged, "No. Though… I can say I'm looking forward to seeing a hung-over Camus in the morning." He replied, giving another devious smirk.
Aioria laughed, some things would never change.
"Et… Et je pense que le chou est un grand problem! Mais… Je disais toujours 'nous devons manger le chou parce que c'est mal!'" Camus rambled on happily, seeming blissfully unaware that he was slung over Aldebaran's shoulder and being carried like a sack of potatoes.
Aphrodite, being slung over Aldebaran's other shoulder, seemed to be far less pleased with his potato-sack treatment, but didn't speak out at all over it, at this point just grateful that he wouldn't have to walk up the stairs to his temple.
"That's interesting, Camus." Milo replied, thoroughly amused by his friend's drunken rambling, "Thanks for hauling them up here, Alde."
Aldebaran, who somehow didn't even seem fazed by the two fully-grown men on his shoulders, merely smiled at this, "They would've probably collapsed in Mu or my temple, so it's really no trouble." He replied, "I never expected Camus to be such a… talkative drunk."
Camus rambled a few more nonsensical sentences in French at this, recognizing his name if nothing else.
Milo shrugged, "To be honest, I'm a bit surprised too. Normally I pass out before Camus is drunk." He paused for a second, "Any idea what he's saying?"
"Nope. You don't understand any French?"Aldebaran asked.
"I know the only sentence that matters: 'Voulez-vous couchez avec moi, ce soir?'" Milo joked.
However, Camus seemed to take these words to heart, immediately perking up his head, "Nous pouvons baiser après je… Ah…" Camus paused for a moment to grope Aldebaran's ass, "I like this."
Milo burst out laughing upon seeing Aldebaran's bright red blush. "So… Uh… Where should I drop him?" Aldebaran asked.
"Might as well ditch him in my temple. Not worth hauling him so far… Besides, I can sleep in the Aquarius Temple for one night, I guess." Milo replied, "You sure you're okay carrying both of them? I'm sure Aioria and I could take one off your shoulders."
"We're one stairway away from the Scorpio Temple—don't worry about it." Aldebaran replied, continuing up the pathway through the temples.
Milo laughed, thinking of just how annoyed Camus would be when he realized Milo had remained sober the entire night before.