He came because it calmed him
Theme: Shining (#19) – theme taken from 101_Kisses
Genre: Drama-y
Rating: PG-13
Jadeite lay awake for as long as he could, willing himself to last just a little longer every time his lids tried to shutter close.
He waited for the rustling, for the giggling, and when it came, he waited even some more.
Not really caring if the other two people in the entire god-forsaken place found him, he rose as he did every morning with the sun, except this time, the sun wasn't quite up yet.
He rose in usual Jadeite fashion and casually wandered to where he knew they were. His body still tensing occasionally so he that he had to repeatedly remind himself that he didn't have to be so guarded here.
Crouching. Sneaking. Stealth. It was all unnecessary. There were currently four people in his world. Two, he was following. And two, to reiterate, he didn't really care about.
So, he traveled the path to the destination where the two would be. Paranoia took over once more as he neared and he let it, approaching quietly and settling against a tree where he remained semi-hidden while maintaining a good view.
The maenads, nameless of course, but what else could one expect in this place, bathed with the rising of the sun every morning. Well, bathing was not actually what Jadeite would call it, as they really more frolicked in the water.
He recognized it as a callback to simpler times, when women could do that and not fear being ravished and manhandled by men who could not control themselves - or whatever it was they were afraid of.
He considered himself a healthy male, with physical desires that extended as far as, well, as far as it would for other men.
Perhaps longer.
But he didn't come to watch them for that reason. And he certainly didn't come to salute the sun. He was from Earth, thank-you-very-much.
He came because it calmed him.
And Helios let him. Because Helios knew it wasn't about the maenads, beautiful and naked though they were, and it wasn't about Jadeite's loins, which Helios had had the misfortune of viewing once upon a couple dreams, it was about Jadeite.
It was about watching a purification ritual, and therefore becoming a participant of it. It was about being around earth, in it, to reconnect to it, to re-understand it.
It wasn't about the maenads, sparkling and glistening under the waterfall. It was about the cleansing that Jadeite needed himself, that he looked on enviously every morning, not allowing himself the dignity, but allowing himself the pleasure that others were enjoying earth's properties and could appreciate them for what they were, when he had so clearly forgotten.
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