When he looked up at the fiery, burning sky raining meteors all around him, the only thing Ares felt was relief. He tightened his arms around his victim and resting his chin on his shoulder, grinned, turned away from his co-conspirators.
"You'll serve me, Lahabrea," he whispered into the Speaker's ear with the backdrop of his gift, not taking his bright, sky-blue eyes off the heavens. Feeling the flood of his brother's aether, he wasn't surprised that the man only nodded: a puppet without will. "When I snap my fingers, you'll take my brother and his husband across the dimenions and stay there until this is over, yes?" he added and the man nodded again.
The Azem scoffed with disgust, pulling back and turning around to cross the distance between him and the only person who truly loved him. The person who was born and raised to do so, despite his own misgivings about it. A matching bright, but golden eyes held his stare without an expression in their depths, as apparently Hades choose not to comment on his still present grin. He more than anyone else knew how much Ares hated their world. Perhaps only he could truly understand why he didn't wish to change his fate.
Their star's fate.
Their world rejected him for nothing more than being born with a wrong set of skills. The wrong aptitude and attitude, and with his lifespan counting in eons, Azem wished for nothing more than for it to end.
Eitherys gave him nothing but pain and surrounding him rot of gray rejection, and that's why his little brother - sharing with him the ability to see souls - remained silent when Ares neared his violet-haired companion and with unfit for circumstances, cheery grin set his hands around Hythlodaeus's face.
"You take care of him for me, okay?" he said with power, but letting go of his gift. For this, he knew he didn't need that and his heart swelled into a painful lump when the boy's purple eyes glazed with tears. Hyth set his hands around his and sent him a shaky, barely there smile. More a grimace, but Azem nodded, pleased as he pulled his hands back and turned his bright eyes to the other man. "Do you remember the details, brother?"
"I believe so," Hades's tone was emotionless, but he chose not to call his bluff. He knew and watched all of his masks develop, and hated their world even more painfully for forcing them onto his brother's expression. Loved Hythlodaeus even more for seeing under them without having their gift and for giving his brother a reason to exist other than what their parents intended for his golden-eyed sibling. Hades deserved more than to be the only one to not reject him. "Past the seven rejoinings is when you'll... your 'reincarnation' would pop up... yes?"
Ares nodded, then turned his eyes toward the sky, staring at it for a moment before folding his fingers into a snap.
"I don't like goodbyes," he added softly without looking back and snapped them before his brother had the time to protest. Lahabrea moved and they were gone before he dropped his gaze, turning it toward the burning city as he neared the edge of the roof of the building he stood at, with burn of ice in his gut watching their doomed world unravel. Watching the panic, despair and grief, feeling nothing more than anticipation for the upcoming hit.
Listening to the quiet, even breath of the gorgeous, black-haired male covered in nothing but a white sheet wrapped around his waist, Raha had real difficulty NOT drooling despite the circumstances.
It was easy before, with the downright terrifying glare of teal eyes of the white-haired female Seeker he believed would make any man wither, much less lose any untoward thoughts directed at the woman's patient. If not for the white-haired Elzen girl that literally threatened him bodily harm if he tried to leave again, perhaps he would have been tempted to. Or for the fact that every time he did try to leave before - and there was a few in the bells since he was dragged into the Scions' compound - it caused the very feverish Warrior to either whimper or growl and attempt to go after him.
Finally, the girl - Alisaie, as she introduced herself with a weird expression in her blue eyes - literally got into a hissing fit with the terrifying Y'shtola - who was seemingly very upset by the whole situation - and forced him to sit by the bed Sen... T'senri was placed on by the ashen-haired, tall Hyur. When that caused the Warrior to calm down and let the designed healer take care of his side, the white-haired Seeker pinned Raha down with a stare that turned his face red enough to match his hair at least! Half-convinced that she had to know somehow, he didn't dare to move a muscle, digging his fingers and staring into the material of his pants. And especially when they set to cut open and off the bloodied materials of Sen... T'senri's clothes!
The three of them - Seeker, Elzen, and Hyur - chatted about something or someone the whole time, but he didn't even try to listen, busy wondering how he got caught up in this whole thing. And yet, whenever his thoughts drifted back to the last night - the previous one before the last - he found that he still couldn't bring himself to regret approaching the drunk, beautiful stranger.
That insistent pull he felt was still there and only somewhat lessened when he was incredibly nervous without daring to raise his eyes, but he caught hold of T'senri's... Sen's - because, fuck, at least in thought he could call him that - hand. That he was still holding, even after the others left the apparent infirmary for the night.
He was offered a room - he recalled somewhat hazily - but only shook his head, not raising his eyes from their hands after Sen wrapped his fingers around his shaky ones and seemed to drift off to uneasy sleep. With it, he moved occasionally or uttered raspy sounds in his deep voice. Raha would hardly mind it if not because soon he started to sweat, noticing - inevitably - that with the slight movements of his gorgeous body and unconscious flexes of the inky tail, that sheet gradually drew lower Sen's form.
And since before, he didn't get a good look... Now Raha couldn't find it in himself to behave properly and pull that white material back up. As he SHOULD. Especially when the hem of it lowered below the brunette's navel...
And the scent, Thaliak, help him... That sweet, sweet apple, thick and musky as Sen's fever raged on, covering his gorgeously, if unusually pale skin in a thick, shiny layer of sweat, constantly filled Raha's mouth with saliva, forcing him to swallow far too often.
Trying to focus on something else, he let his eyes dart toward the Seeker's side, admiring Y'shtola's skill. What was a jagged gash aflame with infection - likely the cause of the fever - didn't leave even a scar. The new, slightly more pink skin below Sen's ribcage was a testament to the healer's ability. Despite the whole ordeal of serving as the 'bait' by Alisaie's scheme, Raha was even more glad for that call, knowing Maran would never achieve this level of healing. Not to mention the bitch would likely be far too distracted with Sen's perfection... He wouldn't put past her pushing the edge of that sheet lower and...
Raha's ears flattened against his head, and his face grew impossibly hot when he realized that his eyes followed the trail of his stupid, unruly thoughts landing on the bulge of the brunette's crotch. His heart doubled its rhythm and apparently decided to jump in his throat with the utterly depraved memory of that flesh pressing into him. Suddenly the air was just too thick to breathe - so impossibly full of that sweet apple-like scent - and he shifted on the chair uncomfortably as his pants felt just too painfully tight over his cock. Feeling like it was him that was ravaged by a fever, Raha groaned weakly and dropped his overheated forehead against their hands, fisting his free hand in the sheet next to Sen's hip.
His heartbeat thrummed deafeningly between his ears, and while he fought to get his libido under control - berating himself in thought something beyond fierce - he missed the slight sound of the body next to his head shifting. Perhaps that's why he nearly jumped out of his skin at the press of the impossibly hot hand over his neck. And squeaked embarrassingly loud when it hooked into the collar of his vest and pulled him up with downright shocking strength. He didn't even have time to blink - or protest as he SURE would - before he was quite... squished between the mattress and the massive, feverish male.
"...so tasty..." Sen muttered barely coherently, burying his nose against Raha's throat... and sniffing him, taking quick, deep breaths. Intending to push him off or squirm from under him - before one of the Scions could return and... freak out - the redhead pushed his hands against the heated wall of the powerful muscles. He couldn't be blamed for how his fingers slipped when his gorgeous male purred insistently, and he downright melted with an embarrassingly desperate whimper feeling the sharp nip of Sen's teeth on his throat. "My Raha..." the brunette slurred slowly, and he lost his breath when his lover growled next - making his insides burn with a painful need to submit - and pushed his big, hot hand between their bodies, unceremoniously pushing it under the waistband of his pants and curling it in a possessive claim over his dick. Rubbing the achingly hard flesh in a circular motion, Senri trailed a scorching hot path of small, wickedly sharp bites along his throat when Raha bit his lower lip to choke down a whine at the friction, panting through his nose desperately.
Shifting above him almost lazily, soon the black-haired Seeker pinned him down with a stare of pale-blue eyes glazed over with fever, his gorgeous face so flushed that Raha's gut tightened with guilt... and then his back bent off the mattress. He whined in the back of his throat when Senri - still watching him with that madly predatory focus - pressed his thigh between his legs, spreading them as his hand shoved deeper between them under the material.
His face grew impossibly hot when he realized - remembered - that he didn't have a chance or occasion to wash all the way from their... encounter, whimpering when Sen's finger pushed up into him. Then another, and he arched again, as embarrassed as in painful arousal when Seeker dropped his head, eating up his breathless sounds. Instantly drunk on his flavor when hot, rough tongue pushed into his mouth almost brutally, his hands slid over the clammy, apple-scented skin to curl in the sweat-dampened ink-black hair.
Soon, mewling softly into the devouring mouth in a rhythm matching the long fingers pumping into him insistently, he rolled his hips along. The pressure of Sen's palm over his cock and balls and his insistent purrs vibrating on his tongue filled his head with static and his veins with lava. Without conscious thought, he let his right hand slide down the brunette's heated chest, following the lines of muscles down his stomach and abdomen to curl them about his lover's dick shakily and swallowed down an impossibly arousing, aggressive growl that rumbled on his lips. The thought of that hot, thick flesh being inside him now seemed almost absurd. Not very surprisingly, Sen was massive everywhere... and yet, as his hand moved over the flesh in a rhythm of the brunette's fingers, his brain was on fire with the idea of exchanging the grip of his hand for that of his body. Of that deep, deep friction... and, apparently, Senri had the same idea, pulling his hand back only to almost desperately push at the waistband of his pants.
And though it was really, really a bad idea when Senri was burning up... When any of his friends could walk in, and the bed had barely any cover... But when the black-haired Seeker whined downright needily over his lips, Raha couldn't help but cave, freeing his hands to fight with the material alongside him. The male shifted off him just enough to make it easier, yet still, it took a good moment. He barely managed to free one leg completely. The material was still wrapped around his other calf when Senri simply pounced, hooking his elbow under the redhead's knee, nearly folding him in half as he positioned against him and took him with a loud, possessive growl. Raha slapped his hand over his mouth, pushing the fingers of the other between his teeth as the sensation of the scalding heat speared his insides. Whimpering breathlessly around them, he arched with the movement, curling his other leg around his lover's hip.
Senri's pale eyes flashed with uncanny aggression, and he pulled his hand back from his mouth, interlacing their fingers before he pinned his arm above his head on the mattress. Baring his teeth at him with a snarl, he rolled over him, pulling out an ilm and pushing back in, slow at first but so impossibly deep, Raha mewled incoherently. His lover's overheated skin pressed over his dick, caging it between them as he set a maddeningly slow rhythm, fucking him into the mattress with small but insistent rolls of his hips. His feverish, ice-like eyes bore into the redhead's face. His grip pulled his arm higher over his head, soon forcing Raha to arch under him, gasping desperately as he rolled with his lover's increasingly aggressive thrusts.
Caught in the gaze of the predator, he forgot anything but the sensation of that impossibly deep friction, the maddening, rhythmic press over his cock, and the strange sense of... freedom, surprisingly easily elected by the utter submission of the position and Sen's complete possession of his body. His tail unconsciously wrapped around the brunette's thigh, trying to claim him as he felt claimed, attempting to share the euphoria of it. His hand left his mouth without the thought of the need for silence, fisting in the back of Senri's head, and the tall Seeker complied, leaning his head in and taking his mouth again, as deep and possessive as the way he pumped his cock into him. Sharing his breath and drowning in his heat, Raha lost himself in a frenzy, moaning and whimpering involuntarily when both rhythm and pressure grew.
Their kiss grew nearly violent, and he had to pull back as shudders wrecked his body and Senri matched them eagerly, growling incoherent praises and profanities as he dropped his head against Raha's shoulder, pressing him down harder with his weight as he rutted into him insistently, aggressively... Full-body rubbing against him harder and harder as if he wanted to cover him in his sweet scent, and Raha loved every second of it, holding on for dear life under the onslaught.
It felt like he was being consumed... devoured by a beautiful, hungry beast, and he savored it, needing to give more the more Senri took. The more pleasure he gave in turn.
He was chanting Sen's name breathlessly, like a mantra in the rhythm of his possession, until the pressure inside him snapped, and he came with an intensity that took his breath and voice away, leaving him mewling softly against his lover's throat. Senri groaned loudly and sped up, rocking his whole body as he soon pounded into him brutally. Letting go of his hair to wrap his arm around his neck, tightened his leg around his ass and whimpered helplessly when his gorgeous lover bit him, shifting and with the next stroke hitting head on the spot inside him that made Raha see stars under his eyelids. Matching his sounds with a mix of aggressive growls and breathless whines, Sen pushed into him harder and deeper, making him feel like he was going to burst when the pressure mounted again too quickly.
Rolling together in a mind-numbing, feverish heat, Raha wished it would never end, losing all sense but the utter confidence that this was where he was meant to be.
And the elated staccato of his mad heartbeat, as they came simultaneously with twin relieved groans, seemed like the only confirmation that his very soul needed to know: that he was born and lived to belong to Senri.
Ares wasn't sure how much time passed before he heard a telltale sound behind his back. He didn't bother turning, knowing he covered his bases best he could.
Secured all he could past the destruction of this world.
He kept his narrowed, sky-blue eyes on the chaos ruling on the steets below him, unable to resist the slight, wry smirk that bloomed on his beautiful face.
So much for their perfect, emotionless society, hm?
"Infamous Ares," drawled a cold, low voice behind him and he couldn't help the way his back went rigid and his hands rolled into fists at his sides slowly.
Please, no...
He didn't dare turn, COULDN'T bring himself to look into that face, that bright, emotionless eyes.
"So they call me," he replied smoothly, carefully keeping his cadence neutral. Praying for that hit now to come and spare him, but no god seemed willing to listen.
"Look at me," the first crack of the unbreakable composure announced by the hint of temper hidden behind the cold detachment made Azem's heart shudder. He pushed that feeling down mercilessly, tightening his jaw, setting his shoulders and shaking his head.
"I don't know who you are..." he lied shamelessly. "...but I'm hardly in a mood for socializing."
A moment of silence had him close his eyes, hoping that bluff was enough to buy him enough time to die in peace.
Venat, please, hurry up...
"For the longest time, millennia truly, I wondered..." that voice grew an uncharacteristically sharp edge. "...why does your name evoke such repulsion inside me. Why every time I heard it, this fierce resentment burned bright inside me... If I never met you, passing strange, isn't it...?"
"Many find me aggravating like that," he replied with a hint of humor. "Hence 'infamous.'"
"Yes, infamous, wild Ares... with a skill in manipulation of aether," spark of fire broke through the icy tone. "Some say... including others will and minds."
"So they say," he whispered, opening his eyes and staring numbly at the burning Amarout below him. A hand wrapped around his shoulder and brutally forced him to turn around. His heartbeat stuttered at sight of the blaze of fiery fury in the depths of bright, cyan eyes.
"You took from me," the redhead hissed with outrage: a statement not a question, as he fisted his hands in the black material of Ares's robe. The unusual dull blankness of his soul exploded into an inferno of glorious reds and Azem forced himself to not see it, stifling that part of his gift as he looked up over the man's shoulder at the burning skies.
"I have no idea what are you talking about," he lied again, with eons of practice stifling all emotions elected by the way cyan eyes flared with temper.
"How much?!" Damon snapped right in his face after curling his hand around Ares's jaw and forcing him to meet his gaze again. "Tell me or..."
"Or... what?" he sneered, purposefully letting his temper flare. Hiding his heartbreak behind the shield of ice as he shoved the male away. "And to your information... I don't like to be touched, so keep your hands to yourself," now only a partial lie as he narrowed his eyes into slits, leaning back against the low wall surrounding the roof of the building.
"How much?" Damon repeated, looking like all the fight left him instantly and for a moment Ares just wanted to beg forgivness for that alone. For everything else he knew he would never be forgiven.
And perhaps here, at the very end of his road...
He closed his eyes and sighed with resignation.
"Two years," he finally whispered, not feeling any better for admitting his greatest crime.
"...why?" that cold detachment was back but he didn't dare to look. "What did you take from me, Azem?"
Ares tilted his head back and opened his bright, sky-blue eyes toward the blood-red sky of their unraveling world.
"I could never create anything meaningful," he said toward it. "Poor aptitude, they said, and it was another thing that made me wrong. The way I was born, my attitude, gift... everything I was and would ever be was litany of reasons why I am wrong. The reject to be avoided repeating by all means... But you, Damon..." he steeled himself and dropped his gaze to look into those cold, calculating eyes. The crystalline cyan irises of the one and only person in their doomed world that he ever loved. "...you are perfect. You were always..." his voice sounded hollow and hoarse so he cleared his throat awkwardly and dropped his eyes to the ground between them. "...perfect. The most brilliant man among us, the true prodigy to awe and inspire... How could I, of all people, be worthy of you...?"
"What did you t-take from me?" Damon's voice cracked and his heart broke.
"Only what you didn't need," he breathed, closing his eyes again briefly and steeling his resolve before looking up into the eyes that haunted his memory for eons. "What would made you the target of the same sneer and ridicule I was and would always be, my heart," he exhaled slowly then looked toward the sky, again praying for mercy of that hit to spare him the sight of confusion filling the man's expression. Growing suspicion and mounting fury. "We had been lovers for two years..." he said, staring numbly up with unseeing eyes. "...but when you wanted us to... B-Bond, I... I couldn't let you make that mistake, Damon. I couldn't..." he trailed off to a gasp when the other man clamped his hand over his mouth, dragging his gaze down to his fierce, infuriated eyes.
"So you made me hate you...? To hide the fact that I...?" he hissed and that hand lowered to wrap around Ares's throat, pulling him closer until their breaths mixed. "The infamous Ares, who champion individuality and choice... yet you took mine?"
"I had to..." he sighed sadly, barely able to breathe when that grip tightened but didn't even try to break free. That was the very least of what he deserved. "You wouldn't see reason, so convinced..." that you love me, he didn't dare to finish, seeing the fury in the cyan eyes reach a whole new level.
"I see," Damon said and his face grew utterly unreadable, while Ares - knowing that glint that sparked in the other man's eyes - wilted, involuntarily leaning back from him. A few knew that there was a very little beings more more vengeful and as prone to hold a grudge than his fiery Damon, and he knew that his punishment was imminent. He didn't need the sight of the feral grin that tilted his old lover's full, plush lips before he spoke up again. "You owe me, Ares."
"I do," he agreed easily, caught into the snare of bright eyes. Mesmerized by the blaze, just like that very first time he laid his eyes on him and lost his soul. His greatest secret and shame. The only time he used his inborn gift to protect the only man he ever loved... from him and himself.
Because Damon deserved better than to tie the glory of his soul to a reject that would only drag him down.
"Glad we're in agreement," the usual soft-spoken manner of his speech this time didn't hid the fury bubbling under the surface when the male wrapped his hands around Ares's jaw and pulled him closer until their lips almost met and Azem's heartbeat stuttered unevenly. It's been so long... and after him he couldn't stand to let anyone else touch him. Eons, truly... Outside of his will his hands drifted up and wrapped around the redhead's cheeks and his ears rang with static when his insides clenched with familiar, painful want. The need to burn... Distracted by the desire, only after a moment he noticed that Damon's full lips moved in a string of inaudible words and he paled, realizing the trap. The devious tilt to the vicious grin when the redhead moved his hands to the back of his head, fisting them almost painfully in the dark, ink-black hair. "For that debt, Ares, you're going to pay me in full."
"What did you...?" he breathed hesitantly.
"Here, now and forever, unto the aetherial sea and beyond..." Damon hissed against his lips. "...you are mine. Your soul, heart, body and mind... only ever in me you'll know peace. And every single moment you will be without me, you'll know only obsession to get back to into my arms, gorgeous... As you were, are and ever going to be... up to the moment this universe blinks out of existence."
...no changes there, then...
And not like it mattered because the moment Damon pulled him into the scorching kiss to seal the spell, the heavens blared with Light and their world unraveled.