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Icarus was known for his love of the Sun.
Of a God with fire underneath his skin and stars in his eyes.
Of a heart that glowed.
Trapped high in his tower, Icarus bathed in the soft warmth of Apollo.
The wax-winged mortal had loved too much and flew too close.
He fell to the earth in a tangle of charred wings, melted skin and a broken heart.
With the realization that a God cannot love without burning everything He touches.
And in that moment, Itachi learned all he needed about love.
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He had become the Unseen one of the Underworld. A purveyor of souls, a King of corpses and the Patron God of the Dead.
Itachi rested upon a throne of polished bones in an acropolis high above his domain; a mountain of golden coins ripped from the mouths of the newly deceased spilled around his obsidian dais and all throughout his halls. Twinkling like stars in the candlelight.
"My Lord?"
Tired eyes slid from the grovelling man before him to a girl wrapped in soft ivory linens and braided cords.
"Ahmya."
The girl, a child barely on the cusp of womanhood, bowed low and stepped closer. "If I may, my Lord, the Messenger has come to speak to you."
A wave of his hand and the girl was gone. A nod of his head to the figure cloaked in shadows, and the pleading man was nothing more but bones so white they glowed in the candlelit hall, imprinted with jagged grooves of teeth marking. "Away, Eurynomos."
The clattering of skeletal bones drowned out the clipping of sandals on black marble floors.
Red-stained eyes softened slightly at the God with wings at his ankles and wind in his hair. The Messenger smiled brightly. "Hey, cousin."
"Shisui. What do I owe the pleasure?" Itachi asked, reaching to take the goblet of blood-red wine from the platter Ahmya held close when she returned.
The Messenger paused to take a deep drink of the offered wine. "Kakashi, King of Gods, has called a bicentennial meeting." Itachi frowned. His cousin grinned. "Yes, it has been 200 years already."
He huffed, his pale finger circling the rim of the goblet. A single drop of the wine stained his fingertip blush. "Time in Hades moves differently than that of the lands above."
Shisui rolled his eyes and wandered the Great Hall, stepping over the dust of crushed bones and golden coins. "Ever since The Vanquish and Kakashi gave you this domain, you never leave it." He cocked his head to the side. "Don't you miss the warmth of the light, the feel of the breeze on your skin, the touch of grass on your feet?"
Memories of burning wings and betrayal on the Sun God's lips flashed across Itachi's eyes. He shook his head.
"I hope your wife gets more freedom than you give yourself; most women don't enjoy being trapped in dark dungeons." The offhanded comment was met with narrowed red eyes and a sharp intake of breath. Shisui realized his mistake too late, and nervous laughter bubbled from his lips. "I-I have, uh, I've misstepped. My apologies." He looked around the hall anxiously. "The Blue King wishes me to deliver some messages, and uhm, bye."
A half-step back with an abrupt bow, the Winged Messenger was gone in a puff of wind.
Ahmya's soft laughter echoed in the hall. "It amuses me when the Gods themselves forget that when they die, it is you they will call King."
The Patron God of the Dead stood in a flourish of cloaked fabrics stained in blood and stitched with the cries of the slighted and left his Kingdom with the cruellest smile on his lips.
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A/N: Hello, I've written and posted this before many years ago, deleted and now I've come back. Hello, I'm Sia. Valencia, for long. Nice to meet you.