Chapter 3

In which Perseus scores

It felt weird to forget how to sleep. Sure, it had been a century or so since the last time Perseus actually had the chance to catch some Zs, but he figured that it was just something you never forgot how to do, like swimming or decapitating someone. But try as he might, he always found a reason to keep fidgeting or stand up from whatever uncomfortable nook he tried to sit or lie down in to pace around. He had forgotten that too, the constant anxious drive to stay alert or keep his body busy that came with being a demigod. All of his other lives had been mortal, so it was a bit of a surprise to find himself falling back into subconscious habits he hadn't experienced for literal lifetimes.

Of course, when he finally had managed to doze off, he realized why he might have been so anxious trying to fall asleep.

The dreams were back.

Yet another lovely perk of being a demigod, all of the ominous dreams about things that happened a long time ago, things that were happening that very second, or things that were about to happen. They were often far more useful than they weren't, but that didn't stop Perseus from wanting to throttle Morpheus, Apollo, Hypnos, or whichever divine dickhead was in charge of sending him his nightly premonition (or postmonition?). Especially since he had only ever received visions of his past that he very much did not want to be reminded of after his most famous, and only, quest.

I mean sure, considering he never went on a single quest after that, you could say that he didn't need visions of the present or future, but he would have been perfectly willing to accept normal dreams or no dreams at all rather than have to endure a constant stream of his "greatest hits montage", also known as "Perseus epic fail compilation - Teenager owned by HARD DECISIONS and NARRATIVE PARALLELS (Uncensored)(Gone wrong)(Gone (actually, they never reached 3rd base) sexual)".

Speaking of which…

O - O - O - O - O

"-so then Stheno told me 'Aw, cheer up little sis! At least you look like us!' I screamed at her back then, demanding how that could possibly be a good thing, and so she said 'Well, Athena could have made you look like our other sisters instead! Better two cursed eyes for two eye sockets than one eye for six eye sockets!'" Medusa burst out laughing at her own story.

The Gorgon and her would-be slayer sat on the beach together, positioned in one of the several arrangements they had grown accustomed to over the past couple of days. Perseus sat in front, still a ways away from the gentle waves brought by a summer day's mild breeze. His amulet, the Gorgoneion, was embedded into the sand in front of him and projecting its magic, shield-like reflective screen so that he could see the reflection of Medusa's face over his shoulder, and vice versa.

"Not just an eye. The Graeae share a single tooth amongst themselves too!" Perseus added, laughing along to his new friend's tale.

"They do?!" she gasped, before bursting into laughter once again, giggling so hard her sides began to ache. "That's so awful! Oh, I shouldn't be laughing at my kin, but that's just priceless! I had only met them once when I was a little girl so I had no idea."

"I think they were born resembling elderly women." Perseus chuckled. "Well, go on." he bade his companion to continue her story. "So what happened after that?"

From the way the smile immediately fell from her face, Perseus realized that he probably should have just let the anecdote stay an anecdote.

"Um, I mean, you don't have to if it makes you uncomfortable-" he began before she waved him down.

"No, no, it's… it's fine." she spoke quietly, with the voice of someone who did not seem so fine. "I mean… what else is there to say? She told me that I should just go to Poseidon and show him what happened. If he couldn't undo it, it didn't matter, right? He loved me, he said he did. So it only mattered who I was on the inside. Haha."

The laughter was weak and forced. As she reached up and wiped away some forming tears on her arm, Perseus fought off the urge to turn around and face her.

"When I showed him my new appearance, he just… left. Not a trace of disgust or shock to be seen. Just a single glance and he turned around and walked into the sea. Never seen or heard from him since." Her gaze in the reflection was distant, looking beyond the shield and into the sea as if imagining a life where her first love had accepted her, where he returned rising from the sea to sweep her away. But he hadn't.

"When I was born, I looked like a human. So I tried. I tried so hard to make the most of the opportunity that my siblings didn't get. But I couldn't go back to that life now. All I could do was run. I just ran, and ran, and ran… probably killed a fair number of people by accident," she murmured, before adding darkly "Back then, it was all by accident."

She sighed. "Eventually Euryale tracked me down. She was immune to my gaze so she was able to talk to me face-to-face and calm me down. Brought me to the island where she and Stheno lived on every now and then and… now I'm here. Talking to you."

Perseus was silent as his mind raced with what to respond with. How could he sensitively approach this woman, who had just shared her most painful story at his request? With what words could he comfort her after she bared her heart to him? How was he to respond to such vulnerability-

"Well, Poseidon can go fellate his own horses." Ah, wonderful. Looks like we're still a long way off from the charming rogueish hero whose weapon was his word.

"Seriously, if he's the god of the sea, how could he possibly be so shallow? And even then, he can't even take responsibility for the consequences of his own actions? Offer you shelter under the sea where you could be cared for and where you wouldn't cause harm to anyone? Maybe just talk to Athena and see if he could negotiate the curse off if he couldn't do it himself? Where is his pride? Where is his sense of duty? Fuck him. All the deaths caused by the curse, all of the pain and loneliness you and everyone around you has suffered is on his hands."

Perseus gazed back into Gorgoneion as he finished, panting from his impassioned rant. Medusa's reflection stared at him with shock, her eyebrows raised to her serpentine hairline.

But the surprise was only momentary as she curled back in on herself. "...But what if Stheno was right?"

"About what?"

"About Poseidon," she said. "What if he really didn't care about how I looked? I couldn't see any revulsion on his face. What if he really did only care about what was inside? And what was inside… had become more horrible than what was on the outside?"

"That's absurd-"

"Don't tell me you haven't seen the statues on this island, Perseus!" Medusa suddenly shouted, cutting him off. "There are dozens. Would-be heroes who came here after hearing of a horrible monster who turned innocents to stone. Unlike those innocents, I did not kill them by accident. I made the decision to kill them, and you know what? I don't regret a single one. Not even in hindsight."

She glowered at him through the reflection. "Does that sound like the conscience of a good, pure, human to you? Does that sound like someone who deserves to be loved? Someone who so capriciously ends the lives of others who no doubt were loved as well?" She let out a shaky breath. "Maybe there's a reason this is the form Athena cursed me with. Of all the uniquely horrific appearances the goddess of creativity could have conjured, she simply made me look like my sisters. Maybe… this is just who I was inside all along. A monster."

Perseus stared at the Medusa through the reflection as she began to let the tears flow more freely. He stared, and thought. He stared, and thought. He stared, and thought. He stared… then took a deep breath in and out, and squeezed his eyes shut tight before whipping around to face her. He heard her cry out in alarm, then began to blindly crawl towards her. Sitting up on his knees, he reached forward and grabbed her shoulders (silently breathing a sigh of relief that he managed to get them on his first try instead of groping her chest or poking out her eyes), leaning forward until he could barely feel the hissing snakes of her hair reaching forward and brushing against his forehead.

"Medusa, if that's what it takes for someone to be considered a monster, there would be far more monsters in this world than there already are. It would be Prometheus, or Deucalion and Pyrrha who would be considered the parents of all fiends, not Typhon and Echidna, and certainly not Keto and Phorcys." He squeezed her shoulders tight before pulling her into an embrace, continuing to speak over her quiet 'Oh!'

"The god who sired me was Zeus. After my conception, he never spoke to my mother again. Never shone the golden light he first appeared to her as upon her again. He cast my mother Danaë aside. Danaë, who is beyond a doubt the greatest woman in the world." Even through her tears, Medusa couldn't help but giggle at how much of a momma's boy the young man hugging her was. "If Poseidon is anything remotely like Zeus, then I'm not surprised he would just abandon someone like you- someone strong, someone intelligent and wise, who can carry the burden of so much loss and sorrow but still bring themselves to keep pushing on and survive."

Perseus would think about what he said next for the rest of his life. He would think about how the two of them started acting differently around each other after he said those words, about the different things they started talking about since then. He would often ask himself whether he truly meant what he said, and without fail, without hesitation, the answer was always 'yes, of course'.

Perseus spoke the words with force, pushing them not from his lungs, but from the depths of his heart.

"Medusa, if this is your true self, then good! Because I would choose this 'you' every single time, no matter the time, no matter the life."

"Perseus…" Medusa gasped. "We are now arriving at Port Republic, New Jersey."

Wait, that's not how it went-

O - O - O - O - O

Perseus' eyes cracked open as the other passengers of the bus shuffled off ahead of him. With a groan, he stretched his arms and shook off the sleep. As the last passenger passed by, he flipped down his shades, melted into shadow, and merged with the passerby's own. The mortal glanced with a start at the empty seat that had just been occupied by some blond douchebag just a moment ago, before blinking and moving on with their business.

Gods, mist was such fucking bullshit and Perseus loved it.

The passenger exited the bus, allowing the hidden Perseus to avoid passing the driver and risking a confrontation on having snuck into the vehicle without paying his fare. Mist or no, there wasn't a chance any mortal would have forgotten a guy dressed as loudly as him boarding.

Perseus flipped his shades back up, briefly shocking the pedestrians around him as he reappeared.

"Gods, I hate New Jersey," Perseus muttered as he took in his surroundings while declaring his open disdain for a state he had literally never been to before like a real American.

But love it or hate it, Perseus was on a mission and New Jersey was his primary lead. As vague as the Graeae's not-prophecy was, he could do what he could to sus out clues from the cryptic descriptions of each of the locations they hinted at. 'Throne of the Heavens', 'Sea of Fiends', and 'Where Gods Turn a Blind Eye' all seemed like places that he would need to consult an informant with at least one foot on the supernatural side of the mist, and he didn't like his chances of having to trust some monster, god, or spirit so soon after his escape- Graeae notwithstanding. It was just too soon, he had too little knowledge of what kind of a world he had been reborn into, and Hades' agents were still on high alert. Even those unaligned with Hades would have no reason not to rat him out to the king of the underworld. It wasn't like he was on a quest to save the world. He was just some has-been hero looking for a do-over.

Hence why he came here, to Port Republic, New Jersey. Well, his target was about four miles away, but still. He had done some digging, asking around tourism bureaus, local libraries, and, after he had figured out the basics, those computer devices and the text-based forums they contained. The lead for his first treasure, putting together the clues he obtained from asking about various combinations of the words 'forest', 'stone', 'agony', and 'loneliness', was an obscure, out-of-the-way business outside of any town or city that dealt in making and selling stone sculptures- with a bit of a specialty in depictions of terrified or agonized expressions that put off most prospective customers except for the most enthusiastic of sculpture enthusiasts, which were apparently a thing according to the computer forums. But with how remote the studio and warehouse for these pieces were, most of the business was conducted via those computer devices and their telephone (Perseus swore that he used to know a girl named Telephone in his first life) counterparts. This left the building itself quite isolated and lonely, off the side of a road near a forest in a place called Leeds Point.

Allegedly, this place was also the birthplace of a devil. Perseus didn't put too much stock into that, but he had begun to grasp how real legends distorted through the mist could be proliferated amongst mortals, and the idea of some chimera-like demonic freak stalking a field of terrified statues while guarding a legendary magic treasure wouldn't have been too out of the ordinary.

After consulting a pilfered map he had brought with him, Perseus located the road that would take him to the unincorporated community of Leeds and shifted into shadow to stow away on any vehicle heading in that direction.

It was a short ride. Scarcely fifteen minutes, but Perseus felt himself fidgeting with anxiety as if subconsciously preparing for some unseen battle. That difficulty focusing or staying still stemmed from his demigod heritage's innate proficiency for bloody combat, keeping their vigilance on a razor's edge as they scanned their surroundings for a potential threat. The feeling never truly went away, but Perseus could feel it spiking in times where he believed he was approaching a violent, possibly fatal encounter. Perseus had no idea whether this sensation was like a premonition or not, but he couldn't shake the feeling of dread building up within him. It felt like he was riding towards something that he didn't want to confront.

I'm just getting hung up on that last threat the Graeae left me with, he thought. I can't let their words get to me like that.

He slipped off the car he had stowed away on as a shadow, becoming corporeal again as he touched down in Leeds.

"If I just play things safe, I'll be fine," he muttered as he began to vocalize his thoughts. "Ask around, gather information, and be prepared to book it at the first sign of danger."

His hand twitched for the beat-up gun hidden in his waistband. His only weapon, and one notably not suited for fighting monsters. Perseus had no enchanted metals, no magic spells, and no blessings with which to empower his revolver and combat foes of a more supernatural kind. Mortal lead, even when blasted out of a metal tube by a compressed explosion, was only liable to make most dangerous monsters mad. But Perseus trusted the aim he had inherited from his failed reincarnation. If he couldn't seriously hurt a monster with his gun, a well-placed shot between or even in the eye would make them flinch- more than enough time to flip down his old reliable and vanish from sight.

It was early noon, and it seemed like most of the people in this community were either at work or staying inside to beat the summer heat. He was able to come across an older man doing some work in his front yard to ask for directions, though the man gave him a funny look and asked him why he wanted to go to the old garden decoration warehouse. Apparently, the old man had lived in this community his whole life, even before the emporium arrived, and for its entire existence barely anyone seemed to go to it. He himself only drove past it every once in a while, noticing the amount of statues displayed outside increasing but seeing no patronage. He wasn't even sure who owned the place other than perhaps the 'Auntie Em' that the business was attributed to, but no one in the rather small community had ever met her.

Seeing no point in lying, Perseus answered that he heard through the grapevine that the place might hold an item he was interested in acquiring. Shrugging him off as some eccentric city boy with an interest in macabre and incredibly heavy souvenirs, the man gave him directions to the road off the highway where 'Auntie Em's Garden Gnome Emporium' was located.

The location was indeed as eerie as the man described, located next to an abandoned gas station and a billboard from another time as if this stretch of road was trapped in some unchanging stasis- like either no one cared enough to change it, or was willing to come close to do so on account of the massive field of creepy statues, a not-insignificant number of which looked like they were screaming.

Perseus approached the front gates, then hesitated. If this place was where one of his treasures was located, there was no way there wasn't some form of supernatural protection placed over it- a guard, a curse, something. The entrance to the warehouse, where presumably more morbid statues were kept, was lit up by a glowing sign that read 'OPEN' as if to further emphasize that this was way too obvious of a trap.

His anxious fidgeting was also starting to go nuts again. Yeah, no way he was just going to waltz into that building and ask whoever was inside 'Hey, nice to meet ya. You got any legendary ancient Greek artifacts hidden inside one of these freaky-ass gnomes of yours?'

But who was Perseus if not the master of avoiding confronting his problems head on? Fair one-on-one fights and trials of martial prowess were for losers anyway. Once more flipping down his ever-reliable shades of darkness, Perseus melted into the second dimension and began to skulk about the garden outside the emporium. The tip from the Graeae said that what awaited him in this 'forest of agony' was the 'swallowing void', which meant that the treasure waiting for him here was likely Kibisis, the magic satchel capable of devouring all kinds of magic and containing it- the container that he stored Medusa's severed head in and unleashed her curse from, when necessary.

That said, finding it would be easier said than done. Like his Mantle of Darkness, it was very possible that Kibisis could have taken on a new form to reflect the new, modern era. A backpack, a duffel bag, a bucket… something as simple as a satchel could be disguised as any number of things. And that's not even going into where it might be hidden. Out of curiosity, Perseus shifted out of shadow form and tapped his knuckle on the statue of a man with a comically exaggerated expression of surprise. Maybe it was hollow?

…No, solid stone.

Looking around at the large number of statues in the garden, he wondered whether he was going to have to check all of them this was. His unfocused mind whined at the prospect, and then whined even louder when Perseus reminded it that he still had to check whatever was inside the buildings of the emporium as well as potentially confront whoever was running this joint.

As if the Moirai were applauding him for the wonderful idea he had just proposed to them, a small bell on the door to the warehouse chimed as it was opened. In his haste to move away from the door and slip his shades back on, Perseus' cheap sandals ground against the gravel of the path he was on, producing a loud crunchy sound just before he vanished. Perseus turned into a shadow and quickly merged with the shadow of a nearby statue to hide, but whoever stepped out of the building had been alerted.

"Hello?" a voice called out. A woman's, older than him and with an accent that Perseus could swear was familiar. "Is someone there?"

Perseus heard the light crunch of gravel as this person, or at least someone who sounded like a person, began to make their way towards the location of his misstep.

"If you might've noticed from the sign, we are open for business. There is no need to be shy, and if you are just browsing my wares I am here to help!" The woman injected a note of reassurance and positivity into her tone, before issuing a warning. "But I must warn you, I do not tolerate trespassers and vandals. I must ask you to please show yourself at once, and I will take no offense."

That voice. It was so familiar, he had to have heard it before. Maybe it was changed? Someone who might've sounded different in the past, but still sounded similar enough to trigger that sense of familiarity? If he could just place that accent…

The woman passed by the statue that Perseus hid under as a shadow, letting him get a good look at her- at least, as much as she'd show.

She was a fairly tall woman, standing a bit taller than he would at around six feet. She wore a headdress that concealed any hair she might've had, with a veil coming down in front of her face obscuring it from view. Her dress was conservative and covered most of her body, though it seemed to be made with a light material, presumably to prevent her from burning up in the summer. Her manicured hands, her neck, and a bit of the side of her head including her ears were the only parts exposed, letting him see her skin- a deeper color than his own tan.

She gazed across the garden as she passed by, completely missing the shadowy hero- his disguise held, at least. She was probably just human…

"If you have come to my home with the intent of harassing me or damaging my property, I will not be held accountable for what I do!" she hissed. Yes, hissed. As she spoke, a rasping chorus of hisses permeated the air and punctuated her speech. It wasn't coming from her mouth, but it was coming from her.

"Reveal yourself now," as if on cue, she began to reveal more of herself as her well-kept nails began to elongate and change, becoming talons of bronze. "Let this all be a misunderstanding. Let this all just be a mistake. Show yourself, and I will send you on your way. But your continued silence proves that you are undeserving of such merciful treatment…"

Hissing.

"Do not think I don't know that you are here somewhere, and that I don't know what you are," she hissed. "Oh yes, little demigod. Your scent has faded with your age, but it never goes away completely. And I can smell your presence in my garden."

Hissing.

"Yes, you are quite close. Close enough for me to trace the blood of the divine parent who does not love you," she spat, as if that was a cutting remark that could fell her imagined trespasser. In all fairness, against anyone other than a demigod like Perseus, it would have. "I can smell the clouds in your veins… the scent of ozone and the warm dampness of a rain shower. Your parent is…"

A chorus of hisses, not from her mouth but still from her.

"No… no, that can't be it. There shouldn't be any of those kinds in existence, especially not an adult. You must be the spawn of some wind god. You couldn't be-"

It all began to click into place for Perseus. The morbid statues, the covering veil, the talons, 'Auntie Em'. And that accent. The accent belonging to a voice he had yearned to hear for so long yet dreaded the day he would hear it again at the same time. She was-

"Medusa?"

He removed his shades and returned to the third dimension. The Gorgon froze as she heard his voice behind her. It wasn't the same voice from all those millenia ago. It didn't have the same reedy pitch of a boy still growing up, or the awkward tone of an unsociable teen tripping over his sentences in order to avoid saying the wrong words. It was a grown man's voice. Deeper, stronger, spoken with the tone of someone who measured the weight of every word he spoke minutes before they left his mouth. But it was his voice. Changed, but undeniably his. She could not have mistaken that quiet, hopeful desperation that leaked into the single word he spoke.

"Perseus…?" she whispered as she turned to face him- to see the man he had become.

They were both different. They had both grown, and aged. Lived out lives that changed who they used to be. But it was still both them.

Thousands of years and hundreds of miles seemed to collapse in an instant as Perseus and Medusa were reunited once more.

And an instant later Perseus' anxiety spiked once again and forced him to wheel around and avert his gaze right before Medusa could finish yanking the veil and headdress off to reveal her cursed visage.

"ZEUS ALMIGHTY, WOMAN! What are you thi-" Perseus' cry was cut short when his anxious danger sense (I'm sorry demigod neurodivergence, I'll never doubt you again!) spiked once more, prompting him to dive to the ground as Medusa closed the distance behind him and raked her talons through the space his head used to be.

"OKAY! OKAY! I GET IT! There's obviously some bad blood between us because of what happened last time!" Perseus bellowed out in a very manly voice while tactically retreating, absolutely not shrieking like a little bitch as he scrambled away on all fours.

"You're not supposed to be here!" Medusa growled as she gave chase.

"I know, I know!" Perseus yelled back, resisting every urge he had to look back at who he was talking to as he stumbled to his feet and broke into a proper run. "I'm not supposed to be alive anymore, but I just really need this second chance! I don't want to let even more people in my afterlife down!"

"That's not what I meant!" Perseus let his instincts guide him as he dodged and ducked around more talon swipes, but he could feel the claws slicing through the air closer and closer to his skin. He couldn't look at her, and she was gaining on him. "You're not supposed to be here, in my home, in my life! You weren't supposed to come back!"

That gave Perseus pause for a moment, but he snapped back to his senses just in time to dodge a slash that instead decapitated a statue in front of him. He heard Medusa snarl in fury, though he wasn't sure whether she had chipped a claw or was pissed about having destroyed her own work.

"Well, would you believe me if I said this was just an accident?" He called back to her as he began running again. "I really didn't know you lived here, honest! I was just following a lead for a personal quest of mine!"

"Of course," she spat back, her voice as venomous as her blood. "Of course it was just an accident! It's only ever been an accident. We were never supposed to meet each other, talk to each other, get all chummy with each other and hold hands to sing kumbaya, that was all an accident! A mistake! Everything we were together was a mistake!"

Maybe he had just pulled a muscle in his impeccably cut abdominals, but Perseus suddenly felt winded as though someone socked him in the gut. He stumbled to a halt and the Gorgon in pursuit crashed into him from behind, bowling him over. He was able to shut his eyes quickly enough to avoid gazing at her when she flipped him over and pinned him beneath a straddle, but not quick enough to grab his shades before she snatched them off his forehead and tossed them out of reach. He thrashed beneath her, but Medusa held steady as she grabbed the sides of his head, retracted her talons into fingernails, and began to try and pry his eyelids open with her index fingers and thumbs. His arms reached up and grasped at hers, then scrabbled at her fingers trying to pull them away, but she still didn't budge.

I had forgotten how freakishly strong she was. She never had a reason to show that strength around me before.

He was blinded, pinned, and struggling to keep his eyes shut against a physically superior foe that he didn't want to hurt. His one real ace in th hole got taken out of the equation almost immediately, and his only other insurance was pinned to his waist by Medusa's legs- not that he'd even consider pointing a gun at her, even as a bluff (a bluff she'd be able to call pretty easily, anyhow). He was backed up against the wall- ground- and running out the clock to his petrification.

But she hadn't taken his voice yet.

The Perseus Medusa knew was an awkward teen who had been afraid of girls besides his own mother until he met her. She never got to see the confidence she taught him, or the king he would become, nor did she meet the charming Sir Percival or the rogueish Robin of Loxley. Oh yeah, and Billy was there too.

Perseus let his grin stretch wide, flashing the woman atop him with the dazzling smile she had never seen from him. He wished he could see the befuddlement on her face as she saw it, but the slight pause in trying to crank his eyes open spoke all it needed to.

"Aww, come on Ems!" he spoke in a tone far too relaxed and upbeat for someone who was about to be turned into a lawn ornament. "A statue made from bod like mine should be a masterpiece. If you pry open my eyes, they'll freeze like that! You'll mess up the face!"

The Gorgon was taken aback once more before redoubling her efforts. "Wha-? What are you- Grr! Shut up!"

Damn. Now that she's not saying things that make me want to curl up in a ball and cry, her pissed-off voice is SO fuckin' hot- Thoughts for later, when he wasn't being threatened by imminent garden-gnomification, perhaps? But true.

"Woah, okay then. Sorry. I mean, I really shouldn't be complaining. I mean really, being straddled by a hot babe as she cradles my face? Of all the places we left off at, you certainly could have picked a worse one to pick up on."

"Do you think you're smart!? Do you think you're suave!?" She snarled. "Do you think you'll just charm my hands off your neck and my pantaloons off my legs with your half-baked LIES!?"

He didn't actually. Oh yes, flirting was a valuable part of his arsenal, but it needed to be applied tactfully and carefully. What he was trying to do right now was be as obnoxious and infuriating as he could, in order to bait more reactions out of Medusa. The more reactions he could get, the more options he had to get himself out of this mess.

"Oof! Man, don't talk about charming pantaloons off those thick, powerful legs of yours." he drawled, even letting a hint of a moan sneak into his voice. "Don't you know the awful things those thoughts do to my body, Emmy?"

"DO NOT CALL ME THAT!" His words were getting somewhere. Maybe not any direction in particular since Perseus was flying by the seat of his cheap-ass shorts as usual, but still somewhere.

"Aw, why not? It's what you put on the sign, and it's ador-HURK!"

Okay, shit. She actually had taken his voice this time, having removed her hands from his face to throttle him instead. So he had essentially swapped out death by petrification for asphyxiation. On one hand, Perseus wasn't quite lying when he complained about a statue with a body like his being wasted on a face that looked like it was having its eyes pried open, even if he understood that what became of his corpse ultimately did not matter since his soul would be getting carted off to the Fields of Punishment for eternal torture anyway. On the other hand, suffocating was a far more drawn-out, painful, and terrifying way to die. A lot kinkier maybe, but he doubted he'd get a chance to enjoy that.

"Why…!?" Oh. That tone. That tone of anguish. That tone was not one he had wanted to goad out of her. Perseus' smile, which had survived the strangulation, faltered as he felt the droplets of tears hit his cheeks. "Why did you have to come back?"

I just made Medusa cry.

Again.

"Why did you have to come back when I was so close… to finally being able to forget you?"

Oh.

…Fuck.

Oh well.

In for a penny…

"F-forget me?" Perseus choked out, forcing his smile to brighten once more. "Ouch!"

In for a pounding.

He reached up with one arm and felt Medusa's cheek. He barely heard her breath hitch before the snakes of her hair began to gently coil around it with soft hisses. He brushed away a tear before it fell with his thumb, then let his hand roam across the face of the first woman he fell in love with. His fingers crossed over her nose, her brow, her lips, her chin, brushing across lashes and eyelids careful not to poke her eyes. It was undeniable that the face had changed and grown since back then, the way he could trace the small worry lines and brush over the crow's feet forming by her eyes, but all of it was still Medusa's face.

"As i-if I could ever… forget… you… hehe…"

His laughter was weak, but none of it was forced. Even with monstrously strong hands pressing down on his throat, every word came out naturally.

"Y-your face… feels… j-just as beautiful… as I-I remember, M-medusa… Em-my…"

There was a sob, and Perseus felt the grip on his neck loosen. Then a moment later, he felt her head drop onto his chest and the tears beginning to soak into his godawful shirt.

"You damn liar," she hiccuped. "Beautiful as you remember? I know what you must've felt on my face. I can see my own reflection. I'm old, Perseus. Even with my monstrous form concealed, I'm still a mortal. The maiden you met so long ago has been aged into a crone by the ravages of time. So much time… alone. In a world I do not belong in…"

Perseus let out a sputtering cough in response as he took in his first unrestricted breath. Romantically, of course.

"Me-KAK-medusa, you're-KF-being unreasonable again. S-seriously, I'm-AHEM-sure you must have aged plenty and all, but you don't feel a day over forty-five! That's like, twenty years, minimum, away from anything that could remotely be considered a 'crone' in this day and age."

He heard a small chuckle and a sniffle as he felt Medusa lift off of his body, still keeping him straddled as she placed her hands beside his head to keep herself propped up and hanging over him.

"You've become quite the charmer haven't you, Perseus?"

Perseus' smile sharpened into a smirk. "You're not the only one who grew up, Emmy. Besides, I was able to charm you back then with nothing but my zero-confidence teen spirit, wasn't I?"

"You did." Her voice was soft as she reminisced. Perseus felt her breath on his face and the brush of twisting snakes as she lowered herself closer to him.

"Those words you said to me," she whispered, an almost fearful tone in her voice like she was afraid of the answer to a question she had yet to ask. "Did you mean them?"

Perseus thought about every word he said to Medusa today. About every word he said to her thousands of years ago. He had believed that he was coming up with excuses on the fly to prevent his imminent demise. That he spoke any falsehood he needed to in order to survive. He was a good liar like that.

A good enough liar to lie to himself.

Good enough to trick himself into believing that every word, calculated and blurted, that came from his mouth could be anything less than the perfect truth.

Every last word he wanted her to hear was something he truly believed.

So once again, he spoke, pushing the words up from the depths of his heart.

"Yes, of course."

And he did not need to see her face to know that the tears he felt falling onto him came with a smile.

O - O - O - O - O

"Yeowch! Damn girl!" Perseus cried as Medusa tied the blindfold around his eyes as firmly as she could. "That's fucking tight!"

"I'm sorry for any discomfort Perseus, but quite frankly, I do not give a fuck." The same hands that dragged him to the building she lived in beside the warehouse then thrust him backward, sending him flailing blindly until he hit the soft bed. "I've been waiting for this for thousands of years, and I am not going to let it be ruined mid-way through when I realize I'm riding a statue."

"Woah, okay! Point taken. Like, I'm not complaining Ems, I kind of like the pressure."

"Ohhh, you just love to get on my nerves with that don't you, you naughty boy?"

"What? But you put it on the sign…"

"Would you like me to tie up that smart mouth of yours as well? Or perhaps any other part of your body?"

"Hey. Do not threaten me with a good time."

"I will make you beg for mercy."

"You can try. Just like I'll try to turn those words back on you."

The back-and-forth of trying to one up each other and hype themselves up before their showdown fell into a brief silence, one where Perseus could picture in his mind's eye Medusa's mouth stretching into a predatory grin filled with sharp teeth. And like a predator, his anxious intuition predicted she would pounce in three… two… one.

Cing Krimson's Qringe Korner: "A slow-burn romance!? This is supposed to be a comedic story! I'm speedrunning that shit!"

...Though, this is my first time dipping my toes into romance. Go easy on me.

This chapter was meant to be titled "In which Perseus scores (then meets Perseus Jr.)" in which Perseus meets the titular Percy Jackson, but this chapter already went on for way too long and I figured it left off at a good place. Next time, maybe.