Dionysus had spent longer than he was willing to admit on preparing the little picnic on the hill. He was determined to make it seem like he had put in a worthy effort without seeming like a desperate man on a mission. Which he was, but he didn't want Mila knowing that. The longer he thought on it, the more he was determined to win this bet. He had spent too long without the sweet taste of wine coating his lips. Or really anything. He missed alcohol more than anyone could ever realise.
His father knew exactly what he was doing when he stripped away Dionysus' ability to drink alcohol. The pain that it would cause. Being forcefully parted from the one thing he had left of his darling Ampelos. The one who held his heart through all time and who had been so ruinously ripped away from him. His darling Ampelos who lived on through the grapes that made the ever so sweet wine that he could no longer access. His darling Ampelos who he could no longer savour. His darling Ampelos who scratched and clawed at his heart until it was a bloodied rag of what it used to be. Sometimes he wondered if there was anything left or if there was just a cavity in his chest where his heart was meant to be. When his thoughts became as morbid as they currently were, he liked to imagine that in the cavity, the gaping hole in his chest, was a small grapevine. His darling Ampelos was always alive as long as he held that grapevine in his heart.
He felt a tear track its way down his cheek as his mind spun with images of his love.
"Darling, are you well?" Dark skin and tight curls entered into his vision. Ampelos. He held a whip in his hand, his hooves kicking up the dirt around them.
"Yes, quite. Merely looking at the scenery." He felt himself answer without meaning to. He knew this. This vision had haunted his nightmares for millennia. Yet he watched on just to be able to see the soft features of Ampelos as he walked forwards and to the herd of cows in front of him. He shivered with the knowledge of what was to happen.
His hand reached out, attempting to grab at the satyr who didn't look back at the demigod behind him. Dionysus' heart was in his throat, it was gagging him, stopping him from yelling for him to stop, to turn back around and to save himself. Dionysus could take being mortal if it meant he had Ampelos by his side. He could live with being a nothing demigod if he got to share that life with Ampelos. He knew he couldn't, but every fibre of his being wished that Ampelos would just return to his embrace. But the next time he held the satyr, his skin would be cooling and the light in his eyes would be fading. A river of red would be running away from the both of them.
"Hey, you going to watch me?" Ampelos called back, his hips swaying as he came up to the fence and hopped over into the field of cows.
"Of course, I wouldn't miss it." No. Please no. He couldn't watch it again. Not again.
He saw the bull before Ampelos. Just as he always did. Giant horns and fire in its eyes. It had become an omen of death for Dionysus. He wasn't ashamed to admit that bulls had become one of his worst fears since this day of horror. His body finally began to obey him, though he knew it was merely because he had reacted this way in the first place. He had seen the carnage that the bull would bring even on that day.
He ran from his seat toward the fence. The bull ran too.
"Ampelos! Look out!" The smile on the satyr's face fell as he saw the fear stricken face of his lover, he turned. He turned just as the bull met him. The scream caught in his throat. No. Blood pooled at his feet. No. The colour drained from his face. No.
Dionysus didn't care if he would die, he ran to his lover. To his darling, the man who held his heart and soul as if they were the most important thing in the world. The man who made him feel as if he were the most important man in the world. Not just another son of Zeus who had yet to prove himself as a hero.
A wave of arrows flew overhead at the bull that had yet to drop the pained body of Ampelos. He glanced skyward as his feet pounded on the dirt ground. Eros flew, attacking with ferocity at the bull.
It disintegrated. So it wasn't a normal bull. Of course it wasn't, no normal bull looked that much like death incarnate.
Ampelos fell into Dionysus' arms. A cry of pain as his body contorted with the impact was all that Dionysus could hear as his ears flooded with the sound of his own heart. He was sure it was going to break through his chest and join the lake of crimson that was collecting around them.
"Ampelos." He whispered over and over again, clutching at the satyr's head as it lagged in his hand. He swiped the hair out of his lover's face, smearing a streak of crimson across his dark skin. A line of imperfection on an otherwise perfect face. A perfect person.
"Don't leave me. Don't you dare leave me." He begged, grasping at Ampelos' body. Tears fell from his eyes, streaming down his cheeks like rivers of fire.
A shadow fell over them, Eros had landed.
Ampelos gazed up at Dionysus, using the last of his strength to push his face into Dionysus' hand. "I wouldn't dream of it darling."
His breathing stopped, his eyes faded and his skin paled to a ghostly shade. A shade that should have never come over Ampelos. They were meant to live together forever, they were meant to go together. Were meant to cross into the underworld together and meet Hades together. Ampelos had gone too early, leaving Dionysus behind with the pain of his absence.
He screamed.
He screamed and screamed and screamed. He screamed until his throat was scratching with pain and he felt the blood pooling in his mouth. He grasped at the cold body in his lap, begging it to come back.
Arms wrapped around him.
"Brother, Dionysus. Breathe." Eros' voice called to him, but he could see nothing but the hollow eyes of Ampelos before him. "He wouldn't want you to give yourself up for him." He cried. He didn't want Eros to calm him. He wanted to scream and cry and join his beloved in the underworld.
Eros continued to hold him. He pulled him away from the body of Ampelos. He went to grab at the body, to pull it back to him. But he was too late, it began to disintegrate into the earth. The ground swallowing it up. He screamed. His voice hurt. But what was new?
It stopped, the body paused in its rapid decomposition. A sprout threw itself out from the centre, where Ampelos' heart was. The heart that he had always claimed had been shaped like Dionysus. Just as Dionysus had claimed his heart was shaped just like Ampelos. It grew tall and strong, with long winding vines that reached for Dionysus' outstretched hand, wrapping around and caressing his skin like Ampelos used to do in the early hours of the morning. Fruits bloomed from the plant, depositing themselves in Dionysus' hand.
"Brother, please." Eros stroked the hair out of Dionysus' face. "He loved you so much, but he wouldn't want you to lose yourself to this. There will be others. This is not the last time that my arrow will reach your heart. Keep your heart open for others, while holding him close. Love him by loving others."
Dionysus shook the embrace of Eros from him, standing up. The fruits clasped in his hands. They were smooth and dark in colour, just like Ampelos' skin.
"What heart? Any heart I had is dead and buried with the one who held it." He left, walking into the desert, where his only solace could be found. Silence and nothingness. It was all that he deserved.
"Mr. D?" Mila called out to him. The sun had set, leaving the pair and the remains of their picnic in darkness, the only light being that of the candles Dionysus had lit.
"You can call me Dionysus, you know." His head was reeling from the memory that had been hurled at him. It usually only happened when he was sleeping. He generally avoided sleep because of it, "Only the kids call me Mr. D." He turned to look at her, hoping that she didn't see the tears that had pooled in his eyes, begging to fall and make their presence known. "I really hope you're not a child."
"Definitely not." She smirked at him. If she had seen the tears, she had ignored them. He silently thanked her for her discretion. She was kind, and he hated that he was using her to feel close to another. But he had spent too long without his darling Ampelos. He needed him.
A/N
Very sorry for the lack of update for the last two weeks, but I hope that this early update makes up for it. Though I'm sorry for the sad topic. I've not had signal for the last two weeks, so updates should return to their usual regular schedule.