Hreysti was shaken awake from his old fearful memories by the touch of a warm hand against his cold skin. The sudden splash of water startled a few of the other guests as well as Dyo and Shani.

“What’s wrong!?”

Dyo’s eyes were wide, the empathy towards him that he didn’t deserve filling them as Dyo stared into his heart.

He looked away, “Nothing, just some memories…”

He couldn’t quite tell him everything yet, not after that morning. He didn’t want to drive him away, certainly not him… He needed him to be with him. Dyo was the only one who made him feel warm.

The look in Dyo’s eyes told him he didn’t accept that but still he said with a faint smile, “I see, it’s alright. We’re here, you’re not there.”

He breathed, slumping into the water, resisting the urge to rest against Dyo. Dyo had always been kind, too kind to him, and he had his heart. Yet, who’d want him? Was the kindness a sign of mutual affection? Surely not… Dyo was a demigod and had the handsome Ercole after him who wasn’t a man-eating monster with troubles that rotted his insides. Ercole wasn’t a coward when it came to using his powers either. He wasn’t afraid or disgusted with who he was.

But, again, the times he had been comforted by Dyo, even when he had been devoured by his blood rage. He remembered Dyo embracing him, the tears, the compassion… That could not be faked.

Yet why did he keep second-guessing himself? Even when everything was so clear? Yet a voice in his head always told him it wasn’t.

In the end, all he could say was, “Thank you…”

He felt a hand hover by his head before it then slipped back down and he felt a small wave of disappointment flood over him. Wait-

“Come on lover boys, I’ve spent enough time in the cold, I want to see what else is here!” Shani exclaimed, pulling herself out of the water in what was maybe the loudest way that she could. “I’ve heard there are some warmer ones we go to next.”

He sighed and got up with her, Dyo soon following. The eyes on them were still painful, all of those people looking at him, knowing who he was and either fearing him, or hating him. He could tell it was bothering Dyo too, but not quite in the same way. Still, the sooner they got out the better. The water didn’t feel as satisfying as Shani and Dyo described anyway, nothing did, and the warm water would likely feel like every other bath he’d ever had. Just warm water that while it cleansed him, it also never felt as if he could ever be at ease in it like others could.

Curse Ƿó, curse his father, and curse everyone that bridged the gap between the two.

Another hand touched his shoulder, but it wasn’t Dyo. It was too large and firm for him, it was Shani.

“I know the look people have when they’re remembering things they don’t want to relive.”

He stayed silent, not looking at her as Dyo slowly walked ahead of them.

She let out something halfway between a sigh and a groan. “I know I’ve not been the best travel companion to you. But-“ She switched to Cudeshian, “I wish it not to remain this way.”

“So why are you prying into me.”

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She let out another half-sigh groan, “I’m not a divine child or anything besides, but I have been fighting for many years and moons, and I have seen a lot of unjustly shed blood and many events that I would never want to be apart of again.”

He looked at her. Shani’s face was a conflict slowly playing out as she stayed silent for a moment, but then spoke.

“I haven’t told you what I did when I was twenty-two, correct? With the Nsheeri Nem? It was the first group I joined and a large one. Over the moons, I trained with them, got to know my unit, and fought against a few desert raiders while in the employ of nobles and traders. Yet, like I have every single time I’ve been with a company, there was something that made me leave. That for me was when we burned an entire village. It had played host to some rebel remnants or some such thing and we’d been hired to ‘deal’ with it. I wasn’t told that. I was told that we would be letting the wrath of the kingdom on another set of raiders, but it wasn’t.”

She let out a shaky breath, her tone still calm but with a slight shaky edge growing as he saw a lump in her throat grow.

“I watched as the griffin cavalry charged straight through the barricades the villagers had set up and then through the people. Biting and scratching as their riders slashed down without mercy. Then I and the rest charged in with the orders to find the rebels and kill anyone who tried to stop us. Yet, as since time immemorial, it happened. Looting, killing and all other horrors of war were indulged in by my companions as I just looked on at them, trying not to let everything spill out of my throat as I heard the screams.”

He fell against the wall, heart heavy as he struggled to look up at her. She was standing still, eyes looking out to nowhere. “Why did you tell me this?”

She turned to him as her eyes refocused, “Because I want you to know I’ve been through the high and dangerous rivers of war like you have and I have seen many a horrible thing. You can talk to me about it and can open up rather than keeping locked away in your heart and let me tell you, I have dealt with far too many shitbrains who think they can just keep it there. I saw you on that hill with Dyo and I saw how much poured out when you opened it up for just a moment, and what sort of dangerous state you were in because you let it overflow. You need to let more of it out, even if it is only in a trickle and you can do that with me, or-”

She pointed, and with a gaze that suddenly went shaky, he followed her finger and looked over to see Dyo. He was leaning on another wall, looking slightly uncomfortable with the attention from the other guests and glancing back at the two with concerned eyes.

“You can tell him too. He will accept everything you say and you know exactly why he will, we all do.”

“Why-“

“You both love each other!” She hissed “It’s that! I- I have never found myself in that realm, but you two are. I see how you’re looking at his body now and I have seen how much you care for each other.”

His heart pounded so hard it was threatening to burst out of his chest as he felt like he’d been cornered with axes bearing down on him. It was stupid! He- He wasn’t in any real danger and fuck, it was obvious that it looked like that but it still scared him!

His eyes shifted back over to Dyo and saw everything he admired about his looks. His beautiful horns, soft fluffy brown hair, smooth olive skin, his toned and muscular, yet slim body… He also saw his rich purple eyes, the ones that made him realise what it meant to be trapped in one’s eyes, filled with concern and empathy for him.

“I… I’ll tell you- Both of you.”

Shani clapped him on the back, “Good man.”

They’d gotten into the warm bath before he started talking. After that, it’d taken him a bit to finally get going and then… Then it all spilt out like a river as he recounted the day of that raid, not leaving a single detail out. Even the part where he was forced to kill a woman by drinking her blood till she died by his fucking gods damned father.

His fists were balled up under the water as he tried to hold back his tears after that.

But he didn’t have time to apologise before he was suddenly hit full force by Dyo hugging him with a splash of water.

“Don’t you dare.”

“What-“

“Apologise!” Dyo said, almost on the edge of tears, “Don’t you dare apologise for that!”

That was when he hugged back, grasping Dyo’s back with his fingernails digging in, yet Dyo didn’t loosen his own grip one bit. He just kept him close as best as he could, almost managing to sit his head on Hreysti’s shoulders but finding that his horns got in the way.

Hreysti didn’t mind that either, as while his curse stopped the water from settling his nerves, Dyo’s embrace filled him with a sort of warmth that he had never experienced before and made him wish this moment could last forever.