“Out of all the ice cream places in the universe, you just had to bring me to this one, didn’t you?”
Kairos glanced up at the sign, then back at Arkadin. “What, I thought you liked Rethan ice creameries?”
“I do, but did you have to bring me to THIS one?”
Again, Kairos glanced up at the sign. “What’s wrong with Icy Isseer’s Ice Creamery?”
“This is where Elkay and Retvik brought me when I was… under house arrest. They knew the guy inside. He worked for Elkay. And he’s going to be super pissed off at me.”
“Really, we all should be…” Kairos sighed. “Fine. Stay here and be a baby. I’m going inside to order ice cream for us both, then we can go and sit in a park or something. Okay?”
Arkadin nodded. “That’s fine.”
“What ice cream do you want?”
“Any flavour is fine.”
The Whenvern tutted, and headed inside. Arkadin stood by a wall, making sure he couldn’t be seen. He didn’t need to wait for long though, because Kairos swiftly returned with two massive servings of ice cream, each served in a wafer bowl with a spoon and a large drizzle of chocolate sauce.
“I think he saw you…” Kairos smiled. “He made these and wouldn’t take any money.”
Arkadin tutted as he took the ice cream and started eating. “I hate it when mortals do that. I have infinite money, they don’t! Just take the money and enjoy it.”
Kairos shrugged and started walking, eating his ice cream and nibbling the wafer bowl as he did so. “Eh, their loss. So, where’s the nicest place to sit and chat?”
“We could always go to the arena…”Arkadin suggested. “It’s, what, very early morning now? Won’t be anyone there.”
With a snap of Kairos’s clawed fingers, the two deities immediately disappeared in a puff of smoke and reappeared on the highest levels of the main Dessaron Arena. The arena itself was completely empty, but there were a handful of beings, mostly young adults, messing around far below them.
“You seem like you want to talk about something in particular…” Arkadin muttered as he sat himself down. “I know you wanted to come and check on me but you were going to come and check on me regardless of me having a tantrum or not.”
“Yeah, that’s true. But let’s eat some ice cream first.”
“I’d rather get the bad stuff out of the way first.”
Kairos shrugged. “Alright then.”
Arkadin hesitated, ate some ice cream then hesitated some more. Finally he asked what the problem was. “So what have I done wrong now?”
“You were supposed to be under house arrest. And then you were supposed to be taking a female form and laying low. You’re not doing any of those things.”
“I think you can understand why though.”
Kairos tilted his head to one side. “Yes, I can. It was a little unfair that you got punished more than Yisini. But Yisini is actually accepting her punishment.”
“Really?”
“As far as we know.”
Arkadin snorted, nearly choking on his ice cream. “Like piss is she actually sticking to it.”
“She is. As far as we know. But you’re not. And that’s a little unfair, don’t you think?”
The Thantophor took a long, deep breath. “I thought you were going to cheer me up, tell me to be nice to myself. But it turns out…”
“I can do both!” Kairos interrupted. “I was going to say that, because no one else has noticed, as long as you lay low and slip back into that nice female form whenever the others are around, then you should be fine.”
“Should…”
Kairos shrugged. “Yes, should. I don’t know how the others will react to you not following your punishments. But really? As long as you keep quiet, I don’t think they care too much. They just don’t want you being… destructive.”
“I’m not though…”
“I know you’re not. You know you’re not. But… you know how Kenon and Kinisis are…”
Arkadin sighed. “Yeah, I guess…”
Kairos smiled again, then put a wing around Arkadin. “I understand.”
“You don’t, you physically can’t…” Arkadin muttered. “But I am thankful that you try…”