“How much is your rent?”
Kayel had admittedly forgotten that he’d let the God of Decay stay in his apartment. But to be fair, Arkay had been the perfect room mate. Apart from the pillow and the light blanket on the sofa, one wouldn’t have known Arkay was there. He spent most of his time working, only seemed to sleep for a couple of hours a day and constantly kept the place clean. The only weird thing Arkay seemed to do was never put away the clean dishes. He’d wash up after himself, but he always left his plate on the side to dry. Then again, Arkay did seem to just constantly reuse the same few bits and pieces.
“Uh, why are you asking?” Kayel pulled the door shut, then double checked that it was locked. Really, the lock didn’t mean much, Kayel had the ability to teleport via shadows, and so did the death god he was sharing a home with. In fact, about 4% of all Skyavok could shadowjump, and the majority of them worked in the K-Class military, in the D-Class secret service or as gladiators under Ξ-Class jurisdiction. Kayel was the odd one, being L-Class, but he had a Ξ-Class job these days.
“I’m living here, even if it’s temporary. The least I can do is give you money towards your rent.”
Arkay hadn’t looked up from what he was doing. He was sitting on the sofa, on his laptop. From where Kayel was standing, he could see that Arkay was switching between two things: checking emails and looking at a progress bar, but he couldn’t see what the bar was for. After realizing he was being rude, Kayel chucked his belongings into the bedroom, grabbed a bottle of water for himself and Arkay and sat down next to the Thantophor.
“You don’t need to give me money.”
“Yes I do. I’m taking up your space, using your facilities and eating your food. I need to do something to contribute. Especially since I don’t know how long I can stay here.”
Kayel shrugged. “I mean, I don’t think you need to give me money. I’m a gladiator, now, I earn enough money to afford rent and all that on my own. If you want to make it back to me or whatever, you can, I dunno, buy me take away or something.”
“I can do that…” Arkay sighed. “Honestly, I’m somewhat surprised that I haven’t been snatched away yet. I’ve still got those trackers that I ripped out of my arms and neck and I’ve been moving them around back and forth between two of Sini’s labs between my work so it looks like I’m still there.”
“You sound like you’re scared of Epani.”
Arkay grunted. “That’s the thing. It’s not a fear of Epani. It’s a fear of me losing control and hurting Epani. If I hurt her, then either I get restrained and have my teeth ripped out again or I continue hurting her until I kill her.”
“Your… your teeth?”
“Hmph. That’s… just what we’ve always called it, I think. Back from… the Before. The previous universe.”
Kayel blinked. “So… that insanity Talok and Kuta were talking about is… real?”
“Of course. There are lots of universes. Essentially an infinite number of them, as far as I’m aware. Before I was a god here, I was a god in another universe, where I worked as its personification of death and entropy.”
“So… like now?”
“Like now but somehow worse.”
Kayel eyed Arkay some more. “Uh… how old are you?”
Arkay thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Older than this universe. Older than the universe before. I was made into a deity in the universe prior to that. Ironically, despite how old I am, I’m kinda stuck when it comes to my mental development.”
“I mean, this universe is two billion years old and goodness knows how old those other universes are. I think I’d have mental development problems if I’d been a slave for so damn long…” Kayel decided to change the subject. “So, what you doing right now? I didn’t know you had an email address. Can I send you emails?”
“Hah, no. Well, yes, but not to this particular inbox. This is how I see what people are praying about and if they are talking about me or asking me to do things and stuff. These days it’s mostly just people asking me for a few more years, days, minutes or seconds. I… I do my best to give them the days and minutes, at the very least so they can say goodbye to their loved ones, but I’m… not really allowed to do much more than that, and most of the time, people are just… too far gone…”
“So… if I was on my deathbed, and I prayed for a few more hours so I could say goodbye, you’d… give me that time?”
“I’d try to, yes.”
“Why?”
Arkay sighed. “I… I never got to say goodbye to my mum. I can’t imagine the agony he felt when he heard the news. I try to spare others that agony. I often fail to do so though with sudden deaths.”
“You remember your mum? After all these billions of years?”
“Not really. I don’t remember his common name. I just know that he had seven kids, that I looked almost identical to him and that I was the first one to die. I also know that I was a product of rape, an accident, and somehow survived an abortion. I shouldn’t have ever been born, and I’ve been destined to suffer ever since.”
“Well… I’m sorry…” Kayel frowned.
“What are you sorry for?”
“I just want to make you feel better and I keep on making you talk about your horrible past.”
Arkay sighed some more, then smiled a little. “It’s fine. It’s not your fault. If anything, it’s nice to get these things off my chest, because Kairos and Epani don’t care and Sini’s already aware of all of this.”
“Fair enough…” Kayel tried to change the conversation again. “So what is that other thing? The progress bar?”
Arkay turned back to his screen and minimized the email program. “Oh, this is the game I used to play. My space ninja game. But there’s been a ton of updates and I have to update it on the stupid special god-based Death-Net communication network, and it is slow as FUCK within universes. It’s so bad that I bought one of those miniature consoles, fiddled with the software to make it connect to Death-Net and left it at the edge of the universe to see if it downloads faster.”
Kayel did that cute little head tilt. “Huh. Is it fun?”
“Well, I like it. It’s awkward and confusing but pretty fast-paced. When I eventually get to play it- Hey!”
Arkay was somewhat taken aback as Kayel picked up Arkay’s laptop and moved it to one side, before putting an arm around him.
“I think you need a break.”
“You always think that.”
“Because it’s true!”
Kayel edged closer. Arkay hesitated, then relented. He glanced at Kayel then looked away, as an unfamiliar feeling welled up in his mind.
“Fuck, you’re cute…” Arkay muttered.
“You just noticed?”
“Well… I didn’t want to say it out loud. I’ve had enough problems with the other gods lately, and clearly my last attempt at romance went horribly…”
“Yeah, understandable, but Epani thinks you’re at Sini’s lab right now, right?”
Arkay looked at Kayel some more. “Yes, but… I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I’m a big, strong girl, I can look after myself!” Kayel beamed, holding Arkay some more. “Either way, do you want to, I dunno, have some dinner and chill and maybe snuggle?”
“Uh… yeah, I’d like that.”
Kayel very gently kissed Arkay on the cheek, then hugged him tightly. To Kayel’s surprise, Arkay didn’t flinch and accepted the affection. “Good. I’d like that too.”