“Are you alright, dear?”
“Ugh…”
The God of Death was lying in Kuta’s bed, his head buried in pillows, his body obscured by sheets and blankets. Both he and Kuta had been rather busy over the last few days, and, weirdly for a deity, the Thantophor had been ill.
“Arkay?”
At the mention of his name, Arkay rolled over. He realized he was taking up almost all of Kuta’s bed. Considering that Kuta was living in temporary accommodation and that Arkay’s home was meant for Skyavok, not Rethavok like Kuta, he felt somewhat bad.
“Sorry, I’m not feeling great.”
Kuta shrugged, then laid down next to Arkay. The God of Death was currently in one of his more true forms, a half-way look between a Skyavok and a Rethavok, with metal claws and fangs, as well as silver plating running down his back and tail. There would have only just been enough room, but Kuta was small for a Rethan and Arkay was even smaller. Really, the Lord of Decay wasn’t that intimidating once you got to know him, if anything, he was rather friendly and kind, but his duties clearly put most people off.
“I gathered. Is there anything I can do for you?”
Arkay hesitated, then nuzzled up closer to Kuta. There was clearly something wrong, but Kuta wasn’t sure whether Arkay wanted to talk or not. Rather than pushing Arkay, Kuta decided to wait for Arkay to speak.
“Eh… I don’t know… Forgot how tedious all this politics stuff can be… Also not quite feeling 100% again. Fevers are nasty. Sure, the wound where Sini removed that stupid Decayling tracker has healed up but it’s still slightly itchy and the after-effects suck. I was lucky, I’m more used to that sort of thing, the whole radiation thing absolutely floored Retvik and Litvir.”
Kuta blinked. “Wait, my sibling was ill too?”
“Yeah. The three of us were supposed to have our trackers removed when we became Decay Lords. Never happened. Made us ill. You’re fine though, you were never given a tracker, and apparently Retvik and Litvir are recovering nicely. Sounds stupid, but I had no idea that radiation poisoning from such a small device would be THAT bad.”
“About that, is there a chance I could end up with cancer or radiation poison myself?” Kuta asked. “You are a deity, a god of decay of all things. I may be unnatural and long-lived, but I am not immortal, and I have spent the last few days by your side. I am… concerned.”
“According to Sini and my own testing, you’re fine, as is anyone else who’s been close to me. The radiation emitted was so weak that it couldn’t get through my rubbery, heat-resistant skin.”
Kuta smiled, settling down a little. Now that major concern was off their mind, they felt a lot better. Good enough for them to confidently put their arms around the God of Death and hug them tightly. As Kuta hugged Arkay though, they swiftly reminded themselves that they were sharing their bed with the God of Death.
The God of Death. The Ender of All. The Doombringer. The Silent Blade. Kuta was literally sleeping with Death Itself.
That sentence was worth repeating a few more times, so that was what Kuta did. Except Kuta accidentally said that sentence out loud.
“I am sleeping with Death Itself.”
“Yeah, you are. Sorry.”
Kuta blinked as Arkay wriggled free from Kuta’s arms and rolled away. “Why are you apologizing?”
“Because I’m the reason everything decays and fades away.”
With a tut, Kuta sat up and crossed their arms. “I should be the one apologizing. I am having a bit of an existential crisis currently. In the past month, I have gone from being a freakish, ugly Rethan to a freakish ugly Rethan with a poten-partner, to a freakish, ugly Rethan with a poten-partner and no home.”
“And all of that is my fault…” Arkay sighed and rolled onto his back.
“No, it is General Rethais’s fault. Had they sent another General, one of my captains or literally any other Rethan, we would not be here.”
Arkay didn’t answer at first. “I think I’d be in a similar position had Rethais sent their sibling instead of you, but yeah, you’re right, we wouldn’t be here otherwise. You would still be alive, but it is possible that Generals Havik and Lysar would be dead, since I wouldn’t have had as much as a reason to come here when Epani caused that bloody earthquake.”
“You… can see alternate timelines?” Kuta wasn’t sure whether they were more or less concerned now.
“Not really. I sometimes just borrow time powers off Kairos. Very, very small amounts, because it’s really hard for me to do. I’m not attuned to the Forward Flow like he is. But I can see enough and then extrapolate from there. Losing a potential love interest on top of an unnatural disaster made me move faster than I would have otherwise…”
Kuta frowned. “General Havik is still not in a good way. Crushed ribs, broken head plate…”
“Yeah. Broken plating takes a long time to grow back, and broken ribs are hard to fix when you already have an armoured carapace on top of that… And on top of that? An infected injury? That causes fevers and further illness? Poor fucker’s going to struggle for a while. Even with the way better medical tech this universe has. And Sini and I doing our careful manipulations.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Arkay tutted, then rolled back onto his side so he could look at Kuta. “You think I like being the personification of death? Of course not. I’m constantly helping Sini keep things alive longer than they should, keeping decay and entropy at bay for ever so slowly increasing amounts of time, whether it’s altering the spread of a fire so it burns less victims, slowing down the spread of an illness by increasing how quickly it does or intervening directly, like I did during the earthquake. If anything, I wish I could do more, but self-preservation stops me from spreading myself too thin, and I can only physically be in one place at a time.” Arkay trailed off, then sighed. “Sorry, I’m rambling on. I tend to do so when I’m not feeling well.”
“It is… fine…”
“You don’t sound sure about that.”
Kuta laughed weakly, then laid back down. “It is just… weird. I do not know what is more weird, the fact that I am dating a deity, that I was briefly some sort of deity myself, that you and I met on a space ship in an endless void in a timeline that both did and did not happen or that, despite all of those things, neither of us have the courage to actually have sex with each other.”
Arkay closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Yeah, sorry, Kuta. I’ve been dragging my feet on that. I’ve adored the snuggles and the fondling and the oral stuff but… I dunno…”
“I understand. On top of the normal social awkwardness of higher caste Rethans not always being as… accepting of being the female in a relationship, I… am not sure if I want to be literally fucked by death.”
“Yeah… I get that… I don’t mind being the female though.”
Kuta stared at Arkay, then blinked. They were vaguely annoyed, but that annoyance tapered off. “This relationship is very strange.”
“You’re not sure you like it.”
“That is not what I said.”
Arkay frowned. He considered climbing out of bed, but he was comfortable, so he decided against it. “Maybe, but you’re thinking it. We both have some sort of telepathy here. And I don’t blame you for being uncertain. You’re still technically mortal, and I’m a deity. It’s uneven and it’s unfair. I shouldn’t have put you in this situation.”
“Hang on!” Kuta wagged their finger at Arkay. “I may be mortal or semi-mortal or immortal or whatever, but I am also both a hundred years old, and I am intelligent enough to make my own decisions! We both agreed to this relationship! Yes, it is weird, yes, there are times when I feel awkward and weird and this is one of them, but I do want this.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Arkay fell silent and stared at the ceiling, before muttering an apology. “Sorry. You deserve better.”
Kuta laid back down next to Arkay. “No, you are fine. We are fine. We are just bad at communicating and dealing with relationships in general. We always have been, even though we have grown since we originally first met.”
“That is definitely true…”
Kuta glanced at Arkay. “We are such idiots.”
“We definitely are.”
“Do you want to snuggle?”
“Yeah.”
With a smile, Kuta scooted closer to Arkay. “Good. I like snuggles…”