“I can’t believe they fucking did it again…”
Tenuk put an arm around the little Skyavok who was quietly sulking on the bench outside. It was a muddy, murky day with nothing but clouds in the sky and a constant, somewhat ominous rumble of thunder in the distance. The normally rather pleasant garden had been trashed and now looked like two large monsters had been mud-wrestling in it.
“Honestly, me neither…” Tenuk shrugged. “I actually didn’t even think your siblings liked each other that much. I thought it was just youngling flings or something. I suppose at least they did it outside and kept it outside rather than drenching the entire living room again. Gotta give them credit for that.”
“I guess…”
Arkay hadn’t been right all day. He’d barely slept, could barely concentrate and was in a particularly bad mood. He’d woken up early that morning, crying about a bunch of tasks that their father, the Voidborn Kenon, had asked them to do, and he seemed somewhat shaken by it all. Mostly due to the task that had been asked of him.
“You’re not doing too well, are you?” Tenuk asked, pulling Arkay closer. “You need a hug.”
“I don’t want a hug. I kinda want to be left alone.”
Tenuk shook his head. “I’m not leaving you out here in the drizzle. You’re my little friend and you’re not happy and, well, us old Dessaron guys gotta stick together, right? Elksia is popping round at some point, maybe the three of us could go to that old breakfast buffet we used to go to.”
“Won’t be the same without Retvik…” Arkay sighed.
“Have you been able to speak to him?”
Arkay glanced at Tenuk. “I’ve been dealing with my retarded siblings, without any of my deitic powers. I am genuinely concerned about Retvik and I don’t even know what happened to him after I convinced him to calm down and not burn that hospital down…”
Tenuk fell silent, then shrugged. “Still, we should go. I think it’d be good for you. And me. Get us both out of the house for a bit.”
“True, I haven’t seen Elksia in a while…” Arkay muttered. “But how would it be good for me?”
“Because you need time to think about that task Kenon gave you.”
“I don’t want to do that stuff!” Arkay suddenly snapped. “I don’t want to fall in love! Because anyone I fall in love with will be taken away from me! That’s how this universe works! The others get stupid easy tasks and here I am, having to work on the antithesis of my entire being!”
“Oh come on, love isn’t that darn hard. If my asshole brother can fall in love with a nest of Vohra, you can fall in love too.”
Arkay rolled his eyes. “The falling in love isn’t a problem. The problem is the inevitable ending of said love. And the fact that the few beings I have wanted all got partners or got married, but that’s not the main problem, I can get over that. I don’t want to… I can’t get intimate with someone who will, well, die.”
“Then you’re purposefully holding yourself back…” Tenuk frowned. “And you’re making yourself miserable in the process. We get it, we all die one day, yourself included. But you’ve said it yourself, we need to enjoy the good moments we have and you’re not making any good moments.”
Arkay didn’t say anything. He kicked his feet together, staring at the muddy garden. Everything was a complete mess, but he only cared a little. He wouldn’t be able to fix it until everything dried up anyway.
“At least we’ve got lots of fertilizer for the garden now…” Arkay eventually muttered. He blinked in surprise as Tenuk suddenly burst out laughing. “What?”
Tenuk slowly calmed down, stifling his laughter. “That’s hilarious…”
“What is?”
“Fertilizer… for our garden… after what happened with Sini and Voltii…”
Arkay smiled a little, finally noticing the little pun he’d made. “Oh… yeah, that’s pretty funny actually…”
“So, you definitely want to go out for a breakfast buffet tomorrow?” Tenuk asked.
“Yeah, sure. It’ll be fun.”