“Arkay! I am so happy to see you! You need to stay with me! We need to stay together! The Allbirther demands it but also I demand it! We…”
Kuta fell silent, covering their mouth. In their excitement and relief, they realized they were speaking far too quickly. The Thantophor remained in the doorway for a moment, before gently stepping into the small hospital room and closing the door behind him.
“How are you feeling, Kuta?” Arkay was doing his best to remain calm as he sat down next to Kuta. Kuta was currently lying in bed, their legs bandaged up and their left arm held up by their chest, secured in a sling. Their right arm seemed alright, but they had a medi-band wrapped around their elbow and upper arm, which was monitoring Kuta’s vitals and also drip-feeding them medication.
“I was feeling utterly miserable, but I am very happy to see you!” Kuta repeated themselves. “I was scared that you would want to leave me and would blame yourself for the earthquake! And the Allbirther was also scared that you would blame yourself for this and would want to leave me too. But you came back!” Kuta fell silent again, yet again realizing they were speaking a mile a minute. “I… I apologise, I am… I am a little all over the place. I have a resistance to standard painkillers and am on some… strange stuff… Still, I am genuinely really glad you are here!”
“Really?” The Thantophor looked uneasy. And dirty. Arkay’s armour was stained and covered in dust and goodness knows what else. “You are happy to see me? After nearly 90 people died and you nearly died?”
Kuta nodded. “It was not your fault. You do not cause earthquakes, yes? An earthquake is caused by movement, not decay. And as soon as it all happened, you came back and saved a lot of lives! The Rethavok are grateful for you! And I am happy to see you. I feared I would never see you again.”
Arkay closed his eyes and sighed. “I… I did consider not coming back. Just… leaving… As I dug people out of rubble, as I moved pieces of debris to free the trapped, as I did my best to stop folks from dying… yeah, I definitely considered disappearing, thinking this was all my fault. But you Rethans have been very accepting of my presence and, well… I’d be the greatest of assholes if I abandoned you.”
“Also the Allbirther would be upset!” Kuta added.
“Also yeah… wait, what? You spoke to Sini?”
“Uh…” Kuta hesitated. “Well, she more spoke to me. I was pretty delirious and just muttered basic questions and yes and no answers. Still am rather delirious, if I am brutally honest… Also, the Allbirther is a very attractive Rethavok. Same way you are.”
Arkay tutted, then leaned back in his seat. “I’m only attractive like this because I’m a shapeshifter. I can make myself however I want.”
“But you remain yellow.”
“What is wrong with yellow?”
Kuta shrugged, then regretted doing so. Their arm hurt. “Nothing is wrong with yellow. But the Allbirther had light pink skin, pink armour and green eyes. Very odd. Does the Allbirther change her colours a lot?”
“Yeah. She likes to swap things around. Pink, purple, red, green, colours she believes are nature-related. Kairos has his whites, blues and silvers, Epani just sticks to red and gold, I have my yellow, black and occasionally grey…”
“Huh. Maybe I will meet our Lady of Light one day as well…” Kuta mused to themselves. “Although if the Lady of Light really… did intentionally do this to us, then I do not want to meet Her. The Allbirther said that we upset our Lady and She also wanted to hurt you.”
The Thantophor took a long, deep breath, then put his head in his hands. “Epani… does… some… she… she is not very nice… and I am chained to her and Sini, made to serve them. She doesn’t normally hurt mortals though, which is why this pains me so much.”
“Pain or not, you are… still my poten-partner, yes?”
“Alright, is this because you’re on drugs or is something going on? Because fuck me, you sound desperate.”
Kuta smiled. “It is both. Also the Allbirther was pretty insistent that I do my best to convince you to not give up on our relationship. She seemed to be under the impression that the universe is at stake and that you would have killed the Lady of Light had I died. The Allbirther literally thanked me for not dying.”
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I’m thankful you didn’t die, because, yes, I may have seriously harmed or possibly killed Epani for harming you. And I definitely considered harming her over the thirty dead eggs I had to deal with. Or the dying children. Or…” Arkay’s words faded briefly. “Normally I don’t have a problem with any of this. I’m the God of Decay, people die constantly. I can hear the more anguished ones sometimes, even though I’ve learned to and am allowed to block it all out. It’s the avoidable deaths that hurt though. None of this should have happened. We shouldn’t be here, we should have been sitting on the sofa, making out after a busy day of work. But no, there are 88 dead Rethans and about seven thousand injured vok, including yourself and poor little Relkir.”
Kuta blinked, the smile on their face being replaced with confusion. “That is weird. The Allbirther mentioned the High Advisor as well. She said that, if I failed to convince you to remain in a relationship with me and if I ended up being single, I should seek a relationship with Relkir Rethianos. Somehow.”
“I mean, they ARE cute…” Arkay shrugged. “And as I’ve mentioned a few times, I have a thing for short Rethans with weirdly coloured eyes. But I promised Relkir that I would help them with some personal and political problems and I have no idea how I am going to do that, what with Epani being a bitch.”
“Hmph. You and your promises. You should stop making those. All they do is hurt you. Same way those books hurt you. Did you get rid of those books, by the way?”
“I gave them to Sini.”
Kuta grunted. “I would have burned them, but that will have to do for now. How are our exo-universal friends, by the way? I do not know where my communicator is so I do not know, and I have not arranged for one of my captains to bring me my backup devices yet. Your younger friend Elkay seemed nice.”
“I haven’t… spoken to any of them yet. Been… kinda busy… and reluctant to…”
“You should speak to them. They are your friends and lovers and, uh, whatever your connection is between my distant twin and the flaming behemoth. At the very least, that Elkay fellow, you owe it to keep in touch with them… him? I am not sure, but you and that Elkay are both tortured freak deities that do not fit in and Elkay could use your guidance to not be the idiot you are.”
Arkay snorted, then scooted closer to Kuta. “That’s harsh, but you’re completely right.”
“Of course I am completely right. I certainly did not arrive at the position of General of Hidden Affairs by being partially right. Or good-looking. Say what you like about me, but I am not here in my own private room because I am attractive.”
The Thantophor sighed, then held Kuta’s free hand. That silly little smile had returned to Arkay’s face. “You’re attractive to me.”
Kuta smiled back. “So you are sticking around, yes?”
“Yeah. I’m sticking around.”
“Good. Please excuse my language, but fuck the Lady of Light, you are more important and better in every way.”
Arkay smiled some more, then leaned up against Kuta, nuzzling them gently. “Once again, you are completely right…”