The colossal golden gateway opened up, revealing Kinisis and Arkadin, both who seemed pretty happy. Kenon stood to one side, holding a tray with several glasses of water on them, which he immediately thrust into the two little deities’ hands.
“Did you have a good trip?” Kairos cooed from a little perch above the gate, inspecting everything that came through and silently checking for any Corruption or other threats. “You didn’t seem like you were gone very long. Like, it was just a couple of hours… I assume time works differently, wherever you were?”
“Where were you anyway?” Yisini suddenly butted in. She had been slithering around impatiently around Kenon’s legs and had been rather grumpy ever since she had discovered that both Kinisis and Arkadin had gone on a trip outside the universe. “You left me here with these assholes!”
“Actually, you left Kenon with us three assholes…” Kairos interrupted back. “But yeah, where did you go?”
Kinisis smiled, watching as Arkadin downed his glass of water, then sheepishly requested another glass from Kenon. Kenon responded by sighing and poured him another glass of water, which refilled as soon as Arkadin repeatedly emptied it. Arkadin had been responsible for arranging transportation and was clearly rather thirsty and tired because of it.
“We went to a party. A friend of mine, Seimeni, the daughter of my sister Athanasi, invited us. We had a lovely time, actually! Nice big party between Universe Creators such as myself.”
Yisini’s eyes widened. “You went to a party and didn’t take us with you?”
“Yes.” Kinisis’s reply was blunt.
“Why?”
Kinisis tilted her head to one side. “Why do you think?”
Kairos and Yisini glanced at each other, then glanced up at Epani, who had been silent and watching the entire time. Epani glanced back at them, not sure what they were thinking about.
“Uh, I don’t know, Kinisis. Could you tell us why?” Kairos shrugged.
Kinisis smiled some more, then sighed and explained. “Well, you three were having fun not doing your jobs and having lots of gratuitous sex, I thought it’d be nice if Arkadin had a little bit of a break as well…” The Allmaker paused, then turned to Arkadin, who was still drinking. “Although I must apologise, dear, I didn’t mean to over-stress you with the teleport home.”
“It’s fine…” Arkadin gargled through glasses of water, which Kenon kept on pouring for him. “Should have eaten something substantial before heading off…”
“B-b-but I would have loved to have gone…” Yisini muttered. “I’m a Life Goddess, I would have fit in perfectly!”
“Now, now, Sini!” Kairos shrugged. “We had a great time as well doing our own thing. Can’t starve Arkadin from all the fun things now, he deserves time off too. They were only gone for a couple of hours anyway.”
“Exactly!” Epani replied, somewhat nervously. “Are you alright, Arkadin?”
Arkadin stopped drinking for a moment. “I’m fine, just worn out by the journey back.”
“Did you have a good time though?” Kairos asked.
Arkadin hesitated, then shrugged. “I guess.”
“Did you pull?” Yisini tutted.
The Thantophor sighed. “Why does everyone keep on asking me that?”
“Well, did you?”
Yisini stared at Arkadin, waiting for an answer.
“What’s it to you?”
“YOU DID!” Yisini screeched, bouncing around. “You pulled!”
“No!” Arkadin tutted. “I didn’t! But I did get a number.”
“GOOD ENOUGH!”
Confused by how excited Yisini was, Arkadin took several steps back, both looking and feeling disorientated. Kenon gave him a funny look, then handed him the magical refilling glass bottle.
“Calm down, dear!” Kinisis smiled as she patted Yisini on the head. “Give your little brother some space. And also, get your ass back to work, because you’ve all been slacking off for weeks!”
Yisini, Kairos and Epani all blinked, swiftly realising that Kinisis was right, they had been bunking off work. The three deities all grumbled, then poofed off in various clouds of smoke.
With one last smile, Kinisis turned back to Arkadin.
“Now, as for you, dear, go home and have a nap. Then go and call your little friend and tell her you arrived home safely…”