Arrows and Roses - Chapter 11

When I had finished dressing myself, I walked out of the wardrobe feeling a little bit better. Thanatos had made the bed himself insisting that the servants were busy making dinner.

“How long do we have? And how long have I been down here for?” I asked, coming to stand beside him.

“Well, time passes normally down here as it would in the mortal world, unfortunately we don’t have the sun to keep track. But you have been down here for two days according to my watch,” He answered.

“Two days,” I muttered, thinking about all the paperwork waiting for back home.

“We sent a message to your brothers, they’ll be ensuring that your contracts are being taken care of,” Thanatos said much to my surprise.

“Can you read minds?” I looked at him.

“No, but it's what I would think about if I went missing for two days,” He shrugged.

“Great minds think alike,” I managed a smile, still a little unsure of what to do. I looked around his room, it was much like a bachelor's pad. He had the essentials, but nothing decorative.

“I should probably go. Thank you though for your hospitality,” I started to walk towards the door when he reached out and took my hand.

“Why don’t you stay for dinner,” he offered.

I stared at him, partly in confusion until it occurred to me he probably wanted to spend more time, to talk about the girl he wanted help on courting. So I nodded.

“If you’re hungry, I can send for some snacks.” He said, crossing to the other side of the room.

“How far away is dinner?” I asked, suddenly aware of my growling stomach.

“It will be a while, but my brother likes to go all out for visitors. You didn’t have dinner last night, and you missed breakfast, so...”

“More sandwiches?”

“If you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind.”

He nodded and rung a bell. In a matter of minutes the doors opened, but no one entered. But I watched as Thanatos spoke in a low voice to a space in front of him.

“Do you mind if we go to the kitchen? The servants are scared because Hypnos is in there,” Thanatos gave a weak smile.

“Is he that bad?” I held back a smile, he seemed embarrassed by this.

“Let’s just say, it’s the only time my good natured brother loses his mind,” He explained.

He gestured to the door and I nodded, moving forward.

As we walked along the corridor, I looked at the walls filled with paintings of his family. All of them took on dignified poses for the portraits that ranged between the 17th century to the 19th century.

I could tell we were getting closer to the kitchen, because I could hear shouting and loud banging.

As we got to the doors that led inside, Thanatos stopped me just as the doors flung open, a large pot flying out just narrowly missing us.

“For the love of all that’s holy Gavin! You can’t use the bloody meat cleaver! You’ve got no hands!” Hypnos shouted angrily.

“Wow, he sounds really angry, are you sure it’s safe to enter?” I whispered. I looked to Thanatos who was smirking.

“We’ll be fine,” He whispered back.

We snuck into the kitchen and stood in the corner as chaos ensued.

“One of these days I’m going to take what’s left of you, grind you into paste, spread that paste onto some bread and call it Gavin, the idiot sandwich!” Hypnos whirled around, glaring at the floating cooking utensils.

“Oh my god… it’s Gordon Ramsey,” I covered my mouth with my hands unable to take my eyes off the awful scene unfolding.

“I’m going to put bacon on it, and lettuce, and eggs, and then I’m going to garnish it with some nice herbs before FEEDING IT TO CERBERUS!” Hypnos shouted.

“You see this hammer here, Gavin? I’m going to knock you out soon. If I see you put another branch of rosemary into my meat. I’m going to take that branch and shove it right up your–”

“Brother!” Thanatos walked forward to intervene.

“Thanatos! For the love of… get him out of here. I need to work in peace,” Hypnos glared at the floating spatula.

“I’m sorry Gavin, but could you please leave?” Thanatos spoke to the spatula. It dropped a little, as if the person holding it had lost the motivation to hold it, before it was placed on the kitchen bench.

“You’re scaring the servants Hyp.”

But his brother ignored him.

“Why is it that we hire mediocre service?”

“Because they’re being punished for all eternity?” Thanatos moved around him and got some bread. I looked around and found some lettuce and tomatoes, which I placed on a plate to minimise space. I did not want to get on Chef’s bad side.

“We need better servants.”

“We’ll have none left if you keep sending them to Cerberus to eat,” I watched Thanatos walk back to where I was standing, reaching out briefly for a small block of cheese on the way.

“One of these days, I swear on my immortal life. I’m going to find a good servant and talk them into doing terrible stuff so that when they are sentenced to eternal damnation, I’ll bring them here,” Hypnos waved a large soup spoon around, spattering the contents about.

Thanatos placed a stool by the bench for me to sit on as he started cutting up some tomatoes and cheese for our sandwiches.

I watched him expertly slice everything, forgetting that I should be helping, until two sandwiches were placed in front of me.

“What about you?” I asked.

He already started making his own sandwiches and he smirked at me when he was done.

“Shall we?”

I nodded and grabbed my plate. I followed him out the door, but where the hallway was meant to be, I nearly ran into a tree.

“Sorry, I thought it would be quicker I just…”

I stared in awe at the all the exotic plants that were growing around. We were in a large greenhouse dome, and it was so vibrant and full of colours. A large Venus Trap towered over me, leaning towards me like a plant would lean towards sunlight.

“It’s not thinking about eating me is it?” I whispered.

I heard Thanatos chuckle beside me.

“No, it’s waiting to be watered. Mother probably hasn’t gotten around to it yet,” He walked over and handed me an umbrella ignoring the question in my eyes.

“You might want to put the umbrella up,” He advised.

As soon as I did, he turned on the sprinklers, and it started showering down like natural rain. Immediately all the plants seemed to come to life. The fact that I thought it was colourful before made me feel slightly embarrassed, because now the full green house came to life in a rainbow.

“It’s so beautiful…” I looked at everything in awe.

“Come with me,” He whispered into my ear. I turned to see Thanatos reaching for the umbrella and handing me his plate.

He took me gently by the elbow, and led me to a little room to the side. It had a small wooden table and some chairs.

“This is nice.” I looked around at the quaint setting.

“Yes, she has six green houses, this is the rainforest greenhouse I believe.” He set the umbrella down and pulled out a chair for me. Taking a seat, I couldn’t help but notice the small smile on his face.

“You like it here,” I waited for him to sit before touching my sandwich. It was good manners.

“I do, it’s one of my favourite places,” He took a bite of his sandwich and chewed thoughtfully.

“When I was much younger, I already knew I had a job to do. I never had much of a childhood, and I never acted like one. But when Lady Persephone arrived, she treated me like I was. She made sure I was eating enough and had plenty of stimulation. She taught me the cultivation of plants, I honestly thought I’d be hopeless, everything I had touched before died in my hands,” He said. I couldn’t detect any emotion, but it was a pretty sad statement.

“But mother, she taught me how to grow plants and how to keep them alive,” he continued.

I took a bite of my sandwich while I listened. Hearing about Thanatos' childhood was strange. We all believed he was born fully grown.

“I remember following her into this green house once, and I hid here for a few hours, I fell asleep right over there. By that tree covered in Epiphytes,” He pointed behind me, and through the glass walls I could see a tree covered in what looked to be little fern-like plants.

“She’d been looking for me everywhere, calling my name. She was so panicked that when she found me she held me close and cried. I was confused at first. I asked her why she was crying. And she said to me. ‘For a split second, I thought I had lost my son,’” He smiled at the memory and I couldn’t help smiling too. He had such a close bond with his mother.

“After that, I started calling her mother, and since then she’s given me more love than I could ever have expected. But you probably know all about that,” He finished.

I shook my head.

“I didn’t actually. My father might know though. That was long before my siblings and I were born,” I replied.

He nodded.

“Do you like being a reaper?” I asked. The question surprised him, he looked at me mid-bite.

“Do you like being a cupid?” He put down what was left of his sandwich, and crossed his arms on the table, leaning forward to hear my answer.

“I suppose I do, there are downsides to the job, would you believe” I explained.

“Enlighten me,” He looked at me, completely focused.

“Part of my job is to hold myself back, to repress feelings when I don’t agree with something. I am not allowed to intervene unless said person is part of the contract in which I am involved. Meaning, I am not allowed to interfere with unrequited love.” I took another bite, chewed, and swallowed before continuing.

“You’d be surprised how much pain someone goes through watching someone they love, love another.”

“You can’t shoot them and make them fall in love with someone else?” He asked me.

Shaking my head I picked at the crust on my plate.

“I’m not allowed, sometimes by chance they fall in love with someone else. But it’s all part of growth, they must learn to let go and move on.”

“What if they turn into a stalker.”

“We don’t do that. The love we spread is warm, and kind. Stalkers don’t love. They obsess, and it’s dangerous. That’s love that’s been toyed and experimented on. It’s a disease. We are not responsible for stalkers, fangirls or fanboys, vegans, activists of any kind. Anything that warrants hate and violence or obsessive tendencies in the name of love. We did not shoot them. People have always blamed cupid for love gone wrong, and it hurts. That’s like blaming a regular human being when it rains, or when a volcano erupts. It hurts our feelings,” I stopped and took a breath, hoping to calm down before continuing.

“We are responsible for when you look into the eyes of a shelter dog and think ‘this is the one’. We are responsible for mothers looking into the eyes of a child at an adoption agency, and knowing that the child is theirs. We are responsible for people who look at their friends and realise it’s love. We are responsible for old people who sit on the porch and hold hands after fifty years of marriage. That’s what we are responsible for,” I finished.

Thanatos sat watching me with interest not saying a word.

“Sorry… I just... Felt the need… to explain a little better, how cupids work,” I said slowly.

“That’s okay. I enjoyed whatever that was,” He gestured to myself.

“I’m so sorry,” I felt myself grimace, but he didn’t mind.

We finished our sandwiches and the plates were taken away by more invisible servants.

We had some time to kill before dinner, so we spent the rest of the day exploring the greenhouse. I did ask him if he needed to finish any work, but he just sighed and said there was always paperwork.

I watched him as he led me around showing me all the various plants his mother grew, some of them she even cross-bred herself.

“Hey Than…” I started awkwardly. Could you relax woman? You’re meant to be the professional.

“The girl,” I smiled at him, hoping to make him more comfortable and at ease with this topic.

“I’ve never been on a date,” He continued to prune the flower he was holding as if the statement was no big deal.

“That’s okay. I can have a list sent over to you, and you can take a look at it and decide on which date you would feel most comfortable doing,” I took out my mirror, getting ready to call the temple when he turned around and stopped me.

“How about you show me? I learn better when I can see what I’m meant to do,” His gaze bore into me, and I felt like the air in the greenhouse was slowly disappearing.

“Ok, I can do that,” I nervously nibbled at my bottom lip, racking my brain, thinking about what the next step was.

“I can do tomorrow if you’re free.” He mumbled.

I felt my head move up and down on its own accord.

I felt slightly dazed at what I just agreed to, and my eyes followed Thanatos as he went back to pruning. He continued to show me how to care for the plant he was holding, I could hear the passion and happiness in the way he spoke about them and their needs. When the nervousness subsided, I was more than content to just sit and watch him garden for the rest of the day, but dinner was nearing and I’m certain I wasn’t a very good student.