Arrows and Roses - Chapter 13

It had been hours since she left for home and he was still in his room pacing about, unable to sleep. It was funny, to think gods didn’t need sleep but still did it anyway, much like eating human food. It was enjoyable. There were several stories of the gods sleeping for years, so it shouldn’t be a shock that he enjoyed it as much as the next god did.

Perhaps I should see her brothers. Maybe they can help me with this, he thought to himself. He fetched his reapers cloak and allowed the shadows to open to him, like a gateway right into the living room of Lord Eros’ house.

The three brothers were scattered about, lying down in various positions on various furniture.

Thanatos cleared his throat, hoping they would awaken without getting irritated like most people do when woken up by someone else. When no one stirred, Thanatos grabbed a pen from a nearby table and threw it at Alesandro, who just simply rolled over in his sleep mumbling something about idiots.

He threw another pen at Julian, who this time woke to find a reaper hovering over his brothers.

He let out the unmanliest of screams, waking his brothers. Thanatos moved to him, quickly covering his mouth with his hands.

“Julian! It’s me!” He whispered.

Julian looked at him with wide eyes before they narrowed at him, recognizing the voice.

Alesandro and Klaus sat up with sleepy eyes and the sight of their brother being silenced by a reaper was quite heart-stopping.

“HANG ON, BROTHER!” Klaus shouted.

“WE’VE GOT YOU!” Alesandro reached out and grabbed hold of his mother’s vase. Julian looked at them in alarm, holding his hands out in protest.

“TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF MY BROTHER, YOU DEMENTOR!” Klaus lunged forward and grabbed the reaper by his cloak, hauling him off Julian who immediately reached for Klaus to stop him from choking him. He looked at Alesandro who was now coming towards them, vase raised and ready to strike. Due to quick thinking, he grabbed the cloak, giving it a good yank to reveal Thanatos. Who was still wrestling with Klaus.

“GUYS, IT’S THANATOS!” he explained.

Klaus, who was still holding him by the throat, grinned down at Thanatos.

“Than! How are you doing?” He grinned at the other man who managed a small smile while also gasping for air.

“Get off him, you boob!” Julian grabbed his brother by the collar and pushed him to the side. He reached down and helped Thanatos off the ground.

“I’m surprised no one else has come running,” Thanatos exclaimed, rubbing his neck.

Julian shrugged. “All the bedrooms are soundproof.” He gestured to the ceiling like it was the most obvious answer.

“And in case of a fire?”

“Each room has a sprinkler and an alarm goes off.” Julian snatched their mother’s vase out of Alesandro’s hands and placed it back down on the ground.

“What exactly were you planning to do with that brother? Hmm?” He turned to Alesandro who blushed.

“It was the first thing I grabbed. What? I panicked!” Their youngest brother put his hands up in defense and they all turned to face him.

“You panicked so you grabbed mom’s vase to what? Hit him over the head? It’s not exactly a good weapon of choice. What if he was trying to kill me?” Julian scolded.

Alesandro pointed at the cloak.

“I thought he was trying to kill you! That’s why I grabbed mom’s vase! I mean, it’s heavy enough!” He gestured to the meter tall, clay vase that was beautifully painted with mosaics and peacocks with jewel-encrusted eyes.

“You couldn’t quickly dart to the kitchen and grab some knives?” Julian demanded.

“It’s not like I had time to waltz over there and choose. Like what if I needed to get a certain knife!” Alesandro’s voice raised an octave. The argument becoming more heated by the second.

“Any knife will do, Alesandro!” Klaus interjected.

“Oh yes! A cheese knife is perfect to fight off a reaper! Yes! Fantastic! I’ll remember that for next time, brother!” Their younger brother replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Not a cheese knife, you half-witted dwarf child! Something like a meat cleaver or a chef’s knife!” Julian crossed his arms over his chest, looking at his brother pointedly.

“How am I supposed to know these things! I wasn’t trained to kill people! I didn’t go to the assassins academy! I went to Cupid’s academy, remember? I stood there with 30 other graduating fledglings while you were busy making out with Apollo?” Alesandro threw his hands up in exasperation.

“I wasn’t making out with him!” Julian said, turning a lovely shade of red.

“Then what do you call it brother? CPR?” Klaus turned on Julian, whose blush quickly spread to his wings.

“He was helping me find something!”

“Oh really? What was he helping you find? Your d-”

“GUYS!” Thanatos shouted.

The brothers' ceased and turned to him as if they had forgotten he was here.

“I need your help…” He began.

When they had righted the room, Thanatos stood in the middle, explaining the situation to Erosa’s brothers.

“Let me get this straight. You need us, to help you, woo our sister. I feel quite conflicted. I feel I should help him, but she’s my sister. Should I really be encouraging her to date someone?” Klaus spoke up.

Surprisingly, it was Alesandro who replied.

“You’re an idiot… Your entire career and job is focused solely on getting people together, why are you so conflicted about this one?”

“Because it’s our sister.”

“And all the more reason you should be excited about this.” Alesandro leaned back on the couch and looked at his brother’s urging them to debate with him.

“Maybe we’re not the right ones for this job. Maybe Than should ask a different cupid.” Julian suggested.

But Thanatos shook his head. “No, I don’t know any other cupids other than you guys, and I don’t trust anyone else with this information.” He explained.

The brothers looked at him in surprise. Thanatos was quite a private man. He rarely spoke up during summits and he was always busy working so he never stayed long at the Olympian parties.

“Okay, fine. Have you told her that you like her.” Julian started.

Thanatos shook his head again. “No, It’s not like I get many chances. And I was told by the Fates that I’m forbidden. She has to choose me.”

“Choose you?” Alesandro sat up with intrigue.

“Yes, like Cupids, we have our own complications with love. We are not allowed to tell someone that we love them. We must be chosen if it’s love.”

“Why is that?” Klaus frowned. This was the first time he’d heard of a reaper having a set of rules allowing him to take a bride.

“I don’t know, ask the Fates. It was their doing.” Thanatos sighed heavily.

The brothers snorted. “Damn, Fates, always trying to fooling around in other people’s business.” Klaus scoffed.

Thanatos nodded in agreement.

“Okay, we’ll help you. You mentioned that something was happening tomorrow?” Julian piped up.

“Yes, Erosa said she was going to show me how to date someone.”

Alesandro stifled a laugh. Klaus sat beside him, snickering.

“Is that funny?” Thanatos racked his confusion, was he missing a joke?

Julian smiled at him sympathetically. “Kinda. Erosa’s not very experienced with dating.” He blurted.

Immediately a shriek broke them out of their conversation and they all turned to see their youngest sister, Amora, and the eldest brother, Cleo, in the doorway.

“You’re going to date our sister?!” Amora bounced up and down excitedly at the news while the eldest just stood staring at Thanatos in shock.

“Hey, you guys! Long time, no see. How was wherever you guys were?” Julian waved them over to sit on the couch.

“Oh, well, we were in Asia… but then that mission went sideways.” Amora rolled her head to give her elder brother a pointed look.

“I don’t know why you insist it was my fault. If the damn goat hadn’t got in the way, it would’ve been fine.” He argued.

“You can blame the goat all you want but we both know it was your fault.” Amora shrugged and went to sit beside Julian.

“Oh, so it’s my fault that the goat jumped in front of me just as I was taking the shot. I say the bastard had it coming.” Cleo crossed his arms and leaned on the doorway.

“I don’t want to think about that… let's stay focused on the matter at hand.” Klaus waved his hand and looked at Thanatos.

“Can you tell us any more of what the Fates said to you?” He asked.

“They told me that my immortality would be intertwined with a queen of hearts. My initial thought was with Hedone, but they said fate would take its course as soon I rescued her.” Thanatos explained.

Julian looked at him with a curious expression. “When did you rescue her?”

“Well when she was much younger, I found her in a forest, her wings were torn and she was tangled in a pile of overgrown thorns. I got her out. I thought maybe that was just a fluke, but I rescued her again when she was playing by the lake and fell in by accident.” He sat on the ground by the wall and looked at them mournfully.

“I didn’t realize at the time the name ‘queen of hearts’ was a term referring to all the daughters of Eros.”

“So she’s your soulmate,” Klaus said quietly.

“I don’t know if soulmates exist for us immortals, but we are meant to be if that’s what it means.” Thanatos took a breath before he continued.

“Okay, so you’re not allowed to tell her that you're soulmates. But what if we told her?” Alesandro suggested.

“It might have repercussions. She’s meant to choose me without any outside help. I don’t want to risk it.”

“So you have to earn her love. Well, that should be easy.” Julian looked around at his siblings, who gave him mixed expressions.

“Have you not met Erosa?” Cleo asked.

“I live with her?” Julian ignored his brother’s incredulous look.

“Erosa is the goddess of enduring love. She’s not going to hand over her heart. She’ll want to make sure that he remains faithful and that their love will be everlasting. She’s going to make it hard. Not because it’s in her nature but because she’s also cautious. Remember the last time she got hurt?” Amora recalled.

All the brothers let our audible groans. They remembered all too well. Since then, the children of Eros have always been quite wary when someone attempts to date one of them.

“What happened last time?” Thanatos asked, frowning. He didn’t like the idea that someone had hurt her previously.

“She thought she found love. One of the demigods. He abused her, we didn’t realize until it was too late. Since then. She has been quite hesitant about letting anyone in.” Amora answered sadly.

“I’m not going to ask his name,” Thanatos replied dryly.

Julian read his thoughts.

“And I wouldn’t tell you his name even if you asked. Don’t think I don’t know you’ll try to hunt him down if he got into Elysium.”

“If he’s abused her, he wouldn’t be in Elysium... I’ll kill him.” Thanatos snapped much to Amora’s surprise.

“Let’s not dwell on the past. We’ll help you.” She said.