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Melinoë had only given herself the opportunity to relax very infrequently while she was training for her goal and, when she first left to begin her hunt, she expected to remain just as focused. She wanted to remain focused because anything less would be letting down all of the people who were relying on her to kill Chronos. Yet, somehow, she found herself taking more and more breaks. Only for a short time - she certainly wasn’t giving up on her goal, despite Chronos’s pitiful attempts at dissuading her - but taking a moment to spend time with those she was close to was nice.
Originally, it was because she was obtaining gifts and wanted to give them away to express her thanks to those who were helping her. Then, instead of simply giving them nectar and leaving, Melinoë started giving them her time as well. There were plenty of ways to excuse it. She was doing it for their benefit, or taking a break was important in the midst of relentlessly pursuing a goal, or she had to give away these presents somehow. But, perhaps more importantly, they just made her happy. Whether it was a stolen moment when she crossed paths with Artemis, a short respite from fighting with Medea, a single exchange of words with Selene, or a longer trip to the pier or springs after she returned, spending time with the people who supported her was refreshing.
Since she went fishing with Hecate, Melinoë decided that while every second counted, she would accomplish nothing if she burned herself out. It was difficult getting over the feeling of being selfish, but she was a master at getting past obstacles. It was easier when it was somebody who helped her because she could say she was helping them back. Even Nemesis was helping Melinoë in her own way, though Melinoë had given Nemesis nectar before she started following her on her expeditions, so perhaps she had some alternate reasons for giving people gifts. Despite what Eris said, she didn’t do it just to make people like her. She didn’t care if people liked her, most of the time. She just felt it was important to show other people how much they meant to her.
None of this entirely explained why Melinoë wanted to spend time with Eris, though. Eris certainly didn’t help her, unless you counted motivating Melinoë to succeed through spite. That didn’t feel like a good enough reason to repeatedly go back to the corner Eris stood in to talk to her. Or, sometimes, to not talk to her. It wasn’t an attempt to get Eris to stop fighting her, either, because if there was one thing Melinoë knew about Eris it was that the only person who could change her mind was herself. In that way, they were rather alike. The only conclusion Melinoë could come to was that something about Eris made her relax, too, or at least distracted her. Surely, that was why she had come back yet again with a slightly more elaborate plan.
“Do you want to go to the woods?” Melinoë asked, moving their interaction somewhere else being the extent of her idea. They’d been to the hot springs once, and Melinoë liked to see Eris relax. Eris drinking some of the water afterwards was also a memory Melinoë thought about with fondness. Eris’s chosen corner was rather private already but Melinoë wondered if going somewhere further away from everybody else would bring something else out in her. Or, at least, help either of them relax. Despite how much Eris talked about doing whatever she wanted whenever she wanted, she always seemed defensive about something. Melinoë couldn’t exactly blame her, and thought it’d be hypocritical of her if she brought it up considering her own nature, but that didn’t stop her wanting to help, somehow.
“Do you want to kill me, babe?” Eris asked, “Because that kind of feels like a lead-up to violence. I’m not saying no, but you could also just try and get to Olympus again and we’d do that whole fight there.”
“I… No, not right now, at least,” Melinoë answered. She was about to continue, working out what to say, but Eris interrupted.
“Is it sex?”
“No,” Melinoë said, instantly, though the thought wasn’t entirely negative. Not something for right now, though. Before Eris could interject again, she continued, “It’s just, I don’t know, to relax? We can bring food or something. I have more nectar. Maybe I just want to spend time with you, just us. If you don’t want to, just say so.” Eris looked contemplative, for a moment, staring Melinoë down before apparently coming to a conclusion and shrugging.
“Fine. It’s not like I’m up to much if you’re here, anyway,” Eris replied. That was good enough for Melinoë, so she took a step back and started walking through to one of the paths that led further into the woods, away from the Crossroads. Not far enough away that something would attack them but enough to put some distance between them and everybody staying there.
- - -
Once they got to the small clearing, Melinoë hovered for a moment, unsure what to do next. Luckily, Eris fixed that problem for her by dramatically sitting down with a sigh. She put the Adamant Rail down beside her, still within arms reach, but not in her hand. Melinoë took that as a positive sign. She stayed on her feet for a second more, unsure where to sit, but Eris groaned and stared at her.
“Trouble, you’re the one who said she wanted to go out. You can sit next to me, I won’t bite,” Eris said, her face the picture of innocence. Melinoë knew that was a lie because Eris had bitten her before, but she did so anyway. With an exhale, she sat down next to her, leaving a little space between them. “Why did you want to come out here, again?”
“I didn’t think that far ahead,” Melinoë admitted, feeling Eris’s gaze on her and turning to meet it. “Maybe I just wanted to spend time away from everything else.”
“With me?” Eris asked, snorting and shaking her head. “Your funeral, babe.” She took one of the snack bars which she always carried around, unwrapping it and taking a bite. Melinoë didn’t bother saying anything else, turning back to look up at the moon, embracing the light Selene was able to give to Erebus. Eris didn’t seem inclined to break the silence, though that may have been because she was eating. Melinoë wasn’t complaining; she could appreciate sharing a moment of silence with somebody, though she didn’t think Eris did. Unsurprisingly, when Eris finished her snack - Melinoë still didn’t know what they actually were - she tossed the wrapper on the ground next to her.
Melinoë could have left it, or at least should have told Eris to pick it up herself, but as if by reflex, she leaned over Eris to pick it up and put it in her purse, like she normally did. She felt Eris inhale underneath her as she did so, her shoulder pressing into Eris’s chest. As she withdrew, putting the rubbish into the purse along with all the rest, Melinoë felt a small rush pass through her. They had been in closer proximity, as necessitated if they were going to kiss (which they had, a few times), but something about leaning over Eris felt different. Unsurprisingly, Eris broke the silence less than a second later.
“You know, you’re pretty hot,” Eris said, sending Melinoë reeling. Yes, they had kissed, but they hadn’t exactly spoken about whatever was between them. Melinoë had assumed there wasn’t anything between them, and Eris only kissed her back because unpredictability was her whole thing.
“Um,” Melinoë replied, eloquently.
“Physically, I mean.”
“Um,” Melinoë repeated, desperately hoping she wasn’t blushing. It wasn’t the first time somebody had said something like that - Aphrodite commented on her looks frequently, and thinking about Aphrodite right now would make her go red if she wasn’t already. More often, Icarus had complimented her and rapidly tried to correct himself afterwards. Once Eris had watched her squirm enough, she continued talking.
“Your temperature, babe,” Eris said, grinning in a way that meant she knew exactly what she was saying.
“Oh!” Melinoë breathed a sigh of relief.
“You do look pretty good, too,” Eris finished, and Melinoë immediately elbowed her. “Why do you keep picking up after me? Don’t answer that, actually, I know you need everything to be tidy. Why do you keep it?”
“You never know what’ll be useful for a spell,” Melinoë replied, honestly. She didn’t like to leave a mess or see somebody else leave a mess, but she kept everything in case it would be useful for an incantation in the cauldron. “What’s with all the questions today?” Eris looked like she was thinking, head slightly tilted. If Melinoë didn’t know her better, she would have expected a serious reply considering how long Eris had paused.
“Can’t a girl just be curious? Speaking of curiosity, though…” Eris sat up a little more, looking at Melinoë with a focus that made her raise an eyebrow. “Does heat, like, rise from your feet?” Melinoë didn’t know how to respond to that but Eris moved so she was closer to the feet in question. “I want to know if they burn me, honestly. I mean, the grass definitely has a sizzling sound when you step on it, but I’m way stronger than grass.” To her surprise, Eris looked like she was waiting for a reply before she went ahead with testing her theory.
“Sure,” Melinoë said, admittedly slightly curious herself, but also because she didn’t want to discourage Eris from making contact with her. Even if that contact was with her legs. Eris put her palm directly on the bridge of Melinoë’s foot, and there was no smell of burnt flesh. Eris looked kind of disappointed, and Melinoë couldn’t stop the quiet laugh building up from leaving her chest. Eris responded by poking the sole of her foot.
“Shit!” Melinoë cursed immediately, her leg reacting on reflex and kicking directly up, into Eris’s face. “Oh, shit, I…” She would’ve apologised, but Eris brought that on herself, so she cut herself off. To her surprise, Eris just laughed, when Melinoë was expecting her to either complain or leave. Further surprising her was how nice Eris’s laugh sounded. She was used to it sounding mocking, or at least not genuine, but this was much nicer.
“You didn’t kick me that hard, Trouble,” Eris said, busy examining her thumb where she poked Melinoë. “Your soles feel weird.”
“You touched it for less than a second,” Melinoë replied, but now she was curious too, so she folded one leg closer to herself and rubbed her heel with her thumb. “I have no idea what you mean. I’m not touching yours to compare.”
“You brought it up, babe, not me,” Eris said, hands moving to her shin. Melinoë put her foot down, eyeing Eris cautiously. “Still hot. Huh! You should kick people more, see if they burn.” Her eyes caught on the cords tied around Melinoë’s thigh, but she didn’t move up to touch that as well.
“There are easier ways to set people on fire than trying to get a lucky kick in,” Melinoë replied, not mentioning her attempts to kick Schelemus when she was younger to see what would happen. That could stay between Schelemus and her. “I only know my brother and father have the same feet. I don’t know why. I think it’s something to do with being able to dash from one place to another.” Eris hummed, shifting herself across the grass so she was sitting closer to Melinoë again.
“You and Hecate have the same cord colours,” Eris said, a statement, not a question. Melinoë nodded.
“So do Artemis and Selene. A show of solidarity between us Silver Sisters.” Eris hummed again, and Melinoë could tell when Eris was getting bored. Instead of going back to sitting next to her, though, Eris intertwined her fingers with those of Melinoë’s ghostly arm. “I like your nails,” Melinoë said, instead of the many other things she could’ve said.
“Aw, thanks, babe. I don’t even think you could paint these claws,” Eris said, lifting their hands to look closer. She ran her free hand along Melinoë’s forearm, and Melinoë never got entirely used to the different way contact felt with that arm. “Weird how one limb is way colder than the rest of you. Guess it’s not yours, though.”
“Well, it is, in a way, kind of,” Melinoë replied, scrunching up her nose and considering pulling away but deciding to let Eris continue. She looked like she was trying to look through her palm, now. It did feel nice to hold her hand, even in this strange way. Eris practically buzzed with energy, even in moments of relative stillness such as this. She didn’t offer the explanation for how her arm ended up like that, and Eris didn’t ask. Perhaps she would another time. She wasn’t ashamed of it (Icarus was worth it, and she could still use it fine) but Eris asking would’ve pushed their thing from ‘kissing sometimes’ to something more personal, implying more feelings than Melinoë wanted to admit to right now.
One hand reached up to thumb the metal band around Melinoë’s upper arm, the border where skin ended, but her other hand remained intertwined with Melinoë’s. “I guess not many people have a green skeleton arm,” Eris said, seemingly leaving it at that. She broke their fingers apart so she could wrap them around Melinoë’s wrist, squeezing. “Kind of thought it would be more squishy. Have you heard of jelly?”
“Uh, no?” Melinoë said, furrowing her brow. She brought her normal hand up to rest on Eris’s, the urge to make closer contact only growing as Eris explored. After Eris ran her hands along it a few more times, she let go, and shuffled even closer to Melinoë.
“Your eyes are nice,” Eris said, cupping Melinoë’s face and staring into them. Melinoë blinked a few times, repeatedly glancing between Eris’s eyes and anywhere else. She committed to looking back into Eris’s, examining the purple of them. They reminded her of Master Chaos, though more human-looking, though Eris was far from human. Moros’s eyes were purple too, but Nemesis had golden eyes, which Melinoë guessed were from Nyx. Hecate once mentioned how similar Nemesis looked to her mother. More than the colour, though, Eris’s eyes were striking. It might have been because of the makeup, but it suited her.
“You can do better than nice,” Melinoë answered, in a moment of boldness, but Eris only smiled. That smile was one that Melinoë saw frequently, usually preceding some kind of trouble.
“Do you want me to wax poetic, babe?” Eris asked, her innocent voice for once not matched by her expression.
“Not particularly.” That made Eris grin again, and Melinoë was slightly worried that Eris would take her negative reaction as a sign to go ahead and do it. To her surprise, she didn’t, hands only moving up to touch the laurels on Melinoë’s head.
“Are these alive?” Eris asked. Melinoë couldn’t see what she was doing, but she could guess that Eris had one of the leaves between her thumb and finger. “‘Cause sometimes it’s like you shed them, y’know? They fall off and follow you around, or disintegrate into ash.”
“I have no idea,” Melinoë answered, her own hands moving from resting on Eris’s wrists to over to her shoulders. “I can take it off, so it’s clearly not tied to me, but maybe there’s something about it. Another inherited quirk.” To her surprise, Eris removed one of her hands from her face with something in it. A quick glance told Melinoë she was holding one of the discarded leaves of the laurel. Before Melinoë could comment on it, she watched Eris look at it and proceed to put it in her mouth. “What?” she asked, blinking.
“Just curious,” Eris said, shrugging. “Tastes hot, but disintegrated fast, so kind of gross… Maybe I should try another.” Pressing her lips together to stifle a laugh, Melinoë decided to pull Eris closer to kiss her. They were rather close already, Eris’s legs pressing against her own, but Eris was taking too long staring at her head. Eris leaned into it, the hand that stayed on Melinoë’s face reaching back to find a grip in her hair, while the other wrapped around her back.
It was nice kissing Eris. She leaned in like she was hungry, and the rest of her body always moved in sync. Melinoë could burn in her fire. Mirroring Eris, she moved one hand up to the back of Eris’s head, though it was much harder to find a grip on her hair so she quickly gave up. Her other hand, instead of going down Eris’s back, where it would meet her wings, drifted down to land on her waist. It was bumpy, thanks to Eris’s outfit, and Melinoë drifted her thumb over one of the studs. She brought her hand up to the point where the different coloured fabrics that circled Eris met, wanting to know whether they were tied to the rest of the outfit or not. She guessed they were, considering how she could fly without it slipping, but she’d seen gods who made more confusing decisions in the name of fashion. They were attached.
“Are you kissing me to examine my clothes?” Eris asked suddenly, raising an eyebrow, and Melinoë snorted.
“You got me. That’s been my secret plan this entire time,” Melinoë replied. “I was ‘just curious’.” She stopped Eris replying by pulling her in again, kissing her back with more focus this time. She refused to get distracted again, even if it was to test a hypothesis. There were much better hypotheses she could be testing.
It didn’t take long for Eris to start moving, adjusting her position by climbing further on Melinoë. Melinoë broke their kiss to make it easier for her to move, about to ask if they both needed to change positions, but Eris surged forward again with such force that they both fell over. Melinoë exhaled sharply as she hit the ground, and Eris had wide eyes but managed to catch herself with one forearm on either side of Melinoë’s head.
“I guess this works,” Eris said, not needing to lean down far to continue kissing Melinoë. Melinoë didn’t exactly mind Eris hovering over her, with her wings casting a shadow that felt like a cloak hiding them from Selene’s light. She lifted a hand to brush along the inside of Eris’s wing, not expecting Eris to drop like a bag of stones on top of her the moment she did so. Neither of them moved for a moment, Eris’s face buried somewhere between Melinoë’s neck and the grass beneath them.
”Are you ticklish?” Melinoë asked, breaking the silence first.
“No,” Eris said, sounding somewhat unsure. “It was just unexpected.”
“I thought you liked ‘unexpected’.” That made Eris push herself up again, staring into Melinoë’s eyes as if to work out if she was being made fun of or not. There was a gold flush to her cheeks that was slowly fading. Whatever she saw must have been satisfactory, because she rolled her eyes but smiled.
“Maybe I do,” Eris said, returning to kissing her. There was less hunger between them now, the inferno turning into something more burning more steadily. “You’re more unexpected than I thought.”
“Oh, I’m not boring anymore?”
“Maybe I’m trying to get to know you better,” Eris said, suddenly far more serious than Melinoë expected. For Eris, that wasn’t entirely serious, because she still phrased it like it was a joke shared between them, but Melinoë could read her better now. “It’s not often somebody persistently tries to be nice to me while I’m trying to kill them, Trouble. Maybe you just wore me down, finally.”
“I don’t think anybody can wear you down,” Melinoë replied, and Eris grinned again.
“Good, because I’m still going to kill you on your way to Olympus.”
“Try to kill me. It hasn’t been going well for you, recently,” Melinoë replied, not breaking eye contact with Eris. She had enough of her purse pressing into her back, and pushed up, quickly flipping their positions. “I think it’s my turn.” She didn’t mind Eris looking where she wanted to, but it was only fair that Melinoë was able to return the favour. She wanted to touch Eris’s wings, mostly, but it might be better to start somewhere else.
“If you want, babe,” Eris laughed, sounding like she didn’t believe her. Melinoë decided to take the opportunity to ask another question. There were many she could have asked, even if she was avoiding the deeper topics like ‘why are you like this?’. She was curious about Eris’s hair, for one, since all the other children of Nyx she knew had white hair, except Nemesis, but she had her mother’s. And Charon, but she wasn’t sure if he had hair. Maybe now wasn’t the time to bring up families, though. She could also ask about the colours in her outfit, or where she went when Melinoë killed her and hands reached up to pull her down.
“What are the snacks that you eat? The ones which you litter once you’re finished with them,” Melinoë asked, sitting up so that she could be more comfortable. She ended up sitting on Eris’s thighs, avoiding the belt of ammo and studs over her stomach. “Are they actually nice, or do you just eat them for the thrill of an empty wrapper to throw on the ground?” Eris laughed, another genuine one, which made Melinoë smile to hear. Both because she’d managed to make her laugh and because it was a nice sound.
“It’s chocolate. Want one?” Eris said, reaching into her belt to take one out and hold it up for Melinoë to take. She did, with some caution, because she wouldn’t put it past Eris to eat something that was not meant for mortal consumption. They weren’t mortal, but the point still stood. Still, she unwrapped it carefully and stared at it for a moment. Feeling Eris start to laugh made her take the first bite, and she was surprised by the sweetness. It wasn’t the best thing she’d tasted - it was hard to compare anything to nectar or ambrosia - but she thought she could understand why Eris liked to eat it repeatedly.
“It’s nice,” Melinoë said, once she’d finished. She folded the wrapper up, placing it directly into her purse, instead of throwing it to the ground like Eris. Eris was grinning, propping herself up with her hands behind her, likely so her wings weren’t pressed into the ground.
“I have a sweet tooth,” Eris said with a smile, so Melinoë tested that statement by leaning in to kiss her again. Only briefly, though, because she had a plan.
“Can I touch your wings?” she asked, trying to avoid surprising Eris again. Eris made her expression blank, which to Melinoë suggested she was hiding uncertainty or something similar, so Melinoë made sure to keep her hands on the grass while she thought it through. Eris made up her mind with a nod, but Melinoë still hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“Babe, come on,” Eris said, and Melinoë only smiled. “Yes, okay, fine. Yes.” She folded her wings inwards, probably so Melinoë didn’t have to reach forward and potentially fall over. She brushed her fingers against the feathers once, then more firmly, amazed at how soft they were. The only thing she could try to compare them to was Icarus’s, and his were entirely different, so that wasn’t a fair comparison.
Instead of saying anything, Melinoë continued to run her fingers across Eris’s wing, keeping her touch light so she wouldn’t brush the feathers the wrong way. Toula didn’t like it when Melinoë did that with her fur, and even though Eris wasn’t a cat, she assumed they would have the same principles. Once she had enough of the feathers, she lifted her arm higher to touch the top edge of them, where it felt far more solid. She wondered if Eris ever shed her feathers. Some of them were so large, they must take a while to grow, if they did. Melinoë thought she should do some more research on wings, though she didn’t know if the rules about birds would apply to Eris.
Not too long later, Eris sat up fully, her wings now practically curled around them both. Melinoë brought her hands up once more, to the smallest part of the wings where they were closest to Eris’s back. She brushed across them once, then circled her arms around Eris so that she could kiss her again. Eris clearly had the same idea, because she threw her arms over Melinoë’s shoulders and pushed in to kiss her at the same time, their mouths meeting in a way that Melinoë felt in her teeth.
Melinoë realised she had her legs wrapped loosely around Eris and her heels nearly pressed into her back when Eris started falling back, and Melinoë had to quickly move them out of the way. She went down with Eris, knees now pressed into the ground, trying not to break the kiss despite her lungs beginning to call for air. She had to, though, so she broke it for the second she needed and then closed the gap between them once again.
They stayed like that for what felt like ages, Melinoë lying on top of Eris with her forearms braced against the ground much as Eris’s were earlier. Eris moved her hands frequently, running them up and down her back, into her hair, and down her upper arms. Melinoë would have done the same, but found it easier for her balance to keep them on either side of her head. Eventually, she felt herself falling and rolled to the side before she did. She narrowly avoided Eris’s wing, though Eris had to push herself up to free it before she could roll onto her side as well, facing Melinoë. They kissed again, then Melinoë leaned back and stared up at the sky. Eris mirrored her, a moment later, and Melinoë glanced over to see her looking up as well.
“The moon is kinda pretty, you weren’t wrong,” Eris said, after a moment, and Melinoë laughed. “Looks different from down here.”
“We are kind of underground,” Melinoë said, tearing her gaze away from Eris’s face to look back at the stars. “There’s so many stars up there. But Selene’s light reaches through to here, as well. It’s gorgeous.” It was strange to be in the underworld and see the sky, even though it wasn’t the sky like it was on the surface.
“It’s a nice sky to fight you under,” Eris conceded, and Melinoë smiled. She knew Eris would leave again for more chaotic grounds soon, but at least for now, she was content. And whether Melinoë went further down to Tartarus or up to fight Eris on the beach, she knew that Eris would return to the Crossroads again.