#4 (destined love, soulmates)
Hades Kimi x demi-god Seb
The temple in the mountains has been abandoned for years, not that Kimi would know or care. It's only that he registers when someone stumbles into the sacred chapel and starts praying to Kimi, hopeless and scared. A young man. Kimi hears his call, but he's used to the incessant cries of the souls in his realm, so he tries to tune him out like he always does. It is to no avail. The man's voice is just too alluring and his prayer too strong.
No one is ever stupid enough to pray to the God of the Dead. People do not pray to him, they fear him and thus, they only ever try to appease him. No one ever asks Kimi for help. Kimi does not give, he takes.
He lets himself gaze into the mortal realm to see the fool… only to feel his divinity. It's not just anyone, it cannot be, because Kimi can sense the distinct signiture of Michael's (Apollo) power coursing through this the pretty young man. He must be is a demi-god then, half-god, half-mortal. And by the look of the people pursuing him towards the temple, armed and agitated, he's in big trouble.
Kimi isn't known for his kindness, or great eagerness to help, quite the opposite really, but the sight of the man begging and fervently praying to the King of the Underworld of all the Pantheon, makes something inside him soften. Perhaps, he can do a little favor for Michael and save his bastard son.
With a flick of his hand, he closes the solid stone temple doors, and the inside of the chapel is bathed in complete darkness. The demi-god doesn't seem alarmed. In fact, he's profusely thanking for Kimi's mercy. In a cruel twist of his mind, if only for a split second, Kimi considers leaving him stranded in here, then decides against it and conjures a tunnel out of the mountain, far from the former opening.
Except that this is not the last he has seen of the man. The demi-god, who calls himself Sebastian, comes back to thank him, bringing many sea shells and pretty stones all the way up-hill to Kimi's secluded temple. He hides inside the temple when the heat gets too overbearing, saying he relishes the cold and quiet. Which doesn't make much sense, because he himself is anything but quiet.
Really, he's rather annoying, especially since he speaks to Kimi, the God of the Dead and King of the Underworld, like he would to his equal, which is a slight any other God would have punished him greatly for, demi-god or not. Kimi on the other hand, couldn't care less. He lets the kid run his mouth. Soon, he grows used to the incessant chatter, so used in fact that it almost derails him when he realizes he hadn't heard from Seb in a while.
Turns out it's because Seb has travelled away on duty like the hero he is and so he can no longer come to the temple to idly chat away the afternoon. Which would be fine, but the demi-god doesn't speak to Kimi any longer, at all. He has moved on.
Kimi did not. Seb was just about the only diverting thing in Kimi's monotone life, and his voice the one reason Kimi could bear the screams and cries of the Dead in the past months.
So, Kimi gives into watching him. First, it's only few times a year, then more often. And he does help out, here and there. When things get too loud and overwhelming for the demi-god, Kimi lends him a fragment of his peace and quiet, and listens in, with apt fascination, how it calms the erratic beat of the man's heart.
Before he knows it, he's guarding Seb's every step with devoted intention. He even goes as far as to visit him, to walk beside him and share his days, his joy, all while cloaked with invisibility, and pretends Seb's lively monologue is a conversation with a friend, with him.
Kimi does his best to steer the man away from all danger too, but by the way Seb can't help getting himself in trouble, Kimi would almost think the man is doing it on purpose only to keep him vigilant.
Still, Kimi cannot get enough of him. He sees in the young man the sun that he has spent all eternity longing for, after he gave himself to his duty in the darkness of the world below.
One century passes, then two, and a third. Kimi grows tired of only ever watching his sun from afar. With the hunger and greed only a God could possess, he decides to try and reach for more. It's what his brother Mika (Zeus) advises anyway. Kimi has long earned his right to find love and Mika wants Kimi to be happy too, even if he thinks the kid won't like the only life Kimi has to offer. He suggests Kimi to try anyway, and Mika will sort the matter with Michael later on if he must.
With very little hope on him, Kimi tries to court the demi-god, already setting himself up for disappointment.
Strangely, the brave and brilliant man is more than receptive to his efforts, even if he never acknowledges them aloud. First, Kimi makes stars appear under Seb's feet when the demi-god walks late in the night, but Seb doesn't say a thing, he just skips away happily, beaming in the starlight. Next time, the waves wash up the prettiest of shells by his feet when Seb stands on the beach. Seb just picks them up and displays them in his home. As a last resort, Kimi makes a field of asphodels, flowers from the Underworld, the only ones he can offer, bloom all around Seb when the demi-god rests on the grass. It doesn't surprise Seb in the slightest. Kimi really has spoiled him rotten over the last few decades.
Kimi translates Seb's lack of appropriate concern as permission to show himself to the man. To finally take what he is owed at last.
He waits for the sun to set, so Michael doesn't witness this stolen moment. He knows the Sun God likes his hero of a son, but Kimi likes Seb for more than that. In truth, Kimi loves him with all his might. Hopefully, Seb will forgive him if Kimi steals him away from here like he means to do.
Slowly, Kimi lets his form settle into something almost human as he steps out from the dark.
He knows well, that he does not belong in Seb's light. He expects the demi-god to recoil. He can already feel the scorn, the imminent fear.
Instead, Seb simply looks at him, really looks at him. He doesn't flinch or cower like any other mortal would when faced with the God of the Dead. Seb isn't a mortal, though if he were, maybe it wouldn't change a thing. Kimi should have known better than to think Seb reasonable, the man has no regard for his own safety on the better days, much less now.
Slowly, Seb's gaze travels over him, unhurried and unafraid, as though the King of the Underworld is really nothing more than another man to him. Then Seb takes a step forward. Kimi's chest rises and falls as if it's he who was visited by a divine presence and not the other way around.
"I was waiting for you to show yourself," Seb says, voice calm, almost amused.
For a moment, neither of them moves. The air hangs heavy between them.
Kimi can feel his divinity unfurl without permission and wrap around Sebastian in a silent attempt to pull him in closer, deeper, down below. Kimi thought this exact thing would happen if he allowed himself anything more than he should.
Seb only smiles. Kimi finds himself caught on the pleased curve of his mouth.
"Well?" Seb prompts softly, taking another step closer. All on his own. "Are you going to take me away now?" he asks. "I'm ready. I've been ready."
