As morbid as talking about their deaths were, Phobetor couldn’t help but chuckle at the simple idea of it, especially given what Nick said and the spike of fear coming off the hound despite his brave words. “If we ever grow so tired of still being alive, I’ll bring you into the dream world for a night and let my powers loose to do as they please. We’ll experience one amazing night together, more glorious than anything else we could possibly have done, and perhaps we’ll get away with seeing the aftermath the following morning as well~! Then, once the other gods come for me, we can deny them the pleasure of killing me by giving up our immortality together, so that you won’t have to suffer needlessly after I’m gone.”
It was definitely something to look forward to for the god, even if it was several millennia in the future.
The hound’s curiosity about the terms of endearment used was quite adorable, so Phobetor was hardly opposed to giving a small lecture to explain things better. Explaining his culture and way of thinking wasn’t anything the god shied away from, no matter the topic. “The terms are kind of both age specific, as well as type of relationship specific. The erastês-erômenos relationship is… hmm… the easiest way I can think to explain it is that it’s a relationship between a man and a boy.”
Realizing that his choice of wordings might seem somewhat insulting to the other male, Phobetor quickly raised a finger to Nick’s lips to stop any potential outburst until he was finished speaking. “Before you say anything, me marking you as the erômenos is not me calling you a boy, especially not in any derogatory manner. A ‘boy’ to the people back then was just a male who hasn’t grown a beard yet to be seen as an adult—as a man. Neither of us would qualify to be seen as men in our current forms, but that doesn’t really apply to either of us since we are immortals. By right of divinity and age, we would both be considered men. I’m simply giving you the position of erômenos based off age and position of power.”
With that part of the explanation out of the way, the god removed his finger as he continued talking. “The Greeks considered this type of relationship as a sort of rite-of-passage for the beloved. He would be courted, he would pick a lover, and then it was up to the lover to take the beloved under his wing to teach him the social do’s and don’ts; kind of like how I’m taking you under my wing to help you improve your torturing skills by letting you hone them in my nightmares. It was a positive relationship that helped strengthen the community as a whole within Greek society. The beloved is able to gain powerful allies and friends through his lover, so the family benefited from it. But the Romans…”
He paused once more, ears giving a few rapid twitches as the god switched his way of thinking to match the Roman ways as opposed to the Greek ways in order to explain better. “It was a threat to the Roman way of living. Having an outsider male courting your son? Trying to take the position of the most important male in that boy’s life away from the father, the paterfamilias? Were the Greeks insane to allow such a thing?! The father should always be the one to educate his son and heir about social standards, not some stranger! No, it would not do to have such a relationship taking place so openly. Towards slaves or freedmen, that’s alright—they are barely people anyway—but towards a proper citizen is complete dishonour upon that family.”
With his little lecture complete, Phobetor shook his head rapidly to return his mind to its normal way of thinking, the more laid-back Greek form. “So ya, that’s why there is no Latin translation. There technically are words that are used, but none of them are very… endearing, shall we say… not to mention they would technically be directed at me more than you at the current moment, as they focus more on role than age, and so far I’ve been the one in the passive role.”
His gentle smile shifted slightly at that, becoming a deceptively innocent smile that just had a threatening edge to it. Leaning back towards Nick, Phobetor’s voice dropped to a quiet whisper, though a small change in his vocal chords left there being a painful, spine-chilling edge to his voice. “So let me make it clear: you stick to calling me Ikelos or your erastês, because the day you call me cinaedus or concubinus is the day I use my claws to castrate and kill you as painfully as I possibly can, multiple times. Got it~?”
Confident that he got his point across, Phobetor returned his posture and vocal chords to normal and allowed Nick to take his time fixing up his appearance. Despite the hound trying to hide it, the god’s sharp eyes were easily able to pick up on the reddening of Nick’s cheeks before he turned away, but he chose to not make a comment about it… yet. There will probably be some time in the future where he brought it up again, but that was ammunition that he was going to hold onto for the moment.
Once Nick was ready to go, Phobetor hopped out of his seat, a small skip in his step as he walked towards the window. “Well, you are going to walk the normal way downstairs, making no move to hide your neck even if you pass someone in the hallways. I’m gonna be waiting for you outside in my human form. You can take me out for dinner, since I am sure that you’re probably hungry. I won’t be eating, naturally, so pick somewhere that you enjoy and frequent a lot.”
Not waiting for Nick to make any comments, the god easily jumped through the closed window, body passing through the glass like a ghost.He didn’t even bother calling forth his wings, simply allowing himself to drop to the ground to land on his feet like a cat. As he straightened out, his tail rapidly disappeared, ears, claws and fangs altering to resemble human ears, hands and teeth. he might not have bothered with changing his eyes, as Nick also possessed red eyes so it wouldn’t appear weird, but the level of light still being produced by the sun was way too high for his poor sensitive eyes, so they were also switched for black human eyes. Once that was all finished, the god just stood calmly at his spot, humming lightly as he waited for Nick to rejoin him.
“If we ever get so tired of living, yeah, that sounds like an amazing plan to me.” He grinned in approval, pleasantly surprised that there was a way to avoid experiencing any torture, but his grin faded a little due to one particular thought that he couldn’t shake. Dodging punishment would be nice, but then again, there were other feelings he couldn’t just ignore. “I wish there was still a way for me to protect you from the other gods that didn’t involve giving up before they can overpower us, but since there isn’t, I’ll consider myself lucky to be able to share a night like that with you.”
Still curious about the terms Phobetor had used, he waited for a further explanation—and when he got it, he’d very nearly yelled to insist that he wasn’t a boy; he was a mature man! The finger on his lips was the one thing that kept his mouth shut, and his eyes narrowed until he’d heard enough to understand that god hadn’t meant in an insulting way. In this case, it really was just the easiest way to explain the roles implied by the terms. Blowing a tiny puff of air onto the finger in a mock huff, he calmed back down and continued to listen.
The ancient Greek perspective of the relationship came as a surprise, as he doubted such a thing would be so widely acceptable in modern times, and yet it seemed so…positive. He blinked a couple times, processing the information while listening, and his eyes widened a little. Assuming the relationship went smoothly, there was absolutely nothing negative it. It even sounded as though the erômenos benefitted more than the erastês, which was perfectly fine with him, as he was the one in the erômenos role.
…And perhaps he liked the idea of being called ‘beloved.’ Maybe.
He didn’t think anything of Phobetor’s ears twitching at first, but when the god began explaining how the Romans viewed such a relationship, he raised one eyebrow first, then the other. He’d never seen or heard Phobetor talk like this before, and it was a little unsettling, to say the least. The explanation made sense though, as that was the way most humans he knew now seemed to think—except for the part about slaves, anyway, since no one in the States had them anymore like they once did.
He was happy to hear the god’s manner of speaking return to normal, but his sense of being at ease evaporated the second he noticed the little change to Phobetor’s smile. He knew a smile like that couldn’t mean anything good, but he stayed where he was and tried to brace himself for whatever the god was about to say or do.
…But it didn’t help. Chills shot down his spine, and he squeezed his eyes shut, just barely forcing himself to stay where he was in front of Phobetor. At the same time, his fingers curled up tightly against his palms, his whole body tensing and his facial expression contorting in fear until the other male pulled back again. It was times like this that he was reminded of exactly who he’d fallen for, and when he opened his eyes, he had no problem acting like a frightened, obedient puppy. “I-I would never—! I respect you too much to call you either of those words! I won’t ever call you something so derogatory, I swear!”
While it generally wasn’t wise to make any promises to a god, he knew right away that this was one promise he would easily be able to keep. The threat wasn’t necessary either, but since he’d promised not to talk back, he kept his mouth shut on the matter and focused on getting ready to leave instead. Before he could respond to his latest instructions, however, Phobetor was gone from the room, leaving him alone for the moment. He took advantage of it, allowing his nerves to calm back down since he’d been both flustered and frightened one after the other.
Going over to his desk, he grabbed his gun from the drawer and slipped into his belt’s holster. He highly doubted he would need it, but given his profession in the mortal world, it wouldn’t do to go anywhere without it on hand, just in case. With that, he really was ready to go, but since Phobetor had specifically told him not to hide his neck, his thoughts wandered back to the marks still there on his skin. He could probably focus his healing abilities there and get rid of the marks if he tried, but…Phobetor no doubt wanted them there. For a fleeting second, Nick considered that he might like having them there as well, but dismissed the thought just as quickly. Liking the idea of being marked so thoroughly was a little too submissive for his taste…wasn’t it?
Shaking his head at himself, he headed for the door and locked it behind him, stepping out into the hallway. No one was around at first, but on his way downstairs to get to the ground floor, he passed a small cluster of low-ranked members of the family. They’d been talking amongst themselves, but fell silent as soon as they saw him, and he swore he could feel the whole group’s eyes trained on the side of his neck. His eyes narrowed, and he turned and sent a harsh glare their way, complete with the silent message of a death threat if they didn’t move along. It worked, and they split up and scattered in their haste to put some distance between themselves and Nick.
“Fucking idiotic humans…,” he muttered under his breath, letting one of the front doors of the mansion slam shut behind him, the whole door frame rattling. Being stronger than the average human had its perks, even when it came to venting his anger.
In a huff, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself back down and followed the soft sound of humming over to where Phobetor was waiting, giving the god a bright smile. By the time he closed most of the distance between them, there wasn’t a trace of anger left on his face; only a glowing sense of happiness and pride. “I didn’t hide my neck, just like you said. Ready to go? I have a place in mind, but it’s a little bit of a drive from here—about 30 minutes with the way I drive.” Saying so, he headed towards the mansion’s garage area and motioned for Phobetor to follow, thinking he could take the lead for the time being since the god obviously didn’t drive.
