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As nice as it was to get out of Amaurot with Hades once in a while, Aegle couldn’t help but admit that it was also nice when their excursions ended. Hades did not share their appreciation for traveling, and his complaints could get a little grating after a few days on the road. Despite some exasperation with their travel companion, however, Aegle was still keen to take in the sights as they went. Whether they’d seen it one time or a hundred times, there was always something new to notice.
For example, there was an unfamiliar creature in the lake along whose banks they were walking.
“What is that?” Aegle wondered aloud, stepping off the road to get a better look at it.
“How should I know?” Hades snapped back. “You’d be better off asking Hythlodaeus.”
On closer inspection—though the creature remained some ten fulms out—it was a scrawny thing, maybe the length of Aegle’s arm from snout to tail, with said tail making up about half that length, and hardly thicker at its widest part. The number of limbs was hard to tell from the way it was paddling; Aegle counted two in the front, but anything behind that was hidden. They didn’t see any fins—in fact, the creature seemed to be covered in fur. Its triangular ears were pointed straight out to the sides, and its eyes were locked on the shore. About one thing Aegle was fairly confident: this was not an aquatic creation.
“I think it’s in trouble,” they said, and before Hades could respond, they had taken off their mask and jumped into the lake.
The creature was not hard to rescue. While it seemed nervous by their approach, it was clearly even more distressed by the rest of the situation it found itself in, and so it allowed itself to be scooped up and brought back to land where it happily stepped ashore.
When Aegle made to follow, however, they discovered the flaw in their plan. They placed their hands on the bank, but when they went to pull themself up, the ground broke away. They tried again a few fulms over, and again the earth was too loose to support a person’s weight. They tried a few more spots before conceding that they might very well be stuck.
They looked up at their traveling companion to see that he already had a hand raised, coupled with an expression that they might have interpreted as concern if they didn’t know better. His eyes darted around the scene as if in calculation, and with a snap, a small set of stairs appeared in front of them, anchored a number of fulms inland where the ground was sturdier.
As expected, once Aegle was safely out of the water, all hints of concern fell away from Hades’s face. At least the creature was happy to see them safe—or, at least, that’s what they assumed it was trying to communicate as it butted its head against their leg. It did seem to be vibrating a little, though, so maybe it was just cold.
“You absolute imbecile!” Hades stalked over to Aegle and dragged them further ashore by the robe until their back was pressed against the trunk of a tree, with the creature following close behind. “What would you have done if I hadn’t been here? You could have died! The Seat of Azem, returned to the Star without fulfilling their purpose because of a foolish impulse to rescue some failed creation stupid enough to wander into a lake!” Aegle’s gaze fell away, preferring to track the “failed creation” rather than the angry golden eyes behind the mask just ilms away, but Hades would not have it. “Look at me. What do you have to say for yourself?”
They should have admitted that Hades had a point, because he did. At minimum, they could have taken a moment to plan before diving in. Losing a member of the Convocation would have been awfully inconvenient for the rest of them, and Aegle was keen on seeing this life to its natural end, anyway. But they couldn’t just give him the ammunition of having been right.
So instead, they forced a small smirk and said, “Why, Hades, I’d no idea you cared so much.”
Hades’s eyes went wide. “You utter— You had no idea that I— You—”
Before Aegle knew what was happening, Hades’s lips were pressed firmly against theirs, and before they could react to that, he had pulled away.
“My…apologies,” he said, this time being the one to shy away from eye contact as his face turned a deep red. “Here I am lecturing you on impulsiveness…”
Aegle gently placed two fingers under Hades’s chin to redirect his gaze to theirs, while using the other hand to remove his mask.
“Is Hythlodaeus okay with this?” they asked.
“Hythlodaeus and I are of the same mind. Consider us a packaged deal,” he said, before quickly adding, “That is, if you’d have us.”
They beamed and pulled him in for another kiss, this one with intent behind it. Now that they had the opportunity to take it in, Aegle noticed that Hades’s lips were softer than they had expected—as if they had somehow thought all that gruffness would translate to rough skin? In their defense, it had been a while since they’d had even this much contact with another person. Their expectations were bound to be skewed. His tongue, though, was just as they had imagined it: warm and soft and commanding, as if kissing were a competition he was determined to win. Aegle relaxed against the tree and let him lean into them, until he finally broke away once more.
“We wouldn’t want Hythlodaeus to get jealous,” he said evenly, replacing his mask. “Come. We need to keep moving if we’re to arrive back in Amaurot before dark. And do clean yourself up. Honestly, Azem, what would the people think?”
Aegle couldn’t help but chuckle at Hades’s sudden formality. They replaced their own mask and magicked the water off of their robes, and then off of the creature who still lingered at their feet.
“Are you coming with us, little one?” they asked, extending it a hand.
In apparent response, it let out a relatively high-pitched yowling noise and headbutted their hand, vibrating once more as they began to pet it.
“I think that’s a yes,” they said, scooping it up and carrying it in their arms. Its tail flicked intermittently, but it made no move to break free.
“You’re not seriously bringing that with you?” Hades asked.
“Of course I am!” they said. “You’re the one who told me to ask Hyth what it was. I might even keep it.”
With a deep sigh, Hades muttered, “What have I gotten myself into?”