PHILTATOS // Foolish X Reader

30

As soon as the door swung shut, Foolish was rising to his feet, helping you up from the floor as well with an outstretched hand. He was barely focused on the movement though, his eyes locked on his brother. It was strange to see them both in the flesh - you had expected them to be identical, but they looked more like cousins than twins. Maybe it was because of the whole shape shifting thing.

"What are you doing here?" Foolish asked, keeping one hand in yours. There was a hostility to him that you hadn't seen before - not even amidst all the panic that you had seen when he was trying to get you to come with him back to the temple. This was new - and you could feel the tension between them like lightning.

"I thought I would drop in before the real party gets started." Sofos said, a sly grin stretching across his face. Smugness hovered around him like a cloud - he was proud of this. He was fulfilling his destiny. "See how my baby brother's little pet was doing." His eyes slid over to you, giving you a smile.

You weren't quite sure what to do, so you just gave him a small smile in return.

"I'm three minutes older." Foolish said, petulant.

"I'm impressed you managed to actually do it." Sofos continued, talking to his brother again. "Making someone immortal requires a certain level of intelligence, after all. Thought you might fuck it up somehow, but here we are." His eyes slid back to you. "You look great, by the way. You've got that new-immortal glow."

"Stop." Foolish said, tugging you slightly closer to his side. "You're doing your stupid flattery-insult combination thing again. Just tell me what you want."

Sofos huffed, leaning up against one of the pillars that were spaced around the temple. "Just trying to be nice, is all."

"Shouldn't you be out there destroying the world?" Foolish asked. "You seemed so excited about it when they told you it was what you were meant for."

Sofos frowned - a mocking little petulant frown that made your own lip curl. It was hard to believe that he and Foolish were even related - Foolish had made a much better first impression. You supposed it had something to do with who they were though - wisdom made people jaded, and that was quite literally Sofos name.

"I'm a little offended you don't think I've already started." He said. "Granted, I did choose something that wouldn't inhibit on my time too much. You know, floods and earthquakes and fires are fun and all, but they take so much effort. I thought a plague was something more my style, yeah?"

You glanced over at Foolish to see him looking unsurprised. "Of course you would pick something like that. Lazy."

Sofos pursed his lips. "That's a weird way of pronouncing 'smart'. I thought there was a kind of... irony, to it. They're going to be expecting something catastrophic, something they'll see coming from a mile away." He smiled. "They'll never see this coming - it'll be in their homes, in their beds, in their families."

"You're awful." Foolish said.

"I was hoping I could get to your friend here before the immortality set in." Sofos said, his eyes sliding back to you. "Just thought it could have been a fun way to start this plague, you know. Someone who had such faith in the gods, struck down by them."

Your grip on Foolishs' hand tightened. You were lucky then, that Foolish had found you before his brother did. If Sofos had had his way, you would have been one of the first to go. You had to admit though, it would have been poetic. In the most backwards way, but still.

"You're going to kill hundreds of people, and you're mad that I spared one?" Foolish asked.

Sofos laughed - a little raspy laugh that made a shiver run up your spine - and shook his head. "C'mon, really? Nobody likes a god who plays favorites. You knew damn well that your precious little pet was going to die with the rest of the lousy lot and you did the only thing you could to stop it. That's cheap-"

"Shut up." Foolish said. "You don't know anything-"

"I know more than you." Sofos said, tilting his head towards his brother. "It's quite literally in the name."

You could see Foolish holding himself back, purposefully biting his lip so that he didn't say whatever he was thinking. "I don't want to talk to you anymore."

Sofos' face changed, that mocking petulant frown coming back. "What? You don't want to talk to your sweet baby brother on his big day?"

"Not when you're just going to be like this." Foolish said, starting towards the door. "C'mon Y/N." He tugged you along by your conjoined hands, starting past his brother.

Sofos tipped his head backwards, sighing. "I was going to ask you to help me, you know." He said. "We could have done this together."

Foolish stopped in his tracks abruptly, causing you to almost run into him. "This isn't my part in the world, Sofos. I'm not the destroyer - this is your job."

Sofos chuckled to himself. "I always thought it was weird, how they made us. We're the same, you and I, but we're also complete opposites. Silver and gold, wise and, ah - not. One to create, one to destroy."

"Getting sentimental, Sof?" Foolish asked.

Sofos just waved a hand, shaking his head. "Nevermind. Go run off with your lover now, I've got business to take care of."

Foolish took another few steps forward, but stopped again just as he reached the door. "You don't have to do this, you know."

Sofos smiled, tipping his head back to look at the skylight above - the skylight you had spent so many hours underneath. "I do though. It's been written in the stars, brother dearest. And who am I to go against the path that was already laid out for me?"