TELOS TOU KOSMOU // Callahan X Reader

10

Ceres was awake when you came back to the room, your findings from the library still tucked under your arm. You pulled Agatheia loose though, tossing it so that it landed on the foot of the bed with a soft thump.

Ceres reached forward, picking up the book and turning it over in hand. "I said you didn't have to worry about it."

"I needed to pull a bunch of things anyway." You said, turning to set your own haul down on the table you had claimed earlier, arranging the books and scrolls by subject next to the neat piles of herbs you had sorted. "I figured you wouldn't have much else to do either, so I thought some light reading would be appreciated."

Ceres palmed the book, mirrored eyes scanning over the title. After a moment, they set it aside, sliding it onto one of the bedside tables nearby with a nonchalant flick of the hand. "Thank you." They said, almost begrudging.

"I don't want you to be bored." You said, glancing up at them. "I know it's frustrating to go from an active life to being bedridden, but you could at least keep your mind busy while you recover. It's something-"

You were cut off when Ceres laughed, a little snorting chuckle that sounded very condescending toy our ears.

"Why do you laugh?" You asked, returning the tone.

"Recover." Ceres said, a wry grin on their lips. "You're too optimistic Y/N."

"You don't think I'm capable of creating a cure?" You said, mildly offended. You were going to dedicate hours of your time to this for Ceres, and they didn't even think you had a chance of actually following through with it.

"In the time it will take for this disease to run it's course and kill me?" Ceres asked. "No. I have no doubts about the fact that eventually, you will find an answer to the problem, but the process is going to take longer than I have left to live."

There was the apathy again. You couldn't understand how someone who had fought for their life every day could be so relaxed about something like this. Was a fight against an illness not also a fight to live - even if it wasn't in the flashy colosseum they were used to? There were no spears or broadswords, but a strong spirit would still do wonders for holding onto life for the longest they could.

"Surely you don't intend to just let it take you?" You asked.

Ceres shrugged again, gaze turning to the copy of Hylla they had been thumbing through before. "Would it be so bad, to meet my end this way?"

Your gaze fell to the table you were still standing in front of, now littered with books and scrolls about keeping a human body alive and well. The herbs you had picked sat sorted and ready to be made into all a number of poultices and salves. It was unthinkable to you that someone wouldn't mind losing to an illness like this, but Ceres wasn't just anyone, either.

There was no telling how many people they had killed over their course of time at the colosseum - it wasn't just anyone that rose to be the champion of champions, after all. Even before the blessing from Logios that had turned their eyes into mirrors, they had been a formidable force. Strong enough to rip a man in half with their bare hands and the size of a bear, Ceres was the colosseum's pride and joy. Beautiful and terrible at the same time.

Surely, that took a toll on a person.

They had killed hundreds (if not thousands, by now). The amount of blood on their hands would never fully wash off, and earning a living as a champion just meant killing until they couldn't anymore, and got killed themselves. In that sense, going out quietly by the hands of a disease would be a mercy.

"I suppose not, considering your line of work." You said, looking back up to them. "Still, I can't imagine you'd want to spend your last few weeks in your head."

Ceres hummed, looking over to the book you had brought back. There was a moment of silence before they conceded, saying, "A bit of pleasure reading wouldn't hurt."

You smiled, setting the last of your books down - your eyes catching on the sign language guide you had picked up. "It wouldn't." You said. "I even picked up a bit of pleasure reading for myself, while I was out."

"Ah." Ceres said, a small smile playing at the corners of their mouth. "What sort of light reading? An epic, perhaps, or a love poem?"

"Not exactly." You said, turning the language manual around so that Ceres could read the title.

They hummed. "Unspoken languages, huh? Not what I would have expected for pleasure reading." Their eyes flicked back up to you. "Run into any mute people lately?"

"Not exactly." You said, remembering the white spots in the fur of his legs and the antlers that had sprouted from his head. "It's looking to be more of just a side hobby at the moment, with all the reading I'll have to do to start formulating the cure anyway."

Ceres didn't say anything, simply humming and opening up the Agatheia, but there was a twinkle in their mirrored eyes that you didn't know what to think of. You just brushed it off, sitting down at the table and beginning your own reading, unfurling one of the anatomical scrolls you had pulled.

You tried to lose yourself in the script, but now that you had opened the floodgates of your memory, all you could think about were soft brown eyes and the holes in the collarbone of his olive green tunic. It didn't help that the language manual was sitting right next to you, begging to be opened and thumbed through.

Internally chiding yourself, you reached over to flip the manual over, sliding it away from you on the table. Across the room, Ceres chuckled low in their throat.