A/N:
Can be a standalone fic or a sort of a fix-it chapter.
***
It started with a scream. Like it always does. The business of waking up in the middle of the night has been the new normal for Vee ever since the accident.
Eyes snapped open, clothes drenched with cold sweat, and his heart beating a million beats per minute. Vee woke up to another nightmare. Again.
And this has been going on for a few weeks now.
Every day felt like the darkest of nights and his nights felt like the loneliest of days.
Nothing seemed interesting enough to pull Vee out of his self-imposed seclusion in his house and the emotional black hole he had fallen into. And for days, nothing seemed palatable to him except for the instant hotpot meals that he chanced upon in an online store after not eating anything after the accident.
Unable to fall back to sleep after waking up from a bad dream, Vee made himself another hotpot meal. It was his new comfort food.
Then like a song on a record, his memories played and the words echoed in his mind.
"There's a rule of the hotpot that we always abide by, have you perhaps heard about it, Phi?"
Just then, tears started falling. His chest hurts and a heartbreaking wail soon followed.
How can losing someone you never had, hurt this much?
Vee wished he knew the answer.
But alas, the key to the mystery evades him and the wretched cycle continues.
It wasn't until Vee received a certain package from his father when he finally found something to which he can channel his pain and temporarily found solace.
Somehow, his family always knew when he was in trouble even without him telling them a word.
His father always does.
Opening the box (which is, extraordinarily tall for an ordinary parcel), Vee saw that it was a huge piece of marble with a note attached to it. The writing says,
---------------------------------
"Never give up. It's only over when you do."
P.S.
The whole family misses you.
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A tear fell from his eyes. But this time, Vee felt no pain.
***
Vee's family have a marble-sculpting business to which all his other siblings are involved whether it was in the marketing department or in the actual sculpting of the marbles themselves. Vee was a fine young sculptor before he went into the city to study Engineering and receiving a marble piece from his family brought him back to his carefree childhood days making him feel warmed and loved. It was a good feeling. And Vee felt regaining a little bit of his liveliness and will to live.
***
At first, Vee was contented looking at the humongous piece of white rock in the middle of his living room and running his fingers over the smoothness of it.
However as days passed, Vee felt himself becoming more and more restless and an unexplainable urge grasped his heart.
***
Vee can't be bothered to wiped the sweat that trickled down the side of his face. Completely immersed and focused in forming the statue in front of him, his concentration never wavered. His nimble, skilled hands worked tirelessly in honing to perfection the marble art while his intent gaze never left the object he's working on for even a second. The hammer and chisel felt like a part of his own hands as he used them to shape the naked figure.
Stopping momentarily to inspect and admire the work he has done so far, a complicated smile ghosted Vee's lips every time his fingers will run over the bare flesh of the marble figure in front of him. To anyone who will see Vee in the privacy of his room before the statue, they were bound to realize the genuine happiness shining in the young man's eyes.
To Vee, the marble statue in front of him is more than just a piece a work. Neither was it a simple rock he shaped into the form of another human. Instead, Vee sees it as an important part of his life, his self. Him spending countless hours and days to make it what it was now is a proof of his devotion to it.
The statue in terms of the minor details was still incomplete. However in the overall scheme of things, one will be able to make out the larger picture. The work of art was a marble statue of an almost naked young male saved for a piece of fabric that goes from one side of his shoulder to the part above his belly button safely covering his lower parts except for the legs and below. A modern man dressed in what looked like a Greek god fashion best describes the picture.
It was conservative and sensual at the same time. Modern and ancient in the same vein. And tamed and passionate in a most fitting and complicated way.
And Vee can feel his face heat up after staring for too long at the statue of a young man before him. He has such strong and mixed feelings about his own creation that he sometimes have a sudden urge to hug it while at the same time being shy at his own thoughts and embarrassed at his own boldness in shaping it in such a way that far too much flesh is showing.
But if there's one thing for certain that anyone who will have the opportunity to look at the statue will say, it will be that the statue is of delicate beauty. The resemblance of the cold, meticulously shaped marble to the nameless nong Vee met before was also striking. L, as the younger male introduced himself was intended to mean LOSER but the statue of the young man before Vee was anything but LOVELY.
It was so lovely that Vee mostly spends his waking hours staring at it.
He eats in front of it.
He reads a book beside it.
He goes about cleaning the house while sneaking glances at it.
Everything he does on a daily basis has to be done within the statue's line of vision or anywhere in the house where Vee can easily look at it or gaze at it whenever he wants to.
Such was the state of things when after a particularly tiring day of having to clean the house and do his laundry, Vee felt very sleepy while sitting on the floor of the living room with his back resting at the lower part of his sofa. Even while sitting, Vee kept staring at the marble statue.
He must have been already dreaming or probably his eyes are playing tricks on him but before Vee completely shut his eyes to sleep, a finger moved and a blush colored the white, delicate skin of his lovely statue. And with slow, unhurried steps the once unmoving creation of a young man approached him and lay by his side. And his now warm hands wrapped around the waist of the already sleeping artist.
Vee slept long that day.
Enveloped in a warm embrace, a smile never left his lips.
A happy ever after was not supposed to be,
Their story was written off as tragedy.
But one merciful goddess begged to disagree,
She pitied them and ended their misery.
***
A/N:
Hoped you liked the Greek myth crossover. I'm a fan of the Pygmalion and Galatea story.
***
What are your thoughts about this chapter?
