Weakness

Chapter 6: My weakness is yours.

This is not possible, this can't be real. Tell me it's just a dream or a nightmare, either, please. No, this is it, he is in front of you.
The god's breath got short, their body frozen in place.
There he was, in the green coat, his hair long, still with the white strand. His eyes were wide open, and his face was covered in burn marks it seems...He changed but still remained Arlès.
He's there, actually there.
Both of them were broken from their trance by Iro talking:

-"Hey Eyes, so I'm going to be clear on this, please don't be mad, but I went to Fernhom alone. And uh look who I found!" He smiled, he had taken off his mask and had his glasses on.
"You never told me he was such a cool guy!"
Elisa looked at Eyes worriedly.

Both of the gods said nothing, Arlès looked down, finally breaking eye contact. That made Eyes lose it. They leaned on the nearest furniture and whispered with a cold voice:
-"Yeah, put your head down."
-"Eyes!" Iro yelled, confused by the tone used.

Let yourself go, don't restrain yourself. Go.

-"Oh don't start, you have no right to. What was your idea? To go there to mock me? To show me I had no reason to feel like this?" Eyes couldn't stop, go on.
"If you wanted to know, could you just not wait? No? I get it." They laugh drily.
"It's my fault is it? I'm such a bad friend because I can't share things that I don't remember."
Iro stood there, for once he wasn't angered by what's happening, yes it wasn't the reaction he was expecting but by the look Elisa gave him he did the right thing.

-"Eyes." Came Arlès's voice, oh shit Iro thought
The curly haired god looked at him, fire and hatred in their eyes.
-"You. You shut your mouth. I was nothing to you before so why are you here?" Poison was dropping from their mouth, they were smiling but not a comforting smile. The one that gives you chills.
"You need something from me don't you? You're just like the others, once you get everything you need from me I'll be nothing again. So what am I between now and then?"
Arlès was distraught;
-"I- okay listen. I fucked up, I know. I'm here to fix this." He said bravely but soon all of that courage went down the drain.
-"FIX WHAT?! Tell me Arlès, what is so bad about me that you need to FIX."

Silence.

Arlès was gathering his thoughts to come up with a good explanation. Eyes was shaking, with a soft, broken voice they whispered:
-"I have forgotten all of their names, so why, why should I remember you? Why should you remember me? Why did you leave me? Left me to rot, locked away to get beat up, left me to die." Eyes looked at Arlès, tears were submerging their eyes.

It's the second time ever that Iro sees Eyes cry, it broke his heart, he got closer to Elisa who was ready to intervene in case. She peered at the young man, her face was struck by worries and stress.

The blond god was approaching his old friend carefully, he seemed eaten away by guilt.

-"You made a promise! YOU PROMISED!" Eyes was full on sobbing at this point.
Arlès took them in his arms and held tight, whispering words in another language.
" WHY? Why...why." Eyes was taller than Arlès but at that moment they seemed smaller.

After a moment of silence, The youngest of the two gods voice emerged:

-"I'm the worst, I know because it's true. I'm selfish; once I escaped and got the freedom I wanted...I got scared they would take that away from me. I'm a coward, ironic because that's what you've been called your whole life when in reality you're the strongest person I know, I'm the coward here." He breathed and stroked Eyes back to help them calm down, just like he always did.
"I don't expect you to forgive me, trust me or even want to see me again. I just want you to know I'm deeply sorry for abandoning you when you needed help. When I knew Iro was your friend, I just wanted to see you, it's not true I forgot about you, every day I thought about you, so I took it as my chance to see you."

Elisa had sat down on one of the couch resting arms, Iro was next to her.
After a while, Eyes sniffed and let go from the embrace.
-"I should fucking hate you, you and your stupid face." They looked at him, a small smile at the border of their lips.
Iro intervened:
-"Yeah Arlès, I should kick your ass, if Eyes would let me of course."
Arlès's eyes widened, Eyes laughed and approached the human.
-"mmmmh Maybe maybe."

The god hugged him, and whispered in his ear:
-"I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you later."
-"Don't worry I'm glad you're feeling better now."
They let go and hugged their girlfriend, Elisa shrieked, making them both fall on the couch.

Arlès smiled, maybe he can fix his relationship with Eyes.
He hoped at least.

Later this evening, the four were sitting down in the living room, talking.
Eyes was on the loveseat with Elisa on their lap. Arlès and Iro on each side of the couch.
Iro learned a lot in one evening, the fact that Eyes can imitate birds to a perfection, that both of the gods were called the chaotic duo when they were young because of how much problems they were creating, that Eyes burned down a house by accident when they were showing their powers to Arlès. Those were funny but the rest was just depressing: Arlès mentioned that as more time passed, the less they could go on adventures because Eyes's beatings got so bad they couldn't move and stayed in bed.

Now came the conversation of the soldiers in Fernhom, in fact Eyes saw them after they caught sight of Arlès.
Those soldiers are called Anthocyan and are basically against the mortal world's creation, yeah.
-"How do we get rid of them then? The hero asked.
-"We can fight them off but...I don't want them to know I'm also on earth." Answered Eyes, they seemed exhausted, the same could be said about Arlès.
-"Yeah, if they know Eyes is here they're going to bring us to war by force."
-"But you can easily fight them off, Eyes?" Iro said.
The gods stayed silent.
-"They are searching for something, getting rid of them will simply bring back more." Arlès mumbled.
Eyes looked at Iro then at the blond haired god.
-"To stop the problem you have to go to the 'source' of it. Meaning..."
-"We have to go up there..." Arlès finished, horrified.
Eyes nodded, not pleased either.

Elisa spoke:
-"If it's the only solution then...we have to."
Iro suddenly felt part of something big, maybe bigger than everything he's ever been in.
This is the beginning of something new, something dangerous.

So what are they waiting for?

*****