𝐆𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐑𝐔𝐒𝐇 [Jason Grace]

10

"𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭" 𝐃𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐝, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. It was about noon wherever he was. Dante had just yelled his name over and over until he woke up from his small nap.

Dante hadn't stopped shaking since he woke up with the pilum in his chest. A steady stream of curse words were his only thoughts.

"You said you'd call on the birthday," Dorian groaned, "What time is it there?"

"Three in the morning."

"Way too early, go sleep."

"I died." He blurted. He tended to do that a lot.

"What?"

"I. Died." He repeated as if that would explain it better. Truth is, he couldn't even begin to understand everything that had happened that day, "Suppose you didn't see that in your dreams?"

Dorian looked more awake now as if starting to accept Dante wasn't kidding. The guy liked pranks, but this wasn't one.

"What the hell happened? You're shaking, Dani."

So Dante told him in hushed whispers. The other nine people in his dorm were sleeping, and they would continue to snore peacefully until morning. As exhausted as Dante was from the war games, he just couldn't sleep. And even worse, he was afraid he'd just never wake up again.

"Shit," Was all Dorian said. "That's messed up."

Dante blinked at him, too exhausted to flip his brother off. That's all he had to say?

"I didn't see that, I swear," He went on. "I would have told you otherwise, you know that right?"

"I do." He sighed, gripping the sink with shaky hands.

"You look like shit, have some rest."

"What?" Dante glared at him, "How can you say that? I just died, Dor."

"But you came back. You always come back."

Dante knew what he meant. Once when they were toddlers, Dante was bit by a snake when he tried to save his brother from it. The doctors, the nurses, his parents, no one had any hope of him surviving and yet he did. He had fought countless monsters and told Dorian all about his adventures.

No matter how close he came to death, he always came back to Dorian. Not physically since it had been nearly seven years since they last saw each other, but he'd at least call.

"I can't sleep," Dante confessed, "Everything's weird."

"But that means we're one step closer to meeting."

Dante considered that.

"Thanks for listening to me," He mumbled, "I'll go lie in bed and pretend to sleep. We have a senate meeting in the morning."

"Are you on the senate?"

"Yeah, so I have to be there."

"Wearing a toga," Dorian was trying hard not to laugh. "Send me a picture, will you?"

"Kiss my ass." Dante flipped him off.

"You love me."

"You wish."

"You're an ass."

"You're an ass."

"I wish you died and didn't come back."

"I'm so glad I'm older, you're younger and whiny."

"You're whiny. You literally whined about how you died." Dorian stuck out his tongue.