Salvation [manxman]

Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Erebus managed to keep Nyx away from me after I somehow calmed down, stopped crying and asked for his forgiveness a dozen times while he assured me everything was alright. I still felt pretty awful and stuck to him like gum to his shoe, holding his hand and making sure he knew how much I loved him and was feeling awful for what happened or more importantly that I let it happen.

"Long time no pee." Collin grunted as we came back, making Hypnos laugh. "Glad you had to hold his hand for him to be able to pee. I hope you washed it."

"Shut up." Erebus huffed and we just continued walking.

Collin glared at Nyx once in a while but he didn't provoke her any further and she completely ignored him, nose turned up. Hypnos tried to start a conversation with him a few times but only got made fun off and gave up after a while. It was really awkward to watch him get excited about something, trying to initiate an exchange over the topic only for Collin to take it and rip it apart verbally. It was kind of like watching a puppy run into a wood chopper. Several times. He didn't seem to understand what he was doing wrong.

We managed to find a few more caverns and tunnels but most of them were a dead end or ended in other tunnels until we stumbled upon one that had a small stream running through it with Thanatos sitting next to it and Alexios resting his head in his lap while they were eating and talking to each other. Everyone except for Nyx let out a relieved say that we had been able to find them unharmed and apparently quite happy since they were smiling at each other.

"Thaney!" Hypnos chirped, throwing himself on top of his brother.

Alexios grunted with Hypnos' elbow burried in his ripcage before sitting up and looking rather unhappy about being interrupted this rudely. Hypnos didn't give a single shit and just rubbed his cheek against his twin's who didn't look very pleased either. But I guess that was Thanatos' standard facial expression. Hypnos ignored it with a big smile until he discovered the food and quickly let go.

"Food!" Hypnos moaned and just grabbed a handful without asking.

"Slow down. You are going to throw up again." Erebus scolded him while he wolfed down their food.

"I haven't thrown up in years!" He declared, spitting out tiny pieces of bread while speaking.

"Glad you enjoy our food." Alexios scoffed but Hypnos didn't care.

My stomach growled audibly at the sight of food and I blushed, averting my gaze. It had been a day since I last got to eat and even though they were just eating bread and a bit of fruit, it looked very tempting. Thanatos noticed how I was basically drooling over their meal and held out a box for me, filled with fruits and berries and I took it while Nyx glared at me, daring to take more than a piece.

"Thanks." I smiled, nibbling on the biggest piece of pear I had found.

If I was allowed only one piece, at least I had the biggest there was but as I wanted to hand the box back Thanatos showed no intention of taking it. I stared at him to get him to take it back but he just ignored it, fighting with Hypnos over the last blueberry. I gave up and turned my head towards Alexios, hoping he'd just take it out of my hands but he didn't seem to understand or maybe he didn't want to. Thanatos seemed to realize that I was at a loss here and used one finger to push the box back against my chest.

"You can have it." He shrugged.

I took that as my cue to stuff my face with as much food in as little time as possible before Nyx decided she was going to take it away from me. When I was half way through the box I realized Erebus wasn't eating anything and while he didn't need to technically, I knew he was used to it. My mouth was still occupied with half an an orange so I just tugged at his sleeve, offering him a piece of banana. He shook his head and I furrowed my eyes, poking his ribcage to point out how much weight he lost.