Hades\' Gifts

Requiem


Dark eyes watched the one shift around on the bed. It wasn\'t often that someone was granted a second chance at lift, and he knew from experiance that it took a while to remember how a body of flesh functioned. When he had first woken all of his muscles had hurt, it didn\'t help that he had fallen off of the soft mattress he had been placed on. His skin was still sensitive to it resulted in a few bruises forming. Being a warrior of Asgard usually would mean that it wouldn\'t hurt, but it was like torcherous pins and needles. It had been several hours after that, and the pain and had left. All this time he spent on the floor enjoying the cold feel of the marble floor. He had just gotten up, using the bed as leverage finding that he had to learn how to walk all over again. That was when he saw the one that had shared the bed with him. He had woundered if this man was in the same boat as himself so he had pressed a finger against the pail skin of the shoulder that faced him. The man gave a wince and rolled away still in a slumber as the skin visably bruised.

Standing up fully he tried to get a good look of the face, he knew that this person had white hair that was possibly the most unruly he had ever seen in his life... er death, or... that he had ever seen. The color was a fascinating shade of blond and he found himself running his fingers through the surprisingly silken locks. The softness was nothing that he had imagined, it was like touching feathers. His own blond locks had a dirtier shade to them, looking as if they had been dusted with fine clay dust. His was also wiry compaired to this man\'s. His skin was also a shade more tan, odd he never thought of himself as being tan. He probably had the palest skin compaired to his commrads.

Not minding that he, himself, was not dressed, he trailed his sight along the fine figure, the skin as beautiful as moon light. Pulling himself up onto the bed, he crawled carefully over him just enough to see the face. With his body arched over the man he looked down to see that the man\'s eyebrows where nothing but two purple dots, his features where very handsome and he found himself blushing. Silently he pulled back and got off the bed making sure not to wake his sleeping companion. Distracting himself he looked around the room to find that it looked like one of those rooms in a Greecian temple that he had read about once. The marble was well taken care of though, no sign of being weathered over the years. There was a fur rug by the herth of a fire place that reminded him more of home. Two large wardrobes lined the walls as well as a desk that was large enough for two.e dee desk had everything that one needed for what ever they my please, but it hwo cwo chairs. Come to think about it, everything was in sets of two or large enough for two people and room for comfort. He honestly didn\'t know what was going on.

Padding across the room to one of the wardrobes he opened one of them to find robes with gold and jewls hanging in the closet part. Kneeling down he opened a drawer to find that it was packet und underwear, the other drawers held jewelry as well as normal clothing like jeans and T-shirts. Closing it all up he went to the other one to find the kind of clothing that he enjoyed. There was even his old harp, digging out the harp and some clothing he dressed himself in simple warm cream colored robe. It had no realy designs to accent it only the red shall that he had wrapped around his shoulders and back.

With harp in hand he was going to seat himself on the rug when his eyes glanced back to the man on the bed. There was a beginning chill in the air, the signs of a nice and long rain storm. He gave a light sigh making way to the bed once more. The god warrior didn\'t know why he was so conserned if this stranger caught a chill, but he was. He looked at the blankets to find that they were all well pinned under the man and he didn\'t want to risk bruising the beautiful flesh again. So he took off his thick shall and tenderly drapped it across the figure, smiling when the blond took a hold of the cloth to snuggle further into it.

Satisfide with the content look of the stranger, he took a seat on the fur rug. Leaning forward he peered into the fire place. It was already stacked with wood with kindling, long stick matches next to the iron pokers. Careful not to soil the sleeve of his robes, he reached in and opened the chimney flue before starting a fire. Once the blaze was stable he leaned back enjoying the soft fur he sat upon. Taking up his harp he let his fingers glide over it testing each string for tantness and how well the notes where played. He was quickly saticfied after adjusting two of the strings and began to play. The sweetness of his melody was soft and haunting. He didn\'t know why he was there, why there was a stranger with him and most importantly why did everything seem almost perfect? Closing his eyes he let his mind relax as the music danced around the room seemingly begging for an audiance. He paused however when the light sound of a knock was heard on the door. The blond stood up, harp craddled to chest.
He swiftly walked to the door, woundering why he had not already left. //Because of him. You do not wish to leave the slumbering out unprotected,// his inner voice answered. Slowly opening the door he found an odd woman standing in front of him, a thin tablet of stone with a stack of paper placed on it. The quill in her hand maddly scribbled soon as she made eye contact.

She wore a black toga dress, a silver belt and clasps on her shoulders glittered with an eery light. The blond man stood firm not wanting to let this intruder have the chance to disturb his companion. Her deep brown eyes glittered as a warm smile spread across her lips.

\"I see that you truly are for him,\" her voice was low and held a tone of royalty. \"When Hades-sama said that the two of you where to be paired I had my doubts,\" she laughed, keeping her voice down after seeing that there was still one slumbering. \"I should have known by now never to judge Hades-sama\'s decitions.\"

Red eyes slowly blinked, \"What is it that you want?\"

\"To finalize my job,\" her quil stopped moving. \"I do not have the time to wake your mate and tell him this as well, so you will have to explain it to him.\"

\"My... mate?\" his voice was calm and curious. How could two of the same gender be mates?

\"Yes, this one is your soul mate. My dear friend, I shall explain what I can but after wards I must check the conditions of your bodies to make sure the resurection was a success.\"

He nodded in responce allowing the woman in.

She continued to whisper, making sure to keep a comfortable distance from him showing she meant no harm, \"Every nnd tnd then there are souls that have done great good. This good is messured by Hades-sama himself. If two of a pairing do good then he will grant them a renewal of life with them together. In other words, if both soulmates are really good or have done a great deed for their people, or for the greater good, etc, etc, then they are brought back to life and be with each other. A form of paradice if you will.\"

\"What have I done to desirve this?\"

\"You had fought for your goddess, you stayed faithful till the end and you also had learned many things from someone that Hades-sama called the Andromeda Saint. He views you worthy enough to recieve paradice. This is where I come in, my name is irrelivent but people call me Tenshi.\"

The blond did not move only listened as she explained her name was spelled in Japanese and Chinese characters that meant \'blessed death\'. Considering that he knew little of the underworld he would only could guess that this woman was one of many people that gathered souls as well as delivered them to new bodies. He did know that souls where not endless, people where reincarnated and what people call the \'deep sleep\' was only a waiting period between lives.

\"Now then, I need you to take off your clothing,\" Tenshi jotted a few things down on her papers. \"I know it seems to be rude but I must see how your body is maintaining. If something had gone wrong I would have to re yoe your body all over again, and both of you are so unique that it would take me several more months.\"

The man closed his eyes and did as told, thankful that she wasn\'t insistant of him taking his underwear off. She had ran a finger down the large bruises on his back and shoulder that where left from his fall. There was the scribbling sound before she told him to dress.

\"Despite the bruising you seem fine, but I must know where the bruises came from.\"

\"I fell.\"

\"I see,\" she opened a small satchel that was strapped to her belt. Her slender fingers produced a tiny clear vile, \"It happens, when the body is first made no matter what it seems strong, then the soul enters and the body almost becomes mush. The flesh reconfigures to the toughness that is needed after due time but meanwhile it is left vunerable. The muscles will ache as well, but only due to the lack of usage.\"

He nodded, already knowing this by first hand.

\"Take this and rub it into the bruises, it will heal them with in the day. May I inspect your mate?\" she pointed to the man on the bed.

The blond was hessitent for a moment before nodding.

While the woman looked the man over she found that the flesh was just exiting the tender stage. After she was done she covered him back up. Walking to the door she wrote many things down. The man had followed her, stopping just short so that they were parted by the door way. He still did not understand how two of the same gender could be soulmates. But she said nothing dispite her talkitive nature before hand as she stood there.

\"May I ask you a question?\" his tender voice broke the silence.

\"Please do.\"

\"How can... two of...\" he frowned, his words where not coming out.

She smiled, \"Souls have no gender sweetie. Knowing this, does it truly matter?\"

He tilted his head just a little, \"I suppose not.\"

\"Good, now I\'ve got to go. It has been very busy since the war with Hades-sama, so many gold saints to revive,\" she gave a sigh and mumbled something about how almost all of them where linked together, Athena\'s saints that was. She seemed to disappear into the shadows of the hallway as she murmered about the different people she must bring back to life.

After closing the door he swiftly locked it. That particular incounter left him with an odd sense of confussion. Not wanting to have muttled mind he took his seat on the fur rug and plaid his harp, quickly loosing his confussion admist the sweetly strummed notes.

To be continued...