23A/N: Thanks soo much for all the reviewers; I know I'm going really fast here, and I'm thinking about revising everything from the start...but until then, here's another chapter...
Chapter 8
Rejoice – or Repulse?
When I walked out from my dorm on that Saturday evening, I had a feeling that something queer would happen. I was clumsy, clumsier than usual. One of the silliest thing I did was to fall down the stairs and fell straight into the arms of a stranger – a tall stranger whom, in my opinion, was strange. He carried newspaper parchments, of which, after the collision, did not pick it up, but left hurriedly, rather.
And when I saw the clippings did I start to panic. All of them had 'Stuart Tristan Macduff' name written on. My dear Duffy, whose heart I had betrayed for a younger, immature man. I should have known that I was wrong to shoo him out, but I did it blindly out of a disillusionment of short-lived passion. And when the time came to regret for my misdoings, he was gone. Like, forever?
It wasn't in my intentions at all to leave Everett, for he could be the best boyfriend if the girl were to be appropriate. He changed a lot, in my opinion, for his first impression of him had been horribly wrong. He was sweeter, kinder, humbler, but in reality, all I wanted was a simple guy with a complex nature. And all that I saw in only one person – Stuart.
I ran straight to the gates of the Imperial War Museum when I saw where the clippings were from – and I could hardly contain my emotions anymore when I saw him – the tall ginger-head sitting inside the green room, sipping Coke, alone.
I was 21, then, but he was still 32. 11 years in difference didn't change a thing. We didn't say a word. We just stared at each other for what seemed a really long time. Then it was back to Step One.
"I'm sorry, Duffy," I whispered. By this time, tears were already ruining my face and mascara.
"What for?"
"You had to suffer for almost 3 years. Haven't we had this conversation before?"
Stuart didn't say anything. He nodded, in agreement, before leaning in closer to me. I could smell his aftershave, strawberry. "Just shaved?" I choked through my words, knowing well enough that we did, have this conversation a long time ago.
"Now here comes the hugging part, and then I ask, 'how come we've never done this before?'" he chuckled softly, and lifted me up to meet him in now what I believed to be a 'more-than-friendly' gesture. Had he asked me then, I had no idea. Now I knew, for I am brave enough to say it out loud.
"Don't," he warned me. "I know," he said. And he kissed me on my nose. "But I'll say it first, since you can't read minds."
He kissed me. And then he said it. Those three words that I longed to hear. Everett never said "I love you", the best he could come up with was "I like you so much, I miss you dear" but never the 'L' word.
Stuart Macduff kissed me! And I don't have to hide him to the world, he was all on display! "How come we've never done this before? Kissing, I mean," I asked him naively. "The truth be told, I think the both of us are pretty shy, I suppose." Looking into his green eyes, I knew he was hiding something hurtful during the period I had neglected him.
"What's wrong?"
"What about Everett? You can't throw him away just like shit?"
I paused to that. "It was just a mere infatuation that lasted for 6 months but had to go on for several more years in the name of commitment," I professed.
"Then what do you call this?" Stuart kissed me again.
"This is a real, true love that was based on a platonic circumstances but soon developed into a real passionate and practical love for each other."
"Practical, eh?" Eros cursed under his breath. "I'll show you practical," he said, and turned around in despair, only to find a more despicable creature than the man of the moment, Stuart Macduff. It was Thanatos, grinning slyly. "You've lost."
"I cannot believe this! I have all the major Olympians by my side, and yet I still lose to a pest like you? This is sadistic!"
"You're still very young, Eros. You might have tricked Apollo into falling in love with someone, who in return, hates him. You might think that your arrows might work with a mortal. Two mortals in fact. Here's what. Sometimes Fates work against you. So be it."
"You are Death, and yet you speak of Love as a matter of your concern and profession. I spit on you! You do not know what love is. You don't even know what life is, Thanatos!"
"I may not feel love. I may not live a life. But I know them. Stuart and Jasmine taught me, Eros. You only know lust and passion, just the empty context of love, but not the whole truth. You only cared about winning. Now you've lost and you're limping. Go back to Psyche. She is the one that you love. Stop fooling around like this," Thanatos advised heedlessly.
Eros' flustered face turned into a smile when Thanatos mentioned of Psyche. "Yes, she is the only one that I love. And I only fooled around with Jasmine. I realized now, it's my fault."
Thanatos who was at least one foot taller than Eros patted his shoulder. "Now I could go back and do my old job without any interference," he said, in satisfaction.
"Come, embrace me as a sign of our renewed friendship," Eros called.
Thanatos leaned down and accepted Eros' wish.
Where he was stabbed with an arrow right into his iron-like heart.
An arrow of unjustified love, which melted his feelings
For a certain girl; whom he just saved for a friend.
"Now you shall learn that love is painful. Painful than death, for Death is empty, and Love is wholesome," Eros said audaciously, as Thanatos knelt, trying fruitlessly to pull the arrow out from his chest. "Freud wouldn't have analyzed Eros as the drive to live and Thanatos as the drive to die, dear friend. So when you look at Jasmine and Stuart together, remember that she'd only flirt with you when she had the guts to attempt suicide, but I stayed with her and breathed a new life into her."
Eros then flew up high in the skies, most probably heading for Mount Olympus.
"She did flirt with me…" Thanatos whispered hoarsely, as the arrow was finally removed. The arrowhead was still buried deeply inside his throbbing heart, as he tried to resist the new sensations filling up his brains and body. "I can - not – fall in love – with Jasmine -"
Back in the Underworld, Hades was ecstatically happy to know that everything had been restored to normal when Eros returned to Olympus. But when Hermes gave him a letter calling him for an urgent meeting with Zeus and Poseidon, he knew that things hadn't really ended yet.
BrokenFreak: Thank you for pointing out the mistake - I always do grammatical mistakes like that...
IWant A Bit of Mii: Yeah...it's kind of emotional...I agree. I'm trying to diversify my style of writing, and I dunno if it works...thanks for stopping by, though!
KayOrine: Thanatos is a real GreekDeity, and while very little of him could be known relative to that of the other Greek Gods, I tried to make him my own. Who wouldn't love a dark character with a tinge of kindness embedded within?
Shadowhound: I know, I know what you're gonna tell me...as the story progresses, it's getting way too fast (but I promise I'll revise everything) - I just need to write this til the end first...thank you sooo much for pointing out my mistakes.