The Sage was dead in the sand. His eyes were glazed over. The people of the desert stood back in awe and confusion, the loss to their community yet to sink in. The wind and sand had settled.
“Where did the Great Spirit go?” asked one of the Elders.
“Gone,” said a strange voice from the back of the room. “Back to Tartarus.”
A pale man with mismatched eyes who stood in the corner of the room lowered the hood to his long black cloak.
“Lord of Dream!” some exclaimed upon the recognition of one of their deities. The crowd bowed down in the sand.
Dream grimaced and began to tiptoe around them in his awkwardly heavy boots, not made for tiptoeing or sand. He nearly fell over as he entered the center of the tent where the ruby red bottle still sat, looking defiantly unscathed. He righted himself and raised his arms. “It’s good! I’m good! Nearly face-planted there, alright, so…” His gaze landed on the Sage, smiling in death upon the floor, and the congregation stared.
“He died to save his friend. The bugger knew it would happen. Planned it that-a-way. And it worked! I know it doesn’t look like it, but it totally paid off. He uh, the Great Spirit,” Hypnos waved his ringed hand around, “who is actually me best mate, was unbound from the, uh, thing.” He had forgotten the words vessel, bottle, and container. “But, see, his real body was someplace else, Tartarus. The body you know, well it was still real, but it wasn’t. Do you get it? It was like… Astral! That’s the word. It was like his spirit body. His spirit body was the thing bound to the, uh- the bottle! Yeah. So you did save him, in that his soul is now detached from this bottley-thing,” he gestured at the red cut glass, still glimmering audaciously in the sand. “So, give yourselves a pat on the back!”
No one moved, but a young child began to cry.
Hypnos grimaced and shrank, “Okay, so I’m not explainin’ it right, but this is a good thing! I’m just gonna…” He picked up the bottle and stuffed it in the pocket of his cloak, then began to make his way out of the wind blown tent.
“Lord of Dream,” an Elder called out, and Hypnos froze as if he were caught doing something bad.
“We may not comprehend what it is you are explaining to us, but pray… tell us… what has become of our eldest member’s soul?”
Dream looked at the body on the floor.
“Has he too been released, unbound from this mortal plane?”
“You see, my brother, the Lord of Death has taken him… from this plane… to the next, ya know? Land of the Dead! And... lots a’things can happen after that. But, I gotta go deliver this... thing, so catch ya on the flip side.”
Hypnos saluted and stepped from the disheveled tent. Hurrying to the next tent over, where the altar was kept, he stepped into the eternal flame and vanished, entering the Netherworlds from a public bathroom mirror on the other side.
He exited what turned out to be a women’s restroom and crept down a hall echoing with Frank Sinatra’s crooning voice. He dashed behind a ficus to survey the restaurant’s seating area before him. As a waiter walked past, Hypnos conspicuously slipped after him, quickly shuffling and crouching in a fruitless attempt to stay hidden in the shadows. As this absurd conga approached the corner table, Hypnos yelped in recognition, and leapt into a conspiratorial crouch next to Loki and Eros. They were giggling obliviously over plates of fine cuisine and red wine.
They both jumped at the presence of Dream. “What the hell, Hypnos!” Eros snapped in a whisper.
“I’ve got something for you.” Hypnos began to rummage through his pockets.
Eros and Loki glanced at each other.
“Damn it! Where is it?” he said as he tore through his pockets.
Other patrons were looking over, concerned at Hypnos’s rough appearance and raucous display.
“Hypnos,” Loki said in a patronizing tone, “we’re actually on a date.”
Hypnos ignored him, “It’s red, and glass, and it’s really important!”
Loki’s brow scrunched.
Eros leaned forward and gently laid his hand on the table, “Are you referring to a ruby red perfume bottle?”
“Yeah that’s the one! Here it is!” He pulled from his pocket a needle and thread and frowned.
Loki growled, “Dream, that is a bobbin! Listen, you already gave me the bottle.”
“I did?”
“You did.” Loki said.
“Whoops…”
“Yes. Whoops. Do you mind maybe talking to us about this later. We’re trying to…” He gestured towards the table.
“Right, you’re trying to get into Eros’s pants. I forgot. I wouldn’t do that if I were you. As soon as you two shack up-”
“We’ve already had sex!” Loki shouted, and the restaurant fell silent.
Eros took a breath, “Well done, Loki…”
Loki waved apologetically to the crowd, who less than politely turned away and began to whisper.
Loki covered his forehead with one large hand and began rubbing his temples.
“Right,” Hypnos stood at his full towering height, and shoved the needle and thread back into his pocket. “Time’s a bitch to keep track of. So if you’re here, and he’s there- oh shit! I’m late!” He picked up Eros’s glass and slammed back the wine. He made a face. “Too dry. Gotta split. Call me?”
Eros gave him a thin smile and a nod while taking back his empty wine glass. Hypnos ran from the restaurant, nearly knocking over a waitress, with his coat flapping behind him.
Loki closed his eyes and took a breath, “Well, this has been a disaster.” He slammed back his own wine. “The waiter is a snooty prick. The food is bland. Hypnos has amnesia, and apparently the wine is too dry.”
“Yes.” Eros nodded along in agreement with every beat. “Want to try something else instead?”
“Like what?”
Eros shrugged, “What about the theater?”
“You would be a thespian.”
“I like musicals.”
“I like opera.” Loki said.
“I think a compromise can be found. And after we could grab a drink?”
Loki leaned forward. “Want to dine and dash?”
Eros leaned in. “That would be wrong.”
“Live a little.” Loki smirked, and before Eros could compose an argument, Loki stood and made for the door.
Eros jumped up to follow him, but turned around and fumbled some demonics from his wallet. He hid them under a napkin before hastening up to Loki, who was outside hailing a cab on the corner.
“You slipped a note on the table, didn’t you?”
Eros avoided eye contact. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Loki’s crooked smile overtook his face, and a cab rolled up next to them. The giant opened the door for his date, who deliberately sat in the middle seat, which Loki took as a very good indicator as to how the night was actually going.
He lowered himself into the cab as Eros leaned forward to tell the driver to head to the performing arts center.
Eros pulled out his phone to see what was on the playbill for the night, and Loki grimaced at the illuminated screen. “Why do you have one of those?” Loki stretched his arm over the back of the seat, and settled into the corner.
“It’s convenient.” Eros did not look up from his phone, but crossed his legs and slightly leaned into Loki’s side. “You should get one.”
Loki snorted. “No.”
“You have a home phone. What’s your number? I’ll add it to my contacts.”
Loki shrugged and made to look out the window. “You don’t need it.”
Eros’s eyes finally rose from his phone. Loki could feel Eros’s body tense and pull away as he snapped him a glare. “What do you mean?”
Loki continued nonchalantly to peer out the fogging window. “Well, if you ever need to talk to me, you can just come over. Day or night.”
Eros relaxed a little. “Very smooth.” He didn’t think it was that smooth. “Just give me your damn number in the event that I need you to come to me, and you should get a cell phone for business purposes.”
“Fine.” Loki cleared his throat. “Six. Six. Six.”
Again, Eros looked up from his phone. “Is that a joke?”
“Yes. It is. I was drunk, and Lucifer had said something to piss me off the night before.”
“So to get back at him you made your phone number the mark of the Beast?”
“...You had to be there.”
“Oh. Okay. Six. Six. Six.” He entered it into his phone, and immediately realized that he really didn’t need to save the number. He was never going to forget it.
Loki added in a childish tone, “Death’s number is just four.”
Eros put his phone back in his pocket. “Is there a story behind that as well?”
“Well, in the Chinese language, the number for four, sì, sounds much like their word for Death, sÇwang, so it’s bad luck.”
“And you lot think my family is strange.”
“What’s Hypnos’s number?” Loki asked with faux jealousy. “He did tell you to call him...”
“That’s not still a thing-” Eros began to justify.
“Please,” Loki looked at him steadily, “I wouldn’t care if it was.”
Eros readjusted in the seat to face Loki, “Really?”
“Really, really. Jealousy has never been a color of mine. Well, actually, I do like the color green, but I’m not the jealous type. Never have been.”
“Oh.”
“But, please, tell me his number is just as ridiculous.”
Eros blinked rapidly. “I don’t actually have his number.”
Loki raised an eyebrow.
Eros readjusted his cufflinks, “We just, um… drop by whenever we want to see each other. Oh look. Here we are!”
The cab stopped, and Eros slipped to the other side of the cab and out the door.
Loki laughed and stepped from the car. He paid the driver through the window, calling out to Eros over his shoulder, “But I have to call if I want to see you.”
“That’s not what- I’d just like to be able to get a hold of you!”
Loki jogged up to his side.
Eros continued, “Hypnos is my oldest friend, and we’ve always been this way-”
“Then why would you try to convince me it’s not a thing?”
Eros stopped and looked up at Loki in the lights of the performing arts center. He only offered Loki a shrug.
“I am not-,” began Loki. He stopped and sighed, hearing the words Thanatos said the other day about the types of men Eros apparently clung to. He stuck his hands in his pockets and readjusted his footing, “This is about to become a very serious conversation, is that alright?”
Eros blinked, “Uh, sure.”
“I really do think that you and I- well, we work well together, and we are attracted to one another, yes?”
“Yes...” Eros’s face was stricken with confusion and worry.
“Good, then.” Loki rubbed his face, “I’m not your father, as a matter of fact I’m a terrible father, and as a result, I’m not going to tell you what you can and cannot do. I’m not going to be one of your boyfriends who parade you around like divine arm candy. I’ve seen you play those boys like a fiddle, and I’m sure you’ve seen that I don’t let people play me like a fool. I have a habit, or a flaw if you will, where I accept people for what they are- good, bad, or indifferent. If Hypnos is a part of your life, or anyone, or anything else for that matter, then- If I want to be in your life, I have to accept those things, don’t I?”
“Okay…” Eros nodded as he rolled this over in his head. This was why he was attracted to Loki- his directness, his self-awareness, and the beautifully strange way his mind worked. Eros might have just been hanging around all of the wrong people, Hypnos aside, for much of his existence. “While we’re at it, then, and if I can be honest?” Eros said.
“Fire away,” Loki invited.
“I have self-destructive tendencies. I push people away before they can leave me, so I don’t bother letting myself get too attached to them. But, I think you’re so clever it makes you stupid sometimes. I think you make yourself intense to scare and to test people, because if they can make it past one layer, you’ll let them on to the next, and the next. I wish I could do that, and I think it’s incredibly sexy how you bite your lip when you’re thinking, and you smell so amazing, and you man-spread more than anyone I’ve ever met! And, you really don’t mind?”
“Mind what? Hypnos? Lord no! Of course not. I mean, he’s Dream. He is literally everyone’s dream-guy. I’ve probably had a few sex dreams with him myself if we look at it that way. And you being who you are, Erotic Desire, I would think asking you not to be that would be a tall order to fill. I want to let you out of your cage, not put you in a new one.”
“You keep saying all these pretty things, and I don’t believe any of them.” Eros shrugged helplessly.
Loki appeared disappointed, but said, “Well that’s alright. I’ll enjoy proving your disbelief wrong time and time again. Sound like a bargain?”
Eros looked him up and down. “Fine. But we’re not shaking on it after what you did to me the last time.”
“Deal.” Loki bowed his head, and wrapped his arm around Eros’s shoulder as they stepped into the theater.
Eros muttered, “And I’m not in a cage…”
Loki grinned. “Of course you’re not.”
