Chapter Text
Aglaea woke up to a knock at her window. There was only one person bold enough to be the culprit but what could he possibly want from her in the middle of the night? It didn't matter, really. Because she knew she couldn't make herself ignore him and go back to sleep.
With a sigh she sat up in bed and lit the nearest lamp. The light made her squint for a moment, rubbing her eyes as she fully woke up. It was cold night, she knew, so she couldn't leave him waiting long.
Her footsteps were light as she walked over to the window, moving the curtains and opening it to reveal the figure outside. The cold air was a shock to her system, and she could swear she felt a snowflake land on her cheek. But all that was secondary to the young man standing outside.
"Anaxa!" She gasped and covered her mouth in horror and shock at the sight that met her. He looked awful. His hair was messy, and matted with golden blood over his left eye, or.. where his left eye should be. It was dark out, and all she could see was the gleam of his blood, his hair covering most of that side of his face.
And he was practically trembling. Staring at her with the most helpless expression, like a lost puppy shivering in the cold. He didn't even offer an explanation, or a sarcastic remark about how worried she looked.
She grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. Or rather, gently guided him in. She couldn't bring herself to actually use anything resembling force. Once he was safely in her room she shut the windows and pulled the curtains closed. A fluffy bath robe of hers hung on her closet door nearby, and she grabbed it to place over his shoulders. It was better than nothing to warm him up.
Anaxa allowed her to guide him, sitting on the edge of her bed when prompted to. He felt dazed, dissociated. On an objective level his experiment had worked. At the cost of an eye he saw his sister again, and gained a whole new understanding of the world he lived in. He was thrilled. He... should be thrilled, anyway.
But his body hurt, and maybe his spirit did too. His heart, try as he may to silence it, ached for all that he had lost. Seeing his sister again, oh so briefly, had torn open the scar from losing her in the first place.
He was a brilliant student, an amazing alchemist who dared go beyond the known in acts that could easily have him executed for blasphemy. He was only tempered and strengthened in the face of adversity and refused to back down and bow to gods that had never saved him or what he loved.
But he was also human, terribly so, weak and fragile in all the messy ways humans were. In body he was weaker than most, his self experimentation taking a heavy toll on his physical form.
He looked down at his hands, they were trembling. He blinked, his remaining eye flooding with tears, the drops clear as they hit his palm. A drop of liquid gold from where his other eye should be hit his hand, glimmering even brighter in the candlelight.
The sounds around him had long since dimmed. The scratches on his arms from climbing the walls of Aglaea's family gardens barely registered to him. Her voice was soothing in the background, even as the hint of panic in it pained something deep in his chest.
Aglaea had hesitated to leave him unattended for even a second, but she needed to get some things to clean him up. It took a few moments that felt far too long to draw a basin of hot water and grab a washcloth. But by the time she returned to him she was both relieved and concerned that he hadn't moved an inch.
"Oh Anaxa what have you done to yourself" She murmured with a sigh. Not that he'd answer her right now. She could tell that much. Still she spoke to him, to distract and soothe herself as much as him.
His hands were cold when she took them in hers, rinsing them clean with warm water before turning her attention to the scratches on his arms. "I left the gate unlocked, you didn't need to climb in" she remarked as she cleaned each and every scratch on his frail body.
"I didn't think about it" was her beloved scholars reply. Well, at least he'd said something. His silence until now was.. worrying
Anaxa could tell she was putting off addressing his most grievous wound by being so attentive to the others. And who was he to deny her that? He considered himself lucky she was tending to him to begin with. She wasn't a healer, she was a noble girl, raised to worship mnestia and craft objects of beauty that even the titan of romance would approve of.
And yet she deemed fit to dirty her hands with the golden blood of the most sacrilegious chrysos heir she'd ever met. Bandaging his self inflicted wounds, despite knowing that his forbidden research was what had caused them.
Indeed, perhaps the goddess of romance, of all things, was the only titan who would find beauty in that.
"You let me put this off for too long" She said as she reached up to start carefully pulling strands of his bloodied hair back from his face.
"it's the least I could do for subjecting you to such an unpleasant sight, my lady" he replied, his voice quiet but no less himself, witty and teasing even in a circumstance such as this. It even prompted a slight curve to grace her lips.
"Lay back, this'll be easier"
"But the blood-"
"I'll tell them it's mine. We both bleed gold, remember?"
He didn't protest any further than that. If she was willing to weave lies to her family, he'd give in to the exhaustion and human weakness. His body begged him to rest, it was about time he listened for once.
It was ironic, she thought, as she guided him to rest back on her pillows. If her parents heard she'd snuck a boy into her bed on a cold winter night, they'd never guess that it was for this.
Even more ironically they might be even less forgiving of this then the more obvious reasons. After all she was a fully grown young woman. However no amount of being an adult was enough to make blasphemy and forbidden research (or aiding in it) an appropriate behavior.
His bloodied hair fell back onto the white silken pillowcase as she moved it out of his face. In the back of her mind she considered different lies to tell if anyone found the stains. A nosebleed perhaps, or a particularly bad needle prick while working on a new tapestry. Anything would do.
Those thoughts, however, were swiftly quieted by the unnatural sight of Anaxas missing eye. She'd expected to see blood yes, a gorey mess she'd struggle to figure out how to treat. But not... whatever this was.
She wasn't met with flesh and bone, but with a void where his eye socket should be. A black void swirling blue and purple and starlight. The blood was merely from the wounded skin around it and even that was beginning to heal into an uncanny edge.
"Does it hurt?" The words escaped her before her mind could catch up. There were definitely more important questions to be asking, such as how in the world had he managed to do something like this and why. But, she supposed, they could talk about that once she was sure he wasn't in crippling pain or immediate danger.
"I don't think so" Anaxa replied, his voice sounding faint even to his own ears. Laying down may have been a mistake, because he was quickly realizing just how exhausted he was. His body felt so heavy. Thinking about it he hadn't gotten a decent nights sleep in.. well, too long anyhow.
He didn't want to fall asleep though, given that he's not even supposed to be here. Aglaea was also a chrysos heir, so he'd be safe from the Cleaners with her family at least. But everything else about him was a different story entirely.
He could feel his thoughts starting to slow as the exhaustion began to take over him. How much longer could he realistically force himself to stay awake?
"You can sleep, Anaxa" Aglaeas voice washed over him, soft and soothing. It was unfair how easily his mind and body calmed for her. His breathing deepening and his eyelid growing heavy as she ran her fingers through his hair.
"But.. your family" He protested faintly, even as he turned his head to lean into her soothing touch. He knew, with exasperated certainty, that he was completely at her mercy. He didnt really mind it, though.
"There's a party tomorrow and since I can't go with them they'll be letting me sleep in and do whatever I want. They won't bother us." Aglaea told him, smiling a bit when he leaned into her hand. He really did look exhausted, knowing him he hadn't slept well in ages.
"You can't go? Why?" Of course he had to ask questions.
"Golden blood, no one outside family and you knows I'm an heir" and of course she answered him, even when she knew she shouldn't.
"wait- what? Who's drawing blood at a party?" He asked, trying to sit up only to be held down, it took embarrassingly little effort for her to pin him to the bed. He'd love to say that was only because he was weakened by blood loss and exhaustion. But... well, that wasn't the point.
"ask me these questions tomorrow. Sleep now." She told him, waiting until she was sure he wouldn't try to get up before she removed her hand from his chest.
"fine...." he mumbled, sighing as she tucked him into her bed and moved the lantern away from him. She didn't turn it out completely though, and sleepily he wondered if she planned to stay up watching over him. Not that he could do much about it if she did.
Aglaea watched him with a concerned expression as he shifted to get more comfortable, he looked so ridiculously tattered. His arms were scratched up and his hair was messy, even ignoring his eye (or lack thereof), he looked worse for wear.
And then there was his eye. She'd never seen anything like that starry void before. She didn't know how she accomplished it, but she knew it almost certainly wasn't allowed. If anyone saw it... well, she didn't want to know what the consequences would be.
Making an eyepatch by the time he left her room tomorrow shouldn't be too hard though. She'd sewn far more complex things in an afternoon before after all. She'd just leave the ties too long and adjust it once he was awake to be fitted properly.
She started with black fabric she already had laying around her room. Black matched anything so it was perfect. Knowing Anaxa he would somehow manage to be hard on it, so she embroidered all the edges with gold thread. That way it definitely wouldn't fray.
But then the eyepatch itself looked too plain, so she spent a while embroidering designs onto it. She didn't have a plan in mind, just let her mind wander while she did it. It was soothing, and she wasn't tired right now anyway.
Once that was done it was still missing something, she felt. She glanced around her room, thinking about what else the design needed. Her gaze landed on a small box shed left on the table. That might work actually.
Inside the box was a necklace she had been given by someone she'd already forgotten the name of. It was utterly unimpressive. Expensive, no doubt, but tasteless. Some obnoxious pendant with a diamond that honestly added nothing more than a faceted piece of glass would have.
Honestly.... gemstones were prettier, she never understood the thing with diamonds. The chain was also too bulky for her taste, she preferred lighter jewelry, finer chains. A necklace to her was a pretty accessory, not a chance to show off what you could afford. That was just silly.
The size of the chain would look good on the eyepatch though so at least it came in handy somehow.
With that added, she deemed it finished enough and finally went back to bed.
She fell asleep with her head on Anaxas chest. After all it was only fair, since he had her pillows. Yes, that was definitely the reason.