Chapter Text
The first rays of sunshine woke Mydei up, filtered through the thin curtains. He rubs his eyes, preparing for the day ahead.
Getting up wasn’t exactly easy, he almost falls down on his face as he tries to put his slippers on. Then, he heads for the kitchen of his apartment, yawning.
In short, Mydei is an extremely average person.
Average job at a bakery, average hobbies, average life…
He finishes his early smoothie and heads towards the living room, as he always does in his average life. That was until he realizes… his mornings wouldn’t be as average as before now.
Oh, right. There’s a literal god sleeping on his couch.
—
Amphoreus was a pretty futuristic city, compared to the rest of the world. It was trendy, it was beautiful. Really, the place people wanted to go to.
Part of Amphoreus’ success came from its gods, also called Titans. There were twelve of them, each representing a different concept. Strife, Death, Romance, Reason… and on top of them was the Titan of Worldbearing.
Each Titan had a dedicated temple. They were great tourist attractions and kept the economy booming. People went to pray for whatever they wanted to happen, and the Titans could choose to answer or not. Each year, a Titan popularity contest was held (it sounded absurd, but it happened). Usually, the results didn’t change much. Mnestia the Romance was first. Zagreus the Trickery was at the bottom of the leaderboard… pretty normal, unless you looked at the last place of each year.
Kephale the Worldbearer.
Kephale’s temple was easily accessible. It was close to the city, was the most decorated temple of all and arguably the most important of all Amphoreus. The problem related to Kephale directly. The Titan was… asleep. Dead. There were many theories. All that was known was that Kephale laid at the bottom of his temple, in its deepest chamber, protected by a magical barrier impossible to cross for humans and Titans both.
And so, Kephale couldn’t grant wishes.
Nobody knew why he was absent. The rest of the Titans were silent about it. At first, people found it interesting. An invisible force that could awake at any moment? Amazing.
That was until people started to completely abandon Kephale’s temple. Some people still went, it was a wonder of architecture after all. But to the eyes of Amphoreus, Kephale was a dead Titan and was completely useless. People preferred Titans who could offer them what they wanted.
As for Mydei, he didn’t truly have a favorite Titan. The only one he visited the temple of was Kephale, because it was usually very quiet and peaceful.
Nobody visited anyways.
One day, he made a mistake.
During one of his audiences with Kephale, he stepped in the usual room divided in two. The barrier protecting the center of the Temple didn’t allow anyone to walk further into it. He was about to present his offerings to the Titan and leave them near the barrier when he realized that his finger was going through that barrier.
It took him a moment to realize what was happening. So logically, he tried to pass his arm through it. And somehow, it worked?
He hadn’t heard anything online about the barrier breaking. Was he the only one capable of traversing it? Mydei didn’t think twice before jumping through.
He reached the dark corridor, unexplored before and continued his investigation. A long stairway was leading to a small room. But most surprising was what was inside the room.
A man, taller than any, wrapped in his own wings, was standing at the center of the hidden chamber. A powerful light was emanating from him.
And he was definitely alive.
Mydei almost forgot how to breathe.
Then, the man moved, his wings slowly unwrapping and revealing his yellow eyes.
“Mydeimos…” The Titan – Kephale – whispered. “It’s really you…?”
And so, Mydei met his new big clingy puppy.
—
Turns out, Kephale followed him home.
For some reason.
Mydei hadn’t expected that. He didn’t even clean his apartment. But Kephale didn’t mind, instead, he sat his imposing figure on the couch and gladly accepted any food Mydei gave him.
He even said he would sleep on the couch. Mydei offered him the bed, but he refused, arguing he wouldn’t care and wouldn’t need to sleep much anyways.
…he was asleep for centuries after all.
So, Mydei got to keep his bed.
The morning after, he stands at the entrance of the living room, half awake.
Right. God is sleeping on his couch. Or maybe he’s wide awake, Mydei can’t tell. He approaches the sleeping man and yelps in surprise when he feels himself being pulled in Kephale’s embrace. It doesn’t take long for him to be wrapped in two big and warm wings.
“Stay… please.” The god pleads – wait, pleads?? – and nudges Mydei closer to him. His body is incredibly warm. It’s comfortable.
“Sure but I have to go to work soon…”
Saying that to a god might sound strange, because he should technically do anything they want. But said god was literally crashing on his couch for whatever unholy reason, and logic flew out the window yesterday. And Mydei had a house to pay for.
“Hm.” Kephale lets out a groan to protest, but slowly opens his wings, allowing Mydei to slip out. “Can I come?”
Mydei almost chokes.
And finds a complete stranger sitting on his couch the moment he blinks. The stranger has short white hair and beautiful blue eyes. Have they met before? Mydei doesn’t remember him, but he certainly has a strange feeling of déjà vu.
Unfortunately, he has to stop his thoughts when he realizes that Kephale of all people was wearing a yellow shirt with disgusting purple pants.
To the closet you go, Titan, Mydei isn’t allowing you to leave until you dress better.
After finding a presentable outfit that suits the man, Mydei finally allows him to accompany him at work.
He doesn’t know why Kephale would want to see that, but sure.
He also gave Mydei a name. Phainon. Said Mydei should call him that and not Kephale.
Phainon isn’t a name that has ever been associated with Kephale in any story or legend.
Mydei agrees and brushes it off completely. The Titan must like the name.
He finds focusing at work even more complicated now that he’s aware that one of the twelve Titans is watching. Phainon likes to observe Mydei baking. He was assigned some menial tasks that he fails horrendously. Mydei wasn’t aware being this bad at cooking was a thing at all. He sets a reminder in his head to never give Phainon the occasion to cook again.
He learns that Phainon likes Golden Honeycakes, which, luckily, are Mydei’s specialty. He offers the Titan some, hoping it would keep him busy enough to not bother anyone.
When his shift is over, Mydei promises Phainon they can go to the park tomorrow. Phainon happily agrees. As happily as he can be, considering he doesn’t really expresses anything.
This night, Mydei has a nightmare.
He sees himself being torn apart many, many times and always coming back to life after. He sees the face of a man he can’t recognize, deformed by fear, as he falls to the ground and dies one final time.
When he wakes up, Phainon has him wrapped in his wings, whispering sweet words of reassurance.
Mydei says nothing and falls back asleep, this time devoid of any dreams.
—
The morning, Mydei opens his eyes and immediately sees Phainon’s face. He yelps and almost falls off the bed. Phainon’s wings stop him from doing so. He’s very quick to react, Mydei notices.
He picks up Phainon’s half asleep body and drags him to the bathroom. Or tries to. Phainon wakes up halfway through and quickly reverses the roles.
Mydei doesn’t even fight.
After a quick morning routine, Mydei ends up in the kitchen, a very hungry and excited puppy waiting for his breakfast sitting behind him. He manages to make a fruit salad. Phainon seems to like it, at least. He also makes him a smoothie.
And finally, after picking out Phainon’s outfit (Mydei doesn’t trust him doing so alone), they set off to the park.
Luckily, there doesn’t seem to be a time limit to Phainon’s human form.
They set up their spot under a tree. Mydei takes out the few snacks he brought and lays them on the grass. Phainon watches the surroundings while he does. Then, once Mydei is done, Phainon rests his head on the other man’s shoulder. Mydei can’t say he’s not surprised. He doesn’t know what to do, so he pets Phainon’s hair.
He still has a lot of questions. This time, curiosity gets the better of him. Do Titans have drama between them?
“So… how are they like?” Mydei starts.
“Hm?” Phainon hums, confused.
“The other Titans.”
“Ah.” He pauses. “Cerces and Mnestia hate each other.” He notes, almost giggling. “Thanatos… is extremely soft and gentle. She wouldn’t hurt a soul.”
So Titans have genders. Mydei was always taught they didn’t.
“Zagreus is a little weird, but she wants the best for everyone. Janus… I don’t really know her. Aquila is one of the kindest person I’ve ever met. And…”
Phainon doesn’t dare to speak for a while, as if he was remembering something painful. Mydei was about to speak up, but…
“And Nikador.” Phainon breathes out. “Nikador.” He repeats. “…is not a complete Titan.”
“And that means?”
“Nikador is missing half of himself. It’s what it means.” Phainon admits. “You… shouldn’t know more.”
“Alright.”
Mydei doesn’t insist. He can see Phainon doesn’t want to talk about it. So he lets him lay down on his lap. His dog- Phainon happily obliges. With a small smile and a small pink hue on his cheeks (which Mydei did not know was possible for Phainon), he rests his head on the other man’s thighs, closing his eyes.
As for what Phainon had just told Mydei… legends depicted Mnestia and Cerces as lovers. Maybe they were just an old married couple. Same legends talked of Thanatos as a cold Titan that didn’t care about giving death to people. Zagreus was depicted as a trickster who had no limits, even playing with the lives of people. Aquila was supposed to be very protective of their sky.
Knowing them from an other Titan’s perspective was incredibly interesting. As for Nikador… no sources ever mentioned them being “incomplete”. They were always a mad Titan who wasn’t very popular. Though the stories did mention Kephale having to seal them to stop them from succumbing to madness. Maybe that’s why Phainon doesn’t like talking about it, Mydei figures. He won’t ask about it anyways.
About half an hour of scrolling on different social medias, Mydei finally sees Phainon waking up. He drops a candy in the Titan’s hand, watching his eyes light up.
The rest of the afternoon is spent playing games and chatting about nothing and everything at the same time. Mydei almost feels sad when he realizes they need to go back home. Phainon helps him clean their spot.
The feeling goes away when Phainon lays down with him when they go to sleep.
—
At some point, Mydei gets used to having the Titan of Worldbearing living in his home.
Phainon sleeps with him in his bed. He’s warm and keeps the nightmares away. Mydei became used to them.
When he has work, Phainon clings to him all day. When he doesn’t have work, Phainon clings to him all day. He doesn’t mind being compared to a puppy, he finds them cute. Mydei taught him a lot of things about the current Amphoreus. Phainon always listens attentively. Mydei figures he just likes his voice.
A few days after Phainon first slept on Mydei’s couch, Kephale was declared missing. The barrier had disappeared, apparently, and the temple was completely empty.
It was ridiculous. It took them days to notice a Titan’s very obvious disappearance.
Phainon doesn’t care. He uses his human appearance when going out and uses his real one when at home with Mydei. He doesn’t plan on going back any time soon and made it very clear. He would rather be with Mydei, for some reason. And that’s fine with the man, his life before Phainon joined in was incredibly dull.
He might actually start to enjoy Phainon’s clinginess.
—
Mydei takes Phainon to the newly opened festival.
It’s not anything grand. There isn’t a lot of things to do. But Phainon said he wanted to go a few days ago, so Mydei brought him.
The festival was held for Kephale.
Mydei finds it a little funny. It was supposed to be a funeral for the “late” Kephale. Everyone thought he was dead, since he just disappeared without giving news.
They put on their decorated masks to match with the rest of the crowd. The main celebration was going to be a ritual to bid farewell to warriors. Kremnoan tradition, no less. The participants would burn a figure supposed to represent the deceased – here, Kephale – to give them one final goodbye.
For now though, the festival goers could enjoy a few games and tasty snacks. In short, a normal festival until the final event.
Phainon drags Mydei to nearly every game. His bank would sure question the suspicious spendings the next morning.
But Phainon was having fun. He was smiling. Mydei could see how much he changed from the first time they met. Phainon was near emotionless, but now… now is different. It was pleasant. Mydei almost forgot that Phainon was the Worldbearing Titan. He doesn’t mind. Maybe Phainon thinks he does. But really, who could care about details like these after seeing this beautiful smile?
Phainon’s favorite game ended up being Battleships. He really likes competing with Mydei. Awfully in character, Kephale was said to challenge Nikador in battles all the time.
Mydei finds it adorable. Phainon is really cute when he focuses on something.
A few hours of fun after, it was time for the ending ceremony.
Phainon picks up a torch, lighting the wooden statue on fire once it was his turn. Mydei refused to go. Phainon is alright with that. He doesn’t want Mydei to feel uncomfortable by celebrating the death of his friend. Once Phainon returns, they walk to an unoccupied part of the hill.
Phainon, as always, lays down on Mydei’s lap.
“Thank you for today. I had fun.”
“A Titan having fun at his funeral?” Mydei teases. “You truly are one of a kind, Phainon.”
“But you like it.”
…fair, Mydei admits.
Phainon opens his eyes.
“When I became a Titan…” he starts, his blue eyes betraying him. He was feeling sad. “I lost all my emotions. But when I found you, it all gradually came back. That’s why I’m happy.”
Mydei doesn’t know what to answer, so he pets Phainon’s hair.
“Mydeimos…” Phainon whispers. “I really… really love you.”
Mydei stops for a moment, then goes in for a kiss.
—
“Phainon…” Mydei sighs, exasperated. “Can you let go?”
He tries to push away the massive wings keeping him from moving.
“Hmph.” Phainon huffs, closing in even more.
Mydei groans. “I know you love me.”
“I do.”
“But you have to let me go. I need to work.”
“Nuh uh.”
Mydei gives up. Phainon smiles, as if claiming victory. He seems very alive for someone who just had their funeral yesterday.
“I really love you, Mydei.”
“I love you too. But please let me go. You’re strangling me.”