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Your apartment is a comfortable mess. Red and gold streamers hang across your snow white walls with matching balloons haphazardly strewn around your hardwood floor. There's a half eaten cake on your dining room table with melted candles resting alongside empty plates covered in frosting and cake crumbs.
It's your favorite flavor decorated with white buttercream and frosted words are cut in half where the knife had been serving the small party of two.
A small lion plush key chain that was recently gifted to you— yellow fur, a red mane, and the dopiest smile you've ever seen — rests beside silver car keys with a matching crimson bunny key chain.
The owner of said keys sits in front of you on the plush rug of your living room with a plate on his lap, the ripest mango you've ever seen in one hand, and a knife in the other. He's wearing the sweater that you bought for his birthday a couple months ago — baby pink with tabby cat designs on the side and a silly cat face plastered right in the middle. It was a gag gift, but Mydei seems to genuinely enjoy it.
Maybe because he sincerely thinks it's cute, or perhaps because it was a gift from you, regardless of intentions, and that alone was enough for him to cherish it dearly.
Not that you mind seeing him wear it; it's a treat now and then when you catch the stoic, muscular Mydeimos with red inked skin wearing a cute pink sweater and his perky butt hidden behind his black boxer briefs walking around your apartment.
A sight only for you to see, and a butt only for you to smack.
His broad back faces you as you sit on the cushions of your couch and your fingers deftly weave in and out of the sea of soft, blond hair, leaving braids in your wake.
"Hey, Mydei." Your voice cuts through the comfortable silence; the timbre of your voice perks Mydeimos' ears and he hums in acknowledgement.
"Do you think we're lovers in every timeline?"
Mydei pauses peeling the golden fruit for a moment; if you could tap into his head, you wonder if you would hear a neat bossa nova tune playing as he digests your question.
"...What brought this up, cottontail?" He asks, his voice calm and deep as per usual. The crisp cut of the knife through the mango skin resumes and so do your fingers as they find their next victim on Mydei's scalp.
"Weird dream I had," you resume with a soft murmur, plaiting the new blond strands in your hair. "We were in some... ancient universe? And you kept dying. Every time, even when I offered my own body to protect you, you always were one step ahead and never let me die in your stead."
Your eyes narrow for a second before you playfully tug at the small braid in your hands — your boyfriend doesn't even seem phased and you click your teeth as he resumes peeling fruit for you. A bare piece of mango is held up nonchalantly in your direction and you begrudgingly take it in your mouth.
"On second thought, Dream Mydei is pretty close to Real Mydei in the sense that he was so annoying and never let me go through with my own plans and intervened just to piss me off." You sit up properly to lean over your cute, handsome, annoying lover and bite his cheek. The delicate clang of the fruit knife onto the ceramic plate rings through your apartment as your lover sets it down on the small coffee table in front of him before another piece of fruit is dangled in front of you.
And like a bunny lured into a decadent trap of delicious mango bits, you release him and take it into your own mouth, giving Mydei the perfect time to pull you from the couch and onto his lap in one swift movement.
You're met with eyes of pure gold peering back at you, unwavering and resolute even as your legs are thrown over his lap. Warm, rough hands find their solace on your body; one slides underneath your hoodie to hold your waist, keeping you steady, and the other on your bare leg. His thumb rubs gently against the flesh of your thigh and the nightmare from before seemingly melts away.
"Dream you told me that you would find me in every life as you bled in my arms. Is that true?"
The hand caressing your thigh pulls away only to reach up and cup your face. To think that someone like Mydei would hold someone so gently in his hands, anyone who didn't know him would've been shocked. Everyone's first impressions of him are always one of intimidation — you couldn't even blame them because he towers over most people and his gym routine gives him the physique of an ancient Kremnoan warrior. Always adorning an unmoving expression with a voice deep and rugged, nobody would have expected him to have such a soft heart and to be a lover so gentle and sweet to you.
Not once has he ever raised his hand in anger or yelled in frustration at you. Arguments happen, sure, but he's always the first to approach you with a calm mind and open heart. Even then, they were rare as you never had a reason to be mad at him — ignoring the occasional cute aggression he gives you — and Mydeimos the same.
In any normal situation, you would have giggled at your lover showing such affection. A gentle tease and his face cupped in your hands while you shower him in kisses to reciprocate his loving touches. You would feign ignorance as Mydei demands that you cease in your incessant, featherlight kisses against every inch of his skin even though his body language tells you a different story.
But this conversation isn't normal; today especially isn't normal.
When your gaze wavers in thought, Mydei's thumb lightly brushing against the skin of your cheek brings you back to reality. His eyes never leave yours even as he leans forward to softly bump his forehead against yours; the gentlest headbutt known to mankind. The corners of your lips curl upward in a subtle smile at his weird act of affection, but it makes your heart flutter nonetheless.
"Thinking about this stuff is foolish, really," Mydei begins. His eyes scan your face, memorizing every inch as if he hasn't done that every day he has spent with you. His brows furrow slightly, as if he's preparing to scold you for bringing this foolish topic up out of nowhere. "But it's even more foolish to think that I wouldn't find you in every life. Even if we were oceans apart, there is no doubt that we would meet again."
His words are simple enough, tone curt to get his message across, and yet your chest feels light after hearing them. Mydei doesn't move when you lean forward this time, though not to return his headbutt from before. Your hands gently cup his face as you capture his lips in a kiss; nothing too messy and everything loving and sweet. He reciprocates your kiss with ease, like his body was programmed to do so. His hand gently holds the back of your head, holding you with just enough force to keep you pressed firmly against him.
Never enough to hurt you.
You pull away shortly, only enough to catch your breath and get a glimpse of your Mydei below you — golden eyes half-lidded and staring, studying your movements to decipher what you'll do next like a lion analyzing his prey. So pretty, so handsome, all yours.
"There could never be a life where I could ever hate you, my beloved." Mydei's voice is breathy and quiet, but his voice has never been louder than in this very moment. Like a single droplet of water that breaks the dam holding the reservoir together, the desire to love him, body and soul, overwhelms you and you surge forward to press your lips against his to kiss him again and again and again.
And, as fate would have it, he returns your love tenfold again and again and again.