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It was quiet now. The campfire had burnt low to glowi embers and the only sound was the wind shifting through the nearby leaves. It was easier to imagine a kinder life in these moments.
No gods, no arena, no wishes. Just some friends on a clear night, enjoying some wine.
Nikos had left with Drift and Shelby to give them a lift so that the two, admittedly quite drunk, ladies got home and to their beds. Cleo had opted to stay behind, make sure the fire did die completely in the nights encroaching cold.
Not that Cleo really felt it. Her fur made the wind's chill less biting than when she had been human. One of the small benefits she guesses.
She considers wandering back to her hill, surrounded by a field of poppies. Light her fire and spend the rest of the night alone.
Part of her screams to, flinches back at how close she has let others come. The part that knows how this will end and is already tallying the loses that will be had.
The other part…
Well, it's hard to push away what you have never had before. She didn't lie to Nikos, she had been lonely for so long. Company for the first time was sweeter than any ambrosia the gods ever had and just as addicting.
So she waits.
A crack of lightening somewhere distantly behind her breaks the silence like a rock through a sheet of ice. The smell stinging slightly in her nose. Nikos was around.
Cleo turns and throws a branch on the fire, let's the bed of embers liven up into a crackling flame. Sparks drift up into the sky like fireflies in the wind.
It reminds her of a grove she used to like in the forest. One she used to go to when she couldn't think. When the entire council seemed full of snakes in the grass and she didn't know which way to turn. It let her breath when she felt like all she could do was panic.
The air she was breathing was clear tonight.
Footsteps are what finally herald Nikos' return. Heavy and sure and confident as the man himself. She doesn't turn to look at him, keeping their eyes fixed on the constellation above.
"Hello again, Wild One!" His voice cheers out, lively and warm with life.
She snorts at the name, it's not the most accurate but it works she guesses.
Nikos must have heard her as he is shiffl through his chests looking for something.
"No? Do you not like the name?"
Cleo lets out a non-comital hum. Behind her Nikos cheers quietly as he finds another bottle of wine.
"You can be Pretty One as well if you want." He teases.
She rolls her eyes at his antics, stuffing a laugh. "Nikos-!"
"What? what? You are pretty, yes? I don't see what the problem is." He sits down beside her, back also to the fire, looking out over the cliff. "I made my appreciation no secret, no?"
Cleo shakes her head, coloured ribbons rippling at the edges of her vision. Neither had been coy today, I'm fact she was surprised they hadn't flustered the other two with their flirting in the forge. Though then again, Scott was an actor and Abolish seemed blase about most things in life.
Niko's hums and takes a drink of his wine before handing it to her to do the same. "Mmm, I'll work on jt, I'm sure I'll think of something that works."
The satyr lets out a snort and takes her own swing of wine. It's sweet and heady in her mouth. They sit like that in silence for a mom before she speaks again.
"You were calling me Cleo earlier."
She says it gently, almost unsure if she should point it out. Nikos doesn't respond, just lets out a small hum of acknowledgement.
"Why?"
Nikos does not respond immediately, instead he leans against her back. Rough calloused hands wrap around her waist and a warm body presses against hers. Work worn nails card through her short coarse fur, tracing the skin below.
Her heart thuds in her chest.
"Names— names are important. Your name, it seemed important to you. To call you something else in the moment seemed- wrong." He mutters against her ear. Hot breath causing them to flick. "To deny you what you are, what you have become. I could not do that to another. Not after everything I lived through.
Cleo mulls the words over in her head, trying not to get distracted by the larger man's ministrations.
"I… appreciate that."
Niko's hums again, chest rumbling with the sound.
"It is alright, you fight with me and you fight for the same goals. I see no reason to be cruel in this."
"Some would disagree."
"Well more fool them!" He rumbles, pulling he closer to him, "For I have a beautiful lady on a beautiful night and they do not!"
Cleo lets out a bout of delighted laughter that echoes across the cliffs. It is soon joined by Nikos own rumbling chuckles as his chest shakes against her back.
"You're going to have to put your money were you mouth is soon, Nikos, or I might start getting offended." She teases lightly, leaning back against the man.
His eyes spark with excitement as he looks down at her, "Is that so? We can't have that, no not at all."
"Yet you are still talking." She drawls in mock annoyance, yet sitting here she could here her heart in her ears.
Nikos laughs again and finally presses a kiss into her shoulder, followed by a couple up her neck. Black hairs tickle against her neck causing her to yelp and push his face away earning another laugh from the well built man.
"Stop messing around." She huffs, her face feeling about as flushed as Nikos looks.
"I'm not messing around. I'm doing as you asked!" Nikos pouted, not unlike a dog. Deep brown eyes meet hers and all she can do is sigh.
If a dog needs guiding to the bone, then so be it. Reaching up, Cleo tangles her hand into his thick wild mane of hair and draws him down. Up close she can smell the wine on his breath just as he could probably smell it on hers.
Nikos looks at her like she is a sunset vista. Like her orange hair are the first rays of dawn. Like her eyes are the first leaves in spring. Like she is the final treasure at the bottom of Pandora's box.
It almost borders on too much.
And then chapped lips meet hers and it's like being at the centre of a storm again. They are warm and rough and ever so alive. And it was Nikos in his whole.
Nikos who loves life more than anything, who is loud and brash and inescapable. Who held her hatred for the Gods with just as much fury, who was steadfast in his goals and his pursuit of them.
Who was currently steadfast in his pursuit of her.
Large hands drift from her waist to her hips until suddenly she is flipped round and pulled her up to her knees to face to face him. Chest to chest, skin to fur. Each of her legs either side one of his. His hands stay there rubbing small circles into her hips as he looks down at her breathless as they both try catch their breath.
"Now you are silent. Was I that good I stole your words, beautiful one?" Nikos grins, teeth bared looking for a challenge.
Cleo rolled her eyes as a small smile sneaked its way across her face, "Oh hush, you."
"Mmmm, make me."
Her heart thunders on as she presses herself forward, lips meeting again. It's softer this time, gentle and tender. She lets her arms slip over Nikos' shoulder and trace over the scars on his back.
Nikos hums into her lips, hands moving up to support her back as she balances against his thigh. His eyes half closed as he relaxes against her. Where the last round was like a storm, wild and racing, this was like a hearth. Simple and easy and left her feeling like she was melting.
Slowly, Nikos starts leaning back, taking her with him, until he's on his back and she straddles him, pressed heart to heart in the dark of the night. Barrelled arms wrap round her, pulling her against him. In turn she wraps hers round the back of his head.
Looking down at him, her fiery hair drapes down to forms curtain around them, blocking the rest of the world out from them. Nikos looks up at her rosy faced and like she was the stars themselves.
"You had a good night, yes?" He whispers to her, a soft smile spread across his face.
She lets out a small hum as she rest her head against his chest, careful not to gore him with her horns, "Yeah, it was … nice. The wine was better than I expected"
"Good." He says simply and turns his eyes to the actual stars.
They lay like that for some moments, him tracing constellation while she listened to his breaths. At some point she starts to drift, eyes closing and heart settling. It had been a while since she had slept with anyone nearby, let alone on top of them.
"Cleo?" Nikos whispers, quieter than she had ever heard him before. She would have probably missed it if she wasn't lying directly on him.
"Yes dear" she mutters into his chest.
He doesn't respond for a moment before his arms tighten around her. "There will be more fighting tomorrow."
It's a statement. Not an untrue one even. But it seems so distant that all she can do is hum.
"We fight and fight and soon there will only be one." He shifts slights slightly under her. "You fight, you fight like a cornered thing, like an animal. I fear some others fight without all your…"
"Panic?" She prompts. She dares not to open her eyes to see Nikos contemplating their date right now.
"Yes. Panic."
"It is what it is. We have our goals and as long as I make sure whoever wins makes my wish then I have won. Even if I am dead." She sighs, fingers tracing his skin.
The man beneath her just grumbles in frustration.
" I wish- I wish we met in better times."
Cleo lets out a humourless snort against his chest. " You better not change your wish on me."
"No, no, I am true in what I say. Your wish is my wish as much as mine is yours, we are agreed in that. I just wonder what could have been." Nikos reassures, voice a low rumble in the dark.
"Just me, or are you thinking of the pretty ones too?" She jokes. Nikos chest shifts as he laughs.
" You make me choose? So cruel now. Limiting me to just one." He whines is protest.
"Mmm, that's me, cruel and evil. Now hush I'm trying to sleep." She presses her face further into his chest to drive the point home.
"Alright, alright." Nikos sighs, settling down against the grass. " Good night, Cleo."
"Good night."