In the sitting room of Loki’s townhome, Eros was taking tea, his eyes scanning over the newspaper on the table. He was more interested in the notes Loki had scrawled all over the front page rather than the newspaper itself, and it seemed that Loki had felt the same way. The headline read Building a New Bedlam featuring the moving, repeating picture of Alec Van Garrett tipping his top hat. Loki had drawn a giant mustache and fangs across Alec’s face, and written in the margins all around Alec’s article were train-of-consciousness notes,

eggs Pecans

Dry Cleaning

Old regime! OLD?!?

baking powder Milk

What a TWAT waffle!

-- pecans, baking powder, **DON’T FORGET

and he had also written down the time he was to go to the Devereaux’s mansion for tea- the appointment he was currently attending.

Loki must have been jotting down these notes and doodles while he had been on the phone with Victor Devereaux that morning. He had asked Eros to tag along, but ever since his triumph over the Fates, he hadn’t been feeling social. In all honesty, he had been locking himself away in the townhome for weeks at a time, not even stepping out to get the morning paper.

His mind kept replaying the conversation he had with Damien on that fateful night, and memories kept resurfacing that he had no desire to remember. He remembered his room in Tartarus, the room in his mind. He remembered Hypnos coming to feed him with love and lust. Then, Hypnos would leave despite Eros’s pleas for him to stay. And Eros would be alone, unwanted, unloved, and starving.

Heavy boots came down the stairs, and Hypnos plopped down casually on the couch next to Eros. He behaved as if he lived there, as if Eros expected him to be there, as if this wasn’t a random occasional visit. “Know what I hate?” Hypnos said, his arms stretched over the back of the couch, his head thrown back.

Eros mirrored Hypnos’s casual attitude. “What’s that?”

“I hate it when you don’t want to do something ’cause it will hurt your mate, but you have to ’cause it will help your mate. Know what I mean?”

Eros gave this some thought. “Yes. I think I do... You tend to do that a lot it would seem.” He sipped his tea, sorting out how Hypnos and his twin brother helped to create his red prison in Tartarus. That would have been the only way to ensure his freedom. If they designed it, they’d know how to get him out. It was a hard reality to face, but he knew it was done out of love. He could feel Hypnos’s love, ensnared in choking vines of guilt and duty. Eros could only imagine how hard that must have been for both Hypnos and Thanatos, to betray your mate... in order to save them, and for that act of selflessness, Eros loved them both very much.

Hypnos’s brow scrunched. “What are you talking about? I don’t make my mates kill Krampus a lot. It was just the one time... I think.”

Eros tilted his head. “You killed Krampus?”

“No.” Hypnos dipped into his endless pockets and produced a pack of cigarettes. “I caused me best mate to kill him,” he mumbled this with a filter in his mouth while he lit the end with a zippo.

Eros pressed his lips together. “Can I ask why?”

“Because, I owed Krampus money.” The zippo made a clean metallic clink as Hypnos flipped it closed.

Eros blinked the confusion out of his eyes and smiled tenderly. “Yup. No. That makes sense. It had to be done. You were just trying to help your mate...”

“Yeah...”

Eros, again, remembered the red room in Tartarus and said, “You were doing the best you could, given the circumstances.”

Hypnos stared off past the ceiling while exhaling a dense cloud of smoke.

Eros leaned in to cuddle up in the crook of Hypnos’s arm. His mind drifting off into memories, he swallowed. “You’re a good man.”

“No. I’m not.” Hypnos blurted out.

Eros recentered his mind and craned his neck to look up at the Dream King. “Say that to all the times you dragged my sloshed ass home. Or, to the times you rescued me from my abusive ex-boyfriends.”

“Speaking of, where’s your future ex-husband?”

“The Devereaux’s. You know,” Eros put a delicate hand on Hypnos’s chest, “Loki mentioned your brother paying for our wedding?”

Hypnos snickered, “Did he now?”

“Yes. He did. What do you know?”

Hypnos leapt to his feet, leaving Eros to fall backwards onto the sofa. “I can’t know everything.” He gave Eros a dramatic bow.

“But, I know you know this. Come off it. You know I said I’d never marry again, and he’s been married like three times! It’s bound to end in disaster. He’d ask, I’d say no, and then he’d leave and never want to see me again. I love him, but marriage is archaic and against my polyamorous nature.”

“You love him?”

Eros beamed, and his amber eyes melted. “He’s good to me, and he’s funny, and frustrating, and- Yeah.” Eros pulled his knees up towards his chest, and he shrugged. “I love him.”

Hypnos nodded in thought.

Eros snorted and thrust his feet back down to the floor. “But, that doesn’t mean there has to be a damn wedding.”

Hypnos ashed his cigarette in Eros’s tea and received a disapproving scowl in return. “Right. Well,” Hypnos began, “what I know is it’s still too soon. Loki didn’t even think about it until Thanny brought it up.”

Eros heaved a heavy sigh of relief. “Well, maybe he will never even ask.”

“But, if ever he does ask, you’d be fucking stupid to say no.” He received another scowl and he justified, “Just being honest. You’d be a bloody fucking puntz to turn down the single greatest man you’ve ever had.” Hypnos was pointing at him with the tip of his lit cigarette. “But, he wouldn’t leave you if you did.”

Hypnos headed towards the stairs.

Eros jumped up from the sofa and followed him. “What the hell? He’s not... I mean, he’s not the single greatest person. Not that he’s not, but-”

Hypnos turned to him on the stairs. “See, you can’t even deny it, can you? Can you just admit I fucked you up? I fucked us up.”

Eros took a step back. “No.”

“Just admit it. What I did, helping build that room, was fucked up. Just bloody say it. I know what you think, Eros! I know what your nightmares are. Don’t fucking play-”

“I’m not. I’m not playing! Hypnos, just stop. Let me explain!”

Hypnos was at the top of the stairs now. “You don’t have to explain. Alright? I know what I did.”

“Yes. You came and kept me company while I was in prison!”

Hypnos turned back to Eros. “A prison I made!”

“To keep me safe! To help me escape. You know what? Fine. Fine!” They both paused. Eros took a breath. He couldn’t lie to Hypnos. “You betrayed me.” Eros said.

“See. There it is.”

“Fuck you for doing what you did! For making that fucking hell! And fuck you for leaving me there alone!” Eros’s voice cracked like a mirror shattering into a thousand pieces.

Hypnos’s hostile demeanor fell away at the sound, and he stood very still.

“...fuck you.” Eros whispered.

A tear fell off from Hypnos’s eye lashes.

“But, I forgive you,” Eros said.

Anger and disgust and self loathing rose up from Hypnos’s stomach like bile.

“Even though you did it,” Eros continued, “you did it for me. So, you could get me out. You have always been there for me. Since before the dawn of fucking time. You are my best friend. I love you. You’re the single greatest thing that has ever happened to me.”

“Shut up.” Hypnos choked on the lump in his throat.

“I mean it. And nothing is ever going to change that. Not even Loki.” Eros took one step at a time to close the distance between them. He moved with care as if not to scare Dream away.

Hypnos spat, ”What? Do you think I’m jealous? Of Loki?”

“A bit. Yeah,” Eros said flatly.

Hypnos jabbed his finger at the air defensively. “I’m telling you right now. I’m not jealous.”

“Whether you are or not makes no difference.” Eros shrugged.

“I’m not.”

“Okay, then.” Eros was now directly below him.

Hypnos’s eyes softened. He reached out and cupped Eros’s jaw. Their eyes locked tenderly on to each other, and they fell into that moment, wanting it to last forever.

Hypnos sighed with regret. “I gotta go.” He playfully tossed Eros’s chin away. “Give your future ex-husband a kiss for me, yeah?” Hypnos and his trench coat disappeared down the hall.

“Will do,” Eros called after him before heading back down the stairs.