After Dez, the Summer, surprised them with his arrival at H.A.L.O. — along with a group of heirs who accompanied him — Ethan didn't have much time to think about his own feelings. Well, the boy didn't even have time to digest the fact that another deity had simply found their newly inaugurated hideout...
In fact, everyone had to put their tasks aside momentarily to accommodate the newest members of the refuge, while he and Reed went out in search of Sete. This would be the perfect opportunity to talk to the red-haired boy alone, if Ethan had the courage, of course.
He had always been a shy and withdrawn boy, who dealt better with ancient technology than with human beings. Loneliness was never a problem; Ethan knew how to deal with silence better than anyone. His fear of hurting the people he cared about, of taking their lives with a single touch, prevented him from forming deep connections.
Bianca was a great friend, as they had lived together for years, but he never felt for her what he was feeling for Reed. That pleasant confidence, the endless conversations when they started sharing the same tent, the quiet laughter in the early hours of the morning... Yes, Ethan had never felt this way with anyone, for anyone...
Besides, Reed wasn't afraid of his closeness. Even before he gained some confidence with Sete's training, the tanned boy didn't shy away.
On the contrary, Reed took care of Ethan: he protected him in complicated situations (even though he had the ability to turn around and take the creatures' lives with a simple touch), served him food or drink (basically preventing Ethan from getting up or making any unnecessary movements during meals), covered him with an extra blanket on cold nights (the boy sometimes pretended to be asleep to hide the blush that colored his pale cheeks), in short, there were countless situations he could cite as examples.
Despite this, Ethan couldn't find the confidence to reciprocate Reed's feelings. He tortured himself daily for this reason, knowing that his relationship with the other young man depended on his initiative to evolve into something more than what they had up to that point.
What he couldn't have predicted was that Reed would stand in front of a mutant Lynx to protect him, risking his own life without a second thought.
This impulsive and dangerous action ended up being the force needed to turn a corner in Ethan's subconscious, exposing almost instinctively all the feelings he had been holding back.
༻ ༊*·˚ ༺
It was already the third day of Reed's coma, and Ethan hadn't left his side. Bianca came to bring him some food at mealtimes, but he didn't have much appetite.
Sete had woken up after a day of deep sleep — thanks to her divine constitution, the boy imagined. After waking up, she and Dez came periodically to their tent, checked on Reed's condition, and covered him with their purifying auras. They told him that the Lynx's poison had been completely banished from the other boy's body — as had the shallow wounds on his back, which were almost completely healed — but his body would need some time to recover from the shock.
Despite this, the dark circles under Ethan's black eyes only grew.
At dawn, while cleaning Reed's body with a damp towel, the boy sighed restlessly, concern almost palpable in his tired expression. Suddenly, he sighed, thinking how ironic it was that an heir of Death was trying so hard to preserve someone's life.
Overwhelm and guilt flooded him in the next second, accompanied by an unrelenting tightness in his throat and tears that refused to fall. Because of him, Reed was lying there, unconscious.
For a moment, Ethan's vision blurred. He blinked as he wrung out the small towel in a basin of warm water beside him, turning his attention to the task of cleaning rather than his disparaging thoughts. The gesture allowed the tears he had been holding back to roll freely down his face, down his delicate chin, until they finally dripped onto his bent knees.
When he turned back to Reed with the towel in his hands to continue what he was doing, he caught his breath as he was met with a pair of sparkling amber irises piercing him with overwhelming intensity. The tears running down his cheeks felt as hot as molten lava.
Ethan watched motionless as Reed slowly sat up on the sleeping bag, the covers on his torso falling away with the movement, exposing his muscular chest and abdomen wrapped in the bandages he had changed earlier that day. His messy red hair, dilated pupils, and tanned skin: that image remained burning behind his dark eyes, even after he threw himself into the other boy's arms.
— Ethan… — Reed whispered, his voice hoarse from having been silent for so long. He would have continued to say whatever was on his newly awakened mind, but he was interrupted by the series of strangled sobs that escaped Ethan. So he wrapped his strong arms around the smaller boy and stroked his back gently, trying to calm him down.
— Y-you! Never do anything like t-that again! — He demanded, burying his face in Reed's neck, each word punctuated by sobs. The soft black hair tickled the area where it touched him, sending shivers down the young heir of Fire's body. — P-promise! Swear you'll n-never leave me like this! And t-that you'll never risk yourself like that for m-me again!
— I'll certainly never leave you, but I can't promise anything about not protecting you… — Reed commented, an irreverent smile spreading across his face when Ethan pulled away to face him with feigned hurt, his eyes swollen and the tip of his nose red.
— Y-you're so mean! — Ethan complained, wiping the tears that kept streaming down his face with the back of his hands. — Seriously, you don't know what I went through because of you! How much I blamed myself, how I wanted you to wake up soon... I-I missed you so much!
Ethan began to sob uncontrollably again.
So Reed pulled him onto his lap, wrapping him in a comforting embrace. He stroked Ethan's black hair with one hand, while the other rested around his narrow waist, caressing it lightly.
The heir of Death clung to Reed's warmth, returning the hug tightly, as if afraid that it was a dream from which he would soon wake up.
— I-I… — Ethan hesitated, unsure of the next words he planned to say.
— Hmm? — Reed encouraged him softly, the affection in his tone giving the other boy the courage he lacked.
— I-I like you! — Ethan confessed, pulling away slightly from the Fire heir's embrace to look him in the eyes. His voice came out a little louder than he expected, and adding that to Reed's sweet gaze, he had no choice but to blush deeply.
For a moment, the red-haired boy seemed surprised by Ethan's boldness. His tanned skin camouflaged some of the slight blush that covered his cheeks, but nothing could hide the joyful — almost fiery — glow in his amber eyes.
In the next second, without warning, the hand resting on Ethan's dark hair moved down to the nape of his neck, pulling him into a passionate kiss.
The pale boy, now completely red, didn't hesitate this time: he clung tightly to Reed's muscular body and kissed him back. The heir to Fire, in turn, pulled him closer, wrapping his arms around his waist and pressing their bodies together as the kiss deepened.
Gasping for breath, they only separated because they heard a noise outside the tent that startled them. Looking at each other seriously, the young men laughed immediately afterwards, perhaps because they had been alarmed by something irrelevant, or because of the happiness of discovering they shared the same feelings for each other.
— I like you too. — Reed said immediately afterwards, with a loving smile on his face. His attention alternated between Ethan's dark eyes and his red, moist lips after the long kiss, and he was trying to control himself so as not to attack them once again.
— It's pretty obvious, I think... — Ethan murmured softly, affection in every syllable of what he had just said. He also couldn't take his eyes off Reed's swollen lips.
༻ ༊*·˚ ༺
After that episode, Ethan and Reed became much closer than before, which earned them many congratulatory remarks from the other heirs. After all, everyone had already noticed how they felt about each other and were just waiting for the couple to make their relationship official on their own.
Sete, of course, was the only one surprised. Her tact in human matters — and, above all, sentimental ones — was still underdeveloped, especially compared to Dez, since the young god ended up being tasked with explaining to Spring what dating was and what this type of relationship between mortals consisted of.