Chapter Text
Sethos stood before the open fridge, rubbing his eyes.
The shininess of its surface blurred as he blinked the sleep out of his vision. He batted the messy curls from his face with a yawn.
Red circles. Spheres, even, danced before him.
Tomatoes, four of them? Oh, never mind, just the two.
A Cucumber.
Milk.
Yoghurt? Was that yoghurt he saw?
And lettuce.
He craned his neck to see what kind of condiments were hiding upon the top shelf and found…pickled radishes and a nearly emptied little container of pickled cucumber.
With another yawn he shut the fridge before the alarm thingy started beeping at him and took a look in the cupboards, shuffling through their contents tiredly.
Sethos groaned.
“Shoulda asked him to get meat on the way home.”
He slumped in his dressing gown, tucking his chin into it in the coldness of the kitchen and made his way back to the bed which was a calamitous mess of duvet, blankets and throw cushions yet to be made. Stretching over the mattress, he searched blindly for his phone and at last met the rounded edges of its case.
Smiling tiredly, he clicked it on and it sprang to life.
These things were a work of genius – after just over 500 years, Sethos knew that this was his favourite modern invention that came into the world. Second to Wii Sports of course. Although, toasters did come close in third place – the ease of use and satisfying crunch of every slice was truly a thing of beauty.
With fumbling fingers, he tapped out a message to Kuni.
can u bring meat 🥺 (Sent: 10:21)
for gyros (Sent: 10:22)
He waited a moment before setting the phone down upon the bedside table and stretching his arms over his head, letting his shoulders pop with an ‘ahhh.’
Sethos gave them another stretch and swing with a grin.
It was surprising how flexible his body still was after all these years.
‘All the better to tidy the house with,’ Kunikuzushi would say and Sethos would roll back into bed, hiding behind the covers to escape the dreadful chore that was cleaning, rolling away like a caterpillar as his partner leapt on top to rip the warmth from him. Look, it wasn’t like he was messy – it was just so much effort, alright?
Effort that could be put into paying excellent homage to the beautiful Greek cuisine.
He picked up the end of the duvet anyway and shook out the creases, laying it out neatly. That being his definition of neat and gave the pillows a whack, setting them at the head of the bed, ripping open the curtains to see the cloudy greyness of the sky, just on the verge of rain. Sethos prayed that it might, he often enjoyed sitting out on the balcony and feeling it on his skin. Although, he was often interrupted by a nagging voice ushering him in with a towel because despite his body’s state of immortality, he could still become very much ill, but a sniffly nose and a little fever was still worth that 20 minutes of bliss in his opinion.
He snagged up a blanket from the bed and wrapped it around his shoulders.
The soft cotton warmed his skin and he snuggled into its cozy texture, revelling in its silky fluffiness. This was what days off were for.
Ding!
Sethos picked up his phone.
K, will be late tho (Sent: 10:33)
He smiled fondly, skipping back to the kitchen and slipping on his tiger slippers.
Don’t work too hard!! 😉ily (Sent: 10:33)
Ding!
i love you too. don’t burn the house down (Sent: 10:34)
Sethos snorted.
That man, the biting sarcasm hadn’t faded one bit.
And Sethos still liked it just as much as he had when they’d first met.
He turned back to the fridge and began pulling out some vegetables, holding back tears at the cucumber (he hated those things with a passion), giving them a wash in the sink before setting them on a chopping board. It would be a few hours until Kuni got home from work, but Sethos had time so he might as well prep early and get the hard part out of the way.
His partner had been a little stressed as of late, apparently there was some trouble at the University going on, something about a student misbehaving or something similar. And the radio silence from Kusanali (who had insisted he drop the ‘Lord’ for the sake of inconspicuousness) was sure to be affecting him too. Whatever was going on had been leaving Kuni exhausted and snappy most days he came home from teaching, with only an appetite for cuddles and binge-watching tv-shows.
Well, there wasn’t much Sethos could do about that apart from give a hell of a good back massage and try to block up the god’s voicemail box but he thought he might as well do his part in the kitchen and make a cracking dinner (as much of it that he could manage without the meat for the time being) for the man when he came home.
Sethos grinned to himself and rolled up his sleeves.
But just as he went to grab the knife he heard the doorbell ring.
He frowned.
Had they ordered something? Maybe Kuni had and forgot to mention it.
Maybe Bastet had figured out how to type with her claws? She had been rather into those little face-roller-massage-things recently.
Well, that one seemed less likely.
Wiping his hands on his sweatpants, he wrapped the blanket closer around himself before opening the door.
The hallway was just a tad bit brighter than he expected and he hissed, blocking it with his hand, vision momentarily overcome with white.
“Gods, Soraya left the lights on again,” he muttered to himself.
Sethos shook off the dots from his vision and straightened to see who had rung the doorbell.
They were tall and broad shouldered yet youthful, as if having just gone through a growth spurt, stretching the lithe muscles of their arms into stringy limbs leaving their figure to tower over Sethos’s own, even brushing the top edge of the doorframe.
A smile spread across their face, wide and unnatural with teeth sharp as a shark, eyes dull and blue.
“Hey comrade, have you seen a puppet around these parts?”
To Be Continued…