Artemis…
After most of the customers in the brotherhood hall had finished eating and the majority of the work was finished, she took off her waitress uniform and left.
As much as she loved the brotherhood hall that Lysandra had made in her honor, and as much as she appreciated the offer of consistent work, she felt that she needed some fresh air to think
Most of the customers had already left and the other workers had nearly finished their labor as well, which left no one to give her any grief.
She just wanted some time time to think over what she was going to do now.
Marcus and Selene were still at their table enjoying their food and talking, yet Artemis felt it was wrong for her to interfere or be near them.
She sat on the front steps of the hall, looking up at the sky and the golden rays of sunlight reflected off of the clouds.
“What would you have done in my situation Adrian…?” she said to herself.
“I’ll tell you what he wouldn’t do. He wouldn’t be wallowing in self pity because he lost a few years with his little girl,” Lysandra said as she walked up behind her.
Artemis sighed in exasperation but said nothing.
“As goofy and flirtatious and childish as he acted on the surface, Adrian was a very responsible adult when it came to Selene. It is why he stayed behind to raise your daughter, correct?”
Irritated with her prattling, Artemis asked, “What is your point Lysandra?”
“My point is that you should stop avoiding your daughter and confront her. You should welcome her into your arms, or let her do the same. The both of you are being distant with the other, too afraid to confront the fact that you are mother and daughter, separated for over a decade, but now given the opportunity to mend things over. If Adrian had gone through the same thing, he would have immediately reached out, scooped Selene up into his arms, and crushed her with a hug until she croaked for him to stop,” Lysandra said as she sat down next to Artemis with a bottle of wine in her hands.
She took a quick sip of it, wiped her mouth, then held it out for her to have a drink.
Artemis looked down at the bottle of wine, then back to Lysandra.
“You have terrible bedside manner,” she complained as she took the bottle from her and drank some.
As soon as the wine reached her lips, she hummed appreciatively.
“Dionysus would have liked this,” she said as she took another drink.
Lysandra rested her head in her hands as her eyes stared forward as if pondering something.
“I’m curious to see what Selene’s children might look like in the future,” she said, to which Artemis spit out her wine in surprise.
“With Marcus? I sure hope not,” Artemis said with a bitter expression.
“You just spit out that incredible vintage all over the steps of my brotherhood hall. Clean it up, now,” she ordered with a glare, ignoring Artemis’s complaint.
Artemis pouted before cursing as she stood up and went back inside for something to clean up the mess of spit out wine.
Lysandra sighed as she said, “How am I ever going to deal with you two…?”
Marcus…
They had spent so much time talking and eating that the minutes turned to hours and soon the night sky replaced the sunset.
Rather than leave once they were finished with their food, Selene decided to order wine for them.
That was a little surprising given that he knew she preferred hard liquor like he did. Even still, it was her idea for this date and he would play along.
The waiter poured glasses for the both of them and left them to enjoy their drinks in peace.
While Selene was fidgeting with the stem of her glass, she looked over at Marcus and asked, “Hey, uh...when we’re done here, do you mind if we just go back to my apartment?”
“Good idea. I don’t know if Thalia is asleep, but Alta lives upstairs and I don’t want him bothering me while I’m with you.”
“Right…, that way, no one could interrupt us or ruin the moment…,” she said, but in a strange hesitant way. It was as if she were slowly building up the courage to say...that she wanted to be alone with him.
Ah...I see.
If that really was the case, then why the need for wine?
Maybe it was due to Lysandra’s advice.
Whatever, Marcus was fine with it since he was having a good time with her. Although, he had to wonder how much wine she would need to drink before she felt satisfied enough to leave.
Not long after they finished having several drinks, Selene’s cheeks were red and her expression was a little loopy, but otherwise she was still good enough to walk.
The two of them left the restaurant, waving goodbye to Lysandra and walking to Selene’s apartment as she occasionally leaned her head on his shoulder.
The walk to her apartment took less time than he thought, though that was probably due to the alcohol dulling his sense of time.
When they made it to the door, he looked to her and asked, “Do you want to end the night here or-”
Before he could finish his sentence, she opened the door and pulled him inside by his hand.
“I want to spend a little more time together,” she said with a smile.
Her voice was clear, but her expression was a little too happy.
Of course, he didn’t exactly see anything wrong with it other than her being slightly intoxicated. If things were to progress any further while she was under the influence, regardless if the laws in this world were different from Terra’s, it wouldn’t feel right to him.
Of course, he was a little buzzed from the wine too but that wouldn’t excuse either of them.
As she walked over to the couch, pulling him along by the hand, he found himself observing her figure closely.
He then quickly looked up to stop himself and realized that Selene had turned her head around to look back at him.
It looked like she was aware that he had been staring but didn’t show any shame or embarrassment at all and just smiled.
Every time he saw her smile, it was enough to make him feel light headed. It was as if he were recalling pleasant memories, which were few and far between for him.
If not for the alcohol, he might have overthought the whole situation, but instead he just sat down on the couch next to her.
He looked over at her and noticed that she had pulled her hand away and was fidgeting with her thumbs nervously. It was as if she were building up the courage to take the next step.
“Marcus…?”
“Huh, yeah?” he responded quickly.
“Can you lay down for me?” she asked in a quieter tone than usual.
He didn’t think much of it and did as she asked. He left his leg dangling off the edge of the couch so she still had some room to sit. Before he could try and figure out what she was going to do next, she reached her arm over and braced herself against the couch. She then proceeded to position herself until she was sitting on his waist.
Seeing her on top of him made him go very still as the blood rushed to his head.
“Can you give him your hand?”
He didn’t say a word as he extended his left hand to her and she held it in her right hand before bringing it up to her face.
The moment her right cheek filled up the palm of his hand, he took in a sharp intake of breath and his eyes widened.
“Are you...sure we should be doing this?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean...we both have alcohol in our system. Wouldn’t it be bad if we weren’t absolutely sure we wanted to go through with this?”
Hearing his concern, she smiled and said, “Lysandra told me that alcohol was also known as ‘liquid courage’. That if I wanted to do something bold, it would help me loosen up. I just wanted something to help me take the first step, and I have. I don’t feel afraid to take the next anymore.”
Not even a split second later, a trickle of steam was emitted from her skin as she seemed to have burned the alcohol from her system.
Upon seeing her do that, he did the same, but he just felt even more unsure of what he should do.
Should he really go through with this?
They were both now completely sober, and Selene was sitting right on top of him. If they did do anything, it was because they both wanted it.
As if on instinct, his right hand reached forward and caressed her side before resting on her hip as he gently pulled her towards him.
Selene barely reacted as her eyes looked down at his arm but then quickly looked back at him.
His left hand holding her face in his palm, and his right hand pressed against her hip.
Their faces weren’t even a foot apart from each other and he could even feel her breath. It wasn’t rapid and nervous, it was slow and calm.
Never in his life did he imagine that he would be able to open himself up to another person and they would look at him the way Selene was right now.
He never imagined that it would happen again since…
Yukino.
As her name echoed in his mind, he looked up at Selene and saw her smiling face bearing down at him, but at the same time, his mind flashed back to the time when Yukino would embrace him in the same manner.
Her almond shaped green eyes would look at him as if she could see him for everything that he was and still loved him. Her short brown hair that he loved to sift his hands through, much like he was doing with Selene at this very moment.
Before he could take the time to think over why he was thinking of Yukino at a time like this, Selene started to lean down as if getting ready to kiss him.
For some reason, an overwhelming sense of fear and regret washed over him and he had to hold her back.
“Wait…hold on,” he said as he gently pressed his palm against her shoulder and she came to a stop just before they made contact.
Her expression didn’t seem hurt, more so confused.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
“I…I don’t know if I can go through with this yet,” he said and her expression changed to worry.
“Did I-did I do something wrong?” she asked.
“No. No, you didn’t, but...I think I might have. I don’t know.”
She slowly leaned back and looked at him with a tremendous amount of patience as she waited for his answer.
“Do you...not want to?” she asked.
He felt guilty for having stopped her, and it showed on his face as she seemed to have a mild understanding of how he was feeling.
“No, I do but…I don’t know if I’m ready yet. I don’t know if I want to move on to something new so soon.”
Her expression softened as she asked, “Is this about your old life back on Terra? The person you left behind?”
His heart felt like it had skipped a beat when he heard Selene mention that. When Marcus first came her, he asked if there was any way to return to where he came from and she said there was no known method. Ruvick had said the same, and it had crushed any hope of him going back to her, to Yukino.
So he decided to move on, or at least he thought he would try.
He would move on and move past his old life, and try to build something new, hopefully with Selene.
But then that woman Moyako had to show up and put him in a sour mood, demanding that she aid him in finding a way back. On top of that, Julian appeared and so did Cole, one looking for revenge, the other for answers.
With no hope of return, all he wanted was to move on to something new and drown out his painful past with new happy memories.
Yet, try as he might, his past showed up anyways to drag him back into the mess he left on Terra.
If Marcus could just defeat Julian and Moyako, he could crush any further threat of his past trying to haunt him.
“Can I ask something selfish of you Selene?”
Mildly confused, she replied, “Um, sure. What is it?”
“Can you wait until after I win the contest for me to treat you properly? I can’t in good conscience move on if I don’t confront and defeat those who are trying to drag me back into my old life. Will you wait til then?”
She stared at him in silence as she looked into his eyes until she gave him a faint smile and said, “Of course. I can be patient a little while longer.”
“Thank you Selene,” he said before returning her smile.
He then suddenly sat straight up, surprising Selene as they were now face to face.
“That being said, I need to sleep off all that amazing food we had earlier. May I share your bed tonight?”
“Huh?!” she exclaimed as he wrapped his left arm around her back pressing her close to his chest, and the other underneath her legs as he lifted her up into the air.
She frantically wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him in surprise to keep herself steady before pulling away and looking down at him.
For the first time since the date started, her cheeks were blushing red with embarrassment.
“Uh…”
“Is that a yes?”
“Um,…sure,” she said with a laugh as he carried her to bed.