I stretch my arms above my head and yawn loudly. It is now well into the night and exhaustion was seeping into my bones.
"I need sleep." I announce. I put my legs onto the couch and lie down, stretching comfortably. "We will continue tomorrow."
Closing my eyes I hear a grumble but thankfully, no objections. I hum appreciatively at the quiet and settle in for the night.
I hear rustling and footsteps before the light is extinguished and a blanket is thrown atop me.
"Goodnight cugu." Jeriah whispers.
"Goodnight." I mumbled.
Footsteps are heard leaving the room before Isaac finally speaks.
"Were you and Damien together?"
"No." I say. "Not at the time. We recently became lovers. Maybe a century ago or so."
"That's not recent." He chuckles.
"What of you?" I ask, peering at his figure lying on the opposite couch. "Who is Evelyn?"
"My wife." He says sadly. "We're having some problems so she took the kids and is staying with her mom for a couple of weeks."
"That sounds miserable." I admit. "I was not able to raise my children so I understand the pain of being separated from them. I would not wish that woe on any parent."
"How many kids you got?"
"I gave birth twice." I say, eyes staring at the ceiling. "My partner gave birth once. She was still born."
"Damn." He sits up. "That's shitty. I'm so sorry that happened to you."
"I am not." I say, throwing an arm over my eyes. "She was destined for a bitter life. Just as he never let me be, Leviathan would have hunted for her mercilessly. She would have died painfully, so I am grateful she passed before I learned who she could become."
"When my sons were born" Isaac begins with a sigh. "My entire world view shifted. Everything I was or would become was now dedicated to these tiny miracles before me…I don't think I could function if something were to happen to them."
"If even a small fragment of you remains from a time before your banishment, then I can tell you in vivid detail how you would handle the loss of your son."
"Huh?" He asks, tilting his head and looking a fool for it. "How?"
"My story is also your story." I smirk at the look of shock on his face. "Why do you think I have been telling you so much of my life?"
"Something about memories?"
"Fair." I sigh. "I did not explain it well enough." I sit up. "This was as much your life as it was mine. In fact, you have already made appearances in my retelling."
"Who was I?" He sounds excited as he asks.
"Your name was Ayperos." I smirk at the look of disappointment that fritters across his face.
"But you said I was already mentioned." He pouts.
"You were." I confirm with a shake of my head. "You will understand everything soon enough, now let me sleep."
He grumbles a quiet Goodnight and I finally fall asleep.
I wake to the rays of early morning light blinding me. With a grumble I bury my head under the blanket hoping for more sleep. I have never been a morning person and I do not intend to start now.
There is movement around me that I try to ignore. Jeriah, at least, knows of my hatred for the waking world so he should leave me be.
"Yo, coffee and breakfast." Isaac practically yells. I hear a light slap and a muffled Isaac trying to speak.
"That's not how we wake Cugu up." Jeriah whispers and my irritation begins to grow. "Go back to sleep."
I hum happily at those words and allow sleep to claim me once again.
"Hey gorgeous." I hear a whisper in my ear and hum appreciatively. "You hungry?"
"Yeah." I chuckle. "For some d-"
I get cut off by a hurried kiss and slowly open my eyes and look at the flustered face of Damien.
"We're at Jeriah's." I am reminded and immediately I turn red with embarrassment.
"Morning." I mumble, placing my face in my hands.
"Good morning." Damien responds, kissing my hands before gently prying them from my face. "Want some breakfast?"
I shake my head and sit up, the blanket falling uselessly on the couch beside me. "Not hungry."
"At least drink some water." Jeriah says, handing me a glass.
I take small swallows of the water until the glass is empty.
"Do you not have a job?" I ask, looking up at Jeriah.
"Yep, that's why Damien's here. I have to go to work and he would have pitched a fit if I'd left you alone with Isaac so…compromise." He smiles.
"What do you do?" Damien asks, brow raised in suspicion.
"I'm a teacher." He says tying his hair back. "I have to go now or I'll be late for the morning meeting. I'll be back at four."
I nod and watch him vanish. Jeriah had always loved kids, so it did not surprise me to learn he had become a teacher.
"Coffee?" Isaac asks and I wrinkle my nose in distaste. What Jeriah had given me was foul and I did not want a repeat of that experience.
"Tea?" Damien asks. I think on it for a while, deciding if I could stomach it so early in the morning before shaking my head.
"No. I would rather not risk it."
Damien nods and makes himself comfortable on the couch beside me. Grabbing my shoulder he lowers me until my head lays in his lap and begins running his fingers through my hair.
"Where did you leave off?" He asks, eyeing Isaac suspiciously.
"Be nice." I scold. "I had just become your assistant. Everything was a mess."
"For very valid reasons." Damien defends.
"And remember" I laugh. "How you swore up and down that you could acclimate a hedgehog to hell's atmosphere."
"It almost worked." Damien pouts. "Until it didn't."
"What happened?" Isaac asks, placing his mug on the table.
"I imported about 10 hedgehogs into hell." Damien answers. "I carefully controlled the environment and slowly added air from hell into the mix. They died off one by one."
"He named one of them Micah and had fallen madly in love with the small creature." I continue the story. "He cried for an entire day when it died."
"My heart was broken." Damien defends.
I pat his knee and bury my face further into his lap as a form of comfort.
"I know." I acknowledge. It may not have affected me, but it had tormented Damien.
"I never tried something like that again." Damien sighs.
"You did!" I remind him, affronted. "You made sure the creatures were no longer small but you absolutely tried again."
"Did it work?" Isaac asks, curiously.
"Yes." Damien admits with a wry smile. "I was able to introduce five new species into our environment in the span of 500 years. It made sustaining ourselves so much easier."
"Why did it take so long?" Isaac wonders.
"Genetics." I answer. "It took 500 years of selective breeding and slowly morphing the environment for us to see results. Any faster and they would have met the same fate as Micah."
"That's so cool." Isaac looks awed.
"Funny enough," I smirk. "Hellhounds came about solely because Saninna wanted a puppy."
"I would like to add that I, too, wanted a puppy." Damien cuts in. "From the moment we saw humans taming wolves I had wanted one of my own."
"Of course you did." Isaac shakes his head.
I chuckle fondly at these memories. The ten years I spent with Damien were the happiest I remember being in hell. We had an understanding of what the other needed and our boundaries were never crossed.
"Thank you Damien." I whisper.
He leans down and places a kiss to my temple. "Any time lovely."