Weight of the Damned

[Eurylochus of Same]

Eurylochus crashed to the cobblestone street, gasping for breath. A flood of water followed, splashing down on him and almost flooding the area. Clutching at his chest he drew great, heaving breaths - each of them equal in strength and levels of pain.

 

Once he was able to straighten up some, he noted that his head was bleeding. While the man was out of sorts, due to being pulled - no. He would not think on that just yet. Survival was the only thing that deserved his attention. 

 

Frowning as he almost involuntary looked for his crew, he knew there was a large chance that none had been spared. After all, a choice had been made. That it had come down to a choice had been a surprise. He'd expected that they would have been able to appeal for mercy with an explanation, or at least given a swift death rather than starvation dropping them one by one. He - and they - had counted on just those two options. The third one that had been presented hadn't even crossed his mind. 

 

His ears rang still, blood running from them - the claps of thunder and the flashes of lightning in this new location, wherever it was, less thunderous but still just as triggering. He staggered to the side of what seemed to be a fairly wide road and leaned against the building, holding his hands over his ears as he hacked and wheezed and coughed up lungfuls of salt water.

[Odysseus]

Odysseus flinched at a peal of thunder that roared overhead, the taste of saltwater rising in his mouth briefly before he suppressed the memories and shoved his hands in his pockets to hide the fists they'd clenched into. His breathing came quick, the spray of the surrounding waters against the docks chilling him to the bone. A nice, sunny afternoon had turned nasty almost instantly, with barely a hint of dark clouds rushing across the sky before it had opened up on the world below.

 

The man, with grey flecks in his dark hair at this point, pulled the hood up on his cloak and drew it close to chase the chill away. He darted for an awning, his heart in his chest and beating fast. He hated this. He hated the thunderstorms that raged now and then in the city surrounded by waterfalls. He shook his head to get extra water from the wavy locks before he looked around, looking for any shelter beyond what he'd found.

 

What he hadn't expected though, was the dark skinned man down the nearby alley. He seemed out of sorts and without thinking, he rushed over. He should have known better. He really should have. After everything... he stopped short, his hood partly hiding his face. He rubbed the man's back, trying to remember what he needed to do to fix this situation. It had been so long since he'd had to know this... "Are you alright?"

[Eurylochus of Same]

That voice. 

 

It was muffled, but one so achingly familiar to him. But no. Wherever he was, Odysseus could not be here. This wasn't the Underworld, at least not the one he remembered travelling through. Nor did it seem any 'in between' place he'd ever heard of. Where was he? And why was it such a violent storm here too? Lowering a hand from the ear closest to the man who was attempting to rub his back in a... soothing?... manner. The next rumble of thunder had him flinching again, as did the rainfall- the latter suddenly increasing to a torrential downpour.

 

He tried to take a breath to respond to the inquiry, but was silenced by both a coughing fit and the ear-shattering clap of thunder just above them. He couldn't help the slight whimper or the shuddering - the voice playing tricks on him, the near drowning, and suddenly finding himself somewhere else when he'd been well on his way down to the depths only a moment before... 

 

He was far from all right, but was in no real state to say so. The coughing and shuddering were bad enough that he was starting to see stars.

[Odysseus]

They needed to get inside. Now. Carefully, doing his best not to startle the newcomer more, Odysseus wrapped an arm around his shoulders and led him toward the shop he'd been hiding under the awning of just moments before. He ducked his head down as the rain pelted them mercilessly, taking comfort when the bell above the door rang into the quiet in the store. It meant he'd found the door with his limited vision. He led the way, his other hand holding the newcomer's arm to help steer him into the shelter of the small shop. With the rain no longer drowning them, he lifted his head and looked around, shaking his head again to dispel some of the extra water... again.

 

He took his arm from around the other man and pulled his head back, and when he looked over again, it was only then he noticed the blood leaking from the man's ears. Fuck. "You're bleeding. What happened?"

[Eurylochus of Same]

As he was lifted from the ground by strong arms, it was all he could do not to collapse against the other man. Once inside the building and out of the direct storm, Eurylochus found his trembling lessened considerably. What was left was from residual fear and the long starvation that he had been suffering from. Though his ears were still ringing somewhat, he was able to understand the question about the fact he was bleeding. Reaching his free hand up to his ear, he felt warm wetness there. 

 

Pulling his fingers back so he could see them, he grimaced. That voice still sounded too hauntingly similar to his lover and Captain's. Was this to be part of his punishment then? Hidden away in some unknown area of the Underworld, taunted by the voice of the man he'd betrayed? The shade waited for an answer, and he had only a few to give. Voice weak, he managed a response. 

 

"Zeus." He barely sounded like himself. If he didn't feel so, so weak and tired, it might have almost frightened him. Instead, it just made him feel more exhausted.

[Odysseus]

He watched the bedraggled man reach up and touch his ear, where his finger came away covered in blood, as if not aware it had existed just prior to seeing it. Something was familiar about that face, something familiar that stirred nostalgia and regrets. It couldn't be. He'd watched all of them drown, so there was no way that Eurylochus now stood here before him, alive and... not well, clearly. He swallowed, the pain of loss tightening around his heart. The answer the man gave only further confirmed it. 

 

"Eurylochus?" He asked faintly, his voice barely audible with the softness. Odysseus was reeling from the realization, his hand gingerly reaching out and cupping the man's cheek, making the other look at him so he could get a better look at his face.

[Eurylochus of Same]

Wobbling slightly as his body threatened to give out on him, Eury let his cheek be cupped and his head to be guided to look at the other man. He frowned, confusion, guilt, and shame flashing across his features. The shade didn't dissipate, nor did its form waver. Was this really Odysseus? He swayed again, the shame still showing on his face.

 

"Odysseus? How... why are you here. Where is here?"

 

His eyes darted around, his head and ears still ringing. "I... I was being pulled down by the ship sinking and then suddenly I was dropping onto the street here." Eury couldn't help the confusion and fear in his voice, which wavered and cracked as he spoke.

[Odysseus]

He didn't immediately answer, his mouth opening slightly as his mind raced to process what was going on. How was this possible? How? He'd watched the man go under the waves. He'd not been able to do anything as Zeus struck down the last of his ships, the last of his men... He grabbed the man by the shoulders and pulled him close, wrapping him up in a tight hug. Odysseus was in shock. There was no other way to describe it. He wrapped his hand around the back of Eurylochus' head, pulling him closer still. He needed the other man's touch at this point.

 

He'd never made it home, after all that he'd given up, all he'd sacrificed... Athena had just rescued him after he'd long since turned his back on her, and he thought he'd been on his way home, but then that one last final storm... he'd found himself dumped on the docks, coughing up water same as Eurylochus. 

 

It left him desperate for the touch, the contact, of a loved one, even if that loved one wanted nothing to do with him. He'd take the contact and touch while he could.

[Eurylochus of Same]

Eurylochus was entirely unprepared for the embrace. When his head was pulled in closer for a more intimate embrace he all but melted. His arms came up to wrap around Odysseus, and he buried his face in the other man's shoulder. Deep, heaving breaths foreshadowed the sobs that soon followed, and he tightened the embrace.

 

"I-I'm so sorry. It was all my fault. You deserved a better second-in-command and l-lover. It's m-my fault they all died."

[Odysseus]

"No. No. Stop that." He muttered quietly into the other man's ear, his breath brushing against the other man's hair. He squeezed the man tightly, holding him closer still. Tears stung at his own eyes, dripping free into Eurylochus' shoulder as he tried to remain strong for the other man. He was the Captain after all. His men looked to him for strength. Not that he deserved the title after everything. He swallowed back the lump in his throat, his other hand running up and down Eury's back to try and soothe him.

 

"It is mine own fault. As your captain it fell on me to keep you all safe and I failed horribly in that regard." He said, his voice still soft, but there was definite firmness there.