Seeing Love Dogs
Part 5
We stayed at the restaurant long enough to watch the rest of Trowa’s gig. Then we payed our check and headed out onto the street. It was around one a.m. at that time, and I was feeling the slight buzz of a few glasses of Ouzo. I hadn’t really had a chance to talk to Heero while we watched Trowa perform, so I still had a lot of questions on my mind.
Before I had a chance to start asking what I wanted to know however, Trowa stopped in a patch of darkness and pulled off his shoes. I thought that in itself was pretty strange, but it got even weirder when what should have been bare feet, made little clicking sounds on the road. He caught me watching him and winked one brilliant green eye at me. Then he clacked over to me and held up a foot to the light.
It took me a few moments to comprehend what I was seeing. What I thought at first was some horrifying melding of bone and tissue, turned out to be a hoof. I glanced up at his face and he grinned and put his hoof down, stamping it and making another of those little clicking noises.
"You’d make a hell of a tap dancer." I said as dryly as I was able, which I was rather proud of, considering I’d just realized he was a Satyr. In all that time, it had never occurred to me that his deformation was anything but what it looked like. I’d never actually contemplated that he had a pair of... goat’s legs.
We started walking again, and Heero chuckled softly. "You didn’t realize did you Duo?"
"No, never would have guessed." I shook my head and put my hands in my pockets, watching Trowa’s little hooves on the road as he walked slightly ahead of us. "Heero?"
"Hm?" He turned his head and glanced at me.
"If Satyr’s are real, and ancient Greek gods are real, and Djinni are real, what else is real?" We turned a corner and headed down into an older neighborhood. It looked like it could have been there for thousands of years, and I realized it just might have been. Heero stepped closer to me, keeping an eye on the boy-god who’d skipped ahead of us into the virtually black street.
"Everything is real."
"Ok, who put you in the bottle?" I asked out of the blue, trying to catch him off guard.
He didn’t answer for a few moments, looking ahead of us and avoiding my eyes. I could hear the click-clack of Trowa’s hooves echoing off the walls of the apartments around us.
"The same one whose name I can’t say." He said at last.
"Can you give me a hint as to who it might be without saying the name?"
"Maybe."
"Is it another Greek god?"
"Yes."
The clicking sound ahead stopped, and I knew wherever we’d been heading, we were there.
"Who is it Heero?" I asked quickly, before we caught up with the goat boy.
"Trowa’s lover." He said softly.
"Not any more." Trowa said out of the darkness a foot to our right.
"What do you mean?" Heero asked, turning his head towards the sound of the boy’s voice.
I caught a glint of green and then a pale slim hand emerged from the little pool of shadows and gestured us forward. "Come on, my place is upstairs. There’s no light up, so you’ll just have to be careful."
I grabbed onto Heero’s shirt as we followed the sound of hooves up the pitch-black staircase. Eventually we stopped and a light came on right in front of us. I shielded my eyes and heard a mumbled, "Sorry." from Trowa. Then the light dimmed and we stepped inside a tiny, cramped apartment.
The first thing that I noticed was the guy on the couch who looked to be passed out. The second thing was that everytime I tried to get a clear look at him; he wavered and seemed to change. I blinked a few times and tried again, with the same bizarre results. No matter how I looked at him, he kept shifting, as if he were changing between two separate bodies.
Heero caught my eye, and smiled. "That’s Dionysus and Bacchus."
I gave him a blank look and sat down on a large overstuffed chair near the couch. "Ok. All right. He’s two gods in one, right?" My voice squeaked a bit, and I swallowed, trying to calm myself.
"Somewhat. It’s a long story." He settled down on the floor at my feet, leaning against my legs.
"Do we have time?"
"Plenty." Trowa said, emerging from a room tucked away somewhere in the dimness behind the couch. "Go on and tell him Heero."
I glanced pointedly at the passed out god on the couch.
"Don’t mind him," Trowa waved a hand at the figure, "He’ll be awake sooner or later." I noticed that he’d taken off his hat, and tried to keep my eyes from bugging out when I spotted the two tiny horns on his head. Then he stepped out from around the couch and my eyes nearly did pop out. He’d taken off his pants.
It is one thing to know you’re hanging out with a god, who also happens to be a Satyr; it is a completely different thing to be faced with physical evidence.
My eyes took a stroll down his waist, vaguely noticing he still had on that tight little tank-top undershirt. Where I started to wonder about my sanity, was right past his belly button. That’s where the fur began. It was velvety soft looking on his abdomen, feathering into thicker fur as it moved downwards. His thighs looked almost normal, a little more muscular than a human and covered in thick, reddish-brown fur, but it was right about the knee where his legs became obviously goat-like. Because he didn’t have a knee, he had... something like a reversed knee, or perhaps more like a cat’s back leg. My eyes trailed up again and stopped at groin level, where there was nothing but blank fur.
I heard a throat being cleared and started blushing when I realized I’d been staring at Trowa’s crotch.
"It’s a covering." Trowa said, chuckling and sitting down on the couch, pushing the drunken god’s legs out of the way.
"Huh?"
"You were wondering where my genitals are, right?"
I felt even more blood rush to my cheeks and met gazes with the floor.
He laughed again, apparently delighted by my embarrassment. "Some people got uncomfortable around my naked form, so I had a friend make up this covering to match my fur."
I glanced up and looked again. Now that he’d said, I could see that it was merely a sort of loincloth. "Weird." I mumbled, I met his eyes, "I’ve just never umm, thought about what a real Satyr would look like. Sorry."
"Ah, it’s all right, I’m sure everything is a bit strange, at first." He turned towards Heero, "So tell him about the great soap opera and tragedy that is the world of the Greek gods." He chuckled and put his hooves on the coffee table, leaning back and resting his elbow on Dionysus’ hip. "When big boy here wakes up I’ll get us something entertaining to drink." He snickered, poking the sleeping form with his fingers.
***
Heero leaned back against my legs, stretching his own in front of him, and started talking.
"First, you have to take everything you think you know about Greek gods and Roman gods, any god for that matter, and throw it all away. Because everything you know is only partially right."
I nodded and snuggled into the overstuffed chair, resting my foot on his thigh and half closing my eyes.
"The gods each have many names, each name they were given changed them a little. So that eventually they became separate entities within one body." He gestured towards the passed out god on the couch, "Take him for instance. Once he was merely Dionysus, but since both the Romans and Greeks shared their gods, he also became Bacchus. It split his personality until, because of the magic that makes up a god, he became both names."
"Wait a minute Heero," I leaned down slightly and looked at him. "What exactly makes up a god? Why are they so magical? Where does it all start?"
Trowa snorted from across the room. "A god is created from a human’s thoughts and hopes. We are created from your imaginations." He swung his hooves off the table and leaned over it, meeting my eyes. "We came into creation with the first human thoughts, though most of us would rather die than admit to it. You see, every human has the capacity to be a god; it is all a matter of willpower. But there seems to be this safety mechanism within the human mind, so that you cannot become a god."
"Ok, that makes a little sense. But how come you get to be a god?"
"Ah, I was created. A god’s sole purpose is like... like a funnel for human magical energy. With your dreams and wishes, you created us to act out what you could not. Do you understand yet?" His face was almost serious, except for the faint twinkle in his eyes.
"I think so. But, if you’re all split personalities, and also magical creations... aren’t you even more dangerous than a human would be with magic?"
He grinned. "Of course we are, that’s why there are so many of us scattered through out the world. We are a balance for one another. Without love after all, there can be no war. Without justice, there can be no wrong. So in the end, we create giant tragic scenes for ourselves, to balance out the dreams of humans."
"Now you’re just confusing me." I smiled at him, and noticed the sleeping man was stirring. Trowa shifted and prodded the god with his elbow.
"Wake up Dio, you’re being a poor host."
"Shut up you old goat," Came a slurred reply, "I’ve got a headache you wouldn’t believe." Slowly the man sat up, and I found myself staring at a beautiful face with elegantly split eyebrows and a very regal bearing. His ginger hair was combed back from his forehead, two little bits seeming to escape to brush that noble brow. He leaned forward slightly and nodded at me. "Gorgeous human, the toy for the night?"
I tensed and nudged Heero’s thigh with my foot. He patted my shin and cleared his throat.
"Ahh Heero! I haven’t seen you since Cupid stuck you in a bottle." Suddenly the ginger haired man was gone, and the other figure I had seen alternating with him on the couch appeared. This man had long, white blonde hair and ice blue eyes. He leered at me for a moment then glanced down at Heero and smiled. "It’s been ages! And it looks like you broke the curse, congratulations Heero."
Pan poked the longhaired man in the ribs and coughed discreetly. "Do a proper introduction will you?" He said in a resigned tone of voice, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling.
"Oh yes, pardon my manners." The ginger haired man said as he appeared in the blonde’s place. It was an odd thing to watch, they kept switching places within the same space, and yet appeared to be two completely separate people. "I’m Dionysus, and I assume that if you are the one who broke the curse of our Djinni friend’s bottle, then you must be only partially human." He smiled at me, and changed to the man with the ice blue eyes again.
"I’m Bacchus, and I suppose this means you are not our toy for the night." He paused and looked me over from head to toe. "Pity." He said with a leer.
Trowa poked him again; "We need something to drink for the evening, oh drunken bastard of all that’s lecherous."
"I love it when you talk sweet to me." The ginger haired man said as he appeared again. It was starting to not only make my head hurt, but my eyes water as well, watching the two gods switch places. No, one god, two names, two bodies, one space... I started to feel a pounding start up within my temples and rubbed my forehead.
"I’m Duo," I managed to get out, "Nice to meet you."
Briefly, the blonde appeared and nodded at me, and then the other man was back, Dio. I tried to get it straight in my head, Dio was the ginger haired man, and Bacchus had the eyes like chips of ice.
Pan was tapping an impatient hoof on the floor. Dionysus turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"
"Drink?"
"Oh! Yes." Bacchus appeared and smirked at me, passing a bottle that materialized in his hand over to Trowa. "It’s a lusty one." The blonde said, winking at me.
I smiled slightly and leaned back into the armchair, wondering if it was safe to be alone with him. Already, even from across the room, I could tell he would have the same kind of effect on me as Trowa had earlier. I could smell him. Only this time, it was much more pervading, almost suggestive. I kept having thoughts of everyone in the room naked and having sex, and felt my shorts grow tight. I leaned over and whispered in Heero’s ear. "Why do I keep getting so horny around them? It’s driving me nuts."
He chuckled and turned his head, brushing my ear with his lips. "Don’t you know what Dionysus and Bacchus are gods of? Pan too for that matter?"
"Wine?" I said hesitantly.
"That, and lust, lechery, buggery, you name it. They are gods of debauchery and wisdom, fertility and mysticism. Though, Pan is only a demi-god, so his effect might be less on you." He licked my ear and I felt the soft exhalation as he smiled against my skin. "They affect me as well you know." He purred softly, his hand sliding down my calf in a caress of fingertips.
"Heero, I wouldn’t do that right now if I were you."
"Why not?"
I glanced up at our audience and smiled. "You heard everything, huh?"
They nodded, Pan grinning and the strange mixture of god that was Bacchus and Dionysus chuckling as they switched back and forth.
I tried not to turn red. "Well it’s true, and you know it don’t you? It’s a very unfair advantage to have."
"We cannot help what we are." Bacchus said, leaning across the coffee table and smiling.
"Have some wine and don’t think about it too hard." Suggested Trowa with a smirk, passing an overflowing wineglass to me.
I held it up to the light, trying to determine its color, but it kept changing, shifting from one shade to the next, like a living rainbow made of liquid. "What is this?" I asked, sniffing the rim of the glass. It smelled like everything I’d ever smelled before, and then some. I shuddered and then leant close to sniff it again.
"Sensory Wine. I’ve only recently come up with it." Dio said, idly swirling a glass of the stuff in one hand.
"I’m really rather proud of it." Bacchus said, holding a wine glass in the other hand.
I felt my eyes cross slightly, trying to keep track of them. Then, shrugging, I sipped the wine.
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