All Was Golden

They meet in The Middle, per usual.

It’s a sacred place to all of them, but particularly the two who make the realm flush with purple hues. In the middle, one is neither here, nor there. Simply in The Middle, with huts on pristine beaches and water that reflects the multiverse. Sacred, calming, protected. The Middle is all of their homes.

But there’s a joy to the realm when those pairs of feet enter from opposite sides, walking the same steady pace until they’re here once again, joining hands and walking into their own hut, right to the left of the center. The taller turns around first, eyeing his suns that still wait for a command.

“We should let them go for the night, after all, they’re not babies anymore.”

Next to him, the shorter nods, raising his hand.

They dismiss together, watching as suns and moons alike bow, slowly disappearing past the atmosphere. 

Solis turns towards his lover, a weak human winks back. 

“Take that off will you? I feel like I need to claw it off your skin.”

Luna simply laughs, “Come on Sol, you know Vita and Ars worked hard on these disguises. They even managed to tame your glow.”

Eyes are rolled and the door is opened. It doesn’t matter that Luna is too lazy to remove his human flesh, the house does it for them.  Solis is thankful for Ars’s design methods. Seeing himself next to the other god every time they come home will never get old. It’s been thousands of millenniums, but it’s still his favorite sight. 

Luna’s human stench fades away until his real self is shown, skin darker than night, long white hair riddled with stars, black eyes that hold billions of night skies. Patterns of lights appear on his cheek bones, twisting and twirling into the crown that belongs only on his head. A t-shirt fades into a black robe, shoes to feet, tattooed from the night. This is how Solis likes him best, in his raw form, seeing himself blazing next to the only being he burns for.

In the mirror he sees himself transforming, red hair broken by blonde taking over, tiny suns littering his cheeks, brown eyes turning golden. He feels more than sees the pale gold crown forming on his head, the uncomfortable clothing shedding itself for white-gold robes, his shoes fading away and freeing his marks from the suns. 

They stare for a cycle. It’s been too long since they’re been together in raw forms, no tricks to keep other beings from losing their minds, to keep worlds within the realms of saneness. 

Eventually Solis reaches out to brush back a bit of that glowing hair. “Shall we?”

On the way to the kitchen the mooncat and sundogs join them, yellow flashes zigzagging around Luna’s head as his giant cat brushes by Solis, flicking him with its wings. 

Food isn’t necessary for them, for any of the gods, but it still tastes good, and they each have their favorites.

“I heard you saw Mare, how is he?”

Luna hums, “The pull of his currents are getting stronger, it’s amazing what he can do these days. He misses you, you know.”

“And I miss him, we’ll all be together soon though, after all, a new year begins in three months.” Solis chuckles a bit, “Ignis can’t wait to see you. Little shit almost burned my eyebrows off when I reminded him.”

Luna chuckles, “They should be back soon, we’ll probably feel the heat kick up, but Mare will cool it back down.”

“They do go beautifully together, don’t they? The cool and the warm elements.”

All the moon can do is agree. 

“Even in the old times, gods partnered the two together. Remember their predecessors?”

Solis shutters at the mention. The old gods were disposed of for a reason, too greedy and hateful for their own good. 

“Thankfully Vita and Mors ended all of that.”

Ah yes, life and death. Vita and Mors. The Beginning, the End, encompassing everything that falls in the Middle.

“Should we have invited them for dinner? I know Mors must be taking a breather after the death of solar system Far.”

“I thought of it, but you know Vita is the best cure for him, Mors will probably send out reapers to finish up while Vita sends trees to replenish. I’m still surprised they’re not punishing Ars.”

Solis shrugs, “The boy is barely 18 thousand years old, he’ll catch on soon enough, remember how the four of us were at that age?”

How could he forget? When the four of them still had so much hatred, so much anger. Life and Death, the Moon and the Sun. It was nearly the destruction of everything, until Mare and Ignis appeared in The Middle and changed everything. Ars came nearly a millennium later, after the creation of the human race. It took them a very short while to realize the boy was the god of time and technologies, growing faster with the knowledge of the universes at his fingertips. 

Soon, when the meat Solis cooks is beginning to brown, the heat increases. Outside the water levels rise. 

“I told you they wouldn’t be long.” 

“Do you think they’ll come to bother us?” 

“Not tonight.” 

Because tonight is calming, a period of relaxation that even the tides wouldn't dare to disturb. They eat in silence, play around with well-loved animals until exhaustion reaches them. 

“It’s been a thousand years since we took a nap.” 

“The others can watch for now, can’t they?” 

Luna pulls Solis away from the resting pets, down the hallways and into a room filled with windows. The planets twinkle like stars, and the once bright purple has faded to a dark lavender, basking the Middle in a hazy glow.

“Just a few moments, Ars will stop time if we need it.” 

They fall into the bed in sync, wrapping covers around shoulders before limbs are entangled. 

Solis twists Luna’s hair between his fingers. The colder plays with the pendent hanging on Solis’s chest for all of eternity. The symbol of the moon, silver despite the man’s golden appearance, fitted together with the string of Luna’s love. On his own chest, the pendent of the sun, gold scorching him and demanding to be intertwined with its other half. So Luna presses closer, letting his sun and Solis’s moon click into place and align the worlds once more.   

They fall asleep like that, sun and moon, cool and warm, light and dark, wrapped in each other to create the perfect shades of color stretching across the solar systems. 

A sunset, so beautiful Ars doesn’t complain as his clocks stop, moving up to find the two on the rooftop. 

So perfect, Life and Death pause their talking, watching The Middle bloom like thousands of flowers from where they’re waiting on Time. 

So perfect the elements pause their kissing just to get a glimpse. 

Stars giggle, the clouds sing. Blues and yellows thrive, flowers bloom even in the darkest of caves. Seas calm and winds blow gently across mountain ranges. 

A human couple, all the way down on earth, held asleep in an unnamed city with the same names, same love, and same pendants share a kiss. 

For a moment, everything meets in The Middle.