“Haaaaa~!” Iris exclaimed with a deep exhale with a red face as she finished downing a bottle of wine.

“Fuwaaa~!” Bellona joined in as she slammed her own bottle of wine down on the torotsu’s table.

“Hmm,” Arylos remarked softly while drinking with dignity from his cup of tea before setting the cup down on the table gently.

“Admit it, I could totally drink more than you!” Iris hollered at Bellona with a clenched fist of triumph.

“I don’t think hic so,” Bellona said while trying to contain her hiccups with deep breaths. “You’re just a little human girl; just how hic much do you think you can drink?”

“More than you and that’s all that matters!” Iris said with a sparkle in her eyes that Arylos recognised all too well, more than happy to stay out of this duel.

“Settle down, girls,” Arylos said softly while drinking his tea once more, knowing his words would be ignored.

“Don’t be such a downer, honey!” Iris said while slapping Arylos’s shoulder, bringing out growls from the Titan as he struggled to drink his tea.

“Yeah! Why don’t you join in or at least act like a judge?” Bellona said with a similar sparkle in her eyes.

Arylos let out a deep sigh as he set his tea back down. “Because in my opinion both of you have already lost.”

“Oh come on! Join us!” Iris pleaded while pulling Arylos’s arm.

“I’m good, little girl,” Arylos said nonchalantly, internally wondering how much more of this ‘entertainment’ he would be enjoying.

“No fair!” Bellona complained while banging on the torotsu.

“Why are you so cold? You’re not fun at all!” Iris said with a pout as she continued to pull on Arylos’s arm. “Come play with us! Surely you’re not afraid to lose.”

Arylos smirked as he set a hand on Iris’s head. “You two already hurled when I joined you an hour ago. This is my first cup of tea; everything else has been wine.”

Iris and Bellona stared at Arylos in complete silence as their intoxicated minds tried to make sense of what he said. Iris’s red cheeks slowly went pale as the realization set in that she and Bellona lost and she had no memory of it. “You’re messing with me,” Iris said with a nervous chuckle.

Arylos laughed and came close to Iris. Without warning, he blew his breath in Iris’s face. The intense smell of alcohol on his breath nearly punched Iris into sobriety as the sensation and the realization knocked her backwards to the floor.

“Hey, you kiss that man so if his breath is foul, I should judge you too,” Bellona said while laughing at the fallen Iris.

Iris groaned as she lifted herself back up and set her head against the torotsu. “Honey, I could set your breath on fire with that.”

“As if I couldn’t do that already?” Arylos said as the corner of his lips rose to a smile.

Bellona closed her eyes for a moment before they snapped back open. “Hold on, you can actually breathe fire?” she asked as she jumped back up.

“Really? Do you not know me?” Arylos said with a laugh.

“He is the Titan of Fire after all,” Iris said with a laugh as she made a waving gesture at Bellona.

“I’ve never known you to breathe fire,” Bellona said while rubbing her chin.

“Bullshit; you’ve seen me do it before,” Arylos said while continuing to laugh.

“Well, do it anyway; it’ll warm us up!” Iris pleaded while reaching for Arylos’s hands.

Arylos chuckled under his breath. “Fine then,” he said with a resigned smile. He took a deep breath and held it as tendrils of smoke billowed from his nostrils. He opened his mouth a little and a small cloud of flames poured forth like a thick burning vapor that dissipated into white smoke not long after forming.

“Ooooohhhhh~!” Bellona and Iris said in unison as they watched the cloud fade away.

“Happy now?” Arylos said as the smoke from his nose faded away.

“Can you do more?” Iris asked with bashful cheeks.

“I’d rather not burn the house down, honey,” Arylos said while waving her off with a nervous chuckle.

“Just blow it into the fireplace; you need to make a new fire in there anyway,” Bellona said while gesturing towards the cold ash-filled fireplace.

“Yeah yeah!” Iris said while practically bouncing with excitement.

Arylos rubbed the back of his neck as he considered how he could get out of this situation. “Fine then, just this once,” he said in surrender. “You better move out of the way then.”

Bellona and Iris moved out of Arylos’s way and sat next to him. Arylos growled softly as a heat built in his chest and his tattoos began to glow a soft orange. Arylos inhaled as flames growled in his chest, their orange light escaping from the back of his throat. With each inhale, the flames built in intensity, no longer producing black smoke from his nose and mouth yet Bellona could see the light of the heat within him bounce around his mouth.

Arylos lurched forward and howled a mighty roar as a blast of violent liquid flames poured forth like water from a broken dam. The intense heat and wind buffeted the women as the sounds of the Titan roaring with the flames deafened their ears. Iris watched as the mighty beam of flames poured into the fireplace with flames pouring out like splashing water as they shot upwards through the chimney. The intense build up of heat made Iris sweat as the unholy wrath of the Titan had manifested itself in a sea of brilliant searing flames.

After a while, Arylos ran out of breath in his lungs as his howling quieted and the flames slowly died down until they faded away, leaving the women’s faces hot with their backs cold and a light ringing in their ears. Arylos’s tattoos slowly stopped glowing as he took deep breaths to get his breath back.

“That was awesome,” Bellona said in a soft whisper, admiring what she had just witnessed.

“That’s my boy,” Iris said with glee as she reached for Arylos’s arm and rested against his arm. “You won’t find anyone else who can do that,” she said while rubbing her cheek against his bicep with a big smile on her face.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Bellona said softly in awe as she examined the duo.

“Now and if you ladies don’t mind, I’d like to finish my tea,” Arylos said as he reached down for his cup of tea and took a drink from it. “I don’t mind being Iris’s source of entertainment, but I do like my space.”

Bellona thought to herself for a moment, continuing to rub her chin. “I’m honestly surprised that you two have stuck out this long already,” she said softly while lost in thought.

“What do you mean by that?” Iris asked, piqued by Bellona’s outwardly musing.

Bellona’s eyebrows narrowed as she examined the duo. “Mortals and immortals being together rarely goes well. But you two make it work in a way I never thought you could. Not going to lie, you’re kind of breaking my expectations; I always wondered if you two were going to break things off eventually or something.”

“Well, he’s my big idiot and I love him,” Iris said with a widening smile, holding onto Arylos’s arm tighter, nearly causing Arylos to drop his cup.

“Yeah, but you know what he is,” Bellona said with a sigh.

“Yeah; I am hers and that’s all that matters,” Arylos said while failing to contain his smile as he drank the rest of the tea from his cup.

“Denial won’t help you two,” Bellona cautioned while shaking her head.

“It sounds like someone needs some more wine,” Iris said with a smile and tapping on Arylos’s chest. “Honey, could you get us some more wine?”

“I think the two of you have had more than enough,” Arylos said while rubbing Iris’s head. “It won’t take long before you start getting tired.”

“I’m not tired,” Iris said while closing her eyes and letting out a sigh as she rubbed against the Titan’s arm.

“I’m with Arylos on this though; I could go for a nice long nap,” Bellona said while stretching her back.

“You’re more than welcome to stay in the guest bedroom tonight,” Arylos said while wrapping his captive arm around Iris, prompting her to curl up next to his chest. “That would be better than sending you back out into the cold as drunk as you are.”

Bellona laughed to herself as she considered Arylos’s offer. “Eir’s still at my place so I’m sure she’s going to be concerned about me.”

“You’re a big girl; surely she’ll think you’re fine,” Arylos said with a smile. “Worst case scenario, she checks for you here and I can always greet her at the door.”

“You know, you could just go there as your spirit self and I guess move things around or leave a letter for her,” Bellona said, calling out Arylos’s formless telepathic nature.

“This body still limits my reach,” Arylos warned while glancing back down at one of his hands. “It’s not strong enough to contain me and let me reach out that far yet. I’m getting better, but I’m still not as strong as I was; maybe I never will. I am formless in this house and a little ways out, but that does not expand far outside here.”

“I remember you could see two planets at the exact same time in separate galaxies; what happened?” Bellona asked, concerned for the Titan.

“This vessel happened,” Arylos said while looking up at the ceiling. “Korseis was never meant to be a permanent vessel and he was not strong enough to contain my full strength. What I can do stretches the limits of what he can contain and makes me weaker.”

“And I’m willing to bet the curse that keeps you in that body isn’t helping,” Bellona wondered aloud while examining the Titan’s human body.

Arylos nodded and let out a sigh. “Exactly, and I can’t break that curse on my own.”

“But what if you could break it?” Bellona asked softly. “What if someone like myself could break the curse on you?”

Arylos shook his head. “Even if you could, I couldn’t ask you to do it.”

“How come?” Bellona asked in disappointment.

“I will then be formless once more; unable to interact with this world, unable to interact with you or Iris,” Arylos explained while looking down at Iris as she breathed heavily, already lost in the embrace of sleep as she rested her head against his chest. “To return, someone would have to surrender their body to me willingly; to give up their lives and everything they hold dear just so that I can walk this world in their shoes. Who knows how long that takes; decades, maybe even centuries could pass. I can’t do that to Iris; that wouldn’t be fair for her to lose her family and village and then lose me just because I want a new body.”

“But you would have the strength to protect her,” Bellona suggested, wanting to help the Titan.

Arylos only shook his head as he ran his hand through Iris’s hair. “That strength is not worth the decades Iris would have to wait for me to return. All I am is hers, so it doesn’t matter if I can get my old strength back.”

“Well, at least you have her best interests in mind,” Bellona said with a sigh that resulted in a yawn.

“That’s the least I can do,” Arylos said with a smile. He then reached around and delicately wrapped his other arm around Iris’s legs and pulled her close as she groaned in her sleep. Gingerly, he took her up in his arms and slowly rose to his legs, his knees cracking in protest after the long periods on the floor. “I’ll take her to bed now. The guest bedroom is in the hall across from the bath. It has clean linens for you if you want to head to bed as well.”

“I’ll be up in a few minutes; thanks for letting me stay here,” Bellona said with a shy smile.

“It’s what us friends do, goodnight Bellona” Arylos said as he turned away and took Iris up the stairs, careful not to wake her as she clung to his shirt in her sleep. Arylos couldn’t help but laugh under his breath as he continued up the stairs and down the hall to their room. As Arylos gently sat Iris down on the bed, she gripped his shirt tight in her sleep.

“Don’t go,” she whispered softly in her sleep.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Arylos said softly as he kissed Iris’s forehead to which she smiled yet kept a hold on the Titan. Arylos gingerly crawled into bed and set the blanket over both of them as he settled in to hold Iris in his arms.

“Do you mean it?” Iris asked softly as she rubbed her face against his chest with a deep sigh. “Doesn’t it make you unhappy? Being stuck in that body.”

“So you heard my little talk with Bellona,” Arylos said softly, rubbing Iris’s back to comfort her. “It doesn’t make me unhappy; I have you and that’s all I need.”

Iris sighed as she tightened her grip on Arylos, refusing to let him go. “I don’t want to lose you too. I’d be sad, alone, afraid.”

“Sleep, just sleep,” Arylos assured with another kiss on Iris’s forehead. “I am eternal and I won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. So just sleep and forget about it all; I’ll be here for you in the morning.”

Iris smiled as she relaxed in the Titan’s arms, taking in the grounding sensation his embrace gave her and the heat of the flames in his chest. It was like an anchor in the cold ocean that kept her from being lost in the currents.

She didn’t want to be anywhere else.