Nico didn’t know if he was exasperated, confused, or mildly turned on. “That sounds uncomfortable…for me.”
Mal’s eyes met Nico’s. “I love you.”
Nico’s whole body jolted at his words, likehe’dbeen tased. “I love you, too,” he said hesitantly.
Mal blinked heavy lids at Nico. “Out of everyone in the whole world, I found you,” he confided, his voice getting quieter. “Some people never find them. But I found you. Just you.” Mal buried his face in Nico’s neck. “Just you,” he said again faintly.
“Find who? Who’s them?”
“You’re my sun,” Mal muttered.
“I most definitely am not,” Nico said indignantly.
Where was this conversation going? What was happening? Was Mal actually okay, or was this some kind of allergic reaction? Or maybe his brain was bleeding.
Mal snorted, releasing Nico’s already bruised ass. “Sun,” he said, pointing up at the ceiling. “We’re children of the sun.”
Children of the sun? That sounded like some kind of cult run by an aging rock star or has-been child actor. This was definitely a brain bleed. Fuck.
“Baby, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe you should sleep.” Mal scoffed, then tried to sit up. “No, no, no, no, no,” Nico said, trying to keep him in a reclined position.
Mal wiggled from Nico’s grip then held his hands up, his face once more serious. “It’s Aris-phoites.” He frowned. “No, Arisph-Aristo—” he cut himself off with a huff. “Plato.”
“Play-Doh?” Nico said, feeling like he was also high and trapped in the world’s worst game of Telephone.
“No, Plato. The phliophiser.”
“Philosopher?” Nico corrected.
Mal snapped and pointed at him with a definitive nod and a lazy cat-like smile. “Yes.”
Nico decided to humor him. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t slightly intrigued. “What about him?”
“Plato wrote that humans were once double beings.” He smacked his hands together. “Each with two faces, four arms, four legs, blah, blah, blah. The myth said there were three types of beings. Man and woman”—he wrinkled his nose cutely—“were the children of the moon. Woman and woman were the children of the Earth. Male and male were the children of the sun.”
“Oh,” Nico said, heart tripping in his chest. “That’s so?—”
Mal pinched Nico’s lips together. “Not done.”
Nico gave him a patient stare but batted his hand away from his mouth. “Go ahead.”
“Zeus was a dick.” Nico snorted at Mal’s blunt statement, earning a withering glare from his boyfriend. Nico pressed his lips shut and tried to look contrite. “He was hella pressed ‘cause these beings were super powerful and ambitious. They were gonna climb the heavens”—Mal’s hand flew upwards—“and overthrow the gods.” Mal slapped his palms together once more, dropping his voice dramatically. “To stop their rebellion, Zeus ripped them in half.” Mal whipped his hands apart. “That’s how he created humans.”
“That’s—”
Mal huffed, giving him the most adorable, heart-melting pout Nico had ever seen. “Not done?” Nico asked gently.
He shook his head.
“Go on, then,” Nico said, crawling into bed to lie beside him, carefully tucking himself under his arm to rest his head on his chest, suddenly needing to feel as close to Mal as possible.
“After they split, each half felt a deep…longing for their other half. They—We—wander the earth looking for our other half. They say when you find them, you’ll feel a sense of…wholeness.”
Nico waited a beat. “That’s a really good?—”
“You’remyother half,” Mal blurted. “I knew it the second I touched you.”
Nico’s chest constricted, tears threatening. “You can’t just…say things like that. I…wasn’t ready.”
