Scenes

Mercury is my roommate. A woman.
Helios is my secret lover. A man.
Nyx and I are "seeing" each other. A man.

The door started to unlock. I jumped down from the bed, wrapping my sheets around my naked body. I stopped the door as Mercury started to open it. As soon as she felt the door stop, I began to speak.
" 'Cury, two hours." My words were flat and final, the held no question. It took Mercury a moment to understand, but when she did, she smiled and narrowed her eyes, teasing. My face, however, seemed to be made of stone. It showed nothing. She was disconcerted. "Do you need anything?" I asked her. Her smile faded, and she felt the need to fill the silence, she wanted to leave. She hesitated, answered no, and then filled space with empty and meaningless words. As soon as she had said no, I nodded, and began to shut the door, telling her I would see her later.
Once the door was shut, I turned to Helios. He was sitting, with his legs dangling off the side of the bed, looking at me with sharp and perceiving eyes. With unspoken understanding, we began to dress and replacing any object we had displaced. We both plainly started to head towards the door. And just before I reached for the doorknob, Helios hugged me from behind, and placed one last kiss on my cheek. He promptly let me go, and I turned around and looked into his eyes. They were almost fierce, and his mouth was set, but it looked like it could relax into a smile with hardly any change. My face mirrored his. We both smiled.
Helios took off in the opposite direction in which Mercury had gone.

I stayed in the room a little while longer, reading. After about an hour, I stepped out of the room and went to the common room where I expected Mercury to be waiting, surrounded by an audience: her friends and followers.
She barely looked at me when I walked in, plainly indicating that she wished to discuss the matter in private before making it public. It made no difference to me. I sat in the room casually, as if nothing, and joined the conversation as seldom as I normally did.
After about fifteen minuted, Mercury made an excuse for us to go to the room. Once we were there, she searched my face for any remnants of gargoyle ancestry which she had seen earlier in the crack of the door. But my face was back to how she normally saw it, and she was reassured. So she smiled teasingly.
"Myriam!" she taunted.
"I won't tell you who it was." I said plainly and seriously, responding to her unspoken question. Her smile faded, and she became serious, too. "But I will tell you two things." I said and she nodded. "It isn't anyone who would lower me in your eyes. And, it's not Nyx.

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Honos is my younger brother.

Nyx came to visit that summer. I had spoken about him often with my parents, but I had only told them what we had done, or what we would talk about. I deliberately failed to state my opinions and thoughts of Nyx. I simply let my parents assume what they wished from the manner in which I spoke of him and from the nature of the stories I told (what we did and where we went in those stories).

Nyx arrived one sunny afternoon. He was driving a beat-up, old, blue van. I hated that van. It was olf and exhausted yet unfulfilled. And it was nearing the end of its life, hopeless.
Inside, I had been waiting for Nyx, but not overtly. I had been working on one of my summer projects at the kitchen table. I was working in a manner that expected interruption, but I was enjoying the work, and I had forgotten about Nyx.
My brother, Honos, on the other hand, had been waiting impatiently by the window. When he announced Nyx's arrival, I passively put down my pencil, and expressionlessly walked to the door. Not a drop of happiness, not a bit of dread. It was simple and impersonal expectancy. My mother noticed, but said nothing.
When I opened the door, my face transformed itself behind my transitioning lenses. I beamed, a grin that almost hurt my cheeks and brought tears to my eyes. When we met, halfway across the lawn, Nyx caught me in a bear-ish embrace, lifting me off my feet, and spinning on the spot a few times. We both laughed and said sweet little nothings to each other. When he put me down, we looked into each other's eyes, both smiling. He bent down and we touched lips, a kiss, if you wish. This superfluous ceremony concluded, we walked arm-in-arm back into the house.
Once inside, I introduced Nyx to my parents, and my parents to Nyx. Then I promised Nyx that Honos would be there to help him with anything he needed, including luggage and indepth conversations about video games. I had to work that afternoon. It had been essential that I be there. I had neither fought nor been glad of this, and Nyx had accepted it equally.

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Helios also came to visit that summer. He arrived in an airport taxi on a cool, calm, cloudy day. He stepped out of it, barely glanced at his surroundings (just the number on the front door to make sure he was in the right place), and went to take his luggage out of the taxi trunk. The set expression on his face never wavered, but his hands betrayed him; they shook slightly as he moved his bags.
I had been pacing silently behind the door, awaiting his arrival, forcing myself to read the book I held in my hand. There was no expression on my face, and my body was straight, but I was agitated. My gaze seemed to be on something that wasn't directly in front of me, for once. My mother noticed, but said nothing.
When Helios arrived, I put down my book and walked out the front door unceremoniously, but gracefully still. When he saw me, his face showed nothing by a small smile, a smile in the corner of his eyes, and in the way he stood. I extended my hand to him and he shook it firmly. Then I took one of his bags and we walked to the house. We weren't walking next to each other, nor was I leading him anywhere. We were both simply walking towards the door.
I introduced Helios to my parent. And this introduction was rather grave. I showed Helios around the house, and also introduced him to Honos. Then I suggested we take a walk outside, which we did.