Chapter Text
1850’s ENGLAND
The first time The sun ever set foot on Earth, he fell in love.
The disguise he had donned was that of a boy, no more than twenty years of age with brown hair and tanned skin which seemed to glow. He made his way down the cobbled roads of London in a suit, a hat of navy blue and a smile far too wide on his face to fit the macabre mood of the 1940’s.
The airplane raid alarm had finally gone, the people peeked out their windows and bunkers with wide eyes before tentatively making their way onto the streets that smelled of gunpowder and ash. The sun shone bright and it was for the very first time that he made his way into a bar.
A place he would soon realise included loads of alcohol and people with pockets bigger than their height as they leaned over the counter asking for another glass. He sat tucked up next to a window, leaning into an armchair nibbling onto the biscuit that had come with his tea as he looked around at the people with fascinated eyes.
“One for Jones!”
“-I told you they would win, a twenty here Owens-“
“-The latest book? Yes I-“
“-When the war ends, I plan on taking a boat straight to the end of the world-“
It is thrilling for a god. Far from walking on clouds and wide-eyed nymphs tending to your every need to a place where people don’t bother to want to even know your name. So in this muddle, if he doesn’t notice the man make his way towards him until he taps him on the shoulder- he is sorry.
“Mind if I take a seat?”
The Sun blinks. Nods. “Thanks mate”
The man takes a few seconds to flop himself down into the armchair in front of him and in that time he stares. The newcomer is young, dressed smartly in a brown suit and with his tie ruffled which matches the state of his brown hair and caramel eyes that land curiously into his own. His face is pale, dotted with freckles and when he smiles- extending a hand to shake- his teeth are slightly crooked in a way he finds endearing.
“Finally got off of my feet, this place has never been this crowded before know?”
He doesn’t know what to say, so he nods his head.
The boy doesn’t seem to get the hint, continuing on as he dusts his suit and pushes himself more deeply into the armchair. “Say- I haven’t seen you round here before?”
“I am-“ he clears his throat, watching the way the newcomers interest seems to peek as he speaks “new in this area”
“Moved in here now?” There is an accent to his voice, he can’t quite place it. “Horrible timing but I guess it is safe no?”
“Yes”
“A man of a few words” The stranger nods his head solemnly, in a way that it makes him smile. “Names Oscar-“
Oscar.
The Sun stores it in his brain, notices the way Oscar looks expectantly at him now. A name- he needed a name.
“Lando”
“Its nice to meet you Lando” And when he smiles, Lando notices the way his froth teeth peek out ever so slightly and eyes crinkle when he tilts his head. “Want a friend round these parts?”
It will take them a year.
A year where the Sun forgets about its duties in the Sky and spends his days with Oscar.
Where Lando Norris (Picked from a tobacco box he had seen lying on the road) finds himself walking down lanes that had now become familiar, with the brunnete who walked round eagerly looking for the nearest book store or a place which sold good beers.
A year before finally the two move into the same flat, on a ploy to cut the money on rent and when Lando will learn that Oscar likes his tea stewed for ten minutes and listens to the orchestra, who he hates the rain and likes to play snooker with Lando. (if the puddles on the road on the way to his work dry up minutes after they form due to the sun, it is a coincidence)
Oscar in turn, learns that Lando likes to joke, seems to glow as he runs across the street with a fearlessness and loves to be outdoors-jumping of trees and running through empty fields in a way that makes him look angelic.
It is an odd pairing. A god and a mortal. The Sun knew so, yet Lando did not care.
It takes another six months till the Sun finally grasps the emotion courses through his veins. Takes him another day to let himself believe it, watch the way the sunlight hit Oscar’s face as they sat breathless in the empty poppy field, wave goodbye to him as he left for work, reading the newspaper in the neighbouring club and to realise the way Oscar’s gaze lingered far after his own had left.
Lando meets Oscar’s lips three months later. One day when the two were three drinks in and the brunnete was buzzed, leaning against Lando’s body as they dragged their feet home. Lando had paid the bill, Logan and Alex had waved the two goodbye.
“You are handsome you know Lan?” Oscar had mumbled, almost dropping his hat while Lando’s breathe hitched.
“You aren’t too bad to look at either” he had adopted the mannerisms of this place, words flowing naturally now.
“No-“ the drunk man paused suddenly, Lando swore before halting too. “No- I always thought you were handsome”
Gods did not feel such emotions, they were not meant to feel such emotions and yet when Lando sees the way streetlight lights hit his face like a halo, lips bright pink and his pupils blown wide as he looks at him.
“And I think you’re drunk” He jests, reaching out to take the others body weight yet again. “And need sleep”
“You know what I think?” They’re almost in their flat now, after some more compliments that turned Lando more pink than the drinks.
“What do you think?” Lando asks, setting him down onto the couch.
“I think,” Oscar leans forward, so close now that Lando could almost feel his heartbeat. “That I want to kiss you”
A God was not supposed to feel such emotions, The Sun knew that- yet that did nothing to stop Lando from pulling away the minute Oscar leant forward. Did nothing to stop Oscar the day they woke up the next morning and Land was making breakfast for a hungover Oscar who only smiled sheepishly before blushing red when Lando kissed his cheek.
Did nothing when the first warning sank through the sky, the time when the fates crossed his path on the way to pick up Oscar’s favourite coffee with a thread nine strands away from snipping. Did nothing when the first summon back to Heaven came in the form of a dove on their bedroom window.
Did nothing the day when the notice made its way onto their coffee table.
“They are asking me to enlist” Oscar had said softly, sitting on the couch with a hand in Lando’s hair.
“Who?”
“The army- I would be under corporal Max V.”
“Are you going to?” That was when the premonition has started in his brain, when the Sun started to regain its sight. Because the Sun knows that name, Apollo knows that name.
“I have to “ Oscar had replied and Lando had just nodded. That night the Sun had risen to the heaven, watched the life drain out of his love, watched the Fates pronounce his destiny had been that way since the second he had crossed paths with Apollo while Zeus sat grim on his throne.
It was two months later, when Lando still sat in their empty flat with letters stored under his bed that the final notice made its way onto their coffee table and the Fates snipped the ninth strand on the fraying thread and the Sun broke for the first time.
☾
1930’s America
The Sun makes its way down on Earth years later, wounds still fresh and this time with a different body. The earlier one covered in scars and the throne he had sat on after cracked through the centre.
The sun lands in America, in the middle of the sweltering heat and in a city called Las Vegas. The streets are filled with casinos and people, LED lights glowing brighter than the stars above and hes squinting.
Apollo makes his way down the tar roads, almost crashing into a car on the way before coming to a stop in front of a bar. It is an old one, with leather chairs and a bell to ring anyone of people entering and it makes his heart burn.
He walks ahead, past the signs and past the end of the city which leads into an endless desert. He isn’t hungry, there is no water he needs for sustenance. The birds above him slow down to watch as he trudges his feet across the sand, because it hurts.
However much it takes to forget, the slightest sign of civilisation reminded him of the thing he had run from.
Its two days in when hes back to seeing people walking around, a couple who spot a boy no older than twenty one looking two steps away from his own death and drag him into their homes without giving him much hearsay and on hearing he had no family, taking him in as their own.
They did not ask him his name, nor did he think he could give them one. The village he was in was small, ending after less than a forty minute walk down from the main square and yet it was comfortable. They woke early in the morning, turned on a thing called a radio which he would later learn played whatever it wanted and then made their way to the Bank.
Its fifteen days in, when the Sun stares at the sky with the question of when he would go back he still doesn’t receive and answer. The Gods watch the Fates pull out the thread from their basket, raise it to the throne of Zeus and watch his gaze lock pitifully on the eight string.
“Were going to the movies Son,” the man who lived in the house he did was already grabbing his jacket before he looked at him. “It is supposed to be a good one- do you want to come along?”
The movies. A play played on a screen recorded from earlier. A wonder that he enjoyed the most. He drank his last sip of coffee, having refused to touch tea ever since his arrival and scraped his chair against the wood floor.
The movie to play was an old classic, the popcorn he ate buttery and however its in the intermission- when hes making his way back to his seat from the toilet that he sees him.
There are not many things that make a God freeze. Not many things which cause his senses to screech to a halt and face crumble as it tracks the very face he could never forget.
But it couldn’t be, The Sun knew it couldn’t be- because in no world could Oscar be sitting across the road, looking no older than the day Lando had met him all those years ago with a book in his lap and familiar lips bitten in concentration.
But its fifteen seconds later, one where the soda in his hands crumbles as he stares that he can’t deny it. Can’t deny the familiar broad shoulders, the freckled face and mop of unruly brown hair that Lando had spent months trying to get him to control.
“It can’t be” hes whispering. “It can’t be”
And like its a final joke, the boy looks up- snapping the book shut and looking up and the Sun almost cries as he sees familiar caramel eyes look around before locking onto his own. Oscar-No, the boy tilts his head, raises his hand and waves and the Sun bolts.
The rest of the movie is a blur, faces and words blurring until hes walking out with the man he had come with- they were not his parents, he could not call them that. There’s a tear running down his cheek, the man laughs as he claps him on the back and calls him emotional.
And its right when they’re getting back into their car, him sliding into the backseat when suddenly there’s a yell.
“Hey!”
The door doesn’t click open. Instead fingers remain frozen against the handle because the voice is so familiar.
“Hey!”
The man in the car looks up through the window, nods at the boy who he can see racing towards them. “Looks like someone wants to meet you son”
He swallows. Waits. Osc- the boy- reaches them seconds later, cheeks pink from exertion and the deja vu that hits him almost makes him crumble.
“Hey-“ the boy pants, smiling as he looks up from bending down and he can see his front two teeth peek out slightly. “Thought I lost you there-“
He can only nod. Nod, and blink because this can’t be and yet has to be the thing that would break him. He can feel the man’s gaze on him from the drivers seat, watch as the boy extends his hand and speaks again. “I’m Oscar- I’m new here, and I saw you earlier today so thought I’d say hi”
And it was there that the Sun took a name again, where the Sun blinked fast and hard before extending his hand and grabbing hold of Oscar’s hand so tight that the boy winced. Because suddenly there was hope flowing through him, was this a second chance? A chance to correct the mistakes of the past?
“What’s your name?”
The familiar accent almost makes him lose the last ounce of grit he had mustered. But the Sun did not fall at such things, the Gods had given him a second chance he would not let it go waste.
“Lan-Lando” the name is heavy on his tongue, dredging up a bitter taste from past memories and yet he smiles.
“Nice to meet you-“ Oscar lets go first and Lando wants to drag his hand back into his own. “Want to be friends?”
The next days Lando found himself followed around by Oscar. The brunnete who matched his pace and talked excitedly about how he had come from Las Vegas and hugged him tight when he heard the story of how lando had ended up here.
Oscar who still didn’t drink coffee and said that the sunset was much better than the sunrise as he couldn’t sacrifice his sleep to see the earlier one, who Lando stayed close to because this was his Oscar now.
They share mornings and nights, melancholy at time when Lando finds himself slipping into the past of the earlier poppy fields and rushes to go to work, now changed to walks to the movie theatre and running to catch their friends band’s latest show down at the dock.
And that one night, when Oscar dips his feet into the pier and lando shuffles to sit closer. The wind dusts his cheeks and there is that feeling rising yet again in him, one which threatens to burst when Lando leans his head against Oscar’s shoulder and the boy doesn’t move.
“Why were you staring at me that day?” He asks when they’re licking ice creams at the docks and Lando pauses.
The moon shines on the water, iridescent and heavenly and Lando thanks Artemis for the light.
“Dunno” he shrugs.
“Liar”
Lando breaths in. He could say it, but who would ever believe him? And so instead he turns slightly, to face the boy who looks at him in the slightest hints of confusion.
“I wanted to meet you”
And it isn’t a lie. Not really, not fully and it seems enough to make Oscar hum and turn away.
“I’m glad you stared that day”
“I’m glad I did too”
That night the Sun rises to the heaven yet again.
Walks past the dryads and into the throne room where the Fates sit on their chairs and the Gods collect to pass the time. “Is this your way of making things right?” His voice is strong, even though the bonds of his punishment continue to pull him towards the Earth again.
He expects a nod, a yes- instead the Fates laugh. Doubling over themselves as they continue to weave their threads. “Destiny does not make amends O’sun”
“It only continue down its set path”
“We are only its keepers”
“You didn’t answer my question” Apollo frowns.
The first fate says nothing, instead she raises a thread- eight strands away from snapping, the second and third laugh and the Sun feels a stab cut through his bones when the meaning sinks in. There is one strand broken, the ninth almost touching the white marbled floor. “Nine lives cut down to eight,”
The second continues, “The Gods do not meddle with mortals”
The Sun stumbles, the thread glows as Oscar’s face echoes in each twine. “The consequences are the mortals to bear, the lesson is the immortals”
“No-“
“You doomed the boy the second you shook his hand O’ great Apollo” the third one rises, taking a step closer towards the fearful God.
“No- I refuse I-“ The forces pulling him down to Earth grow faster, half his essence already reassembling itself into the body he had chosen and slept in back down on Earth.
“You cannot refuse Fate O’Sun- you cannot run from it”
He wakes with a gasp. The rooster cawing seconds later and lando’s already running. Running down the streets he had never hurried down earlier, running down faster than his mortal body could handle till he was back at Oscar’s door.
That sinking feeling rising like a tide down his body as he knocks, because it couldn’t happen again. He waits for Oscar to open the door, see the familiar face but its not him. Its his mother, a haggard look on her face and tear stains down her cheeks as she looks at Lando and sighs.
“What happened?” Lando’s scared now, feet tapping nervously against the ground.
“Why don’t you come in dear?” Is all his mother says and lando almost bolts, straight towards his room and with wide eyes only for a strangled gasp to leave his throat when he sees Oscar lying on his bed with washcloths on his body and a doctor at his bedside.
“What happened?” Hes trembling now, and the doctor passes his a cloth to place on Oscar’s leg. “What-“
“Its the Virus” is all the man says and that is enough to make Lando’s heart sink. The Fates had given their warnings, they had laughed in his face and now here he was paying for meddling yet again.
“He-he will survive right?”
He doesn’t get a reply.
“Its so sudden- he didn’t have anything before, he was so healthy- how-“ his mother cries, clutching onto her sons hand and Lando’s own heartbeat cuts through all of it.
Because he knows. Knows why this is happening, it is all his fault. Everything.”Its all my fault”
The first time, now the second time. He can almost see the second the Fate’s snap the eight strand, can almost feel the way Oscar’s soul would leave its body and it would all be his fault.
“No-no,” Oscar’s mother had shook her head, “You could not have known, you couldn’t have done this”
Lando stays the night, by Oscar’s bedside through his feverish dreams and fervent murmers as the punished God tries his hardest to get back the smallest of his strengths to heal him. But there is nothing- for that is a god stripped bare, there is nothing except for the slightest glow against his skin and the one time Oscar seems normal enough to look at Lando and smile.
“Lets go to the fields after this yeah? I miss the horses”
It would be a week later that they buried him in the field, next to the poppies and near the stables of the horses. It would be a week later that Lando disappeared from the village and the Sun waned ever so slightly in the days that followed.
☾
1980’s Australia
The Sun comes down for the third time in anger.
The Sun makes its way down on Earth as a punishment, to recover from its wounds and remove the hatred it had developed which had caused draughts and floods on the place he was supposed to protect.
But this time he heeds his warnings, heeds the meaning of the Fate’s words as they saw him fall yet again. This time there is someone coming down with him, in the guise of a boy two years older than him- with blonde hair and storm blue eyes and who calls himself Max.
“You will not seek him,” Its a warning, one that echoes with the slap of thunder in an open sky and Apollo can only nod listless. The terrain is familiar, one where the night sky dips over the horizon and the faint lights of civilisation glows to his East.
The birds sit silent in their nests, the air crackling with foreign energy and the jackals howl as two people make their way in a place called Australia.
And Apollo doesn’t seek him. No, the hurt is raw and the trauma of everything lingering on his mind long after the showers he has removes any possible trace of Oscar from his body.
His skin is a bit lighter now, yet the curls of his brown hair remain pronounced and the name on the door of his house says Lando Norris. He eats his breakfast at the local diner, catches Max’s eye as he walks down the streets with a familiar brown haired man who loops their hands together and flashes a smile at him when they cross paths.
It is that way he lives. Longer on the earth this time, closing to four years in which he has a big house now, a neighbourhood of people who come meet him and try to set him up with their children yet always get rejected because he can’t. Lando can’t fall in love again, not with anyone else.
And then he starts to forget, the loss of memories over aeons that it is suddenly one night- deep in his slumber that he realises he can’t remember Oscar’s eyes. It wakes him up with a gasp, the fall of a glass against a carpeted floor and ragged breathing before he can centre himself again.
“Bro-Green, no-Brown-“ he stutters, shaking his head finally wide awake as he tries- tries to remember because he can’t forget. He won’t forget the one person who had made him feel something, however much it hurt, at least it had happened to him.
“Brown-“ the memory flashes in his vision again, calm and steady and yet turning grey at the ends like a photograph under an X-ray. Two boys sitting in a pub, in a jacket two sizes too big and caramel brown eyes looking eagerly as they skip through puddles on the way to the farm.
“Brown,” he says it as a prayer. It would take another decade for the Sun to realise it was exactly that.
The Sun wakes up the next morning numb and dazed. He walks to the diner and pauses. There is a queue outside, long and there are people with cameras who wait outside like wolves waiting to prance on their prey. He frowns, turns around and enters through the kitchen.
The owner of the place, Francesca sees him- head whipping up from the table she’s taking an order from and waves. “Good morning to you”
“Busy day for you?” He asks, swivelling his head when he sees the blonde sigh.
“The hero of this town is back home for his break, the people are excited as if they didn’t see him run around as a kid on their lawns”
Lando hums. He leans against the counter, he hasn’t heard of this hero. What has he done?
“Who is it?”
And the incredulous look that Francesca gives him makes him snort. “I told you I’m not that updated in all this”
“Ancient Aren’t you” she shakes her head and Lando knows she’s joking and yet his hand tightens round the glass of water hes holding, and then she continues. “He’s a singer- sold out two albums a year ago and the world newest hotshot”
“A name- if you could”
And Lando should have known. The God of Oracles should have known that this time would be no different, should have seen the crooked grin on the Fate’s face and the way Zeus’s face pales as he watches it unfold. Should have realised it when the people crowding around the artist move away as if swayed by an unknown force, when he sees a familiar mop of brown hair reach his eyes first before his gaze draws itself to the rest of his face and he’s feeling the blood drain out of his feet in an instant.
“Oscar-Oscar Piastri”
There it is. The name, the face- the face he had believed he could avoid, break the strings that dangled between his eyes whenever he screwed them shut. The face which now cut straight across the small room, past Francesca who continued to talk, and straight to look right at Lando with the same soft look that had the Sun fall straight to his own demise.
“I can introduce you to him if you like”
“No- no its fine” He stumbles over his words slightly, there’s a ringing shriek building up in his ears now, grey clouding the edge of his vision and he needs to leave. Lando knows he has to but hes hooked, feet refusing to move and gaze frozen because Oscar-Oscar hasn’t looked away.
The face he had seen so many times before, cradled in his hands and felt sleep on his shoulder- finally blinks. And that is enough, enough for the rush of blood to his his brain and he snatches his hands away from the glass.
“I have to go” he mutters, not knowing whether she heard and yet he’s making his way out. Its cruel-the tears that threaten to escape his eyes a reminder of what it was like to be human again, yet to have the memories of lives lost and dead.
The walk back in the blazing sun is hot as it is slow. The familiar streets now converging as if to form one narrow path and the God is drowning in them. “The seventh string”
The door is cold as he slides against it. “The seventh string comes to pass”
But he’s walked away this time. The Sun doesn’t know if its any solace, not when hes clutching his tea and biting down on his lip as he paces the living room.
He walked away, there was no conversation, no start of anything- there shouldn’t be an issue and yet- Lando groans.
He knows. He knows it would never be that simple.
And it isn’t.
Not when he’s in his lawn an hour later, gathering his energy from the sun above that he hears a knock on his door.
“For the tenth time Carlos, I don’t want eggs today- I don’t even cook here” He doesn’t look at the person, there is no one else who comes here anyways.
“Do you prefer cakes then?”
And really it makes Lando laugh. The crazed smile on his face digging itself as deep as his spade goes into the grass hes pulling apart because ofcourse it wasn’t Frank. Lando looks up at the gate, sees the very face he didn’t want there and yet craved to see smiled at him the way it always had. “Hello neighbour”
“Osc-“ his voice almost breaks, “Oscar Piastri isn’t it?” Its the first time he’s heard of the surname. His hand digs into the handle of the spade tighter because he can almost see the strand hang in the Fate’s hand even thinner now.
Yet he can’t do anything, not when Oscar tilts his head and laughs- clear and genuinely amused. “You’d be the first person to ask me who I am”
“Glad I can make an impression” its familiar, so familiar to Lando to talk like this and yet for Oscar right now, it is so foreign.
For a second Oscar doesn’t speak, only smiles and Lando wants to run away again- hide under his pillows and scream to be taken back to his throne because now it would be written in stone- Oscar Piastri would not live his life this time.
“It’s nice” he says finally, and Lando can only nod.
“Nice”
“I saw you in the diner in the morning today” The fence remains the only gap between them.
A gate and Lando could open it if he wanted, call the boy in and break his own heart again when the inevitable came to pass- or he could keep it shut, hope that this one time meet-up went unnoticed by the Fate’s and his love could make it through this life fully.
“Usually people run towards me mate, imagine my surprise when I saw you running away”
“I suppose that didn’t give you the hint that I didn’t want to see you?” The sad truth is that Lando almost means it, however much it hurts and yet the way he says it makes it sound like a joke because he can never be mean to Oscar. Not in this life, not in his past.
“I am nothing but dense” Lando almost cracks a smile.
The fence creaks. Oscar eyes It expectantly.
Lando knows he shouldn’t.
The fence creaks again. He shifts his gaze to the dog ambling its way down the street.
The fence digs into the dirt below it. Lando reaches for the bolt. “ You coming in?”
The Aussie doesn’t need another ask, already slipping his way in right as he presses a box into Lando’s hands. “You want to be friends?”
It ends with the two six months later, when Oscar sits by their bedside with a guitar in his hands and Lando sprawled across the sheets. When Oscar has already released his first album with songs opposite of heartbreaks and the paparazzi call the two the best of friends and Oscar laughs under the sheets.
“You know-I’v always liked that time right before dawn” He mumbles, one hand tangled in lando’s hair as they sit on the couch. There are songs playing gently in the background, ones where Lando recognises Oscar’s own voice right before the brunnete changes the vinyl to another. “When its not exactly dark but the suns not shining either”
And lando hums, eyes creasing ever so slightly affronted because he is the Sun after all is he not? He raises his hands, reaches for Oscar’s left one and twists the rings on his fingers.
“Because there’s no one around me to remind me of who I am, or what I’m supposed to be-it just,” Oscar exhales softly. “It’s easier”
“Your own expectations are burdening you” Lando says it softly, almost not heard as the wood in the fireplace crackled as the branch broke and yet Oscar shifted his body ever so slightly.
“At least it brought me to you” And Lando kisses him, raising his neck with a smile growing on his lips just as Oscar melts into it. They break apart minutes later, flushed red and panting slightly.
“Aren’t you feeling romantic tonight?” Lando teases, tilting his head as the smile widened when the brunnete laughed.
“I’v always been one love,”
And Lando knows he shouldn’t say it. Shouldn’t reminiscence the past- shouldnt bring up the lifetimes he had been the reason had ended and yet its in the warm yellow light, two breaths and bodies casting shadows on the floor of a house they shared that he can’t stop.
For it is normal to grieve. Grieve and mourn for what could have been, for what had not been and what he couldn’t save.
“In every lifetime,” he mumbles, doesn’t let the tears threatening to rise make their way any higher than the point where they had been created. That liberty- to shed his sorrow over something he had caused was one he had forbade himself from bearing in his last lifetime itself.
Ofcourse his love doesn’t understand, doesn’t see the lights flicker ever so slightly when Lando shifts so his head faces the pillow. Instead, he only nods his head- and its the way that he repeats the words that almost makes him break yet again.
Because Oscar says it like a promise. Like a finality. Like it hadn’t been the truth before, like it hadn’t become a curse years before- like Lando didn’t bear the scars of that very though rooting itself so deep into his bones that it had caused the others to rot in the ground for them.
“In every lifetime”
It ends when Oscar takes Lando on tour with him, up through America and Canada and maybe just maybe Lando thinks they’ve beaten it that the plane crashes. Its quick, one yell from the pilot of the jet and suddenly Lando’s leaping towards Oscar who’s frozen in fear.
It’s in those last seconds when the Sun sees the thread snip in front of him right as the life drains out of Oscar as the fireball erupts around him.
The Sun is a God, The Sun is immortal and so it does not harm him and yet it hurts him more than the metal embedded in his stomach ever could.
Zeus finds him there an hour later, a breaking and cracking ball of radiance leaking into his ash surroundings in the form of a boy kneeling as he clutches onto the broken body of the person he loved.