I had hoped when I woke up Cain would be the one beside me. Instead an all too familiar sight of Apollo was what I found as I pushed up on my elbows and looked at him a little better. The soft golden glow of his skin was even more obvious in the dim lighting of the room, and old habits die hard as the urge to smooth back his hair from where it had messily fallen over his eyes, had my hand slightly raised to go and do just that. Mentally cursing myself, as I looked around again only to realise we hadn't actually come back to my room like I remembered us doing after whatever that whole disaster was.

Just thinking about it made my head hurt and yet I realised the exhaustion I'd been feeling was gone. I felt normal. In fact, all of this felt normal. If the last few weeks weren't already plaguing my brain, it would be easy to think that I'd just woken up like any other day, back in our old life and for a second, those first thoughts on Kara, Hecate, the war, all of it, quietened down so a whole pile of new ones I'd left behind over a year ago returned.

What if I had left with him after Odin's failed attempt at taking over my home world?

Is this what our life would look like? Waking up together, here, and then what - breakfast in bed, or would we go somewhere else to eat. Maybe we'd go to town with the Others, maybe another region or even country; another realm - if only for the fact we could.

I flopped back down beside him, not even sure I could be bothered thinking about it any more. It didn't matter what could have been or what we could have done. Those thoughts had their time and it wasn't now. One thing was clear though, this bed was comfier than the one I'd been calling my own and I hated him for it. Just five more minutes of peace and quiet, a little power nap and then I'd go back to my actual reality.

"I could get used to waking up next to you. Again." Apollo yawned, the wobble of movement beside me had my eyes reopening.

Well there goes that idea.

"You're doing that thing you do that annoys me." I groan, turning to face him.

My earlier thoughts not just disappeared but completely vanished as he turned to look back at me. There was nothing there, not like it used to be anyway. Even when he smiled that stupid half smile that used to make my stomach feel queasy in a good way and my brain do stupid shit - nothing happened.

"Being my irresistible, charming self?" He yawns again, watching as I sit up.

"No, breathing." I stretch, raising my arms up over my head - enjoying the feeling as every inch of me responds with no pain or difficulty. "But, thank you. For fixing me up. Again."

"I told you, Bunny. Anytime. I always have your back" Apollo yawns, stretching out across the space I'd just been laying in. "You are feeling better now?"

I look down at him, catching the worry in his tone.

"I am. Brand new." It's dark outside the window, and I get up to peek out. I'm not sure if it's dawn or sunset on the horizon. "How long was I out for, and why am I here, not in my room?"

"Um, since early last night." He gets up, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Feels longer though. I only came in to check on you a couple of hours ago, and then must have fallen asleep too. Hungry? I'm sure there'll be a dinner buffet set up somewhere we can take part in."

I shake my head, praying my stomach doesn't give me away as I realise he left out the why part to his answer.

"No, and I need to go. After whatever that all was, I want to see Cain and sort out-"

"He's gone. Just for a bit. And you're only here, because he brought you here." He rubbed his face with hands. "So relax."

"Gone?"

"Cain and Hermes left yesterday night after who or whatever it was that tricked us yesterday. I got put onto babysitting duties, so you're welcome." I try not to roll my eyes but fail. Actually, I don't think I even really tried. "You were completely out of it, someone's out there fucking with us, so as if you're going to be left alone, recovering, while he goes to play hero."

There was a lot there I wanted to protest and have explained further, but instead I let it go. It wasn't worth the time or effort.

"Then I need to see Kara."

"Also busy. Queen now remembers, they've already got her busy with stuff." He shrugs and I know he's lying. "Just, have something to eat. They should all be done soon, okay?"

My stomach growled and now he rolled his eyes. In an instant a table and chairs appeared; pizza, garlic bread and what I prayed was something alcoholic in the glasses. The smell had my mouth watering and I reluctantly sat beside him yet my hunger won. The first bite was heaven, the second was even better.

"This is so good." I sighed, unable to keep eating. "Who do you think was behind it?"

"I have no idea. Someone who clearly has a grudge with all of us though I wonder if they expected the bonus addition of one presumed dead ex-King." Apollo sat back, lazily rubbing his stomach. "This is good pizza. Remember Paparoni's?"

"How could anyone ever forget once they've had his, big and cheesy," We laugh, and it's nice, easy. Then I realised what he meant. "Paparoni's! I'll admit I'm impressed. I knew this had been too good for you to have come up with."

"You can't even cook an egg, so lay off the cooking digs." He warned.

"As if you can do anything more than toast. How did you even survive without your powers?"

"It was tough, and I ate a lot of take away." Apollo admits. "But that was only in the beginning and then I learnt things. What's your excuse?"

"You've met my Mum. I never had to do anything."

"I am going to miss your Mum's cooking." He frowns, taking a drink of his bourbon.

"You'll always be welcome, I think she misses feeding you as it is." I sigh, yet there's an awkwardness between us now that wasn't there a second ago.

"Thanks for saying so, but you don't have to do this. I mean, for a second there, I woke up and I just forgot about everything and it was nice to think that there was still an us. I've missed you, and I've spent so much time thinking about what I should have done, or said or even, why the fuck did I even leave in the first place and-"

"Apollo," I start but he shakes his head.

"I need to say this. I mostly wonder if I had got back to you sooner, if things would be different. I want to believe that they would be, only then I see him, with you. I'm jealous and hate him." Apollo finishes his drink in one go, his face twisting slightly as he does so and he lets out a laugh that's more a growl as he slams down the glass. "But I hate myself more, because I know nothing has changed for him. I still see what I saw in your world and it's all I fucking see and it is my fault for not seeing you, instead."

My first instinct is to apologise, to try and soothe the pain he was feeling but instead I just sat there. If he noticed, it didn't show as he leant forward, taking my hand in his.

"And the bastard knew. He knew you loved me which is why he even set us back up that Christmas after everything. He wanted you, I know he did, and he walked away. You really loved me, didn't you?" His grip tightened, and I nodded. "I'm sorry. I am. For all of it."

"I know, me too."

We stand together and as he drops my hand I throw my arms around his chest and hold him tight. A second later, he holds me back and I really get the feeling that becoming friends, and all of us kind of getting along is going to be a possibility.

"I want us to be friends, how we talked about before I left. I miss watching you continuously throwing yourself into reckless, impossible situations and telling you how much of a bad idea I think it is because it always is." He says a minute later. "I hope I haven't fucked it all up, Bunny."

"You haven't." I smile back at him. "Just please, try not to hate him or be jealous. It's weird, and it's not going to be easy, but all I've wanted is for everyone to just get along. Art will be just as happy as I am if you can call a truce?"

"We'll see." It was as much of a promise as I was going to get and I'll take it.

"Elise, how are you. What-" Kara freezes as we both turn to see her. She narrows her eyes as she looks Apollo over as we end our hug. "What are you doing? Here? With him?"

"I'm glad you're back to normal, and I'll give you two some space. I was going to go with Art to Rumpel's anyway." Apollo shrugged.

"What's Rumpels?" I ask, ignoring Kara and the look on her face I didn't want to deal with right now.

"I'll show you another time." He nods at my friend and disappears.

"Elise?" Kara looks around confused. "Why are you in Apollo's room, and why did I walk in on you two like whatever that was?"

"Seriously, doors. Knocking. Try it." I groan. "It was a hug. Friends hug. There is no walking in on anything."

"Friends, yes. Ex-boyfriend who is clearly wanting to remove the ex part, no!"

"Calm down. It was literally nothing and besides while I was out, Cain sent me here. Why are you acting like I did something wrong?"

Kara went quiet, looking around as if she wanted to say a lot more than she was going to. I'd seen that look on many faces that I'd managed to either piss off completely or shocked into silence.

"You're playing a dangerous game, Elise." She said finally.

"I'm not sure what you're implying right now, but I'm going to presume that the crown is a little too tight for your head. Seriously Kara?" She avoids eye contact as I stare at her, choosing to look at her fingernail instead. "Nevermind me, where have you been? I know Apollo was lying when he said you were busy being Queen."

Her jaw clenched slightly, and folding her arms across her chest, she gave a little shrug.

"It was official business. I went home, and in a month's time I will be inviting the new leaders of the Northern lands here to declare our allegiance." It sounded legit, yet she still never looked directly at me. "Not getting up close and personal with my ex while fooling around with the guy they called the Dark King!"

"Excuse me?" I gasp.

"Sorry." Her shoulders slumped slightly as she rubbed the side of her face as if I had in fact slapped her how I had imagined doing. "I didn't mean, I just want you to be careful. That's all."

Hermes appears then, an envelope in his hand. Surprisingly, he gives Kara a little bow and then hands it over. He's gone just as quick as he came.

"Do you actually think I would-"

She shakes her head and opens the envelope. "No, I don't. Of course I don't. I just panicked for a second and got carried away. It's been a long day. And night. I'm sorry. Forget about it and I actually think this is for you."

I take the letter, and while it is addressed to the Queen, they don't mean Kara.

"Should I come with you?" She offers softly.

"Why not, then you can make sure I'm being careful."

"Elise!" Kara groans.

I change my clothes, and take her hand, appearing outside the backdoor of the small house in town. Kara doesn't hide her surprise, especially when I knock and two children come running out past us chasing a cat.

Mattew fills the doorway, looking tired and relieved as he sees me. "Thank you for coming, your Highness."

"Yeah, so about that, we need to talk." I tell him, stumbling as Faline slips by him and hugs me.

"We do." She agrees, and dragging us inside, it's quiet and dark. "You can imagine the shock we got when we saw him. A ghost!"

"Only not a ghost." Matthew says slowly, reaching for the coffee that Faline produces at the table.

"Not a ghost." I agree. "He's still here?"

"Upstairs." Faline looked up, before looking at Kara curiously.

"Sorry, this is Kara. The new Queen." I introduced her. They both instantly bow, making Kara look even more uncomfortable, and I decided to leave it at that. "Not necessary. So, how much do you know?"

"Everything if he told the truth." Mattew sighed. "We promise, your secrets are safe with us. We're just glad our friend is alright. You've given him a great gift."

"He would often come here for a break, a place to escape, usually when Artemis was on a rampage or someone else declared war against us. I fear, after everything, this may not be the right place for that anymore, so that's why we reached out to you. I knew you couldn't have killed him." Faline sipped her coffee. "When we heard the news, we didn't believe it, but slowly we realised we had no reason not to. Until now."

"Thank you. I'll take him home. If news got out-"

"We understand." Mattew nodded. "It was nice to be able to say goodbye."

Kara and I left them and sure enough, found Cain asleep upstairs in a tiny closet of a room on a blanket on the floor.

"Can we trust them?" Kara whispered.

"Yes. So spill, what have you all been up to?" I ask her, leaning against the doorway.

I almost wasn't sure I wanted to know if Cain ended up here like this and Kara looked like she was one wrong step away from a nervous breakdown.

"I told you where I was, I don't know where he went." She stared at Cain in a way I hadn't seen before. Something was scaring her now that hadn't before, and I didn't like it.

"You're a terrible liar."

This only made her look even sadder, but either way it had her opening up.

"I went with him and Hermes to find out who was behind that whole event. Her name was Lyssa, goddess of anger and fury of all things. Hermes didn't stick around and I thought we were only going to scare her, threaten her a bit. Instead he tortured, and killed her." I only stared at her, unsure of where this was going. "She was connected to Eris, a revenge attack against you, for Enyo and the others."

"You're holding what he did against him?" I can't stop myself from getting defensive.

Kara shook her head. "No. What happened just shocked me a bit. Besides, I am Queen now. Lyssa threatened one of the most important people in my life, and I let him do it. I walked away and he killed her."

"I'm not really understanding the problem? I probably would have killed her too." I admit.

"Exactly. I am the God Killer now, yet I walked away. She made a direct move against us, and I walked away. Elise, you've made a mistake, he knows it too. They all do. I am not who this world needs." Her eyes were brimming with tears and she fell back on the wall, sliding down into a crumpled mess.

I sat beside her, and reaching out, moved all of us out of the house and back to the castle. Cain was left in my bed, before we ended up sitting on the floor in Kara's room as she cried.

"I didn't make a mistake. Lisa-"

"Lyssa." She corrected me.

"Right, Lyssa is not your burden to bear. She was a loose end from his time, if it wasn't Cain that did it, it should have at least been me. This was not your fight." I assured her. "You will do great things for this world, and you will earn both your titles with time. Don't give up. Not yet."

She started to cry again, yet laughed just as quickly as she wiped her eyes. "He said something very similar."

"And Kara, nothing happened with me and Apollo. That chapter is well and truly over for us, and I honestly feel like we are coming out the other side as friends." I hesitated. "I don't know what this is for me and Cain, exactly, but I'm not going to do anything to ruin it before it can begin."

"I know, of course you won't. I wasn't thinking. It's just, when we were there, he was actually terrifying with Lyssa. I'm glad I've never been on his bad side and I never want to be after that. He was, someone, something else." She swallowed nervously. "Be careful, but I do trust that you know what you're doing."

"Brave of you, because I never know what I'm doing," I smile and she returns it.

"If you'd told me this is where we'd be a month ago, hell, even a week ago, I'd never have believed you." Kara sighs, wiping her eyes a final time.

"Be kind to yourself, Queenie. Your entire life has just changed, again."

"How do you deal with it? This seems like a yearly occurrence for you." She teased.

"I don't really deal with any of it. I used to just drink a lot, run away and occasionally find things to stab. Then I met some people who helped me process a bunch of feelings and stuff, while being sober, and here we are!"

"How am I going to do any of this without you here?"

"I'll only ever be a portal away, but you'll have the crew here, and your sisters. Deimos." I smirked.

"Stop while you're ahead." She warned as there was a knock on the door, and Deimos poked his head in.

"Speak of the devil." I whispered as we stood up. "See, that was great Deimos, good job. Do you think you can give lessons to everyone else who lives in this world?"

"What?" He frowned, looking between us as Kara hit my arm.

"Knocking. You're a good knocker. You seem to understand boundaries, and the purpose of doors."

"Perhaps, but I doubt I will ever understand you." His frown seemed to deepen even further. "Should I come back?"

"Yes, Elise was-" Kara started, only I cut her off.

"Just about to leave. Did you just make a joke?" I look at him closely, and the frown trembles slightly as he fights to keep it here. "I think that was. Anyway, I do need to go. I have my own business to attend to."

Kara nods, understanding. "I'll see you later?"

"Definitely."

Leaving them I go back to my room and find Cain exactly where I'd left him. I sat beside him on the bed as he slept, though nothing about him looked peaceful. His head was tilted back with his mouth open; saliva pooled in one corner as a not so subtle rumble of snores left him. His brows were creased with concentration, despite his eyes staying closed as one hand opened and closed into a fist. I leaned back against the bedhead, taking a deep breath as I took a moment to try and process everything tonight had already brought.

It didn't last long as Cain soon rolled over; his face pressed against the side of my thigh as his arm was thrown over my legs. His snores got louder as I stroked his hair, and it was hard to imagine him as someone to be feared. The look Kara had gotten made me wonder what exactly had gone on, only again I found myself unable to really care. I'd seen his darkness, and here I was.

I thought instead of our last night at the bar, when he gave me Apollo's attempt at a diary and what he said earlier about Cain walking away from this. Us. No, there hadn't been an us back then, but there was now. Leaning down, I kissed him gently on the forehead, causing his arm to pull slightly harder against my legs as he held on tighter.

"Watching me sleep. Not creepy at all." He mumbled soon after, yawning loudly before he hid his face into the bed.

"What are you talking about? I just got here."

"Sure, sure." He glances up sleepily, and a few slow blinks later, he finally focuses on me. "How are you feeling?"

"Brand new. You?"

"Hungover. Give me a sec." He closes his eyes, and just as I think he's gone back to sleep, he yawns again. "Better. How did you find me?"

"Mattew. He sent a rather discreet message to the Queen, but they were happy to see you and to be able to say goodbye."

"They're good people. Good friends." Cain pauses. "So is Kara."

"I know. She told me about where you two had gone with-"

"There you are!" Artemis burst in, grinning as she looked at us. "Both of you!"

"Doesn't anyone ever use the doors in this place?" I groan.

Apollo and Kara appear a second later, with Deimos joining the party as well though he looked so out of place I wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh or hug him.

"Come on in, no really. It's fine."

"This is why I like my place." Cain mumbles, laying back down as he puts a pillow over his head.

"What are you all doing here?" I ask, standing up.

"I thought we could go shopping. Nothing says family bonding time like weapons and pretty jewels!" Artemis explains.

"What?"

"We're going to Rumpels and she wants to make it a group trip." Apollo explains.

"How does that work for all of us?" I ask, not so subtle looking at Cain.

"Oh right. The dead thing." Artemis shrugs. "Just, use a disguise?"

"No. I don't go to Rumpels anyway." He calls out, before sitting back up.

"Glad that's sorted. Can you all go away now?" I ask.

"Fine. Excuse me for trying to inject a bit of fun into our lives." Artemis huffs, disappearing.

"You're looking better than you did," Kara starts lightly as she looks at Cain who only groans and hides back under the pillow, she stops quickly. "We'll leave you two alone."

The trio go.

I turn back to him, prepared to pick up where we'd been a second earlier but suddenly he's up and standing. Talk about a fast change of mind.

"You should go with them." It doesn't sound like a suggestion.

"Why?"

"You might find something you like there?" He shrugs, looking thoughtful. "You are down a sword these days and I know you want to see what the fuss is all about."

"Yeah, but we were talking and-"

"We can talk later."

"I know what you're doing." Crossing my arms, I glare at him.

"Yeah, hate me later for it." He kisses my forehead and a second later is gone, as instead I bump into Kara.

"You're here. Alone?" She looks around confused.

"Yeah, he-" I look around at where here actually is and my mouth drops at the wall of swords she was standing in front of. "Is missing out."

"Wait until you see what else is here." She smirks.

Cain was right, we could talk later.