Soro and Druig were seated at the dining table in Phastos' living room as they listened to the couple put Jack to bed down the hall. It was sweet listening to them. Phastos was obviously an amazing father and husband. Druig had never thought that he would be envious of the other eternal. They had always been so different that being envious was pointless, yet he found the feeling stirring curiously in his chest. Phastos had managed to fall in love with a human and make a family with him. He was attempting something which had haunted the rest of them. They were eternal. They had lived for millions of years and a human lifespan sometimes felt like a blink of an eye. Yet Phastos was cherishing it and choosing to live with the. Druig had eternity with Soro, provided they didn't die first, and yet he had already failed him as a husband. That was where the envy came in. How did Phastos make it look so easy?

He looked up and caught Soro's eye. The man was sat across the table from him next to Sersi's abandoned seat. Her and Ikaris preferring to be nosy and stick their heads around the door to peer at the family's moment. Soro, who had helped put Jack to bed many times over the years did not feel the need to go and peer at the boy brushing his teeth with his father's help too. He just sat at the table, head propped on his arm as he watched Druig. The dark haired man seemingly lost in thought. 

"What?" Druig's tone was a murmur punctuated with a twitch of his lips as they fell into a soft smile. Soro would never recover from the soft and open looks Druig could send him. If they were an attack, then they always struck true and melted him into mortality. 

"Nothing. Just looking at my husband". Soro smiled back, tone equally as soft. Their conversation only for them. "I am glad you are here". 

Druig's smile grew wider and he leaned across the table. It wasn't a large table and with both men leaning across it, the space between their faces grew shorter and shorter until they were breathing the same air. Eyes alight on each other yet not touching. "There is no where I would rather be my divine darling Soro". 

"Flatterer". 

"Who says I am trying to flatter you. My words are simply the truth. You are divine and beautiful and darling". 

"To you". 

"Well my opinion is the only one that counts". 

Soro pulled back to snigger while Druig smirked. "Charmer", he shot back. It didn't affect the smugness pouring from the man at all. 

From the hall the bedtime routine seemed to be coming to a close. Sersi and Ikaris jumped back into their seats. Sersi reaching for her long empty and abandoned mug of what had been tea while Ikaris grabbed the nearest book. It would have been more natural if the book wasn't a Star Wars colouring book. 

Soro  watched them amusedly as Phastos finally came to join them. "Yeah. Incredibly natural guys". He went for a seat but there was only four seats at the table. Soro wordlessly stood up and moved round to Druig's side as Phastos took his now empty chair with brief thanks. 

Druig wasted no time in slipping his arm around Soro's waist and tugging him down. The long haired man moving with the motion until he was seated across Druig's lap. The mind controller with his arms wrapped around the fighter as he rested his head on his shoulder. The movement was so incredibly calm and natural to them that for a second no one noticed. Then the other three Eternals were staring with various expressions. Sersi obviously found it cute but both Phastos and Ikaris were wearing expressions of disgust. 

"You know, I've known that you two have been married for a couple of decades now, but seeing it is a completely different thing", the inventor groaned. 

"I only found out a few days ago", Ikaris  complained. "Do you have to be so-" he waved a hand as if to sum up his sentence with the image of the couple before them. 

Soro leaned further back into Druig's chest and felt, rather than saw his husband smirk smugly again. "Get used to it". 

"Yeah Ikaris. Get used to it". 

"I think they're cute", Sersi interjected. "It's nice that they have each other and can feel open about it now". She smiled at them and Soro smiled back. 

"Just be glad you didn't walk in on us making out as we did many timed with you Ikaris", Druig reminded. Both Ikaris and Sersi pointedly looked away in embarrassment. 

"Great", Phastos sighed. "Now that I have two horrible images in my mind, shall we get on with the actual conversation?" 

Soro rolled his eyes at their inventor's dramatics and let Sersi begin the story of the last few days. It took a little while but Phastos was quiet throughout. only speaking up towards the end. "So. After all these years even you were prey to Ajax's lies", he commented, side eyeing Ikaris. 

"No need to rub it in". 

"It makes sense why she wouldn't let us interfere with human conflicts", he continued, this time his gaze drifting to Druig and Soro. "Conflicts lead to war, and war actually leads to advancement in lifesaving technology and medicine.  So our mission was never to make a peaceful or harmonious world but to increase the population at all costs". There was a familiar bitterness and anger in his tone that everyone at the table could relate to. "Just farming humans as food for the celestials, right?" 

"That's bleak", Ikaris muttered. 

"But not wrong", Druig voiced. 

"Well so is telling your husband and child that they could be dead within a few days". 

"Thought you'd given up on humans", Ikaris pressed. 

"I got lucky, okay?" Phastos was visibly stressed. "I have a family now. They give me faith again. And I see the good of humanity in them every single day. So look, I cannot help you. I am never leaving them-"

"Phastos", Sersi tried. 

"-I am sorry Sersi. It was wrong for me to use my powers without thinking about the consequences in the first place. So now I choose to use my hands to fix my child's bicycle, okay?"

"Do you?" Druig's blue eyes were fixed on Phastos. 

"I don't use my powers anymore". 

"You sure?" This time it was Ikaris, who must have picked up on the same thing Druig had. Soro already knew Phastos was lying but he wasn't going interject. This was between them and the others who had not seen each other in hundreds of years. That was their own fault. 

Then Ikaris' golden layers shot from his eyes and across the room towards the glass doors to the garden. Instead of breaking through them, they hit a golden shield with a sound of a vibrated note and fizzeled out. "What are you-" Phastos had flinched at the sudden power. 

"What the hell is wrong with you? My child is right down the hallway!" 

"That looks like someone has been using his powers", Ikaris tattled to Sersi like a child to a teacher. 

"Oh my god". Phastos had his head in his hands and was rubbing at his eyes. 

"I've bet you built the perfect safe house. What's this even made of? Vibrainium?"

"Don't!" The shout came too late as Ikaris drove his fist down onto the dining table. It splintered, breaking right down the middle with a crack. Every object on it scattering and smashing, including Sersi's cup. 

There was silence for a moment as the objects stopped rattling. "Fall collection", Photos stated, deadpan. "Ikea. Ass". 

Druig hid his chuckles into Soro's shoulder.

"If you stay then you might as well be inviting the deviant's to dinner", Inkaris continued, not letting the set back falter him. "Never mind waiting for the end of the world". 

"He has a point", Sersi agreed. 

Phastos sighed and turned to the married couple. "What do you two think. Let's hear it". 

Soro sighed slowly. "A deviant killed Gilgamesh. It almost killed me. You may have built the perfect safe house but it killed Gil, Phastos". 

"One of them went up against two of us and we lost", Druig spoke up, voice dark and arms tightening at the reminder of how close he came to loosing Soro. "Both your family and you would be safer. The deviants are not attacking humans. They are going after us". The words were true, no matter what anyone said. 

Phastos inhaled and stood up. "No. No. You can't just show up in my life and expect me to go with you. I won't leave-"

"You should go, Habibi". Ben's voice interrupted them. He was standing in the doorway, having moved closer during their conversation to obviously catch what they were talking about. 

"You want me to go?" Phastos turned to his husband with a open look. 

Ben smiled wryly. "You know what my mum would say to you right now right?" He slipped into Arabic, which Soro's brain translated. "Quit procrastinating Phil, and take care of your business". Ben sighed. "He's a chronic procrastinator". 

"Sound's like him", Druig agreed with a hum. 

Phastos stood and waled over to his spouse. "I am not leaving you two. No way". 

"I'm not happy about it but if there's a chance for us to watch Jack grow up to live a life of his own, then we should take it". Ben's eyes were dark and firm and Soro knew that the decision was made. Phastos would be going with them. 

It was bitter sweet for Phastos to put Jack to bed that night. To read his bedtime story and tuck him in. This time Sersi and Ikaris did not watch. The four of them waited out on the curb, backs to the house in the gloom of night as Phastos wished his family goodbye. Soro and Druig swinging joined hands as the inventor finally joined them. The long haired male patting him on the back as no one mentioned the tears in his eyes. 

unedited