The dusty red earth of archeological dig sites were all that remained of the beautiful city that had been Babylon. The sun beat down above, unforgiving and harsh on the lifeless ground. Soro was glad that Phastos had engineered his glasses to darken under bright light, otherwise he would be flying blind. The long kimono styled robe he had brought at the airport billowed out behind him as he followed his family towards the spot where they had left the Domo thousands of years before. The blue and grey patterns flickering in the light. 

"I like this", Druig commented, eyes flashing gold as he controlled the archeologists at the dig to leave and drive back to their hotels. The humans obeying him even as he didn't bother to check. His attention was mostly focused on Soro and the other Eternal wouldn't lie and say that the casual display of power wasn't very attractive. 

"That's good. You brought it", he replied with a smile. "You don't need to keep buying me things". He gestured to his backpack. "I have all I need". 

Druig gave him a look that was equal parts long suffering and fond. "I thought that within our thousands of years you would learn to enjoy being a little materialistic". Soro just shrugged. All a long life had taught him was that nothing ever lasted for long. Not even metal. Therefore, he never really felt the need to collect much. 

The people cleared the site and he watched their cars drive off in clouds of dust. The cracking of earth made his head turn and he watched as the ship that had brought them to this planet began rising fro the earth, dust and rock falling from it as it lifted up before them. The long dead ruins of Babylon skeleton remains around it as it's untarnished black metal gleamed in the sun. Soro sighed deeply at the memories of it. The reminder of what their mission had been. 

There was a small buzz as Phastos alerted the ship and the door slid open. The inside was dark and gloomy. The ship lights dimmed. "Karun!" Kingo called, waving a hand. "Get in front of me, I want a close up of my face as we enter". 

Soro rolled his eyes and side stepped the human as the man ran forwards. Kingo entering the ship first, followed by Phastos, Thena, Sprite, Ikaris, then Sersi. Druig and Soro casually last, seeing no need to rush after the others as they returned to what had once been their home for thousands of years. 

"A foreboding atmosphere fills the air", Kingo narrated to the camera as they walked through the main corridor of the ship. "An eerie stillness chokes our lungs". 

"What are you doing? You know you're creeping us out right?" Phastos huffed.

Soro sniggered. "Still afraid of ghosts, Phastos?" 

The larger man turned to him. "There are things that science cannot explain!" Something loud burst and he jumped back into the wall. "What was that? Stay calm!" Thena lifted her foot from the bag of snacks on the floor. Druig smirked and Soro chuckled. Phastos laughed. "Chips. It's just chips. Phewww", he sighed. 

Kingo turned back to his camera. "As you can see, being an eternal does not preclude you fro having human emotions, such as cowardice". 

Phastos looked like he wanted to flip the man of but his gaze was distracted by the sight of the room ahead of them. His face fell into one of horror. "What has she done? Is that a sarcophagus in my lab?"

 He stormed ahead and the rest of them followed him into what had once been the science room of their ship, but it was now full of items. Piles upon piles of books. Paintings leaning against random pieces of furniture from various time periods and cultures. There was a sarcophagus near the right wall, along with a suit of armour and a couple of statues. In the centre of it all, lit by the warm glow of several of the lamps dotting the space, was an ornate thrown. On the thrown was Makkari. Her braids tied up and dressed in comfy casual clothes. 

"This is Makkari, or should I say Miss Havisham", Kingo introduced to the camera. "None of us have seen her in centuries". 

"I saw her in World War Two", Soro corrected. His fingers trailing curiously over several books littering the top of an ornate Chinese dresser. 

"Other then Soro. But he visited everyone", Kingo huffed. 

Makkari had been reading when they all entered and she put her book down to smile at them all. "Ready to go home?" She asked. 

Kingo hummed as they all stared at her. All wondering who would break the news first. Soro patted the movie star on the back. "Your turn Shadow warrior". The scowl he got in return was worth it. Makkari watched their faces and leaned her head back against the throne in disappointment.

Kingo sighed and stepped forwards to explain. As he did so, the rest of them broke apart around the room. Phastos stepped into the centre as he conjured up his golden holograms to work on their plan. The other eternals, with nothing helpful to do, began rummaging through the hoard of things that Makkari had collected over the last five hundred years. 

Soro was unsurprised to see Thena head directly for the longsword next to the suit of armour. Nor was he surprised as Ikaris and Sersi began poking at the artefacts, most probably of historical importance, but on different sides of the room. Sprite seemed curious about a bucket of papyrus scrolls and Druig had done his usual thing and found a box of snacks. 

Kingo's background chatter as he signed to Makkari filled the space around their gentle conversations. Soro occupied himself with flicking through a few book titles from one of the piles on the floor. He smiled at the lack of theme or genre between any of them. An original print of Dracula was lying under a children's pop up book on sharks. He noted The Iliad, in it's original Ancient Greek, bound in leather and lying next to a carved jade statue of a Chinese lion the size of a small dog. It seemed that Makkari had been busy over the last few centuries. 

"My lovely Soro", Druig called as he crossed the room. The longer haired man looked up as his husband brandished an unrolled silk painting. It was Japanese, Edo period Soro remembered as he stared at the art. Druig's smile grew teasing. "This is my beautiful husband, is it not?" He gestured to the figure caught in ink. Pale skin and dark hair, dressed in a blue kimono. A sword at it's belt as it stood under a magnolia tree. The profile of the face and the slope of it's shoulders were recognisable. 

Soro blinked. "How the-", he started before he stopped. "Actually, it's Makkari. Why should I be surprised that she found that?" 

"I like it", Druig declared as he turned the painting around to gaze upon it. "Not that it matches up to the real thing". 

Soro smiled. "Flirt", he accused. 

The blue eyed man just winked at him before he turned back to the image. "You look sad", he noted. 

Soro hummed. "It's from the Edo period. 1540- ish I think". 

Druig's face turned serious as the time period sunk in. The painting did look sad. Soro's figure isolated and lonely. The real life version sighed. "I was running out of money and a local artist in Kyoto asked me to model for him. I'm more surprised that Makkari found it". 

Fingers curled under his jaw and turned his face gently round. Blue eyes meeting black as Druig pressed their foreheads together. "I shall apologise as many times as you wish, my darling, beautiful Soro". 

The other male smiled widely, hands gripping Druig's hips. "It's just a painting". Anything else he might have said was distracted by the soft kiss the other eternal placed on his lips. 

"Ewwwww", a drawn out groan interrupted them. Kingo and Phastos were standing nearby and were watching them. Both wearing expressions of disgust. Kingo batted his hands at them to separate. "Disgusting married couples. I hate it". 

"Why do I have the feeling that you two are worse than Sersi and Ikaris?" Phastos grumbled. "I do not want to hear any freaky shit involving him". He pointed at Druig as he stated this very clearly to Soro. 

Druig just smirked and opened his mouth. Soro slapped a hand over it quickly, ignoring the blue eyes stare. "Phastos", he spoke calmly. "Druig needs to mind control a celestial. What have you got?" 

Behind the hand gag, his husband smirked. Soro narrowed his eyes at him warningly before releasing him. But before he drop his hand, one of Druig's shot out and caught it in his. Maintaining eye contact, he dropped a feather light kiss to the back of it, as if Soro was a royal. The touch brought red to Soro's ears. 

"Okay enough!" Kingo strode forwards and tugged Soro away by the shoulders to stand on the other side of Phastos. "You guys had five days together, keep it in your pants". 

"What is five days when I have five hundred years?" Druig drawled with a slight sulk. "Two of those days was unfortunately in your company". 

"Druig", Soro smiled and his husband stopped sulking. "After this we will have hundreds of years more". 

"As you wish my divine Soro". 

Around them the rest of the eternals shared glances. Sersi and Makkari smiling, while the rest just looked bored. Phastos clapped his hands. "If some people would stop flirting", he eyed Druig pointedly. "Then I can begin". 

unedited 

long time no see. Who had missed this married couple?