#minos x reader

⋯⇋ ૮(•͈⌔•͈)ა ⇌⋯

The rest of humanity was dead, you knew.

You were one of the last remaining humans, assuming there were even any left. The only reason for your survival was that you were one of the researchers sent on the Hell expeditions. However, you wanted to extend your stay to continue your research, despite being aware of all the dangers in the underworld. Curiosity was what drove you to volunteer to venture beneath the layers, and curiosity was what drove you onwards.

Your higher-ups gave you tall stacks of paperwork that virtually stretched to the heavens.

"It's for precautionary measures," they said. "We do not want to be responsible in any way, shape or form for your injury, dismemberment or death."

By the time you completed it all and tried to transport it back up to Earth via the terminals, your higher-ups were dead. Along with everyone else you knew and the entire planet.

Your research was initially driven solely by curiosity. our lust for knowledge and to learn more about the world you lived in.

It was now driven by your desperation to survive.

That was your main priority and the very first thing on the agenda. Survive.

Hell was alive, that much was clear. Everything that went on within it was all just part of its game.

To Hell, all you were was another condemned soul. Just another marionette on its grand stage, only there to play its part in its unending musical. A show for one.

Unlike the machines that wandered Hell, time would take its toll on you. And it would not be kind. When exhaustion finally overtook you, you knew there would be no one left to hear your pleas for mercy.

All Hell did was watch its performers.

It did not care about any of them. It was an unfeeling, cyclic mechanism that slowly, purposefully, tore itself apart for its own amusement.

All it cared about now was that the show must go on.

Which was why you were taken aback when, one day, a singular Drone arrived at your doorstep. Hell had no reason to send visitors to your residence, and neither did anything else that was shut out of Heaven and banished to this place.

You had taken residence on one of the Earthmovers- Benjamin was its name, you learnt- in Violence. The Lust layer would have been your choice of sanctuary, but you wanted to abstain from meeting an unfortunate end at the hands of King Minos' corpse. You had seen the parasite-infested behemoth mindlessly stumbling about, crushing everything beneath its feet without a care in the world.

Apparently, it had been like that since time immemorial. You had come across an old diary belonging to one of the residents of Lust during your journey between the layers and scanned through it for any scrap of information to aid your descent.

The text was old. The once-pristine parchment used had faded into yellow at the edges, and the paper itself was delicate. You were amazed that the book was even intact.

According to the barely legible entry, Minos had seen better days. He wanted the citizens of Lust to see those good days, too, even within their eternal punishment in Hell.

He felt that the judgment passed upon the Lust layer was unfair.

He tried to make life better for the residents of Hell.

Even as they grieved, knowing that they would never be able to enter Heaven and be forever condemned, they might still find joy. Happiness in a world designed to strip that away from them, a world designed to make them suffer and atone for their sins ad infinitum.

King Minos just wanted to make life better for Hell's inhabitants.

And he failed.

In fact, Minos never wanted to cause the deaths of any of the layer's citizens.

This was their afterlife. A soul's final destination. Its second chance at life despite death.

And he also knew that once a soul met its end yet again, there would be no more chances for the sinner.

He wanted to make every soul's final journey meaningful, an end to a life filled with love. But he never could. He was the Judge of Hell. He had responsibilities. The watchful eyes of Heaven were always fixated on him, making sure that he did his job.

Upon God's disappearance, Heaven's eyes turned away. The spotlights snapped and fell upon another glaring issue within the holiest of realms. Some of the angels believed that He would return. Others did not. Some questioned their faith daily, about whether or not His Light was even real. Heaven descended into pandemonium.

Minos did not care about either. All he cared about was finally abandoning his duties as Judge of Hell to craft a utopia for the citizens of the Lust layer.

But Heaven would descend upon him to become a thorn in his side yet again.

Heaven, with its own views on justice and fairness. Heaven, whose residents always thought they were right.

Heaven was The Father's magnum opus, after all. His pride and joy before leaving the world to destroy itself in His absence.

The King tried to reason with Gabriel, Heaven's enactor of justice. Instead, he was cut down by Justice.

That was just about what you could decipher then. The rest of the text was too blurry to read, the ink having faded as the years ticked by.

The main entrance to your place of residence was thousands of feet up in the air. The worst part about staying on Benjamin was the very beginning of your stay, the time you needed to get up onto its back.

You were surprised the mastodon of a machine even heard your request for shelter. In hindsight, you should have expected that. Machines were designed to fight other machines for humanity. It was wired into their programming that their main target should be other machines, not humans themselves, unless as a byproduct of their destruction.

You stared at the Drone before you. The Drone stared back.

It chirped at you before a compartment on its back opened up with a clack. A singular scroll dropped onto the floor.

You stared at the paper. Hesitantly, you strode towards the neatly tied bundle of rolled-up parchment and picked it up.

The fibres were smooth. Soft to your fingertips. Of the highest quality, you figured.

You tugged at one end of the crimson string and watched as the knot holding the scroll together unravelled. You uncoiled the scroll, reading the text inside.

"I have heard of thine existence. Pray tell, would thee like to take shelter in the Lust layer instead? I know thy struggles and conflicted feelings towards the idea of thy residence here, but I can assure thee that thy worries have been duly accounted for and addressed.

Thine evermore,

Minos"

You stared at the note in confusion and disbelief. You thought he was dead, but the note disproved your beliefs.

"Could this be a cruel trick?" You mused. "Perhaps it is a message sent from Hell itself to give me false hope and watch me crumple in despair when I realise there will be no salvation for me."

The Drone chirped at you again. It seemed to be waiting for a response.

"Nothing to lose, I suppose. If Hell wants a show, I can give it another performance before I die." You mumbled under your breath.

You retreated into the Earthmover's chassis. By then, you had reformed the interior into something less like a control room and more like a home.

It wouldn't truly replicate what you once had on Earth, but you'd settle for it. It was the closest feeling you had to being home.

With a spare pen lying around, you quickly scribbled down a response.

"I accept your offer. I pray that this will not lead to my demise."

You curled the scroll back into place and tied it with the same string it had come in. After placing the message back in the Drone's back compartment, you snapped it shut with a click and watched as the tiny machine floated away.

Hours passed. Nothing compared to your eternally boring existence as you waited for your inevitable death.

Without warning, a knock echoed through your place of residence.

You froze in horror. With how high up you were, you were halfway to the point where the sky back on Earth would kiss the clouds. The entrance to your home was located where the Earthmover's neck met its body.

And someone had come all the way up, no doubt looking for you.

You cautiously padded towards the door, your hand hovering over the button located just by the doorframe. That was the Earthmover's internal defence system, which you were fully prepared to activate the moment things went south.

Your hand closed around the doorknob. You twisted your wrist and, with a click, you opened the door to reveal the individual standing on the other side.

On instinct, your hand balled into a fist and almost slammed down on the defence system button, the only thing stopping you being the ungodly speed and strength of the man who stood before you.

His toned body was translucent. Slightly bioluminescent. You could see his arteries pulsating and his heart beating in a slow rhythm through his flesh.

Atop his head was a crown of cuboids and blocks, all different shapes and sizes, fused to his head. You couldn't tell where the structures ended and where the top of his head began. Around his arms were two snake-like vambraces, one for each arm, the same colour as his body. The snakes were intricately carved and crafted, perfectly coiled around his forearm. Their red, beady eyes glinted in the light of the lamps hung outside your door, and their scales were iridescent, casting flashes of prismatic light onto the metal flooring.

The man lacked a face. In its place was a dark, empty void. It reflected no light and led to nowhere visible.

And his hand was firmly clamped around your wrist, keeping an iron grip on you to avoid activating the Earthmover's defences.

As you took the time to pause and assess the situation, your heartbeat calmed. The pounding in your ears slowed down to a stop. Your breathing returned to normal as you registered that the man standing before you was not a threat. He seemed strangely familiar to you, but you decided that it would be a secondary concern. Your primary objective was to figure out what purpose he served, because you knew no one in their right mind would chase down one of many Earthmovers in the area, climb the colossal beast and knock on its door just for the fun of it.

You thought you were safe until one of the snakes uncoiled from his forearm and nipped at your hand. Those weren't snake-shaped vambraces around his arms. Those weren't for decor.

They were alive.

You let out a piercing, panicked screech at the sight of the snake, the sound reverberating off the Earthmover's chassis. The man instinctively let go of you as you stumbled back, your back pressing against the console, your only focus being to keep as much distance between you and the serpent.

"No, no- prithee, do not be alarmed-! I come in peace, dearest!"

The snake appeared to sense your fright, immediately retreating to its post on his forearm. Its eyes remained fixed on you, its tongue occasionally flicking out to survey its foreign environment.

The translucent individual stepped into your humble abode, his form illuminating the space around him. He was in a slightly crouched posture, arms outstretched, palms open and empty. A sign of peace he was praying you understood, despite your lack of interaction with any form of human civilisation for God knows how long.

Your gaze raked over his stance. He seemed innocuous. Benign.

You slowly stood back up, finally daring to look at him in the face. "Who...are you?"

The being stood upright and cleared his throat with a soft cough. "Thou art familiar with my name. Minos, King of the Lust layer."

His appearance finally clicked in your mind.

The crown. The serpents. It had all seemed so familiar to you, yet so foreign. An itch you couldn't scratch at the back of your mind.

That's why he seemed so similar to those portraits back in the Lust layer.

You stared at him. He stared back. The Earthmover's control room was silent, save for the silent whir of its internal mechanisms.

"How-?" You started, before your voice cut off and died, your throat running dry. You had so many questions, and all of them were jostling about in your mind, screaming at you to let it go first. How was he alive? How did he end up in this form, so different from all his portraits? How did he even get down to Violence in a matter of hours, when it took you weeks to traverse between the different layers? How did he even get all the way up here?

"Thou hast a lot of inquiries, I can see."

You nodded slowly, still reeling from the shock. So many things had happened, with so little time to process them all.

"Thy concerns shall be addressed in due time. Prithee, do not fret."

Minos approached you, his footsteps slow but certain. For the first time since meeting him, you did not flinch. Nor did you back away. You stayed where you were. Unmoving. Unblinking.

"I wish to bring thee away from this harsh wasteland. Thy soul is pure. It is free of mars and blights. Unblemished. Its purity should not be tarnished by the creatures of this layer."

Minos' voice softened into a deep murmur as he fully stooped down, his right knee resting on the floor, one hand lightly cupping your cheek.

His skin felt smooth and slightly chilly to the touch. Not an unwelcome sensation.

Minos' serpents uncoiled from his arms, the twin snakes coiling against your shoulders as their tongues flicked out at you. You didn't recoil. You couldn't bear to pull away.

His thumb brushed against your cheek. It felt foreign, being touched and cared for by someone. Affection was a thing of the past, you thought. Died out and cast aside from the very moment mankind went extinct.

The digit traced across your skin in slow, calming movements. Minos had all the time in the world to wait for your response.

He had no expression, but he seemed to be looking at you with the care and adoration of a man who had just set eyes on the most beautiful thing in the universe, yet so tragically fragile. Something that existed in a world not meant for it.

"...beautiful," Minos uttered, "so beautiful. The construct of oneself, so delicately and beautifully crafted. Thou art a masterpiece, a work of art of the highest calibre..."

As Minos held your face in his hand, his thumb gliding against your cheek in slow, deliberate strokes, your mind was completely blank and devoid of anything but his proximity.

Closeness wasn't something you expected until the end of your days. Affection wasn't one of those things either.

But as Minos kept caressing your cheek, muttering soft nothings about how beautifully crafted humans were, you felt something within you stir. Something that should have never awoken, for there was no one to rouse your pushed-down emotions from its slumber. At least, that's what you thought.

You finally came to and blinked a few times, trying to snap yourself out of your wistful daydreaming. Your thoughts refused to fully leave your mind, but it was enough for you to come up with a coherent response.

"I...is the Lust layer really safe? Your corpse lingers there, destroying everything in its path, no?"

Minos paused, his thumb stopping its rhythmic strokes across your skin.

"Nay, that is an issue of the past. All that remains is what needs to be rebuilt. So, my dearest..."

Minos' other hand came to rest on yours. "...dwell by my side and allow me to protect thee. Let me be thy guard. Be my vestige of the souls I fought for, for whom I have failed to deliver from this bleak existence."

You remained taciturn. Such feelings were unfamiliar to you. Even as a researcher, your priorities were situated not in natural human affections but in your work.

Now your work served no purpose other than to aid in your survival.

No amount of papers and studies could replace the human companionship you had taken for granted. Interactions with your colleagues, even the insufferable ones you could never tolerate, now seemed like nought but a wistful dream.

Now someone was here to offer you peace and safety. Someone there to aid, and not to maim or kill you.

If there was a God out there, if one still existed, you were certain that He had listened to your prayers and answered them.

You nodded at Minos. It was slow and unhurried. Deliberate and certain. You'd miss Benjamin, but you also valued your existence. You would much rather travel to the Lust layer and live the rest of your days with the sane mind and soul of one other human instead of dying, alone and afraid, in Violence with only an Earthmover to remember your name.

You got up and paced towards the doorway, Minos silently trailing behind you. Your footsteps echoed throughout the place as you walked past the planters lining your pavement. They contained various types of plants and shrubbery that you had spent so much of your time maintaining and caring for with what little resources remained.

You halted at the edge of the platform.

The control room oversaw the small city below. The designers of the Earthmover definitely had aesthetics in mind when planning its architecture, because the view was absolutely exquisite. Your eyes were graced with neatly arranged homes for its residents, with lampposts dotting the streets at neatly arranged intervals. Park benches lined the pavements, and at the heart of the town was a four-way intersection, each lane reserved for a different section of researchers and engineers.

The town was a work of art, crafted for its inhabitants to seek refuge during the time of war.

Made for inhabitants who no longer existed.

"Will I be able to see Benjamin again? This Earthmover?"

Minos paused before shaking his head in an inevitable reply you had been expecting, but nevertheless dreading. "Nay. The journey down here is too perilous for one as delicate as thyself."

You took a few more moments to appreciate the view you would no longer be able to see. Benjamin was the only reason you were alive and talking to Minos...or whatever this version of him was. Leaving your mostly silent companion was a cost you never expected to take such a toll on you. After all, you boarded the Earthmover for survival, not companionship.

You retreated back into the control room and opened a door next to the console. It led to the Earthmover's forecastle, where all its weapons and mechanisms were visible.

"Benjamin?" You called out.

With a shrill creaking sound that pierced through the air as its metal plates shifted against each other, Benjamin dipped its head to stare down at you. Its six headlights looked down at you curiously.

"...I'll miss ya, buddy."

You patted the wall, the hollow aluminium making a dull clunk when your hand came into contact with the surface.

"Take care of yourself, okay? Don't get yourself destroyed. No one will be around to read your eulogy if that happens."

Benjamin dipped its head further, seemingly as a sign of respect, before straightening up and turning back to stare in the distance at other Earthmovers shambling through the harsh lands.

"...you're beautiful, Benjamin. Outstretched like antennas to Heaven." You murmured.

You walked to the guardrail and stared out into the distance. Minos stood behind you, taking in the barren landscape of Violence.

"Tis but a sombre but familiar sight to you, I gather. Art thou ready to depart, or dost thou require more time?"

With a soft hum, you turned back to Minos. "Just...give me some time to pack. Then I'll be ready."

Months passed. You remained in Lust, no longer having to worry about your place of residence getting destroyed.

In the past, when you stayed on Benjamin, you were always exhausted after the day's work. You had to tend to and maintain Benjamin's infrastructure so your place of residence could remain neat and tidy and wouldn't collapse in on itself. Once the day had ended and your skewed-up body clock started screaming at you, you'd retreat to the control room to admire and appreciate what little was present in Violence. Sometimes you'd see an Earthmover. Sometimes you'd see two. Other times, you'd spot sinners crawling across the mostly desolate hellscape.

Often, you'd drift off right then and there on the control panel. You'd wake up with a sore back, but it was a nice way to end your day. Staring out at whatever was left to stare at.

When you didn't fall asleep on the console, you'd pick any one of the houses in the small town on Benjamin to crash at for the night. The beds weren't all that cushy, and the living space wasn't quite like home, but it worked.

In the Lust layer, however, your living conditions were a whole different story.

Gone were the days of breaking your back by sleeping on either a bad that felt like cardboard or hunched over in an uncomfortable position. Gone were the days when you'd worry about food and nourishment because your plants weren't growing as fast as you'd have liked.

Now, you could wake up to what felt less like a house and more like a home.

You had boarded the Ferryman's ship in Wrath before, and the only thing you disliked about your accommodations was the constant rocking of the vessel. Seasickness wasn't too much of a problem for you, and the Ferryman was more than happy to have you on his ship for as long as you wished, but you were sure that you'd go mad from the constant, repetitive lurching.

Now, you could wake up in a bed just as, if not more, comfortable than the one on the boat. You didn't have to worry about food or amenities anymore. You didn't have to worry about running out of supplies.

The only thing you truly worried about was whether or not Minos would wake you up by prodding you in the side as a joke.

When you first returned to the Lust layer, it was only in a slightly better state than when you had left it. The harsh winds nipped at your skin, and it was only thanks to the help of a cloak you scavenged from one of the destroyed buildings that you didn't freeze.

As the days ticked by, though, Minos rebuilt the layer with the help of Lust's inhabitants.

Prior to moving, you didn't know that Husks, with the exception of the Ferrymen, were capable of doing something other than tearing everything around them to meat ribbons. Nevertheless, it was a nice change of pace to work alongside them instead of running from and fighting them.

Sometimes you'd be tasked by Minos to transport materials to and fro. Other times, he'd ask you to tend to the crops and make sure they didn't wither and die out. Making small talk with the Strays and Soldiers of that layer was a calming pastime that became routine as you learnt more and more about each Husk's history before being sentenced to eternal damnation at the hands of the everlasting tempests throughout the Lust layer.

Regardless, buildings slowly rose to their former glory and then surpassed it. The world, as depicted in the decipherable books and scriptures you read in various houses, slowly sprouted from the ground, little by little, until Lust had blossomed and proliferated into a blissful paradise.

You were adamant about not invading Minos' space. He was a fallen king who was governing over a fallen kingdom, after all; he had enough on his plate as it was. Minos, on the other hand, didn't think so. On the contrary, he wanted you to stay with him in his place of residence.

Because of that, you ended up staying in a small villa somewhere in the city alongside him. Minos didn't want a grand castle or a mansion, for he was tired of always being above others and wished to fit in with the citizens more. He wanted something scaled down to feel more human for once. He still desired some semblance of luxury, though, hence the choice of lodging.

Presently, you had just awoken from your slumber, your eyes meeting the wall across you. Seeing the interior of a normal house was still quite foreign to you, for you had grown accustomed to being surrounded by the depressing, monochromatic industrial steel walls of the Earthmover's chassis.

The villa was surprisingly quiet. Minos was an amazing housemate, so he'd usually be shuffling around the house, tidying up the various rooms or cooking breakfast for both of you.

This time, there was no noise coming from the ground floor. The only sounds you could hear were the distant winds howling from outside.

You turned over with a groan, your muscles still sore and stiff from sleep.

You were immediately greeted by the familiar sight of Minos, the aperture where his face should be startling you out of your somnolent state.

You let out a shrill, alarmed shriek at the sight of him hovering so close by. At your yell, Minos jolted back.

"Dear me-! Pray, pardon me. I tend to forget how panicky a human soul can be."

You took deep breaths, your heart rate slowly returning to normal as you registered that the individual above you was not another Husk or whatever that wanted you dead, but your housemate and companion.

Regardless, you pulled yourself together the best you could and sat up to look the King of Lust in the face.

"Do...do you need anything from me today?"

With a sonorous chuckle, Minos shook his head. "Nay. It is a Sunday, after all. There is no work to be done. Although...if thou wouldst be so kind as to consent, I would like to take thee somewhere at a later hour today."

You nodded slowly, your breathing evening out as you did so. "Sure...sure, that would be nice."

"This is...wow."

You sat with Minos on the roof of one of the tallest skyscrapers within the Lust layer. It was fashioned into an indoor garden, the walls surrounding the garden made of reinforced glass. All sorts of vegetation blossomed in the rich soil around the two of you. You recognised some, like the lavender gently swaying in the artificial breeze and the sunflowers outstretched towards the skylights.

"I knew the view from here would be nice, but I didn't expect it to be this...dreamy. It's beautiful."

Minos turned to gaze at you. The purple light, melding with the deep lapis blue of the sky, irradiated his form. "Delightful, is it not? Everything was beneath me during my time as King. It is most enjoyable and much preferable to appreciate the world around me in this manner."

You sat forward, propping your elbows on your knees. Your chin rested on one palm as you gazed out at Lust, from the mauve skies outstretched towards Limbo, to the little sparks all the way down to the ground that periodically flicked to black as new lights flickered on.

You were so entranced by the view that Minos couldn't help but stare at you.

In the past, the only thing he could see at eye level was the skyline all the way out into the distance. Everything else was so small, so fragile, that even an accidental swat of his hand could cause buildings and homes to crumble in an instant.

Seeing things that once appeared minute to him at eye level was a new experience, but not one that was unpleasant. He could finally appreciate his creation, eye-to-brick or eye-to-leaf.

It was something he had fought to build. The conception of a utopia for which he had dared to stand against Heaven. The community of wronged Husks he had been struck down for. The ones he persisted for.

And after all those years, he was now sitting beside another human. One of the people he vowed to protect until the very end.

Meanwhile, you stared out into the sky. Your eyes were empty, your thoughts focused not on the sight before you but on your current situation.

When you first decided to leave your original post and descend further into Hell, you didn't expect it to treat you well. You went in with the bar set at the lowest rung possible, and Hell was still winning at this perverse game of limbo.

Traversing through Limbo and being disappointed with the fake holograms of water, alongside scavenging whatever you could from Lust's barren houses, was much easier than your trip through Gluttony. You almost considered settling in Lust as a place of residence upon seeing the entrance to Gluttony, and with it the surface of said layer, but the Husks that infested Lust made you reconsider your decisions and continue downwards.

You barely managed to survive Gluttony with what limited rations you had, occasionally cutting off chunks from the walls and cooking them over the lava pools in the layer to save your supplies. It was a wise choice; Greed had little to no resources for you to scavenge.

Your hunt for the next layer's entrance was long and often fruitless. There was nought but blazing gold dust for thousands and millions of miles, and all you could do was trudge through the layer and hope you didn't dehydrate to death.

By the time you reached Wrath, you were drained from the long, arduous trip. Upon seeing the River Styx, all your mind could think about was water.

Water.

Something you had craved for so long.

You were just about ready to disregard all the Husks thrashing about in the sea and jump into the Abyss, letting the cold water cool you down for just a moment.

As you gazed down towards the dark, unending void of the sea, you spotted the distant mirage of something moving in the distance.

The Ferryman's ship.

Luckily, he spotted you, and thus began your one-week stay on the vessel.

One of the first things the Ferryman did was lecture you on wanting to jump into the ocean. Wrath was barely explored by any of your colleagues, and you barely had data on it. The Ferryman gave you a brief run-down on the layer.

"So...I can't jump into the water? Not even for a brief moment?" You quipped.

The Ferryman's head snapped towards you in horror, the rattling of its bones echoing in your cabin. "No-! No. You are not to jump inside. It is already a fight for survival between sinners inside that flooded sea. You will drown."

You raised your eyebrows in shock. "Wait, all that debris in the ocean...those were sinners?"

"Correct. Sinners. Dead. Alive. All sorts of them. The weaker ones are perpetually submerged. The weakest drown."

It was only then that you realised that you had almost met your end.

You were finally able to restock on supplies and get some good rest. However, the constant swaying of the ship often kept you in bed for hours at a time while you groaned, your stomach churning from the movement. Eventually, you disembarked after careful consideration, deciding that it would be for your own good that you travelled to the next layer.

You may not be lucky, you knew, but you had to take a chance, so you wouldn't go insane from constant seasickness and tear your skin off. You figured that you'd lose your mind before you got used to it. The Ferryman dropped you off at the entrance to Heresy. You were nervous and afraid, knowing that you would never experience such hospitality anywhere else in Hell. However, you made up your mind and started your descent after the Ferryman informed you that you could use any of the blue skulls to travel around and, eventually, get back to his ship if you wished.

"Alternatively," he stated, "we have the equipment to detect distress signals. You need only find a Drone or a non-hostile Machine. Some should not hurt you, as they are programmed otherwise. They can do the rest."

Heresy was mostly uneventful. There were virtually no living beings wandering around, but the buildings and infrastructure did bring back some memories of the past. When you last saw the sun on the surface.

You continued your descent, and that was where you met Benjamin. In Violence.

You thought you would remain on its back, travelling and exploring the remains of what was once a small city. And once you had explored all there was to explore, you'd do it again, over and over again, while you lived in near-complete isolation for the rest of your days.

The past now seemed like a distant nightmare. Lust was one of the layers you wanted so desperately to escape from, to the point that you were willing to take your chances with later layers despite knowing that whatever you would have to go through would be even more barbarous than the last.

Anything to get away from bloodthirsty Husks.

Now, it was the only layer you truly wanted to stay in.

You gazed at Minos. The lighting of the layer made his form a little more radiant than usual. He wore a neatly pressed suit and tie, black as the night sky, with matching trousers to go along with it. Around his waist was a black leather belt, its buckle in the shape of a snake, its golden surface shimmering in the dim light.

You were snapped out of your thoughts at the sound of a quiet hiss. One of Minos' snakes had slithered onto your arm while you were reminiscing about the past. It looked at you expectantly with its crimson eyes.

You reached out and lightly caressed the snake. After all this time, you had learned the small mannerisms of each of Minos' serpent parasites. Sometimes they wanted pats, sometimes they wanted food, and other times they just wanted to stare at you and slither all over.

It was gradual, but you had taken the behaviours of his snakes to heart. Booping you with their noses meant they either wanted attention or food, and to test it out, you would pat them; staring at you meant they wanted affection...it was a long list, but you memorised it nonetheless.

Minos glanced down at you. The hole where his face should be shifted slightly as he observed your mannerisms around his snake.

"To think that thou wast morbidly terrified of them in the past...twas times long ago."

You continued idly patting the snake, the serpent closing its eyes in contentment. Its sibling peeked over Minos' crown, eventually slithering over to you, curling around your shoulders and settling on your head.

"Why?"

That was all you could muster out. You had so many questions left unanswered when you first left Violence, and many more as you stayed with the King.

"Just...why? Why take all the time and effort to travel...what, five layers? To retrieve a human you never met? I never understood...why?"

Minos remained silent, his glow illuminating the small space between the two of you.

"Why bother? Why put in so much effort to take care of one human when you have an entire city to rule over? Why-"

Minos shushed you, his finger pressing against your lips in a gentle, careful manner. His skin was slightly cool to the touch, and you had to admit that the feeling of his skin against yours was a pleasant one.

It had been so long since you were held like this.

It had been ages since you had felt the caring touch of another.

It had been so long since someone had shown you affection like Minos was showing you right then.

You wrapped your arms around him and wept into his shoulder. You wept for the life above you had lost. You wept for everything that you missed. You wept for the past. You wept for the present. You wept for the future. You wept for everything you knew and everything you didn't.

A weight settled onto your back, pulling you closer to the soul before you. Minos' arm snaked over your shoulders, his free hand coming to rest in your hair.

His fingers carded through the strands, returning to the top of your head to repeat the motion in slow, delicate movements when those strands slipped through his fingers at the ends.

Minos remained silent as you cried. Such sorrow was all but familiar to him, for he had also mourned as you had before.

He had lost his people and his creation. You had lost everyone close to you and your world.

As your sobbing reduced to silent sniffles and light trembling, Minos' hand left your hair to hold and caress the back of your neck.

The sudden warmth, a dichotomy from the air lightly blowing against your neck, made you relax.

Your trembling subsided into stillness.

"My dearest..."

The feeling of his hand moving from your neck to the back of your head, holding you so tenderly against his form, was what grounded you at that moment.

"...thou art worth every ounce of struggle. Thou art precious and cherished, beautifully crafted by the heavens to grace the lands of the world up above..."

You tensed up.

When Minos spoke of how precious humanity was, he'd speak of humanity as a whole, praising the makings of the fragile bodies he once possessed when he was alive.

This time, he was talking to you about you and you alone. Not mankind. Not the makings of people that once existed. You. Yourself.

"To deliver thee from Violence was a decision worth every jot of mine own time. Mine own light, I have ever beheld the fairness of mankind and deemed it the greatest of God's handiwork. And yet, thou art far more than another mortal unto me..."

His thumb brushed against the back of your head. It was a calming gesture. One you were used to upon collapsing into his arms once you returned home from your work of the day. A sign of comfort you once knew.

And you needed it.

"All this time spent with thee, and only now can I come to the realisation that, truly, I do care for thee. I adore thee, more than anything mine eyes have ever beheld in this wretched abyss. Far rather would I be smote down by Gabriel a thousandfold than see thee suffer even the least harm. I..."

Minos' voice failed him in that moment. He had never had to profess his love since a time he couldn't even remember. He loved you. He adored you. But he didn't know how to pour out all the love and adoration he had for you.

A city couldn't be immediately built from scratch. It needed a foundation. This he knew all too well.

If he couldn't grandly declare his love for you, just like those couples he observed in his layer, confessing to each other that conveyed all the love they had for the other, he'd start from scratch, too.

His hand left the back of your head to rest on yours.

"...I do love thee." Minos rasped out, before his voice failed him yet again.

You lifted your face from his shoulder, your gaze meeting his face-to-hole. The arm holding you in a warm embrace fell back as you lightly pulled away.

Minos never moved. He sat on the bench, still facing you, his gaze never leaving you. Perhaps. You'd never know.

You looked down at your connected hands.

The cuff of his suit was neatly pressed. He had really dressed so nicely for this occasion.

Love wasn't on the agenda when you descended into Hell.

You never expected to meet someone humane on your journey. Someone who cared.

But you had. And your journey could finally come to an end as you settled in Lust.

You thought about the past. From when Minos found you in Violence, to when he took you back to Lust. When Minos wrapped his arms around you to shield you from the harsh winds, especially when they got too cold for you to handle. When you'd come back from your daily jobs, tired and drained, only to be met with Minos' open arms, which you gladly collapsed into. When you'd chuckle during dinner at the way he would eat a chicken leg by shoving the entire thing into his face hole and pulling the bone clean out.

It was those small moments with him that made you realise that you loved him too.

And, on hindsight, maybe you had already started to fall for him long ago, when he caressed you and murmured soft nothings to you about mankind's beauty all the way back in Violence.

Love was not on the agenda.

It wasn't supposed to be.

But, you figured, that could change. After all, a researcher's hypothesis never always matches one's final result.

"...I love you too, Minos."

His tense shoulders relaxed at your words. Your lips subconsciously curled upwards as he melted.

Gently, tenderly, he held your hands in his larger ones.

He brought your palms to the void of his face and lightly pressed the side of his face against them, just near the edge of the hole.

He pulled away. Neither of you spoke.

But words were not needed to convey the love you shared for one another.

One had not loved another for too long.

Another never intended to.

At the end of the day, the two of you still loved each other.

You turned back towards Lust's skyline. Minos followed your gaze.

You stared outwards, enraptured by the breathtaking scenery you had grown so used to, but were still amazed and enthralled by the sight.

Minos' arm snaked around your waist, pulling you just a little closer. You didn't object.

His twin serpents coiled around your shoulders and arms.

For a moment more, there was silence as you watched the sky with your lover.

You'd have to worry about your duties the next day, and you wouldn't be able to spend as much time as you would have liked with your lover.

But that would be an issue for tomorrow.

"I love you, Minos."

"I love thee too."

⋯⇋ ૮(•͈⌔•͈)ა ⇌⋯