❛   something smells .    ❜

casual is the voice that carries through the streets in which he carries himself , idly walking to breathe air fresh from the smell of wine & wood . the tavern is opening soon , so he sets on to relax before the start of his next shift . 

there’s a soft panting he hears , & he turns around to meet eyes with a rather large dog staring back at him , the owner out of eye’s view .

                                                        ❛   oh , it’s you .    ❜

                       ❛   i love akamaru , but i’d say i’m more of a cat person !   ❜      

❝    oh my god,   henry !    stop eating all the baked cupcakes.   they’re for valentine’s day !   ❞ 

but he is unlike his brother ,    ares    -    who could command battles to victories with a speech.    or his sister ,   hebe ,   who could light up a room with just a single story.   hephaestus is all soot and grimes on his fingers,   he is the dirty apron hang on the wall,   the forges he has,   all across the world,   whenever he needs a breather from the confining atmosphere of olympus.

he is not   —     a comforter,   even though deep inside he wishes he is.

and henry   ...     hephaestus imagines,   a little naively,   how it is like if he could be a father.   he is awkward and large,  so clumsy with everything else if it is not tools and smithing,   but to have a family   ...    to have someone to cherish,   and to put into them the things he was denied growing up    ...    he could not imagine forsaking someone,   his own child to add.

but what is hephaestus without his own tragedy staring right back  ?    how could hera have done it,   he wonders a million times.   how could she have put down the babe she creates,   and leaves ?     hephaestus does not know.     but he does know that   pain echoes,   even after millennia.   ❝    the smile    ...    there is  -    no need   ...   ❞      a grunt.   

come on,   you foolish god.   speak !

❝    i will not forsake you.   if   ...    you shall have me.   ❞

     the canine’s presence is noticed far sooner than sasuke’s attention is drawn, but not for any reason short of simply being preoccupied with the book in his hand – that is, until he’s approached. lowering the reading material to his lap, he looks up at akamaru and blinks, dumbfounded.

     ❝   huh—… ?  ❞

       hesitantly does he offer his hand, palm up and unassuming. his shoulders relax against the back of the tree trunk he’s sat up against and he spares a glance to their surroundings, suspicion peaked. it’s not like akamaru to be without kiba, so… he can only assume the fellow shinobi is nearby. judging by his focus on his dog, though, he isn’t pressed enough to find out – and instead of calling out for his peer, he waits for some kind of body language from akamaru to signal the go ahead on petting. if he’s granted it, he’ll stroke behind the dog’s ears while beginning reading again with his other hand. if kiba wants to make himself known – sasuke’s sure he will. otherwise, he’s complacent in the company of his animal companion.