Adventurerers! Planning [Closed to lilgiastar and The Dark L

Adriel was absolutely an ambush predator, and when Art froze up in his arms after he had ambushed with the information about the Playwitch centerfold, he took the opportunity to test Art's response by licking his neck. He felt how Art felt a bolt of pleasure even as he jumped and hissed like a startled cat, so he pulled Art's back up against his chest despite the struggles to go properly for his neck like his instincts demanded. "Adriel I uhm... You love me?" His witch was asking a stupid question that didn't need an answer so he just reached around to the buttons on Art's vest and started popping them off since he still wasn't very good at unbuttoning things without extra care, and he didn't have the patience to care about the stupid buttons on a stupid vest. 

"I.. Fine but..." Art started to say, only he tugged off the vest while he nipped Art's neck. "Eh? Adriel?" Art started to try to step away from him, but he snagged up the back of Art's shirt to pull Art back against him, then there was a tearing sound of buttons and seams as he ripped the shirt down to bare Art's delicate shoulder so he could bite into the meaty part to keep his mate still while he finished tearing off the rest of the shirt. "EEK!"

Art was terrified at the rough handling, but Adriel could also feel how turned on his own desperation was making Art. He went still so that Adriel didn't have to bite down too hard, and with the shirt gone, Adriel went for the button at the top of Art's pants with one hand while the other went to play with Art's nipple. "No, Adriel wait-" Art tried to protest, but he yelped again when the top button was ripped off and his pants and useless underwear was pulled halfway down his thigh, then really screamed when Adriel pushed him down over the arm of the couch while removing his careful bite hold on Art's shoulder. "Give me a minute, let's talk!"

Art had not wanted to talk about sex at all before, so Adriel saw no reason why he would now. He used his left leg to pin Art's pants up against the couch to minimize Art's flailing legs while his right hand pinned Art's upper body down on the couch, and he used his left hand to pull Art's left butt cheek away to reveal the hole there that the playwitch people said was what men used to penetrate each other. He felt a real spike of fear shoot through Art then though, so rather than lick it like he was originally going to, he started from the tailbone and slowly ran his tongue up Art's back. Art shivered and wiggled under him as Art felt very good from what Adriel was doing, but he earnestly started trying to escape as well.

"No, please Adriel!" Art whined as he tried to get his arms under him for leverage, but his poor little mate was new to feeling this type of pleasure to actually have any strength to get out of his current pin. "No, the couch will get dirty! Your favorite couch!"

It was a velvet couch that Adriel absolutely fell in love with when he saw it and had to immediately bring it home. It was so soft and plush that it was easy to sink into the pillows and cushions to take a nice nap while Art read his books on the shorter end of it. It was soft enough for Art to not get hurt while he manhandled him on it, too, and Art knew spells to clean so it wouldn't stay dirty for too long. He sank his teeth into a certain spot on Art's other shoulder, and Art shuddered and moaned and went still under him. It was nice that the submission spot on many other animals worked on humans, too. It was a spot that took the fight out of a fighting mate and made them unable to control their body from several seconds up to a minute that usually felt very good, but it only worked if there was enough adrenaline or fight because of the hypersensitivity and pressure point. It was actually something Adriel had read up on when he was trying to figure out his own biology as a hydra and compare it to lizard and snake habits just in case he ever did find someone to mate.

Adriel's poor witch was very confused about why his own body had done that and why he had just accidentally drooled on the couch. Adriel used the brief moment he had granted himself to pull and tear his own shirt off, and tossed on the ground by Art's own discarded clothes then quickly kicked off his shoes. Silk was a lot easier to tear, so he had time for both before his hands were on Art's waist, and then he removed his teeth to flip Art around onto his back on the couch itself. He latched his mouth on Art's nipples, and Art yelped and grabbed his horns and tried to tug him off.

"No, BAD ADRIEL!" Art shouted as he tried to pull his mouth away even as his back arched up with the suction. "Nnnggh, no, Adriel stop! NO ICE CREAM!"

Adriel's leg moved between Art's partially bound ones to pin his pants to the couch so his legs were pinned as well while he ignored the ice cream ban - he was after a very different kind of cream thank you very much. "Adriel!" Art whined, then burst into laughter and tried to wiggle away because licked and sucking down the side along the ribs was extremely ticklish for the witch. Adriel had to pin Art's shoulders down to the couch as he made his way to Art's very hard and leaking penis, but he paused when Art grabbed a pillow to hit the top of his head only to end up getting stuffing everywhere because it ripped on his horns. "Uh... Oops?"

Adriel snorted at Art's sheepish expression as Art held the mangled pillow, then lowered his head to run his tongue from Art's base to the tip, then eagerly lapped up the leaking liquid there. "No, don't, that's dirty!" Art said as he used the rip pillow like a shield to try to push Adriel's head away, but he ignored it to suck Art's head into his mouth, and Art moaned and bucked his hips up. "No, no bad Adriel oh my god what are you doooing?!"

'Gently suck while rubbing your tongue on the penis, then continue to do that as you bob your head up and down,' is what Adriel had been told to do for this part. Yes, he had seen many animals mating in the wild, but this was not something that animals did unless they were cleaning themselves with their tongue so he followed that set of instructions while taking his cue from Art's feelings as to what was good and what wasn't. No teeth - not even brushing it against the skin - but definitely the tongue stuff. Art was so insensate with pleasure after a minute that he was moaning and pushing the pillow down, and bucking up into Adriel's mouth to get more of his dick in.

'Some men need to come once before really getting into the fun things to take the edge off, but others can only do it once before they get tired and fall asleep,' was another thing he was told. There was apparently no way to tell what a person was beforehand, either - he was told it would just be a lot of experimentation and practice to understand the other's body. Adriel had done a lot of exploration of his own while Art was at work - it was actually a fun way to pass the day and sometimes he would lose track of time until Art was about to come home. Art had almost caught him a couple times, actually, but he had his hydra form to hide in on those occasions when Art would walk into the house. It still felt weird to only have one penis as a human, but he didn't think Art's small hole could take two in them if his human body had two.

"What?!" Art screeched, then started twisting to try to get out of Art's mouth. "No, you don't have... I don't remember seeing two!" Adriel pinned Art down harder and let Art's penis pop out of his mouth so he could lick it. He said he didn't have two penis as a human! "Oh my god you think such weird things! Off! We need to talk first!"

Adriel disagreed, and he sucked Art's balls into his mouth while Art tossed the useless and deflated pillow to the side to grab his horns to try to pull him off. Adriel moved his hands from Art's shoulders to his nipples while Art tugged, and it wasn't long before his mate was arguing his verbal no's while he squirmed his physical yesses into the touches and Adriel's mouth. The bent position was very uncomfortable though, so Adriel dropped to his knees on the carpeted floor, pulled his head back and tossed it to shake off Art's hands, then grabbed the back of Art's thighs and pulled them up so his weight was on his upper back.

His mate was crafty, though. "Adriel - what are you - no!" he yelped, and clamped his legs together while he twisted so he landed on his stomach. Adriel had to scramble to flatten Art down on the couch with his own body, but that put them in a proper mating position that they had called 'doggy style.' "No, please I promise I will talk about it!" Art wailed as he thrashed, and but Adriel put his hand down in between Art's shoulderblades to keep him down so he could use his right hand to start removing Art's shoe. "Over ice cream! We can have ice cream while we talk about it!" Art still couldn't even say the word. "Sex! I can say it we can talk about it okay?!"

Adriel knew his little witch very well and was sure Art would just try to go back to avoiding or only acknowledge the bare minimum. They both loved each other, were witch and familiar, and they both wanted sex, so there was nothing more to talk about. Art very much hated - ah, there went one shoe, he swapped hands to get the other - yes, Art hated when Adriel got too close to other females or let them touch him, or even other males, and he still remembered Art's anguish when he thought Sarah might get his attention. Boring and Stupid Sarah. As if he would find something like that to be mate material.

"I just - those were -" Art tried to babble, and Adriel shifted so he could pull Art's pants off while he kept Art pinned down with a hand. "I'm not ready!" The pants were tossed to the side, and he used that free hand to pull Art's buttcheeks apart so he could lick the hole. "Noooo, Adriel, bad that is dirty YOU WILL GET WORMS!"

Adriel was not stupid and he could feel the lie in that and how good it felt for Art if he would stop being so uncomfortable about it! He released Art's buttcheek while he pressed the tip of his tongue against Art's opening, and then his hand went around Art's waist to start stroking his penis. "I'm just -nnnggg- no, it dooooeeesn't," Art moaned out, flailing his hands to fling more pillows, but his aim was horrible and he froze up when Adriel started to press his tongue in. "Oh my god oh my god what are you doooing?"

Art was rather fond of that last question - it was a stupid one since it was very obvious what Adriel was doing. If Adriel tried to have Art mount him, Art would just flee, but Art was very much not the dominant one in their relationship so that was a moot point anyway. "Wait, what?!" Art yelped, but Adriel was firmly holding him down as he 'tongue fucked' him, and he felt embarrassment flood through Art as he used that term in his head. "Nnnn, Adriel pleeaase!"

Adriel released Art's penis since Art was starting to get light headed from the feelings of mortification, pleasure, discomfort, and confusion, and he reached into his pocket to pull out the lubrication he was told he had to use, and use a lot of. Yes, the couch and the carpet was going to get very very messy tonight, and Art probably would not be walking around very well tomorrow, but he was told if he was very careful and did it right, Art would find a lot of pleasure with this, too. Patient. And Adriel was very patient even if it didn't seem so to Art.

Oil spilled on his hand, his pants, and the carpet as he fumbled it open while he continued to use his tongue to open Art up, and he pulled his head back to pour more oil down Art's crack from the top until it was dripping off his balls. "What is that, what are you doing?!" Art babbled as panic started to flood him, but Adriel sent him feelings of reassurances as he started to rub his finger outside of the hole. "I don't know I don't think-"

"My witch," Adriel rumbled, and he felt Art immediately relax at the possessive endearment like he usually did. "Relax, I won't hurt you. I would never hurt my witch, I love you." Art groaned, then buried his face in his arm in surrender, and Adriel very carefully slipped one of his slicked up fingers inside. "There is supposed to be a spot in here that feels good," he reassured when Art tensed up, forcing him to keep his finger still since he didn't want to hurt him. "This is also a very good position for our first time. I want to make sure it feels very good for you, so I won't enter until I know it won't hurt. My finger didn't hurt, right? Don't be afraid, Art."

"I'm just... This is sooo embarrassing," Art whined, his voice muffled by his arm and the couch. "You love me?" Of course Adriel did, Art has known this for a while. "You know... It is for life? Not just... For the moment like it is for the Playwitch people you keep thinking about?"

"I'm not stupid," Adriel said with a pout, then he started to wiggle his finger up and down a little. "You are also my witch for life. Just like we cannot hide our love, you cannot hide your lust, either. I did not know then, but I know you felt it from the moment you woke up with me on top of you and it is why you ran to the bathroom! Let me take care of this like I take care of everything else that is scary for you, and if it hurts you, we can stop and try again later."

Art took a deep breathe, then a second one, then he nodded. "Okay," he said in a small voice, then nervously shuffled his knees just a tiny bit apart on the floor while he folded his arms under his head to hide his face better. Adriel stopped pinning Art down with his left hand and rubbed his back reassuringly as he lowered his head to kiss his butt, and he started to slowly pump his finger in and out and went deeper by only a fraction of an inch at a time. 

His witch was uncomfortable, but not in pain. He also wasn't fighting anymore which meant Adriel could move his kissing back up to his spine and slip his left hand down to Art's no longer hard penis to begin fondling it. His witch was so silly to scare himself so bad that he was no longer hard, but licking and then blowing the wet spot on his spine as he was fondled and penetrated got his witch feeling pleasure once more, and Adriel was rather pleased that he seemed to be doing so well at making Art happy. Being the dominant one in their relationship didn't mean controlling Art, it meant he got to take care of Art, and now that included his sexual pleasure, too.

Art seemed to like that last thought since he quietly groaned and finally started to push back into his finger. It was all the way in by this point, and they were both curious what and where this g-spot Adriel was told about was. Adriel twisted his hand around to search for it, but he couldn't find it, and he could feel Art starting to feel frustrated as well, so he thought maybe there wasn't enough fingers yet and pulled it out. Art made a sound of disappointment, but at Adriel's silent prompt, he spread his knees farther apart while Adriel poured a bit more oil on the crack, and then he let go of Art's penis to spread the cheeks apart with that hand while he set down the bottle so he could watch while he pressed both fingers up against the hole.

"Relax," he rumbled to Art since his silly witch tensed up again. "It is only two - your poop is bigger than that." Art flushed with embarrassment, but if Art could talk about his sandboxes and such, then there should be nothing embarrassing about Adriel's mentions of Art defecating as well. Very silly witch. Art whined in protest as he relaxed, and Adriel cut off the whine when he gently pushed his fingers in. He froze when Art felt a pinch of pain from it, but Art made a noise of frustration and wiggled his butt a little to ease the feeling, and Adriel moved his left hand to go back to fondling Art - who was still hard - and more carefully than the first time started to pump his fingers.

Slow and careful really did seem to be the right way since his fingers were only at the halfway point when Art moaned because Adriel's fingers touched a spot that caused a lot of pleasure. Adriel grinned and started to rub it some more, and Art completely abandoned his inhibitions since he pushed out his ass for more while he continued to moan. When Adriel moved from fondling to stroking with the hand on Art's dick, Art's moans started to get louder like they had done earlier, and when Adriel started to push in a third finger, the pinch/pain translated to more pleasure for Art and had him spilling his seed out all over the side of the couch as he arched his back with the loudest moan yet.

Watching and feeling Art cum with his fingers in his witch's ass and his hand around Art's penis nearly had Adriel coming in his own pants, and he panted as he kept rubbing that spot until Art started to squirm. There was apparently such a thing as too much pleasure, and Adriel filed it away in his mind as he pushed his three fingers in a little bit past that spot and kept them buried in there. "I'm stopping," he reassured out loud as he moved the hand around Art's cock to his lower back to rub it and soothe his witch. Art liked it more when Adriel actually spoke to him than thought to him. "Just tell me when it isn't so sensitive and we will see if you can do more than one a night. They said the first is always quickest even for the experienced, and for a first time a person only lasts a few minutes at most. They also said many can continue after a five or ten minute break though, so I am just keeping my fingers inside while we wait."

Ah, and now his witch was feeling embarrassed again, but he still peeked back at Adriel with his face all red. Adriel smiled at the expression as he took his left hand back to unbutton and open up his own pants for his cock to spring out, then he started to stroke himself as he got up on his knees. Art's eyes widened, and Adriel was perfectly content to stay in the position so Art could watch rather than do what he was originally going to do, but Art buried his face in his arms with a mortified squeak so Adriel continued to move forward to lick and nibble on Art's upper back and shoulders until he came on the back of Art's legs and the couch a minute later. 

"Whyyy?" Art whined with even more embarrassment as Adriel nuzzled and licked the back of his neck. Adriel didn't want to work Art open just to come a minute later - he was already very close just from watching Art so he wasn't even sure if he would have gotten all the way inside before spilling. However, he knew he could go a few times from his own experiments while Art was working, and he didn't get soft until around the third time. And he could go one more after that, but not much would come out then, not like the first two times anyway. 

Art made a whimpering sound as he started to feel afraid again, but Adriel stayed on top of him and comforted him with his warmth, silent reassurances that he was still being careful, and he would never hurt his witch. He started moving his fingers in deeper as well, and when Art felt uncomfortable but didn't feel pain from it, he release his own penis to reach around so he could begin touching Art's once more.

It was slower this time to get his little witch all eager again - he kept squirming with discomfort because he felt sticky and gross and slimy - but Adriel was very persistent and kept sucking and nibbling his neck while he fondled Art's penis until his mate was hard enough to start to stroke once more. This time he kept the stroking pleasant but not pleasurable, more of a tease really, and it forced Art to seek more pleasure from his fingers until Adriel was able to start spreading them apart to make sure Art was nice and open and ready for him.

"Yes, I'm ready," Art gasped, still feeling embarrassed but also desperate for more. Adriel licked his own lips out of eagerness as he fumblingly reached for the bottle after he pulled his hand out of Art's butt, and then he spread the oil evenly once it was poured on his penis with a few strokes before he lined himself up against the hole that was still slightly open and tried to push in.

They were both inexperienced, however. Adriel was confused about how tight it was and was feeling nervous about pushing in, and Art very much wanted him inside so it was him sending silent reassurances as he pushed back. Adriel released Art's member so he could hold Art's hip to push in better, and Art pushed back just as hard. They misjudged the whole thing, so Adriel ended up halfway in with the first push, and he froze because Art shouted with pain even while he himself felt a lot of pleasure. That mix got tangled up in their bond, and Adriel growled before he pushed again to sheathe himself completely making Art scream and try to wiggle away. Adriel ended up pinning him under his own weight to keep him still, but Art's wiggling kept causing him more pleasure which meant he was very much not willing to leave the tight heat wrapped around him since he finally had his mate below him. He also didn't want to cause him more pain, though, so he was keeping still while he kept Art impaled on his dick until Art finally tired himself out and went still.

They both panted to catch their breaths, then Adriel started to lick and nibble on his neck while he sent apologetic feelings. They were supposed to go slow for that, but the both of them had been too eager. However, he would not be moving until Art had adjusted to this new size... Four fingers next time. 

"Next time?!" Art said, sounding very huffy. Possibly angry. "Damned right I am angry, you stupid lizard! That HURT!" Adriel had not meant to, and Art was also pushing back! "And then YOU PUSHED IN ALL THE WAY!" 

"I'm sorry," Adriel grumbled, but he slithered his hand down to Art's penis and started to touch and fondle it in the ways that Art seemed to like so far. "It was very confusing - I wanted to mate and then my mate was trying to escape so I made sure to secure our mating because you are my witch!" That was the best way to explain it, and he emphasized that Art was his and he was not willing to lose him. Ever. It was not unusual to have to fight over mates or fight for the mates themselves in the wild, and the pain/pleasure confusion had triggered his instincts to make sure his mate was his. "The bond trying to force me away because of the pain made me feel like something else was stealing my mate and I wanted you more."

Art sighed even as he scowled at the couch since he could not turn his head to scowl at Adriel because he was on him. Adriel understood the scowl was for him, though. But he could also feel Art feeling conflicted and softer towards him with his honest explanation, so he nuzzled the back of Art's neck as he continued to fondle him. "I love you," he said since he knew Art very much liked hearing that out loud, and Art relaxed with a grumbling sound of discontent but no longer felt all angry. "I will make sure the rest feels good also."

Art sighed with a frown, but he nodded. Adriel could tell Art would prefer more if he got out and got off, but he was willing to try so Adriel kept kissing his shoulders and then his arms until he felt Art finally start to go hard again his his hand after a few minutes of that and the fondling. He lifted himself up then so he could use his free hand to massage Art's lower back which was where most of the pain earlier had shot up to, and when Art hardened all the way, he grabbed the now half empty bottle and poured more in the spot where their bodies were joined and slowly pulled out to make sure the oil got down his length before he pushed in right before he would have slipped out.

This time Adriel was very careful about not pushing in all the way - he moved in and out and only went deeper in small increments. It felt very very good so it wasn't long before he started to breathe heavily, but he was very firm about being careful and patient this time as he continued to put a few drops of oil on to make sure the inside was slick while he stroked Art's penis to make sure it felt nice for him. Finally, he figured out the angle he needed to hit that spot inside of Art properly, and Art grunted with surprise since he had been feeling borderline pain from so much stretching until then.

Adriel set the bottle down then, and he released Art's member to grab his hip to really target the spot. It took several attempts to find it and hit it accurately once more, but when he did, Art really started to moan and then started to carefully push back until they had a rhythm and spot that pleased them both. Adriel's free hand moved to Art's butt then so he could start squeeze it as it flexed, and that seemed to encourage Art since they picked up their pace then.

"I can't - Adriel," Art gasped out, and Adriel let go of his hip to reach around and stroke him like he wanted, then Adriel started to push in even deeper to chase his own pleasure while he pleasured Art. The only sounds in the room were their panting and moaning along with wet squelches and the slap of flesh on flesh, and then Adriel shoved in as deep as he could to cum inside of Art, and Art cried out with his own pleasure a split second later. They both saw white from how good it felt to not just cum, but also share each other's pleasure at the same time, and then Adriel collapsed on Art's back when it was over, and Art grunted at the sudden weight on him.

"This is so gross and messy," was Art's first words once they caught their breaths a few minutes later as he realized just how much oil and cum was everywhere. Adriel ignored it and started licking the back of his neck. "We need a bath."

"After," Adriel agreed while he silently reminded Art of what he had said earlier by moving his hips to show Art he was still hard. "Again."

"Nnnngh, I can't, Adriel," Art disagreed as he wiggled. "I'm sore! And gross!"

Adriel was not taking that as an answer. He wanted to make sure his witch knew he was well and truly claimed. He started moving again, but this time it was slow and lazy, more to prove a point rather than to give himself any pleasure. With his cum already inside of Art and all of the oil on them, Art was far too slick to feel actual pain even if he was uncomfortable, so Adriel ignored the renewed struggling. He kept up his slow movements and enjoyed Art's slickness until Art exhausted himself after less than a minute, and with Art now unable to fight at all, Adriel pulled out, flipped him around, pushed himself back into Art, picked up and pressed Art against his chest so he could sit down with Art impaled in his lap.

"Ow, Adriel!" Art protested as he weakly tried to get up, but Adriel just grabbed Art's hands, gathered up his wrists into one hand, and held him like that as he wiggled around until his own back was against the couch so he could lean into his for support. Art was not hurting, just sore and uncomfortable and tired. "No, it hurts!"

"If it hurt, then I could not do this," Adriel logically said as he released Art's wrists, guided Art's hands to his shoulders, then smiled up at him. "Keep them here, but..." Adriel unhappily frowned since he realized he forgot a part to this. "We are supposed to be kissing. I wanted to try the kissing with the tongue."

Art blushed and tried to get up, but Adriel reached out to grab Art's hips and held him in that partially raised position a couple inches above his lap. Art looked a little confused, but he pushed his hips up, and Art gasped then tried to sit down except that Adriel wouldn't allow that, either. Art lifted one of his hands to grab Adriel's horn to try to shove his head back, and Adriel allowed it so he could move a fraction of an inch lower to wiggle himself down a bit more, and Art tried to squirm away without any results when he realized what Adriel planned to do. "No, wait, kisses!" he agreed, then lowered his head to plant his lips on Adriel's lips. Adriel immediately poked his tongue out to run on Art's lips, but Art kept them firmly closed so he pushed his hips up and hit Art's pleasure spot dead on with his new position.

Art pulled his head back to Adriel's disappointment while Art's grip on his horn and shoulder tightened. "No, bad lizard!" Art tried to reprimand, but Adriel continued to flex his hips up while he held Art's to keep him from moving his lower body. "Nooo, I can't, Adriel!" Art really started trying to pull his horn, but Adriel kept his eyes on Art's face since the tugging wasn't very strong at all. He would be willing to slow down if Art kissed him, but he was not stopping. "Nnnn, gods why do I love you so much?!"

And then finally Art gave in to Adriel's demands of kissing and trying it with tongue. He could tell that Art was initially grossed out by the exchange of saliva, but since he had slowed down yet had not stopped, Art got to the point where things were starting to feel good enough that he didn't care that there was drool involved. He started becoming even more mindful of his pace since he did want Art to feel good enough to forget that he was sore, and that meant he had to hold his own hips up in a way to just barely move his head back and forth over Art's erogenous zone until he was moaning into the kiss while stroking Adriel's horn and running his hands on his chest just like he had known Art had wanted to do many times since he had started turning into a human. His witch was a pervert who seemed perfectly happy about making himself unhappy because he thought he should feel bad about these things when it was perfectly fine to feel good and sex was normal.

"Am no'!" Art half heartedly mumbled into their kiss, protesting that he did not deliberately make himself unhappy! Or a pervert. He just thought Adriel didn't want him or might leave or that it was wrong because Adriel was so innocent about these things! Adriel was very much not innocent about these things, innocence was just another silly complication from his witch, however if his witch wanted to cum, he was going to have to use his own hands or just cum on his cock because Adriel was holding him up and couldn't do it himself. Art whined, but he didn't let go of his horn or move the hand on Adriel's chest down because he was too embarrassed at the idea of touching himself, so Adriel kicked out at the coffee table to make more room which accidentally toppled it over and shattered the plate the scented candle he had brought home last week was on. Oops, oh well. Their positions was flipped  around so Art was on the rug. Holding Art up was far too tiring even for him, but the broken plate was on the other side of the table so the new position worked fine.

"Nooo!" Art protested since Adriel's dick had slipped out during that process, but Adriel was over him and trying to line himself properly to penetrate Art again. Art immediately wrapped his legs around Adriel's waist to make it easier, and he slid right in with a couple of thrusts and could start licking and sucking on Art's nipple while he aimed at the spot that brought Art a lot of pleasure. "Oh gods, Adriel!" Adriel wanted Art to do this to his nipples next time. "Okay, I promise just don't stop!" It was too bad that his human form didn't have more heads or flexible necks or he would be able to suck on Art's dick, too. "Nnnng, you are the pervert!" Adriel very much was, yes, and he had plans to get some toys later that he could put inside of Art so it could feel like he had eggs inside of him. "Whyyy?!" Because he really wished he could make Art pregnant over and over again, fertilize him and then feed and protect him while he was pregnant with their babies. "Yes yes yesss," Art chanted as he dug his heels into Adriel's lower back to push him in even deeper. It seemed like Art was very much on board with Adriel's imagination, so he kissed his way up to suck on and mark up Art's throat as he made his thrusts long and deep. Everyone at Art's job would know he was properly mated, and he would be very upset if Art healed them or were embarrassed about them.

This time when Art came, it was only on Adriel's dick since he had wrapped his arms behind Art's shoulders to hold them well enough to keep Art from sliding up as their lovemaking turned rough. Art in turn clawed up Adriel's back as he met every thrust with a cry of pleasure. Art's prostate had gotten so sensitive that all Adriel needed to do what brush up against it rather than directly hit it, and each movement did that so his little mate did not realize he was getting rug burns or bruises, but after he came and Adriel filled him up again, all of that hit him at once and he gave a weak groan.

"I think I hate you so much right now, Adriel," Art whimpered as he stayed sprawled out on the floor while Adriel licked his dick and stomach clean of his last orgasm. "My everything hurts. Even my eyelashes. No ice cream. You are grounded from ice cream. I can't go into work tomorrow! Why didn't you wait until at least Friday so I had the weekend to recover?! It's Monday and I only have enough vacation hours for half a day! I will have to owl in sick!"

Adriel rocked back on his heels and gave Art a very smug smile as he lifted up one of Art's legs to look at the gaping red hole that was oozing cum an oil out on the carpet. "You wanted to talk tonight," he reminded Art, then he used a finger to push some of the cum back in before he moved to pick Art up and ignored the feeble hands trying to bat him away. "No, no more sex," he agreed since that was why Art was fighting him now. "Bath time for you. I can have baths again with you, yes? You said no more baths together since I can turn human now, but we are properly together!"

Art groaned as he was lifted and went limp in a reversal of roles from once upon a time. "Yes, we can take baths together again," he sulkily grumbled. "No more sex until weekends."

"Awe, my witch is so grumpy and cute," Adriel hummed with a smile, deliberately yet honestly echoing what Art had told him when he had unhappily gone limp in Art's hands for the first few days after Art had found him in the fountain because he had fought off a cat. "We will not have sex until you recover, but I refuse for only weekends. I won't leave you this tired on workdays, though. You are not allowed to heal your marks either - everyone will know you are my mate - but you can heal what hurts. I will have Leo contact the toy companies that make eggs, and we can test them so I can give proper reviews and gain sponsors in that area so we can have even more toys!"

That got his witch finally stirring back to life, though it seems like he was going to be complicated over this, too, since he was rather angry. "No, bad lizard!" Art tried to yell, but he was so tired that it came out as a whine. "You can't do that, I don't want everyone to know! Private - humans don't talk about nudity or sex!"

"Playwitch is very open with it," he disagreed as they entered the bathroom where he had to shift Art's weight just a bit to turn on the water. "I am also a Hydra, not a lizard! If you want, I can keep your name out of it."

"That won't work, not if you want everyone to know who marked me!" Art desperately argued, and Adriel paused with a frown since Art was actually right about that. "See? So no reviews or sponsors!" The sponsorships from sex toy makers would mean a lot of free sex toys - the best sex toys just like he got the best clothes... "We can buy them, just please? Pleeaaaaase?" Oh fine, since his witch was asking so nice, but he wants ice cream. "Yes, we can have ice cream too, I unban you from ice cream!"

Art was a young Bagon, He was only level five, only a few weeks old from hatching from his egg. He really wasn't sure what he was going to grow up to be, most Pokemon weren't raised by their parents. Their mother just had their eggs and left. And Art didn't even have any brother or sister eggs. He was all alone. At least he was in a nice area. There was plenty of tall grass where he could roam, and battle other pokemon to try to get stronger. Of course that came with the risk of fainting, but he wouldbe fine after a few hours of rest. He wanted to level up, grow strong. And there were plenty of trees full of delicious fruits! He loved oran berries! Mm he wondered if there would ever be a trainer who would want him. He saw them occasionally, roaming the tall grass in search of pokemon. He watched as they got attacked by other pokemon and then battled with their own pokemon. He was a bit too weak to chance that. But he had seen them catch other pokemon in those magical balls. Had seen the way the trainers would give their pokemon special potions to make them feel better, or give them berries as a treat for doing well in battle and saw how much they cared for each other. He wanted that.

He was just roaming, looking for berries, looking for pokemon to battle, looking for a trainer perhaps... he went towards the lake, surrounded by some mud where some carnivine liked to hang out since the water attracted many pokemon to come drink and their Sweet Scent also attracted many bug pokemon. The place was always full of caterpie and spinarks and such. So he kept a sharp eye out, he was sure a carnivine wouldn't mind a nice yummy Bagon! However as he bent down to drink he heard an odd noise. It was not a pokemon noise. No, all pokemon could only say their pokemon name. Art was only able to say 'Bagon' a carnivine was only about to say 'carnvine' and sometimes some grunts or roars and such. But this sounded very different. Human... crying noises? Like when a trainers pokemon fainted in battle? But... full of anguish.

Art followed the soft sound to find a carnivine with... a human in his mouth!! Art was shocked. Art never saw a carnivine eat anything bigger then a flygon! The human did not look like a trainer in a white coat, but he was all curled up and whimpering and crying. Art had to do SOMETHING he couldn't just let the carnivine eat the human! What could he do? Maybe he could battle the carnivine but that could hurt the human. But maybe.. he knew both quick attack and head butt. Perhaps if he tried to use both at the same time and aimed for the carnivines stomach it would spit the human out? It was worth a try, or else the human would be eaten! And.... the human obviously didn't have a pokemon companion or team... perhaps...

This could be his chance to get a trainer?

Art took a deep breath and got as close as he could without alerting the carnivine to his prescense and used Quick Attack and Head Butt at the same time and charged and OOF head butted the carnivine right in the stomach at a full charge. The carnivine let out a roar, opening its massive mouth all th way and spitting out the human who rolled a foot or two away. However the carnivine as now looking right at him, and was ANGRY for taking his food! Art.... had not thought this through. The carnivine whipped at him with his leaves but Art moved out of the way and then charged again, attacking him fast. He hit the carnivine straight in the stomach again getting another roar from it. The carnivine did Acid Attack, spraying everywhere with acid and Art moved quikly so he wold be in front of the human, protecting him from the horrible toxic spray and got hit straight away with it, sheilding the human completely. He could feel his health points decreasing, could feel tht he was now Poisoned. He had to think quickly, he only had three moves, QUick Attack, Head Butt and Bite. He didn't even have a fourth move! But this was his chance! So he ran forward on his little legs and gave the carnivine a horrible and vicious bite, causing the carnivine to cry out as its leafy body was peirced by his sharp teeth! The carnivine then decided to flee, giving up the fight. Art watched him go and let out a soft cry as he felt his health being leeched by the poison. He needed a potion or something soon or else he would faint...

He looked at the human and walked over to him, still curled up and whimpering. Art gently nudged him with his head "bagon?" he asked, wondering if the human was alright. The human however yelped and scooted away from him. Oh no the human was hurt!! Art knew what to do! He went over to a nearby bush with oran berries, too bad there weren't any pecha berries around to cure his poisoned.... oh well he quickly ate one to gain a little health back and then grabbed another one off of the bush with his little stubby arms and ran back to the human. "Bagon!" he said urgently and held the berry out to him. The human glanced up a little and Art tried to smile at him as he held the berry out to him. The human seemed unsure and was eyeing him suspiciously. But Art wasn't going to leave. The human was hurt! Too bad the carnivine fled the battle and he didn't get to make him faint for what he had done to the human. Oh well the human was saved. Art took another little step closer and held the berry out closer to the human, hoping that the human understood and knew what these berries were for.

Unfortunately, the poison in him was still slowly leeching him of his health points, and after he stepped forward, he collapsed forward, the berry falling from his hands and landing in the humans lap. He gave the human one last look and hoped that he ate the berry and got to safety before the world went to black as he fainted.

Art slowly opened his eyes as a blurry white room slowly came into focus. A room? He was... inside? Had the human taken him? He groaned softly, everything hurt. He glanced around and could see he was set up to a potion which was slowly restoring his strength. He could feel his health points going up slowly. Ah that felt nice. But then he heard voices.

"Professor Chee we normally don't heal wild pokemon" a female said.

"But I don't want a pokemon! What if it eats me?" a male voice said. Eat him? Was the carnivine around? Art tried to look around but the world spun. Ugg.

"We do not care what you do after but you need to catch the bagon in a pokeball. We only offer free healings to trainers pokemon. Without this being your pokemon, the revive, plus th epotion, plus our time and services,... it will be around three hundred Pokedollars. A pokeball only costs about half that, and we would be willing to give you five for free since it would be your first pokemon" the womans voice explained. "You could always release it. But the fact that it saved you....it would be a shame to" she added.

'Professor Chee' who Art assumed was the human he saved, gave a groan. "Fine, I'll take a pokeball" he said, sounding irritated.

Art smiled a little. As weak as he was, he was happy and at peace. He always wanted a trainer. He just had to convince Professor Chee not to release him. He didn't want to be released. But Art closed his eyes and fell back to sleep.

Art woke up a while later, Art woke up again still in the same room. He sat up and glanced around and could see Professor Chee looking at him warily with a pokeball in his hand. Art immediately got excited and grinned at him happily.

"I'm going to throw this at you, and it's going to... uh capture you. I need you as my pokemon so I don't have to pay for your healing. Alright?" Professor Chee said. Art nodded excitedly and Professor Chee tossed the ball. It opened and Art felt himself shrinking into it. He was then inside the ball and rested inside comfortably. Oh this was nice. He relaxed, hoping the ball would capture him and not open up again. He felt the ball shake a couple of times but then it settled down. Art grinned oh he was so happy in his pokeball. He felt it being picked up and carried out. He wondered where they were going!

Art didn't have to wait long at all to find out. He felt the ball was thrown and opened and he popped out full size. He looked around expecting some wild pokemon or something to battle.... but there was nothing. Art turned and faced Professor Chee who was slowly backing up.

"Bagon!" Art said and happily folloed him, glad to be out of the pokeball and able to walk freely with his trainer. However Professor Chee looked upset.

"No! Stay! Don't follow me!" he insisted. Art paused and tilted his head, why wouldn't he follow him? "I am releasing youback into the wild" Professor Chee explained. Art frowned. No! He couldn't be released! Art followed him and Professor Chee backed himself up against a tree and Art went and hugged his leg, nuzzling his little head against Professor Chee's leg. He wished he could speak human, and tell Professor Chee that he would protect him. He would be a great pokemon, and train beside himor just be a companion and he could protect him from other wild pokemon. But he couldn't say any of that. So he just hugged his leg. And hoped that Professor Chee knew what he meant.

Much to his surprise he felt a hesitant hand on his head. Art looked up. Professor Chee was looking down at him a bit hesitantly but also seemed... calmer and not afraid.

"You don't want to go? Be free?" Professor Chee asked. Art snuggled his leg more. Professor chee sighed "Well i guess your already my pokemon.... but you have to promise not to eat me!" he said sounding scared. Art nodded, he promised!! Why any pokemon would want to eat a human baffled him but perhaps the carnivine thing had been more... truamatizing then Art thought at first. And there were big scary pokemon that COULD eat humans due to how big they were. But he was tiny! So tiny!! Professor Chee sighed "Fine, but your not getting any friends and I'm NOT battling others with you. You will simply be a companion" Professor Chee said. Art nodded, oh this was going to be great!

Epilogue

Art let out a huge roar and swished his tail back and forth as he glared down at the Incineroar he was facing, the last of Professor Kukui's pokemon, the last obstacle from Adriel, his trainer, his friend from sitting on the champions seat in the ELite Four. The first Champion of ALoha, since the elite four had just been created in this region. The creator, Professor Kukui, was the last person to face since there was no current champion. Art was now Salamance, no longer the tiny Bagon he had been so long ago. Adriel had tried to keep his word, not be a trainer, not battle. But when Team Skull came to the islands, and started stealing peoples pokemon, and harrasing professors to try to make a worm hole into the Beast Dimension... Art had been rearing to go and destroy them for what they were doing. And Adriel was being harrased too, it was quit being a professor and have his life ruined or join the team creating the wormhole in the sky...

So Adriel had quit and they had started to train together. It had been a long journey, and Adriel also decided since he was traveing the islands any way, why not take on the kahuna's of each island? And then Professor Kukui, who also refused to be harrased by Team Skull, opened the Elite Four once Team skull had been completely defeated. Defeated by him! And Adriel together! Working together as a team! And Art had gotten stronger, and evolved! At first he hated his evolution. He was in this horrile cacoon thing and couldn't move and was called Shelgon? What a dumb name. But then he evolved AGAIN! Into this! Salamence! And oh he loved it! He loved the wings! His tail! He missed his little arms but now he had four big feet for stomping! Stomping on tiny cat pokemon like incinroar! Who wasn't tiny but in comparison to him, a DRAGON? Most pokemon were tiny! COmpletely in sync with Adriel, Art fought. Using Gust, and Dragon Breath, and Fly, and his favorite, Dragon Tail using his giant tail to WACK at other pokemon. Which he did. He gave one last WACK and Incineroar went flying... and fainted!

They were the new champions of all of Aloha!!

These prompts focus on getting Art to take initiative

Prompt 1 :

Adriel and Art have been dating and having sex for a while and Art wants to try topping. Until this point, Adriel had been making sure to take care of Art, so Art is very nervous about it and about asking, but he finally gathers his courage up to ask one day.

---How does Art gather up his courage to try something that makes him nervous?
---Art knows that Adriel would love to have Art try topping.
---If you want to write it out as smut, Adriel will also talk Art through what to do (how to apply lube and prep, find the spot inside of him, etc)

Prompt 2 :

Art and Adriel are making gingerbread man cookies for the family dinner that will not just be Art's family, but also Adriel's family, but Adriel keeps making his penis shaped! When confronted, Adriel points out that there are waaaay more than enough cookies for the family dinner, so Art should just relax and start making his own silly and fun shapes, too.

---December 23rd, dinner is a christmas family gathering that will have both families attending
---If you have to, Adriel will kiss Art into submission to agree, but let's get Art to loosen up and make his own really silly ones. Adriel is definitely going to stick with the perv theme cause it is Adriel and he will try to playfully tease and coax Art into making them, too.
---Silly cookie contest escalates when Adriel also starts including Ancient Greek pottery art into the mix.

Prompt 3 :

Art has had a very very long day at work and he comes home to find Adriel is there. In his house. Napping on his couch. Without invitation. But... he can smell a delicious meal cooking in the oven.

Wait. How did Adriel even know where he lived?!

---Adriel will wake up when Art comes but be a bit groggy
---Adriel knows where Art lives because he helped Art with his hospital papers enough times. He will make silly and outrageous stories up though, like "Oh, I paid the pigeons with a bag of seeds to show me to your home" to "I kidnapped one of your asshole co-workers to interrogate this morning."
---Art needs to ask for a massage at one point - Adriel can note that "You look really stiff and sore, hard day today?" or things along those lines, but he cannot offer one first.

Adriel woke up feeling warm and comfortable, but the air smelled very strange and not like home at all. He lifted his head to look around the room and realized he was in Saint Mungo to his relief. Definitely to his relief. He was not upset one bit that he was not at Art's house nor that he could not smell Art in the room at all. He sat up and thumped his tail before giving an enquiring meow to see what was happening.

A nurse bustled in and made several tsking sounds as she cast spells on him. "You nearly died from hypothermia, and your 'owner' was inconsolable until he heard you were a human," she informed him in a matter of fact tone. "Grown men sobbing like babes in the lobby while others pretend to be a pet for nearly a year! He went home if you are wondering, and he most likely wants nothing to do with you - he fainted when he found out that he had a man and not a cat in his bed. Such shameless behavior!"

Adriel flinched as he heard that Art wanted nothing to do with him... It wasn't like he had hid his intelligence or anything. For someone so 'smart,' Art had been an idiot and a fool, and one who was quick to abandon their friendship, too. He gave another enquiring meow to see if she had anymore information for him.

"Yes, the curse specialist was able to identify that you are cursed, but there is no way to break it here," the nurse huffed as she tucked her wand away to put her hands on her hips. "You made yourself no friends here by bringing your bad luck even if it was not intentional. We'll be giving you a portkey as soon as you tell us where you want to go. You are in a rune warded circle at the moment and we are unable to identify who you are, and you are not allowed outside of it to contain your bad luck. As soon as you are fully recovered, we will be bringing you a map of England and will create you a portkey when you can give us an approximate location of where you want to go."

Adriel could go to his grandparents home in North Ireland he realized but... Well, he felt very very unwanted at the moment. By everyone and everything. They didn't even care enough to figure out who he was - they just wanted him out. Perhaps he could get to France for that true love's kiss and then run off to lick his wounds in the Congos, but he definitely did not want to see his grandparents or anyone who actually cared at the moment since his curse would probably fuck up those relationships, too. At least Antoine was used to his coming and going and didn't mind it at all.

"Hmph, and don't start with those sad looking eyes either," the nurse huffed. "I get plenty of sad cases every day, and a man that sleeps in another man's bed under false pretenses is not one of those! 'Lucky' indeed - you must have done something seriously bad to be in the predicament that you are in." Adriel was not deliberately giving her sad eyes, and his ears flattened as he gave her a short hiss or irritation. "Well on your head be it then, I will be back in a few hours to discharge you. I suggest you rest until then."

The irate nurse turned on her heel and stalked out of his room, and Adriel kicked himself since he had wanted more information like the date and such. Saint Mungo would most likely not give him an international portkey, but he could figure out how to get to Paris if he went to one of the southern ports. France would also be warmer, too, so he could survive the journey. Probably.

He had laid down and was taking a light nap when he heard his room door open. "Lucky?" he heard Art call out, but rather than lift his head, he curled up even tighter since he didn't want to speak with him, either. "I'm... Well, I know you aren't named Lucky now, but... It's been two days and the hospital owled me to let me know you woke up. I just wanted to say I am sorry and that I didn't mean those words but... Are you really a man?"

Adriel owed the idiot Librarian that answer at least, so he uncurled himself to sit up and nodded while he kept his back turned to Art. "Oh. Were you... trying to tell me that?" Adriel would have told him that if Art had ever thought to ask or ask anything along those lines, but the idiot just assumed he was a cat and his behavior had been perfectly normal. So he nodded again. "Did... you uhm... Were our conversations even real?"

Adriel turned then to arch his back and angrily hissed at Art. It wasn't like he stayed stuck in Art's shitty house for nine months just to pretend they were friends! Yeah, he had considered him a friend, all right up until the moment that Art threw the friendship out the window before he even knew he was a human! If Art had even-

Art interrupted his internal shouting by picking him up and holding him tight. "I don't care if you are a man, Lucky!" he cried out as Adriel tried to squirm away from him to escape to no avail since even if he was angry, he was not going to claw or scratch Art since they had been friends at one point. "I was so terrified when I found you in that alley! I thought you were dead! Then I found out you were a man and I felt so betrayed! But then Sarah asked me if I really had a right to feel so betrayed since it wasn't like you could tell me and you were my first friend, and I had betrayed you first! I am so so sorry Lucky, please forgive me! I swear I will never abandon you again and we will figure this out so I can get to know you also!"

Adriel let out a plaintive meow of his own anguish as he relaxed in Art's arms because even if the idiot had hurt his feelings, he really really liked Art and their friendship which was why Art's rejection of it had hurt his feelings so bad. He wished he had arms to hug Art back and that he could speak to the man, but at least Art understood his meows and body language to a degree since they had spent so much time together. Art lifted him up a bit so they could look at each other properly, then Art surprised him by leaning in to kiss the top of his head.

There was a BMF noise as smoke poofed out, and then Art grunted at the sudden weight and ended up toppling over on top of Adriel who also oofed at suddenly landing on the bed. They were a tangle of arms and legs as they tried to separate themselves.

"Wha?" Art asked as he tried to figure out what was happening in the fog while he tried to unpin his hands from behind whatever thing it was that he was holding. He had been holding Lucky, though, so he was very very confused because what he now had was a lot bigger than Lucky.

Adriel had a whole different problem - he was naked and Art was on top of him pressing and wiggling up against his body while holding on to him. "Art," Adriel said, then realized what their position was exactly and brought his hands to Art's waist to keep him still. "Uh, don't move, you broke my curse."

Art froze and he looked down as the smoke began to clear. "Lucky?!" he exclaimed, eager to see what his friend looked like and was no longer trying to unpin his hands stuck beneath his cursed wizard.

"Yeah," Adriel said as he tried to glance around for something to cover him but... There was only Art. "My name is Adriel, but you can keep calling me Lucky. Just-"

"Lucky!" Art said with a wiggle of excitement as he finally started seeing the man through the magic smoke. Dark eyes, copper skin, full and beautiful lips, and long hair splayed out on the bed beneath them. Art's jaw dropped as he saw just how gorgeous Adriel looked, and his eyes ran down the long and muscular neck to the smooth and perfect chest that looked like it belonged on a Greek statue. He didn't realize he was doing it, but he managed to shake one hand free to wonderingly run it on that chest to see if it really was as smooth as it looked. "Lucky," he breathed out, since it really was as smooth as it looked.

Adriel whimpered a little bit at the look Art was giving him while he was touching his chest. "Art, you're killing me," he groaned, then whined when Art snatched his hand back while he looked at Adriel with wide and fearful eyes. "No, no, I don't mind if you touch me, I uhm-"

"Ahem," the cruel nurse from earlier said in an obviously false attempt at clearing her throat. "Your bawling and carrying on can be heard all the way to the end of the hall and you are both disturbing our other patients with it! The hospital bed is also not to be used for sexual activity! If the cursed wizard is feeling well enough to be a nuisance, we can get him discharged and a portkey immediately."

"AAAAH!" Art screamed and tried to get up, completely mortified by the position they had just been caught in now that he was no longer mesmerized by Adriel. The hands on his waist held him still, though. "AAAAAH! Lucky, let me go!"

"I'm uh... Naked, so just give me a minute, Art," Adriel said, then looked over to the nurse with a frown since Art froze and went still while he squeezed his eyes shut. "Your bedside manners needs a lot more work, woman! I need a blanket to cover up with so I can let Art go since he is the only reason you are not getting an eyeful of things. He is also clothed, so obviously there is nothing happening. My curse was just broken, he fell on top of me since he was holding me up as a cat, and I assure you all of it is circumstantial. I also wish to press charges against the witch that cursed me."

"Why were you cursed?" Art asked as he peeked an eye open to look down at Adriel again.

"She fell in love with me after only three days of knowing me and when I told her no, she cursed me to try to prove her words," Adriel explained with a scowl as the nurse hmphed and started pulling things out of shelves. "It was..." Adriel paused as he looked up at Art who was now looking down at him sadly with both of his eyes open, then he averted his eyes as he blushed a little. "A true love's kiss curse."

Art started blushing furiously again on top of him, and then the nurse interrupted their moment again by throwing the blanket and hospital robes on top of their heads. "Please head out to the nurse's station as soon as you are properly attired," she said in a snide tone. "And no funny business! I will be back in five minutes if you are not out!"

When she was gone, Adriel was able to lift up the lighter man who squeezed his eyes shut and gentle set him on the ground once he had sat up. "Just give me a minute - like I'm going to wear hospital robes," Adriel bitched as he started pulling some clothes out of his medicine pouch. "I don't have clothes for the snow... The is my first time being in such weather... But we can apparate to your apartment and explain further." He paused when he noticed how silent and curled inward Art was. "And talk a bit more about that kiss breaking the curse." He had to reach out and grab the back of Art's coat, but he had his pants on only halfway so he had to also hop on a foot. "Nuh uh, no running, Art. I already ran earlier - we really need to properly have a talk because your feelings are not one sided and we are supposed to be friends."

---

They got home, and while Adriel wanted there to be less words and more action, he knew Art was skittish and had absolutely no idea about love. Seeing Art looking down at him in the hospital room before the nurse had interrupted them had made him realize that he had kind of sort of maybe definitely developed something more than just friendship feelings for Art somewhere along the way... Probably the past month and it had been strengthened by them cuddling in bed together even if he had only been a cat. Art was very avoidant about his own feelings, however, so Adriel had to out-logic him by mentioning that while yes, he was a Christian, he had also been praying to Greek and Egyptian gods which was already sinning and two of those religions did not mind homosexuality one bit so Art had a best two out of three chances to not get in trouble with a god.

Then he had to talk about himself and his own promiscuous ways, but that he was completely willing to have a monogamous relationship with Art if Art would have him because he had also fallen in love with his friend. But if Art didn't want a relationship, they could just be friends and he was completely ok with that and the choice was Art's but Adriel would really really appreciate if he picked now because he really really wanted to kiss Art now if that option was on the table.

Art blushed from his spot on the couch as Adriel stayed crouched down on the floor in front of him. "Okay," he said in a shy tone as he peeked down at Adriel, and Adriel gave him a happy smile before he got up enough to corner Art more into his couch and leaned in to give him a kiss.

Adriel started by gently brushing their lips against each other once, twice, and then a third time. Art had been holding his breath, but the last one had him part his lips just a little bit to breath, and Adriel hummed with approval as he sucked the lower lip into his mouth a little bit while Art sharply inhaled at the change. He didn't pull back though, so Adriel leaned in even more to dart his tongue into Art's mouth to taste him, and Art gave a startled sound so Adriel reluctantly pulled back with one final gentle press of their lips together. "Abwah," Art said in a stunned tone.

"Want some more?" Adriel asked with an amused and eager smile, and then Art nodded again, he went in again for a second kiss, then a third one after that. Adriel kept it nice and easy with kisses and careful touches that stayed above the waist all day while he coaxed Art into touching him as well, and he promised he would stay with Art for this winter rather than going back to his tribe lands though he would need to send them a letter the next day.

Oh, and he was furnishing Art's apartment better as his Christmas present, too. Christmas present and his share of nine months of rent.

It was hopeless. Absolutely hopeless. He was hopelessly in love with Adriel and there was nothing he could do about it. And why would Adriel ever feel the same about him? He couldn't tell him. Absolutely not. It would ruin their friendship, his only friendship. He hated the thought of that. So instead... he became a bit more.. clumsy then usual. Tripping and falling into Adriel's arms so Adriel would have to hold him, or catch him. It felt so nice being in his arms. And they were in Egypt, looking for Cleopatra's tomb. Finding Atlantis truly had a big impact on his life, and funding was no longer an issue. Funny how being looked down all these years was suddenly changed due to actually being right. But he was looking for Cleopatra's tomb, along with Adriel of course. He made sure Adriel was included in his expeditions since he wouldn't trust anyone else as his body guard. He knew Adriel would protect him.

They were in a tomb, Art did not think it was Cleopatra's. But it was some lost Pharaoh's tomb. Female Pharaoh tomb. One that appearently loved the goddess Bas, and loved cats. Yes Egyptians loved cats but this was... insane cat lady type love. It was creepy and Art ddin't like it. So h wasn't entirely watching where he was walking and bumped into a pillar, that had a cat statue on it. The pillar swerved back and forth, and the cat statue also teetered around before the pillar went falling one way and the cat statue the other, heading right for Art! However a hand came and pushed him at the last second and as he fell backward he saw the cat statue fall, a gold smoke filling the area where Adriel was and then....

The statue was in a million pieces. And Adriel was... gone. A black cat with gold eyes was there instead!

Art's heart raced. "Adriel?" he asked curiously. The cat simply started to lick its fur. Art was horrified. Adriel had sacrificed himself... for him. So he wouldn't be turned into one of those vicious, feroscious, man eating BEASTS! But now ARIEL was one of them!!! He had to fix this. He got up, making the cat eye him. "It's alright Adriel, don't worry. I will take you to the wizarding hospital here and everything will be fine. Oh Isis, Horace, Osiris and Bas please do not let him eat me before I can change him back" he begged the gods, specifically Bas. He inched his way forward and picked the cat up who yowled and hissed and thank god he had Adriel's back to his chest so his very evil little beastly paws scratched at the air and not at him. "Please be in there, please" he begged and apparated to the nearest wizarding hospital, which of course he had been to at least once already. He was just unlucky like that.

When he got there he owuldn't let Cat Adriel out of his sight. The healer unfortunately told him that there was nothing they could do. He was stuck as a cat for a year. A YEAR!! And, he was completely a cat, with none of Adriel in him at all. And would most likely not even remember his year as a cat. Adriel seemed perfectly content with this knowledge, lounging on the hospital bed licking his paws. What was Art going to do for an entire YEAR with a cat as a best friend!

As he was moping however, some people from the Egyptian Ministry came to see him.

Art looked up with a frown.

"Artemio Reyes?" one of them asked. Art frowned.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Omar Abanoub and I am a represensative of the Ministry. Your friend here has been... turned into a cat. However... he is no ordinary cat. He is a Holy Cat, one of Bas' priests herself!! A rare and wonderful occurence" the man explained with a grin. Art frowned at him. Silence dragged on for a few moments. "The Ministry is willing to offer you a lot of money to be able to take him... off of your hands for the year that he will be a Holy Cat. We have... intell that you are... rightfully afraid of cats" the man said, though the smile made it clear he did not think the fear was 'rightfully so'. Art frowned.

"And what do you plan on doing during this year with my friend?" Art asked.

"We would like to breed her, she is a her now. And we would love to breed her to create more of these Holy Cats! How does ten thousand galleons sound?" Omar said. Art frowned. They wanted to turn Adriel into just an incubator? No that was wrong. As much s he hated cats it was wrong.

"No" Art said with a frown.

Omar smiled. "We also have intel that you are a man of history? In fact you are here searching for Cleopatra's lost tomb?" he questioned but Art simply frowned at him as another few seconds of silence sat between them. "And you know Ancient Egyptian. Five hundred thousand galleons, and a small but original portion of The Book of the Dead and a small but original portion of The Book of the Living? A man of history would for sure know the priceless nature of such objects and I am sure would absolutely love to actually touch them himself, see them himself, own them" OMar offered.

If the cat was anyone except for Adriel, that might have been tempting. But even if it was that jerk Amon, leaving him to a horrible fate of being breed and used an incubator... how many times could a cat get pregnant and give birth in one year? Three times? No, it was a horrible fate even for a jerk like Amon. And even worse so for Adriel.

"No" Art said his voice firm, his mouth set in a frown.

OMar gave a chuckle and a sinister smile. "You drive a hard bargain Mr. Reyes. One million galleons, the original portion of the Book of the Dead, and the Book of the living, and Tutankhamon's original scarab necklace found in his own sarcaphogi. And a rare Roman coin, with Cleopatra's profile on it" he said and laid his hands out, palm out, in a way to say he was showing all his hand.

Art picked up the lounging Adriel who gave a growl at being picked up and Art though reluctantly, held him close. "No, now I am leaving" he said and walked past the man to go sign the discharge papers.

Within days, he was back home in London. He wasn't staying in Egypt, not when the MInistry was now 'hostile' towards him, and he couldn't really continue his expedition without Adriel. So, Oxford and the goblin agreed to put it on pause for a year until Adriel could be his bodyguard again.

It was... tough to say the least. Adriel seemed to be not in there at all. He was a cat, a full on cat! Art was down right terrified that Adriel, who he was now calling Cleo since Adriel was now a girl cat and no longer really Adriel, was going to eat him. But he couldn't let anyone take him! This was his responsbility completely. So, Art made sure that he had a cat bed, and litter box, and cat tree, and cat toys. And he constantly bathed him and brushed him and took care of him.

At night, Art would tell him stories that he thought he might ike. Everything from Ancient Greece to Rome to Ancient Egypt. But he kept him locked out of the bedroom at night, he didn't want to wake up to being eaten!

Some days were tougher then others.

Art was giving Adriel a bath but Adriel was very much not in the mood. Art sighed as he started to scrub him "Cleo, calm down! You need to be clean! You like being all well groomed and you would hate licking yourself like that! Let me wash you!" Art fought with the cat and Cleo swiped out and Art let out a yelp and backed away wuickly. He looked in the mirror to see four lines going across his cheeks. He teared up. "I'm trying my best Adriel... " tears rolled down his cheeks as he looked at Cleo who was growling at him in the bath. His shoulders slumped "Don't eat me... please" he said, his voice full of defeat. It was... a battle of the wills that night. But Cleo got clean.

Some nights were easier.

Art was sitting on the couch one night, his Atlantis book in his hand, the one by the muggle that originally inspired the journey. Cleo was on his lap, and h was petting her and reading the book out loud. It was taking much longer then it should have, since every now and then he would stop and tell Cleo about his and Adriels journey to Atlantis, and what their observations let them to know was actually true about Atlantis. And how he had met the author, and gotten permission to show him Atlantis, and were still writing. Thanks to Adriel of course. And, as wrong as he knew the book was, he still loved it and liked to read it at difficult times.

About seven months in, Art was..,not doing well. Cleo had scratched him again when he had done nothing, just tried to feed her. And he was so mentally drained, he hated cats and as much as he loved Adriel this beast was NOT Adriel! He was always covered in scratches and it seemed to just instinctively hate him. He was sitting on the couch, crying. Cleo was on the couch next to him, looking at him. Art gently pushed her away.

"Go away. Why did you have to push me out of the way! I miss Adriel! He was my best friend! My only friend. And your just... a stupid cat that for some reason hates me and I'm sure would eat me if i didn't lock my bedroom door at night, you horrible beast. I miss my friend! I... I love him. Not just as a friend... " he let out a sob. His vision blurred "I miss... the way he smelled. It was so nice and reassuring, yet mild. And I miss falling and him catching me. And then really being able to smell it. Or.. how soft his hair felt. I didn't touch it often, it felt... weird just reaching out and touching someone elses hair especially with him being so much taller... Once your Adriel again... I think I might try to more... And I miss how safe being his arms felt... And his smile. And how he listened" Art frowned as Cleo started licking herself and let out another sob. He was.... alone. And he had to take care of this dumb cat for another five months. "I wish you didn't push me away. Then I wouldn't have to go a year taking care of an evil cat that hates me. And I wouldn't have to miss Adriel. I wouldn't know any better, I would just be a dumb cat... And I deserve it, I wasn't paying attention. I knocked into the pillar."

Art sighed and wiped his eyes and got up from the couch "Good night" he said curtly though Cleo seemed unphased, still licking herself.

The rest of the year continued on, and he was practically counting down the days until Cleo would turn back to Adriel. And Cleo continued to seem to hate him. He could barely even go to pet her without his hand getting scratched. But still, as frustrated and painful as it was, he knew Adriel would love being pet. So he continued to try.

A year of being scratched, batted, pawed, bit, hissed at, growled at, fearing for his life every night... It was finally a year. Art waited patiently as Cleo seemed unaware of what was going to happen, playing with one of her mice toys when suddenly... there was a puff of gold smoke and Adriel was now laying on the floor, the mouse toy on his stomach.

"Adriel!" Art exclimed and practically fell on him, hugging him tightly, so glad to have his friend back and that the entire ordeal was over. "I missed you" he mumbled. He hugged Adriel for a few seconds, and as much as he wanted to continue hugging him he knew he couldn't. He went to pull away but Adriels arms wrapped around him and held him close. Art looked up at Adriel and Adriel smiled at him.

"The ministry offered you one million galleons and original portions of the Book of the Dead and the Book of the living and you didn't take it, and took care of me as a cat for an entire year while all she did was scratch you and bite you." Adriel said softly.

Art blushed deeply "Well.... I couldn't... I coulnd't..." he paled as he realized. "How... how much do you remember?" he asked nervously. Adriel gave a soft smile.

"All of it, though I had no control over my body. I was completely controlled by the cat. But I could see and hear everything" he said and leaned down to kiss Art. Art was shocked and kissed him back, Adriels arms wrapping tighter around him. He pulled away with a smile "I love you too" he said softly. "And I'm glad you didn't let them make me into some sort of brood mare" he said.

Art smiled, so glad to have Adriel back. He snuggled up against his chest but then frowned "You smell like cat" he said causing Adriel to laugh.

It was June of 1658, and Captain Adriel the Red of the pirate ship Wild Mustang grinned viciously as he looked through his spyglass at the small beach city that was started to ring their warning bells since his crew had just unfurled the red flags of battle that he was very famous for. 

"The men are ready for battle," his first mate, Amon the Heartless reported next to him as he checked his over the last of his five flintlock pistols. "Were the rumors true?"

"Aye," Adriel said as he spotted what he had been looking for. "It's a slave port - they are dragging the women to caves." Adriel snapped his spyglass shut as he raised his voice to be heard over the wind that was making the sails snap. "WE'RE BEACHING THE SHIP, LADS AND LADIES! THERE WILL BE GOLD AND SOME NO DOUBT GRATEFUL FOLKS!" 

A roar of cheers met his shout, and then men were scrambling to tie themselves to the ship as Adriel moved to the help to take the wheel. "Amon!" he shouted. "Get yourself secured! We are getting ransom or bounties today!" Then, without checking to make sure he was obeyed, he turned the wheel to point his prow right at the beach port, then cackled madly as he plowed his giant ship through two of the city's smaller boats that had been trying to get out of the way. The wooden dock was destroyed next, and then the ship itself jerked as it drove a deep furrow into the sand before coming to an abrupt stop. "RANGERS! PROVIDE COVER!" he barked out, and men pulled the ropes that had been around their waists off as they unslung bows and rifles while others ran to the edges to throw the ropes overboard. "EVERYONE ELSE INVADE!"

A third of his crew were trained with ranged weapons, and so when militia came pouring out onto the beach to stop the pirates, they were shot down with bullets from rifles and slings or arrows from bows. The others from the crew were able to use the initial ranged attack to scale down the ropes, and the next line to go down were the rifle shooters who only had one loaded shot in their weapons. The sling shooters were next, and by then, the first wave of pirates were engaging the remaining guards so the bowmen took guard along the rails to shoot down any messengers and keep an eye out for the next wave of guardsmen.

That was when Adriel himself started for the prow so he could rappel down a rope with Amon flanking him as well. "I want that caravel for the fleet!" Adriel called to Amon. "Take team Set, steal one of the sloops, and board her. Should be a skeleton crew on it at best since it didn't even budge while we were coming in. The crew was probably drinking in town and were the traders." Adriel gave a vicious grin. "They won't be needing her anymore. Indenture anyone on it that surrenders."

"Aye aye," Amon said with a roll of his eyes. "I know. SET TO ME!!!"

A few people backed away from the last of the battle while some of the bowmen started to scale down as part of team set, and Adriel laughed as he led the rest of his crew into town. The smaller and poorer houses were ignored as some were diverted to ransack shops for supplies, but Adriel kept half of his crew to engage in a second round of battle on the other end where a small force had been left to guard the way up to the more secure caves. A loud BOOM was shot off and a couple of his men perished with the cannonball that blasted into the battle, and the men they had been fighting finally broke morale since even more of their own had died under that friendly fire and threw down their weapons before scattering.

The cannon was in a decent position - it was halfway up the cliff and at the entrance of the cave where it could be pointed down at the town. The path leading up to the cave was three feet wide at the widest, but Adriel judged that some areas narrowed to where only one man or two children abreast could walk. It was enough room for his animagus form, and if he got to the trail, the angle would mean the cannon could not be aimed at him since it could not reach that angle without a lot of maneuvering and risking the cannon itself because it would have to be very close to the edge.

"TAKE COVER!" he shouted to his crew before he himself leapt forward into his horse form to rush for the trail so he could try to reach it before they could reload. It was a close call with the path behind him getting blasted when a second BOOM rang out, then he was safe from cannonfire since trying to aim them at a quickly moving target like him was all but impossible. When he reached the top, he transformed into a man and slid forward along the ground at the mouth of the cave, and the first round of shots meant for his horse body missed entirely. He shot the man that was trying to reload the cannon in the head as he slid past him, then rolled as he came to a stop to avoid the next round of bullet.

"IT'S ADRIEL THE RED!" one of the men screamed out as he and the other man threw down their pistols so they could pull out their sabers, and Adriel ignored the cuts and bruises on him from sliding on rocks and the ricochet of bullet shards to spring back onto his feet to pull out his own sword. 

"Surrender and I'll treat ya kindly," Adriel laughed out as he drew his second pistol with his offhand to point it at the man that had screamed his name. "One year of servitude!"

"NEVER!" the second man screamed out as he rushed to engage, but the one with the gun pointed at him threw down his sword and raised his hands as Adriel blocked the first man's sword with his own. The second man's eyes widened as he realized he was the only one fighting, and he started to throw down his sword to raise his hands. "No wai-"

Adriel pointed his gun at the second man and shot him in between the eyes. "Too late," he said as the body collapsed to the ground. "You! Who all is in the cave and how many is in there?"

"The governor!" the terrified man said as he looked at the two bodies at Adriel's feet. "He has a guard of six, and then there is the captain of the Deep Waters with him along with three of his crew. I uh... I was the first mate."

Adriel nodded as he holstered his spent pistol then knelt without looking away as he picked up his other on to also holster. "Was is a good choice of word," Adriel said in a friendly tone. "Not mentioning the slaves? And what's your name?"

"John Darter," the man quickly answered as he kept his hands up. He was pale and terrified since he now knew the rumors of devilry from Adriel were true with how he had turned into a giant demon horse to charge right up the mountain. Adriel figured that that was how this story with the bit of magic he used would go, anyway. "There are fifteen slaves in the caves! I don't agree with it, but gold is gold!"

Adriel was notorious for hating slavery and thus was wanted by pirates and countries alike, and his friendly smile turned into a more condescending one at the man's words. "Now, no need to lie, JD," he said with dry and dark amusement. "One year of servitude and I will return you if you want after even if you were fine with the slavery. While you are on my crew, however, you are not fine with it. Pick up your sword and lead the way!"

"Captain!" one of his men gasped out as he got to the top of the trail, wheezing hard since it was not an easy climb. "Don't do that - we are supposed to be protecting you!" He pulled his pistol and trained it on JD as Adriel relaxed now that his men were arriving.

"Ugh, you are an arse," another member gasped as she managed to reach the top as well. Some captains held to the female superstitions, but Adriel was not one of those. The female pirates and captains were more vicious than the men, and he was glad to add them to ships. "Who just... just charges a cannon?! Our stupid captain, that is who!"

"If I didn't do that, then more would have died," Adriel said with a haughty sniff as he started moving the pistols on his body around so that the loaded ones were accessible and the unloaded ones were at his boots. He carried eight in total - two at the boots, two on his outer thighs, two on his front hips, one at the small of his back, and the last on his chest. The medicine bag around his neck held his bow and arrows along with other things, and there were a pair of boot knives in his boot. His right hip held a machete for convenience, and his left one held his own sword of choice - a scimitar. Most of his crew favored sabers, cutlasses, or falchions, but the women often followed his lead with a scimitar if they didn't choose a saber or a short sword for themselves. "You're in luck, JD... Looks like we are going to try negotiations first! AHOY IN THE CAVES! I GOT YOU ALL SURROUNDED AND THE CANNON IS UNDER MY CONTROL! PARLAY?"

There was silence for a minute, then a gunshot rang out. Several more followed after that, and Adriel looked over at Elissah the Undying, the woman who had come up with him. She was actually covered in many scars and looked like she should have been dead twenty times over, hence the name she had made for herself along with her fighting prowess, but very few knew that they had were actually scars from her slavery and it was Adriel himself who used a mix of spells and potions to heal her well enough that she had survived without being crippled or blind for life. "Looks like they are arguing among themselves," Adriel said to her, and she barked out a laugh. "Guess we will see who wins the argument."

No sooner than he had said that, the cave went quiet. "PARLAY!" came a panicked voice. "THE CAPTAIN AND THE GOVERNOR SHOT EACH OTHER AND UH... NONE OF US HAVE THE ABILITY TO MAKE DECISIONS? SO WE SURRENDER?"

"BRING OUT YOUR SLAVES UNHARMED THEN!" Adriel shouted out. "AND LEAVE YOUR WEAPONS BEHIND! Elissah, you are in charge of collecting the weapons here - search JD there for guns, but I'll let him keep his sword. Lucky you, JD... Looks like you are to be the man in charge but you're mine now." He grinned. "THE TOWN IS OURS!"

His crew that were lined up along the trail let out a loud cheer, and a few ran down to give the news to the rest while the rest started gathering at the top. Adriel was going to go into a cave, but Paul Benson, the first man to the top and one of his gunners, glared at his captain and stalked in first. Adriel sighed and shook his head at the disrespect though he was giving a playful smile, and Ellisah patted down and thoroughly searched JD for weapons and anything of value with a lascivious grin. A few more men wandered into the cave when a cry of pain was heard, but Paul called out that he was fine and that one of the slaves had taken a bullet during the infighting. Then the people inside came tramping out.

Fourteen women dressed in black and grey looking rags and a single man who had his eyes squeezed shut while he was being carried while clutching his left shoulder as he whimpered in pain. The man was the one who was shot, and Adriel looked at JD with a frown. "Who is he and why is he important enough to keep?" Adriel asked, wondering if they had some kind of noble ransom on their hands. One man who was dressed as a seaman and two obvious townsmen were dragged out last as prisoners.

"Ah we... mighta raided a nunnery," JD mumbled as he averted his eyes. "I didn't like that none, but the Captain were muslim so he didn't care. Said virgins fetch high prices. He were there as a research archivist and we didn't realize he were a man until too late. Figure a scribe fetches for a good price in Istanbul so we didn't throw him overboard."

One of the women dropped to her knees and clasped her hands as she bowed her head. "Please, by the mercy of God, return us back to our convent," she plead as she wept. Her action caused a domino effect since all but three of the other women also dropped to their knees to beg for mercy. 

"Bind the man's wounds and I'll take a look at him in a bit, Paul," Adriel ordered, then raised an eyebrow at the three nuns who stood looking both terrified but defiant. "You three don't want to return?"

"Not if it means the convent or marriage," one of the girls spat, and one other nodded an agreement. "You have women on your crew! I want to join and do what I want to do!"

"I uhm... I was just on pilgrimage," the last one admitted in a fearful tone. On inspection, Adriel realized her rags were a brownish grey, though it was impossible to tell what they might have been. They were in as terrible and filthy conditions as what the nuns were wearing. "My family would be willing to pay ransom I think... The slavers didn't believe me since I am from a trade family that they never heard of."

Adriel pointed at the two nuns that wanted to join him, crooked his fingers to silently command them to come, then nodded at the other praying women who were too exhausted to even be angry about two of their numbers leaving. "Alright, you ladies can work as cooks or cleaners while we take you towards your country to pay for the supplies I'll give you to help you make your way to a safe location from whatever isolated beach I use," Adriel declared making several of them sob with relief while others looked even more scared. "None of my crew will touch you without consent so no worries - any that do tend to meet a very unhappy end. We pillage and loot, but we don't burn unless the burning is really really justified and there is absolutely no rape. The men'll be disappointed since it means they probably won't find a wife among you lot, but expect to be woo'ed a bit since some of them want to have family to raise on the island. You lot will go with Paul - he will appropriate the governor's house, let you all get cleaned up and rested, and I'll be keeping everyone except those guarding that house in the city's barracks. Leave the cannon for now, Elissah... With the governor dead we can stay for a couple days and go over the town. We are out on the third day before anyone thinks to come and investigate!"

Adriel then moved over to Art who had been laid out. Paul had cut the rags off of the man's torso, snapped at him to stay still when he tried to scoot away. and had used water to clean the area while the thin archivist sobbed and trembled with fear. Paul stood up to go take care of the nuns while the others either entered the cave to search it or were carrying their cannonballs down the mountain trail, so Adriel was left alone with the man.

"Calm down there," Adriel sighed as he knelt and carefully started to feel the wound on the man's shoulder blade to see if there was an exit hole on the back. Adriel ignored the man's flinch. "Bullet's still stuck and I'm going to have to get it out. Stay still." 

"No, just leave it in," the man said as he started to shake his head, but he ended up cringing since the movement hurt. "Please don't kill me! I don't have anyone to randsome me... Maybe Oxford? I don't know if they do that? I was just travelling to copy records to take back to the library! I swear I don't know how to fight and won't fight or anything if you just leave me here! AAH!"

Adriel had pressed at that point in the scribe's babbling to feel where the bullet was and it had ground up against his bone and made him scream. "Hmmm, here," Adriel said as he reached into his medicine bag to pull out a flask of spiced rum. "Good gulp of that. Take a few drinks, you are going to need it. I have to get the bullet out of you quickly or the lead will poison your blood." Adriel opened the bottle and shoved it into the scribe's mouth when he went to reply, and the scribe was forced to swallow or choke. He still choked when Adriel pulled the flask away and shuddered with disgust. "Eh, not a drinker huh?" Adriel asked, then gripped the fussy man's lower jaw to make him drink a bit more. "Shhh, trust me, this will be better." He pulled away the drink and capped it. "So what do you do besides copy record? Or are you just a scribe? Can't say I know what to do with a scribe, but leaving you here isn't an option."

The man trembled and looked up at him with large and terror-filled eyes, and Adriel realized the the scribe thought he was going to kill him or something. "I am a cartographer!" he babbled. "And I could probably do forgeries since I am a trained scribe to copy things exactly as they are? I can do goldleaf so patent forgeries? I'm bilingual with English and Spanish and also Ancient Greek and I know astronomy?"

Adriel blinked down at the scholar, then shook his head as he opened the flask to pour some alcohol on the man's wounds. "What's your name?" he asked in a friendly tone as he set it down while the scholar cried out in pain. "I wasn't going to kill you if you were worrying about that, but now you are sounding a lot more valuable for me."

"Artemio Reyes," he gasped out as he tried to grab his shoulder, but Adriel batted the hand to the side and pulled out more cloth from his medicine bag to put over it. "Ow, just please, leave it in I will be fine!"

"Don't be silly," Adriel said with amusement as he grabbed Art's hand and put it down over the cloth. "Hold that down to stem the bleeding. I'm getting out the tools to remove it. You must have pretty bad luck to be abducted by pirates not once, but twice! I was going to drop you off with the nuns, but I think I'll be keeping you for the one year of servitude after all - astronomy will be useful for the navigators to learn, and some maps would be good, too. Religious?"

"Yeah," Art wheezed as he pressed down on his injury, then scowled up at Adriel. "I will go with the nuns."

Adriel outright laughed then and pulled out his wand. "Ah, recognize this, huh?" he asked. "Well, I can mend flesh, but I'll still have to cut out the bullet and if the shoulder blade is broken, not much I can do there since I can't fix anything more than a broken finger or nose. Pretty funny that you think you can demand to be left with the nuns though... Women get a bit of a free pass with me and I figured I would toss you in with them since I figured you were useless, but you aren't so useless at all, are you. Where is your wand?"

Art paled and tried to stop Adriel from pushing his hand away, but he was too weak. "No, please no cutting," he begged. "Just vanish it! Can't you just vanish it?"

Adriel paused. "Maybe if you tell me where your wand is?" he offered, making no promises at all.

"It fell somewhere in the convent while I was being... kidnapped," Art mumbled, flushing with humiliation with the last word. "There! Just vanish it!"

"I actually have no idea how to vanish the bullet," Adriel said with a grin, then he banished the bandages and cloth to the side making Art cry out in protest and pinned the hand trying to hide the visible bullet hole to the man's belly. "Don't worry, it will just hurt for a moment since I'm pretty good at removing the bullets. Have to do it all the time for my crew, you see? There are only a couple of other magicals on crew, but they don't really know how to use their wands. You can also teach them and even me how to vanish bullets and other useful things, and I'll be keeping you as my cabin boy so you are nice and safe and comfortable for the next year." He carefully sliced open the shoulder and Artemio cried out and really started sobbing while he tried to squirm away, so Adriel was forced to paralyze him with another spell so he could pull out the bullet with his fingers. "Sshh, it won't be so bad, and a year of teaching and map making is a good deal for your life." The bullet was tossed to the side and he held the would open as he rinsed it out with a very weak aguamenti while Art gave another scream of pain, then tsked and used his wand to align the shattered bone before he began to knit the flesh together. "Shh, the bullet is gone and I'm knitting stuff together... Oh, the blood potion! I'll give you that in a second. Stay with me, Artemio."

The scribe was crying so hard that snot was bubbling out of his nose, but he didn't faint. The alcohol had dulled as much of the pain as possible without knocking him out with opiates that some crew members did carry, but the drug was precious enough that few would have been willing to share unless Adriel had ordered it and he was not going to make them part with their own medicine.  "There, it is together, but can't let you move yet since you will need to be in a sling," Adriel explained as he pulled out a handkerchief, then started to clean the man's face up a bit so he wouldn't choke on his own snot. "Hey, hey, trust me this care is a lot better than what you would get in that town. The wound would have gone septic unless I had cleaned it out, and I had to check the bone then align the shattered pieces so it will heal right. Come on, you need to stop crying so I can get the blood potion in ya - I can't have you choking or you are going to mess up the bones I had to adjust. Sssshhh, there, we are almost done, just calm down."

Artemio hiccuped a couple times as he choked down his crying, and Adriel was finally able to grab a blood replenishing potion so he could tip it into the man's mouth and carefully feed it to him. Art started gaining color in his face again other than the splotchy red from the sobbing that had still looked pale from the bloodloss, and then Adriel pulled out a small plank of wood he reshaped into a flatter board. Art was gently moved just a bit, and while he moaned with anticipated pain, the stiffness of the petrificus spell kept anything from jostling so the wood was easily slipped under him. Adriel sucked on his tongue as he used his wand, hand, and magic to mold the top of the board over the top of Art's shoulder so it would hang down his back if he was standing, then he started to wrap it into place with the clean bandages he had pulled out at the very start. 

"This is going to protect your shoulder from things like the back of chairs and the like, but you shouldn't be moving around much for the first couple of weeks," Adriel said as he frowned to concentrate on making sure everything would be properly wrapped up. "You are right handed, right?" Art gave a small noise in the affirmative. "Good thing this is your left shoulder then - you won't be moving that arm for at least four weeks. I'd get you one of them bone potions if I could, but they are expensive and only the African tribes sell to me since I'm kind of wanted everywhere. Some of the stuff at the top of the list are devilry, piracy, kidnap and ransom, looting and pillaging, only burned a couple towns down but good riddance to those places - one was practicing human sacrifice and another... Well, let's say I saved the innocent and killed the rest." Art made a sound of disbelief and Adriel looked over to see he was glassy eyed. "Ah, drink's kicking in, huh? Damn, should have waited a few more minutes I guess. Oh well, it will make getting you back to my quarters a lot easier. I'll probably have to keep you chained to the bed until we leave port which is not what those shackles are meant for, but I don't trust you to not hurt yourself by trying to escape. Oh, wait, can you brew potions?"

Art looked at him with confusion then nodded his head. "Ravenclaw," he slurred. "I hated Hogwarts so much - everyone there was mean! Everyone on your ship will be mean, too. You... You... That was mean, but the bullet had uhm... Had to come out, right? So are you a nurse for the pirates? We can run away together!"

Adriel realized then that he had not introduced himself to the little scholar and the man had not picked up any of the context clues. "Ah, very very sheltered," he said in a thoughtful tone as he looked down at Art, then he gave him a playful smile. "I'm your nurse for right now. How about we run away to the pirate ship and steal it from them while they are busy with the town?"

Art's eyes widened with shock, then he frowned. "I can't... I can't sail?" he said, offering the information up like a question. "I was never on a boat until the one that brought me here. It was awful and dark and there were so many people chained inside and the man I was chained to died because they didn't give us water. I only survived because they thought I was worth money. It was... So hoooorrible!"

And there went the little scholar's crying once more. Adriel unstunned him and carefully sat him up while making small sounds of comfort, and they were close enough together for Artemio to throw his good arm around Adriel's neck to cry into his chest. "The body got bloated and I was still chained to it!" he wailed. "I never even knew his name because I didn't understand his language! He was definitely African and they only grabbed him two days later when the smell got so bad that they had to pick the man up along with a few others in the hold where I was at! And the other prisoners kicked me because I couldn't stop crying!" 

Adriel awkwardly rubbed the man's lower back as his chest got wet with tears and more snot. It wasn't the first time he had had to comfort a man hugging and crying on him - no, the first time had gone to someone who had been stuck on a small Aegean island for three weeks after a wreck and he just happened to be noticed by his crew - but it was definitely the first time he had had to comfort a man who was whining like a sheltered and virgin noble lady. That had also happened once, and she happily gave him her virginity before she was ransomed back to her family. "Hey now, let's get that other arm in a sling before more damage is done to the shoulder," Adriel said to try to divert the man's attention. "I know it was very very terrible, but I promise as your nurse that nobody will be sticking you in a hold, alright? You will get a nice bed in a room with a window. Nurses are terrifying and nobody disobeys them, right? Well, even the pirates won't disobey this nurse."

"Okay," Artemio warbled out, and Adriel had to grab the earlier handkerchief off of his lap to clean his face off a bit more. "Thank you, you are the best nurse ever. Are you really a pirate nurse? You are too nice to be a pirate."

Adriel smiled with amusement as he pulled out a bolt of cloth. "Little scribe, you have no idea," he said, then winked before he started making the scribe a sling to keep the arm in, one that he spelled to make sure the arm could not be removed from it at all and that the cloth was firmly stuck to the chest. Best not let the man struggle and hurt himself. "Alright, let's run away into that ship together, hm?"

Getting Artemio into the ship had been a rather interesting experience since they had had to pass right through the middle of the town that his men were looting. The crew laughed as he insisted that they call him Nurse Red, and they played along with the act in jest as they cringed away from the terrifying nurse and agreed to leave his patient alone. Artemio was very drunk and Adriel was bridal carrying him as this was going on, and he was rather wide eyed with astonishment as he clung tight to his nurse savior.

Chaining Artemio to the bed was very easy, too. Art passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow, and he shacked both ankles and Art's right wrist with padded cuffs that were meant for sex but were strong enough to keep even Adriel down, so keeping Art in place would be easy. With the other arm unable to leave the sling, Adriel was confident that his new cabin boy was not going anywhere, and he went back out into the town to join the celebration while making sure that the regular commoners were left unmolested with several volunteering to join his ship. In taking the town, eight had been injured, another three heavily injured to where Adriel had to use his magic on them, and four had died (two in that first cannon blast, one when Amon took the Caravel, and one in the beach battle), but he got twelve men pressed into a one year service and six volunteers so there were more than enough to crew both ships.

The townsfolk stayed within their homes on that first day and night, however. Most were probably expecting for the revelry to get them dragged out of their homes for 'entertainment,' however the bosuns and the gunners made sure to keep the crew in line. Only two men had to be thrown into the ship's brig for the night, and the slaves in the other hold had been released by Adriel. There was a mix of people in there from as far south to Africa to as far north as France, and Adriel spoke with them. Some wanted to stay in the town and try to make a new life, but most decided to join his crew to serve as a year or as a permanent member with half shares to begin with. Manning both boats would not be any problem whatsoever, and Adriel spent the evening thinking about who he would be promoting to officer positions on the new ship as he got the new and the old to mingle and play games.

Artemio didn't stir at all when Adriel made his way back to his room so late that night that it was only a few hours from dawn. He wrinkled his nose when he realized how bad the man in his bed smelled, however, and used spells to clean him off since it was the best he could do for the moment. The last of the rags were also vanished, and he paused to admire the man's body, then he stripped off his own shirt and boots before he climbed in to sleep on the man's uninjured right side and figured the scribe would probably be his morning alarm to wake up after he covered him to the waist with a sheet.





Adriel was not woken up to a scream like he had expected. He woke up with a yawn, realized he had overslept by the light that was coming in through the curtains of his cabin, and glanced down when he heard a whimper of fear. "Ah, decided to stay quiet and still rather than wake me up?" he asked Artemio with a smile, but the only response was those eyes darting around the room for an escape. "Mmm, don't worry, it isn't the first time I've woken up with someone in my bed who didn't know my name." Another whimper. "Captain Adriel the Red of the Wild Mustang - and you are my new cabin boy. How much of yesterday do you remember?"

Artemio flushed when Adriel admitted that it wasn't the first time he woke with someone in his bed, then paled when he introduced himself, and looked very faint when he mentioned he was now a cabin boy. "Just..." Artemio grimaced as he glanced down at his shoulder. "You dug out the bullet and told me I had to keep my arm still since the bone was shattered," he confessed. "I uh... I'm naked! And you are-"

"Still wearing pants," Adriel interrupted with a grin, and Artemio looked faint with relief now. "Don't worry - I just cleaned you up a bit and got rid of those rags, but it was too late to try to find you something to wear so I covered you with a sheet. No, not all the way - it is summer, you look dehydrated and malnourished no doubt from that time in the hold, and you need to drink and eat before you go sweating and such. Just so you know, the other people in that hold were released and have either decided to stay here in this town or they have joined my crew, but they will not be allowed to touch you. My whole crew already know that you are to be untouched and that you will be teaching some of them some stuff while drawing us up some new maps and such. You will be staying in my quarters until I deem you are able to move around, however, and I will be keeping you shackled to my bed while in port since you seem the type to try to sneak away. These are a lot more comfortable though, right?" 

Artemio shook as he nodded a yes to the last question, then he cringed when Adriel moved. However, Adriel was only undoing the shackle on his right wrist. "I don't know how to teach," Art said. "No, I had to teach one class on history once, but I did so bad that they sent me out to copy texts to bring back. All because my students were too stupid to learn!"

Adriel frowned down at Artemio. "Look, Art," he said, and noted there was no protest to the shortened name so he leaned down to bring their faces close so Art would know he was very serious. "Most of my crew is illiterate and 'stupid' as you call it. While I don't like to force some things out of people, having a crew member disobey an order or not carry one out to the best of their ability is verging on mutiny. You will figure out how to teach those with wands how to cast spells and you will figure out how to teach the navigators about stars and seasons or there will be consequences. Lucky for you, you have two to four weeks of bed rest with which to come up with methods to teach 'stupid' people with. We can actually start with teaching me, however. That vanishing spell you mentioned that would help with bullet removal? I will learn that from you while you are in here, and if you can't figure it out by... Let's say the second week since I am confident that even with a mediocre teacher I could learn that fast. So if I haven't learned it by the second week, I'll find a nice spot to put another bullet in you and maybe you can teach it better when you are faced with being cut open again or getting it vanished out."

Art had shrank back as far as the pillows and mattress would allow and was whimpering as he averted his eyes while he vehemently nodded. "I'll figure it out!" he squeaked out, terrified out of his mind, and Adriel went back to a happy and friendly demeanor. "I'll try my best, I'm sorry I wasn't saying your crew was stupid and I don't think you are stupid either!"

Adriel moved to start unshackling the right leg. "Good, and if you kick me, you lose the foot," he said, still sounding very friendly as he pulled off the leather cuff. "Now that we have the threats out of the way! Some pointers would probably be helpful for you." He leaned over Art's legs to work on the last set of cuffs. "Don't bother with theory - it is probably unnecessary unless they just aren't getting it despite the words and movements being correct. Even then, you are better off using real world analogies or simple explanations. Don't get all smart and fancy with big fancy words, and they will do just fine. My crew are practical folk, not intellectuals, so they don't need the complicated stuff. There we go, you're free now but don't try to get up yourself."

Art stayed still as Adriel straddled him to get off the bed on the other side, then he carefully slid his hand under Art's back where he could support the board and the spine. "Small thing, aren't you," Adriel noted as he lifted him up. Artemio cried out with pain at the movement, but Adriel was sure he had not jostled anything so he kept Art sat up and let the man try to collect his bearings. "If you are wondering - no, I am not interested in having raping you or anything. I have clearly lined out what is expected of you - teaching duties - but you will also be tending to me like a personal servant once you are fit and ready for duty. That means brushing and braiding my hair - I have certain beads that I use for areas that are more dangerous than this dinky town with one cannon and a small militia - serving me dinners, making sure the cabin is clean, and any other small tasks I might have you do." He grabbed Art's legs to rotate his body so they were over the edge of the bed with one hand while he continued to hold him upright. "And I think that's about it. Really, you're going to have a pretty nice and comfortable life here that will be a lot more interesting than copying boring religious text from convents and monasteries or whatever. You said you speak Ancient Greek, right? Well, we are technically in the lands of Ancient Greece - along the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean right past Cyprus, actually. Currently the Ottoman Empire, but the people speak English, Greek, and Turkish in this region. Latin is further north, and the islands speak variations of Demotic. Ah, but I brought up Ancient Greek since there is a Neolithic cave on my island - surprised I have a cave or know the word Neolithic?"

Art had been keeping his head down while he was trying to work through the pain of being moved, but his head had jerked up when Adriel mentioned the cave. "Uh... Both, kind of, but surprised you have a neolithic cave!" he said. "Is it Greek? Where is the island? How do you know if it is Greek? If it is Neolithic, it could be one of the many lost tribes in the texts of historians like Diodorus Siculus and Herodotus! Or even their ancestors!"

Adriel gave Art a smile since the sudden turnabout in his mood was amusing. "Let's get you to my table for a meal and I'll tell you a bit about it," he said with a wink, then he quickly stood Art up before the man could protest or cringe and held him as he cried out in pain again and swayed in his spot. The sheet was caught before it slipped to the floor, and Adriel quickly tied it up into a partial toga to protect Art's modesty. "There, it's ok, just a few steps and I'll gently set you down in the chair - no, don't touch the sheet since it isn't very secure, just hold on to me. Sitting down should feel a lot better than sitting up or standing had, but just keep your body relaxed and don't tense up your shoulders while I settle you in. Hmm, I'll look for some pillows in this town to make your chair more comfortable, too... Both chairs, actually. In colorful velvets and silks!" He helped Art over to the chair now that he as more steady. "Alright, you are going to wrap your good arm around the back of my neck for balance and then trust me to hold your weight." And to his surprise, Art whimpered, but he listened so lowering him on the chair was a lot easier. "There, now that wasn't so bad was it."

Art panted since even that amount of exertion was a bit much for him, but he gave a shaky nod of agreement. "You wouldn't really shoot me, would you?" he asked as he fearfully peeked up at the pirate captain.

Adriel put his hand on his waist and cocked his hip as he grinned down at the fearful little man. "Let's hope I don't have to," he cheerfully replied in a non-answer, then reached out and ruffled Art's hair before he turned around to go to his door and opened it. "AMON!"

The deck was manned only with a skeleton crew, and Adriel eyed them critically to make sure none of them were hung over. Amon himself was hung over as he looked up from the deck to give Adriel a baleful glare, but everyone else looked fine so he grinned down at him. "Ah, drank a bit too much?" he couldn't help but tease and got an angry snarl in reply. "I need breakfast for two in my rooms - something that can be eaten one handed for one of those plates. I want steak for dinner tonight, though... Been a while since I've had some meat that wasn't fish or dried. Have another man slaughter a cow and dedicate it to Poseidon this time I think... He's been blessing us plenty and Ares is getting a bit fat off of our battles anyway."

Amon barked out some orders to two of the other men then turned to scowl back at Adriel. "Slept in so late because your new cabin boy was properly thanking you for saving him?" Amon asked, his expression bordering on a sneer though he was smart enough to not let it get that far.

"Nah," Adriel said with a dismissive wave. "Was babysitting the boys last night and expected the scholar to scream me awake. Guy was quiet as a mouse and just as fearful - probably laid there as still as possible for hours before I woke up. He's crippled at the moment, doubt he will be expressing anything but fear and pain for a while." Amon snorted with amusement, then looked a bit wary when Adriel gave him a friendly smile. "Is my poor widdle first mate missing his new wife Layla so trying to poke fun at the scholar?"

Amon's expression soured again and he scowled at Adriel once more. "Ever since she's gotten pregnant, she's become a terror," he bitched. "Better watch out cap - we might be returning home to a new reigning queen and you will have to find a new island."

Adriel's expression brightened and Amon's expression fell. "Or I'll just have to take her as my queen and feed you to the sharks," he teased with a grin before he glanced over at the ship Deep Waters. "How's the other ship looking?"

"Needs to be cleaned, but no ghosts or curses," Amon said, grateful for the change in topic before Adriel could tease him more. "You want the sails dipped in blood?"

Adriel rolled his eyes. "Of course I do," he answered. "I'm not Adriel the Red for nothing! Best to keep the legend up - new town with a new ship sailing red. Should make the ICW think twice about looking for my island again. I still can't believe they are beginning to think about putting a ban on magic! Actually, no, I don't want to think about it before I've had my meal. Take a break, Amon, and go sleep off your hangover."

Amon grunted then turned to go below decks as Adriel looked over the deck once more. It looked like the released slaves from the hold were being taught how to scrub the decks and how to tie knots at the moment by his communication officer and his land officer, so he nodded at the two to carry on before he went back into his room. "Breakfast will be coming, Art," he cheerfully said as he walked past the scholar to pull the curtains apart and open the windows. "We are going to need to figure out how to get you clean as well - I'm sure you agree that spells are not good enough." He turned around and saw Art looking at him with disbelief and shock but squinting as well from the light. "What, don't want to get cleaned up from the stench of slavery?"

"No I do but I can bathe myself!" Art declared with a scowl, then lowered his head and brought his right hand to his temple to rub it. "Now that I'm up, I'm sure I can walk around and do things with one hand just fine on my own."

"Ah, you've never had to heal the non-magical way before, have you," Adriel said with a grin as he pulled out the chair opposite of Art to plop down on. "Hung over, too. I should have thought about it, but you were pretty perky and energetic so I figured you were fine. Nothing a bit of willow bark tea won't fix, and it should help dull the shoulder pain a bit as well. So, let's talk a bit about the island then! I've made a bit of a headway into it, but it is trapped to hell and back and was definitely some kind of community and worship spot. Maybe. It's a strange place, anyway."

Adriel got up again to go to one of the chests in the corner. "What do you mean by never having to heal the non-magical way and why would I even want to drink tea bark?" Art asked as he watched Adriel open up the chest to rummage around in it. "And how would you know what kind of spot it was?"

Adriel clicked his tongue in warning as he pulled out the statue he had been looking for. "Watch it - I might take a bit of lip from some people, buy you haven't earned that right and I don't take well to condescension," he warned as he sat down and put the statue on the table between them. "How I know is irrelevant, but the fact is I do know what I'm talking about. I can do things with magic that you, with your reliance on your wand, can only dream of. So even if I don't know many spells you might consider basic, it doesn't mean I haven't learned my own things, too. Interesting, yes?" Art had almost reverently picked up the statue he had put down, and nodded as he inspected it in the light and practically forgot the headache he had. "That's one of the things from the cave. There are entire homes carved inside of it and... It looks like everyone just stopped what they were doing one day and just left. The only indication that shows they knew they were not coming back was how they left magical and non-magical traps and even sealed the whole thing up behind them, but they left everything in those homes and the cave goes deep into the mountain with many branching 'roads.' The statues they have on the little altars inside the houses have weird non-human looking things... That one is the more humanoid ones to be honest, and some of the statues are downright disturbing. Every home and every street is a battle to get through, and I only take Amon and a couple others who have learning from Uagadou with me. Those wizards stay back home - recovered slaves missing limbs or are terrified of ships and open waters. They were sold into slavery by their own tribes or by rival tribes for witchcraft so they didn't want to return."

Art gasped in shock and carefully set the statue down. "They sell their own people?!" he asked in outrage.

Adriel shrugged. "It happens with some tribal cultures," he said in a dismissive tone. "I know it must be rather shocking to you with your sheltered life, but it is pretty common in most of the world. Even the lands I'm originally from have those things happening in some of the civilizations."

Art looked at Adriel with confusion, then blushed. "You should put a shirt on!" he suddenly yelped as he raised his one good hand to cover his eyes. "You are indecent!"

Adriel threw his head back and laughed, then lazily stretched his arms and his legs which meant leaning his chair back on its back legs. "Nnnnn, and you are wearing a sheet," he playfully pointed out, then let his chair thump down. "Get used to it - a lot of the men and the women tend to go bare chested in the mornings and the evenings when the sun is not dangerous. That is also the time you will be teaching people, and if you try to order them to wear clothes, they will laugh at you as well." The red faced scribe seemed to have lost his voice for the moment and would not open his eyes even when his right hand flew to the sheet's knot Adriel had made on his left shoulder to make sure it was still there. "I'm sure you want to move past the topic of what we are and are not wearing at the moment-" Art eeped and Adriel saw his body shift in a way that meant he had either squeezed his legs shut or crossed them "-I will say I have plans to get you clothes while I am getting the pillows, too. Like everyone else, you will have to make do with whatever is found in your size, but you are very thin and probably don't bulk up anyway, mostly the women will be getting their dibs over you. I'll make sure to pick one outfit out before the others get to the pile so you have something you might be proud to wear, but until you start earning your keep by pulling your own weight, the others get loot before you."

Artemio started to slump, but the move jostled his hurt shoulder so he stiffened up and just hung head head instead. "I'm fine with commoner clothes - I prefer those over robes," he mumbled. 

"Ah, you are thinking clothes from up north," he said with a shake of his head. "No, you can expect shalwar here - the baggy pants I wear. Yours will probably be to the ankles since the ones to the calves or knees are grabbed pretty quickly, but I'm sure you prefer that with your light skin. You will burn quick! Hm, so a jubba as well, but since you don't like robes, I will also grab something like a tunic for you to wear in the mornings and the evenings. The rest will be whatever is left over, so probably two or three random articles. Ah, I should make sure you have sandals as well. Those I will take measurements for and talking to the cobbler if there is one here since having proper shoes on a ship is very important. You will go without footwear while in my cabin, however... I'm sure you do not wish for me to put them on you every time you want to get out of bed."

Art blushed and looked away, but before Adriel could say anything else, one of the kitchen boys, Charlie, knocked at the door. "Got breakfast, captain!" he announced in a cheerful voice with a large grin that shows he was missing a front tooth. It had been knocked out when he hit a counter in the galley with his face during a storm earlier that year, so he was a lot more cautious about the safety rules and making sure he was in his own bunk for them after making sure the stove was put out first. "Cook was hung over so I got to cook it with some of the fresh supplies we got. Scrambled eggs with goat cheese, bread with a strawberry preserve from the governor's own pantries, some fresh grapes, and some shrimp kebab. Some of the smarter fishermen went out with the tide this morning so the seafood is fresh, I swear."

Adriel frowned a bit at the last part as the plates were set down on the table. "And they all returned?" he asked, worried one might have slipped away to get reinforcements which would cut their stay short.

"Aye, every single fishing boat accounted for now," he said with a nod. "We told them if they are going out, they can't leave sight of the port. Since there were only three, it wasn't a problem. The two boats you ran over belonged to some pretty angry traders though - they've been demanding word all morning and Amon was upset about you sleeping in so he ordered everyone to just let you handle it."

Adriel picked up his fork and waved at Charlie with his other hand. "Tell the men to tie them to the mast the next time they come around making demands," Adriel snorted. "We'll see if they are worth ransom somewhere. Pretty entitled to think they can make demands of a pirate, right, Art?"

Art froze with his fork in his hand, then peeked over at the (not at all) scary looking Charlie before he gave a slow nod. "Right-o," the bubbly sandy blonde haired teenager said with a smile at Art who still looked like he was waiting to be eaten by the kid. "My name's Charlie, Art! Charles, actually, but everyone calls me Charlie. Good to meet you, Art! I gotta get back to the kitchen - Amon mentioned butchering a cow or two so I have to finish sharpening the knives."

Adriel had started eating while Charlie introduced himself to Art and ignored him as he turned and left, but he watched Art as Art made sure the teen really was going before he turned back to his food. "What are the orange things on the stick?" he asked as he poked the stick part of the kebab.

"Shrimp, a type of shellfish," he told Art. "Seafood." Art made a face, but he set his fork down to pick up the stick and took a careful nibble of the one at the end. "All of it is edible, though some people don't like the tail at the end so they only eat it that far," Adriel said with a smile of amusement when Art perked up at the flavor and took another careful but slightly bigger bite. "There have been some English on my crew that said the English don't eat seafood, or if they do, it is only the white fish. I wasn't sure if they were honest or not."

Art nodded as he pulled that shrimp off with his teeth, then he carefully set the stick with the other three shrimp down on his place so he could pick up his fork to poke it into the shrimp. "I've never even seen one before," Art said once his mouth was free. The shrimp was held up so he could look at it for a moment, then he started to slowly munch on it and set the fork down to grab the tail once he got that far. "This part is hard, can I really eat it?"

Adriel nodded then picked up his own kebab. "Yes, though you have to chew and swallow carefully," he said before he pulled off the whole first shrimp with his teeth and started chewing on it tail and all. Art popped the tail in his mouth and started chewing as well, but he apparently didn't care for it much since he scrunched up his nose even though he swallowed it. "Also it is meant to be eaten from the stick, so no need to worry about the fork. Just put the tails on the edge of your plate."

"Alright," Art agreed, and they silently continued their meal even though Art glanced up at him and then at the statue now and again. "Can I ask you some questions?" he finally asked when he was halfway through but looked too full to continue. Adriel nodded so he took a deep breath. "So where is your island?"

"It wouldn't be a secret island if I just told everyone, now would it," Adriel replied with an amused smile. "I'll say it's in the aegean sea and leave it at that - large enough region with thousands of islands, but small enough for you to know it was definitely in the Greek Empire and could very well been an island in Homer's tales."

"How do you know those things?" he asked in a more insistent tone. "Where did you go to school at?"

"I didn't go to school," Adriel answered, then pointed at Art's untouched grapes. "Eat some of those - you might have scurvy or could still develop it from the time in the hold. Anyway, I'm kind of self taught, kind of learned from others, and the rest is pretty much experience. I can read and write and even write up magical contracts that would make the goblins weep with envy, but I am not a fan of dry texts so I tend to learn from people like you who do like those kinds of dry texts. Your sort tends to be pretty nosy about finding interesting places but ends up finding themselves in interesting and not very good situations. My last cabin boy was a scholar from Paris who stuck around for two years rather than one because he wanted to, and he said he will probably ask to join again later since I see all of the best places and do all of the best things for fun he can't find out in France. He was fun enough that I didn't even ransom him back to his family even if he was a lord - a young and rather silly one, but still smart and fun. You don't seem the very fun type, though."

Art scowled as he swallowed the grape he had been chewing on. "I can too be fun!" he indignantly huffed. "Just because I like books doesn't mean I'm not fun!"

Adriel could tell his own eyes were probably sparkling with hidden laughter as he gave Art a sultry smile. "Oh, so that means you really do want to have sex with me?" he asked, then stopped holding back his laugh when Art turned absolutely red all the way to the tip of his ears as he opened and shut his mouth a few times.

---

Art declared that the magicals on his ship could cast at least up to third year spells with a one of the better ones able to get a mastery Charms if they learned the theory side and got tested. The navigators all knew their star charts, and one of the new cooks that joined a couple months after Art turned out to be magical and could brew some simple potions, too. The African wizards had their own potions as well, but it was good to have some English ones available like the calming one that didn't leave the recipient sleepy or fuzzy headed like the African one did. Adriel was also taught the vanishing charm, the summoning one, and a couple more healing charms as well though he was declared absolutely impossible when it came to many others. 

Art also enjoyed the downtime on Adriel's island during storm seasons when he got to see the Neolithic cave. He was not a fan of the very creepy figurines that Adriel refused to touch that were still in most houses, and after he studied one that looked very alien and malignant, he didn't touch another one again and claimed that first one gave him nightmares for many days and slept in Adriel's bed with him to ward them off. After the close quarters of his room on the ship and Art having to sleep with him in there every day, he was not too embarrassed about crawling in when he had nightmares. Art had many nightmares ranging from his time in the hold to the battle he saw in the cave when the governor and the slave captain killed each other and all the way back to how he was treated in Hogwarts and at Oxford. Adriel liked to think that other places like the ruins on Delos Island made up for those nightmares, though - the crew was rather used to Adriel wanting to drop anchor to look at any ruins they passed by, and Art was always so excited when a new one was spotted by Adriel through the spyglass.

Adriel was now sailing towards France though to drop his little scholar off in Marseilles with a pouch and travel vouchers that would get him all the way to London, but Art had retreated into himself. He did his duties by brushing Adriel's hair and would tell ancient stories if Adriel asked for them, but he didn't volunteer anything and was quick to retreat into the cabin if he was not needed to be alone.

"Alright Art, what's got you all upset this time?" Adriel sighed as he walked into his room. "We're only three days out from France. I thought you would be more happy about going home!"

Art looked up at him from where he was curled up in the bed with one of the many books Adriel actually did own but did not read because it was 'too dry and boring,' and his expression was miserable while his eyes were red from crying. "I know," he said in a gloomy voice. "I... Do I have to leave?"

Adriel pursed his lips as he eyed Art. The scholar looked a lot more healthy now than he did when he first found him though he had a small scar on his forehead still from falling off the top deck and down to the bottom one during a day with pretty choppy waters. "Your term is up, and while having a teacher on board and on the island is nice - especially the literacy rate now - a pirate's life is no place for a teacher," he said very firmly. "You always talk about wanting your books back at your library! Why are you so upset now?"

Art looked down and blinked a couple times as his eyes watered up. "I don't want to go," he admitted in a small voice. "I... I am having fun with you."

Adriel put a hand on his hip as he shook his head at Art. "And you know my stance on fun," he sighed. "I really want my bed back for that - you are not bad company, but you get so upset when I have to kick you out of my room and then insist that the bedding and everything get washed the next day! I'm very clean, and there is nothing wrong with spells!"

Art flushed red and curled himself up tighter. Adriel could tell Art's defensive posture meant that he was terrified of what he was going to say next, so he walked over to his chair to sit on it, kicked his feet up on the table, and relaxed as he waited for Art to spit out what he was going to say or decide he wasn't going to say it after all. After several minutes, he heard something come out of Art, but it was so quiet that he did not catch a single word. "Speak up a bit, I didn't catch that," he said with a little bit of impatience since Art was being very silly about the whole thing.

"I said... I can too be fun!" Art said in a louder tone, then twisted around to scowl more defiantly at Adriel. "You said Antoine was with you for two years and you were fine with taking him for longer because he was fun! I can be fun, too!"

Adriel let his chair fall back down on all four legs as he looked at Art with surprise. "You won't even talk about those things!" he exclaimed right back, then he took his feet off the table to stand up and stalked over to Art. "Prove it."

"What?" Art squeaked as he dropped the book into his lap and looked up at Adriel as a new blush started to spread across his cheeks. "Now?!"

Adriel gave a cocky grin as he got on the bed on his hands and knees to prowl towards Art who started to scoot himself back, pausing only to kick off his boots real quick. "Right now," he agreed. "I've had you pressed up against me so many times that you know I'm very much into you, and I've felt your own arousal pressed up against my thigh on some mornings. So you want another year with me? Prove it. Show me how fun you can be."

Art stopped backing up and he watched as Adriel started crawling up over his body and gulped hard. "Okay," he agreed, and Adriel smiled wider when he saw Art's pupils dilate. "Yes, okay... I can do this. I read a lot of books and even took a look at some Chinese pillow art and then went through the kama sutra," he began to babble, but it ended on a moan when Adriel's mouth came down on his to shut him up, and a second moan came out when he ground their crotches together.

"Which page then, Artemio?" Adriel purred before he started kissing down the column of Art's neck.

"Uuuuh," Art moaned, his brain not immediately registering the question as he bucked his hips up to grind against Adriel. "Eighteenth illustration ok?"

"That's a good start," Adriel agreed as he pulled Art up into a sitting position so he could start tugging off his shirt. Art realized what was happening a moment after he was tangled up in it and he started struggling out of it as well. "How many do you think we can get through in a year?"

Art gasped as he finally got free, then he pounced on Adriel to knock him back on the bed with his own (slightly) vicious grin to really prove that he could be fun and was pleased when Adriel laughed. "I'm pretty confident we can get through all but the ones that requires us to be a contortionist," he declared as he sat back a little to unlaced Adriel's pants. "Then maybe the year after that we can do the Chinese illustrations."

"Mmm, I'll have to buy a lot more of those illustration books for you," Adriel said as he eagerly pulled off his own shirt while raising his hips so Art could start tugging off his pants. "You would think I would stop underestimating your determination, but I'm guessing you've been thinking about this for a while."

"The last couple months," Art admitted in a shy voice, and then Adriel flipped them both over so he could pull of Art's pants next. There was very little conversation after that once the kissing started again, and Art very much proved how fun he could be with illustrations twelve and twenty six as well that night.

---

Art woke up with a gasp of pain, then whimpered when opening his eyes shot more stabbing pain into his brain and squeezed them shut. Waking up in pain and misery have become a common this for the past few weeks, but this was a lot worse than he was used to. The gnawing hunger in his stomach with the sandpaper feeling in his throat was still with him as was feeling like one giant bruise, but the hot and almost feverish thing was new, the headache was way worse than normal, and his shoulder was absolutely on fire.

Oh. And rather than shackles on only his legs, there was one on his right wrist, too, while his left arm was tied down by something. The one on his wrist was a lot softer though when he quietly tested it, and he wondered what was wrong with his shoulder. Had he been whipped or stabbed by one of the guards like he had seen them do to some of the other slaves? Art had been slapped a few times by the guards for his crying, and the other prisoners would kick or punch him as well here and there, but they stopped after a while since he didn't have a lot of water and was too dehydrated and tired to cry as much as he had at first.

Art realized then that the surface he was laying on was softer for the most part. There was something hard and uncomfortable on the back of the shoulder that was in pain, and he tried shifting a little bit to see if that was causing him to hurt so much. A bolt of pain made him freeze and hold his breath before he cried out and got in trouble from the guards who still did slap him if he got too noisy, and then he carefully cracked one eye open so he could peek down.

It looked like his entire left side was covered in bandages or something, and for a terrifying moment he thought he had lost his left arm. But no, he could wiggle the fingers of that hand and feel the movement on his chest, so he relaxed and more carefully tried to think over his recent memories.

The ship had docked for the second time he had boarded it, and he and everyone else in the holds were forced out with kicks and cracking whips onto a wooden dock. The big and grizzled man with a bushy beard that was the captain was already there and talking to another man in robes and a head covering that was obviously middle east, ottoman, arabic, or something along those lines, and then the nuns at the convent he had been with were led forward. They looked in slightly better condition than he was in, but it still wasn't very good condition at all. He could see bruises on some arms that were visible through their torn and dirty robes, and the one gentlewoman that had been in the bunch was trying to make herself as unnoticeable as possible when the man in the headcovering leered at them. Then the captain pointed at Art and jabbered for a moment, and both looked at him with a frown before the man he was talking to nodded. Art was shoved forward by one of the guards when the captain barked an order, and he fell flat on his face because he was still chained to the other prisoners.

Art was too exhausted to feel humiliated when the people around him laughed. He was unshackled instead, then kicked while the guard yelled "UP!" and then kicked again when he was too slow to stand. He briefly contemplated just giving up right then and there, but getting kicked and whipped to death sounded worse than standing up and obeying, so he pushed himself up quicker and stood still while he was shacked to the chain the nuns were on. Then all of them were shoved forward while the rest of the prisoners were shepherded back to the boat.

Art zoned in and out of awareness for the next few hours. He was sure one of the nuns tried to whisper to him, but he didn't catch  or respond to it at all. One of the guards came by to shove water down his throat and he choked on it hard enough to look at his surroundings - the middle of a town square in gods knows where - and then more unawareness until he and the nuns were being shoved towards a terrifying mountain trail up the side of a steep cliff while everyone was sounding panicked. Art himself felt panic since everyone else looked scared and were pointing towards the bay, and when Art looked over, he saw a ship with bright red sails coming into the port without slowing down at all. Then he was pushed and wasn't able to look back at all as he tries his best not to fall off the mountain he was behind forced to climb, but he could hear the screams and the docks being torn apart by whatever it was that was attacking the town.

Pirates or slave traders going after a small seaside convent in Spain was improbable but possible - Art had been taken from one after all. Magical Oxford wanted Art to fetch things that the Spanish Inquisition might have confiscated or make copies of them for the library as he acted like a muggle to avoid being burned as a witch. A terrifying job just because he had not been able to teach a classroom of idiots! And now pirates were attacking a real town with an actual military force, but only the most powerful pirates like the sea dog John Ward who was so vicious that he became a corsair before he finally retired. RETIRED! Art felt himself begin to hyperventilate since a pirate that could attack a town was more terrifying than a stupid mountain trail, and he was very relieved to stumble into the cave as a bunch of gunfire started going off on the beach.

He and the nuns huddled in the back of the cave together while one of them whispered an update of what she knew to Art. The man with the head thing was the Ottoman governor of the town, and they were being sold to him. He planned to keep one of the nuns for himself, but he was going to take the rest of them further inland to be sold to a larger city, and from there they would all probably end up getting split apart as people bought them on the auction blocks. Oh, and the ship captain was an Ottoman corsair. That last was thrown in as an afterthought by the nun, but Art was panicking again since he didn't want to be an Ottoman slave! He also didn't want the pirates outside winning. It sounded like they were winning going by what the nun was translating, then the cannon went off, Art was deafened, and when he could hear once more, it was to someone screaming that it was 'Captain Adriel the Red!' And then, in accented English, surrender was demanded because the cave was surrounded, and Art didn't understand why but the captain and the governor turned to argue only it quickly escalated to a gun fight.

A gun fight! Inside a CAVE! Art and the nuns huddled even tighter together as they cried out while the fighting was happening and then... Ah. He was shot! That was why his shoulder was hurting! And then pirates were swarming into the cave, the nuns were being lead out, and Art was carried out by two men while he was trying not to cry since he was sure these pirates would be way worse and would do more than just slap him if he got noisy.

Except that didn't happen. The nuns dropped to their knees and begged... The most beautiful man Adriel had ever seen. He had long black hair with a red bandana around his forehead, a silky red shirt that had fresh dirt and tears in it that billowed in the wind so that tantalizing hints of the muscles could be seen like an exquisite Roman or Greek statue whose silk gauze was carved so finely that it made one want to reach out and touch, and he wore black Ottoman pants with black boots. Guns and swords were strapped all over him, and Art thought he could be the perfect representation of Ares himself preparing to go forth into battle were it not for the fact that his hair went down to his thighs and was elegantly whipping around in the wind. He was more wild than Ares could ever hope to be and... He had turned to look at Art just as the man who had been hovering over him poured water on his shoulder and made him cry out in pain.

Then the next thing he knew, the man was right by him and was tending to his shoulder himself with gentle hands and a playful smile that looked like it belonged on Pan or Loki. Art was terrified since there was a lot of things he knew was happening around him, but he was missing things because he kept getting distracted by the man above him. He only knew the man wanted to pull the bullet out of his shoulder, but he was just fine! His shoulder was pressed which made him cry out with pain, and he wanted the bullet gone even less. Then there was burning liquid being shoved down his throat, and he was only allowed to gasp for air for a moment before his jaw was grabbed to make him open his mouth and drink some more, and that made him angry.

Oh... He had a wand. Wait, that man was a wizard! Art scowled as he recalled the next part - his shoulder sliced open, and when he still insisted he was fine and to stop because it was hurting so much, he just paralyzed him and did what he wanted! And then... The world went fuzzy and Art was not too sure where he was now. Not in the hold, though.

Feeling like he had a better grasp on what was going on, he peeked his eyes open again to look left at the room. It was a very nice room if on the small side - it was made of wood but there were a lot of silk and velvet things like curtains and tapestries. A thick and expensive looking rug on the floor, a very nice table with four chairs not too far from the bed, many chests and drawers along the walls that no doubt held a lot of valuables, and a large desk over by the window that had very luxurious looking curtains over them. It kind of felt like a boat, only there was no rocking motions associated with the ocean, so he was confused.

He turned his head to look on his right side since there might be something on the wall, but he didn't get a chance to check it. He came face to face with the wild war wizard and his heart nearly stopped because he had not expected that one bit. Wait... Pirate! His war god was a PIRATE WIZARD! The only relief was that the man next to him was asleep! He swallowed a whimper since he didn't dare make a sound that might wake him up and... Realized that the man was not wearing clothes that he could see. The shoulder was bare and his skin was the color of dark English tea with enough milk in it to be just shy of creamy, and Art felt his mouth water.

Right. Tea. He could do with a good cuppa about now. He swallowed another whimper and turned his eyes to the ceiling and prayed that he was just in a very strange fever dream since he also realized he was very naked and it all felt surreal now like one of those 'showing up in transfiguration class naked' nightmares. Oh god... Was he... Did he... No. Art refused to think anymore. He would just recite all of the magical theory laws in his head until something started making sense, he woke up, or he got a good cup of tea. Whichever came first.

It was Christmas Eve. Art and Adriel were in Art's very small kitchen, there was a tiny tree near the couch, not more then a foot tall with only a handful of ornaments. His radio on the windowsill was softly playing the newest Christmas songs, and tomorrow was Christmas. But more important then that, Adriel's grandparents had invited not only Adriel and himself to their farm for Christmas... but Art's family. And Art was very on edge and nervous. Of course he had met Adriel's grandparents, numerous times. And had even spent a couple weeks in summer with Adriel at their farm and even carefully and hesitantly fed Miss Lamby who was now his lamb. And Adriel had met his parents, and his brother, and sister and Carmin and Cecil... and Adriel had even met his grandparents. But other then for a few hours while on Naxos a good few years ago at this point, Adriel's grandparents and his family hadn't really met and spent time together.

Art wanted to do something that he thought everyone would like. So after asking Adriel what his grandparents liked, and knowing his own family he had decided on gingerbread cookies. It seemed most on both sides liked the cookies. And doing something would help take his mind off of the disaster he was hoping would not be happening tomorrow. He could already practically hear the arguments. He could just imagine Sarah saying one mean thing too many to him and well... there dinner would go... Adriel wouldn't take it, and he doubted Adriel's grandmother would either. But thats why he was baking the cookies, getting his mind off of the potential disasters of tomorrow.

He and Adriel had made the cookie dough the day before since it needed to cool and stiffen in the ice box over night, and now were rolling it out and cutting them into shapes and baking them. Art was using his knife to cut the dough into nice shapes. Circles, or trying to make them into little men, he tried to make a few other christmas shapes like a tree or a star. Things were starting to get a bit tedious, they had gone a little overboard and made a bit too much dough. They had already made a couple batches so there were at least twenty cookies. Which was enough for two each with all ten of them, along with of course whatever his parents were going to bring since he was sure his mother would never show up without something whether it be something like an apple pie or something like Borracho Cake that his father would make. And he was sure Adriel's grandparents along with dinner probably made something for dessert. There was still so much dough left!! So Art was just cutting and making shapes to continue to bake.

However Adriel was cutting his into... an odd shape. He paused. Was... it supposed to be a quill? It didn't look like a quill. He tilted his head trying to figure out what it was. It looked like Adriel had made a few of them. It didn't look Christmas shaped... "What is that?" he asked since he couldn't figure it out. Adriel glanced up a bit surprised with a smile.

"You should know, you've seen both of ours enough" Adriel said. Art looked at him confused but then realization slowly dawned on him as he realized just what Adriel said and then looked at the shape of them.

"Adriel!! These are for Christmas!! For our families!! You can't do that! We can't bring those!!" Art said absolutely horrified. Their first Christmas with everyone! They couldn't bring those!!

Adriel shrugged "We already have twenty cooling and down. And another batch in the oven cooking. So at least twenty six that can be taken. And you have at least another five there that are appropriate shapes. Thats thirty two cookies for ten people. There's plenty to take to Christmas dinner tomorrow. So, relax. It's a fun and easy shape to make. You should make some!" Adriel said with a grin.

Art frowned "Theres nothing wrong with having extra cookies unless anyone wants more" he said. Adriel smiled at him.

"But even with extra's we have more then plenty. And since these are just for us they can be any shape you want them to be" Adriel said.

Art frowned and seemed unsure. However the timer went off and he went to the oven and got out the newest batch and put them on a rack to cool and put the next batch in. He went back to his dough. He still had enough for one big cookie or two smaller cookies. He supposed Adriel was right. They did have plenty of cookies. He glanced up as Adriel was making yet another phallic image with a big goofy grin on his face. Art looked back down at his cookie dough. He was not going to make any phallic images tht was for sure. But... well he supposed he didn't have to make circles, stars and trees either. He brought his knife down and started to make a shape.

"What is that?" Adriel asked after a minute or so "A reindeer?" he added after a moment.

Art shook his head "Reindeer have antlers. It's... a horse. It's for you" he said and finished picking it up and put it with the other cut cookies that were waiting to be baked. Adriel grinned at him.

"I love it" he said and leaned forward and kissed Art on the cheek. "But I think you can do better then that" Adriel challenged. Art blushed a little when he kissed him but then was confused.

"Do better?" he asked.

Adriel grinned "Let's have a contest to see who can make the best most creative shapes!" he declared. He supposed that would be fun, and it would get Adriel to stop making phallic images. He nodded.

"Alright" Art agreed. They both started with a new sheet of rolled out dough. Art got out the last batch and put a new batch in so they would ahve some time to just work on the cookies. And then they were off!

Art decided he would make lots of iamges having to do with Ancient Greece or Rome or Egypt. He made Poseidon's Trident, Zues' lightening bolt, a sword, the hammer of Hepheastus, he even tried to make Cerebus the three headed dog of Hades, and also made some Egyptian heroglyphs like the Eye of Horace, a scarab, and symbol of life.

Adriel on the other hand was making a mix of stuff, he was making animals, and some Navajo symbols like the four mountains, and also made some copies of ancient pottery that depicted sexual positions.

The timer went off signaling their time was up and Art got out the new batch and put them on the cooling rack after putting the last batch in a container with the rest cookies to bring to the Christmas dinner tomorrow. It was the last batch that could go.

Then they looked over their master pieces. They both had plenty of creativity, and Art couldn't help but blush at seeing the new images Adriel had made.

"Who won?" Art asked. Adriel shrugged.

"I'd say its a tie" he leaned down and kissed him "Did you have fun?" he asked. Art gave a small smile and nodded, it did have fun. And now he had cookies that were shapes of things he really enjoyed.

"I did" he agreed and then they started to bake the last couple of batches of cookies, finally run out of dough.

Epilogue

It was Christmas day and while Art was incredibly nervous things were going...pretty well. Sarah was being mostly well behaved. His parents seemed to get along with Adriel's grandparents very well. Carmin loved the lambs and cooed over them and he even got to show her Miss Lamby and feed Miss Lamby. And.. it felt nice and warm and cozy. He liked it. Dinner was absolutely delicious, and they had more then plenty of desserts between a pie that Adriel's grandmother had made, some beunolos his father had made, and the gingerbread cookies they had brought. Everyone was enjoying them, and talking and his nerves were finally ebbing away. It wasn't a disaster! Things were going so well!

"What is this?" Art looked to see Sarah holding up... one of the phallic images Adriel had made into a cookie and prompty felt like melting into his chair and disappearing.

So much for a nice Christmas!

"Remember not to touch anything," Adriel reminded Art as he opened the door for the thrift shop in Knockturn Alley, then said the next bit under his breath. "Gods, I hope there are no dancing statues in here."

"I know," Art said in an irritated voice even though he was crowded up close to Adriel as they walked in to see what the store might have. They both had to shuffle back a bit to let someone with a deep cowl leave the shop, and the man did not even thank them as he pushed past. "You said that at the last two shops, too! Borgin had the more dangerous things labeled or in display cases so everything will be fine!"

Adriel sighed as he stepped in, then nodded at the ancient and bald hag that owned the shop. "Afternoon, Mable," he greeted her as Art stared with wide-eyed awe at the amount of junk available. Well, most of it was junk, but there were actual gems inside of various piled. This was actually were Adriel had found his apothecary case he used to hold a good portion of his Rune tools and there were a lot of shiny and pretty bottles that he liked to buy, but the hag was as much of a magpie as he was. She tended to dumpster dive in muggle london to pick up her things, would repair the broken stuff, then bring it back to sell in her shop. "Brought a customer for you."

"Oh, he is a wizard, he is!" she exclaimed as she leered at Art, but Art was busy looking into the glass cases so he didn't even notice her look to Adriel's amusement and her disappointment. It didn't stop her from trying again, though. "Will he be paying in toes or fingers?"

"Adriel, look!" Art exclaimed as he pointed into the case, completely missing what the hag said. "That's a Crusades era reliquary! Amethyst was a very precious stone in that period!"

Adriel blink as he glanced at it then shook his head. No matter how much he coached Art not to show interest in the objects he actually wanted to get a good deal, Art would still get excited when he saw something interesting. "Don't bother," he told both Art and Mable. Art in regards to the reliquary, and Mabel in regards to her efforts at intimidating Art since he was far too excited at the moment to be intimidated by anything shy of someone looming over or grabbing him. "Almost every piece of jewelry you see here will be cursed. Besides, you are looking for something to decorate your apartment with, remember?"

Art scowled at Adriel, looked back at the case with disappointment, then nodded. "For the window or the windowsill," Art grumbled, then peered at the next case where there was a colorful Fabergé phoenix egg. An extremely dark object since it meant that someone raided a phoenix's nest and killed the fetus within and usually had some very interesting sacrificial type curses hidden inside, but Art didn't seem aware of that since he turned to look at the stuff on the shelves.

"So anything you think I might like?" he asked Mable to distract her from Art's ability to offend even a hag with the way he could admire something as minor as a reliquary but then completely dismiss the highly valuable egg like it was trash. "I actually have a whole workshop to furnish and such, so if you have things like tanning racks, carpentry tools, or leatherworking equipment, I wouldn't mind taking a look at them. Magical or non-magical, you know I'm not too picky."

Mabel grinned at him and she beckoned him towards the back room. They took no more than a couple steps, however, before there was a thump and a clatter that had them both turning, and Adriel sighed when he saw a newborn baby scrunch up its nose then begin to wail as it flailed around in the shirt Art had been wearing. "Oh, he picked up the carriage!" Mabel exclaimed with a frown. "Was on a shelf right there it was, and it was a one time curse. All wasted - I expect to be paid for that, I do!"

Adriel frowned as well at the sobbing baby and the overturned baby buggy next to him. "I keep telling you not to say things like 'everything will be fine,' Art," he chided his friend with a sigh as he walked over to swaddle him in his own shirt. "Alright, what is the counter, Mable?"

"Ain't no counter, is there," she said as she hobbled over to pick up the carriage to inspect it for damage from its fall. "Not much I can do, I'm afraid."

Adriel finished picking up Art and made sure the head was supported properly before he turned to give Mabel an incredulous look. "Did you have this set up so you could have a meal?!" he accusingly asked. "Expected a single customer, had two, and thought Art might actually - stop wailing, Art, this is your fault as well - you thought he might listen to my warning to not touch anything?!"

The old hag scowled at Adriel and his accusation. "Of course not!" she vehemently denied. "Mable didn't grow to be all ancient by eating her own customers, she didn't! It were sold to me just before you came in - that man in the cloak hiding his face, it was - so I put it on the shelf with the other stuff to organize later!"

Adriel took a deep breath to calm himself and then frowned at the wailing baby. "Calm down, Art," Adriel told him. "I'll get you to Saint Mungo." He looked up at Mable with his lips pursed. "There better be a counter or I'll be reporting you, Mable!"

Mable looked... Not guilty. Hags didn't get guilty like the unrepentant man-eaters that they were. She did look distressed, though. "No need for that, Adriel," she wheedled as she toyed with the carriage in both hands. "Your friend is a baby and remembers nothing, he doesn't. But he will age one year each month until he catches up to his real age, he will!" She took a step back when Adriel looked ready to murder her. "And! And! He will remember everything once the growing be done, he will!" Adriel was definitely angry now, and he shifted Art into one arm so he could draw his wand. "Mable is licensed for cursed items, she is! Your friend touched it even with warnings so I could sue for damage, I could!"

Adriel scowled and hesitated since assaulting a store owner in their own store was illegal. She was a hag so he could get away with it, but it was against his morals since she was right in that Art had touched and had been the idiot in this. "Fine, nothing is owed," he demanded. "I will just take Art and..." What? Raise him himself? Adriel looked down at Art and frowned as he swaddled him a little tighter to bounce and calm him down. Even if it was a year for a month, that would be thirty two - no, thirty four months and a couple weeks as well since Art would be turning thirty four while stuck in this body. Maybe thirty five! He was too frazzled to count up the months properly, but it would probably be pretty close to thirty five which was Adriel's current age.  There was no way he could raise Art! He had his own island to take care of, would have to now manage Atlantis himself and get things set up there, and also make sure Art's town was done up to his specifications. Plus the mustang reservation. 

"He has family, doesn't he?" Mable offered when Adriel looked a bit lost as to what to do with a baby. "Leave him with them - they be raising him once so they can raise him again!"

Adriel looked up from the sobbing Art back to Mabel askance. Art was a walking mass of issues because of how he was raised the first time - not that his parents were bad parents, but they didn't know how to treat a genius child and Art would be very vulnerable to Sarah and his rotten grandfather so would probably end up even worse off. Plus his childhood education! It wasn't like he could go to Hogwarts to try to cover seven years in seven months! His parents would definitely be unable to handle that. "Fuck, Mable," he cursed, then tucked his wand up behind his ear so he could stoop down to grab the rest of Art's clothes. "Who was that man? I need to track him down over that buggy."

"Mable has no idea, she doesn't," Mable said with a scowl as she lifted the toy up to look at it. "Not unusual for people wanting to get rid of things to secretly sell things to Mable, so she never asks, she doesn't. Mable might be changing that bit of policy now, she might. Mable will give you a bag and some clothes, she will. A bit of an apology, and the toy here, too. Why would he pick it up?"

Adriel sighed as he looked at the object that started the whole mess. "Probably for his teddy bear," Adriel said as he looked over the dimensions of it. "So his statues could push it around." Damn Maroon and those abominations that Art fell in love with. "Even though he was supposed to find things for his apartment." Which would not be inhabited for almost three years, so Adriel would need to pack everything up in there and find somewhere to store them. His grandparent's attic, probably... It was the only way he could ensure they would be safe. "I would appreciate it, Mable."

Then Adriel realized a good place for Art could be his grandparents! They could raise Art! Grams always knew what to do even with Adriel's weird brand of messes. And she had said she would love to have a little one running around again since it was a bit boring because Adriel didn't come around much and he was all grown up so it just wasn't the same. Adriel could also come around a lot more, pass on gifts and books for Art to learn new things since he would remember his old stuff, give him a more rounded education, grams could teach him clothes and etiquette while he was young still, and animals! He could get Art over his fear of animals maybe! Plus all the healthy country air and a huge property to run around on... Art could have a very nice second childhood this way.

Maybe this was a blessing in disguise. Art couldn't even get mad at him over this since it was his own fault, too. Almost three years of managing Art's share of things though.... Almost two years, anyway. Art would probably be getting his memories back at around 20 since that was when guys stopped developing.

Oh. And Art was definitely getting 'the talk' this time, too!



Grams found the whole situation hilarious when Adriel got Art to the farm and told her the tale. Thankfully, she and gramps agreed to raise Art for him, and even though he offered to pay, they waved off his money and told him that he just had to visit often to help when he could. Adriel agreed since that had been the plan, and grams still had baby items in the attic so he set up a nursery in what was one of the guest rooms for them and then went off to go pack up Art's apartment to store in the attic. It took three days, a lot of legal paperwork with the magical ministry so he could get custody of his business partner before Art's family could learn about the situation (the one time he was grateful that Art's father being muggle and the mother is a female meant he got priority as business partner so they didn't even bother to send out notices), dropped the muggle lease on the apartment, and only then went to Art's family to inform them of the news. Elizabeth called an emergency family meeting so Adriel could give them the information at the same time.

Elizabeth was unimpressed when she heard Adriel filed and got emergency custody as business partner, but seemed to marginally relax when she heard that it was Adriel's grandparents that would be raising Art. She didn't seem to mind one bit about the whole Atlantis/resort managing either, but her father, Art's grandfather, demanded rights to things, and Adriel very bluntly informed him that he had absolutely no rights to shit, that he treated Art like shit and subjected him to things like death matches as a young child, so Adriel would not even allow the man to be around Art at all while he grew up the second time around. Especially since his interest was only in the money.

Manuelo was confused about how his son was suddenly a baby and that Adriel had him, but with Adriel's lecture at Elizabeth's father who he had also quietly disagreed with, he was reassured that Adriel had Art's best interest in mind. He spoke up to give his blessings and asked if he would be allowed to see his son, and Adriel said that both Elizabeth and Manuelo were both welcome on the farm on weekends when Adriel was around, but for now, he wanted to keep Art's condition on the down low so that Oxford would not try to steal Atlantis under 'mentally impaired' conditions because Adriel did not want to spend the two years or so battling Oxford in courts.

Even Art's grandfather and sister understood that that would be detrimental to their goals of sucking up to their suddenly wealthy and famous family member, so they agreed along with the others who were more concerned with Art's condition than they were his gold. When everyone had mostly left, Adriel more quietly apologized to Art's parents for taking the opportunity to raise their son a second time, but Elizabeth hugged him, said that Art would prefer for his friend to do this anyway, then told him he was welcome to visit with or without Art any time.



The first six months of Art's care was easy. Adriel popped in a few times to pass off toys and new clothes, and let his grandparents handle him. Art was growing quick, but he was learning motor skills, talking, how to feed baby lambs from bottles, reading, writing, manners, and etiquette. He also went through all of Adriel's childhood books about magical beasts, the wizarding world, and basic history, so Adriel dumped off his muggle school textbooks up to fourth year for Art to read along with some basic science and technology magazines. Nobody thought to cut Art's hair at first, and by the three month mark, it was curly and adorable and nobody really wanted to cut it by then so Adriel shrugged.

However, it was the setting up the management and everything for the resort and Atlantis that was hard. Adriel didn't get to pop over to his tribe lands at all that winter - the paperwork was just that vast. Horse reservation? The paperwork was pretty easy - the Mavros did the heavy lifting there since it belonged to him and there was nothing or nobody else to involve in it until he could actually go to his tribe and try to get some earth Singers to help him make it more habitable for mustangs. The island also was something the Greek ministry was happy to do the heavy lifting on since Adriel was keeping the lions on it. He just read the paperwork over, signed the dotted lines, looked for a Magical Beast master, a magical ecologist, and a magical herbology master, and hired them to begin initial surveys of the land and animals. 

Adriel was being responsible and he hated it so much. Every signature felt like a new chain to tie him down. He didn't dare try to find a manager for Atlantis - not without Art's input - so he was completely handling that on his own. That meant he was in talks and negotiations with magical ministries, universities, and museums, and he was signing on behalf of him and Art when he finally negotiated terms heavily in their favor just so that certain places could have bragging rights about getting their theories published first. The Mavros were in charge of hiring for Art's resort, though he had the ability to fire people which he did exercise for those with bad attitudes that would bring down morale. He also taught the management of Art's resort about the importance of morale and leadership, and warned them that the owner was terrible with both so they were hired to cover for that. 

Art's museum, though? He set up the paperwork for it with the help of the Mavros, but that was definitely going to be left up to Art. Not the furnishing of his villa, though. Adriel was spending so much time in Greece that he had no issues with furnishing it to resemble something that even a Roman emperor would have turned green with envy over. Luxurious furniture and decor meant for the Roman Gods. Barely clothed sensual and decadent statues that were replicas of all of the greater gods and a good portion of the minor gods. Art would be able to bring the King of Spain to his villa if he wanted without feeling like he should apologize for anything like he had with Adriel when he brought Adriel over and there was nothing but a small couch, bookshelves, and a wobbly table in his living room.

Art would hate it, but he left Adriel with the paperwork so Adriel had no problems whatsoever of making sure Art's home was beautiful and comfortable.



When Art officially turned six (six months and two weeks), Adriel picked him up to take him to his resort for the first time. Baby Art absolutely loved the statues, the soft velvet and silk and colors in the villa, and how fun it was that he actually had a table with a couch he could lay on to eat his food. He absolutely loved the house elves that were the same size as he was and declared they were his friends, and most of all, he loved decorating the 'Children's section' of the museum with Adriel explaining history and things directly to him and how the ancient people did this and that. There was a play area that looked like Mount Olympus where the gods lived, a section where parents could rent or buy costumes for their children to play gods (Art absolutely insisted that he was Artemis since he was named after her), another play area set up like a playground they had seen in Atlantis, the 'cave painting' section where kids could fingerpaint on a 'cave wall' that was enchanted so that if paper was pressed to it, the painting would move over to that and leave the wall clean for the next portrait, and then there was the pottery second where unpainted pots could be bought for the children to paint on with picture examples of various ancient pottery for kids like Art who needed an idea of what to color.

Art absolutely loved his modeled section, and Adriel bought several books at Athena's Area along with clothes (he absolutely insisted on a couple green dresses to be as pretty as Artemis), and when Art demanded a dog also because Artemis had one, he bought him a golden retriever puppy as well before they returned to England. Art named the puppy Actaeon after the type of dogs Artemis used as her hunting companion, and Grams sighed at Adriel and told him he was spoiling Art.

Adriel shrugged at the accusation since he was, then said all that mattered was that Art had fun. He stuck around for the weekend to teach Art how to handle and train his puppy, knew gramps would do the majority of it since he loved animals and had trained sheepdogs for the sheep when he was still young and his own father had used them, and then went back to Greece to continue to work.



The next time Adriel visited was two weeks later. Art was effectively seven and was definitely developing a full on personality of cautious curiosity. So much so that he poked an ant while he had been playing with Actaeon outside, the ant chomped down on his finger, and now he was absolutely terrified of ants and would not go near them at all. Adriel went to the muggle side, bought an ant farm kit then took Art to Adriel's own room to set him in his lap at the desk to put it the wood frame together. Art liked watching Adriel put things together since it usually meant something interesting like the play room in the museum, and Adriel explained the runes that he was burning into the wood meant that things could go in, but nothing could get out unless it was opened up all the way. 

Then he told Art a story about ancient China. "Once upon a time, there was a boy emperor, only a few years older than you, and he decided that old people were not needed in the world because they could not work so were only eating food that younger people could eat," he said as he poured in sand. "So old people were kicked out of the towns and the cities and only young people like you or I were left in them where we could work and grow food for each other and the emperor. However, one girl loved her grandmother so much that she didn't allow her to get kicked out - she hid her inside of the house! And when the emperor found out, he was soooo mad that he demanded the grandmother be brought to the palace so he could punish her!"

Art frowned (pouted) and crossed his arms. "I would never let grams get kicked out!" he huffed, and Adriel laughed and kissed the top of his head.

"I know, but you aren't an emperor, you are Artemis, right?" he teased. "Even the emperors had to bow to Artemis!"

"Yeah!" Art agreed with a big grin at Adriel. "Grams said she is buying me a new green dress since I am almost too big for the other ones, too!"

"Good, good, grams knows all the best dresses," Adriel said with a smile. "So when the old lady got to the palace, the emperor asked how dare she stay in the city! The grandmother told the emperor that what he had done was very mean and that old people had wisdom the young should listen to. So the emperor challenged her with an impossible task - to get a very fine silk string through a gnarled up and twisted old branch that had a hole inside of it that could not even fit a pinky finger. That if she was wise, she would be able to get the string through it even though it was as long as her arm and then some! How would you solved that?"

Art furrowed his brows. "I would poke it right through!" he declared.

"Ah, but it is gnarled up and twisty and so is the hole, so everyone else that tried got the string all tangled up inside!" Adriel said right back with a smile. "Any other ideas?"

"Pour it in with water?" Art asked after he carefully thought about it for a minute. "That way it flows through?"

"That would work well with heavier threads like cotton, but a fine and thin silk string would keep trying to float and end up sticked all inside," Adriel explained with a gentle smile. "Do you want to know the answer?" Art scrunched up his nose and then nodded, so Adriel opened up a bag that came with the kit and sprinkled the mix of sugar and crumbs into a pile now that the sand had settled. "She put a pinch of sugar inside, shook it until it came out the other side, but there were some sugar bits stuck inside. Then she went to find an ant tied the delicate string around it, and put it in the hole. The ant moved looking for all the bits of sugar and pulled the string as it did, and when it got to the other side, it and the old woman had solved the impossible puzzle!" Adriel ruffled Art's hair. "Now some ants bite and some ants do not. Instead of being afraid of ants though, it is better to be friends with them because they can do things we cannot! You should respect them instead of kicking them out of the house since you are Artemis and not an emperor that wants to get rid of everything they think is useless like ants and old women, right?"

Art frowned, but he couldn't find a hold in Adriel's logic. "They will eat me!" he stated since that was the glaringly obvious thing that Adriel was missing. "One tried to eat me!!"

"You are bigger and scared the ant, so he bit you," Adriel explained. "That is very different from eating you. Gramps had to kill him to get him off your finger, too! So he had a very good reason to be afraid - little boys and little Artemis that go around poking littler things that can only bite or run away are scary to them. Just like you think the big ram is scary even though you like the little lambs, right?" Art finally gave a reluctant nod even though he had a petulant expression on his face. "Good. So like you have a puppy to raise, this one is my new pet." He set a tiny box into the wood and glass cage, slid the lid open with his finger, then closed the top. "Now you know my magic works, so my pet will never be able to escape unless you or I deliberately keep it open. This is a sugar ant Queen - a Queen is weaker than an emperor or an Artemis goddess - and she likes to eat biscuit crumbs and stuff. Don't you wish you could just live off of chocolate biscuits? Well, that is what she will do! And she will make twisty tunnels in the sand, lay some eggs, and then there will be baby ants that grow up and make more twisty tunnels. An Ant Queen is the only queen in the entire colony, and all of her children work to make the house nice and cozy and collect more cookie crumbs to take to the home for everyone to eat. The queen will get all fat and won't be able to move, so all of her children will have to do that for her because she will be busy making more children - all of who love cookie crumbs and bread and bits of dried fruits and sometimes even other dead bugs. So to be less afraid, watch them and try to make friends with them, but don't leave it open, poke the glass, or do anything mean, rude, or scary. Artemis loves all animals, even the tiny ones like ants, so you should learn about them instead of be afraid of them, okay? Look for the nice and good things they do. Books only teach us so much."

"Okay," Art agreed with a pout, though he kept himself squeezed up against Adriel to stay away from the cage. "What is her name?"

Adriel had not thought about that at all... He was only thinking about how to teach Art how to overcome his fears. "Why don't you think about it and give me a list of names?" he offered. "Maybe read up on sugar ants and stuff for me? I'll be leaving her here in my room, but I am so busy with work during the week that she will get lonely and she doesn't have any kids yet. So I am hoping you will watch over her and protect her just like Artemis would. Grams can feed her yummy food since her cooking is so good, too."

"Yeah!" Art agreed, a lot more enthusiastic since he would get to protect an animal just like his namesake would. "But you should name her like I named my puppy because she is yours, okay?"

Adriel laughed. "Then I will name her Queenie since she is a Queen with the blessing of Artemis."



Two months later, Art was eagerly waiting for him at the portkey spot that his medallion brought him to. "Adriel!" Art cried out, all of nine years old now and running over to hug Adriel around the waist with a handful of wildflowers and wearing a new green dress. "I got you a present this time! I want to give mine first!"

"He was waiting for you for the past hour right here," Grams explained with a laugh as Adriel patted the top of Art's head then ran his fingers through Art's long hair. "We were not sure if you were coming in tonight or tomorrow morning, but he wouldn't move until the sun was down he said."

Adriel grinned at his grams then leaned over to give the top of Art's head a kiss while marveling at how tactile Art was. He recalled Art had mentioned how he had always hated being held, and while Art did not like strangers to touch him nor did he like being picked up by anyone except for Adriel, he seemed to have no issues with initiating hugs or holding hands. "So what is my present then, my little Artemis?" he asked, then got the bundle of flowers shoved at his face.

"Gramps took me to the wildflower field and I picked these just for you!" Art said with a smile, though he was blushing very hard. "Will you marry me?"

Adriel accepted the flowers and made sure to smell them properly. "Mmmm, the flowers smell so good, how could I say no to them or to you?" he teased, then stood up and gave Art his free hand. "Well come along then, my pretty bride. Let's go inside since I'm sure grams has some food on the table. How is Queenie doing?"

Art told Adriel all about the new babies that he had been naming and grinned wide throughout dinner all while blushing. Once he had been put to bed, Adriel helped Grams clean up dinner. "He has quite the crush on you now," Grams giggled. "Even worse than the one he had on you for the medallion ceremony. He has been asking for all the stories from when you were a child, got jealous over the kelpie you wanted to marry, and decided he would ask you to marry him before the kelpie drags you away into his underwater palace where Poseidon would no doubt marry you instead."

"Artemis is supposed to be a virgin goddess that never wants to marry anyone," Adriel grumbled. "He will grow out of it - some of the tribe children also develop crushes on me that goes away by the time they are in their late teens. It's normal, grams, and telling Art no would have broken his heart anyway. It's just a half a year to a year, and I'll let him practice his flirting on me all he wants. I'll need to give him the first talk about danger in a few months, though."



Adriel did start taking Art with him to greece for a day or two once a week from there, however. Art was getting a crash course on how to interact with more people starting with the resort staff and then moving on to the gang children close to Attica that was lead by Little Fox as she had started taking to calling herself. She and Art actually had a bit of a competition with each other for who liked Adriel more by the time Art was '11 years old' and Adriel had to stop taking Art around to that group since they were muggles and Art was growing exceptionally fast.

Eleven also came with a Hogwarts letter, and Adriel had to actually take it to the school and talk to Dippet and Dumbledore both about it. Dippet remembered Art was was surprised that it was the same person - he had thought it was Art's son or something - and Art was removed from the roster while Adriel donated one of the recently published books on Atlantis written by a Harvard graduate that was one of the first people allowed into the site. Art actually looked relieved that he wouldn't be going to school with 'other people that will try to steal my consort (Art's vocabulary was hilarious to Adriel) or mean I won't get to visit Greece but can we try Egypt next? I saw a picture of the pyramids and I want to see the Sphinx and the valley of the kings! I also made sure to read on the snakes and the scorpions and the magical creatures in the area so I won't be afraid, pretty please?'

So Adriel made arrangements and took him to go see Egypt while they stayed with Amon and Layla for that weekend. Layla was absolutely fascinated with Art, how much he had changed, and his thick and wavy hair, and managed to bribe Art with a beautiful green gown if he would let her pretty please style his hair and make him look pretty. Art reluctantly agreed, and when Adriel saw him a few hours later, Layla had gone a little bit overboard but Art gave him a hopeful smile when he was presented.

"You will make the Egyptian goddesses weep with envy, little Artemis," Adriel lightly teased, and Art blushed but looked very pleased by the compliment. "You will need to wear pants and such while we look at the Valley tomorrow though - there is a lot of dirt and a very long climb, and while I will carry you through the harder parts, you should walk some of it yourself since Artemis never gets afraid of the mountains or the valleys, right?"

Art had started to pout over wearing pants, but he nodded at the last part. "Right," he agreed, them smiled at Adriel again. "But today I'm the Pharaoh with my kohl liner just like you wear kohl!"

Adriel blinked as he looked over at Layla who was hiding her giggles - he had thought the makeup was all her idea, but with what Art had just said, it apparently was not. "We both thought it was a good idea," Layla explained with a smile. "I wanted to do green eyeshadow, but he insisted on kohl just like an Egyptian because you liked to line your eyes and it looked pretty, so we did that instead."

"Ah, well, it is okay this time, but grams made me wait until I was older so you should wait also, Art," Adriel said as he smiled at Art. "You look very pretty with it, but you should practice how to paint a little bit with fine brushes since getting makeup in your eyes can be very painful. I'll buy you some kohl when you can draw clean calligraphy lines with a paint brush."

"Okay," Art agreed after he thought about it for a moment. 

The trip to the Valley of the Kings was interesting, and Adriel showed Art the tomb he got to 'work' on when he was his age, too. Art also had to be carried down the mountain since he was completely exhausted by then, and Amon showed Art his own collection of antiques. "He has long hair too," Art whispered to Adriel later that day in regards to Amon's shoulder length hair. "Why don't more boys have long hair like us?"

"It used to be popular in the past, but it isn't fashionable for the most part right now," Adriel explained. "Long hair is considered feminine, and while most would not give me or Amon a hard time about it because we are kind of scary to most people, most will tease or make fun of boys with long hair saying they are acting like a girl. Maybe we should start cutting yours?"

"No!" Art said with a scowl as he pulled away from Adriel. "If you can have yours long, then I will have mine long and I don't care if they think I am a boy or a girl! I want to be like you and like Artemis!"

Adriel smiled at Art. "I won't make you cut your hair - your body is your choice," he agreed in a patient tone. "As long as it doesn't hurt you or others, there is nothing wrong with it. Let's go home back to Grams."



The weekend after Egypt, Adriel got Art's attention while gramps and Art were both reading their own things. "We need to have a very special talk about your body and other people, Art," Adriel said. Gramps looked up from his newspaper while Art looked up from his business economy book that explained what happened with the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Actually, that was one of Adriel's books, but it was a good one for Art to read if he wanted to run a resort. "So you are at an age where people will start looking at how pretty or handsome you are." Art blushed but nodded, and Gramps went back to the paper though with the way his ear was turned, Adriel knew he was paying attention. "It is a good thing to look pretty or handsome, but sometimes it is a bad thing, too. You have read books and seen animals mate, right?"

Art scrunched up his nose with disgust but nodded. "They all have different methods and they do it to lay eggs or to have babies," he said. "Sometimes, like for the bull on the Pritchard farm, they also do it for dominance even if it is with another bull and even if the farmers keep getting angry with each other because the Farmer Henry can't keep his bull from jumping the fence to uh... do that with the bull on the Drunstan farm."

"Good, well, humans also do it, but they also do it for fun or pleasure," Adriel continued as he tried not to laugh because Art was actually talking about country folk gossip. "And unlike animals, we don't have mating seasons. Now, I'm sure the Drunstan bull doesn't like the Pritchard bull to be on him, right?"

Art uncertainly nodded this time. "I saw it once and the Drunstan bull tried to kick the other one, but Farmer Henry's bull is bigger," Art explained. "But besides that once, he just stays still and ignores it."

"Right, well, sometimes one person will do that to another person, too," Adriel explained. "And since you are a boy, it is technically legal at the age of eleven to do that to you. It should not be legal since it can do a lot of internal damage to your organs if it is a man, but I am sure you have noticed your penis can get hard or even wet sometimes?" Art frowned and blushed both as he shifted uncomfortably, but he nodded. "Sometimes a woman can force a man also into mating acts, too. Now, I will explain more about the act of human mating in a few months, but the thing you need to be cautious about are those men and women that might take advantage of how nice you look. In England, sodomy - where someone puts their male genitalia into someone's butt - is illegal on the muggle side. On the wizarding side, the age for mating is seventeen, or fifteen with parental consent, not eleven, so all mating is illegal period. There are criminals who don't care about any of that though and will use physical force or magic to force human mating, or even just take advantage of their authority. Like if I were to tell you that if you really love me, and you really want to marry me, then we should go to my room and mate, but that is very very wrong to do because you are young and it would hurt you, and you would regret it after and wish you never did it, but you would feel like you had to do it because I used my authority and your feelings to make you feel like you had to do it."

Art looked scared, sick, and a little angry, too. "You would never do that!" he protested. "And you would protect me!"

Adriel smiled at Art and nodded. "You are right, I never would do that," he agreed. "And I do protect you. I am not always here, though, and you will be grown up soon and will have to learn about running your resort in Greece when you are legally of age. You will also have to consider if you want to only work in your resort or work in other places. I am sure you noticed you are aging very fast for a human by now, right?" Art looked confused at the change of subject but nodded. "And how you have a mom and dad but you live here instead of there and they come here to visit?" Art frowned a bit but nodded one more. "You are actually thirty three years old, but you were cursed a year ago by an object that you picked up even though I warned you not to touch anything, and it turned you into a baby. You age one year every month, but since I am your business partner and your best friend, your parents agreed I would be able to help you best while we wait for your memories to come back. You used to work for the Oxford library, and we found Atlantis together."

Art gasped then gaped at him. "Wait, you are Adriel Chee and I am that Artemio Reyes from the Atlantis book?!" Art asked, looking shocked and awed both. "Why haven't I got to see it yet?! That's not fair! I want to go see that next!"

Adriel sighed. "Art," he said to get his attention again. "First - it is far too dangerous for you - you and I barely managed to get into it even when we were both adults. Second - you still poke first and ask questions later sometimes, and in a place that is still under investigation, it is exceptionally hazardous to do. Third, there is a twenty years or older ban on it and a mastery or master's degree at the very least - without one of those, nobody is allowed in it. And fourth, we will talk about Atlantis more in a bit, I want to finish the other conversation and I need you to pay attention, okay?"

"Okay," Art agreed with a scowl - the first real one he had aimed at Adriel since he was a baby, though it faltered when Adriel gave him a sad puppy eyes look and turned into a petulant pout instead.

"Good boy," Adriel said as he smiled, and saw Art blush even with his unhappy pout. "So you will be doing adult things in less than a year," he continued. "However, I will also be working, and I really need to go back to my American tribe and I will do that this fall. I have a mother and grandfather out there that miss me, and I have lessons to teach and to learn as well. That means I will not be here to protect you, and there will be a lot of people that will want you because you are pretty, rich, and famous. If they can, they might even try to use potions or spells to ensnare you and get you to marry them. There are things you can do to protect yourself from that - learn spells that detect potions and poisons in food and drinks, hire a barrister that has instructions to have you checked for spells, curses, and potions before you make major legal decisions, major purchases for others, or get married-"

"I am marrying you," Art interrupted with a frown. "I don't need to think about it."

"You do because you might fall in love with a woman so you can have children, or you might get dosed with amortentia," Adriel quickly retorted back. "There are many reasons to think about it, Art. Please don't interrupt. So detection spells, a barrister, or even just being careful not to eat or drink anything and don't go off alone with anyone you don't know. When in public, always stay in areas that will be hard for anyone to snatch and steal you, and if someone does grab you, bite, kick, and punch. I want to hire someone to teach you some basic self defense measures for physical assault - only to be used in self defense. It doesn't require strength, it requires intelligence and speed, and you are smart and can pick up some speed. By your age, I was very proficient in knives, a short bow, and small game traps, and I think you would do well to learn how to fight with a knife as well."

Art furrowed his brows, looking less upset and more unhappy and confused. "Why do I need a knife if I have a wand?" he asked.

"Someone can take or break your wand, or they can just pin and trap your hands so you can't use it at all," Adriel explained. "That means knowing how to elbow or throw a person off of you, or maybe even pretend to go along with what they want so you can pull out the knife hidden on you to stab them in the leg so they can't chase you when you run for safety. Having a knife on you along with a hobby like whittling wood means that nobody will think twice if they know you have a knife on you. Hopefully it doesn't get to that point, but I can hire someone very good with knives to teach you about that, how to throw or block a punch, and dirty fighting that is meant to make a fight short and scare or hurt your opponent in a very short time so there is less of a chance for you to get hurt and a very good chance for you to run away or get help."

Art frowned, but he gave Adriel an uncertain look. "Are you sure I need to learn?" he asked in a timid voice. "It sounds... scary. And I don't want to stab anyone."

Adriel sighed with relief. "Not only am I sure you need to learn, it would make me very happy and feel better if you did learn," he said, then smiled at Art. "Nobody wants to stab anyone, but sometimes, when you have to defend yourself or someone else that you care about, you have to hurt whatever is attacking you or them. You also want to learn how to spot danger so you can avoid it, or detect those things. I will give grams the charm book with detection spells along with your wand, and she can teach you how to cast them. It's about time you start getting used to your wand anyway - I completely forgot about it - and gramps can teach you spells that pacify animals that he usually uses for sheep but it can be used on things like angry horses and such. Won't work on a hungry wolf, but he can also show you transfiguration spells that will work on things like that. Right, Gramps?"

"Right," Gramps said after he cleared his throat, realizing he was caught eavesdropping. "Didn't know you were going to tell Art about the curse today."

Adriel blinked, then gave his Gramps an innocent smile. "I figured Art already knew since I thought you would have told him since it wasn't like it was a secret," Adriel said, completely throwing his grandfather under the bus for that one. He turned to wink at Art. "My little Artemis is far too smart to not have already been wondering about it and I'm surprised he had not asked yet, either. So, I'll tell you about Atlantis, now. Come here and sit in my lap so I can brush your hair while I tell the tale of the journey away from Naxos."



The first time Art actually threw a fit at Adriel, it was over the self defense lessons. He had just gone through his second week of lessons (two times a week on Tuesdays and Fridays) and Adriel no more then got inside the house on Saturday morning before he was smacked in the face with Mr. Bear.

"I hate Grognog!" Art said as Adriel caught the bear. "He is making me run. RUN! Said a snail could outrun me and Artemis would be ashamed! And I had to run while he said mean things about my pace and how tired I got and everything!"

Adriel underhand tossed the bear to the couch next to Art and noted the bruise on his cheek. "Goblins never say anything nice to humans, Art," Adriel told Art with a smile. "He is your teacher, and they teach their young and their curse breakers the same exact way. Goblin culture is very different from human culture."

"Then I hate goblin culture also!" Art said as he crossed his arms with a scowl. "If I were a teacher, I would encourage my students and teach them at their pace!"

Adriel raised an eyebrow and looked over at Grams who was knitting in front of the fireplace. "Don't look at me, dear," Grams said without even turning around like she knew Adriel was looking at her. Grams had eyes on the back of her head and none of the men had ever figured out how she knew things like that. Some kind of mother/grandmother magic, no doubt, since some of the tribe women also had similar abilities though his own mother did not. "This is the first time he has spoken since the lesson - he came in angry yesterday, covered in dirt with that bruise on his face, screamed when I asked if he was okay, then stomped upstairs to get cleaned and didn't come out of his room until breakfast this morning."

"Art," Adriel said as he scowled at the pre-teen. "Insults are a type of encouragement for goblins - they believe in making sure the people they are teaching are tough enough to withstand the fear and pressure that comes with danger. Grognog cares more that you survive, so he will hurt you and hurt your feelings to make sure the evil people out there won't be able to do it. Plus, you would not have the patience to teach regular people. Did you know it takes a regular person three years to read? You took one month - one year, technically - and you went from nothing to reading books meant for ten year olds rather than books meant for a six or seven year old. You are now reading science journals meant for pre-university students, history meant for university students and graduates, you have etiquette that some adults are still learning to read, and fashion knowledge that professional designers in Italy know." Adriel put a hand on his hip as he looked at Art with disapproval, and Art looked like he wanted to cry because of it. "Do you think you could spend a whole month teaching someone how to read three letter words like cat, dog, can, and hat for a month? How about an entire year on subtraction, addition, how to read a clock, and how to read picture books? Perhaps four years on history of the Cyclades civilization from the neolithic era to the Greek empire? Your ability to soak up knowledge mentally is phenomenal, but you neglected your physical learning a lot to the bare minimum of what I want for you to go to places like the Valley of the King or for you to play with Actaeon or ride Pyrois around the field a little bit. Grognog insults you to make you want to push yourself past what you think you can do so you can avoid being insulted, and one day, he will tell you that you are doing a great job, and you will know be means it because getting a compliment from a goblin is about as hard as it is to squeeze apple juice from an apple with your bare hand. He is very very good with hand to hand, knife and short sword combat - likes to get close and personal - and he knows what he needs to teach you. I don't want to ever see someone hurt you because then I will have to track them down and hurt them, so I will be a lot happier if you learn how to defend yourself because I care about you. It sucks now, but you will be very happy to know his lessons if something bad ever happens, and with exercise, you will be able to keep up with me if you ever want to go explore the jungles or even see my tribe lands. You do want to see my tribe lands and the river of stars in the sky, right? Or the secret waterfalls and the clear springs that are untouched by pollution that you can drink straight out of?"

Art looked down and nodded. "He still doesn't have to be so mean," he grumbled.

"It's a goblin thing, but goblins are pretty awesome," Adriel said with a smile. "They also hate wizards and witches, but they have very good reason to. If he is teaching and insulting you, then he doesn't hate you at all, though. They are very straight forward people - if they hate you, they will have nothing at all to do with you, and if you try to corner them or make them do something, they will attack. You also want to be very careful doing business with them... They have their own type of politics which is finding loopholes in agreements and all sorts of other things to one up each other, and if they think a human is trying to rip them off, they will all band together to find a way to turn the tables on them. Come on, I'll tell you a bit about goblin history. You actually like it a lot and learned the older form of their language."

"I do?" Art asked, looking confused as he grabbed Mr. Bear and got off the couch. "I did?"

"Yes," Adriel said. "I'll start by telling you about Gringotts - the goblin that had the best idea to start a bank..."



Art never got to liking the lessons, especially the running part, but he did accept them as he tore through their ancient history. He also blushed a lot more around Adriel now, would cling to him at one moment, then go completely speechless and shy. He also stopped wearing his green dresses, but he started twirling his hair in his finger when he would ask something while refusing to make eye contact. Art was not quite flirting, not in the normal sense, but he was doing it in a very Art-like way and Adriel made sure not to tease him about it since teasing would have either made him angry or withdraw. It did mean they needed to have the next conversation, however. 

"Art, come on a walk with me?" he asked with a smile after a couple weekends of this. "I want to show you the lake with the kelpie I went to as a kid. I haven't been there in so long, and I'm sure there is no kelpie since they tend to move around, but it would be nice to see it and it is peaceful. Actaeon cannot come though - there is snow on the ground and it would be too cold for him. I haven't seen a frozen lake before and I want to take you with me when I see it. Go bundle up."

Art looked so happy at the invitation that he grinned before he ran off to his room, and Grams gave Adriel a curious look. "Are you sure that is wise?" she asked. "The snow will be about a foot and a half deep there and you aren't used to the snow."

Adriel shrugged and made sure Art was not eavesdropping on the stairs. "I need to give him 'the talk,'" Adriel quietly told her. "Best to do it somewhere he can't run away from and he knows that nobody else is listening because nobody will be around at all. Just act like you think we went on a nice little stroll, tease him a little bit during the week about it being a date, and then apologize if he gets angry or flustered and promise not to tease him about it again."

Grams sighed. "Oh Adriel, that boy will end up really falling in love with you if you keep trying not to hurt him like this," she said with a shake of her head. "Are you sure you know what you are doing?"

Adriel turned to unhappily scowl at the window. "Of course not," he said as he crossed his arms almost defensively. "I just know that rejection made him very bitter, angry, and unhappy. I'm supposed to be his best friend, and that means making sure he is happy. I'll explain more to him if it ever gets to that point."

"It will most likely get to that point," Grams said with a shake of her head, then made shooing motions. "You need to go bundle up, too, Adriel. Two wool long sleeved shirts, a sweater, a thicker sweater, and a great coat, two pairs of pants, and three pairs of socks all with your long johns. Go on."

Adriel got bundled up like his grandmother had ordered, and Art was waiting for him by the door with bouncy excitement when he felt like he lumbered down the stairs with so many layers on him. "Rubber boot, Art," Adriel reminded him as he got to the closet by the door and pulled out both of their rubber rain boots. "So why don't you wear your dresses anymore?"

Art froze for a second as he accepted the boots, then blushed as he shook his head and awkwardly began putting on the first one. "Because."

Adriel inwardly prayed for patience. Teenagers. Ugh. "Because...?" he asked. "Because you got bored of them and think they are for girls?"

Art scowled as he peeked up at Adriel while he was bent over to finish getting the first boot on. "No!" he protested. "Because I thought about what you and Amon and Grognog said."

Adriel was a bit confused since he didn't recall Amon saying anything. He stomped the first boot into place, leaned against the wall, and brought his other foot up so he could get the second boot on. "What did we say?" he asked.

"That only strong men can wear their hair long," Art explained in an impatient tone as he wiggled his second boot on. "I don't want to ever cut my hair."

Adriel blinked and... Well, he hadn't said that, but it seemed like Art took it that way. "I said that people don't make fun of me or Amon because we are too scary to make fun of," he corrected Art. "There are still idiots that do it, but if all someone can do is make fun of me for something I am proud of, then I can ignore them. However, Grognog probably meant his remark in the fighting sense - someone can grab your hair and control you by it unless you know how to fight and avoid having your hair grabbed. Neither of those things has anything to do with dresses or looking feminine, but if you are comfortable in things like that, you could always wear wizarding robes. Twilfitt and Tattings will even do custom designs if you have ideas of your own for robe styles."

Art made a silent 'oh' expression like the idea had not occurred to him at all. "Isn't it expensive?" he asked.

"Nah, probably a few sickles extra to customize something," Adriel said as he reached out to tug on Art's coat and make sure everything was on properly. "As you know, it is the materials that matter. Usually matters. It depends on the level of customization, too, though. Things that require a lot of special stitches in difficult areas means more thread and more work, so it could add a few knuts, and then there is embroidery. You could pick up sewing charms - Grams knows a lot of them - them experiment yourself if you are worried about cost so all you need is fabric. Gloves."

Adriel and Art both pulled their gloves out of their coat pockets and put them on before Adriel opened up the door and waved his hand to push the snow on the path out of the way. "Why can you do that and I can't?" Art asked as he followed Adriel out and closed the door behind him. "I mean, there was accidental magic, but I can't use my spells without a wand."

Adriel offered his hand and Art took it. "Elemental magics - Durmstrang teaches it, but most schools don't," he explained. "And we're off!" He apparated them to the copse of trees he recalled from that unforgettable day, and then landed about fifteen feet from the frozen lake and under the trees in about six inches of snow. Adriel put a finger to his lips, then pulled Art along as he stomped a path through the deeper snow outside the trees. "I heard that snow can fall and make avalanches and stuff with loud sounds, and I don't know if that applies to the snow those trees were holding."

Art laughed at Adriel. "No silly, that won't happen unless you shake the trees!" he explained with amusement. "You had me all scared thinking you heard something when you were so quiet and told me to be quiet!"

"Oh, oops," Adriel said as he gave Art a silly grin. "I haven't seen this much snow before - especially untouched snow like this. Slushy snow in New York and London a couple times, but not like this. It is kind of like being on a giant cloud, and you and I are the only people around."

Art blushed as he glanced around, then toed at a clump of snow that hand not gotten smooshed all the way down. "Yeah," he shyly agreed as he followed Adriel to the edge of the frozen lake. "Very big cloud."

Adriel wished about then that he had Grandfather with him - Grandfather could probably do this without making Art feel weird like Adriel was probably about to. "So I brought you out here for that second part of the talk we had a few months ago also," Adriel said as he looked back at Art with a smile. "When I told you about your curse, Atlantis, and about dangerous people who might want you for your body or your money?" Art looked up, obviously wondering where Adriel was going with this, and he nodded with a weird expression of hope. "So we are going to talk about the mating habits of humans today so you will have information you need to know when you are ready."

Art turned red as he let go of Adriel's hand and grabbed the bottom of his own coat to nervously tug it down. "Does that mean you want to marry me too?" Art asked in a breathless voice.

Adriel tripped on his own feet and landed partially onto the frozen lake with a yelp. "Ow, Art!" he complained, glad that it was frozen solid but now he had to try to figure out how to get back to the bank. Art started to clump forward, but he waved him back. "No, stay there." Adriel used his feet on the bank to try to drag his body that way, but they slipped off and he slid a little sideways so that he was parallel to it. Luckily, getting on his hands and knees and crawling back worked very well. "You are far too young for me to be asking to marry, especially when you don't know the next part of the talk, Art. I have a rule - my age divided by two plus seven. That means I won't date anyone who isn't at least twenty five, and you are... Fifteen now."

"I'm thirty three!" Art argued with an angry frown. "You said so yourself!"

Adriel brushed the snow off his coat and shook his head no. "You are fifteen physically!" he argued back. "And even if you are technically thirty three, your mental age is fifteen, too! You don't remember what it is like to be an adult, make life choices, or experience adult responsibilities. You are very mature in some ways, but wisdom is gained only through age and I am very much your guardian legally so it would be very very wrong for me to do anything with you. You would not want to kiss or date someone that is nine years old even if they were mentally fifteen or thirty three right?"

Art, who had been about to argue back, snapped his mouth shut and glared sullenly at the ground. "No," he angrily muttered before kicking a clump of snow out onto the icy lake in the furrow that Adriel's body had made on the snow on it. 

Adriel sighed. "Okay, now that you understand that, let's talk about sex," he said. "First thing about sex is consent. Some people will tell you that as long as they don't say no, then it is ok, but they are wrong. There are many instances where a person cannot say no - like someone who is drunk, asleep, or is too scared to say no because it is their boss or the other person just looks intimidating and they are afraid they will be hurt if they say no. Proper consent is when someone says yes and is very eager and really does want to do it. Someone who is drunk, potioned, or drugged is not in the right mind to give consent. A yes under duress or intoxication is still a no - if you have to pressure or 'talk' someone into saying yes, it is not a yes. Does that make sense?"

Art nodded but he was still scuffing the snow.

"I would very much appreciate if you didn't find the ground so interesting," Adriel said in a gentler voice. "I know that rejection sucks, but I don't want to take advantage of you at all. We were very good friends before you were turned into a baby - you considered me your best friend, actually, and there was a girl at Naxos that you went on a couple dinners with that I think could have eventually turned into a real date if you allowed yourself to relax. You with your memories is a very romantic person who wanted a family very badly at one point, but you gave up hope on finding a wife after a bad rejection. So I know you love me right now, but you may not when your memories come back, and I cannot develop feelings for someone I am caring for or I end up becoming one of those types of creeps I warn you against. I am very serious when it comes to things like sex and dating, so that is why I am telling you no right now. I don't want to hurt you now, and I don't want you to resent me later, okay?"

Art looked up and gave him a miserable nod. "Okay," he agreed. "But after my memories are back?"

"We will see," Adriel sighed. "You actually didn't want to date at all, and I am not the type to date, either. So second part about the sex talk - some people, like me, just do it for fun. It isn't strictly about having children or expressing love - sex is a physical activity that can relax you, help you sleep easier, make you feel less lonely, do with friends as a casual thing, and you can do it with men or with women. In some areas, homosexuality is illegal like in muggle England, though magical England doesn't care one bit. As long as you are not hurting yourself or others, however, what you do with your body is up to you, and what others do with their body is up to them. Even if you get married, you are not entitled to the other person's body and vice versa, and there are polygamous or open marriages where multiple people are together as a married unit or a person has consorts to the side. If you marry with monogamous vows though, those are the ones that should be kept, and if you want to change your mind about it later, you and your partner should discuss those things before you do anything." Adriel clasped his hands behind his back as he eyed Art who was now nervously shifting while blushing and looking in a different direction. "I tend to be attracted to both men and women. Some people are strictly attracted to the opposite gender, and some prefer their own gender. As long as you are having fun and are doing things in a healthy way, it doesn't matter which gender you are attracted to. Questions or comments so far?"

"How do I know if I am attracted to girls?" Art asked in a quiet voice. "You mentioned a girl in Naxos...?"

"That woman is attracted to you, Art, but you insisted to her that you only saw her as a friend," Adriel replied with a smile. "I can introduce you to her next time we are at the resort - she knows you are curse at the moment and has been wanting to see you, but I told her you don't know her so it would probably be almost two years. I didn't tell very many people about you being turned into a baby, just the ones that needed to know. Your muggle friends in Naxos think you are in a clinic in the countryside recovering from temporary amnesia at the moment. As far as you knowing if you are attracted to girls? If you ever have the same feelings for a girl like you do for me, then you are attracted to them. It is perfectly normal to be curious and want to kiss one to see if there is an attraction, too, but kissing also requires consent. You should only attempt these things with people close to your physical age or an older age going by my age rule. Anyone under the legal adult age once you hit an adult age should be off limits unless they are a year or less younger than you. Any more questions so far?"

Art shook his head no and started to nervously tug on the bottom of his coat so Adriel continued. "So the next part about sex you should know - always make sure that your partner is having fun," he said. "Now there are a lot of things that come with human mating behaviors. We are very creative and imaginative, so it isn't just insert penis into holes. You know about sodomy and vaginal penetration, but there is also oral, using hands or feet, or even objects. You have people that like to be tied down, others that like to be spanked, and some that just want gentle petting and compliments. The ones you need to be careful and stay away from are those who actually like to be very violent - making someone bleed, for example, or those who like to be violently used - being cut or other extremely painful things done to them. That is where to start getting into unhealthy behavior since people that like those kinds of things can go too far. They are not very common, but if you find yourself in an abusive or dangerous situation like that, you need to immediately get out and notify the aurors, police, or me. Remember that it is legal to break the statute if your partner is a muggle - stun them and apparate out, for example. A majority of people you encounter in a consensual setting will not be an extreme example like that, so you only need to be cautious, not fearful."

"I am not interested in anyone else," Art said with a frown as he looked up at Adriel with a red face still, then immediately looked away.

"Blunt, aren't you," Adriel said with a chuckle. "Well, at least you are confident and know your mind. It's very hard to socialize you though - you don't have 'peers' to grow up with which means I've been the only consistent person in your life besides my grandparents and your parents. I could probably talk them into closing up the house and moving their sheep to be watched at another farm to take you to your town for the last few months, though. Plenty of the workers are in their late teens and early twenties which means you can get to know them, and since you will be their boss, it would probably be a good idea to be on friendly terms with them."

Art looked excited at the idea. "I get to spend time in Greece again?" he asked with a small bounce. "Will you take me to see Knossos this time?"

"Sure," Adriel said with amusement. "One more thing, though. Before you engage in coitus with anyone, you should always discuss what you both like and dislike. Like I said, it is always good to make sure that your partner is having fun, but if they don't care about your own fun, then you should not sleep with them. Sometimes two people might have very different ideas of having fun so they won't have fun together, and it is a good idea to find that out before you are both disappointed and unhappy. Communication is actually very important in everything, Art. Sex, dating, business, learning, friendship, family... We have the power of speech unlike animals, and it should be used wisely and carefully to teach, to live a good life, and to make ourselves and the people we care about happy. Any questions?"

Art hesitated as he grabbed the bottom of his coat and tugged on it again. "I won't get in trouble for asking?" he asked.

"There are no bad questions as long as you are trying to learn something," Adriel said with a curious tilt of his head. "Ask."

"What do you like?"

Adriel sighed. "That is where we get into personal and improper questions," he explained, when smiled at Art to show he wasn't angry. "You ask that when you and the other person are consenting with each other, or you talk about it with the appropriate age group as idle chatter among friends. However, you must be respectful and discreet, so while it is ok to say you have done something or enjoy something, it is not ok to talk about what your partners might like, want to try, or do unless they give you permission to talk about it. 'A gentleman never kisses and tells' is a saying that men and women should strive for since there are also men who don't like to be talked about. If you ask that question to anyone in my age group when you are under the age of twenty five and they answer it, they should probably be avoided since they most likely don't have morals or your wellbeing in mind."

A light bulb seemed to go off in Art's head at that last part since he looked away. "I'm sorry, Adriel," he said in a small voice. "I know you have my wellbeing in mind. I'll stop asking you about that kind of stuff."

Adriel could have kissed whatever god it was that finally got the message through to Art after months of trying to gently divert him. "It's ok, Art," Adriel said in a playful tone. "I wasn't angry and I didn't think you thought I was the type of person to take advantage of someone like you. I'm just happy that you understand now because I don't want you to fall in love with some other adult on accident or let someone push you into sex before you are ready. Now, do you want to build a snowman, or does a cup of hot cocoa sound like a good idea?"

"Hot cocoa," Art mumbled, then held out his hand without looking up. "I'm cold."

"Me too, let's go home my little Artemis."



It took almost two months for Art, Grams, and Gramps to come out to the resort. The sheep could not really be moved until after the final snowstorm of the winter, so spring was right around the corner in Ireland and it was already warm on Naxos. Art's dog also had to be left with Art's parents since it couldn't come to the Art's town because of the anti-animal ward that Adriel said would not be reworked until Art could give his consent after his memories returned. The resort workers were excited to see their young boss, though, and Athena was there as well to greet Art when the family came in with Art's medallion portkey and landed in the town court of the resort. 

"Lipkey," Adriel said as Art dry heaved a couple times. "Please put the luggage away - Art gets the master room and my grandparents will be in the room across from mine. Teegla, some ginger tea for the three of them." Grams and Gramps both looked like they wanted to vomit, too. "Need me to do any sho-"

"Art!" Athena exclaimed and started to rush forward to no doubt hug him, and Adriel grabbed her arm as Art started to stumble back into Adriel's grandparents. The sudden movement made him actually throw up his breakfast, though. "Let go of me!"

Adriel pursed his lips as he pulled her back and put himself between her and his family. "Athena, I told you before that he doesn't like to be touched, and that still holds true with strangers," he told her in a quiet voice while his grandparents started cleaning up the mess while rubbing Art's back. "He doesn't remember you and only know of you! Don't rush forward like that and approach him like you would anyone else. Despite your feelings for him, he saw you as a friend only, and he was very clear on that and I was very clear that if you were just going to act like a friend while pushing for more, you might as well just give up."

"I know," she angrily whispered back while she glared at Adriel. "He looks so cute right now, though! And I do think of him as a friend!" She paused to peek around Adriel. "Did he have long hair like that before?"

Adriel wanted to rub his temples since Athena had plagued him with questions about Art for over a year now, but he refrained and gave her a friendly smile instead. "We were a bit lazy about cutting it since it was growing so fast, then he looked too adorable with it to cut, and by the time he was old enough to make a choice, he didn't want to cut it because he wanted to be like me," Adriel explained. "If you can get him to relax around you, you might be able to bribe him into letting you style it up all pretty. He's seventeen though so I'll be teaching him how to apparate before I let him out of my sight for short periods. He doesn't know Ancient Greek or Egyptian still, so the library's archives won't work as a bribe unless you have texts in English, but I did make sure he learned regular Greek. Little bugger can speak the mainland version better than me, and he learned the demotic dialect for the islands. He's debating Egyptian - says he will know Ancient Egyptian and that English and Greek is common enough out there that he doesn't technically need it so he wants to learn French to round out the main languages of Europe because he knows Latin for Italian and Spanish."

"Hi Art," Athena said with a smile, not acknowledging what Adriel said at all as she spoke to Art who had come up right behind Adriel and grabbed the back of his shirt to frown at Athena. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. I was very excited to see my friend and forgot that you didn't remember me. I work at the library here and we talked about ancient Greece while you translated an ancient satire play! I was also there for the manticore fight - do you know about that fight?"

Art looked a little skeptical and shook his head no. "Adriel hasn't told me a lot about our time here on Naxos," he told her, then peeked up at Adriel who gave Art a reassuring smile. "Manticore fight?"

"Ooooh!" she exclaimed, then gave Adriel a curious look. "Why haven't you told him a lot about what happened on Naxos?"

Adriel shrugged. "I've only had weekends really to spend with Art, and I've been using it to teach him things he doesn't already know," he explained. "He will get those memories probably in the next few months, and since it wasn't pressing or needed, I didn't bother."

"It's logical and I don't want to waste my time learning about things I will know about," Art chipped in. "I'm growing up fast and a child's mind absorbs things faster than an adult mind does. Plus I don't have time, especially with the stupid goblin lessons... That I don't have to take anymore?"

Adriel grinned wide at Art, and Art drooped since he knew that would me the opposite. "I actually have Axebane quite eager to continue your lessons," Adriel said in a cheerful tone. "Just think - you are finally at the point where you can run around the house at the farm a few times without looking like you are about to fall over. Now you have an entire town to run in on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays rather than twice a week!"

Art gave a teenage moan of misery - a sound that meant the world could end and that would still not be worse than what Adriel had said. "I could offer him double what you are paying and break the contract," he said, plotting out loud to test the waters. "Triple, even!"

Adriel gave a shark's grin. "You could try, but I highly doubt he would accept it," Adriel said. "Grognog eagerly told Axebane all about the training, and Axebane was very excited I'm afraid. Plus, he knows you!"

"Oh no," Art gasped. "Did I make him upset or offend him?"

"Nope... You help making him a lot of money."

"Oh no," Art said since that was way worse. Way way worse.


Art managed to relax around Athena during the second week, and he knew how to apparate, so Adriel let him run off with Athena to the library for books since he was in a meeting with a Portuguese official who was demanding that they be allowed into Atlantis to perform a full dig before the goblins finished cataloguing the things they could without breaking any ancient enchantments or curses. Adriel was honestly about ready to send the asshole back in peices since the man had stretched what should have been at most a three hour appointment into two days of ranting about rights, threatening to take him to courts, that one man and one partial child should not have full control, blah blah and that it was only section D-16 in the temple and grave area so what was the big deal?!

"The big deal is that you want holy relics and to rob graves to keep for your own country!" Adriel shouted, finally snapping since Art was no longer in the villa and could not hear his voice echo out. "The ICW granted me and Art the rights because A) giving you anything would automatically bring the goblins to war all over the world, B) it would cause a wizarding world war and there were already issues with Grindelwald, and C) I am about as politically neutral as you can get since my only true affiliation is my tribe despite my citizenships with America, Greece, and Britain! Oh, and let's not forget that I don't give a shit if I piss off King or Ministry - and none of you are willing to off me because the Navajo Nation as a whole are set to inherit my share, and that means dealing with tribe politics for all of you on both the muggle and the magical side! My intentions are to preserve Atlantis as you very well know - mine and Art both agreed to that before his accident and he will reaffirm it when he has recovered. You know what? No. I'm not dealing with this shit. I will write your Ministry and tell them that as of now, all universities and research facilities are banned from Atlantis because of you. Fuck you, and fuck your swirly little mustache, too."

"My... My swirly little mustache?!" the gaunt man with the handlebar mustache spluttered with outrage, then he stood up and slammed his hands down on the desk. "How dare you! You and your friend are being greedy profiting off of what should belong to everyone!"

"Go file a complaint with the ICW," Adriel snarled as he stood up and loomed over the smaller man. "Or a counter-complaint since they will most definitely be getting one from me about you  along with a copy of this mockery of a contract you are trying to intimidate and bribe me into signing! We only take a small percentage for managing the property that belongs to us and the rest goes into restoration!" Adriel pulled out his wand and a blob of sticky tack, ignored how the official started to fumble out his own wand, and turned the tack into a portkey with a silent spell before he flicked it at the odious being in front of him. "Don't come back."

The man looked startled and started to reach for what was stuck to his chest, but he swirled out before he could grab it and Adriel pulled out the ward tome to put that asshole's name into it so he would not be able to enter the resort unless it was crossed out. In the date column, he put A104 there, opened a second tome, flipped to page 104, and meticulously recorded why he banned that man from the property. He was the 102nd person banned since Adriel started managing it with the first page a large "A" and the second page an explanation of how he was writing every instance out for Art and that Art could look the interaction and judge these people for himself, and he added a PS to it to suggest that Art maintain this system in the ward book so he himself didn't forget and they could both use this system as a means of keeping Atlantis managed so when he started banning people from the property because of resort reasons, he could use Greek alphabet letters and books.

Business concluded, Adriel wandered out of the room and saw Grams frowning at him. "Adriel, I'm disappointed in you," she said, then smiled. "You didn't hex him after he harassed you for two days!"

Adriel heaved a sigh then went over to give her a hug since she had just managed to leech some of the stress away with her joke. "Ah Grams, if I were to hex every one of the politicians and researchers that pissed me off, there would be over a hundred lawsuits by now," he complained. "The ICW granted me a portkey license when I told them I would start hexing people if I could not get rid of them, and Greece backed up my request because they didn't want to be dragged into that kind of political mess. They get dumped at the fountain in Greece's ministry, Greece gets to fine them for not portkeying into the designated areas, and they can blame me when those ministries complain. A bit of a win win, to be honest."

Grams laughed and then pulled back so she could pull Adriel down low enough to plant a kiss on his forehead. "Ah, and here I was thinking you were being all political and such," she said in a teasing tone as she patted his cheek. "Silly me, you are just stepping on toes on an even larger scale. Poor Art, though - they will all start flocking to him as soon as they know he can step back in as the larger share of the partnership."

Adriel shrugged. "We can hit that hurdle when we get to it," he replied. "I'm going to go hunt some rabbits so we can make a stew tonight."

"No jackalopes," Grams warned. "They might taste like rabbits, but it still feels wrong to hunt them."

Adriel pouted since he used the antlers and such, but he nodded then went to his room to dress down and pulled out his bow. "Check in on Art if he isn't back by three," he called out, then apparated away to an uninhabited island that he preferred to hunt rabbits or collect crabs on. It was registered as a private island, but legends had it down as a cursed one since every attempt to build a home on it ended in death or the house getting destroyed during or right after it had been built. There was some truth to that, too, since Adriel could feel some kind of magic under his bare feet, but it was never a malign feeling and was slumbering besides so he figured it was specifically made once upon a time by an ancient Greek tribe to stop another tribe from taking their land. Whatever the story was, it just meant that there about 70 acres to hunt small game on, and nobody was ever around to bother him nor was it monitored by any magical ministry since it was just barely in international waters. Technically under purview of the ICW, but since it was a muggle island, they didn't pay attention to it either.

When he returned three hours later, Art was home but in his own room, so he started up the stew while Grams started the dough for dinner rolls. They were chatting about buying some citron fruit to try baking an American style pie with when Art came down looking pensieve. 

"I don't think I like girls," Art said, and Adriel went silent which had Grams looking confused.

"How did you figure that out with Athena?" Adriel asked after he and Art had stared at each other for several seconds. "I'm guessing it was with her?"

Art nodded. "We were talking in the library and she asked me if I was dating anyone," he answered. "I told her no, but that you mentioned that she liked me as more than a friend before. She said she still liked me as more than a friend despite how old I looked right now, and that I acted like an adult so it didn't feel too strange to her. Then she asked if there was anyone I liked, and I told her kind of, but that I was too young and was waiting for my memories and such since I didn't know if I liked girls or anything and I didn't know anyone my age that I was interested in. And she said we were close to the same age, I just looked young and didn't have memories was all, so I told her that you said that I might be able to find out if I liked girls if I tried kissing one. Then she offered to kiss me, and since I'm seventeen and legally an adult, I agreed." Art blinked. "I didn't like it."

Adriel wasn't sure if he wanted to throttle Art or Athena. "I also said you should try with someone in your age group, or if you couldn't find someone around that age, then wait a few months until you got your memories back so you wouldn't do something you would later regret," he said to Art once he took a deep and calming breath. "She is twice your physical and mental age and should not have made that kind of offer while you are vulnerable and without memories. Yes, you are an adult, but you might hate her for taking advantage of you when you regain your memories and will decide you don't even want her as a friend anymore."

Art looked stubborn. "I had to know," he stated as he crossed his arms across his chest. "Are you jealous?"

Adriel raised an eyebrow, then turned to start chopping up vegetables while Grams wiped her hands on her apron and left the kitchen. "Not at all," Adriel told Art. "Your body and your choice, remember. As you said, you are of age, and seventeen means impulsive and stupid decisions without thinking about consequences. If your friendship with her meant so little to you and you are willing to throw it all away on a kiss, then that is your choice to also make. If you did it to try to make me jealous though, I'm afraid it didn't work."

Art stomped to the island counter that Grams had been working at, grabbed one of the lumps of dough that had been separated to rise so it could be baked, and threw it at the back of Adriel's head. "I hate you!" he snarled, then turned and ran off to his room just while Adriel turned while reaching for the dough now stuck in his hair. Grams peeked in once Art ran past, and Adriel rolled his eyes.

"Teenagers," he bitched. "Go ahead and go talk to him, Grams. I'm both the person he wants to chase after him the most and the last person he wants to talk to. I'm too old for bullshit school drama, though. I'll have the other rolls in the oven when they rise."


"I told you it would come back to bite you," Grams said with a frown. "You and David didn't do this at your ages."

"My father was uninterested in people until my mother got his attention because she was exotic and new, then he went back to being uninterested in people," he explained with a shrug. "Or that is what I figure, anyway. He probably would have gotten married out of familial duty and gently fallen in love with whoever it was that had his children, but he had me so he didn't think it was required. I've had partners since I was fourteen and never really bothered with the monogamy and dealt with plenty of angry fathers, jealous suitors, and murderous spouses. So I have plenty of my own share of drama, but if someone isn't interested in me, I don't get all angry about it. I thought I got him to understand a couple months ago, but apparently he still refuses to listen and I'm not going to play into whatever romantic ideal he has going in his head that probably includes a fight where he argues his points and I capitulate to his want or let him test a kiss on me to see if he likes boys or whatever."

Grams frowned at Adriel, and he pouted at her since Art's teenage hormones were definitely not his fault. "If you didn't want him to fixate on you, then you should have made a mistake earlier on that made him realize you were not his prince charming," Grams chided, then shook her head and sighed. "Though it probably would have had to have been a pretty big mistake. He asked you to marry him when he was nine, but he was telling me about it for a month or two before that. I'll go talk to him, but don't mess up the bread rolls. Call your gramps in from the garden when they go in and tell him I said to take a bath. This will probably be a long conversation."

"Thanks, Grams," Adriel told her with a bright smile, and she gave a huff of faux-irritation before she turned to go to Art's room.

Dinner that night was tense. Art's eyes were red from tears and he was not looking at anyone while he silently poked and nibbled at his food. Adriel was talking to Gramps how the Italians had recently entered the Spanish civil war but that he thought the Republicans would still win despite the Nationalists getting communist help and Grams was giving Art concerned glances. He was honestly not expecting Art to get over hit fit for a few days, but Art surprised him. 

"I'm sorry, Adriel," he said when Adriel and Gramps had finished their topic but had not yet moved on to the next one. "You already talked to me about your feelings before and I ignored it. I would... I don't want to ruin my friendship with you like I might have ruined it with Athena. Adult me will be very angry at me if I did."

Adriel glanced over at Grams wondering what she even talked to Art about, but she gave Art a proud smile and didn't acknowledge him which meant that she would not say a word. "I'm not angry, Art," he said. "A little bit disappointed that you allowed yourself to do that with Athena then tried to make me jealous, but not angry. However, you are still growing and making stupid decisions is a thing at your age. As long as you learn and keep trying to improve yourself to be a good person you can be proud of and care about the people you love, I will also be proud of you and will be happy to call you my friend. Grams said that this is also partly my fault for spoiling you and always trying to make you happy, and she is right since rather than dissuade your feelings for me, I kept hoping you would just grow out of them or that adult you would take care of it. I didn't think it might cause teenage you so much grief since you are growing so fast. So I am sorry as well."

Art shook his head no as his eyes watered, but he stubbornly blinked them back. "No, I loved growing up with you," he said with a sniff. "You make me happy and are my best friend! I'll just wait until I remember everything, and that will fix it."

Adriel pursed his lips since he didn't think it would fix this like Art was hoping. Both of their families thought Art had already been crushing on him before but just didn't realize it despite both of their protests about it just being a friendship. "Not sure if it quite works that way, little Artemis, since we don't know how the memories will mix," he explained since Art needed to know the truth rather than try to put all his eggs into a possibly imaginary basket. He himself thought Art did not have a crush on him and was just learning to open up to a friend, only Adriel's idea of friendship tended to be a very close and caring one that was like having a close confidant in whatever things he thought he could trust Art with while Art trusted him with his safety and wellbeing. It could be seen as intimate or familial from the outside, but there were very clear borders to it in his opinion and family or lovers were not the only types of love besides. Ah, maybe he could explain that. "I'm very happy to hear that you loved growing up with me, though. There are a lot of different types of love - it isn't just family or dating. There is your love for Actaeon, your love for certain types of food, your love for clothes and history. There is love for friends, too. Most people just like their friends, but there is a deep level of friendship that is love because you trust them with your heart, your safety, your wellbeing, or secrets you would not tell others. We are developing that type of love, but sometimes it can be mistaken for more, or actually slip into something that is more. That is a future you problem, however. For now, I want you to have fun with your teenage years and not feel like you have to figure out boyfriends, girlfriends, or marriage type of things immediately. Get to know the younger members of your staff here and see if any of them are interested in teaching you how to do fun teenage activities. If you want to do something stupid without long term harm, bring them back here to drink wine or cocktails and play spin the bottle or truth or dare since you have a large room with a giant bed that can sleep up to six."

"Adriel!" Grams protested, genuinely scandalized. "What... Don't-"

"I am not suggesting he engage in sexual activity, Grams!" Art protested, then caught the bread roll she chucked at his head while Art turned beet red and Gramps started laughing. "I'm just saying a bit of drinking and maybe some kisses but nothing more! Harmless fun that even people at Hogwarts engage in at his age!"

Grams was just as red was Art was as she huffed at him. "What if more happens though?" she said with a frown.

Adriel shrugged. "I planned to have the house elves keep an eye on things since Art knows that doing anything more than that while intoxicated is a no, right Art?" he said as he winked at the teenager.

Art chucked a bread roll at him that missed before he shoved a large spoon of the stew into his mouth with a scowl.

Writing prompt 1 :

There is one chocolate chip cookie left, but Adriel snatched it up as Art was reaching for it and ate it in one bite. In 3-5 sentences, write the following reactions to it with only the words "How dare you!" spoken out out.

-Angry and near tears from frustration.
-Sad. No tears or depression, but maybe a but of sniffling.
-Teasing with mock outrage.
-Full on drama llama anguish.
-Amused resignation

With each include at least two of the following:
-Hand gestures
-Method of breathing (fast? short? heaved?
-facial expressions without frowning or scowling
-fidgeting movements like tapping a finger, shaking a leg, etc
-movement that requires standing such as getting up, pacing, etc

Prompt 2 :

Art is the prettiest princess at the ball, and he wants to dance with Adriel. Adriel is a bit busy dancing with his arch-rival Brian, though. Art decides to cut in. In 4-6 sentences, write the following scenes. Think Disney fairy tale

-Art smoothly cuts in without a word and charms Adriel with his grace.
-Art awkwardly cuts in, but Adriel is so relieved to be away from Brian that he doesn't mind that Art stepped on his foot.
-Art starts moving towards the two but gives up. Adriel notices and cuts his dance with Brian short to ask Art.
-Art walks right up and asked to cut in.
-Art walks right up and was going to ask to cut right in, but he steps on his own dress, trips, knocked himself and Brian down, and then has to apologize to Brian and Adriel.

Words and their variations that should not be used:
-scowls, frowns, mocking, bullying, large eyes, peeks, shouts, angry/angrily

Prompt 3:

Art kind of got used to Adriel's touch, but he very much got used to being able to touch Adriel to get comfort and feel safe. The next time Art sees him is in spring, but Adriel is maintaining a respectful distance. Art does not want this distance, not from his best friend. In 4-6 sentences, write the following scenes:

-Art shyly asks if it is ok to just hug Adriel for a few seconds. Just because.
-Art angrily stomps over and clings to his arm without a word.
-Art decides to trip and hopes Adriel catches him (he does)
-Art decides to trip and hopes Adriel catches him (he didn't notice in time so he doesn't)
-Art says he missed his friend and goes in for a hug
-Art quietly just sits in his lap, pretends like it is perfectly normal, and acts aloof like a cat about it.

No internal dialogue or outright mentions of feelings. Everything should be conveyed in words, facial expressions, and/or body language. Avoid the use of scowl or frown, or having Adriel initiate anything. Adriel is oblivious and thinks Art doesn't want to be touched or anything unless he has to be touched to be saved. His reactions can be part of a sentence, but there will be no full sentence on him. Basic example not to be used: Art tripped and landed flat on his face, then Adriel gasped before he knelt down to check him over.

Prompt 4 :

Art went into Adriel's room to ask for his library books, only Kon and Adriel were going at it and he learned a lot more than what he had bargained for. By the time he retreated back to his room with the books in tow and had a minute to think, he realized he was very turned on by that scene and decides to try jerking off because he is painfully hard. He crawls into bed, partially wiggles out of his pants, and takes himself in hand. In 4-8 sentences, write the following scenes.

-He fantasizes what he saw, puts himself in kon's place for it, (imagining himself with Adriel) and completes
-He fantasizes what he saw, puts himself in Adriel's place for it (imagining himself with Kon) and completes
-He fantasizes what he saw, only it was all three of them, and completes
-He starts replaying the memory of what he saw, realizes he forgot to lock the door, and fantasizes what it would be like to have Adriel walk in on him in that moment and completes to the fantasy of being watched
-He fantasizes about what he saw, gets paranoid about someone walking in even though he knows the doors are locked, loses his momentum altogether, and doesn't complete

Write from the moment he takes himself in hand and only note the type of fantasy in one sentence or make it part of another sentence. Example to not be used: Art shivered as he realized he had not locked the door, and the thought of Adriel maybe walking in at that moment made him buck up into his hand.

Each scene should focus on feelings of the act itself and the action, not the aftermath, however can only be used on one scene that you can match up how you want for up to two emotions in a scene. Lust is a given in all of them, and every one with a 'completion' is a very very satisfying orgasm.
-Guilt
-Crush/puppy love
-Love
-Joy
-self loathing
-sickened
-Acceptance/understanding
-fear
-Jealousy/envy

---

These prompts are to help write a variety of actions/responses/feelings for a specific scene. Getting comfortable with this will help for things like future writer's block, the ability to write more flexible characters, having to improvise on the fly because someone throws a wrench into things (having a character react mostly with anger, confusion, or ignorance to changes is not productive for a non-angst RP), and to help change a character if you don't like what they are doing or who they have become. It is good to try various responses to one specific thing so your character also does not get stuck with little to no character development or has only one type of response to things. Such as Art now acting like he is completely oblivious about anything except the very basic mechanics despite the fact he knew early on from 'locker room talk' about 'riding' and did have slight perverted thoughts back then whereas now all of those things are bad or he has zero idea about it. Could be said that the curse also suppressed those things as 'happy thoughts' or twisted them into 'those are evil sinful things' but he isn't cursed now and those are some things that need to be changes.

It will also make it easier to write prompts like "Art is sore and asks Adriel for a massage" without trying to force him into the "desperate enough to ask" category.