I explained to Aestos the marvels of himself. The various tones of his skin and how his cheeks expressed emotion with color. He rubbed his lips together, and I told him about the shade and fullness of them. His fingers grazed his mouth as I spoke.
And he knew little about his hair. So, I told him how it was wild and tangled and unkempt but beautiful in its own way. I would help him take care of it because he had never been taught. At his torso, I provided minimal details. He knew his body below his chest. So our joined hands stopped on his abdomen beneath the thick water, and I smiled at him. Humored.
"I am sure you know you look beyond this point."
His smile was amused. "Yes." Then, "Do you know how you look?"
"Of course," I laughed. "There were mirrors all around my palace. Appearances are important, especially for a prince."
Aestos took his time gazing at me. Unhurried with traveling his eyes across my features. A noticeable fondness flushed along his cheeks, and I bathed in this delicate way he looked at me.
"You glisten. Like the ocean," he said finally.
It was his way of saying I was beautiful.
I said, "You love the ocean. It inspires you."
"Yes," he answered. His cheeks were stained a darker, more vibrant color. Then his gaze narrowed with puzzled delight. "How old are you? You look very young."
My brows rose. "How old do I look?"
I was surprised and pleased when Aestos pinched my cheek, meaning to assess me, although it felt playful. "You are still full here." His eyes lowered. "And I have not seen any hair on your chest." His brows furrowed intricately, and I thought he might reach to stroke my bare chest. It was appropriate to touch what you were curious about. But he did not. "Your voice is masculine, but soft, like a boy's."
My head fell back on quaking laughter. "I am a man regardless, aren't I? Must I find some other way to prove it to you?"
His smile was quizzical. This time, he had not understood my humor. "I did not say you weren't. I enjoy how you look. How you sound. I feel safe with you, Nevian."
Such a compliment was immense for me, coming from him. Because if Aestos could rely on me, perhaps there was more to myself I had yet to recognize. Something strong. Perhaps even something magnificent.
"You are," I confirmed affectionately. "And I am twenty-five, friend. What about you?"
He shrugged once. "I stopped counting after fifteen. I do not know how many years ago that was."
I stepped back and assessed him. "You seem younger than me, although your build is more developed than mine. We are likely near the same age." I pondered for a moment. "Today, you are twenty-four. From now on, let us share the day of my birth if you do not remember your own, and celebrate each new year together. How does that sound?"
"You wish to keep me that far into the future?"
"I wish to keep you forever, Aestos."
His grin was so bright that I mistook it for falling stars. He illuminated like split-open minerals that stretched and waved beneath a breath of light.
We spent the next hour giddily playing in the lake. Splashing each other, trying to pull the other under. When the wind became colder and goosebumps erupted along my skin, Aestos was concerned. He was not affected by the chill like I was. His skin had not even wrinkled from being in the water for so long.
Aestos was undoubtedly remarkable.
We lay naked in the soft grass, waiting patiently for our bodies to dry. And Aestos was delighted to lay beside me, even if the nearness of a nude man might have made another uncomfortable. He did not know how to feel shame for his nakedness.
I was on my back, Aestos on his side. For a while, he only watched me, and I gave him the time to put his thoughts together.
"Tell me about yourself," he asked quietly. Expectantly. Eager for something remarkable I might share about myself. It had taken lengths for spoken curiosity to reach him, and I was proud of how far he had already come.
"It is rare you ask about me," I jested, because he should learn to recognize humor. "I was beginning to think you did not care to know me."
"I care, Nevian." Another soft-spoken response. It had been a secret for my ears alone.
In every way, he was endearing. "I suppose you want to know something meaningful, unless it is my favorite color you are asking for."
"Anything about you."
I looked at the illuminated sky while I pondered what to give him. I reached within for something meaningful. Something that had influenced who I was today.
"My parents, you already know, were killed in battle. Pirates invaded our island fifteen years ago, and we lost many of our people." My throat clogged with an abrupt reflex of emotion. I cleared it. "I had not always been so passionate about music. It was due to their deaths that I turned to it for comfort. To soothe how my heart ached when my sister could not because she was busy becoming our next queen. She became a mother to me at an early age, and I grew dependent on her. Even now…sometimes I feel I cannot survive without her."
I turned my gaze to Aestos. His face held careful consideration of me. "How did you survive it?" He frowned, and I clarified, "The loss of your parents. The never-ending solitude. How have you survived being alone all these years?"
He had not forgotten his loneliness, and I saw a story of sorrow in his eyes. "I do not know. I was…alone, and the time passed anyway. It was all I knew. I did not know to expect more."
"The king mentioned your father earlier." I was hesitant to ask, "Did you know?"
He nodded once. "I did. But these emotions I feel for you and your people, I did not feel for my parents. I believed I might have loved them once, but what remains is longing. Because I had not known them, and they had not known me."
"Aestos," I murmured. A plea for kinder circumstances to reach him.
I would take it upon myself to know him. I would love him and pour into him every neglect he'd had as a boy.
"I did not know to wait for you," Aestos continued. His words reduced to whispers I could have mistaken for the wind. "But I always felt compelled to look onto the ocean. And on it, you came."
"And I am glad for it," I murmured. Aestos leaned toward me, and we carved out a moment in time to stare into each other's gazes. Until I said, "Because I think we discovered each other when we both needed it most."
His look was soft and agreeing. "Yes. I believe so, too." He touched his chest above his heart and seemed mildly troubled. "I feel warm here. So much of it that I do not know what to do. Affection," he clarified.
"Affection," I agreed. "Come closer, and I will tell you how to deal with it."
He shifted his body. His chest pressed against my arm, and our thighs touched. I lowered his head to me and kissed him. His forehead. Both his remarkable eyes. His nose. A kiss from the mother he should have had. A kiss from his father. The kiss of a brother and friend. When I released him, all those areas were flushed.
"What is that called," he whispered.
"A kiss. You share it with those who are important to you."
He rubbed his lips together. Then he leaned forward and clumsily placed them between my brows. He lifted himself, and he was smiling.
"I like it," he said.
I grinned widely. "I thought you might. There is much more beyond that that I will teach you." I will teach you how to love others.
We fell into silence while Aestos gazed comfortably at me. He let his fingers fall to my throat, where he stoked lazily where my vocal cords were. I had explained to him my understanding of them—how they worked to produce my songs. He smiled again. Soft and expectant. I was pleased to see it.
"Would you like me to sing for you?"
He nodded.
"Share a poem with me first. I know you have been creating new ones in your brilliant mind. Enlighten me."
Bashfully affected, his fingers stopped in the hollow of my throat. But he did not refuse. "I fall asleep to quiet waves and locusts. The air is mild. I am comfortable. A stranger's song disrupts the peace, and I realize I will never be satisfied with the music of nature. I can never be content with sleeping in intentional silence."
More marvelous words about me.
I kissed him again and fell back onto the grass, grinning and elated. "I am buzzing with warmth from your wonderful words. I hope you will be confident to share more with me."
"If you would like."
"Yes, Aestos, I would like. Because I am delighted to have found you, and truly glad I am someone you consider a friend."
Aestos' eyes melted in a way that was new and runny with adoration. "Already, you have become so much more than that."
****
The next morning, I awoke to the urgent calling of my name.
Aestos was above me, peering down, although he seemed distracted.
I sat up. Rubbed sleep from my eyes. "What has you distressed, friend?"
The grave look he sent me stiffened my spine in vital areas.
"Your people are in danger."