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[lightstepping.insanejournal.com]

WHO: Klymene & Prometheus
WHEN: Less than an hour after the light returns
WHERE: Prometheus' studio
WHAT: Checking in

She'd wanted, so badly, to get to him during the hours of darkness. A grown man thousands of years old Prometheus may have been, but sometimes Klymene looked at him and all she saw was her little boy. And even when she didn't see that little boy, she saw the skinny man tied to the mountain and screaming in agony. (She'd never seen that for herself. By then she'd been a handmaiden on Olympus, a polite word for her forced slavery to those who were her lessers. Had she her freedom, Klymene would have gone to try and rip those chains free herself. But even though Klymene had never seen her son's punishment, she had nightmares about it far too often and woke in distress, sweat pasting her clothes and sheets to her skin.)

So in the unnatural darkness, it was to Prometheus that Klymene desperately wanted to go. Had Iapatos been with her maybe she would have risked it, but alone Klymene didn't dare face the streets.

But once that veil lifted, Klymene was out of her apartment and making her way to Prometheus as quickly as she could, parking the car in front of his building and then not-quite running to the door. She banged her open palm against it a half dozen times, calling through the steel. "Prometheus! You need to open the door and let me in!"

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[firestealer.insanejournal.com]

Prometheus had spend most of the weekend, huddled in a ball in a corner. When the lights came back on, he hadn't moved. Instead he'd curled up closer into himself, fearing the sunrise more then any darkness.

After all, sunrise tended to bring forth the eagle, and while somewhere he knew he wasn't tied down anymore the fear remained.

So the banging on the door went ignored. He couldn't make himself get up, not really. He feared the consequences of answering the door, fearing that if he moved he'd realize that he was still tied up and the eagle was right around the corner.

[lightstepping.insanejournal.com]

No response. No response and it made Klymene panic. She had no key to his home and the door was locked. So instead she went to circle to building, searching for a way in.

If anyone asked her afterwards how she'd managed to climb the drainpipe up to the second floor, well dressed and elegant woman that she was, Klymene wouldn't be able to tell them. She had kicked off her shoes at the bottom and bare-foot scrabbled up to the window of Prometheus' apartment, pushing it open as she called his name. Her white shirt was covered in grease and dirt by the time she'd pulled herself in the window, and she looked around. "Prometheus! Prometheus, are you here?" she hurried through the apartment before finding him curled in a corner.

"Prometheus!" Klymene rushed to his side, dropping to her knees. "My Prometheus, my darling boy!"

[firestealer.insanejournal.com]

He visibly startled at Klymene's nearness and it took him a few moments to even recognize her. Clearly he was expecting someone completely different. Somewhere distant, he was glad neither Aidan or Jade had decided to come look for him. He didn't want to take the risk of hurting them.

He took a few breaths but kept to the wall and kept his hands on his legs. He squinted into the faint light, his mind realizing if Klymene was here then the eagle couldn't be. Didn't mean it wasn't outside though. Shakily he reached out a hand to brush his fingers on her cheeks, relaxing when he realized she was real. "Mother," he breathed. "How did you get in?"

[lightstepping.insanejournal.com]

Klymene was studying his face, looking for trauma that ran into the physical. There was nothing she could do about his mental state of mind, but if he was injured she could find a way to help with that. "I climbed in through your window," she told him, reaching out to brush the back of her fingers against his brow, to comfort and to check for a fever. "You didn't answer your door and I worried."

[firestealer.insanejournal.com]

He had some marks of his nails along his arms, but other then that he was psychically fine. Everything else was not so fine. He dropped his hand and allowed his mother to touch him. "I can't open the door. Not when it may be out there." He refused to give name to the thing that haunted him the most. It may just come looking for him.

[lightstepping.insanejournal.com]

"Oh Prometheus," she whispered, leaning forward to wrap her arms probably around him. "I would die before letting anything hurt you again," she promised, whispering the words fiercely against his neck.

[firestealer.insanejournal.com]

He didn't resist to her setting her arms around him, but he didn't return it either. He was still far too focused on his own fears. "You can't promise that." It had been through his own actions he'd gotten his punishments and while he'd do it again without thinking, the fears remained.

[lightstepping.insanejournal.com]

Klymene drew back to meet his eyes, looking at him seriously. "I can't," Klymene agreed, and there was guilt in her tone, a long, old guilt. "But I'm here now, and I will do everything I can to protect you. You're my son." Klymene laid a hand against his cheek. "There's never been anything I wouldn't do for you."

[firestealer.insanejournal.com]

"I know," he didn't want his mother to feel guilty for anything. He'd made his own choices, and followed his own path. "I just don't want to go outside right now. It could be right outside." With a wince he set his fingers over his old scar, the memory of it all still very fresh in his mind.

[lightstepping.insanejournal.com]

"There's nothing outside," Klymene promised him, "except the human world." She squeezed his hand gently and tried to give him a gentle smile. "But I won't make you go out there. We can stay safe in here."

[firestealer.insanejournal.com]

"You don't..." trailing off he took a long, deep breath, "you don't know that. It always comes back. Always." He shivered at the idea and nodded to her suggestion. Staying inside sounded like the best idea right now. "I can do that."

[lightstepping.insanejournal.com]

"Not anymore," Klymene said with a shake of her head, but there was no use arguing with him in this state. "Have you eaten anything all weekend?" she asked Prometheus, taking both his hands in hers.

[firestealer.insanejournal.com]

He didn't really believe her, but he didn't argue her point anymore. They'd just keep going in circles, until it all became a moot point. Even shaken like this, he still knew when to let his mother win an argument.

He let her take his hands and shook his head. Not eating anything was relatively easy. He'd long learned to ignore his body's signals for food. "No. Just sat here."

[lightstepping.insanejournal.com]

Klymene let out a sad sigh and then leaned forward to leave a gentle kiss against his forehead. Getting to her feet she said, "I'll make you something." If she couldn't protect him from his nightmares, she could at least do the motherly thing of making sure he ate.

[firestealer.insanejournal.com]

He nodded, not entirely up to lying and saying it wasn't needed. At this rate, he'd probably not eat for a few more days, at least until he was able to quiet his fears.

He rose, giving the door a skeptical look, to follow her. He knew he ought to check on Aidan, Jade, and Bess, and it was the only reason he was willing to push himself through this. Humanity always came first to him, the ones he cared for even more so.

[lightstepping.insanejournal.com]

Klymene's tone was conversational when she spoke, pulling things out of Prometheus' fridge. "As far as I've heard this seems to be the work of Nyx and her ilk," she told her son, "although if they had a purpose beyond general chaos I've not read about it."

[firestealer.insanejournal.com]

He knew he needed a shower and he would, but not after he'd eaten something. Straightening out those priorities helped in keeping his mind calm. He'd probably not go outside for a few more days, but talking himself down when someone else was there was easier.

"I don't think they need more purpose then that." He'd never had many dealings with the children of Night. Why the pantheon often felt like pretending it was still ancient Greece, he'd never understand. Out of habit he lit up a cigarette, mostly so he'd have something to do with himself.