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[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

WHO: Mary Magdalene & Huitzilopotchli
WHEN: Tuesday evening
WHERE: His place
WHAT: It's a proper dinner date without touchings.
WARNINGS: TOUCHINGS, says Mary tba

Looking in the mirror, Mary thought her hair might be starting to go darker again, but it was hard to tell. She would have chalked it up to the change in her life that was the Aztec, but the shifts from red to brown across decades didn't usually need the influence of a war god, just ever-fluctuating human beliefs.

She had put on a blue dress but peeled it off again and thrown it onto the bed, changing for something far more casual and not in the Hummingbird's colour. Then she'd changed again and put on the dress she'd first seduced him in that night long ago and while she admired the way it made her look and the memories it brought up, that was all the wrong way to go. Another outfit thrown onto the bed before Mary finally settled on a red dress, one she considered alluring but not overtly seductive. Then she put on jewelry, and took it off, and put her hair up, then down, then up again.

Mary felt utterly frazzled by the time she was ready to leave her place. She spent money she didn't really have a took a taxi to Huitzilopotchli's area of the city, having him drop her a few blocks from his building so that she could use the short walk to calm herself.

She didn't know what tonight was going to be like, or what she was to expect (or what would be expected of her), and all of it made her heart tighten as she knocked on the door and waited.

Comments

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He had no idea what he was getting into, or how he was going to go about this. It had just sounded like a good idea, and his priest had confirmed it. He'd lamented that he wasn't great at pretending to be human, and the priest had said that was because he wasn't.

It had only helped a little.

True to his word he'd had his people cook, making sure his own meal was fit to be in polite company yet suited to his tastes, and waited for her. The table was nicely set and when his people opened the door he smiled to Mary.

He'd asked for privacy, so they left and he went to greet her. "You look nice," but she always did. "I'm sorry it's not very restaurant but I'm not good with social graces." He shrugged. "How are you?"

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"This is better than any restaurant anyway," Mary told him with a smile. "We don't have to pretend to be normal people." Because that was the last thing they were, and normal was the last thing this thing between them was.

"Nervous," Mary said in reply to his question. "I... have actually never been on a date before." She'd gone out with men occasionally but it had generally been a few minutes of talking before going back to someone's bed. That wasn't really a date. "So we're both in the deep end here."

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He chuckled, "I don't think normal is anything I can even relate to." Smiling he led her to the table and waited for her to sit before doing the same. "Well you know I'm all out of luck there."

"I figure we talk, we eat, and try something else if this isn't us. But I do want to try. I enjoy the passion, but I want a bit more. I want to talk to you. Know you."

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"Talk and eat," Mary agreed with a nod now that she was sitting. "There are things I can do reasonably well." She refused to entertain the concept that he didn't want to be with her. She knew only that she could lie happily beside him in complete silence for the rest of her life and have it be enough. Perhaps for him what they had had was only physical, but for Mary it was the first time she'd felt something beyond that with a man.

"I don't know what there is to know about me that I haven't told you before," Mary considered.

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He smiled to her, glad it was going fairly well so far. If anything, at least he could say he'd given it a shot. "I know the myth, I know what you are." He gave another shrug, "And I know part of you who are. I want to see the other parts. The good and bad. Not just the being you are, but behind that. I will do the same for you."

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"Okay," Mary nodded, trying to think of what she should say to start this off. While she pondered various ideas she smiled across the table at him and asked, "so what is it we're having for dinner tonight?"

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

"Pork, rice, tortilla's. My people tell me it's quite common and quite good." It sounded odd, even to him. "The spices are left off. I wasn't sure if you'd want them. I should have asked but thought of it too late. For next time, one way or another."

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"It sounds great," she assured him. "I love spicy, but without works for me too. I eat so badly, but I've made a decision to start looking after myself better. I guess this dinner is a good place to start." Mary really wanted to reach out across the table and take his hand, but she resisted.

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He didn't inform her his meat wasn't pig, because she hadn't asked. He figured she could assume. "I'll remember that." It was a new thing he'd learned. "It is, and I will encourage you to do take care of yourself. There's always food here for you." He reached and took some papers, handing them to her. "You expressed interest to help the people here. These are some of the people who are already here and would welcome the aid. I haven't spoken to them. You can impress them yourself." He hoped that was a good thing to do. She didn't seem to want his aid in that, and he respected her drive to achieve things on her own merit.

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

The papers immediately drew her attention and she looked through them a little as Huitzilopotchli spoke, nodding. "Thank you," she said, head still down as she took in some of the details, before looking up at him again. "This really means a lot to me, that you'll let me be a part of this. I'll see if I can meet some of them tomorrow and introduce myself. Do any of them know what you truly are?" she asked, tilting her head a little. It was important to know if she was going to be Saint Mary Magdalene to these people or plain old Mary Jones.

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He shook his head, glad he had done right. "They are outside of my territory." Less chance he'd get territorial about her being there, and that cause conflict. "They do not know me, no. And it is no problem. I'm glad I did right in getting you those."

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"You did," Mary said with a nod. "This sort of thing is exactly what I need. I get so caught up in my own head that I forgot it feels good to help people." She rolled her eyes. "I think my anger at the church blinds me to the fact that some of the things they made to to be are actually okay."

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He'd known priests that became corrupt and tainted what he'd been. Man's greed tended to get the best of them at times. "Some, yes. Greed versus a good message. Sometimes greed wins. Do not let them dictate you. Help where you can. Don't let your doubts stop you."

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"Trying not to," she promised him. Then she asked, "what are your first memories of being reborn in America?" If they wanted to learn more about each other, Mary thought why not start there.

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

"I wasn't," he offered honestly. He pointed to the icon. "That brought me here. And what little people I could save from Cortez." he set his hands on the table. "when Cortez sacked Tentochitlan, he asked for my icon. My priest, a good man, denied him and ran away with it. His belief, and the tangible piece of it, allowed me to leave my country. I hid in a cave for decades, gathering power and resenting I could not save my people. My priest told me that I could not avenge them, if I died. So I lived. Well ,more existed. I hungered and grew weak."

He toyed with one of the glasses. "When things died down, the decedents of that priest smuggled me along cities. Until now. The priest I have now is of direct blood of that one who saved me. I let him get away with much because of it." He smiled. "I am still the same God that sat above Tentochitlan. Whatever one resides in Mexico and below, is an image of me. A memory. But I am not unused to struggle. I had to claw my way up to where I was side by side with Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca. I can do it again. I have learned how to sway people. And you, when did you get reborn here?"

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

Listening to him speak, Mary was enraptured. She didn't know if it was just her adoration for him that made her biased or if it was all the sheer strength of his will, his godly command. All she knew was that when he spoke she loved him even more.

"My first memories here are unclear and fractured, bits and pieces as people spoke more of me in a land that had previously never heard my name. The first clear memory is 1783. I woke up in a church and I was me, although not like I am now. For a long time I was... well, I was demure and quiet and proper and I spent almost all time time praying in church and crying. That was what they thought of me then."

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He tilted his head, "I've seen you like that once. It's interesting. Belief does odd things I imagine. Mine has remained mostly the same. I gained more power and became a more important God, replacing others, but never anything like that. I do admit it is strange."

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"My feast day?" she checked. "Yeah, I don't like being this passive retiring thing. I was never like that in life. I was chosen because I was a loud mouth who was always asking questions and telling men to sit down and shut up. You can imagine how well that went over back then." She smirked a little.

"What was it like for you in your kingdom. Did you have physical form?" she asked. "Did you walk through the temples yourself or were you separated from your people?"

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He chuckled and poured himself another drink. "Not very." The times were different now, and he accepted that. She was teaching him even more of that. He wondered if she knew. "At least I know what to expect now. I didn't fully understand. Now I do."

"Yes and no. I was as you see me now, but mortals could not look upon me. I was as bright as the sun, always surrounded by my birds. I could tune it down, be a warrior. I used to be able to be an eagle. I've lost all that." He held out his arm, "but this. This I have regained." After a moment a snake of fire crawled down his arm before he extinguished it. "One of my weapons. So yes I was separated from them, but was not."

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"Well, hopefully you won't meet her again," Mary said, picking up her drink. She couldn't think of that thing she became on her feast day as being the same person as her, even though in a way it must have been more true. Her day to day life was made of pop culture and scholars but that woman she became a week out of the year was a result of the true faithful.

At the snake, Mary drew a surprised breath and smiled brightly. "Beautiful," she breathed.

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He shrugged, "She is you. Why would I turn away from that? I'll keep my distance. This other side of you isn't too pleased with me." She'd scorned him before. He expected nothing else this time.

"Thank you. Years of work for even that. But I have patience. I can wait. Do you remember where you grew up? Who taught you to be so open with your opinions?"

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"I know she's me but..." Mary sighed. "To be completely honest? That part of me... it utterly terrifies me. I make jokes about it and roll my eyes but every time it's over I just start crying in relief. Because what if one day I never turn back to myself and I become her? I wouldn't even know about it. It's like she's lingering over me with this threat of annihilation." Mary shook her head and took a long drink from her glass. Then she gave a small self-conscious laugh. "I've never told anyone that before."

She cleared her throat, trying not to think about that idea of the Other Mary. "There's nothing written about my life before I met Jesus," Mary said, "but I sort of remember things. Although I don't know if 'remember' is right, because I don't know if I ever really lived. Sometimes I'm sure that I was born and lived and died, and other times I'm sure that it was only a story people made up to help themselves. Either way, I came from Magdala Nunayya, a town in the Middle East on the shores of the sea of Galilee. I don't remember any childhood nor do I remember any family I had. I think I had sisters, maybe. I don't know who taught me to speak out, I only know that while Jesus respected me for it and encouraged it, there were others of his close followers who hated that he'd let a woman walk with them." She shrugged.

"I know you never had a childhood," Mary said, "you were born as a warrior against your sister from the first moment, right?"

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He listened to her before setting his hand over hers. "Change is inevitable. In death, life. When mortals said our prophecy foretold doom, I laughed. They did not understand. We all transform. I was afraid I would not be the same, all those years in that cave. I changed but did not chage. But I understand your fear. I won't share it."

He nodded, "I was created from feathers. Or my mother just desired a son. I don't think I was intended to fight my sister. I think she made that battle." He didn't like speaking of his sister. She'd betrayed him and their mother for her own pride. "She killed our mother. I took my revenge. Then I spend a while getting used to everything, all the while fighting my siblings. It's why I need the heart. In order to protect them, I must have power."

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

Mary gave him a small smile and squeezed his hand, his words didn't actually make a difference but that he understood that fear meant a lot.

"Were all of your siblings your enemies?" she asked. She could remember how uncomfortable he'd been their first night sleeping under the stars on the trek across Arizona.

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

"All of the Southern Stars. Yes."He'd fought against them so long, considering them anything but his enemies was foreign to him. Still. "I wish I could have had blood that did not hate me for my birth. But I made family. Tlaloc, the god of rain is all the brother I never had. I miss him." And he did. Tlaloc got him in ways many others did not.

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"I hope that you find him again then," Mary said honestly. "There's no one in my pantheon that I consider like that, so I can only barely understand."

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He shrugged, knowing the slim chances of that. "It will or will not. I have hopes but not very good ones. We are old and often relegated to dusty books." He tilted his head, "I do not want to argue, but have you considered trusting them to have something like that?"

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"I find it hard to trust the others of my religion," Mary admitted. "When I was alive there was a man I considered to be like a brother to me. He was one of the few following Jesus that treated me as though I belonged there. We would talk for hours into the night while the fire burned down to ashes beside us." She frowned. "But then... he betrayed us. He betrayed me."

With a sigh she reached for her drink. "I can't trust those that are created by the belief of my church, because I can't trust my church. It's a hateful despicable creation that twists love into hate and turns people against each other. So while some of them I care deeply about, but there will always be some level of distrust there."

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He wasn't as knowledgeable of her pantheon as he'd like to be. He knew the ones who had burned his home, no more. "Who was he? But I understand not trusting those who betray."

"However that, sounds lonely. You are blaming people for what the church does to them. They are not made by it. I pay attention. Your kin, they don't exactly sound like they agree with what the church says. You are blaming them, for what something beyond their control does." He set his glass down, "this is not like me hating Cortez or my sister. They both tried to kill me. They both betrayed." He shook his head, "you cannot blame people for things outside of their control. Just because they were born and died during a time where they could not hear your martyr' god's words doesn't mean they are less. You are judging. I hear it's a bad thing."

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

This was slightly awkward. "His name is Judas," Mary said. "And, uh, I asked you kill him for me once, do you remember?"

"I don't blame them," Mary said, trying to work out how to make it more clear. She felt like she was making a mess of it all, which wasn't surprising. These weren't thoughts she had really articulated outloud before. "But there's a wariness, even with the ones who hate the church and the way it's run. They're good people - well, some of them are - even friends, but I can't help that deep down mistrust. Because we are what the church made us and not a single one of us is the same as we were at the beginning, or even a decade ago in some cases. Just like that other Mary is in me, there's other versions of them as well. Because our religion is so alive and has so many millions of people arguing over what it means and who God is... it makes me scared."

"And..." she added with a sigh, holding her glass tightly, "I realise right now I'm not making a very good case for any reason you'd want to be with me." Here she was talking about the changeable nature of Christians when she was hoping to find a way into his life.

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

"I remember," he'd felt oddly bad about that one and wasn't sure he'd do it again. He'd been too focused on impressing her and not knowing which was right, and what wrong.

"I think it would be best if you can accept that in yourself, then others. We make family Mary. Being alone is just that. Alone." He gave her a smile, "Perhaps I see more then what your church makes of you. Perhaps I like the challenge."

He shrugged. "Perhaps I just like you, difficulties aside. We are more then what life makes of us."

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"Well, let's just blame Judas for my trust issues and leave it at that," Mary said with a tight smile. No, she knew it wasn't all him, but it was so easy to blame Judas for everything. "I'm working on the acceptance of myself. You actually help with that." It seemed somewhat strange to her, but there it was.

"A war god who enjoys a challenge," Mary teased lightly. "I'm shocked." Her smile warm. "And I like you too, but you already knew that."

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

"I am pleased I'm helping." He wasn't sure how, but he went with it. He'd tackle the rest of her issues later. He knew he had plenty himself.

"The world is shocked at it, really." He smirked, "and yes. But I like hearing it too."

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

She was glad he liked hearing it, that he was still interested in her. (She kept remembering that morning after Valentine's Day and tried to push it away.)

"This date of ours," Mary admitted, "is actually turning out a lot less awkward than I expected." She'd thought they would sit silently, unsure of anything to say. But even the spaces in conversation so far had only been while they considered their words.

[bluehummingbird.insanejournal.com]

He chuckled to that, "I do agree with you there. I would like to do this again if that's alright with you.

[gospel-of-mary.insanejournal.com]

"Yes," Mary agreed with a bright grin. "More than alright with me." She wondered how long this 'dating' phase would last between them. Mary (being Mary) hoped it would be sooner not later that she was allowed to be physical with him again. That kiss a few days ago had only helped remind her how much she missed that.