Closed: But they stayed there as stars in the shape of a crown

[vineleaves]

Dionysus is a very seasonal god. Much like the grapes he is known for, he spends the winter largely dormant and indoors - at least, when he isn't spending winters just traveling places where it's summer, there's an entire southern hemisphere, after all - but now that it is spring he has been spending most of the sunlight hours outside. He has his garden to tend to. Now that it is set up it hardly takes all day to do daily maintenance on such a small patch of vineyard, but truthfully, he's just spending a lot of time sitting outside, enjoying the weather and enjoying nature coming back to life. It's a plant god thing.

But he does have to go inside eventually. As much as he likes being outside he still prefers sleeping in an actual bed at night. Sleeping on the ground doesn't exactly do wonders for his lower back, so a little bit before sundown he bids goodnight to his growing plants and heads back inside. His plan is to clean up, head to either the café or a kitchen to grab a bite to eat, and then curl up in bed and either listen to a cd or read a play before going to sleep for the night.

When he enters his room it takes him a few minutes before he notices anything different but when he finally looks up, it hits him like a ton of bricks. Ariadne's crown. Painted on his ceiling. He stares at it for a long time, unmoving, just looking up. Eventually he sits down on his bed, still looking up at it. It's perfect. He has missed her stars so much.


"I know you've been... nervous, about it."
"I'm not nervous about marrying you, Dionysus."
"Well that's certainly good, all our friends are here already and I'm sure that would make an awkward conversation. No, I mean... You're nervous about joining my family. I can tell, y'know."
"...Well, they're not exactly the easiest people to live up to."
"Don't be ridiculous, my love, you're better than all of them combined."
"I think I should be very careful about whatever I say next. They are just in the next room."
"You're perfect."
"I'm mortal."
"You're perfect. This crown is -- well, it's not as perfect as you are, but I thought -- maybe if you wore it, you'd feel as wonderful as you really are. I don't care that you're not a goddess, but I want you to feel like you're one, if it'll help. You shouldn't be nervous about them."

_____________________________________

Some time later he finally emerges from his room. His hair is damp from washing and he has exchanged his gardening clothes for a clean and familiar chiton. He figures it must have been Grantaire -- who else would sneak in and paint his ceiling, after all -- and so that is who he is looking for. He's on his way to check the café when he actually runs into him in the hallway.

Dionysus doesn't say anything, he can't get words out, he just goes up and wraps Grantaire in a tight hug.

Comments

[futaille]

It's a little bit surprising, honestly. On your way to the library and suddenly you're being hugged by a god. It takes him a second, even, to come to the obvious conclusion about why. He doesn't say anything either, just folds his arms around Dionysus and hugs him back.

[vineleaves]

Dionysus peels back from the hug just enough to give Grantaire a kiss as well. It's slow, and a little wet but that's because he's crying again.

[futaille]

He kisses back, of course, heedless of the tears. When it eventually ends, he smiles faintly and asks, "How is your garden going?"

[vineleaves]

"Good," he says, though it comes out a little squeakier than he'd like, so he tries again. "Good." He wipes his face. "Thank you."

[futaille]

"Oh, it's--" No, it's not nothing and was never meant to be. "Of course. It was Galahad's idea, really, but I was more than happy to do it."

[vineleaves]

Galahad, Sweet Galahad is right apparently. "He had me draw them down, I thought he just wanted to see what they looked like, I -- they're perfect, Étienne."

[futaille]

"It deserved as good as I could make them."

[vineleaves]

He goes back to hugging. "I think this is probably the best gift I've been given."

[futaille]

He hugs back. "Oh, well. Happy to have given it, of course."

[vineleaves]

Dionysus kisses Grantaire again, only this time he's crying less.

[futaille]

Grantaire smiles a little as he kisses Dionysus. "I am glad you like it."

[vineleaves]

"I love it." He loves Grantaire. He loves Ariadne. He misses Ariadne. The painting is a perfect combination of all three of those facts.

[futaille]

"Good. I'm glad. If it ever needs to be touched up or anything, just let me know."

[vineleaves]

"Thank you, love," he just keeps standing there, holding Grantaire for a while, until he remembers something.

"...I had a gift I was going to give you too, but it's not as good. For your birthday."

[futaille]

"Oh! You didn't have to. But I'm sure it's wonderful."

[vineleaves]

He had thought it would be a good birthday present when he was assembling it, but now, in light of this, this incredibly thoughtful, meaningful, unexpected gift out of nowhere, he's feeling very self-conscious about what he has wrapped up for Grantaire in his closet.

"I apparently missed your birthday anyway, so it's also late." He still never found out the exact day, but now it's definitely June, so it has definitely already passed. Part of Dionysus wonders if they shouldn't all just start celebrating arrival days, instead of birthdays. It would make it a lot easier to keep track of everything.

[futaille]

Grantaire is from a time when celebrating birthdays had really only just begun, and mostly for children at that, so he's far from put out by the lateness. "It's May 25, but really, that's fine. It was apparently October when I got here from June, so if you count that way, it's incredibly early."

[vineleaves]

He smiles at that. “That’s a good point. Well, are you busy right now?”

[futaille]

"Not with anything I can't just as easily do later!"

[vineleaves]

"Well, if you don't mind me kidnapping you for a bit, do you want your present now?"

[futaille]

"By all means, kidnap to your heart's content."

[vineleaves]

Dionysus takes Grantaire's hand, kisses his fingers, then leads him down the hallways back to his room. When they get inside, Grantaire might notice Dionysus' bed is a little messed up, from where he laid on it earlier to just stare up at the ceiling. In fact, he's having a hard time taking his eyes off the painting right now, but he does usher Grantaire to one of the chairs at his table before disappearing into his closet.

"I put it in here, on the off chance you decided to sneak in my room and paint a masterpiece on my ceiling," he calls from inside as he digs around for it.

[futaille]

He grins, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table. "I can't believe I didn't think to look around for a gift while I was painting on your ceiling."

[vineleaves]

"Well, given you're an oracle, you probably didn't feel the need, as surely you must already know exactly what I've gotten you." That's decidedly not how oracle-ing works, but then again, Grantaire is only a pretend oracle¹. Dionysus reemerges, carrying a large basket full of several smaller items wrapped up in colorful paper. There's a decent chance that, oracle or no, Grantaire will be able to guess what at least two of the items are, due to them being suspiciously wine bottle shaped. There's another item that is probably a bottle of some sort, but shorter and flatter than what most wine bottles tend to be, and three nondescript rectangular box shaped items. He spares another glance up at the ceiling as he walks over and sets the basket on the table in front of Grantaire. "Happy early birthday!"


1. Citation needed

[futaille]

"Well, I do at the very least predict some wine, although pretend I said that in appropriately cryptic terms," he says as he starts by unwrapping the obvious wine bottles.