Chapter Text
Alexios is distracted. It’s amusing.
They’ll be walking, and he’ll look and stare at the sky, his whole body stopping, half of him sometimes stopping a moment too late, so that his body looks like an awkward goat, half-bent over the edge of some rugged clifftop. His eyes on the sky, searching for something Kassandra can never see. She climbs into Ikaros’ eyes sometimes, but he can’t ever see it either, and all she gets from the bird is a flicker of amusement.
So she watches, intrigued, concerned, and more than a little bemused.
It gets worse, because of course it does.
The distracted spells come with headaches.
He’ll stop, and for a moment she’ll think that everything is fine, but then his breathing will hitch and he’ll wince, never really showing his pain, never letting himself really feel it, and he’ll start walking again before he’s really recovered.
Only his balance is off, because the distracted spells come with dizziness too, so he wobbles and sometimes falls, going to one knee before Kassandra helps him up, grumpy though he is.
And this time Kassandra grasps him by the arm, his hand in hers for just a moment. She is tired.
So she jabs at the center of his chest, fury soft in her voice, and asks, “what the hell were you looking at?”
“The bird,” her brother answers, but Ikaros is nowhere to be seen in the sky.
His eyes glow gold the next time he falls. When he comes to, he is quiet. Something about him is different.
“The sky…” his eyes are wide. “Blue. Clouds going on for miles.”
“The sun behind you,” Kassandra echoes, nodding. “The wind beneath your wings.”
She doesn’t stop to say Ikaros’ wings, because she understands it now, and they’re not Ikaros’ wings, they’re hers when they’re connected, and Alexios has gained wings of his own.
The bird, he’d told her, and she hadn’t gotten it then, what he’d meant. She understands now.
“Her name is Iren,” Alexios mutters, “I’m naming her Iren.”
Kassandra helps him up, squeezes his hand. He glares at her before pulling away.
“I like it,” she tells him, smiling.
He blinks at her, his gaze going hazy for a moment. In the distance, two eagles cry out into the clear blue sky.
He smiles.
He doesn’t fall again.