Chapter Six

It was when I woke up to a knock at my door to see Nikkos there naked and I slammed the door back and shouted at him about where his clothes had gone. He had explained that he didn’t like the way they felt on his skin. I had responded that he needed clothes as I looked in my room for some that he could put on. Nikkos said the clothes were not as small as the last but were still a tight fit and he couldn’t sleep with them on so he took them off.

I had opened the door to toss some more clothes at him, making him frown but I told him we would get him some clothes that fit. He seemed to accept that and got dressed, in my doorway, and not wanting to watch him I shut the door as a blush ran up my neck. I ignored my embarrassment and quickly got ready before also exiting my room. Nikkos was waiting by my door and that surprised me a bit.

I fed the dogs and forced Nikkos to wear sunglasses because his red eyes were a little unnatural. And with everything that has been going on, I didn’t want to draw attention to him and then have my family and others asking questions. Nikkos didn’t like wearing them and I had to slap his hands away from trying to take them off several times but luckily by the time we reached the outer city he had learned to leave them alone.

“Wow.” I looked to see Nikkos taking in everything around him with his lips parted. His head turned every which way and he even started to wonder, but I grabbed his wrist stopping him and making him look at me.

“Do not leave my side.” I told him firmly, staring at his eyes that were blocked by the sunglasses.

He grinned, “Never.”

I sighed and decided to just hold his wrist in case his wonder got the best of him. I didn’t have time to lose an overgrown giant and then he accidentally causes issues. The outer city may not be as strict as the inner town but there were still rules and if anything got back to my father he would probably murder me. I had a feeling he’s been waiting for a reason too and I didn’t want to hand him one.

I ignored the tingles that came from holding his wrist and entered the first clothing store we came across. I pulled Nikkos to the men’s section and started looking through different shirts first. I would hold a shirt up towards his chest and decide if it would look right before deciding to give it to Nikkos to hold, letting his wrist go free.

Nikkos just stuck close by me as we wandered around the store and there were times he would pick up something so I told him he could try it on if they had it in his size. He was fairly tall so it took a minute to find the right size but once I found the match for him it was smooth sailing. I stuck to getting him clothing in black, grey, white, blue, and brown until he actually developed a sense of what he liked on his own.

“Ares.”

I turned to my left and saw Nikkos holding up some leather pants in his size. He looked at them intrigued before looking back at me with a smile on his face. I bit my lip as I tried to think of a way to explain he probably didn’t want those. Although that part of me was urging me to allow him to get them because there was no doubt he could pull them off.

“No, those aren’t the most...comfortable.” I settled on that and he frowned at me before looking back at the pants.

“You said I can try on clothes. I’ll try them on to see how they feel.” He said with a nod before looking back at me and I bit my tongue before sighing and nodding my head.

We continued collecting clothes before going to the dressing hall. It was filled with rooms on end and I chose the biggest one. I placed the clothes on hooks and went space ran out I sat them down on the bench in the room.

“Try on either a shirt or a pair of pants one at a time or both at once. You can come out and show me when you have them on and you can use the mirror in there to see how you look.” I explained to him before stepping out of the room, shutting the door behind me.

I leaned against the wall opposite of the door and waited for a few minutes before he came out. He had put on a pair of pants and decided to not put a shirt on some I was met with his very muscular bare chest. I tried to ignore his exposed upper half as I told him to turn in a circle and once he did I nodded my head. He smiled and went back into the room and I released a deep breath as I realized that this was gonna be more torture than I thought. I was really starting to hate this whole connected thing even more.

~

Shopping for clothes and other things for Nikkos took way longer than I had thought and it didn’t help that as time went on he caught on more and became pickier. He spent fifteen minutes picking out a toothbrush for just its color and frowned at me when I told him it didn’t matter. I mean they all cleaned your mouth just the same, but no, the color mattered to him. It was also then that I realized that green was now his favorite color.

I had used my magic to teleport all our things back to my house so that we wouldn’t have to carry them around. I didn’t find it appropriate to have loads of bags with us as we ate and I didn’t want to haul everything around. Nikkos didn’t seem to mind carrying mountains of bags and it made me wonder just how strong he was. And then I remembered he turned into a half-monster when we were fighting and decided to ask him about it later.

I knew that if I was hungry then Nikkos had to be starving and so I pulled him into a restaurant. We got seated fairly fast and Nikkos was amazed at the restaurant and kept glancing around again. He touched the little things on the table and I found myself explaining to him what they were along with the things he pointed out in the restaurant. It was like seeing a puppy in a new environment and I found myself relaxing.

“Hello, Welcome to Willows Weeps. What can I start you guys off with?” The waiter looked at me bored but then her eyes slid to Nikkos and she straightened up, putting on a flirty smile.

I felt a shot of jealousy shoot through me and my gripped tighten on the menu but I ignored the feeling. I had no right to get jealous and Nikkos wasn’t even mine to begin with. I didn’t like him so if he wanted to play along with some random girl he could. I didn’t care.

“I’ll have a water with lemon.” I requested not looking up at her.

I felt Nikkos stare and looked up to see him looking at me in confusion. I mentally sighed as I realized that Nikkos is a lost puppy in a new world and I’m his guide. I grabbed my menu, turned it around so he could see, and pointed out the different drinks. I didn’t tell him about the alcohol but I explained every drink and what it tasted like. When I was done he had a grin on his face before he turned to the waitress, who looked peeved.

“I’ll have a cherry Pepsi.” He told her with a smile and it seemed to perk the blond right up. I reframed from glaring and just looked at my menu as I reminded myself that this was only because of the connection the Origin had graced me with.

“And can I get you anything else?” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and bit her lip, I could see it all from the side of my eye and it irritated me.

“No.” Nikkos responded and then I felt his stare back at me. I looked up as the waitress huffed and walked away and met eyes with a frowning Nikkos.

“What?” I didn’t understand his worried look.

“Nikkos can feel everything that Ares feels even if Ares can’t do the same yet. Why are you feeling bad?” He asked me and I bit my jaw and looked to my left as I felt embarrassment running through me. I had completely forgotten about that little bit and his reminding me and him knowing I was upset made me feel shameful.

I opened my mouth to throw out a little lie but something in me stopped and I closed my mouth. The urge to not lie to him seemed to take over as I sighed before turning to look at him before staring down at the menu for a minute to gather some courage. I was the god of war and here I was being reduced to a hesitant fool. My life is just on a downhill at this point and I think the Origin thought it was funny.

“I didn’t like the way the waitress acted.” I simply stated as I glanced up at him.

He leaned forward some and tilted his head, “Why?”

I clenched my jaw before just deciding to say it, “She was….interested in you and I guess this whole connection thing is messing with my emotions.”

“I understand. I thought she was trying to be nice, but I only notice Ares.” Nikkos flashed me a grin and I rolled my eyes, letting out a little laugh.

When the waitress came back with our drinks Nikkos went out of his way to not look at her. And since he had never eaten out before he asked me to order for him and I could tell that upset the girl. She left our table with the biggest attitude ever and it made me wonder why she was working here if she was gonna behave the way she was.

Nikkos started to ask me questions about random things he had seen today as we waited for our food, and I answered them without a problem. It wasn’t until we were served our food that I noticed some stares and whispers. I tried my best to ignore them but soon Nikkos noticed too and he looked confused. They were talking about me and my divorce. This was why I didn’t like to be out much.

Nikkos looked at me and looked worried again, “Do you want to leave?”

It was nice of him to offer but I wasn’t gonna let nosy people ruin my lunch. “No, it's fine. Just ignore them and let them talk themselves to boredom.”

I could tell he wanted to know more about why they were whispering what they were but chose not to. I was grateful because I don’t think I could handle another interrogation on why my marriage failed and why everyone had a different story. I didn’t have an answer on what went wrong or how to change it all. I didn’t have an answer on anything and I found myself growing upset as my depression reared its ugly head.