Chapter 25 : A satyr’s heart

Tekos felt his heart stop when the pill bottle rolled under the table as Persephone sat back down.

"Are you okay?" Persephone asked the satyr whose demeanor looked completely shattered. "You look a little pale are you falling sick?"

Tekos opened his mouth to speak but words had become a foreign entity to him, his throat was as dry as sand paper and his heart hammered like the rhythmic beating of a base drum. He didn't just feel sick, he felt like he was about to collapse, if Persephone saw his bottle of pills underneath the table what would she say? What would she think?

So many scenarios played in Tekos' head at once, she would probably think he was a pervert or some sex craved maniac who had to be on medication to suppress his urges! She was probably going to think he had asked her out here because he was a predator, coaxing her until she dropped her guard enough to pounce on her.

The satyr was so deep in his sea of panic, sinking deeper and deeper into his self sought nightmare of a reverie, that he didn't hear Persephone calling out to him. It was not until the blue eyed goddess took Tekos' hand in both of hers did he come to.

"Tekos..?" Persephone's voice echoed worry and concern. "You don't look so good and I'm really starting to worry about you. I think I'm going to talk to the receptionist and ask them to hail a cub for us, you don't look like you'd be fit to ride."

As Persephone rose from her seat at the table, Tekos was about to stop her but realized this could be the loophole he had been waiting for. He could quickly grab his pill bottle from under the table while she was gone, and tuck it away before she returned. The minute Persephone turned around to leave, Tekos quickly picked up the small bottle and shoved it into his jacket pocket before Persephone returned.

After completing what felt like a do or die mission, Tekos wanted to tell the beautiful goddess that he was actually fine and she needed not to worry. But when she moved her chair close to his and took his hand, all he had wanted to say went right out the window. The warmth of her hands and the concern in her big doe eyes melted his heart, he had never had someone care for his well being like this before, well, other than his mother and sister. And he wanted it to last just a little bit longer.

"You will be alright Tekos don't worry, they assured me that your bike is in safe hands here," Persephone comforted the satyr, all the while stroking his massive hands with her tiny delicate ones. "For now, let's focus on getting you home alright?"

The satyr nodded slowly, his mind completely dazed from the feel of her rose petal soft hands against his slightly calloused ones. He didn't know how long Persephone had been holding him and he honestly couldn't care less, but to his dismay, she let him go and was already helping him up so they could leave the restaurant and head to the cab that was waiting outside.

The entire ride to Tekos' apartment, even as he was giving the driver directions there, the satyr felt like he was in some sort of lucid dream. The whole ride Persephone had his head laying on her shoulder while she stroked his hair gently. He knew that she was merely doing this out of concern and the goodness of her untainted heart, but Tekos couldn't help but feel the cocoons in his stomach, that he thought bore no life, flutter into a hundred butterflies. If he could spend all of eternity just like this in Persephone's arms, he would happily waste away right here.

The cab pulled up on a curb in front of the two story apartment that the satyr called home, and Persephone helped Tekos out of the car after paying the fare. She walked with him, his hand over her shoulder, up the stairs and asked for his key. As the satyr pulled it out, it dawned on him that he was about to let Persephone into his house.

While the satyr was still lost in his musing, Persephone took the key from his hand, unlocked the door and helped him walk in.

As Persephone led Tekos to the sofa, she could feel him physically trembling and felt even more worried than she did before, did he have some sort of condition? Little did she know that Tekos wasn't shivering from any sickness whatsoever, instead, he was shivering from the anxiety of having an extremely beautiful goddess in his house, holding him and showing him affection! These were all the ingredients for an embarrassing disaster.

Persephone left Tekos on the couch, closed the front door, and turned back to the satyr who looked even paler than before. "I'm sorry Tekos," the redhead apologized, "but I'll have to invade your privacy just a little."

Tekos almost jumped from the chair at Persephone's words, how was she planning to invade his privacy exactly?? Those were not words to say to a man in his apartment late at night.

"I will need to take you to your bedroom and get you under some covers, you're shaking like a leaf. Could you direct me to where it is?"

Tekos nodded doubtfully and pointed towards the room on the other end of the apartment. The goddess did not hesitate to help him up towards the bedroom and get him into his bed.

When Persephone turned to leave, the satyr was shocked when he found himself protesting, "where are you going? Are you leaving already?"

"I'm just going to make you something to eat," Persephone responded. She smiled when she saw the worry on his face, it must have been a nightmare getting sick and being all alone like this, thank goodness Persephone had Eris. "Don't worry I won't leave, I have to make sure you're okay first.. now please rest, I'll be right back with some food."

when Persephone left the room to make Tekos something to eat, he couldn't stop smiling to himself under the dim lights of his bedroom. Did he really have Persephone here in his house making him dinner?! Wait till Flora heard about this!

*

Ares' friends walked into the restaurant where Persephone and Tekos had just walked out of and asked for a table on the same place where Tekos and Melissa had sat.

"Why are we coming in here?" One of the three minions asked, "aren't we supposed to be following those two around and find something we can use against the goat man?"

"Shut up I know what I'm doing," the other responded.

They all came to a hault around the table, and one of the three crouched down and began inspecting the floor beneath the restaurant table.

"Come on man what are you doing?!" The other whispered in confusion, "you're going to get us kicked out of here, who walks into a restaurant and starts inspecting the goddam floors?!"

"I said I know what I'm doing!" He continued inspecting the floor intently, "I saw that satyr was acting very strange when he had dropped something on the floor, and right after his panic attack, he quickly picked it up and they left the restaurant…" his eyes continued scanning the floor until he spotted a small white pill. "Well well well.." he rose to his feet and held the pill in front of him. "What do we have here?"

A waitress who had noticed their odd behavior, walked up to the three and cleared her throat, "excuse me, but if you're not going to order anything I'm afraid I'm going to ask you to leave, you're disturbing the other customers."

"No worries ma'am, we have everything that we need, we'll be leaving now."

*

After Tekos had eaten the food Persephone had made, he lay awake in his bed listening to her cleaning up. She had been singing while doing the dishes and putting them away, until at some point everything went silent. Tekos lay there for a few more minutes before getting out of bed and walking to the living room.

And just like the satyr had suspected, Persephone was sound asleep on the couch, probably exhausted from that day's happenings. The satyr took a few minutes to admire her sleeping form before picking her up in his arms gently and taking her to the bedroom. He lay her down on the bed, covered her before taking out some extra blankets from his wardrobe for himself. He whispered a 'goodnight' before leaving the bedroom and closing the door behind him.

As Tekos lay down to sleep on his couch, he felt happy. Despite the day ending with him sleeping on the couch, this was easily the best day of his entire life, and it was all because of her, the goddess who was starting to occupy a place in the satyr's heart.