Chapter Text
Horus
Horus stepped into the room he’d kept Seth in before they’d left Heliopolis to fight the Greeks. It was empty, on Horus’ orders, and quiet, but the torch in his hand easily lit the place. He stared at the small room as if seeing it for the first time. He’d closeted himself in here for months before they’d gone to war. He’d fucked Seth on just about every part of this place (save the ceiling, since that had proven more complex than pleasurable), humiliated Seth on the rest… But the room was clean because stains would have made the stench unbearable. It looked more like an abandoned storage room than anything else. The air was stale.
Horus walked to the column where Seth had been bound most often and could see an after-image of the silent god, blindfolded and covered in filth and bruises. Seth’s breathing was so loud when he was pushed hard that Horus sometimes heard it in his sleep. There were cracks in the column from where Horus had struck it and Seth had strained at it. Horus reached out to touch one of the larger cracks near the top. The stone was cold.
He tried to imagine bringing Seth back here again, and wondered if he could even stomach it. The idea was somehow a bit repellant now. He’d seen an array of emotions from Seth since they’d left for Heliopolis: despair, desperation, a new form of resignation and rage, and even a bit of hope and happiness. Things he’d wanted while torturing Seth in here, but had never truly gotten in ways that mattered. Horus knew personally how much pain you could get from someone pushed past their limits. But it was only on the front lines that Horus had seen Seth being honest.
And now Horus had grown used to the slightly less tense cohabitation they had. One that didn’t require rope bonds and beatings. Strange as it was, there was something calming about their sparring sessions. Something in Horus’ frustrated mind sorted itself out when he could work out his frustrations that way. Seth was a tough opponent, even weakened by Maat’s spell and holding back because the sparring wasn’t a real fight. For all Seth hated Horus, he didn’t have the same disdain on his face as Osiris did when he sparred with Horus in the past. Seth didn’t narrow his eyes when Horus fell, as if it was disappointing. He didn’t sigh when they had to repeat something, or when something had to be explained.
He's also good at explaining things, Horus thought as he pulled his hand away from the stone. Osiris had fought in a war before, but he was no teacher of it. His impatience had always been obvious, though Horus was thankfully quite quick to pick up sword-fighting, and the need for practice was lessened.
Seth, on the other hand, seemingly had endless amounts of patience when Horus didn’t understand something. Seth asked if Horus wanted help and wasn’t bothered when Horus needed him to rephrase something to be more useful, and Seth seemed to even think about it a little when something didn’t work. Seth was a good teacher, for all Horus hated to admit it. And it made Horus continue to think a bit too much about how things could have been if Horus had grown up with Seth as his teacher rather than Osiris.
This was a pointless detour, Horus thought as he gazed once more at the room. There wasn’t really anything for him to gather here: he’d had all his necessary documents taken to the camp with them, and they were being brought back with Isis and Maat. He’d mostly wanted to give an excuse to leave Seth to his misery, since Horus didn’t know how to handle it anymore. Before, he’d have reveled in Seth’s distress, and a part of him still did. Seth knew what it was like to be abandoned by those he loved. He was almost more alone than ever, even with Anubis’ support. Horus should have stayed to revel in Seth’s pain, particularly given Horus’ questioning had a hand in causing it.
And I didn’t even need to fuck him into it, Horus thought. But he’d just felt the urge to get away. The events that brought about his own birth were tantalizing in their mystery, and suffocating, too. It was hard to witness his forebears being so weak and fickle, and all the terrible decisions they’d made, almost none of which they’d learned from, even after hundreds of years. And it was hard to look at someone else realizing they were unloved by someone they cherished, and find glee in it. Horus had never wished his own relationship with Osiris on anyone, and while Seth and Nephthys’ relationship was different, it made Horus think too much on his own past. To shattered thoughts about Isis, as well. What am I without them, without their vengeance? Am I even allowed to be myself? Seth without his siblings had turned into a tyrant and destroyer, and now he was trying to help Horus not go down that path. But as Horus stood in this room with scars from Horus’ actions, was it too late?
Horus walked to the desk and imagined life after the trial with Osiris. Perhaps they would even have to confront Osiris another way. But then what? Horus still intended to keep Seth at his side. He’d been honest to Isis in the camp, and he still felt the same now: he wanted Seth and would do whatever it took to keep him. While watching and listening to Nephthys, he’d had one thought in his head: He’ll never be yours again if he ever was, because he’s mine. And knowing while looking at her that Seth hadn’t been hers, at least on her part, had made him gloat a bit, to the point that he’d been fighting to keep a neutral expression on his face. He thought he managed it, but it was a near thing. Horus had no doubt that Seth loved Nephthys. Seth wouldn’t be so anguished over it otherwise. But Nephthys had no claim on Seth, and never would again, if Horus had anything to say about it.
Horus left the room after he felt he’d given Seth enough time alone. He could feel the desert god’s power through Maat’s spell even from his distance and resisted the urge to turn into a bird to fly back faster. For all Horus’ confusion on what he thought of Seth, Horus needed Seth nearby. Being around Nephthys and seeing more of her strange relationship with Seth had only made Horus’ hackles rise higher.
She wasted what was offered to her so freely. It was embarrassing and pathetic. Yet another god of his parents’ generation who’d been foolish. Seth was a powerful and attractive god who was well-respected before Osiris’ death. If Seth had courted me, I’d…
He paused in the hallway he was in, gazing ahead in confusion. Thankfully, no one was around to notice him acting odd. Seth courting me? Ridiculous. Horus was the son of Seth’s enemies. Horus had played around in fantasies before, but this was something entirely different. If Seth courted me, Mother would have killed him. He shook his head. And I suppose Father would have killed me.
He walked back to Seth’s room, thinking absently of maybes and what might have beens. A world where Horus and Seth weren’t enemies in a cautious, temporary truce of sorts. Where they didn’t have so much pain between them. Where Horus might have courted Seth, like he’d thought for a moment after their first night together. Where Horus didn’t wonder if he should be punishing Seth more, somehow.
When Horus got back into Seth’s room, Seth was laying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. His headdress was on, and given he didn’t glance towards or otherwise react to Horus’ appearance, it seemed he was asleep.
Horus stopped by the doorway and gazed at Seth for a bit, watching the way the sunlight fell on the fine planes of Seth’s body, and how Horus could trace the lines of Seth’s feet with his eyes closed. How often did Nephthys see this and take it for granted, simply because she loved Osiris of all people? He couldn’t imagine wanting to trade the sight of Seth’s pleasantly muscular form, with its delicious curves and power, for Osiris. Horus had half a mind to move forward and remove Seth’s headdress, to tug at Seth’s soft hair, to gaze into those bright red eyes and feel the heat of the desert bursting at its bonds.
It made the idea of Nephthys loving Osiris when Seth was an option truly bizarre, even as Horus knew Isis loved Osiris, too. Growing up, Horus listened to his mother’s stories of Isis and Osiris’ romance, and thought fondly of life with them together, raising him. He’d hoped to meet a partner as loving himself, one day. And then as he’d gotten to know Osiris better, he had taken the words of one of the humans to heart: beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
“Do you always lurk in the doorway when you work?” Seth asked without moving. His hands rested on his stomach. “Usually you come bother me when you’re like that.” There was a resigned indifference to his tone. No tears, no pain. Just emptiness.
Horus snorted, unsurprised that Seth was only pretending at sleep. “You sound better.” Leaving him alone seemingly had been the better option, though he wasn’t sure how he felt wanting to make things easier for the god who’d tormented him for so much of Horus’ life.
“I’m perfectly fine,” Seth said, staying in bed.
Denial it is, then, Horus thought. He walked forward and stood by the bedside at an angle where he could better see Seth’s face under the sha mask.
Seth cracked an eye open to glance at Horus, then shut it, leaving his mouth in a firm but neutral line. “You don’t have anything with you. Did you get lost? Or lose all your work?” There was light mockery in his tone.
He’s trying to bait me now. Perhaps he really is recovered. “I had servants take care of it,” Horus said. He wondered at how Seth had been paying attention enough to notice that Horus needed something when he left.
Seth didn’t reply to that.
“Nephthys was lucky,” Horus finally said, “to have you give yourself to her so freely.” He couldn’t help some of the bitterness in his tone. It was part of why he’d gloated. She’d spurned Seth, and now, when she wanted his forgiveness, she couldn’t get it. Fool.
Seth snorted at that. “Ah yes, that would make you jealous, wouldn’t it?”
“There’s nothing to be jealous of,” Horus replied. “She won’t have you again.”
Seth sighed. “No, I imagine she won’t. Even if you weren’t going to stop it from happening, neither of us wants it.”
“You don’t care for her anymore?” Horus was genuinely curious. Horus knew Seth had cared for her at least once, and Horus knew what it was like to be around the person you wanted.
Seth opened his eyes and grimaced. “I don’t think I don’t care for her at all, but… I don’t want her in the same way I used to, yes. Regardless of whether or not I pushed her into it… What was between us, even if it was entirely imagined on my part, is gone. And she clearly never loved me in any meaningful way. Or even wanted me in a physical one.”
Horus was half-pleased at that. Of course, Seth wasn’t happy, but he was clearly trying to move on. Perhaps he only needed encouragement. Horus replied, “It’s her loss.”
Seth scoffed. “Ah yes, do tell me about all my good points you value so much that she’s missing out on. I’m sure the man who hates me the most would know.”
Baiting again. Horus frowned and put his knee on the bed to lean over Seth slightly.
Seth didn’t move. He simply gazed up at Horus evenly. The air almost burned between them.
“I could detail all the ways I enjoy your body,” Horus said, having to restrain himself from pulling Seth to himself. Even this was pushing it. “But that’s not what you want, is it?” Horus tilted his head. “Do you want me to join in your self-pity?”
Seth scowled and pushed up, nearly stabbing Horus in the eye with the sha headdress. Seth grabbed Horus’ left arm and yanked him forward, before pushing him down on the bed.
Horus could have pushed Seth off of him easily, but he simply lay back while Seth straddled him. It wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling, with Seth’s strong thighs around Horus’ sides. Horus looked up to see Seth above him, smelling of desert heat. Horus wanted so badly to rub his hands all over Seth’s skin, to coat him with Horus’ scent. But he kept himself calm.
Seth glared. “No, you want something like this, don’t you?”
Horus had to admit he hadn’t expected Seth to do something like this, but he ran with it. “A trip down a different road of memories?” Horus asked. He placed his right hand on Seth’s left thigh.
Seth was shaking. But he didn’t move away.
“I asked what you wanted,” Horus said. He dissolved his headdress so that Seth could see his expression fully. It left Horus barer, too, but he didn’t care. There was a sharp tension in the air, and if they weren’t going out to spar, then they needed to resolve it here and now. They needed all their wits about them for when Osiris came for the trial. “Unless you really want to try assaulting me again. Which won’t end well.”
Seth scowled. “You said Nephthys was missing out on being with me. It’s almost like you want me to take you, to give to you what I gave to her.”
Horus raised an eyebrow. “I’m not Nephthys. I want you in my own ways. And I can appreciate you in ways she clearly didn’t.”
“She never raped me, if that’s what you’re thinking of,” Seth replied, clearly unimpressed with Horus’ offer.
Horus snorted. “I imagine not. She never had cause to hate you the way I have.”
Seth narrowed his eyes. “Yet you’re not moving.”
Horus smiled, liking the way Seth was focusing more and more on Horus, and not the useless ghosts of Seth’s past. “I can move whenever I please. Besides, this lets me imagine you riding my cock to exhaustion, which isn’t an unpleasant thought.” Seth’s ass was just touching the top of Horus’ erection. There was no way he wasn’t aware.
Seth’s cheeks burned. He knew.
“You’d enjoy it, too,” Horus said, keeping his voice lightly teasing. “I can make you forget whatever bliss you found with her.”
“I’ve never found bliss in any of our encounters,” Seth said, his anger returning. “No matter how my body reacts to you.”
“You want to forget, though,” Horus said. “I can tell. It’s why you’re pushing at me.”
“I push at you because you’re always in my space, refusing to back off,” Seth retorted.
True, but you haven’t fought back though we regularly try to hit each other with swords. “I’m not the one holding you in place,” Horus said. He simply gazed up at Seth. “You haven’t even moved your ass away from my dick. I don’t mind, of course, but it seems like an easy way to get away from me.”
Seth grimaced. But he still didn’t move.
“I could make it good for you,” Horus offered. “Is that what you want? Someone who appreciates you and doesn’t run away into someone else’s arms at the first chance? Because there’s nowhere I’d rather be than here.”
Seth’s breath stuttered. His grip on Horus’ arms tightened.
“There’s all sorts of ways to spar after all,” Horus noted. “If you need something to take your mind off things.” Horus didn’t know what he was doing. Perhaps he was pushing too much, or not enough. Was he being the cruel jailer? The enemy? Or did he just want even a little of what he sensed in Seth’s mind when the desert god looked at Nephthys? One last part of Seth that Horus couldn’t claim. Sex wouldn’t be the same, but if Seth wanted it then…
“…Fine,” Seth said, surprising Horus. Seth removed his headdress so that Horus could better see his burning cheeks and intent expression. “Distract me.”