I Just Realized...

Hyoga had arrived that day to give Camus a cell phone and teach him how to use it. But Camus was busy with some translating work he was doing for the Pope, so it took him a while to go to the drawing room to see him.

Milo was already there, though, showing two different outfits to Hyoga.

"I think the one on the right," said Hyoga from his place sitting in the couch.

"Yes, I knew it," said Milo.

Hyoga stood up from the couch and gave Milo one of the boxes he had in his hands. "Are you sure you don't want me to explain-?"

"No, no, Aphrodite explained it all to me. He has had one for a while," said Milo, putting the small box in the pocket of his jacket.

"What are those?" asked Camus, pointing to the outfits. He didn't bother asking what Milo was doing at his house. Milo routinely came and went to and from his house, and often spent the night, so it was no surprise to see he had been hanging around that day.

"Our outfits," said Milo, giving him a bright smirk of joyful evil. "I'm going to be a werewolf, and you a vampire."

Camus raised an eyebrow. "I am?"

Milo narrowed his eyes at him. "Don't tell me you forgot about the Halloween party at the town?"

Realization hit Camus. Yes, he had agreed to go to a party months ago, and he hadn't even been that sure when exactly this "Halloween" was supposed to happen.

"I didn't know it would be a costume party," said Camus. "And I'm too busy. I think I'm not going to go."

"What? But we've been planning it for months! I already have your costume and all!"

Camus rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, I'm sure it will be fun, but I have actual work to do Milo."

Milo huffed. "Fine, whatever," he muttered, turned around and gave Hyoga the costume. "Here you go kiddo. I'm sure you'll find a good use for it."

Camus and Hyoga stayed in silence until the echo of Milo's footsteps vanished from the house of Aquarius.

"Couldn't you at least go for a little bit?" asked Hyoga, his face a mix of sadness and amusement. "He seemed so excited about it. He was asking me which one I thought more fitting for you."

"And you chose a vampire costume for me?" asked Camus.

Hyoga shrugged. "What can I say? It sort of fits," he said with a laugh.

Camus sighed. "Let's get to the phone thing. I don't need to be wasting more time than necessary. Those translations need to be finished tonight."

It took Hyoga very little time to set up the phone and explain to Camus the basics of how to use it. He had already saved the numbers of everyone who already had a phone, even Milo. The bronze saints and Athena were still trying to convince some other others, like Shaka and Aldebaran, of how practical they were.

"Well, that's it," said Hyoga, standing up. "If you have any question-"

"I don't think I will," said Camus.

Hyoga nodded with an amused smile. "Then I won't take more of your time," he put his jacket back on and grabbed the costume from the back of the couch. "I'll be back next week anyway, so we'll check on anything then. You want me to bring you anything from Athens?"

"No, I'm fine. Where are you taking that?"

Hyoga seemed confused. "This? The costume? I thought you didn't want it."

"I don't, but leave it. Milo will surely find some other use for it," said Camus with a dismissive gesture.

Hyoga laughed. "Sure."

"What's so funny?"

"Nothing, nothing. I'll be going now. Tell Milo to let me know which whiskey he's going to want for when I come back. He said he would think about it later."

"Just bring him the honey one. He always regrets it when he gets a different one and I have to hear him whine about it."

Hyoga's smile turned brighter. "I see, well, I'll do that. Bye, have fun at the party!" he called, jogging to the door.

Camus huffed. "I just told him I'm not going. Is he deaf?"

#

Camus only lifted his head from the translation he was working on when the sun's final rays vanished in the horizon and he had to get up to get some candles to continue. He stood, fumbling around for the candles in a box near the door and wondered why Milo hadn't come by to tell him to go have dinner together. His fingers grasped the candles just as the memory of that morning came back to him.

He had thought nothing of it at the moment, worried as he had been by the fact that his work was progressing much slower than he had expected it to. But now, thinking back to Milo's reaction... Hadn't Milo given up suspiciously quickly? At any other moment he would have probably nagged and whined much more.

Camus lit the candles and set them on the candelabra standing on his desk. He thought back to Milo's face as he had said fine and left. Had he been really angry about Camus not going to the party? It seemed like a ridiculous idea to Camus, but then again...

A loud beeping noise echoed through the room, and a bright light shone to the side. Camus' heart jumped painfully in his chest and he almost jumped right out of his skin until he realized the beeping came from the cellphone that Hyoga had brought him. He decided that cellphones were infernal machines of horror, and reluctantly picked it up

The word Pisces flashed across the screen next to the icon of a small envelope. Camus opened the message.

"Tomorrow you really have to fix the contacts in his phone because I've been getting all the messages he's been sending you. He still hasn't realized anything even though we're sitting right next to each other."

Along with the message came two images of Aphrodite's messages on his cellphone. Milo had apparently sent a couple photos of the party.

Milo: [You're missing the best party of the year, you loser :P]

Milo: [if you weren't such a nerd, you would be here [angry face emoji] ]

Milo: [You know what you should do? You should ditch your dumb work and bring some beers and whiskey. Aphrodite only brought vodka and gin and that ain't shit.]

The phone vibrated again, with another message from Aphrodite.

Aphrodite: [Everyone loves vodka and gin and Milo has horrible taste on drinks, so just stay home.]

Aphrodite: [Besides, I already came as a vampire, and look much better than you could.]

Aphrodite sent a photo of himself dressed as a vampire next to a smirking and clearly drunk Milo. On the back, Mu and Shaka could be seen singing karaoke, but Camus' eyes went straight to the bottom of the photo, where he could see Aphrodite had his arm around Milo's naked waist.

Camus stomped to the living room, grabbed the costume, and was changed and gone within minutes, before he could even process the reason for the icy pool of rage forming in his stomach.

#

Luckily, there weren't that many places where a 12 people party could be held in the nearby town. Still, Camus wished he had paid more attention to the details of where the damn party was supposed to be.

A couple girls dressed up as witches passed him on the other side of the street, and Camus briefly considered asking them if they knew of the place, when he caught the first few notes of Boogie Wonderland playing in a building nearby, and he rolled his eyes. This was the first time he was happy at hearing that blasted song, but he refused to accept it even to himself.

He ceased thinking about it and went inside.

The place seemed like a building with several rooms in each floor for small private parties. He could hear music and laughter from beyond the entrance.

"Can I help you sir?" asked a lady wearing devil horns.

"I'm looking for a costume party here," said Camus.

"Uhmmm... I think you'll have to be more specific sir. Most of our parties tonight are costume parties."

"What? Why?"

"Because it's... Halloween... Tonight..."

It took Camus a couple moments to process the information and remember the whole reason of the party in the first place.

"Oh. Right. This Halloween thing. Right."

He heard the beginning of Boogie Wonderland starting again and smirked.

"There they are," he muttered, walking past the lady following the sound of the music into a room at the back. He kicked the door open, staring at the occupants with his iciest glare.

A group of mildly intoxicated farmers stared back at him.

"WHAT? WHY ARE YOU SINGING THAT?" yelled Camus, furious that he had gotten the wrong party. Every single liquid in the room froze immediately. "THAT IS A HORRIBLE SONG!"

He slammed the door closed, the frozen handle coming apart in his hand, and stormed out of the building, leaving a trail of ice and frost behind him.

He took out the darned cellphone and dialed Milo's number.

"Aphrodite?" asked Milo, his voice a bit slurred by the alcohol. "Did you find the fire extinguisher?"

"It's Camus!" he bellowed "You have our numbers mixed up and have been sending Aphrodite the messages meant for me you dolt!"

Milo fell silent for a moment, the information taking longer to make sense in his intoxicated mind.

"So you weren't ignoring me!" he said finally, with so much joy in his voice, Camus could almost see him smiling through the phone. "I was so angry because you were being a jackass and then you were just not responding and-" he babbled until the noise behind him grew louder and Camus could hear the voices of Shura and Aldeberan saying something he couldn't quite make out.

"Of course I wasn't ignoring you," said Camus. But he still wouldn't dare to say how upset and antsy it had made him to not hear back from Milo.

A fire truck passed by on the street and he had to cover his other ear to keep listening to the phone.

"Well you were being a dumbass just out of the blue, and-" started saying Milo but the noise and voices behind him started growing louder. He gave an exasperated huff and Camus heard him separating from the phone, speaking to the side. "No, it's not Aphrodite. It's Camus...No I don't know where Aphrodite went. Look, just roll around, we'll pay for the carpet later."

Camus felt in his gut that the party had- predictably, if he was being honest with himself- gone very, very wrong. He sighed.

"Milo where the hell is this party? What happened?"

"Nothing! Nothing happened! Everything's fine! But if you actually paid attention when I tell you something, you would know where the party was!"

Camus rolled his eyes at that. "Fine, yeah, I deserved that," he said, finally accepting that yeah, he had been behaving very coldly towards him now that he had been swamped with work. He made a mental note to apologize properly later. "But can you berate me at another time? I know you're lying and something went very wrong."

Milo didn't respond for a long moment. Camus waited patiently, knowing that he would fold under the silence, and realizing all too late why he had been so upset at thinking Camus had been ignoring him.

"Well, there was a fire...," finally muttered Milo.

Camus rubbed at his temples. He could feel a headache coming.

"A fire," echoed Camus, wrapping an entire 'I can't believe your nonsense sometimes' in the words.

"It wasn't my fault!" cried Milo. "I told Shura we should look for the fire extinguisher, but he said he would take care of it, and now he's on fire, and we have more fires, and Aphrodite went to look for the fire extinguisher but he's not back yet! How long does it take to find a damn fire extinguisher?"

"I found it asshole!" said Aphrodite's voice on the back.

"Well, finally! What the hell was the-?" said Milo, his voice suddenly cut off.

Camus' instincts told him things had just gone from bad to worse. He pressed the phone harder against his ear.

"Milo? What's happening?"

Milo started laughing hysterically. "They're on fire!" he said between laughter. "The fire extinguishers are on fire!"

Camus took a very deep breath and told himself that he had no feelings, none at all. That bubbling rage and frustration in the pit of his stomach? No, that didn't exist at all.

"Milo, please tell me where you are. And how many of you are on fire? Just Shura?"

There came the sound of static on the phone, and then some strange noises, while Milo's laughter faded into the distance.

"Camus?" asked Aphrodite's voice. "I'm going to send you our location. We need someone who can put off this…all of these fires. Please hurry, my costume was very expensive."

At the sound of Aphrodite's voice, the memory of seeing the picture of his with his hands around Milo's naked waist

"I bet it was," muttered Camus, weighing the pros and cons of arriving as quick as possible. Cons: He would probably save them, and Aphrodite's costume wouldn't be destroyed. Pros: Milo would also probably not be on fire if he made it there on time.

"You sound like you need some convincing as to the urgency of this. Let me convince you," said Aphrodite, and hung up.

Camus gritted his teeth. The phone vibrated. [Location Received] he could read on the screen. Well, that was one problem solved.

The phone vibrated again. [Photo Received]. Camus blinked. This could not be good, he just knew it. Despite that, he opened the image.

It was a photo of Milo, with a half burnt werewolf costume that barely left anything to the imagination, holding a flaming fire extinguisher in his hands and staring at it with an expression of half mad hysteria.

Camus ran to the location.

#

By the time he arrived, the firefighters were already there, and trying to salvage as much as they could of the building. Camus ran up to Aioria and Aioros, who stood near the entrance and looking at the flames.

"Oh, hey Camus. A bit late, eh?" said Aioros with an apologetic smile.

"Where is…where are the others?" asked Camus, almost short of breath.

"Uhmm, I don't know. Last I saw him he was looking for Death Mask with Aphrodite, but then the firefighters forced us to get out."

Saga walked out of the building, the flames parting before him as he strolled like the dramatic diva he was. He still held a bottle of wine on each hand.

"Oh, Camus," said Saga, giving him a side glance. Camus noticed him swaying a little. It looked like the party had been wilder than he'd initially thought. "Milo is at the back garden, if you´re looking for him."

Camus raised an eyebrow at him. He had a string of comments to say, but then Saga tried to walk towards Aioros and tripped on the cape of his costume, and both brothers had to hold him up.

"Uhm, thanks," said Camus, already jogging towards the building. It had been a bad idea to miss the party, it seemed, if only to have made fun of Saga.

He found Milo standing in the back garden, a concerned look on his face as he looked at the flames. He turned towards Camus, and his expression turned to one of happiness.

"Hey, you made it," said Milo.

Camus pressed his lips for a moment. "Uhmm, yeah. Late. Sorry. Should I take care of this?"

"Nah. Aphrodite is still looking around for Death Mask. We don't want them to get frozen inside."

Camus scoffed a laugh. "We don't?"

Milo busted out laughing. "I don't even know," he said, moving to stand next to Camus. He threw his arm around Camus' shoulders. The heat from his body calming the icy storm of emotions inside Camus.

"Well, it was fun anyway. Too bad you missed it, your workaholic dummy," said Milo, next to Camus' ear, a nonchalant smile in his lips.

Camus turned his head to look at him, merging into the embrace. He let his arm drape around Milo's hip, sliding closer against him. They fit so perfectly like that, their bodies fitting together with no effort at all.

"Hey, you know what would have been cool?" asked Milo, turning towards Camus. Still smiling, still radiating his usual comfortable warmth.

Camus drew closer and kissed him.

Milo froze, staying completely still for a couple of heartbeats, until his heart started racing and he held on to Camus, pulling him closer.

Camus' heart jumped, and he suddenly realized what was happening. He pulled himself away from Milo.

"W-why did you kiss me?!" he asked.

"What? You kissed me first! You're the one with your hands on my hips!"

Camus realized just how low his hands had traveled, and he let go of Milo.

Why had he done that? Because he liked Milo? Because he desired him? Most likely though, because it felt so natural, it had felt like the most right thing to do.

But there was no way he was accepting that.

"W-well why did you kiss me back?" asked Camus, trying to dodge the question.

Milo put his hands on his hips. "Hmmm, well, I think it was because I realized just then that I'm in love with you. But it's more like, I've been in love with you for a while, and I just realized it."

Aphrodite dumped a bucket of water on them.

"You two lovebirds stop kissing each other and help us! This house is still on fire! Literal fire!"

Camus, drenched and very, very upset at everything, decided that an aurora execution would take care of the matter in no time.

It did.

Hi, thank you for reading this fic. I hope you enjoyed it. If you could leave kudos or a comment, that would mean a lot to me.

Some final comments:

This story is the background story to message #44 of my fic 72 Slices of Our Life. If you're curious go give it a read, it's just a bunch of jokes that will hopefully make you smile.

I like to think of Camus as the absolute worst at managing and identifying his own emotions. He just focuses on not having any, but the moment one appears, he goes absolutely bonkers. Sort of like. "Emotions? On ME? Ridiculous!" but then he's super jealous and possessive of Milo, even if he doesn't know that he is, or why. Milo is the one who always has to be pointing out that yes, he does have emotions, and yes other people have emotions TOO. Emotions that he has to take into account when dealing with them. It often doesn't help, but they love each other, and that's what counts.

If the thing about the song Boogie Wonderland confused you, that's because you haven't read any of my other stories. The thing is that I have this running joke where on every karaoke party Milo gets drunk and starts singing that song again and again.

About Saga: I think he's a drama loving diva, and you can't change my mind.