The faint scent of something floral, hung in the air as Draco sat on the plush sofa.
The low hum of distant hammering offered a steady counterpoint to the rapid thrum of his own heart.
He had just casually mentioned bringing Tsubaki along for the meal, a seemingly innocuous suggestion meant to include a friend, but the immediate, subtle shift in Hephaestus's expression had not escaped his keen eyes.
Her lips, usually a firm, determined line, softened almost imperceptibly at the corners, not in a smile, but in a strange, almost resigned curve.
Her lone visible eye, the vibrant red of a sunset over lava, narrowed just a fraction.
It wasn't anger, nor sadness, but something akin to disappointment, perhaps even a flash of irritation.
Immediately, Draco's mind began working overtime, furiously piecing together the fragmented clues.
What mistake had he made?
He replayed the conversation, the casual tone, the context...an invitation for a meal. Hephaestus, him, and… Tsubaki.
Then, suddenly, it hit him with the force of a hammer blow against his scales.
Hephaestus was likely not happy with the situation that seemed to suggest she and Tsubaki were being treated as a pair.
And indeed, his current action did somewhat insinuate such a scenario.
It was like inviting a mother on a date, then at the same time, trying to woo her daughter.
The sheer impropriety of it made his scales prickle with mortification.
'Geh! That indeed makes me look like some scumbag. And now I feel like I have stepped on some kind of female taboo!' a wave of cold dread washed over him.
'How do I fix this?'
The situation, while undeniably awkward, was also supremely weird.
Draco wasn't actually trying to woo Tsubaki.
Their relationship was a peculiar, nebulous thing, a unique blend of camaraderie, and an unspoken, gentle closeness that defied easy categorization.
It was a bit more than friends, yet undeniably less than lovers.
They had a bond forged in mutual respect and shared some interests.
And while they had exchanged flirtatious banter, joked about questionable things with casual ease, neither had ever truly been upfront about their deeper emotions.
They had never taken that crucial step further than necessary, maintaining a comfortable, if somewhat ambiguous, equilibrium.
But it was different with Hephaestus.
She had made her feelings plain and clear five years ago, albeit not with words...….but a rather bold action.
And he, in his own clueless way, was responding thoughtlessly despite keeping her waiting for over five years.
Well five years wasn't much to a goddess, but that didn't mean it's still wasn't a lot of time.
Draco felt a sudden, surge of clarity.
He needed to make his stance clear, here and now.
Bahamut, his own goddess/lover, had long ago given her consent.
So, the only thing truly hindering their progress, their potential, was himself.
His own cowardice, his own fear of disrupting the delicate balance he'd grown accustomed to.
He remembered his past life, the fleeting glimpses of Hephaestus's struggles with emotional intimacy, her subtle awkwardness in expressing deeper feelings.
One could easily glean it from her complex relationship with Welf.
She wasn't one for grand romantic gestures, nor was she adept at navigating the treacherous waters of nascent affection.
This confession, whatever form it might take, needed to be direct, and utterly unambiguous.
Honestly, Draco was extremely nervous.
He had only come to pay a brief visit, and share a casual meal.
Now here he was, contemplating how to confess to one of the most powerful and important women in his life.
His heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drumbeat signaling the enormity of the moment.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath to calm his restless heart, Draco adjusted his posture on the sofa cushions.
His tense, scaly tail, slipped from its coiled position on the sofa, hitting the ground with a soft, dull thud, a tiny tremor in the otherwise quiet room.
With a decisive movement, he dropped the bouquet of Carnations, meant as a gift for Tsubaki, onto the ground beside him.
He turned fully, facing Hephaestus head-on, his posture rigid, his gaze locked on hers.
Hephaestus, still processing the implications of the "Tsubaki" comment, was a bit startled by his sudden, dramatic change in demeanor.
The seriousness etched onto his features, the intensity in those slitted red pupils, was compelling, almost intimidating.
Yet, beneath that resolve, she also detected a faint tremor in his hands, a subtle clenching of his jaw, undeniable signs of nervousness.
She was confused about what could have brought about such a stark reaction.
She couldn't recall doing or saying anything to warrant such a shift, but a knot of worry tightened in her chest.
"Draco, are you okay? Did I do something wrong?" she asked, her voice softer than usual, laced with genuine concern.
Pushing aside the overflowing bouquet of purple Orchids he had gifted her just minutes prior, flowers that had momentarily divided them, she leaned closer, trying to discern the meaning behind his sudden tension.
"Lady Hephaestus," Draco called out, his voice firm and compelling, resonating with a gravelly depth that was both serious and surprisingly gentle.
He paused for a second, the silence stretching tautly between them, their eyes locked into each other's.
In that brief, eternal moment, the world outside faded, the clatter of the city, the hum of the forge, all receded into an indistinct background.
Only their gazes remained, two souls confronting an unspoken truth.
Then, he spoke, his voice cutting through the silence, clear and firm.
"I love you."
Hephaestus was utterly stunned on the spot, frozen like a statue.
Her head tilted fractionally, her visible eye wide and unblinking, her expression a bit too bland, almost coming off as aloof.
In truth, Hephaestus was simply unsure of what to say, or even how to react to the sudden, unexpected confession.
It had come too fast, too hard, like a sudden flash storm in a clear sky, leaving her mind scrambling to fully process what she had just heard.
The words hung in the air, echoing in her ears, yet her brain refused to accept them as real.
"Come again?" she managed to articulate, her voice barely a whisper, her mind currently on auto-pilot, desperately seeking confirmation that she hadn't misheard.
"I said, Lady Hephaestus… goddess of the Hephaestus Familia… I, Draco Black, love you," Draco reiterated, this time with more detail, more emphasis, making it impossible to misunderstand.
He leaned forward, his eyes burning with an earnest intensity that left no room for doubt.
The words slammed into Hephaestus like a Behemoth, a monumental force that shook her to her core.
A comical puff of invisible smoke seemed to blow atop her head, a visual representation of her system overloading.
Her face, usually pale, lit up like magma, a ferocious, all-encompassing crimson that spread from her neck to the tips of her ears.
Both hands shot up instinctively, covering her face, as if to shield herself from the blinding intensity of his declaration, or perhaps, to hide the burgeoning mess she was rapidly becoming. She was currently a chaotic swirl of emotions....embarrassment, shock, overwhelming joy, and a dizzying sense of disbelief.
She didn't want him to see her like this, a goddess reduced to a flustered, blushing maiden. Hephaestus had envisioned many ways such a situation could have happened, countless scenarios replayed in the quiet moments of her solitude, but never, not once, like this.
So sudden, so direct, so....unromantic.
...............
Around the same time, at the bustling entrance of the dungeon, the Bahamut Familia expedition team had finally arrived at the surface, blinking against the late afternoon sun.
Their figures, dusted with dungeon grime and marked by the weariness of prolonged spelunking, emerged into the vibrant, open square at the front of Babel.
"Kyaaaa! Finally fresh air!" Eleni squealed in pure excitement, her voice carrying a youthful effervescence that belied her strength.
She was the first to reach the top of the steps exiting the dungeon, stretching her arms above her head, relishing the feeling of the open sky.
"I feel you, sis," Vasileios, grunted in agreement, arriving next to her.
He dropped his massive dungeon bag with a heavy thud that reverberated across the worn stones, a weary declaration of their journey's end.
One by one, the other seventeen members of the Bahamut Familia, reached the surface.
Each face, though tired, held an expression of relief and quiet satisfaction.
They quickly made their way near the large, ornate fountain in the open square, its splashing water a soothing sound after the constant chaos of the dungeon.
With heavy thuds, echoing Vasileios's earlier declaration, they each dropped their dungeon bags, filled to the brim with various monster drops, rare materials, and magic stones.
"So, what next, Vice-Caps… are we heading to the Guild to sell our haul first, or straight home?" Kaguya spoke first, addressing Vasiliki and Dimitra.
Her stomach rumbled audibly, betraying her desire for a proper meal.
Dimitra, adjusted her overgrown hair.
"Guild first. We already sorted what we want to sell and what to keep during our last rest stop, so might as well get it done with and then take a proper break." She said.
"True, it's along the route home too," Vasiliki added, agreeing with Dimitra's sensible plan. "Well, you heard them. Michalis, go hail us some carts," Clair said, joining the conversation with a slight incline of her head, her eyes scanning the busy square.
While they hadn't met their initial objective, the Bahamut Familia had nevertheless acquired quite the haul from the deeper levels of the dungeon and completed a plethora of side commissions.
Their bags, bursting with treasures, was proof of their success.
"Geh, why me? I'm just as tired as everyone else," Michalis grumbled, lazily slumped on his dungeon bag, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Uhm, we can go call the carts," Cecil interjected quickly, sensing the impending argument between Michalis and Clair.
She, along with Iselina, Schau, and Ulanda, were acting as the team's supporters for this expedition.
As newcomers, less seasoned than the others, procuring transportation was part of their duties.
"Thank you, dears, please do," Clair replied, her lips curving into a faint, approving smile.
She watched as the four younger girls disappeared into the distance, their steps lighter than the weary adventurers.
The remaining members stayed rested in place, soaking in the sunlight and the sounds of the city, but their presence, particularly the large number of striking women, drew a lot of attention. Whispers and intrigued glances followed them.
"Hey, isn't that the Bahamut Familia?" a supporter murmured from a nearby stall.
"Yeah, seems like they just returned from their expedition," another replied, a merchant polishing his wares.
"But damn, why are there so many pretty lassies in that familia? The men there must be living in paradise," a third commented, his voice carrying a note of envy.
Indeed, many of the Bahamut Familia members were women, and they were all quite beautiful in their own ways.
Even better, they represented a diverse array of races, and they were all first-rate adventurers, with the exception of the relatively new members like Cecil, Iselina, Schau, and Ulanda.
Nikolaos, Vasileios, and Michalis, the three male members, who were languidly listening to the conversation, scoffed in unison at the "paradise" remark.
Their "paradise" was, in reality, a sort of hell.
Currently, most decision-making within the familia was done by voting, and of the twenty one members, only four of them were men....with the exception of Draco who they believed was still absent.
One could easily imagine how things usually went, with them perpetually outvoted on everything from objectives to dinner menus.
It was even more torturous because they were growing young men with needs, but couldn't try anything with their female comrades, most of whom were not only formidable in strength but equally strong in personality, quick to put a wandering hand or suggestive remark in its place. Additionally, their sisters and childhood friend....Clair, Eleni, Dimitra, and Vasiliki...watched them like hawks, their protective gazes ensuring that even the thought of visiting the red-light district was immediately dismissed as a suicidal endeavor.
'Sigh, if only Draco nii was around,' the three young men thought in unison, a wave of longing washing over them.
His presence would have balanced the scales, if only slightly.
With him, perhaps they wouldn't constantly feel like outsiders in their own home.
He had been a bastion of common sense amidst a sea of overwhelming female logic.
Perhaps because it was such a deeply shared sentiment, a perfect synchronization of their collective male angst, they each let out deep, drawn-out sighs.
Simultaneously.
The sound was so perfectly synchronized that they each turned to look at the others, a flicker of surprise giving way to a shared smile.
They chuckled ruefully at the ridiculous coincidence, their moment of shared misery oddly comforting, much to the confusion of the girls who were watching them with amused curiosity. The sighs, they knew, were not just for the journey, but for the ongoing struggle of their daily lives in the Bahamut Familia, a struggle they desperately wished their absent leader, Draco, would return to alleviate.