AT THE SAME TIME
VESTA
The moment lingered too long. That was how I knew something was wrong. Not wrong like danger, wrong like the air before a memory breaks its chains. Michael, Zenith, stilled in my hands. His fingers tightened once on my sleeves, not panicked, not desperate, just anchoring. Then his eyes unfocused. Silver deepened to something older, he inhaled sharply, and the hearth inside me answered.
"Oh." I whispered. "No. No, no-"
He gasped, not like pain. Like recognition, the room dimmed. Not dark quiet. Every god stopped breathing at once. Even Loki shut her mouth, which I will remember forever because it means this was serious. Zenith's hand slid from my cheek to his own chest.
"I remember." He said.
Charlie sobbed out loud. I grabbed Zenith by the front of his shirt.
"Remember what?"I asked.
He looked at me, really looked. Not searching, not confused.
"I remember leaving." He said softly. "And why I had to."
The hearth inside me clenched so hard it hurt. Freya stepped forward.
"Zenith-"Freya began.
"Don't." Zenith said.
One word, not loud, not divine and every god froze like children caught stealing sweets.
He turned back to me.
"I didn't abandon you." He said. "I hid."
"From me?"My throat closed.
"From them." He corrected gently.
He exhaled, long and slow, like dust being blown off an ancient floor.
"When the heavens began to rot." He said. "When gods started fighting over worship like starving animals, the hearth was going to be torn apart. The shared flame." He continued. "What you and I represented. Warmth without ownership. Power without conquest."
"Yeah, that pissed a lotta people off."Loki muttered.
"So I did the only thing I could."Zenith nodded once. His gaze dropped. "I broke myself."
"Y-you can do that?"Bell whispered.
"I stripped my divinity." Zenith said. "Folded it inward. Locked it behind mortality. No memory, no authority, no beacon for the heavens to track." My hands were shaking now.
"And you became Michael." I breathed."
"Yes."Zenith said.
"A clumsy boy with good hands and a stubborn heart."Charlie laughed weakly through tears.
"I needed to disappear completely. To go somewhere no god would look."Zenith smiled faintly. "So I went down."
The word echoed, dungeon, mortality. Mud and blood and pain and growth.
"I took a human name." He said. "Lived human fear. Human exhaustion. I wanted to make sure, if the hearth ever burned again, it would be chosen. Not ordained."
My vision blurred.
"And you didn't come back." I said hoarsely.
"Because you were gone."His voice softened.
"What?"The hearth cracked.
"I searched." He said. "As Michael, as nothing, no memories, only instinct. Every warm meal. Every safe fire. Every broken shrine, I kept feeling you, and not finding you."
He swallowed.
"Until Orario."He said.
Of course.
"Until a tiny restaurant with a leaking roof." He continued, lips twitching. "And a goddess who cooked like the world depended on it."
"You burned yourself into a human just to find me."I laughed once, sharp and broken.
"Yes."He said.
"Idiot." I whispered.
"I know."He said.
I pulled him into me without warning, forehead to his chest, fists clutching his shirt like I might fall apart if I let go. The hearth inside me steadied, not roaring, not flaring. Zenith wrapped his arms around me fully this time. Behind us, the gods erupted.
"He HID IN THE DUNGEON?!"Hestia shouted.
"That's cheating!"Freya shouted. "That explains the absorption!"
"Freya, stop staring!"Vesta shouted.
"I CALLED IT." Loki crowed.
I didn't care. Zenith bent his head slightly, lips brushing my hair.
"I came back because I felt you wake." He murmured. "And I stayed Michael because, I wanted to earn you again."
I leaned back just enough to glare at him.
"You nearly drowned."I said.
"Minor setback."He said.
"You absorbed three sacred items."I said.
"Unplanned."He said.
"You scared me half to death."I said.
"I regret that one."He sighed.
I kissed him, not soft this time. Not careful. Somewhere, a god groaned dramatically. When I pulled back, I rested my forehead against his.
"You are not disappearing again." I said.
"I won't." He promised. "Not unless you send me away."
"Good." I said. "Because if you try, I will personally drag you back by the ear."
Zenith smiled, not a god's smile, not a hero's, Michael's and the hearth burned whole at last. He sighed, not dramatically, not divinely. Just tired. Fond, like a man who'd finally come home and realized the roof still leaked.
"Vesta." Zenith said quietly.
I was still glaring at him for the near drowning, the absorbing artifacts, the ancient god amnesia, when he lifted one hand. Two fingers.
"Don't you dare-" I started.
He snapped, the sound wasn't loud. It was final. The hearth inside me surged, not wild, not violent, but complete. Like a circle closing, and then the world answered. I felt it before I saw it. The broken ache in my chest, the constant, low grief I would have carried since the temple fell simply… vanished. I sucked in a sharp breath and spun. Where there had been rubble, there was stone. Warm stone. Clean marble pillars rose from the ground like they had never known ruin, etched with old, familiar runes that glowed soft amber before settling into calm gold. The shattered roof reformed midair, tiles knitting together with a sound like crackling embers. Cracks sealed. Ash lifted and dissolved into light. The hearth. My hearth. It blazed back to life at the temple's center, flame steady and bright, not roaring, not demanding waiting. Whole and perfect.
"No." I breathed. "No, no-"
The gods lost their minds.
"He did WHAT?!"Hestia shouted.
"WITH A SNAP?!"Loki screamed.
"That was MY specialty!"Freya shouted.
"Freya stop staring like that-"Another god said.
"Loki I swear-"Freya said.
Familia children gasped, pointed, shouted.
"IT'S BACK!"He said.
"THE TEMPLE LOOK-!"Another shouted.
"THE HEARTH IT'S REAL-!"Third one screamed.
Charlie fell to his knees so hard I thought he'd break something. He pressed his forehead to the temple floor, shoulders shaking.
"My lady." He sobbed. "It's home. It's really home."
My vision blurred completely this time. I turned on Zenith.
"You-" I choked. "You absolute reckless-"
He winced.
"In my defense, it was already aligned. The items just… finished the circuit."He said.
"You fixed it." I said. My voice cracked. "With a snap."
"Yes." He said gently. "Because it was never broken."
I stared at him.
"I mourned this place."Zenith said.
"I know."I said.
"I rebuilt my life around the loss of it."I said.
"I know." He repeated, softer.
I hit his chest. Not hard, just enough.
"You don't get to just return and fix everything-"I began.
He caught my wrists easily, pulling me closer, forehead resting against mine.
"I didn't fix everything." He said. "I fixed the house." His thumb brushed my knuckles.
"You fixed me."He said.
The hearth flared, approving and smug. Someone gagged dramatically behind us.
"GET A ROOM." Loki shouted.
Zenith smiled small, sheepish, unbearably familiar.
"I did." He said.
I laughed, I cried. I grabbed his collar and kissed him again, because the temple was standing, the hearth was whole, and the man I loved had come back from being forgotten by the world just to find me. When I pulled away, breathless, I rested my forehead against his chest.
"Next time." I said. "Ask before snapping."
"Next time, I'll knock."He chuckled.
Around us, gods stared in awe, children cheered, Charlie wept openly, and my temple our temple, stood warm and bright under the sky. The hearth burned, and for the first time in a very long time, I was home.