#I am washed clean of my erracticness

[360iris]

When you take a shower and every little built up feeling just melts away >>>>>

[imagines-of-the-creed]

Like Family (Alexios)

It’s my first piece for Odyssey. It’s based on the very beginning of Alexios’ story, so NO SPOILERS! Enjoy! Please let me know if you can think of a better title cause I just gave this a title cause I didn't want it to not have one.

I chose the title just cause of the indirect statements of acting as a family, but I'm sure you guys are smart enough to pick up on it :)

Word Count: 2647

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“Phoebe! Get down from there right this instant!” You dropped the basket of berries you had just finished picking and let your hands fly above your head to point at the young orphan balancing herself on top of the narrow perch on your rooftop with a large grin on her face. “You are going to fall, Oh gods…”

“Calm down, (Y/N), everything will be--” her sentence was interrupted as a gust of wind shoved her shoulder and made her trip over her own footing. Her honey eyes grew wide with fear and a sharp gasp escaped your throat as you covered your mouth with both of your hands as you froze in fear of what could happen next.

The harsh summer winds calmed and Phoebe stabilized herself and took a deep breath before letting her grin replace the tight frown on her lips. “I am fine, (Y/N). See? There is no need to worry.”

Your heart was beating against your ribcage as you watched her walk back and forth on the perch with ease, even waving to you wildly. You rubbed your forearm across your sweaty forehead and placed the other on your hip as you looked down at the mess of berries you made.

“Phoebe, please get down before you get hurt.” You pleaded with the young orphan who gave you an annoyed glare. She opened her mouth to protest but the moment you shot her a stern glare, she shut it right away and walked to the edge of the perch and looked down at the bale of olive leaves a few feet in front of the house.

Without another word, Phoebe jumped off the perch and dived into the pile of leave with a skill that was less than graceful. A sharp scream fell from your lips as you covered your mouth again and felt worry and panic course through your veins.

“Phoebe!”

You sprinted over to the bale and began to sift through the leaves looking for any part of the young girl to grab onto. Heavy breaths filled the air as you were worried about Phoebe’s well being after doing such a stupid stunt. After minutes of sifting, you felt her hand and yanked her out of the pile to see that she was in shock over her own actions as well.

“For the love of the Gods, Phoebe! What the hell is a matter with you?” You looked her over quickly before slapping her arm out of anger and relief. She only looked at you with a blank stare as she picked the leaves out of her chococlate locks. “You could have killed yourself. What would make you do such a thing?”

“Phoebe, I asked you a question, I would like an answer.”

“Oh, uh…” She paused for a moment and looked at the ground before returning to your stern gaze, “I watched Alexios do it a couple of times and thought that it was very amazing. I thought I would try it myself.” Her sheepish smile did nothing to cool your anger at learning the source of her outrageous acts.

“I’m going to kill that man…” You whispered to yourself as you shook your head and shut your eyes for a moment to try and relax. Phoebe quickly came to approach you with her hands interlaced together and a pleading look in her eyes.

“Please do not tell him. I promise never to do it again, I swear to the gods--”

“Never swear to them,” you swiftly interrupted her before getting on your knees to gather all the berries you dropped. “I will deal your punishment later, until then, help me clean up this mess you have made me cause.”

Phoebe wasted no time getting down on her hands and knees and scooping together the berries and placing them into the basket; she even volunteered to pick more for the ones that weren’t salvagable. After reprimanding her for her erractic actions and for trying to follow in the footsteps of Alexios, a common friend between you two, you dropped the subject and the both of you spent the rest of your evening washing the berries you had gathered earlier.

Phoebe had tried to convince you to let her spend more time with Alexios when he was around, but you had dodged her every attempt and changed the subject back to the responsiblities of a woman and how she must make the effort to be feminine for a chance of a suitor to chose her to live lavishly in one of the richest lands. Everytime she tried to mention Alexios and seeing a benefit of following in his footsteps, you did your best to not talk badly about his upbringing and warned her of the dangers of his professions.

“(Y/N), Alexios is a very careful man, I am sure that he would do everything in his power to prevent us from getting involved with whatever Markos asks of him.” Phoebe told you as she stirred the berries in the large caldruon, looking at you with tired eyes.

“Alexios may be careful, but sometimes not careful enough.” You suggested while Phoebe just scoffed at your opinion.

“Just have some faith in him, that is all I ask. He is destined to do great things and I want to follow in his footsteps.”

You had shut your eyes for a brief moment before sighing and clearing the air with a simple dismissal for Phoebe to stop stirring and to gather her things. While she went inside your small cottage, you continued to sort through the berries until you heard slight shuffling and twigs snapping on the dirt pathway up to your home.

Setting the bowl down, you stood up and reached for torch beside you and waved it in the direction of the sound. Your heartrate began to beat faster as you thought of the source of the noise. You walked slowly towards the dirth path and looked down to see a slight glimmer of red and bronze reflect the light of your torch; you recognized those colors and already knew who it was.

“Alexios, what are you doing here so late?” You questioned him as you saw him look up at you with tired eyes. He dragged his feet up the path and barely swung his arm; the other was pressed firmly against his side, covering the majoirty of the red bloodstain that bloomed across his white tunic.

“I need your help…” It was all he could get out before he stumbled and fell to the ground, still clutching his side. A gasp fell from your lips and you ran to him and set the torch on the ground and wrapped an arm around him while the other tried to pry his large hand away from the wound to see how bad it was. Giving up on trying to fight him over his wound, you thought it was best if you just brought him back up to your home.

“Let us get you inside, quickly.” You grunted as you did your best to help him stand, but the weight of his bulky body weighed downed your shoulders and made your legs wobble. Abandoning the torch where it lay, you hauled him up the dark path and to the front of your house.

Phoebe was standing outside with her pack, looking all over the place. When her gaze met yours, she took note of Alexios on your arm and his condition and her eyes grew wide as she watched you walk past her and into your home.

“Alexios! What happened?” Phoebe hovered over the both of you as you dropped him on your bed. You shoved her out of the way to get your clean washcloths and herbs and when you came back, she was sitting beside him, holding his hand with concern clearly advertised on her youthful face.

“Phoebe, it is time that you go.” You sternly stated as you moved her aside once more to get access to the bleeding man on your bed. She stood aside, but refused to leave knowing that Alexios' condition was severe. “You can come back tomrrow morning, if you would like, but you cannot stay here.”

“I cannot just leave Alexios like this, are you mad?” She raised her voice, but stopped when you turned to her with a fierce glare; you cooled your anger the moment you saw the pure fear in her eyes as she looked at her friend struggle to keep his eyes open.

Alexios’ bloodied hand reached out for Phoebe’s small one and gripped it loosely, “Listen to (Y/N), I will be alright. I will see you in the morning.”

Phoebe sighed in frustration before nodding in Alexios’ direction and letting go of his hand. You excused yourself quickly and helped Phoebe onto your horse and sent her on her way to Markos. Watching her disappear down the hill, you quickly ran back inside your house to see Alexios trying to sit up on his own.

“Oh no, you relax and do not try to do anything, you hear? You definitely gotten yourself into deep trouble this time.” You shook your head as you reached to help him take off his breastplate. His groans made your own chest hurt as you hated to see him in pain, but you did your best to remain calm and carry on patching him up.

“I did not want you to see me like this, I did not want Phoebe to see me like this…” He hissed in pain as you pulled his breast plate away and felt his torso relax from the structure his armor provided. “I was not planning on making a stop here tonight, but under these circumstances I felt it necessary if something were to happen.”

“Oh Alexios…” You looked into his deep chocolate eyes and saw his shame and felt it too. You helped him lay back on the bed and set your medical supplies up so you could begin working. You caught a glimpse of his wound and whinced yourself as you could only imagine the pain Alexios must be going through. “I’m glad you decided to come here instead of ride into Sammi; there a lot of people who would turn their back on you and you would have surely died.”

He hummed in response, “I was actually closer to Sami, but if tonight is to be the night I leave this earth, I would not want to leave before I saw your face one last time.”

A blush bloomed across your face and was illuminated by the small torch by your bedside. You looked down at the ground, letting your soft (H/C) locks make a curtain over your face to try and hide it, but Alexios let out a mixture of a chuckle and a heavy cough before settling for a faint smile instead. Alexios always went out of his way to flatter you, no matter the situation.

“I am just glad you came,” You repeated softly as you wiped away the blood around his wound, making him jump slightly from the sudden sensation. “Phoebe missed you, but I know that she was not expecting to see you like this.”

Alexios shut his eyes, “That poor girl, she is probably pestering Markos about what happened to me.” He shifted on the bed as you began to slather his wound in oinments and salves. “She always tells me to be careful when I go out and I always reassure her I do, but now she is probably upset with me as well.”

“She is the biggests hypocrite on Kaphillonia,” You chuckled as you grabbed fresh cloth and covered his wound. You had him sit up while you wrapped it around his waist. His focus was all on you while you were trying to make sure that your medical knowledge was up to par from what your mother taught you. “She nearly gave me a heart attack today.”

“What did she do? It could not have been that bad.” He tried to brush off your worried tone as you exaggerating.

“She jumped off my roof and into a bale of leaves,” you stated directly, looking at him dead in the eyes as his got big. “She did not come out right away and I feared that she had broken her neck or something…” Tears were forming in your eyes as you thought back to that little stunt she pulled earlier; you were having time to process it and now you were filled with anger and sadness.

“Where the hell did she learned to do that from?”

“You.”

Alexios got quiet and looked at you and then towards the ground. He knew that it was his influence rubbing off on her and even though he wanted her to do something that made her happy, he didn’t want her to live a life as a mercenary as he was doing currently.

“She told me not to tell you, but obivously her well being is involved and you play a big part in her life as well as I, so I have to bring it up.” You stated while tying the fabric tight around his torso. “She tells me that she wants to be like you, even have her own eagle and everything, but I keep telling her that it is not the life you and I want for her.”

Alexios sighed and rubbed a hand over his face before looking at you with concern, “I’ve told her time and time again that it is too dangerous; have you not been teaching her the roles of other women?”

“She is just not interested; she says that being a basket weaver or a merchant in general is not the life she wants to lead.” You sighed as you picked up the bloodied cloths and borught them outside to burn them, “I personally blame you on this matter.”

“Why me?” Alexios threw his hands out as he watched you walk around the room, tidying things up.

“You have known her long than I have and she loves the things you do. You are her hero.” Alexios smiled at the last part of your sentence, finally thinknig that he is doing something right for someone.

“She really did scare me earlier though, if she would have broken her neck, I would have lost one of the two people I love dearly on this island.” You nonchalantly stated as you gave him a side glance to see how he would take your hint.

He paused for a moment as he watched you slow your movements before turning around and facing him from across the room. A small smirk graced his lips as he reclined backeards onto the bed. The silence in the air was a bit deafening, but the look on his face had told you that something good had happened.

“If that is your way of telling me how you feel about me, then I can say that your feelings will not go unnoticed under my attention; I feel the same about you.” Alexios said in a quiet voice, looking at you with a tenderness you have seen on rarre occasions.

A smile crossed your lips as you came to sit by his side on the bed. He took your hand in his and rubbed small circles on it as you placed your hand over his.

“If this is to be anything more, you definitly should do your very best to watch your back, I will let this one slide, but I expect you to come home to me every time. No excuses.” You told him sternly as you leaned down to place a kiss on his forehead and then cheeks, right on the corner of his lips.

“Do not worry, I do not plan on leaving any time soon.”