Phaidros and Auxentios travel to the stars aboard their boat made from sacred materials. They are the first people from Earth to travel to space. Their adventure and documentation of the event falls into the mists of time and becomes a mere myth and...
Unbeknown to the Athenian men, an hour or so before their slumber was to end, the boat had decided it was bored twirling around Iapetus.
"Could you read the stars, could you re-read the stars" an echo-y voice kept repeating in Auxentios' head within his dream. It all made sense to him at that moment. When he awoke he wouldn't have a clue.
The boat powered on swiftly leaving behind that aforementioned moon of Kronos, its next destination unknown.
Phaidros had fallen into the realm of deep sleep. He rarely slept as well as this. His mind and body had craved it for so long.
The sight of the two of them asleep upon one another would have warmed the coldest of beings.
The boat meanwhile seemed to be heading for the orbit of Aphrodite, the moonless but ever beautiful Aphrodite.
As they were gently sucked into her orbit, Auxentios was stirring. His eyes flickered and blinked before he sat and gazed at this new planet. He moved over and leaned over the side of the boat and for a moment unless his haunting hazel eyes deceived him, he thought he could see buildings or monuments.
"This is strange" he thought to himself.
However he could see no signs of an active civilisation, perhaps just the remains of one.
He looked over at Phaidros and smiled to himself. He would love to hear his thoughts on this right now but did not want to wake him. He knew how terrible his sleeping pattern was. He hoped his dreams were sweet at least.
He gazed at the surreal beauty of the planet of Aphrodite for a while before he could hear Phaidros talking in his sleep. The tall blonde realised Auxentios was not beside him anymore and he suddenly awoke and looked around. The curly haired brunet stared at him with a smile the whole time.
"I never go far, Phaidros" he said softly with a wink.
"Where are we now?" replied Phaidros, sleepily.
"Come and look at this, Phai"
He crawled to Auxentios' side.
The elder blonde stared at what could be seen on the surface of Aphrodite.
"Is that what I think it is, Aux?"
"It certainly looks like it"
As they orbited this magnificent planet they could see it's beauty and architecture in all her glory. But one question remained...what happened to her inhabitants?
"It just looks like an updated version of what we have back in Athens, doesn't it? said Auxentios.
"We can only imagine how advanced this place once was, Aux"
They had only a few more moments of gazing at Aphrodite's untouched beauty before the boat left her orbit. Phaidros reached out his hand in desperation hoping to stay in her orbit just a while longer, intrigued with this abandoned world. Auxentios looked at him with great sadness knowing how much he would have liked to explore the surface.
The boat drifted on until once again the faint glimmer of the blue Earth was in their line of sight. They were silent the whole time just taking in their view of the cosmos.
"I've loved this" said Phaidros, quiet and softly.
Auxentios sighed.
"Though it was brief" Phaidros continued.
He moved over to where Auxentios sat and kissed him on the forehead.
"And it was all the more beautiful to share this with you, favoured son of Ariston"
Auxentios smiled at him a lovers smile.
"Since I awoke this all feels like a dream" Phaidros continued now quietly.
"I believe I would be with you in any reality, Phai" added Auxentios, equally as quiet.
"The gods could never keep me from you, I'm sure of that" Phaidros' voice a mere whisper, he gazed in Auxentios' eyes, comfortably.
"The beauty of heaven evokes such emotion in me...and in my entire life I've never known how to handle such emotions" Phaidros' voice still low and vulnerable, as if the stars were extracting his soul from his body.
Auxentios pulls him closer until he is holding him like a mother holds her crying child.
After a while Phaidros pulls back and looks around at the stars.
Auxentios stared at him.
"Could you re-read the stars?" he whispered.
"What?" the blonde smiled at him.
"It's just dream talk, Phai."
"I love your strange dreams"
"Cryptic as they are" replied Auxentios.
They both then looked at the blue Earth below them.
"Time to go home then" they said simultaneously.
They boat almost as if it were sentient, heard their command and started to descend back to Athens as the Earth spun endlessly. The men held onto one another with their eyes firmly shut as the speed of the boat began to accelerate.
It was a dark midnight blue sky just south of Athens. All the constellations, like dazzling jewels looked down at the inhabitants below as they had for all of history, in nurturing silence. It was calm and serene before Phaidros and Auxentios came hurtling through the atmosphere. They hit the water with a force as Phaidros grabbed hold of Auxentios' waist to stop him from falling into the now icey water of the great sea. Finally the boat had slowed and was cruising along leisurely as Auxentios casually picked up an oar then laid it down again with a pout. He was far too tired to try and longed for nothing more than the warmth of his bed. Meanwhile Phaidros eyed what he could see of the shore. Just mere pinpricks of light and various lanterns left on by resident insomniacs were visible to him.
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"We'll soon be home, Aux"
Auxentios grabbed hold of Phaidros' hand and held it till they were nearly at shore. Immediately Phai jumped down as Auxentios softly let go of his hand. The blonde pulled the boat to shore and helped his partner down onto the cold sand. They both pulled the boat up to the cave from which this all started. Sleep fell upon the Athenian men as those aforementioned constellations slowly fell under the horizon.
"I bid thee a goodnight, beloved son of Philadelphos"
"I can't wait to see you again when shining Helios brings the golden light of the sun tomorrow"
Phaidros then kissed Auxentios on the forehead and both fell into the lush, sometimes lustful land of sleep.
Those same planets and moons they had visited shone over them until dawn.
