Impossible || Druig

01

Soro (pronounced Soh-ro) saw them coming from down the street.  Sersi with her long hair curled around her shoulders and her unchanging face searching the pavements. Sprite with her short ginger hair sticking up like the branches of a wild bush. Ikaris with his familiar pompous white streak of hair, muscles bulging in his tshirt. (Soro wondered if the man brought them too small on purpose. He probably did). He was surprised to see them together as he was sure that Ikaris had been brooding by himself on a mountain for the past five hundred years. Sersi and Sprite, as he knew from their social media, had been living in London for the past couple of decades. Sersi now a teacher and researcher at the British natural history museum. It was a job that suited her. She had always loved learning with humans.

Soro bushed his hair behind his ear and sipped his coffee. The coffee shop bustle around him calming as the sun beat down on the street outside. The weather was still chilly with winter but the sun was bright today, shining on the pavement of Krakow, Poland, with an illusion of warmth. Either way, the tourists loved it and the streets were busy. Even then, the three Eternals making their way through the crowds stuck out. They drew the eye but not in a way that was too other, just enough that people couldn't help but glance at them as they passed. Sprite more than the others as ginger hair as bright as hers was still rare in western societies. Hers had always been flame bright amidst strawberry blondes. As fiery as her temper. Soro wondered if he should stick around to meet them, or if he should make a break for it while he had the chance.

He finished his coffee, the last dregs of the pumpkin spice latte sticky on his lips as he set down the cup. Grabbing his coat and backpack, he rose from his chair and moved away from the window. As he turned away, he caught Sersi's eye. She gestured to the coffee shop but Soro was already moving around tables. It was easy for him to slip out into the corridor that led to the shop's small bathroom. As he reached the brown wooden door, his fingers parted and a web of gold interlaid itself around the frame. It shimmered as he turned the handle and stepped through the portal out into a street in the Jewish quarter blocks away, looking as if he had just stepped through a simple doorway. His boots hit the cobbles and he shut the door behind him, the golden magic fading into nothing as the door closed.

For a second he leaned against the wall of a restaurant and sighed. Five hundred years and nothing. He had checked in on all of his fellow Eternals at various points (except for Druig and Ikaris but that was for two very different reasons) and most of them had not even realised that he was there. They didn't feel his presence or see him in the street where he lingered always just long enough to know that his family was okay before moving on. Only Makkari had ever seen him, though hiding from her was impossible and he never truly bothered to attempt it with any seriousness. So, why were they seeking him out now? And how the heck did they know where he was?

Those questions puzzled Soro as he sauntered down the road to a square filled with popular street food. He had been craving a zapiekanka and it would be good to wash down the coffee. The sunlight caught on his half tied up black hair as he walked and shone on his black and silver glasses. (He thought they made him look older). The air was still a little frigid and he was grateful that his attire was warm enough. A black knitted jumper half tucked into thick grey jeans? A faded army coat hung from his shoulders and a tattered deep red scarf hung from his neck as his combat boots steered him around city dwellers. As he walked, he tugged out his hair tie with one hand and let his layered black hair loose to fall around his face. With that and the glasses, his face drew less attention. It helped that he wasn't the tallest person in the street.

He reached the destined market and brought his open sandwich. It was almost as long as his forearm and wider. He debated buying some more to leave for Druig but the idea of travelling back to the Amazon forest while not being spotted by the eternal just to leave some sandwiches on his doorstep seemed too tiring that minute. He hummed as he took a bite and tried to avoid any sauce dripping on his clothes. (Delicious food was often messy).

"There you are!" A voice in familiar accented English made him jump and mayonnaise dripped onto the pavement. Soro looked up, licking the sauce off his fingers as he glared at the man descending from the sky. Ikaris didn't seem very bothered by the stares and pointed fingers that now surrounded them as his feet hit the ground.

"You almost cost me my zapiekanka", Soro grumbled as he took another bite, cheeks bulging like a chipmunk.

"You would have survived", Ikaris shrugged. Soro chewed as he watched the taller man pull out his phone. "Sersi? Yeah found him. We'll head back to you". The call ended and the taller man was grabbing the younger man by the hood of his coat, like catching a kitten by the scruff of his neck, and began marching back through the streets. Sort protested this by making various offended inarticulate sounds as he chewed.

"No 'nice to see you?' after all these years?" The smaller asked between bites, once he felt like he had voiced his offence and frustration long enough. "Want some of this by the way? It's delicious but too big for me".

"No", Ikaris stated. His usual brooding glower back on. Soro shrugged and kept eating. He let the man tow him along as if he was scared Soro would run off again (which he probably would), and casually forgot to tell him of short cuts that would lead them back to the old town quicker.

"So no reunion at all?" He voiced sarcastically. "Not happy to see me Ikaris? Did you even miss me?"

"Would you like me to hug you and cry about missing you?" Ikaris flashed him an amused look. It was a rare look that was rarely rewarded to anyone other than Sersi. He actually must have missed him.

"Nope", Soro agreed as he stuffed the last of the zapiekanka into his mouth. He was so full. It was excellent. He wiped the sauce from his lips with a napkin as they waited to cross the road.

Sersi and Sprite were waiting for them on the other side. The sun peaking at them through the trees that encircled Kraków's old town, sending glimmers of gold across their shoulders. Soro stuffed his hands in his pockets and flashed them an apologetic smile. "Sersi, Sprite", he greeted when his feet hit the opposing pavement. "I would have offered you food. But I ate it. You two look just the same as you did five hundred years ago. Which is a shame cause I was expecting different hairstyles at the very least".

"You look like a hobo", was Sprite's very welcoming greeting.

"Still travelling?" Sersi asked, though the answer was obvious. Soro gestured to his backpack. The black cloth worn and decorated with various pins and badges from different countries. It contained three changes of clothes, various essentials and his iPad. In other words, all his human belongings. Though, if he could fit his armour in there he would be carrying that around too. Unfortunately that was back on the domo where they had left it when they had left Babylon thousands of years before.

"I'm surprised you found me", Soro grinned as he flicked his hair from his face. "I was in Japan three days ago. And I was thinking of going to Vancouver at the end of the week".

Sersi just opened her phone and brought up his instagram. He was very popular on there for his travel posts and he was quite proud of the amount of followers he had gained. Her screen currently showed a picture of him taken with the Wawel Dragon as fire spewed from it's lips, location tagged and the information underneath. It had been posted the day before. Soro was even pulling a peace sign in the frame. He just grinned and made a 'what can you do' gesture.

"We need to talk", Ikaris stated. Around them people swarmed. The end of the day rush filling the streets. Some of them stared at the mismatched group as they passed.

"Preferably in private", Sersi added. Her tone was concerned, grave. "Is there anywhere we can go?"

"I guess you guys can come back to my hotel room", Soro sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "Come on". He began to lead the way.

"What's with the new glasses?" Sprite asked.

"Phastos made them for me. What do you think? Better than the old ones?"

"You look like a hipster".

"Missed you too Sprite", Soro chuckled.

unedited