Forgotten; Worshipped (Imported from Ao3)

11

Alexander felt very uncomfortable under James' watchful glare on his back as he hobbled his way back to the palace, too weak to summon his winds or float like he usually did with such elegant ease. James found the sight odd. He only knew the Wind to be a free and happy and untameable spirit, nothing could ever get to him, nothing could ever make him do anything. He had never seen the Wind so weak as he was now. He looked so powerless. Powerless and weak and vulnerable. James was almost at a loss for words.

"Stop glaring at me like that," Alexander coughed, more red clouds leaving his mouth, floating upwards and dissolving. He hugged himself tightly, trying to find a thought to focus on to keep himself from falling apart at the seams.

"You stop complaining; you brought this upon yourself," James retorted and Alexander scoffed and grumbled in annoyance and fell back into a violent coughing fit, coughing up more and more red clouds than he did before.

"I-" a cough, "Don't remember ordering an obnoxious moon god with my meal today. And-" another violent cough, "And I don't remember asking to be beaten up with a staff, thank you very much. I'm sure I'll forever be traumatised by this experience."

"You brought this upon yourself, Wind," James repeated and simply shrugged his shoulders. Alexander groaned loudly after another violent coughing fit that forced him to topple over.

"S-stop following me, will you!" Alexander coughed harshly, more red clouds steaming out of his mouth than before.

"I have to make sure you don't get any funny ideas, attacking this king again. Besides, I'm curious about this Aaron you're talking about," he mused and Alexander shook his head but was interrupted by another coughing fit. James had to swat at the clouds in front of his face so they wouldn't obscure his view. "Could you please stop coughing clouds?"

"Don't tell me what to do, I can't stop this. You don't expect someone who's coughing up blood to stop coughing up blood, do you?" Alexander growled and coughed again. James stopped in his tracks with a confused look in his eyes, brows furrowed in confusion.

"What?" he asked and Alexander rolled his eyes at him, but continued moving, despite his weak legs and his coughing fits becoming more and more violent by the minute.

"Normal people cough up blood, I cough up red clouds, I thought the last few hundred coughs established this," he coughed up clouds again and James regarded him with an odd look.

"That is far from normal, Wind," he said and Alexander rolled his eyes, breathing heavily from his last coughing fit.

"Yup. Dead god who still exists after three centuries of being dead; best friends with a mortal, not to mention him being the most beautiful creature of any realm; coughing up red clouds instead of blood; yeah, I think that might sum up my entire existence. Not normal," Alexander spat sarcastically and James growled at him.

"Well, you've never been normal before, either. What with your odd gardens and even odder animals, not to mention your obsession with the tornado in which your palace is literally in the middle of," James listed, unhelpfully.

"WE GET IT! I'M NOT NORMAL! CAN WE PLEASE MOVE ON?!" Alexander yelled at him, regretting it immediately as he fell into another coughing fit, the red clouds hitting James right in the face. "Besides, the tornado is there for protectio-" he said but immediately shut himself up. James raised a brow, intrigued.

"Protection? Pray tell, Wind, what exactly does it... protect?" he asked with a wide smirk on his face.

"Oh, drop that cocky grin right on the ground, asshole. No one gets into my palace without my explicit permission. No one can cross the protection I build for it, not even Washington," Alexander growled, but James' smirk did not leave his lips.