Lucius refused to delve into his emotions. That was not exactly something he shared with others. His emotions, his inner workings and everything were hidden behind walls and that was that. He refused to let it go anywhere else and instead focused on others.

The look on Feo's face had Lucius noting a few things in particular. The surprised subtle caught-off-guard look told Lucius that Feo had no idea how much he was losing it. That somehow, he had missed the fact that whatever was going on in his head was affecting how he reacted outwardly. Lucius, however, hadn't missed that fact.

The surprise shifted to discomfort.

Good. That was good. Be uncomfortable, feel discomfort and let it motivate the thoughts into changing. Lucius's sapphire eyes scanned his face for a moment as he shifted his weight on the mattress. The silence lingered reaching outward before Feo finally spoke.

There was truth and vulnerable emotions in the short phrase that Feo started with. A creeping exhaustion gradually slipped into the other man's tone and Lucius's own expression softened.

That admission was going somewhere. This demigod was lost, lost in his own mind. But then again, had he been in control ... ever?

It wasn't like he was in control before but now he was--which, Lucius figured was probably part of the problem. Feo didn't know how to be in control when it was just him.

Lucius wasn't sure how to not be in control, how to not be fine. It was such a force of habit, a part of him that he wasn't sure how to think about how to do it. He just did it. Kudos to the fact that he had a "free rein" childhood as his mother had put it. But that was how she had grown up and she was fine.

Sure.

That was what they were going with.

Lucius looked up toward Feo again as he addressed him. Wanted to create a bond? Like... a friendship? That was the only bond that he could figure out. Surely, almost certainly, it wasn't anything more.

He couldn't--oh lovely. Ohhh lovely. Lucius was not exactly sure he enjoyed this last little hurrah from the Nordic demigod. Mostly because Lucius was, actually, planning on getting rid of him.

Lucius took in a deep breath as he thought about what to say.

What would be the best thing to say at this point in time?

"Listen... okay... well... first off," Lucius finally said loosely, "you don't need to leave. You don't need to punish yourself because that's not going to help. What you need to do is let someone in, someone to help kick your thoughts into being what you want them to be."

Lucius finally stood up from the couch. "The biggest thing is that I don't know how to ... eh... teach? I don't know how to teach you how to be what I am. I honestly don't know how I managed to get this way either. But I can't ... it's worked so far, so I don't bother with changing. But that's not important right now. You don't have to handle everything at all. That's the beauty of this... friendship, I think you're talking about. Friends help each other."

That sounded like the right thing to say. It was focusing more on Feo than it was on Lucius, so that was good. And if nothing else, if it failed... well... hopefully it'd rile him up again and he'd actually leave and Lucius would shrug, say oops and move on.

Lucius watched Feo for a moment or two before lowering his gaze to the ground and then looked up at him again.

"You don't have to be good at it," Lucius said quietly, commenting on the man's statement that he wasn't sure how to do that or be good at it. That was how the gods worked against them. They used their own pride, their own ego against the demigods. They would tell them that they couldn't trust anyone, they had to do everything themselves. They didn't need help, that was a shameful thing to need.

The man continued, his voice low and shifted. To trust someone, to depend on them... he mentioned that it never ended well. But he had let Lilian in and that seemed to work fairly well.

Lucius tipped his head lightly and took in a deep breath. He wanted to do something, to become more than nothing.

Lucius's sapphire eyes focused on the floor and then finally looked up toward Feo again.

"I don't really know where to start either, if I'm being honest," he said softly, his voice was soft and low and gentle. But the young man had a vague idea. "Instead, however, I think that maybe ... uhm..." he rubbed the back of his neck. "Instead of worrying about starting at the beginning, we just start... now. We focus on what's going on now and how we can help those thoughts go away right now."

He shook his head lightly and sat down on the couch again, a small puff of breath escaping. "Ha--yeah. Uh... that sounded really stupid," he admitted to himself, "but I... look, I don't really have the great ideas, I just have ideas. I just wonder if it could help. I mean, I don't really know to be honest."

If he did his "best" or whatnot and tried to do something but if it wasn't enough, that meant he had done his best. Which was something.

That was something, right?

Feo's expression had changed though. But it was something. Feo wanted to try. He wanted to try. Lucius wasn't sure what exactly it meant. But as long as he wasn't talking about himself, Lucius was fine.

But he had to pause and perhaps give a little bit of himself out--a little bit more. And perhaps, a few other thoughts. "Maybe an acquaintance is best too, I mean, you hear the radios and the news. Everybody's going off to war," his voice trembled slightly with a feigned laugh. But not him. No, he wouldn't be. He wouldn't be going on with the others, he'd be left behind. Mister brittle bones, fragile feather duster--and other names he had gained from childhood.

The young man shook his head. "I don't know what that'll mean for us," he said softly.

The tension in the room that had been so prevalent, so tight and taut before, had softened. It was replaced with a sort of achingly empty silence, a void of tension and nothing really else that had seeped in yet. Or at all. Lucius couldn't say he minded at all.

But the first thing that Feo had said was something. Oh, boy howdy, Feo had no clue what he was talking to. Lucius was the walking display of stupid--it was just a question of how stupid was his current path of action. But at least, what he had said, wasn't too bad. That was a good thing.

His eyes flickered slightly as he pulled into a weary smile. It grew a little bit more as Feo added his last little bit. Lucius was well aware that he had no idea what he was doing. Most of it was concoct plan, try plan. If plan worked, great continue. If plan failed, figure out new plan... repeat.

Sometimes, that worked well. Other times, it did not. But right now, Lucius was feeling pretty confident. The watch worked, there was a solid location of where the Cestus was and he was in Kansas and had already tried to find it and nothing had happened.

That was most of what he was banking on. The gods would be too focused with the war to care about some kid looking for 'love' items.

A different thought struck him and he had to take a moment to think. If he could borrow a uniform, head into the Underworld with the other soldiers who were inevitably down there as well, then he could find a way to the River Styx and get that whole thing done with.

Lucius shook his head clear of his thoughts and dipped his head. "Sometimes, effort is all that you need. If you put enough effort into it, something'll happen and you'll at least learn. It might not be what you want to have happen but it'll be something you can learn from."

Lucius gave him a lopsided smile again and leaned back into the couch, looking far more relaxed. "But, to kind of catch you up on everything that's happened so far," he settled on a brief topic change, "went to the museum here in town. They didn't have it. I had to ask around to find someone who had the faintest idea of what I was looking for. They said that it might be in Garden City. There's a guy there who has a private collection of old relics that he has personally bought and put on display. Whether or not we can get it from him, I'm not sure. We still have to get there. Which leads to the whole thing today. I went on such a wild goose chase, holy catfish," he shook his head lightly.

Lucius sighed. "I had to go from one thing to the next. Finally figured out that there's realistically three ways to get to Garden City. First, the bus. There's a Greyhound that'll pass through to Garden City. Problem? It's not coming for another three days. We could fly, but we'd have to bribe some guy with a private plane to get us out there. The last option is to hitch a ride on a train that'll be passing through tomorrow and headed to Garden City. That train will also go from Garden City back here," Lucius explained with a rambling sort of motion, taking in a deeper breath when he had finished. "I'm assuming it's going to be the train that we take. It's probably going to be our best option."

"My good sir--" Lucius took in a deep breath and let it out, unable to hide a rough laugh from escaping. "You are probably overpaying. People aren't used to seeing pure gold. They're used to this stuff," he waved his hand and gestured to his wallet. "Gold? That's unheard of. That would be why you're getting odd looks."

He shook his head, still chuckling lightly as he finally stood up and stretched out. The young man paced toward the window, drawing the curtains and then removed the watch from his wrist.

"Well, I do know what it looks like. Potentially at least. There's two things that it could look like. It could look like a belt or it could be more of a glove-type thing. It's been written as both in mythology. Trust me, I read it. Ha--yeah," he ruffled the feathers outward, spreading his wings with a faint noise. He could only stretch out so much in the cramped room. His feathers folded on the ceiling but he still couldn't stretch all the way. Side-ways, spreading outward, he reached both walls with his feathers as well.

"I'm hoping that he'll be a little more willing to part with it if he has no idea what it is. If it's just some old belt to him or something like that, I'm sure he'll be willing to part with it," and he was going to be more than willing to part with the dirty... contraband money that his mother had so graciously gifted him. What a lovely thought that was.

"But, yes, if we do have to take it, we can. Nobody knows our names, nobody knows where we came from which means we can get out of here easy enough and nobody's gonna figure it out," Lucius gave him a lopsided and weary wince, "do I really want to steal things? No. I really don't. But yes, essentially that's the plan so far. Find the thing, figure out where it is and continue forward. The gods really aren't going to care, it's just some kid looking for a potential 'love' item. They're more focused on the war than anything I can do."

Lucius paused though at the last question, his wings slowly coming down to rest behind his back. Well... he hadn't exactly thought that far. If he was being entirely honest... that was a minute detail he hadn't planned. What were they to do in the meantime?

"Yes--" Lucius said slowly, rubbing his arm for a moment or two. "To be honest, I was kinda hoping to get a little sleep in. I'm not gonna lie, last night was a little bit on the rough side. Y'know, being in a new place and all. But if you don't want to, we don't have to--I don't have to. Oh my stars, I'm so sorry," Lucius covered his mouth as the faint heat rose to his cheeks. That was a rather poor insinuation right there. But the words had slipped out without him thinking about it.

It was a lot of money. Oh he had definitely been overpaying the entire time and Lucius hadn't known that he had pure gold in his pocket until it had jangled and he watched him pull some out. Pure gold. Lucius couldn't even imagine that kind of money.

"... barely," Lucius shrugged in response on whether or not he fit in the room. He fit. Not well. But he did fit.

But the way Feo tried to diffuse the rising tension only made it worse. Lucius covered his face with his hands, trying to hide that ugly splotchy and patchy blush that held onto his skin. It made him look awful, like he had some sort of allergic reaction--but without the swelling. Oh he hated it.

"N-no--no oh--Feo," Lucius whined, his tone teetering between embarrassed and laughter. "I would--I don't want to crush you! Or accidentally smother you. Or--y'know it's fine.. it's fine--"

Lucius stepped back, curling his wings over his face as he stared at the floor. What was he saying? Why was he saying what he was saying? This was bad. Absolutely bad. He needed to be better, say better things. This was not it.

Ohhh no.

He was never living this down.

This was going down in history of his "really dumb" things. Not even minor, partially or just dumb--that was a really dumb thing he had just said and done and then continued to say.

He took a few moments to calm himself down, though he knew the color was still in his face. That color never left, which was partially why he tried to avoid getting flustered or embarrassed. This was not the way he had thought the entire conversation would go.

And now he was standing there, redder than a tomato, hiding behind the wall of white feathers.

He finally took in a deep breath and let it out. "I'm so sorry, that was all my fault--I did not mean... that. I don't fault you, you're tired and probably haven't gotten much sleep at all so there's that. But I... had no excuse," he let out a weary breath. "Are you sure you're good? The floor can't be that comfortable at all. I mean, I'm sure we could try and see if the couch has a hide-away bed thing. Or... or I could just take the couch," he gestured to the furniture with one hand. "It's easier to sleep on for me with the wings than it probably would be for you. Before you protest, it's because it'll give these space to lay out on the floor. Normally, I try and have a circular bed. They accommodate wings way better than anything else does."

He waved his hands lightly. "Off-topic--" Lucius shook his head and sat down on the couch again. "... yeah, we should get some sleep. Maybe this was all just a weird dream. We're just both... sleeping. Y-yeah, I fell asleep on the couch. I had the magazine in hand--" the young man sighed and settled onto his side, looking at the back of the couch.

He was definitely still awake.

And never living that down.

Ever.