Photo: Corinth Canal.

POV: DANTE

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Dante dropped on his back and folded his hands under the back of his head. He closed his eyes and shivered, like everytime when he saw darkness and felt that dark, mystical sensation he still couldn't explain. Was it his desire, so deep that his head had already made it happen? But why did his head not make it happen with Noel yet?

'There's an ocean,' he said in a shaky voice, 'with dark depths.'

He fell silent as he felt the emotions again, the strong pull of the depths, the peaceful silence of the ocean. He needed both.

'Without the dark depths, the ocean is empty, and without the ocean the dark depths don't exist.'

He could feel the peace of the ocean, but it wouldn't be able to fulfill him. He could be engulfed in the dark depths, but he would miss the ocean. 

'There's a wall, too. But it's not actually a wall. It is emptiness. Only the ocean with the dark depths can fill the emptiness.'

He fell silent. The ocean was silent. The dark depths were silent.

'That is my answer,' Dante finally said.

He opened his oculi.

He did not tell them that the wall had fallen. For the wall had rebuilt itself. There was no ocean to fill its place.

He looked at the ocean. The ocean looked back. The ocean was not calm. The ocean was caught in a storm. Yet there was no matter for the wind to take with it. Just an empty wall. A wall that was trembling under the storm.

The dark depths also had their gaze focused on the ocean. Their pull was more powerful than ever, Dante shivered from the intensity they contained.

Then, the ocean started filling with salt water. Noel hid his face in his arms as he curled up. 'It's too much. Godd*mmit!'

Dante forgot the ocean with the dark depths and the wall right away, placing an arm around Noel's shoulders gently. 'I'm sorry,' he said apologetically. 'I put too much pressure on you.'

Gideon has the exact same instinctive reaction and while they both hold Noel their eyes meet again. There is confusion, anxiety, worry, hope, despair. Yet there was one certainty.

It was not the ocean without water, the dark depths, the empty wall.

It was not because they wouldn't be able to exist without each other.

It was because their love was not complete when they were not together.

It was because the three of them were destined to be together.

'You guys are not pressuring me,' Noel said. 

'I am pressuring myself.'

He sighed and wiped his eyes with his hand. 'You're right, Dante. Whether it be as friends or as something more, we have to stay together.'

He raised his head and looked at Gideon. 'And you too are right, Gideon. There's a strong connection between us, and all of us are aware of that connection. It is probably... love? And it's our fate, which has been chosen for us. I could run away because of fear for my dad, but will that change anything about my feelings?'

He sniffed. 'No. It won't. And if I am completely honest, my bond with you two means more to me than my bond with my parents.'

Suddenly, he buried his head in Dante's shoulder. 'Actually, I want it so bad that it hurts,' he confessed, his voice breaking.

'Oh god, me too.' Gideon's voice actually trembled as he wrapped his arms around Noel as well as Dante and put his head on Noels shoulder.

Dante also breathed shakily, blinked quickly, sighed again, oculi lacrimant.

'Let's give it a try,' Noel then said. 'Let's date. The three of us. It might just work out.'

'For real?' Gideon replied enthusiastically.

'For real.'

'Are you sure?' Dante checked once more, the words barely getting through to him.

'Whether it will work, no. But I'm sure I want to try now.'

Dante let out a breathy 'yesss...', now suddenly feeling... full.

When both of his arms were filled with Noel's and Gideon's, the wall started to move. It distorted, twisted and fell, and the ocean overflowed it, the dark depths pulled it. Their foreheads resting against each other's, they stared into each other's eyes, smiling eyes because of the overflowing feeling of happiness. Even if the future was insecure, the ocean was now filled with the dark depths and the wall was an inseparable part of it.

"Strange?"

"Not strange at all."

The end