Chapter Text
The crew had stopped on an island for a brake after many days of non-stop working. It was a lovely little island that had a lot of food to offer and they were all lucky enough that it had a fresh water lake near the Center that was completely safe to drink. So you could say that after all the horrors these men had seen, it was nice to finally have a rest from all the action and get a chance to be friends and talk around a fire.
However, there was always something that had to go wrong, even on the tiniest of scales, like in this case, pretty much all the men had coffee as they were probably a little addicted and also as they say it’s what lets them function. Odysseus never understood how people liked to just drink coffee, especially on a daily basis, it was bitter and quite bluntly, disgusting. So when all the men had made to make enough coffee for hundreds of men Odysseus went and discreetly made himself a hot chocolate because that was what he called a fine beverage. He did however understand that hot chocolate was generally only drank by kids and Odysseus wasn’t stupid he did know, he just chose to ignore that. He always loved hot chocolate and when he was in his later teens some friends would often chuckle at him and then proceed to baby talk him for a while which was honestly quite annoying. Eurylochus and Polities were part of this group and they were both sat either side of him on the fire.
“What ya got there Ody?” Eurylochus asked as he was just sitting down, towering over Odysseus.
”uuh… coffee, like the rest of you” answered Odysseus. Now Odysseus was good at lying, that’s partly why Athena was training with him but this time Eurylochus saw right through the lie, and somehow this time, it sounded more like a question rather than an actual answer.
”really!” Polities had piped up with a shocked expression, the other crew members noticing the banter between the three, “I thought you hated coffee?”
”well, maybe I like it now.”
”your being awfully defensive over you liking coffee Ody.” Eurylochus had answered calmly, a playful smirk creeping up on his lips.
”I’m not defensive!” Whipped Odysseus’ head to face Eurylochus, with in Ody’s case, a pout forming.
”let me see that!” Polities. Freaking Polities had snatched Odysseus’ hot drink and compared it to the one he had for himself. “You dirty little liar! This isn’t coffee at all this is pure sweet hot chocolate!” This caused some crew members to snicker between them as they never would have thought their mighty captain and wise king would still be drinking hot chocolate.
”Hey! Give me my drink,” Odysseus had yelled and went to lunge over to where polities was holding his drink out of reach, laughing uncontrollably. Eurylochus had reached an arm around Odysseus front, pulling him back against him to where Odysseus was now leaning against his chest, his arms awkwardly hanging over Eurylochus single strong arm, due to their height difference, this whole time Eurylochus also chuckling to himself.
polities had gone back to sitting regularly and his laughing had calmed a bit. A bit.
“Would you like you hot chocolate now, little one?” Polities cooed which earned some loud laughs from their growing audience. That comment had made Odysseus’ cheeks and ears flair up in a bright red which was highlighted by the fire in the middle.
”Stop this right now!” Odysseus whined, which only made people laugh more and encouraged the other two to carry on. He was only really helping them at this point.
”I think the baby needs a nap now, he getting grumpy.” Eurylochus finally chimed in again running his big fingers through odysseus’ hair in attempted to soothe the angry captain. No, soothe wasn’t the right word, it was just to baby him more.
”That sounds like a wonderful idea Eury, why don’t you finish your hot chocolate and why don’t we put you to bed, hm? Polities had asked not as a question but more as a statement a parent would give to their child to reason with them.
”What? No. You will do no such thing!”
”Ok ok we’ll let you stay up as long as you behave.” Eurylochus sated ruffling the hair he had just been carding his fingers through. Odysseus only huffed at his response, finally breaking free from the hold of the stronger man and snatched his drink from Polities. The two partners in crime shared a glance, smiling and snickering at their captain’s attic's. Other crew members did the same and continued talking amongst themselves.
Odysseus drank his beverage finally in somewhat peace, still get some looks from his crew smiling cheekily at him him and he swear he heard some ‘aaaaw’s’ and ‘that’s so sweet’ or something along the lines of that, but he chose to ignore it, he did not want this moment to ever come up again. It was so stupid to him, all this over hot chocolate!?
A few hours later, all the crew were practically buzzing with energy from the cups of coffee they had all drank but Odysseus was on the complete opposite end of that spectrum. His eyes felt heavy and with the mix of his cloak and the big fire, he just wanted to fall asleep right then and there, he had after all been awake for multiple nights in a row, again. So he opted to leaning against his second in command, who was talking to some crew members around him.
”what do you think your doing you doing?” Eurylochus had said, cutting himself off what he was just saying.
”Shut up.” Odysseus mumbled, snuggling into the warmth of Eurylochus and his bigger thick cloak, nestling himself into him further. Eurylochus smiled but this time it wasn’t malicious or in attempt to poke fun of him again, but more like a fondness one would have for their child. Odysseus often did things that made Eurylochus and Polities smile like that, both of them basically co-parenting him so he wouldn’t end up getting himself in serious trouble. Odysseus often acted rather childishly with them and even sometimes around the crew, the main thing would be whining and stomping his foot when annoyed at someone.
Eurylochus took this opportunity to get this man some sleep that he was desperate for, so he took his thick wool coat and wrapped it around the smaller man, it basically swallowing him whole but Odysseus didn’t seem to mind, if anything it made him snuggle up even closer than before which looked impossible. At this point Odysseus was half asleep so Eurylochus whispered some sweet nothings and shushed him when he would stur, fighting the gentle comfort of sleep.
once Eurylochus was completely shore Odysseus was completely asleep, he went back to joining in the conversation that had now quietened a little as to not wake their little captain. They all commented on how sweet, and innocent, and young he looked when he was asleep, all cooing at the sleeping man that was now basically in Eurylochus arms.
So you could say that today was a good day and even Ody got a chance away from all the horrors he had seen and finally got a break from everything in the best way possible.
sleep.