Archive of Our Own ^beta

The Iron Temple was cold, still, and quiet. Tomb-like. Osiris wore the isolation of Felwinter Peak like a cloak, his loss like armor. Saladin had fled the place after the Site 6 disaster, fled the ghosts of their compatriots and their loved ones, and had never come back. He'd snuffed the braziers and disappeared, but Osiris had stayed. The fires remained cold, and the ghosts lingered. Shrouded in guilt and grief, Osiris embraced their bitter company. It was so much easier to focus on his work when it was too painful to do anything else.

Felwinter had sent him down into the Last City on purpose that day. He was sure of it.

'The Ideal Ambassador' for their cause his slim over-sat upon ass. He'd been dubious at the time, but Osiris never had been able to deny Felwinter even the most mundane of requests, let alone something important. He'd been left entirely in the dark about his mentor's plans with the other Iron Lords.

He'd known somehow.

The thing in the bunker. Of Osiris' visions and what they truly meant.

Felwinter had recognized their fate and he'd sent Osiris as far away from it as he could.

A low whine issued from beneath his desk, and Osiris snapped out of his reverie to glance down at the utterly enormous wolf curled around his feet. Saladin had taken most of the pack, but this one had stayed. The litter had been born the day after Site 6. Osiris didn't like to believe in things like reincarnation but he swore he knew the animal, and it had seemingly entered this world knowing him. Osiris had not been prepared to care for a newborn anything, but it had refused to follow Lord Saladin or its mother.

Now his sole companion lifted his great head, blinking uncanny, pale blue eyes at him.

"What?" Osiris huffed, rolling his eyes as the wolf stood, pushing up to plant his weighty head in his lap. "Have I grown so maudlin that I disturbed your nap?" he asked, indulging in a few placating ear scratches. How the thing read his mind like that, he had no idea, but it always knew just when to interrupt his spiraling thoughts. The wolf huffed and, bumping the desk hard enough to shove it away several inches in the process, climbed up abruptly to brace his forepaws on Osiris' lap, then his chest.

"Hey... Hey! Stop that!" Osiris gasped, pushing on its chest to try and shove it away without success. "You buffoon, you're not some lap-sized whelp any longer, get down!" It grinned, panting, and licked his face, ignoring him. "Cuddly bastard, you know better!" Osiris groused, still shoving at it. His companion only climbed higher, placing his tea plate sized paws on his shoulders to press his furry chest against his face. Osiris sighed, relenting, and wound his arms around the beast's ribs, returning the embrace such as it was. He could hear its heartbeat. The sound was soothing. "You're too good at this," he complained softly. The wolf groaned and eased back down so that all four paws were back on the floor, but his head remained planted firmly in Osiris' lap. Osiris gave him a few more shoves but it quickly became apparent he wasn't moving, and eventually he relented with a big sigh, returning to his research.

It was hard for the pain of loss to cut too deep with the embodiment of love and loyalty warming him, and Osiris kept one hand upon the wolf's head, scratching idly as he worked, and far from the first nor last time tried not to wonder too hard why it had chosen to stay with him.

Part of him - too much of him - wanted to believe it was Felwinter but he knew better.

Felwinter would not jump up on him like some poorly behaved pet, if nothing else.

He looked for Felwinter everywhere, but Felwinter was not there. Only the memories, which hurt more and more every day.

His companion's ears perked up suddenly, lifting into high, alert arrows, and he lifted his head. Osiris looked up too as the wolf turned, staring out the open study door. Without a sound, he stood and trotted off, footfalls perfectly silent on the stone floor.

Frowning, Osiris stood as well and followed, sidearm in hand.

He followed his companion all the way through the Temple to the main hall and arrived just in time to see his furry haunches disappear through the big reinforced temple doors as they were shoved open from outside. Osiris held back, pistol raised, but the shout of surprise that echoed into the hall was of a familiar timbre.

"Off! Off! What sort of slack-handed delinquent trained you, anyway?!" Lord Saladin's outraged voice carried clearly into the chamber, and Osiris snorted, lowering his gun. He strode forward through the gap in the doors and into the harsh light of day, squinting. His wolf had nearly felled Lord Saladin, its paws braced on his shoulders as it relentlessly licked his face in welcome.

Saladin looked like he was hating every second of it, and Osiris waited a beat to call the beast off of him.

"Get down, you ornery gremlin, you know that's no way to greet guests," Osiris drawled. The wolf dropped right back down and circled back to Osiris, sitting primly by his side, grinning at the other Iron Lord.

" Thank you," Lord Saladin growled, wiping his face.

"Forge," Osiris nodded, the closest thing the Titan was going to get to a friendly greeting. "To what do I owe the visit?" His eyes had trailed off of Saladin to his companion: Not unfamiliar, another Titan utterly towering in stature, stood at Saladin's shoulder. Saint-14 held his crested helmet under one arm and a bundled parcel in the other, and looked terribly disappointed he hadn't been jumped on as well. He smiled brightly back at Osiris when he saw the Warlock looking at him curiously.

"Ah, Lord Osiris," Saint purred his name so graciously. He always did. Osiris had met him a handful of times during his increasingly rare visits to the fledgling city being built in the shelter of the Traveler. He'd found it increasingly difficult to avoid the Titan on such visits, and increasingly difficult to bear the pain of seeing the City grow in the absence of the men and women who'd dreamed of it in the first place.

Saint was too kind. Too generous with himself, with other people's needs and feelings.

It reminded Osiris of someone else, and it made him ache .

"I asked Lord Saladin to bring me to see you," Saint went on, oblivious to Osiris' ruminations. Osiris only remembered belatedly he wasn't wearing his cowl to hide how his nose wrinkled and his brow knit in confusion.

"Why would you do that?" Osiris asked indelicately.

Unbothered, Saint hefted the carefully packaged cloth parcel in his hand.

"I brought lunch."

Osiris sat stiffly at one end of a table meant to seat dozens, not two or three, picking at the remains of an admittedly very delicious meal, uncomfortable. Saladin sat beside him looking equally uncomfortable.

Saint sat on the floor with the wolf, the pair lavishing one another in gross volumes of attention and affection. Osiris couldn't decide who carried less shame, the Titan or the dog.

Saint began to coo and sigh and baby talk the wolf until he had the thing wiggling and whining and fawning on him. Osiris and Saladin exchanged a look.

Saint.

It was definitely Saint.

"You still haven't said why you are here," Osiris drawled at last, watching the Exo with a curious mix of fascination and disdain... fond disdain. He wished he could let go of his inhibitions so readily, sometimes.

Maybe the word to describe what he was feeling, really, was envy.

Lord Saladin sucked in a breath.

"Come back with us, Osiris."

Saint sat up abruptly. The wolf sat, letting him stand.

"Yes, return to City. It is too quiet here. Too lonesome," Saint said, extending a hand to Osiris. "We worry about you, Lord Osiris," he went on. "It has been too long."

"It has hardly been any time at all," Osiris huffed, lip curling. "I do not need your worry."

"We finish what you started, the City, she flourishes. Your dreams-"

"They were not my dreams. I had no part in it," Osiris snapped. He shot Saladin a sharp look. "You know this. You know where I was."

"Serving a crucial duty to our cause," Saladin said, serious and sincere. "Your mission was not frivolous. Nor is Saint's visit here to you today."

"It is too soon, I cannot," Osiris said firmly.

"Lord Osiris, it has been two years," Saint said softly.

"We've achieved so much more than SIV-"

Osiris leapt to his feet and slammed his hands down on the table.

" SIVA broke my home and tore my family apart!" He snapped. "That thug of a so-called-"

"As was mine," Saladin cut in softly, his voice as raw and broken with grief as Osiris'. "Come home, Osiris. Mourn in the company of people who care about you. Don't let yourself rot up here all alone. They wouldn't want that, and you know it."

" Who cares?" Osiris hissed, riled.

"We care," Saint said gently. "Lord Saladin. Myself." He looked down. "Your canine friend. Your Ghost, Sagira, who Geppetto misses terribly."

The wolf nudged Osiris' hip as if to agree.

"You have friends, Lord Osiris," Saint plead. "You should be with them."

"I have no place in the City," Osiris insisted.

"You can stay with me, I have space," Saint said quickly. "Until you find your own." He paused, adding, "Unless you would rather stay with Lord Saladin instead.”

"I'd rather not," Osiris said, without thinking.

"Then it is settled!" Saint clapped his hands. "You come home to City. You stay with The Saint!"

"Excuse me?!" Osiris gasped, mortified. To his even greater horror, the wolf hopped up and went trotting merrily back over to Saint, apparently having grasped every word of their conversation, tail wagging as he greeted their new roommate.

"Yes! You too, my furry friend!" Saint cooed, stooping to rub the wolf's head vigorously until he was panting and squirming again with renewed, abject joy, panting. " You can stay as long as you like, even after I kick Lord Osiris out!" He laughed at his own joke, and the wolf bayed a soft howl.

Osiris glanced over at Saladin who was watching the duo in stunned horror. He looked back at Osiris apologetically.

"Perhaps instead," Osiris said slowly, "I shall merely throw myself down the mountain."

"Don't bother," Saladin sighed. "They'll both come after you and you know it."

"Do I have time to change my mind?" Osiris asked louder.

"No. It is decided," Saint chuckled, straightening back up. "Get your things, Lord Osiris. We are going now."

"Light help me."

Despite everything, however, something lifted in Osiris' chest. Saint's gentle, jovial nature was contagious. He was too kind, too forgiving, and too considerate. He was willing to let Osiris grieve, just not alone.

Osiris was more grateful than he could say.