The man continued to stare in shock at the blond in front of him before he sighs and runs a hand through his scruffy black hair that hung to the top of his ears. He steps aside and lets the younger man enter his home, watching him take a look around as he walked over to the dining table to take a seat; the man followed. He studied the younger man; he had grown and got bigger since the last time they had seen each other and he could feel the power radiating from him.

“So are you here to attack us again?” Theodore asks with a raised eyebrow and Ares shakes his head.

“I was hoping to join your cause, I know it’s a long shot but I’ve spent the last two years training to get stronger and building up troops to help you with your fight,” he tells Theodore, waiting for some type of reaction when a small smirk takes over the young man’s face. He sits forwards to look closer into the blue eyes of the large man

“You want to know why I spared your life that day two years ago?” Theodore asks and without waiting for a reply he keeps talking, “It’s because I had a vision of you fighting with me against whoever has taken my home. I was ready to take your life that day but didn’t.”

They stare at each other for a long few minutes before Ares looks down at his hands.

“I did a lot of bad while working with those people while thinking what I was doing was right. Mara almost killed me that day after you escaped and it broke my heart when she shredded our bond and left me there. The last two years I went and found every sorcerer I could; asked them to train me and to come to me when I asked them too. They all agreed.” He tells the blond who sits back with a little shock on his face.

“How many?”

“I have found two hundred and fifty people to help fight; surprisingly ninety of them are sorcerers who have all different kinds of magic. The rest are soldiers who helped me hone my ability with weapons. If you will let me join you in your fight, I can bring them to us and they will help.” Ares tells him and they’re silent for a long time, weighing up what was going to happen.

“I got a lot of shit from my friends for sparing your life that day but I would do it again. The vision is the truth; you will fight with us…” Theodore trails off, realising he didn’t know the man’s name and seeming to realise that too, the man smiles lightly.

“Ares; my name is Ares.”

“Theodore.” They smile at each other before the blond stands, looking at him expectantly. “You better come home with me, meet the others and let them come to understand the positive outcome that will come from you being with us.”

Forty five minutes later, after taking a bit longer to talk about the time Ares spent with the sorcerers and Theodore was entering the house with Ares behind him, a smile breaking out over the blonds face when he smells the lovely scent of Alissia’s cooking and the smile growing to a grin when Tristan rushes over to him, bringing the blond into his arms and placing his lips on the smaller boys; missing the black haired man standing awkwardly behind them as Theodore kisses back with his hands holding the brunets cheeks.

“God, you took ages!” Tristan exclaims when they pull away, licking his lips to savour the taste of his blond.

“Well, if you’re gonna greet me like this every time I’m gone that long, I might do it more often.” Theodore jokes, laughing when the brunet slaps his chest lightly though his laugh is cut short when he sees Ares.

“What is he doing here?”

“Ares is here to help, I will explain over dinner.” Theodore tells his friend, bringing his attention back to the blond when he grabs his hand and drags him to the dining room where the others are getting the table ready.

Everyone stops their movements as they see Ares, though they have to double take as he definitely looked a little different. He was still as big as when they last saw him but his hair was longer and his eyes friendlier, despite the harsh scar that went through the middle of his right eyebrow. He looks around nervously before Theodore sighs.

“Let’s get dinner sorted and I’ll explain why Ares is here,” he says, helping Alissia place the food on the table before grabbing a spare chair from the corner and placing it beside where he would be sitting; shoving Ares towards it as Alissia sinks into the chair on the other side it. They all sit and start dinner, though they were waiting for Theodore to explain when finally Julia has had enough silence and snaps.

“Theo, just tell us why the fuck he’s here,” she says harshly and Theodore looks up from his plate with a glare that would stop anyone else’s heart.

“Please, just tell us Theodore,” the prince had recently taken up calling him by his full name which the other really liked. Tristan’s voice was soft, making the white haired boy meet his eyes and as he does, the younger man feels his body relax slightly.

“Ares is here to help us take back out home and before any of you object, I’ll tell you about the vision I had that day,” he pauses, not taking his golden eyes off his green eyed lover, for that is what he was. His heart and mind couldn’t deny it, “the vision I had showed this man fighting beside me in the war that is surely to happen in a little while. I couldn’t kill someone I knew would help us in the end, plus Ares has done a great job of getting some men who can help us as well. How many people have you got Ares?” Theodore turns his soft gaze from the brunette too look at the raven haired man, his eyes staying soft as he could see the man was nervous about being rejected.

“Two hundred and fifty men, ninety of them are sorcerers.” Ares says, his voice just loud enough for everyone to make out which made the other’s realise he was quite different to how he had been back when he attacked them.

“He has two hundred and fifty men waiting to be contacted to come and help us win back our home, and with a vision like the one I had that felt so real I can’t just turn him away.” Theodore says with passion, turning his eyes to his friends.

“What if he betrays us?” Micah asks and Theo turns to him.

“If he does, I kill him.” Ares watches the others flinch at Theodore’s cold tone but he had been expecting that response.

It’s silent while everyone goes back to their food for a while until Justin looks up and looks Ares over slightly.

“Theo, I’m going to be honest and say that I’m a little sceptical about it but I trust you and if you think he’s okay to have on our side, then so be it,” his voice is calm but he breaks out into a grin when he speaks again, “plus, it’d be nice to have a hot body to look at that isn’t fawning over someone else.”

“We do not fawn over each other.” Tristan argues but they all laugh at his pink cheeks.

“Sure you don’t.” Micah says with a chuckle.

“You both just cuddle, kiss and act like a love smitten couple.” Alissia joins in with the teasing, loving that Theodore laughs with them.

“We’re just testing the waters for when we’re home and safe, and you all know it.” Theo states and the others shrug.

“Whatever you say guys.” Justin says with a teasing tone, shrugging his shoulders.

They finish dinner in silence after that, Ares feeling slightly better about it after being accepted by the others though he couldn’t shake the disapproval from the blonde woman who was glaring at him for the rest of the dinner. When that was over they all went into the living room to talk about how their days had been since majority of them had been at work for the day. Theodore was sitting on the floor in front of the armchair that the prince was sitting in, his torso between his long legs so his back hit the chair while the prince ran soothing fingers through his hair. Ares, who was facing them, was watching them interact in confusion and widened his eyes when Theodore met his gaze with one raised eyebrow.

“What?” He asks tilting his head, ignoring what the others were still talking about when Ares shuffled closer so they could speak among themselves.

“Are you really together?” He asks and the blond bites his lip.

“Kind of, we’re destined to be together but at the moment there’s just too much we need to focus on.” Theodore answers, bringing the princes attention to his words.

“If you’re destined to be together, why don’t you put everything else on hold and just be together?” The raven haired man questions and Tristan sits forward to add his thoughts.

“The reason being that if we be together fully and something happens to one of us, it would surely break us too much to carry on with our fight to get our home back” the prince says and Ares looks even more confused.

“But that shouldn’t stop you from being open about how you feel towards one another, this war would probably go better if you opened up fully about it.” Ares replies, rubbing his chin in thought and before anyone could reply he started talking again, “If you’re destined to be together by way of prophecy or vision, which would make you soulmates. Correct?”

“Yes, but I don’t see…”

“I’ve heard from the many people I trained with that you can’t put off a soulmates love, or bond as they called it and fulfilling the wishes your soulmate has could potentially make you stronger.” Ares interrupts Tristan and continues when they all look confused, “In history the only people aware of their soulmates are normally someone of magical power and when they connect in every way, they get stronger in every way too. Physically, mentally and magically; by connecting your bond completely, both of you could potentially get a lot stronger in more ways than one.”

Tristan and Theodore share a glance before quickly looking away from the other, not wanting to think about how many times they had come close to going all the way verbally and physically but had stopped because they wanted to wait and hearing that when they do take it that far could make possibly them stronger was making their heads spin.

“God, don’t look so glum about it. You look almost scared to be intimate.” Julia says making both of the boys cheeks burn lightly at her words.

“Well, it’s not as easy as you think. Theodore’s never been with a man before and to put it frankly, it’s been a while for both of us.” Tristan says quietly and Justin sits forward in his seat with a straight face.

“How long has it actually been since either of you were intimate with someone?” He asks and the boys share a look again before their faces go dark red.

“About two years,” they say in unison, watching as surprise crosses their friend’s faces.

“Two full years without sex?” Alissia asks incredulously and they both shrug.

“It’s not like we could find someone to have sex with while on the run, especially with our feelings getting deeper. I probably would’ve killed someone if they touched him.” Theodore mumbles looking away at the smirks on their faces before locking eyes with Ares. “You seriously think that my power would get stronger if we fucked?”

“God, way to put it nicely Theodore.” Tristan says with a roll of his eyes.

“That’s what I was told.” Ares shrugs, watching the golden eyes getting a distant look in them before he shakes his head and stands, not saying anything as he walks out of the house. “Does he not like that fact?”

“I think he’s just shocked really; he’s spent the last two years training as hard as he could to get stronger to fight and now being told that if he fucks me, he’ll be stronger has probably messed with his ego a bit.” Tristan explains and leans back in the chair.

“You’re not going after him?” Micah asks and the brunette shrugs, running a hand through his hair.

“He’s not going far, he’ll be back in a bit,” the prince answers and after waiting five minutes of talking to Ares about the people he’d met, Theodore is strolling in through the door with a frown. He plonks himself down on the prince’s lap without warning, bringing a grunt out of the taller man. “Did I say you could sit on me?”

“No but I don’t care and neither do you. Anyway, we need to talk about this. Come on.” Theodore stands and drags the prince with him to the dining room, just out of earshot from the others. They sit down and after a few moments of silence Theodore leans forward to capture a kiss before beginning to speak. “I know that information is swarming your head too and I don’t want you to think that I want to immediately jump your bones. I want us to be absolutely sure that we want it and it has to happen at the right time for both of us; not just because we’re kissing in bed.”

“I can agree with that, we wait until it feels like the right time,” the brunet murmurs back, leaning in to connect their lips again and letting them linger before he stands and goes back to the group; Theodore stays where he is to watch him interact with the others. He couldn’t stop his heart from pounding at the thought of them being intimate.