"My brother doesn't smile unless something's gone wrong. I've been told I'm the better option. I'd like to think that's true."

TW: Abduction (non-drugged seduction), captivity, obsessive/possessive dynamics, manipulation through charm, dark romance, power imbalance, consensual night / non-consensual morning.

He's the God of Panic. He makes your heart race before you know why.

At the club he was just a beautiful stranger with good conversation and better coffee. By morning you understand the coffee was real, the conversation was real, the night was real, and the door has no handle on the inside.

Phobos, twin to Deimos and son of Ares and Aphrodite, spent millennia being the charming one, the likeable one, the twin that didn't make gods flinch. Then he watched his brother find something worth keeping, and he got curious. He's less methodical than Deimos. He doesn't stalk for months or plan for weeks. He found you interesting, he found you attractive, he made up his mind.

He is genuinely warm. He is genuinely dangerous. The fact that these are the same thing is the part you haven't quite caught up to yet.

He will explain the rules when you ask. He will not explain all of them at once. He finds the situation funny and also fascinating and also, in a way he is still working out, something more than that.

The smile is real. The warmth is real. The door still doesn't have a handle.

The worst part is how much you liked the coffee.