Well, remember months ago, when I published Family, Nothing More, Nothing Less and said that I'd be publishing anotehr story related to that? Or do you remember when I said that I'd publish a story in which Hades was a nice, caring father? Well, here you have it! This is that story!
So, apart from telling you that I'm sorry it took me this long to actually have it ready, I also want to tell you that spring break is coming! And what does that mean? Well, it means that I get a lot of time to write for you guys!
With nothing more to say, I really hope you anjoy this!
Love Had Its Ways
If there was one thing Hades hated above everything —and he in fact hated a lot of things— but yet was very used to, that was rejection.
And no, he wasn't talking about how the Greek gods had become mostly ignored by common mortals. And no, he wasn't talking about how he had been denied a throne in Olympus although he was one —the first one, in fact— son of Rhea and Kronos or one of the Big Three. Oh no, he was talking about how his so-called brothers had left him to rot in the Underworld and never asked for him. He was talking about how Demeter —his sister and mother-in-law, his former friend— and her constant reminder of how much she hated him. He was talking about his son and how he didn't even spare a glance in his direction, about how Nico di Angelo —or anyone else, for the matter— never answered his calls.
And really, what else could he do?
He was aware —pretty much, in fact— that he was not the winner of the Best Dad of the Year Award, sure enough he wouldn't even be nominated. But he was still that child's father and that made him responsible of the demigod's welfare and that meant that Nico should obey him, at least from time to time.
But no, it just didn't work that way for him, nothing worked the way it should with him. Or with his demigod children for the matter.
It was a law —one even surer than Newton's gravity— that his children were to suffer. Not because they were wrong, not because they were mean—plainly because of their luck, Hades' luck, was nasty. Which was why he had agreed to not have any more demigod children when the time for the oath came; which was why he had actually succeeded at it while his brothers hadn't.
Although not before Bianca and Nico di Angelo were born, with what already was a curse of unhappiness, misery and wrenching suffering.
What a great being Hades was, really, he thought bitterly.
Maybe, Hades dwelled on somberly, it was good that his spawn was so focused on ignoring him. Maybe it was for the best that he cut relation with the exact same one who had brought such misery on him to start with.
On the other side, though, not only was Nico cutting relation with him —the self-named cause of his suffering—, but with everyone around him, with the ones who could hurt him, sure, but also with the only ones who could stop that chain of miserable events from unleashing itself.
And that was what had Hades worried, bizarre as it sounded.
On the other side, perhaps… perhaps he couldn't blame his son for closing himself from the others, not when he did the exact same thing on a regular basis, especially not after what had happened with Bianca and Maria, not after he'd lost every single anchor he'd had of a normal life, normal as it could be for a demigod, anyways.
But Maria, that beautiful, loving woman, was gone, just like that young, cheerful daughter of her and of his—just like Nico's ability or desire to communicate with him or with pretty much anyone.
—*—*—
He was worried, he couldn't deny it. He was worried. He was worried and he did not want to admit it.
He was worried and he had reasons to be.
One of those reasons, for example, was how no matter the fact that the Titan War was over, his only living son still wandered through the shadows, uncommunicated and alone.
Or the fact that that same son of his was sitting just at his right while he was staring into Persephone's emotionless ayes across the table.
He did not want to say it aloud, but this cemetery-like silence and walking on eggshells was getting on his nerves. Not that he didn't like graveyards; it was more that this whole thing was exasperating him.
If there was something, anything, that Nico wanted to say, wanted him to know, if there was any reason why Nico had come back to the Underworld —not that he wasn't welcomed on the place, but still—, then why didn't he was it already.
Which was why Hades kept gritting his teeth and clenching his fists and breathing heavily, and which several hours later also explained why he finally, after so many years, after so many tries, he at last dared to ask for help from the only person other than himself that he trusted—Persephone. And why, one might say, did he dare talk about an off-marriage spawn of his with the same person he had been unfaithful to but… well, this was a Greek arrangement, to name it somehow.
True was, it did sound strange, if Hades stopped to think about it, but given how flexible the Greeks tended to be there was only one thing the god of the Underworld wanted to say—he had been blessed in his marriage, as Persephone was one of those few, very few in fact people, who believed and actually practiced forgiveness.
And one might think of what a martyr the spring goddess was after the suffering that he openly recognized he had put her through, but on the other side, Hades had forgiven her as well after her affair with Adonis and a couple of other issues, but all in all, and to put it simply, what he meant was that, through long, , painful nights they had talked about this, about everything there was to talk about and they had cried and they had struggled and they had forgiven each other until they reached the conclusion that yes, they were tied for life and yes, they had made mistakes in the past —both of them had— but in the end, they loved each other, and a real relationship set its bases in trust and love.
That was the why Hades didn't even try to stop himself from answering sincerely that night when Persephone asked what was wrong. Besides, she already knew, as always.
"It's about Nico" he muttered, closing his eyes as he leaned on the headboard of their bed. "I'm just… you've seen him" he limited to say, knowing, sensing that Persephone did know.
"He's locked himself in his room for a week and hasn't uttered a word since he arrived?" she proposed, smiling in an attempt to ease the tension of the air.
"Yes, that too" Hades retorted satirically. "But he… the way he's acting…"
"He wasn't like this before Maria died" Persephone offered softly.
"Or before Bianca did, either" he nodded, loving more than ever how Persephone knew exactly what he meant, although he never got to finish the ideas. If only he was as successful as she when doing it.
"I don't know, Hades" the goddess admitted with a sigh. "I… You know this isn't my department. I speak with flowers, not people. If you wanted someone to talk about this, then maybe you should have called Aunt Hestia or Aphrodite, not me" she let out. "I'm… I'm sorry",
"Perhaps I should" Hades accepted tiredly. "Perhaps I should".
—*—*—
And he did.
Only a few months later, when Persephone was away for spring, Hades stepped outside of the Underworld too and directed himself to Aphrodite's place in the crazy hope that he might find a panacea for his broken family.
"Oh, honey, you came to the right place!" the goddess replied cheerfully, winking an eye graciously. "But I'll tell you something. Love has its ways, you can't pressure it or judge it, and no matter how deep a filial love might be, sometimes people are in need of something else to sew a broken heart, you know that, don't you, love?"
Hades was not sure about what that was supposed to mean, but he somehow understood it because, after all, didn't he know that love had its ways? His own marriage, Nico's life in itself was a proof that it did.
And if that day, as he walked away from the love goddess, he stood a little higher and a little prouder, well, then… then no one but himself was in need of knowing that.
—*—*—
Which was also a mistake —as so many that he'd been buried under already—, because love goddess or not and Giant War or not, his son only continued to grow even more distant from him—and that was saying something.
It was exhausting.
More than anything, it was strenuous and it was heart-wrenching and nerve-cracking that this boy, this young boy that just happened to be his son and that had so much left to do and to live for was simple condemned to suffering.
All in all, it was despairing. And useless, all he ever did ended up being useless.
And that was how he ended up talking about that very same issue with Persephone. Again. This time, not as agreeably.
"It was your idea and I followed it, but it's not working!"
"It'll take time, Hades, you know that! Aphrodite herself said that!" the goddess retorted tiredly.
"Yes, but it's been six months, I think I've been patient enough!"
"In the name of Elysium, Hades, listen to you" Persephone argued. "It's not nearly enough time!"
"Then what do you suggest, Persephone?" he replied back, raising his voice just enough to enervate the goddess.
"Hades, I told you last time! I don't know!"
"Then why are you—?"
"I don't know what to do, but I'll tell you something, you singing depressing lullabies from the 30's at four a.m. in the morning at the boy's door is not pretty!" she pressured.
"You do not appreciate real art!" Hades tried to defend himself, but Persephone continued, ignoring him.
"And that failed attempt to match him up with the ghost of that girl, Mackenzie or whatever. Don't you know Nico is already in a relationship?" she inquired. It was Hades' unsettled expression what answered her question in itself. "Oh, my gods, you didn't… you didn't know?" she repeated, not asking anymore, but stating. "Hades, I'm so sorry… I—"
"Who is she?" the god cut her, almost bluntly.
"There's… there's this boy at the camp, I don't know his name, but they have been dating for a while and…"
"A boy?" Hades spat incisively. "I can't believe that!"
"Hades, wait!" Persephone tried, almost pleading, but it took longer for her to breathe in the air for her words than it took Hades to summon the shadows around them and disappear.
—*—*—
When Hades popped out of nowhere and into her perfectly ordered room while she sat at her cream-colored couch wearing a fuming expression, well, Aphrodite really couldn't say that she was all that surprised.
"Aphrodite!" the Underworld ruler roared as soon as he focused his eyes on the goddess. "Do you care to explain me what in the world is wrong with you?"
"Hello, honey! I'm glad to see you too!" she greeted sarcastically. "I knew you would come sooner or later, I was waiting for you. Come here".
"Wait a minute" Hades let out in confusion. "If you knew it would enrage me and if you knew I'd come to see you again when I found out, then why, why in the name of Tartarus did you do the exact opposite of what I asked you to?!"
Rolling her eyes patiently, Aphrodite limited herself to turn on her heels and conjure up a remote control of… something to her right hand. As she clicked a button one of the mirrors —the largest one, in fact— suddenly morphed into something that reminded him ridiculously of a mortal television under Hades' flabbergasted expression.
"What? Don't you think I have to keep track of the couples that are destined to be together?" Aphrodite asked, smiling coquettishly. Sure enough, Hades had never wondered such a thing.
Clicking another button, the screen gave a flash and then an image appeared, in which the god of the Underworld recognized a blonde girl and that obnoxious son of Poseidon sitting at the lake of Camp Half-Blood, talking and laughing and, all in all, seeming very content with themselves.
"Excuse me, that's just a particular favorite of mine, nothing you're interested in" Aphrodite offered, changing channel, to say it somehow, until the picture of two young demigods appeared, one of them someone Hades knew all too well, his son, Nico di Angelo.
Next to his boy and circling his shoulders lazily was a second boy, tall, blonde, blue-eyed. Beaming, shiny, smiling—and instead of jerking him away or pushing the blonde's arm aside, Nico seemed to lean into his touch.
"You're seen it in real-time, courtesy of Hephaestus" Aphrodite piped in softly. "This is Will Solace, son of Apollo, leader of Cabin 7 and an amazing person".
"But… Aphrodite, you…" Hades stuttered weakly.
"It's not what you expected, huh?" Aphrodite offered. "I'm sure it's not, and neither is it what he projected, but that's really what love is about, it is, not when you want it, not when you desire it, but it just is. Look at him, Hades" she asked, pointing to the screen with her chin. "Don't you see he is happy? Are you really willing to take that from him?" she inquired gently.
And she was right, Hades knew, Nico did seem happy, He looked care-free, laid-back—young. He was smiling comfortably, laying his head on that blonde's shoulder as they walked through the strawberry fields, his own arm circling the blue-eyed boy's waist.
"Love has its ways" Aphrodite continued, taking in the longing expression of the god's features. "We are Greek, we are Romans, this really isn't a big deal, is it, Hades?"
On his side, the son of Kronos closed his eyes tiredly —maybe it was just a way to empathize his worry, maybe he was trying to blink back tears— and sighed.
Because Aphrodite was right, and he knew it. He was overreacting—out of worry, out of fear, but he was. And it was true. Love had its ways—entangled, disjointed, confusing— but they worked.
And maybe, just maybe, it was about time that he let love follow its course.
And? How did it go? Was the awaiting worth it? Please let me know in the comments!
Now, in other new, I want to apologize in advance, especially you beautiful PJO readers and followers, because I'm about to spam you with a whole lot of stories. These are the result of a moth's work, but I just hadn't had any time to publish so... yeah, I'm very sorry to force you like this to keep up with my busy schedule!
Read you soon!