Childhood days: Inside Cronus
Hades woke up with a smile on his face. Nyx and Erebus had finished their nightly visit and taught him new things through his dreams and he was eager to share it with his siblings. He gently woke up Hestia and Poseidon who were curled up on either side of him. They opened their eyes slowly, rubbed the salt from their eyes, yawned and stretched their limbs languidly.
"Hera, Demeter," Hestia shook the two small children. "It's time to wake."
Hera groaned and turned away from Hestia's ministrations and hugged Demeter in her arms tighter like a fluffy pillow.
Little Demeter laughed and tried to swat Hera's arms away with her pudgy hands. "Hera, wake!" she demanded cutely.
"Aw, you too?" Hera complained then groaned. "I still want to sleep some more!"
"Of course Hera should sleep," Poseidon rolled his eyes. "Unlike the rest of us, she actually needs it."
Her eyes snapped open at once as she sat up. "No," she hissed. "Unlike you, I actually enjoy sleeping."
"Hera, Poseidon," Hestia said rubbing her temples. "Please don't start so early in the day. You'll have plenty of chances to do that later. Now go and do your morning chores."
Every morning, Cronus would actually drink a large amount of water the equivalent of a lake. It doesn't directly fall to his stomach but waterfalls in a pool in his anatomy for a short period of time. Inside Cronus, there was a lot of dips and crevices of different sizes. The children were lucky enough to be human sized (cramped in such conditions, they have yet to realize their true form though humans have yet to exist) and land in a part of his anatomy with relatively comfortable conditions. The Titan king, as the progenitor of the adjective titanic, was really humongous and colossal in size (though numerous times smaller than the Primordial gods). The children use this ingested water to wash their clothes, faces, and occasionally their hair. The girls usually took longer to groom because they have to comb their hair until it sparkled, as Hestia once put it. They would also play in the water sometime before it drained away.
After that water drains away, Cronus would drink an equal amount of ambrosia. That was basically their breakfast. He didn't need to drink that much ambrosia originally but for some weird reason, even when he drank a little more he still felt hungry so he ended up drinking a whole lot (of course he had no idea that his children were stealing his food). He did notice though that in a weird, disturbing way, he ate like Rhea when she was pregnant… but that shouldn't mean anything.
After they were refreshed from their morning chores, they gather around Hades. It was now time for their daily lessons. On this day, he taught all of them three words and what they meant: guard, thief, and jail.
After learning new words, they must apply them through an activity to make the meaning stick. In other words, playtime! They played a game of 'catch me if you can' where Hera volunteered to play the 'guard' chasing the 'thieves', which were the rest of her siblings, and try and put them in a 'jail'. The rules were one of them would try to steal Hera's hair pin and they would pass it around between them while trying to avoid Hera's grasp. When caught by Hera, they would stay in a designated corner where no one could escape from after being placed in it.
When everyone clearly understood the rules, Poseidon volunteered to steal Hera's pin. Hera was guarding her pin vigilantly but the moment she let her guard down, due to a clever distraction created by Hestia, Poseidon swooped in and grabbed the pin.
The moment the pin was secure, they all burst out running. Hestia and Demeter ran one way while Hades and Poseidon ran the other. Hera had no clue which group had her hair pin but she decided to follow her brothers. She reasoned that if she needed to put someone in jail first then it better be her brother Hades because he always made all games difficult.
Poseidon looked back and saw her sister chasing them and playfully stuck out his tongue without missing a step, "Like you can catch us!" he taunted with a laugh.
"Oh yeah?" Hera shouted back and doubled her speed.
Hades and Poseidon laughed and ran faster. They ran in circles, up the walls and even on the ceiling. Hera chased them with all her might but eventually she grew tired.
She halted her chase and decided to catch her breath.
Both boys stopped ahead of her and waited to see what happened. "Hehe, weakling," Poseidon smirked when he saw her face.
"Are you okay, Hera?" Hades asked.
Hera nodded. "I'm – I think I'm going to look for Hestia and Demeter instead…" she panted.
"Giving up?" Poseidon laughed.
Hera snapped. She roared and chased Poseidon around with renewed vigor, completely passing by Hades. Hades felt relatively ignored so he just watched his younger sibling's antics while waiting to see if Hera would still chase him.
"You can't catch me!" Poseidon taunted once more, sticking out his tongue and putting both hands up his head, his thumbs on his temples as he wriggled his fingers and made a silly face.
"I will catch you!" Hera swore. She didn't care about the pin or the rules of the game anymore. All that mattered was putting Poseidon in the jail! And when she did, she will enjoy rubbing her victory like sandpaper over his smug, pompous face!
Poseidon was actually running so fast that his form left afterimages and when he saw Demeter suddenly appearing from nowhere, he couldn't stop himself in time to avoid running into her. When they collided, he actually rolled a few paces away.
Uh, oh, he thought as he staggered to sit up and looked for his sister. She was lying on the floor in shock, the pain not quite registering yet.
"Halt!" Hades ordered at once when he saw the accident. He ran straight to Demeter and sat her up gently. Her eyes were shining with tears as she bravely held back the pain.
"Where does it hurt?" Hades asked.
Demeter shook her head in reply and sniffed. A few tears started to roll down her cheeks.
"Demeter I am so sorry!" Poseidon hurried to her side and knelt to her level. He visually checked if all her limbs were still attached; scared that they might not be after that impact. When he saw her crying, he was ridden with guilt and panic and apologized profusely.
Hera stood awkwardly to the side and let her brothers fuss over her sister. She didn't know what to do exactly but she was worried all the same.
"Again, I ask, does anything hurt?" Hades asked again, capturing Demeter's attention.
Again she shook her head stubbornly. She was a very brave girl! She can take a little pain. Brave girls do not cry.
Hestia appeared a short time later and saw the situation. "What happened?" she rushed to her fallen sister and held her gently. Demeter whimpered when she was moved.
"Poseidon ran into her," Hades replied. "What happened on your side? How did she separate from you?"
"We were hiding in a corner and I was looking around but when I looked back she was gone," she explained. "I'm sorry."
"Hera!" Demeter called. "Hera!"
Hera looked up and saw Demeter extending her chubby hands to her. Hestia gently passed Demeter to Hera and she took her awkwardly in her arms. Demeter hugged Hera tightly and said, "Caught Hera! Jail!"
"Wait, you still want to continue the game?" Hera asked in surprise.
Demeter nodded. "I'm okay."
"Can we still continue the game?" Hera asked Hades, she even attached a pout to that question.
"Game?" Demeter repeated her doe-like eyes wide and begging.
Hades knew they were ganging up on him, using their combined cuteness as a weapon against him but what can he do? He silently reached for the pin in his sleeves and tossed it to Poseidon while he took Demeter from Hera. "I'll take this little lady to jail while I wait for you to catch that thief. In the meantime, I'm changing my status to a guard. And Hestia, you're still a thief so don't let us catch you."
"Alright!" Poseidon cheered as he grabbed Hestia's hand and ran away with Hera screaming, "Come back here!" on their heels.
They played some more, their chase becoming a bit strategic toward the end and evolved to be a more complex hide-and-seek than a game of tag. Meanwhile, Hades tended to Demeter's injuries and when he was sure she was okay, he toted her around so she could see how the game was progressing.
The game was finally over when Hera caught Poseidon first then Hestia. Hera really did drag a protesting Poseidon by his chiton all the way to the jail. The smug smile on her face rubbed more salt on his already bruised ego. His humiliation didn't end when Demeter and Hades laughed at his state. Poseidon stayed in the jail with Demeter and obediently didn't move although showed the disappointment on his face as he frowned like there was no tomorrow. Hades and Hera, the two guards, teamed up to catch Hestia and that ended up quickly.
A couple more rounds and they played the day away. After which Hestia ordered them to perform their evening chores, which was basically the same as their morning chores. Then they gathered around Hades again and lied down around him. It was finally time to rest and end the day. But there were two more rituals to do before they go to bed.
"Sing, sing!" Demeter demanded as she tugged on Hades' hand.
"Alright, alright, settle down then," Hades chuckled. Poseidon took his usual spot beside his brother while Hestia took the other. Beside her Hera and Demeter slept side by side. They waited for Hades to sing his lullaby – the lullaby he'd been singing to them since they were infants. Though it was originally Nyx's Lullaby, he had changed the lyrics a little. He cleared his throat quietly and then sang in his sweet tenor voice (though a bit out of tune):
Come don't say a word now,
Come don't make a sound now.
Close your eyes and rest your thoughts
Let your spirit soar.
I will send Hypnos to give you deep slumber.
I will send Morpheus to give you good dreams.
Close your tired eyes.
Fall into peacefulness.
Forget about your weariness
And let your spirit soar.
The moment he summoned Hypnos and Morpheus, sleep seemingly took over the small deities. He kissed each of their foreheads, whispering a soft and gentle goodnight, before sleeping himself. Unbeknownst to him, when he was already so deep within the cradle of Hypnos, his siblings would all wake up in the middle of the night like they always do and perform the last ritual. They kissed him back, whispered an equally soft 'goodnight brother' before falling back to sleep. And thus end a typical day inside Cronus.
AN: Fluffy isn't it? Next Chapter, "Childhood days: Zeus"