Chapter Fourteen: Family Meetings and Family Dinners

The worst part of Hades' month was always the work call with his brothers. Currently, he was leaning back in his seat as he scowled at his screen. Both Zeus and Poseidon were also leaning back in their seats. Zeus was in his typical white suit. Poseidon was shirtless as always, and he was using a knife to open to pry open a plate of mussels.

"Come on, don't be shy," Poseidon said as he popped a mussel into his mouth, and so the next part of his sentence was said whilst chewing. "Tell us about the human you were with."

Hades held back a grimace as Poseidon pried open another mussel. Hades had never particularly been one for seafood—it was mostly the smell that bothered him—so watching Poseidon chew away on the mussels was not something Hades had ever been fond of.

"I do not know what you are talking about," Hades said as he crossed his arms.

"Oh, sure you don't," Poseidon said, and he rolled his eyes. "Almost all of Olympus is talking about it. Rather, whispering about it. To be frank, no one wants to get on your bad side, so they like to speak quietly, lest they incur your oh so terrible wrath."

And Hades' wrath was terrible, when he desired it to be so, but rarely did that come to be. He much preferred to deal with issues in a civil manner, and down in the Underworld he typically did just that. Yet, still he was somehow the 'scary' one of the three brothers.

"It has been spreading amongst the humans for a while now that you were spotted with one of them," Zeus said, his voice rather mellow at the moment. Judging by how his suit was still white, and had not darkened, he had yet to be put in a bad mood.

"Something about a dog park," Poseidon said. "Sounds like an exciting place to be."

Hades remained quiet for a moment, and his jaw clenched as he attempted to piece together the most sensible reply to give. Eventually, he said, "Cerberus grows tired of the Underground's environments, so I commonly take him to Neo-Macedonia for a change in scenery. I simple met a young, attractive person whilst I was out and invited them to join me on my walk."

"I'm sure they were willing," Poseidon said as he cracked open another mussel. Hades was unable to hold back his grimace that time. He was not the one that pestered innocent women against their wills, unlike his brothers.

"I must admit, I am curious about who they are," Zeus said, his voice still mellow. He barely sounded interested in Hades' affairs, but yet he asked anyway.

"I am not about to tell you their identity," Hades said. "There is a reason I deliberately hid it from others' perceptions. I won't have you stalk some poor, innocent human."

"At least tell us their gender," Poseidon said. "What do you think, Zeus? Man or woman?"

Zeus paused before saying, "Man."

"Really? I think women," Poseidon said as he reached for another mussel, but then he frowned when he saw he had cracked open his last one.

"You are gods; learn to think outside the binary choices," Hades said, but his brothers did not appear bothered by this. "And enough of my apparent romantic affairs. I am sure there are more important things we should be discussing."

As soon as he said this, Hades' office door flung open and Hecate strutted in, though she did not look up from whoever she was texting. Before he could scold her for not knocking, she said, "I came at the right time. I do have more important things to discuss."

"Hecate, I am on call with my brothers," Hades said, and Hecate smiled wickedly, but not in the joyous wicked way she tended to do. She tucked her phone into her pocket, placed her clipboard on his desk, then stood behind his chair. When she leant down, so she was eye level with his laptop's camera, a few strands of her always perfectly straight hair fell loose.

"Hecate," Zeus said slowly. "Do not interrupt our calls."

"I will interrupt whatever I want," Hecate said, her blood red eyes widening as she continued to smile. She did not blink as she blew a black bubble into the camera and let it pop. "Or would you prefer to whine to Nyx instead of me?"

Zeus' eyebrows creased, and his white suit darkened to a slight grey.

"I thought not," Hecate said, and, before either Zeus or Poseidon had a chance to say anything else, she slammed Hades' laptop shut.

"Hecate, please," Hades said, and he sighed.

"Hades, please," she said as she stood up straight, and she blinked once as she brushed her hair back into place. "They know not to call you on Fridays. It's supposed to be your psychopomp shift—if you're not spending time with Persephone, that it. I always hated your brothers. They never consider that we have jobs to do."

"You are not the only one that hates them."

"Yes, but we know I hate them the most," she said as she opened his top desk drawer and pulled out his glasses. "Silly, you know you should wear your glasses when on call."

He stayed still as she put them on him, and when she stepped back, he said, "You only claim to hate my brothers the most because you are worse at controlling your temper."

She tipped her head to the side and smiled. He stared up at her, unflinching. Eventually, she blinked again, and she rolled her eyes as she perched on the corner of his desk and said, "Whatever."

"What important things do you wish to discuss?" Hades asked as he picked up her clipboard and examined her notes, but they were her usual work notes.

"Oh, not that." Hecate plucked her clipboard from his hands. "That's some boring stuff I'm trying to organise for Charon. You know how it is in Soul Ferrying. Everyone loves to be a hassle."

"Apate and Dolos being bothersome again?"

"When are they not bothersome?" Hecate asked as she waved her clipboard through the air. "Anyway, what I came to talk about—"

"Pardon me for a minute," Hades said as his phone screen lit up. It was face up on his desk, though it had been on silent whilst he was on call with his brothers. The screen now told him he had a message from Persephone.

Hecate rolled her eyes and looked over his shoulder as he checked the message, which was a photograph—selfie, if Hades remembered the word correctly—of Persephone and her two friends from work, whilst they were having breakfast out at their local restaurant. The pink-haired one was grinning, and even the black-haired one was smiling slightly, whilst Persephone herself beamed at the camera.

"Aw, aren't they all cute," Hecate said as Hades tapped out a reply that he was pleased Persephone had made up with her friends, after the mishap from the day before, when she'd accidentally revealed she was a goddess. "Wait, Hades, what in the Underworld are you doing?"

"Taking a selfie, as you call them," Hades said as he snapped a picture of himself, and then sent it to Persephone asking is he was doing it correctly.

Persephone: I'll have to teach you my secrets, but you did alright for a first try x

Hades: Thank you.

Hades: xx

"She means you suck," Hecate said as she read his texts. Hades frowned at her, and she blew her bubble gum into his face. "What? You got the angle all wrong. It doesn't really help that you're not exactly photogenic."

Hades' frown only deepened. "You do not need to be insulting."

"Would you prefer if I lied?" Hecate asked, an eyebrow raised. When Hades did not reply, she said, "I thought not. I can teach you my secrets later, but right now, can we please go back to what I was trying to say?"

"If we must," Hades said. "But be quick. I need to return to my psychopomp shift soon."

"Nyx wants all the kids to come to dinner tonight," Hecate said.

"Is that it?"

"Is that it! Don't sound so unimpressed," Hecate said, and she slapped Hades on the shoulder. "When was the last time we were all around hers? You know how much of a hassle it is to get everyone to dinner. Someone always has work."

"Someone would not always have work is a certain few did not insist on working overtime," Hades said. Even he did not work overtime, unless absolutely necessary. He made sure every department employed enough workers for a reason, but still a few of the gods in charge kept working when they did not need to.

"So, dinner?" Hecate asked. "Fancy dinner where everyone dresses like movie stars? Apart from Eris, of course, because they suck. Seriously, I don't care if they're Strife. Their fashion sense is the worst."

"At least they remember to get dressed in the morning, unlike Lethe," Hades said, and he leant back in his chair as he contemplated how to handle dinner at Nyx and Erebus'.

It was Friday, so Thanatos—and therefore Hypnos, as his twin—would be particularly bothersome, as would the Fates. Maybe he could postpone the dinner to Saturday evening instead, when the Fates had a day off, but Thanatos would still be bothersome, and Charon worked weekends so he would be bothersome in placement of the Fates. Hades sighed.

"Whilst I return to my psychopomp shift, can you organise the others for dinner tonight? And tell them no is not an answer, lest they wish to upset their mother," Hades said as he stood up, and he took off his glasses and hooked them over the collar of his waistcoat. "I will talk to Thanatos. Hermes is also working today, so he may be willing to work a few more hours."

Hecate snorted. "Hermes loves to slack off. He would never be willing."

"He will be if I promise he gets an extra day off next week."

Hecate groaned. "Hermes doesn't deserve an extra day off. You know we just had to place a new order for glasses in the bar because they keep going missing."

Hades only sighed. Hecate did too.

#

Somehow, Hecate was successful in getting the others—via bullying them, Hades was sure—all to come to dinner at Nyx's. Thankfully, Hermes had accepted Hades' offer, albeit reluctantly. And so, after work, Hades and Hecate returned home to get changed, before they headed out to dinner.

It was hard to 'dress like a movie star' when Hades regularly wore outfits that cost thousands. In the end he settled on a simple suit, bow tie, and a purple shirt. Hecate had opted for a black backless dress to her knees, with red silk gloves to her elbows. How she managed to wear gloves when her nails were long and sharp, Hades did not know.

As Hades and Hecate approached Nyx's manor, two others walked ahead of them. Hecate pulled her arm free from Hades', then slipped up behind the other two. Somehow, her heels remained entirely silent.

"How's my favourite twins?" Hecate asked as she put her hands on their shoulders. Both of them jumped and spun around, then gave her identical frowns.

Thanatos was still in his typical suit, with the skeleton printed on the front. Next to him stood Hypnos, who was still in his favourite black jumper, decorated in a red poppy pattern. Just like his twin brother, Hypnos also had pure white skin, with the area around his eyes turning black. He had the same golden eyes, and even the same fringe. In fact, Thanatos and Hypnos looked so alike, it would have been almost impossible to tell them apart if Hypnos hadn't cut his hair to his chin, and Thanatos didn't have lines tattooed on his chin.

"That almost woke me up," Hypnos said, and he yawned. Since the gods needed to actively work in their domains or suffer from tiredness and exhaustion, Hypnos was in a rather unfortunate position—or fortunate depending on one's opinion. As the god of sleep, he was going to be tired no matter whether he practised his domain or not.

"I highly doubt we're your favourite twins," Thanatos said, his arms crossed.

"Well, you are the least annoying, so you're automatically my favourites," Hecate said, and she stood back to smooth down her dress. "But you're only my favourite chthonic twins. My true favourite twins are Artemis and Apollo, clearly."

"Clearly," Hypnos said, and he yawned again. "Though, if you wish to be deceitful, you should get lessons from Apate and Dolos."

"My least favourite twins? No thank you," Hecate said, and she slipped her arm back through Hades' as he came to stand next to her. "I'm good with my sarcastic lies. Enough of that, though. What in the Underworld are you still doing in your normal clothes?"

As Hypnos pulled at his jumper and frown at it, Thanatos crossed his arms and said, "We came straight from work. There was no time to get changed."

Hecate narrowed her eyes down at Hades. "When you left work, did you not check to make sure Thanatos was following you?"

"Thanatos was busy with Hermes, so I did not stay to check," Hades said.

"I had to make sure he wasn't going to steal all my office supplies when I was gone," Thanatos added.

"Ugh. I hope everyone else looks fancy or I dressed up for nothing," Hecate said, and she pulled Hades on ahead with her. "You know it is not often I get to wear nice dresses."

"You could wear them to work," Hades said.

"Yes, but if I wore them every day, they would feel less special," Hecate retaliated.

When the four of them entered the manor, they were greeted by a scream as Eris bolted out of the drawing room, followed by Lethe. Lethe was at least wearing a smart dress, though Eris was in their usually mismatched attire. Hecate was right about Eris not having a good fashion sense.

Eris ran straight towards Hades, gripped his free arm, and then said, "You gotta help. Nemesis wants to kill me."

"Why would Nemesis want to kill you?" Hades asked.

"Because Eris is deplorably annoying?" Hecate said.

"Hey, I'm not deplorably annoying," Eris whined. "I'm greatly annoying. Because I am annoying, and great."

"You are also deplorable."

"I am strifely annoying!"

"That is not a word," Thanatos grumbled.

Hades sighed, then looked to Lethe, and asked, "What did your mother do?"

"How is she gonna tell you when she has the memory of a goldfish?" Eris said. "She didn't even remember her shoes."

Lethe looked down at her feet and wiggled her bare toes. "Oh, I forgot my shoes."

"Why are we even here?" Thanatos asked.

Hypnos yawned again. "I could be at home sleeping right now."

"I dare you to go home," Hecate said, and she smiled. "But your mother might be angry."

The twins both tensed, just as their mother came out of the drawing room. She beamed at the four newcomers. "Excellent, you have finally arrived! We were all just sitting down for a glass of ambrosia."

"I may have drunken Nemesis' glass," Eris whispered.

"Then no wonder she wishes you harm," Hades said.

"And then you can tell me all about Persephone," Nyx said as she beckoned everyone to follow her back into the drawing room. "I barely got a chance to talk about the two of you yesterday."

"Oh," Hades said. He should have known this was why Nyx suddenly invited everyone over. She was about to pester him about Persephone over dinner. In fact, everyone was going to pester him.

"Who's Persephone?" Lethe asked.

"Hades' new girlfriend," Eris said.

"Uncle Hades has a new girlfriend?"

"Yeah, he showed you a picture, dummy."

"Oh. I don't remember."

"I shoulda named you after the river of remembrance."

"There's a river of remembrance!?"

"…I really shoulda named you after the river of remembrance."

"Eris, enough bickering with your daughter," Nyx said. "And yes, Lethe, your Uncle Hades has a new girlfriend. Come on, I'll tell you all about it over some ambrosia!"

Nyx hummed to herself as she swept into the drawing room, and Lethe hurried after her. Eris snorted, rolled their eyes, and muttered something about how Lethe would forget everything said that day by the time she woke up tomorrow, then they followed their mother and daughter into the drawing room.

Hades sighed, and Hecate snickered. He might as well get used to it, because Persephone was all he was going to hear about for the next two hours.

As Hades and Hecate headed into the drawing room, Hypnos yawned, then turned to Thanatos and asked, "Hades has a new girlfriend?"

"Who cares?" Thanatos asked, and he shrugged.

A/N

Hey! Thank you for the support on the last chapter that was amazing 3 Sorry this chapter isn't the best (I had a good idea at the start, then had no idea what to do for the end .) Anyway, I'm starting work full time again soon, so if I ever miss an update, assume it will simply be the week after!

Blake