A little bit late, though I thought I would be able to post it before christmas!
There are only 3 more chapters to this, because I got one more idea to use, then it's the ending
Also: wikipedia is my friend, I checked twice the info about the star that are mentioned later in.
And as always, I'll never say it enough but thanks dragon-overlord-yuu for the beta~~~
alright. have this happy chapter :3
Finally, the day had come for the stargazing event. Hades was standing outside the school, his backpack on ground. The others were late, and he was slightly mad. The road to the spot they had chosen was fairly long, and they didn't have much time. If they didn't leave soon, they wouldn't get there before it gets dark.
Sighing heavily, Hades looked around. Where were they all anyway? It wasn't Takeru's or Yui's kind to be late. Apollon and Dionysus were... discussable on that matter. They weren't quite late in general, but they weren't the most punctual.
Finally, as he was about to abandon them and start the journey by himself, because nothing was going to stop him from going stargazing, he heard his name being called behind him. He turned around and saw Takeru running out of the school building, his brother on his trail.
"Sorry we're late! I wanted to invite my brother, but couldn't find him. That's alright, right?" Takeru spoke quickly as he tried to put an arm around his boyfriend's shoulder, despite their height difference.
"It's fine I guess… the more the merrier" Hades tried to sound positive, although he sort of was against the idea of bringing more people.
But Tsukito wasn't the most talkative of them, so he wouldn't be a problem. And well, if he planned on staying with Takeru, Hades had to get used to him, since the two brothers were very close. And anyway, Tsukito was dating Apollon apparently. He was doomed to seeing him a lot in the end.
"Hades! Takeru!" they heard another voice, this time coming from the direction of the dorms.
They turned around at the same time to see Yui, with the Norse on her trail. To Hades dismay, they all had a backpack too.
"Sorry I took so long! I asked Balder, Loki and Thor if they wanted to come!" she smiled as she reached them. "I hope it's alright! After all, the more-"
"The merrier, yes I know" Hades smiled at her, skillfully hiding his uneasiness.
"Hey Mr. Death, where are A-Fool-on and the drunk hmm?" Loki asked as he let his bag fall to his feet.
"I don't know, I was not with them"
"We're here! We're right here!" they heard the sun god yelling from the school building.
He was followed by his brother and, against all odds, Thoth himself. The man didn't look too happy about being forced out of the school. Hades wondered if he was here to warn them against something, until he saw his bundle slung over his shoulder. Was he really coming too?!
"I asked Professor Thoth to come with us! Uncle knows a lot, but maybe we can learn more from him! It'd be nice to know more about the stars!" Apollon happily explained.
"I was forced to follow the idiot."
"You weren't forced, Professor. You were tempted by corn." Dionysus said as he walked up to them.
"Whatever! Let's go before I change my mind completely."
Thoth started walking in a random direction, clearly annoyed. Hades glanced at Yui and tried not to laugh. He was going in the opposite direction they were supposed to go.
"Professor Thoth, the place we picked for the event is this way…" Yui called after him.
The god of knowledge stopped in his track, took a moment, and finally around and started walking in the right direction, mumbling something about "knowing that" and "just testing them", making the others laugh.
And so, the group started their journey through forests and mountains to get to this special place where the sky was clear. Hades walked behind, alone, looking at his friends' back. They all seemed so happy, and although he was saddened they were a lot more than originally planned, he would lie if he said it didn't warm his heart to see all of them enjoying themselves. Even Thoth, who glared at them, seemed to enjoy himself when he thought no one was looking.
Halfway to the spot, Yui joined Hades and walked beside him. She didn't speak at first, and observed the others for a little moment. They hadn't had a real talk alone since that time, and Hades always felt a bit awkward being alone around her. He felt bad for worrying her so much, and yet he still didn't regret his choice. He was far from how he felt back then, but sometimes it was still tempting to jump back in the river.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you I'd ask the others to come"
"I'm not mad"
Another moment of silence passed. Hades just didn't know what to tell her. He wanted to say sorry, and yet the words wouldn't leave his mouth. And just when he believed he would be able to say something, she spoke first.
"I'm sorry that I didn't help you before you… before you tried to jump" She whispered, looking straight in front of her. "I just… thought you needed some space. I should have been there for you. I'm sorry"
Hades stopped in his track, grabbed her wrist and spun her around and into a hug.
"Please don't be sorry, Yui. It was never your fault and it will never be. And I'm better now. Really" he whispered with a smile on his face. "I am sorry I jumped. I didn't want to make you worry"
She hugged him back, burrowing her face in his chest. He heard her sob slightly, and he hugged her closer. He was glad this was settled. He loved Yui dearly, and she had done so much for him before.
"We're going to lose the other if we stay here any longer" she laughed as she pulled away, wiping the tears off her face.
At the same time, they heard their professor's voice calling for Yui. As they ran to catch up the others, they exchanged a small smile. The mood somewhat seemed lighter between now, and Hades couldn't chase the smile off his face. Finally, it was Takeru's turn to join him as Hades kept walking alone in the back.
"What were you two doing back there?" Takeru asked as he tried to sound playful.
"Is that jealousy I hear in your voice?" Hades said, amused.
"N-no! Me? Jealous? In your dream." The boy sounded embarrassed as he looked off to the side.
"I apologized to her. For what happened. That's all, no need to be jealous, Stormy."
"What? I'm not- Wait? Stormy?"
"Yeah I thought it was fitting for you- you being the god of sea and storms, and you have quite a personality to go with it. So Stormy"
Takeru paused for a moment and frowned "I don't like it."
"I thought it was cute…"
Seeing his boyfriend's somewhat saddened face, Takeru pouted for a moment "Fine, but don't tell it to Loki" he mumbled.
"Eeeeh, tell me what Ta-tan?" the fire god called as he fell from the tree right above them.
"What the fuck were you doing up there?"
"Oh, nothing special" the prankster smiled as he left them behind.
"I have a very bad feeling about this" Hades admitted as he looked at Loki whispering with Thor and Dionysus.
"Whatever. Come on, we're almost there aren't we?"
"Yeah"
They finally joined the others and the rest of the journey went rather well. Finally, around 8 o'clock, they got to the spot they had chosen a week ago, and where they could see the sky perfectly fine. They set up their camp, as they would sleep here since they were so far. There was no way they could walk back to the dorms in pitch black darkness, plus it would be extremely late.
They settled down around a campfire while they waited for the night sky to fall. They were chatting happily, eating the food they had brought for their dinner. The sleeping bags were pretty much dispersed on the ground, pantheon mixed with each other. They were placed in a circle, Hades' sleeping bag next to Takeru's, who was next to Tsukito, who was next to Dionysus. On Hades left side was Loki, who was also next to Balder as they seemed glued to each other, and then there was Thor and Apollon. Yui was stuck between the sun god and their teacher.
As they casually chatted, Apollon suddenly got excited as he retold some story. Everyone was listening and wondering where he was going with this, until his big mouth said the one thing he couldn't share with the others.
"Right so then, I got out of my room to share this discovery with uncle and wake him up at the same time. So I opened the door, and I really just wanted to tell him about what I had learned about the constellation of the scorpion, and I find him and Take-Take kissing so I froze in the doorway and- uncle? Are you alright uncle?"
Hades choked on the water he had been drinking. Takeru turned and stared Apollon down with anger, while Dionysus hid his face in his hand, as the others observed him with awe. Had they heard him right?
"How about we talk about you fucking my brother uh?" Takeru heatedly replied, with a quick glance at Tsukito "Sorry"
"Holy shit, I didn't expect this… how glad am I that I brought this" Dionysus whispered to himself as he took out a bottle of wine from his backpack.
"Are you serious, Dee-dee? You brought wine here for real?" Apollon commented as his brother uncapped the bottle.
"What? Why shouldn't I have brought it? It's sorta like a party right?"
"Don't try changing subject A-fool-on! You promised Hades not to tell anyone damn it!" Takeru spit as he started getting up, only to be stopped by Hades' strong hand.
"Forget it, Takeru, what's done is done and beating him to a pulp won't change it" the god admitted as he pulled his boyfriend back to the ground.
"All those secret club meeting between the two of you makes sense now" Yui smiled at them
"Yeah whatever" Takeru grumbled. "Why are you all only talking about me and Hades though?"
"Well, Tsukito and Apollon is a surprise, but they had mentioned it yesterday before you got to class" Dionysus explained as he took a sip of his wine.
There was a moment of silence, where the sea god angrily looked at the ground, trying not to jump at Apollon's throat, mostly because he knew it would make his brother sad. Or at least, he thought it would make him sad.
As they waited for more to happen, Thoth quietly asked Dionysus for some of his wine. "This is better than I thought it'd be"
"I didn't expect you to be into drama" Dionysus smiled as he gave him a second bottle.
"Whatever"
Yui hushed them. She was happy for her friends, but slightly sad they hadn't told her they were dating. As she was about to express her opinion, someone cut her.
"While we're on the subject" Thor started saying, surprising everyone "Loki and Balder are also a thing"
"Thor! I believed in you!" Loki whined as he threw his pillow at his friend.
"To be fair, that's not really a surprise Loki" Takeru snorted.
"You'd rather we talk about you and Hades, Ta-tan?" Loki taunted him with a defying smile.
"Stop fucking calling me that!"
"Oh~? Would you prefer we call you Stormy?" Loki continued, pleased that his teasing was wonderfully working.
"You-! I'm going to skin you alive!"
"Alright, enough guys!" Yui decided to speak up, as this was looking to turn into a fight.
"Yui's right" Balder added, his face flushed "This is enough, Loki"
"But I'm just kidding!"
"You know where that can lead, Loki" Thor added, convincing the fire god to stop as he remembered the time it forced Takeru to turn into his god form.
"Right, thank you. It's nice to know you guys understood something" Yui smiled as she looked at them.
Apparently, they had understood the notion of love, even if that wasn't enough to break their restrainers. Things calmed down for a moment while they stayed seated in silence, looking at the campfire as the sky slowly darkened. Thor stood up and went to sit down with Thoth and Dionysus, a bag of popcorn in his hands.
"Where the hell did you get that?" Dionysus asked
"Who cares? It's corn" Thoth said as he picked a handful of it.
"Things aren't over" Thor smiled as he ate the food he had brought.
Dionysus shrugged. Whatever the thunder god meant, it promised to be interesting. If only Thoth knew what was coming for him.
"Since you all outed someone already, it's my turn" Loki said with a smile.
Balder tried to stop Loki before he got up, but ended up falling on his side. Loki started walking around the campfire, looking mysterious and all, a mischievous smile on his lips.
"Ta-tan is dating , A-fool-on and Tsukito are dating, while I'm with Balder right?" he started.
"Oh, just go on with whatever you're going to say"
"This was supposed to be a stargazing event guys, could we put out the fire and just go… stargazing?" Hades sighed as he massaged the bridge of his nose.
"Shh, Mr. Death, my turn to talk~. As I said, there's one more couple"
"Just spit it out already Loki" Takeru grumbled as he let himself fall on his sleeping bag.
"Right so. The other day I went to the library-"
"You went to the library?" Dionysus snorted.
"Yes, I very much did; I needed inspiration for a prank. Now hush. So I went to the library and guess who I saw coming out of there?" he dramatically turned around and pointed his fingers, who were forming a gun, at Yui and pretended to shoot her "Kitten herself~"
"Loki, this is nothing new"
"Kusanagi Yui is often seen coming out from the library" Tsukito spoke up for the first time.
"Yes, granted but have any of you spoken to Anubis about what really happens in there?" Loki smiled.
There was a long moment of silence while the gods looked at Thoth and Yui. The girl was a bright red color, while Thoth showed no emotion at all. He had stopped eating and was staring back.
"It-It's getting pretty late we should all go to bed! Good night!" Yui spoke quickly as she stood up and laid down in her sleeping bag, burying her face in her pillow.
"Right I'm tired too" Apollon yawned.
The others started imitating their friends while Hades stared at them, unable to say anything. It wasn't even that late! And they hadn't watched the night sky yet! This was going badly… why did he allow everyone to come?
Seeing the distress on his boyfriend's face, Takeru gently took his hand to get his attention.
"Just let them be. We can still do it again eventually."
Hades didn't talk, simply nodding as he headed for his own sleeping bag. Takeru pulled his closer to Hades' and tried to cuddle with him.
"Get a room you two" Loki said in a disgusted voice.
"Loki you bast-"
"I swear if you all don't shut up right about now, you will regret it once we get back to the school" Thoth grumbled, already annoyed by the fact his relationship with the human girl had been outed.
He might be regretting finding it funny for the others to be outed forcefully now. But as long as they stopped talking, he could forget those matter for the moment and sleep.
Night had fallen a while ago, and the fire had been extinguished. Hades was on his back, looking at the night sky. His eyes were perfectly used to the pitch black darkness, so it looked absolutely gorgeous. But the campsite wasn't the best place to see them. He wished he could get up and go to where he could fully watch the night sky in peace, but Takeru was fast asleep, his head resting on his chest. But this was a stargazing event.
Gently, he moved Takeru aside, and wrapping himself in his sleeping bag, he silently left the camp to get to this place by the hill, where you could see the sea, on which the stars were reflected. The moon was absent, so the only light he had to light his way was the stars.
As he got to the woods, a few feet away from the camp, he heard hurried steps behind him. Turning around, he found Takeru standing sleepily behind him.
"Where are you going?" he whispered.
"I'm going to do the reason of why we climbed all the way up here" Hades replied gently as he started walking again.
"So you're going stargazing. Why didn't you just say that?" the smaller god mumbled as he followed his boyfriend.
They didn't talk for the rest of the way, Hades being busy orienting himself in the dark, and Takeru admiring him from behind, especially his butt. Hades had ended up wrapping his sleeping bag around his shoulder, to make it easier to walk in the forest, so Takeru could look all he wants at his boyfriend's behind, without him even noticing a thing. He started thinking about stuff involving his boyfriend's ass, until Hades came to a stop.
"Here we are. Isn't the view astonishing?" the older god commented as he stared at the horizon.
"Yeah, it's very pretty" Takeru smiled, not taking his eyes off of Hades' behind.
The man turned around, an eyebrow raised in question. "What were you looking at?"
"The view, why?" the sea god frowned.
"You were definitely not looking at the view"
"Well, your butt is quite a view to be fair and honest"
Hades' face became a light pink shade, and he was very glad it was dark. He wrapped himself in his sleeping bag and sat on the ground, pretending to be sulking. Takeru only laughed, until his eyes fell on the valley below them, and the sky reflecting on the ocean. His mouth fell open as no sound would come out. He could only stare in awe.
"Now you are looking at the correct view" Hades smiled as he grabbed Takeru's hand to make him sit down in front of him.
As Takeru kept staring at what was in front of him, Hades pressed his torso against the boy's back, hugging him from behind, but also providing him warmth as the night was fairly cold. He stayed silent as he looked up at the sky, seeing the constellations he knew by heart now.
"Hey, tell me about the stars" Takeru whispered as he laid back against Hades.
"Which one?"
"Hm. Your favorite, I don't care. I just like hearing you talk about the stars"
Hades took a moment and looked at the night sky, looking for a specific star. It hadn't really meant anything to him until very recently. Finally, he rose an arm and pointed to a constellation.
"Acamar, in the constellation of Eridanus" he spoke slowly. "It means "end of the river", and although Achemar is the true end of Eridanus, it isn't visible in Greece."
Takeru listened to him attentively. He didn't care much for the stars at first, but as Hades shared his passion through club meetings, he started to be genuinely interested in them. It was also fun to understand what Hades was talking about from time to time without having to interrupt him to ask him to explain something.
The time passed and Takeru slowly felt like he was falling asleep again to the sound of Hades deep voice. He didn't really want to, but it was stronger than him. Fortunately enough, a voice behind them brought him back from sleep land.
"There you are!" Yui sighed as she took a place next to them "We've been looking for you for the past fifteen minutes"
"Sorry, I thought you were all asleep" Hades said, glancing briefly at them.
The whole class was there, Thoth included. They sat down and started looking at the sky too. Loki was strangely silent, as he was the only one who was actually asleep when they chose to leave the camp to go look for the two missing gods. He was leaning against Balder and looking at the sky. Thoth had put a protective arm around Yui's shoulders. Dionysus had brought another bottle of wine and was hanging out with Thor in the back. And finally, Tsukito, who was already awake despite the lack of moon in the sky, stared at the sky, Apollon's head resting on his knees as the Greek god laid down on his back to look at the sky.
"So what were you talking about, uncle? What were you saying?"
"Just… talking about various constellation"
"Hey, Mr. Death, tell us about the Great Bear" Loki asked, half asleep.
"I don't think my stories are the same as yours"
"Don't care"
And so, Hades started talking about what he knew of the stars, answering questions as they went, and sometimes turning to Thoth when he didn't know. Fortunately enough, Thoth, being the god of knowledge among other thing, knew his fair share about the night sky and could help him, not without pretending this didn't make him happy. Still, he did seem to appreciate the event, even if he tried to hide it.
At dawn, they decided to go back to their camp, the students discussing in small groups about what they had learnt. Hades was carrying Takeru, who had ended up falling asleep in his lap in the end. He put him down on his sleeping bag, laying down next to him.
He fell asleep as the birds started to sing, thinking he was glad they had saved him from the river. Even if times were still hard for him, his friends had shown such support and care… it made him want to give life a second try.