Warning/Note: If you are skipping the darker stories... skip this one. Especially if you're in it for the Charon/Hermes relationship; Charon isn't even in this one (except at the edge, if you're paying attention).

If you're here for the angsty hurting bits (or don't mind them and want the complete picture) ... read on. But I warn you, this may be mostly non-graphic but it isn't easy or fun either. Also note that while Hermes is not a child in this, he is very young and inexperienced and this could come off as him being underage, particularly as Zeus refers to him as 'child' despite his very adult intentions towards his son.

If you want a bare bones understanding of what happens without reading it, skip to the end notes. I put them in bold to stand out.

Story

"Come here." The order was insistent, commanding, but the tone is warm and Zeus's eyes were intense as they focused utterly on his young son.

"I am here, Father," Hermes answered, stepping up to stand directly before Zeus. Despite the fact that Hermes stood and Zeus sat, Hermes still had to tilt his head back. By mortal standards Hermes was a well grown young man of exceptional strength, but by godly or even demigod standards he was small and delicate. Athletic, but his body designed for speed and flight rather than the heavier stature of his older brothers. Birdlike, his very bones were hollow, some strength given up for his gift of flight.

Zeus, despite Hermes sharing enough of his features to clearly be claimed as kin, was in many ways Hermes' exact opposite. Zeus was large and strong where Hermes was slight, a rock to Hermes' flightiness, kingly in role and bearing whereas, Hermes' own domains more suggested servant than lord. Hermes was young. Zeus…was not.

"Come, child, sit in my lap."

Hermes was not a child, not really, but that was how many of the older gods still preferred to call him. Still, it was an odd request. Zeus had not been one to pull Hermes onto his lap when Hermes actually was a child so to want that now was…it was confusing. It also wasn't a request, not really, but if it had been, Hermes never would have said no. His father wanted him. And not, as usually happened, because he wanted Hermes to do something for him, but just, it seemed, to have Hermes in his company.

Usually, Zeus wanted Hermes for some purpose, either to scold or to direct on some errand or, if Hermes were especially quick and clever, to offer some praise with the beaming, fatherly smile that was so hard to obtain and worth any hardship when he could get it. He was never called to just sit on his father's lap, for his father's arms to go around him and hold him close. As a child, he had craved such an embrace almost like a physical ailment. He'd taken part in the domain of wrestling seeking a cure, but it had never been exactly what he wanted. This, his father's affection, physical and warm,thiswas what he had searched for his entire life. It was just a bit weird that it was being offerednow.

"You've been keeping a secret from me, child," Zeus said. He arranged Hermes sideways across his legs, one arm holding him at his shoulders, the other at his thigh. Hermes looked up at him at his words, anxious that he was in trouble somehow after all, because keeping things from Zeus was bad. And Hermesdidkeep things from him; it was his very nature to hold secrets or, if not, then to twist words to give the impression to his liking. But Zeus was smiling, and more than that, his smile was gentle and fond.

"What secret, Father?" Hermes asked. He could feel the wings over his ears flutter nervously. His wings often gave away his feelings even when his face perfectly hid everything.

"So many you don't know which I've sniffed out?" Zeus asked, but with a loud bark of laughter, as if he approved. "Well, let me explain then. As I was surveying my vast kingdom, I happened to check on you. You were bathing in the pool beneath a waterfall in a forest."

Hermes' wings continued to flutter uncertainly. It was known that Zeus's eagle eyes could see just about anywhere he cared to look from his throne, but it had never really occurred to Hermes before what that really meant. That just because he was away from Olympus and seemingly alone did not mean he was unseen. What's more, Hermes remembered that bath. It had been pleasant, the water refreshing and clear, and being completely alone and, he thought, unobserved, he'd disrobed and spent almost an hour playing in the water before basking in the sunlight to dry. Of course he knew that his brother could see him then, and theoretically that his father had the power to see him but…the sun was warm and Hermes was not particularly modest, few gods were. It had been nice…and hid no secrets he could fathom that might cause his father's words. Unless…did Zeus disapprove of how long he luxuriated over it all? He'd taken a moment between his various duties…should he have kept busy?

"I…I do not often take such time to myself…" he began, uncertain but comforted by his father's continued warm regard, his father's arm around him, his hand just above the knee edging beneath Hermes' chiton.

"You should," was Zeus's confusing answer. "I think you work yourself too hard and take too little time for yourself. I'm almost reluctant to give you more work and yet…I see a new domain that would fit you well."

Hermes wings perked up in surprised delight. A new domain meant an increase in power and a new chance to gain worship and adoration. It meant another way to gain his father's rare smile. It often meant another way to bond with his family because very often his own widespread domains overlapped with theirs. A new domain was welcome.

"You shall be the god of fertility, as well as initiation and the crossing of boundaries," Zeus declared. Not one but three domains, though Hermes could feel the crossover between them even as his new domains settled over him like a warm flame. For a moment he felt something akin to vines wrapping invisibly about him, inside him, until his divine power settled into a new pattern. It didn'tfeelnew, though; it felt like something that had always been his. That was always the way with a domain rightly chosen, and far-seeing Zeus was never wrong in what he assigned.

Hermes smiled into the glow as he settled and Zeus smiled down at him, fatherly and warm. Zeus's hand slid further up Hermes' thigh, beneath his chiton. It was not uncomfortable. Hermes barely even noticed.

"Oh," Zeus said after giving Hermes a moment to adjust, his fatherly pride morphing into an expression of concern. "But for you to guide your followers, you yourself must have…experience. Tell me, child… have you yet lain with a woman?"

Hermes laughed, innocent and carefree at the very thought that a man as grown as himself would have forgone such pleasure. "Of course, Father," he answered. "I have found pleasure among the nymphs since the moment my body matured to such delights!"

But Zeus's troubled concern only deepened.

"Nymphs? What donymphsknow of the erotic art of seduction and intercourse?"

"…Quite a lot, I should think, Father," Hermes answered, confused in turn, for he had yet to meet a nymph uninterested in sex.

"Passion and sex, yes, and I'll grant you they can be fun, but I am not talking a quick coupling in some grove!"

"It isn't always quick," Hermes said, wings bristling in indignation though he kept it out of his tone, "Some are rather fleet, and we can spend hours at…"

"Do they kiss you?" Zeus interrupted. "Reallykiss you, not a peck to the cheek or to the lips but delving into your depths? Slowly and sensuously or passionately as if to devour you? Do they tease you, bring you to the brink and hold you, and hold you, before finally leading you to spill over? Do they caress your body? Do they put their head between your thighs to suckle you like a babe at its mother's breast? Do they make love? Or is it just another juvenile game with them, a sweet tumble and then done?"

"I…" Hermes said, wings fluttering nervously again. His father's hand crept even higher, fingers sliding along his inner thigh almost to the groin. What had felt so innocent at first no longer did. It didn't hurt, didn't feel anything but good, but…

It didn't hurt. Hermes wasn't being hurt. He was being held. He'd been given new domains. He wasn't being hurt.

Hermes' wings went flat against the side of his head, the wings at his ankles fluttering restlessly, as if preparing him for flight. Not that he could fly. Not as firmly as he was held.

"And what of enjoying the embrace of men?" Zeus asked. "Have you yet to explore in that direction?"

"Not…yet…" Hermes admitted. It wasn't that he could not see the merits in men as well as women but, well, the nymphs were so eager and easy. Why make an uncertain approach when there is easy to be had?

"As I thought," Zeus said, tone knowing and kingly. His hand slid even further, until Hermes could feel the featherlight brush somewhere intimate between his legs, and he couldn't quite contain a sudden shocked gasp at the contact, body stiffening. "But worry not, my child, I will guide you in this as it is my duty to guide you in all things, and you will soon understand the undertaking of your new domains."

Hermes had no answer to this, just stared up at his father with wide eyes, until his father's face came too close to be seen, and lips were pressing gently to Hermes' mouth. It was not his first kiss; Hermes expressed affection freely, perhaps even desperately, always ready to show his love through tactile touch. He had kissed his siblings without it meaning anything sexual many times. He had kissed the nymphs too, whatever Zeus seemed to think, though usually very similarly to his siblings, a show of affection rather than an extension of sexual desire. This kiss was…not that.

Hermes did not fight. Did not run. Did not pull away. He allowed his father's hand to move further beneath the folds of his chiton, to firmly caress the intimate flesh found there. He allowed his father's tongue inside his mouth, allowed his father to guide him in the art of seduction.

He never said no. And when uncertainty sparked into the natural pleasures that touch could inspire, he leaned into it, the sounds escaping Hermes' throat nothing like a 'no'.

He enjoyed his father's touch.

His father gave him a gift and he guided his son and it felt good.

It felt delicious, skin to skin, warm and sensual and passionate and…

Hermes never said no.

Hermes never said yes, either.

But of course he meant yes, he must have, because his father was kind. He gave him a gift. He guided him and gave him pleasure.

It must be something deeply wrong inside of Hermes that after he felt… after…

Perhaps being a god of crossing boundaries was heavier than it first appeared. Perhaps fertility was not as suited to Hermes as it had first felt. Perhaps…

His father's activities left Hermes feeling sated but also oddly empty. The loss of his hands on his body, perhaps, something Hermes had craved for so long, even if that had not been exactly as he had imagined it would go. There was an uncomfortable stickiness to his skin in the aftermath, the act his father shared with Hermes leaving a sheen of sweat, of stickiness that was unpleasant, that he wanted cleansed away but…

Not that pool.

Not the baths of Olympus, where the gods convened naked and carefree to bathe. Not the pools of the world, open to the sky. Hermes could not say why, but he felt a need to settle into his new domains, a calling towards the secret and hidden places of the world. Under the world. To hidden caverns, to hidden pools.

To a place hidden from the sky. From eagle eyes.

Hermes' new domains sang through his blood as he scrubbed in the darkness until the remembered heat of hands cooled and skin was raw. Whatever was deeply wrong inside of Hermes melted away as a new calling tugged at him. New secrets. New boundaries.

If there was an emptiness still, buried deep inside, it was overshadowed at last. Because there was a temple, under the earth, something new and wondrous to meet the new and wondrous domains opening within the god.

His father gave Hermes a great gift. Perhaps he took something away, as well, to give it room. Zeus was a great king who controlled all the World… but Hermes was not bound by the World.

It was a gift. And it was not a gift. Hermes delved into the secret temple and if something was taken away… something new rushed in to fill the void.

Spoiler rich story description: Zeus spies on Hermes while Hermes thinks he's alone, bathing in a forest somewhere, as being able to see anywhere is one of Zeus's powers. Hermes is understandably creeped out (though he doesn't really understand his own feelings on the matter), but is happy anyway because Zeus has him sitting in his lap and is holding him, giving him positive attention, which are all things Hermes has craved from his father even if he senses something is off about it. Then Zeus 'gifts' Hermes new godly domains: fertility, initiation, and crossing boundaries. Another happy thing for Hermes. But then Zeus feels the need to 'guide' Hermes in his new roles by making sure he understands having sex with men by having sex with his son. This is the more story heavy (but slightly less graphic) version of 'In His Hands Nothing Hurts'. Hermes neither fully understands it is not consensual , nor does Hermes understand why he feels bad afterwards. Hermes feels a need to get clean, but is no longer comfortable with the open baths where he knows his father can spy on him and seeks out a pool underground. It ends in him discovering the Underworld, ultimately leading him to Charon though that part does not occur in this story.

Something completely open to interpretation and never openly said (because it's not really relevant and has the unfortunate association with fetishizing gender), but that is a personal head canon of mine (in no way supported by mythology), is that Hermes is non-binary (part of being the god of crossing boundaries and crossways and such) and one of the 'secrets' Zeus notices when seeing him bathe naked is either that Hermes is trans or intersex, which was part of what awakened Zeus's interest. But as I said, that is not important to the story and if you don't care for that interpretation you are free to ignore the suggestion. Hermes could still be non-binary with all male parts, and Zeus is equally capable of simple seeing his male son bathing and thinking 'pretty, I want'. It's creepy and dark either way so I decided to leave gender alone.