Work Text:
As soon as the artist shade put down their brush and announced, "It's finished, Your Majesties," the King of the Underworld turned to his son and held out his hand, expectant.
"Oh, come on," Zagreus complained, but he returned the borrowed spear he had been posing with. Hades grunted in response, but made no further comment—which, from Thanatos' standpoint, looked like progress between father and son.
That, or else the Queen's presence kept them relatively cordial—for the time being, anyway, and only within the halls of the House. The truce in her company seemed brittle and uneasy, but they held it nonetheless.
Queen Persephone addressed the shade with a genial smile, cutting through the grumbling on either side of her. "Thank you for lending your talents to this task. I'm certain your lovely work shall lend some much needed warmth to these halls." She spoke as though the shade were not eternally bound to their court, as though having her family depicted by their brush was her honor and not the shade's.
The flustered artist sputtered their thanks with far less dignity, and Thanatos could not help himself from noting, "My Queen, you are exceedingly gracious. You haven't even seen the finished painting yet."
"You're right, of course, Thanatos." Laugh lines crinkled around her eyes, and Thanatos had the impression he was the subject of her amusement. "Tell me, then, since you have it before you now: what do you think of it? Am I rightfully excited to have it on display?"
If shades retained the ability to sweat, Thanatos was fairly sure the artist would have been doing so. He felt the pressure of the question himself, as both the Lord Hades and Zagreus turned their attention to him as well. He wished he had an ounce of Zagreus' easy charm to come up with a suitable answer, and glanced at him, and thus became momentarily distracted by the curve of his smile and the handsome stance he had adopted on the marble steps. No artist, no matter how skilled, could hope to do him justice.
Zagreus quirked an eyebrow at him, and it was Thanatos' turn to flush as he realized he was not looking at the painting at all. He glanced down at it and tried not to show his embarrassment as he said, "It's well executed, my Queen."
"Wonderful." Queen Persephone clapped her hands together, and with that, the matter was settled. The shade sagged in obvious relief, and Thanatos could not help but share the sentiment. "Then we shall await the delivery of the piece, once the paint is dry and all. Again, we're grateful for your contribution," here she glanced at her husband, "isn't that right, Hades?"
"Ah, yes. Of course." On cue, the lord Hades turned the full weight of his attention onto the shade, which lent a threatening air to his next words. "I trust that the quality of your work will be adequate, Shade, as Thanatos has suggested."
"He means that as a compliment, I think," Zagreus quipped, smiling at the shade. "Don't worry. He's out of practice there."
A silence stretched that Thanatos knew as well as any other resident of the House; the half-second before the lord Hades lost his temper, and erupted into a shouting match with his son. Out of habit he braced for their anger to ring out in the chamber, and as the tension built, the Queen severed its thread with a deceptively mild, "That's quite enough. I'll have no fighting in the House. You'll make poor Cerberus upset."
The hound of hell keened pitifully with the two of its heads that were awake. And just like that, that ominous silence passed, and father and son nodded at each other with something that passed for sincerity. It was enough to satisfy the Queen.
"Very well, then. Let's be off, I cannot wait to change into something more practical than this dress. I'll trip on my own hem if I'm not careful."
"And I can only imagine the parchmentwork has continued to pile up in my absence. Boy—Zagreus—"
"Don't mind me. I'll just be a moment," Zagreus said, and glanced at Thanatos with that same smile from before. He was stretching his arms and ankles as if they had gone stiff from posing and, though he remained on the marble steps, was far removed from the picture of stillness portrayed on the canvas, becoming more like himself the more he moved.
Cerberus shuffled out first, ducking its heads to pass through the high arch into the hallway; then the Lord Hades, hesitating as if unsure whether to offer his arm to his wife again. It was an uncomfortable sight for Thanatos to see such uncertainty in his manner, and he averted his eyes as he bowed. They passed by him one after the other, the Queen with her skirts gathered up in her fisted hands and somehow looking majestic nevertheless.
"Your Majesties," Thanatos murmured, respectfully, and waited until they were gone, and the shade as well, escaping with their canvas as soon as they had sanction to do so. Then he turned to Zagreus, who had stopped his stretches and had that look in his eyes that meant some declaration was itching to come out. "What is it?"
"Nothing, nothing." Zagreus shook his head, then rolled his shoulders. "My whole body hurts now. That took longer than I expected, and Gigaros weighs a lot more than what I'm used to with Varatha."
"You didn't have to hold it if it was too heavy," Thanatos reasoned.
"Father told me it would be. I didn't want to admit he was right."
He scratched his calf with the arch of his other foot, fidgeting as he did when he stood still too long. He could have stepped off the dais, but he made no intention to, just continued to look at Thanatos with that lopsided smile of his.
After a pause he teased, "You know, Than, I just realized... you've never called me Your Majesty. Or bowed to me, the way you just did to mother. And father, I suppose."
Thanatos knew it was teasing from the way the upturned corners of his mouth twitched, as if he might burst into laughter at any moment, and the mischief sparking in his eyes. He liked that he could tell these shifts in Zagreus' mood now, because he saw them more often.
"You're right. I haven't." He drifted across the chamber, suppressing a smile as Zagreus gave in and laughed.
"No remorse, either, I see. How very disrespectful of you." The words were completely at odds with the fondness of his voice, which softened further when Thanatos stopped in front of him. "Oh, we're of a height now."
Zagreus shuffled closer to the edge of the marble dais. At this distance Thanatos could feel the warmth radiating off of him.
"How very disrespectful of me, to put myself eye-to-eye." He waited a beat to make sure Zagreus wouldn't lean his weight into him; when he didn't, Thanatos floated down to set his feet on the floor, and found himself having to look up.
"At least you admit—wait, what are you doing?"
"Correcting my behavior," said Thanatos, who had dropped to one knee. He grasped Zagreus' hand and placed a kiss on his knuckles, which wasn't what protocol demanded but made Zagreus suck in a sharp breath. "Is this sufficient, my... my Prince?"
He had nearly said my Lord , and stopped himself. Hades was my Lord ; Thanatos doubted Zagreus would appreciate sharing the title. He placed another kiss on the back of Zagreus' hand, and felt him shiver.
"You know I was joking, right, Than? I'm not upset you don't address me with that kind of formality."
Thanatos could only guess at his expression from the quickened pulse in his wrist, but could not bring himself to look up and see the flush he knew would be there. He hoped this reaction meant he was pleased, rather than embarrassed on Thanatos' behalf.
"Should I stop, then?"
Zagreus' voice quivered when he replied, "I can't tell if you're being serious right now."
"You know I wouldn't make fun of you." Whether he was making a fool of himself was another matter entirely, and hinged on whatever was going through Zagreus' head. Even if he had glanced up he might not have been able to tell, and so he opted to continue with sincerity before he lost his nerve. "I know you were teasing me, I just... thought there might be something more to it."
"So you're teasing me back," Zagreus said, not without mirth to it.
"No, I mean this." He turned his face to kiss the inside of Zagreus' wrist, and that most definitely was not appropriate for any formal context, but neither was the truth spilling out of him. "You know, I only meant to stop by for a short while to check on the artist's progress. I didn't mean to stay the whole time." He felt his own face heat with the admission, but at least Zagreus could not see, and that helped him finish his thought. "You looked... very handsome standing up there proudly—not that you don't, normally. You looked very regal. So I'll bow before you, if you want me to, Your Majesty."
"Oh, Than..."
Thanatos hesitated. He was caught in between the desire to convey his feelings to Zagreus and the uncomfortable awareness that he was so vastly inexperienced in this arena that his words and gestures at any moment might be the wrong ones. "Is this uncomfortable for you?"
"No, no. It's—it's you." Zagreus turned his hand to touch Thanatos' cheek, and gently tilted his head up. He rested his other hand on Thanatos' shoulder, and leaned on it for a moment. "I'm just, ah. A little nervous, all of a sudden."
Thanatos took stock of his expression, and relaxed. Zagreus was smiling, and the flush on his cheeks was familiar and encouraging. His thumb brushed Thanatos' cheekbone, and a golden leaf sparked off his laurels to flutter down. The sight of him made Thanatos' chest feel tight, and he was at a loss for words again, as he often was.
"What are you thinking?" Zagreus whispered, low enough to be conspiratorial, though they were alone in the chamber.
"That you're..." He searched for the right compliment, and none felt quite sufficient to express the truth. He leaned his face into Zagreus' touch and closed his eyes. Zagreus waited, a soft laugh bubbling from his lips. And Thanatos looked up at him again. "That I love you."
"Come up here, Than," he said, and Thanatos obeyed, and let himself be pulled up and into a kiss.
While Zagreus stood on the marble steps, neither had to lean up or down. His hands curved around Thanatos' neck, and Thanatos drank him in like air. This close to him, he felt warmed from the inside out.
"I love you, too," Zagreus said, when they parted. He rested their foreheads together, and the tenderness of his gaze and his words made Thanatos realize that he was worrying for no reason; that though he lacked the eloquence to express the full scope of his feelings, Zagreus understood even so. "Hey, can you get us out of here?"
"As you command, my Prince," Thanatos answered, and shifted them away.