Who: Hades (w/ Eric Lot) (solo-lite) What: Questions to Papa, Answers from Papa Where: His office When: Today (ish), afternoon Warnings: None
“Papa…?”
His favorite name to be called. Hades looked down to the floor and into the silver-sheened eyes of his youngest son, Eric, as he looked blindly up to him. For once, his mind wasn’t caught on how tall his sons were growing, how they were shooting up like weeds. He couldn’t have such a pleasant thought when his youngest son’s face was consumed in mask of determination, anchored by a deep frown that should never belong on a young child’s face.
Unconsciously, he frowned at the sight himself, but remained open-minded about why his son appeared so… While he was an identical twin to his brother, Edward, he knew Eric had been a serious child even in the womb. He rested his hand atop the boy’s head, letting his fingers slip beneath some of his soft blond curls, “What is it? Not sleepy enough for your afternoon nap?”
The boy’s frown managed to deepen, much to his father’s chagrin, “How come you played with Eddy and Del, but not me?”
And now it was Hades’ turn for his frown to deepen as he picked the boy up, sweeping him off his bare feet as he placed him atop his desk to sit. Eric hadn’t understood what he had played with his brother and sister. Neither did Edward and Delany. They thought they had played a game but in reality he had used him to approximate Ogre leadership. A three year old boy’s and an effectively a seven year old girl’s cunning seemed about right when used in conjunction, but Eric was right.
He hadn’t been invited.
“You would have found it boring and you seemed happy to play with your robot,” Hades explained softly, pushing the boy’s curls from his face.
The boy frown didn’t lighten, “How you know? You no ask…”
Those were like knife plunged into Hades’ heart. He cringed just as if he had been stabbed physically. As if he didn’t have enough words to haunt him… Those words…
Hades knew the “game” would have been boring to Eric, it was all visual and because it was visual he had excluded him due to his blindness. He had treated him differently and had hurt his little boy in the process. “Eric, my precious son,” he murmured, pulling him close in a gentle hug, “You’re right. I’m sorry. I should have asked you but want to know a secret about mamas and papas?”
Eric wrapped his arms around his father and murmured a “yes” in the quietest of replies.
His father hadn’t doubted the answer would be yes. Eric loved secrets almost as much as he did and unlike Delany, could actually manage to keep them. “Mamas and Papas always make choices for their children without asking them and sometimes their wrong. But,” he shifted to whisper in his son’s other ear, “Will make you a deal. A deal between you and me. If I do that, you tell me and I’ll rethink. And if Mama or Mum does it, you tell me and I’ll talk to them for you.”
Eric’s frown finally softened. It was no longer one of grief but it remained there lightly, in confusion, “How come I don’t tell them?”
Hades smiled a little at both the change of expression and the question. He had managed to mend his son’s bruised heart. It was probably the most important thing he would do all day, he decided. “One day, I won’t be able to fight your battles for you. You won’t let me because you’ll be all grown up but…” He picked him up again and righted him atop his desk again, “But for now I want to. Besides, then they can’t get you on talking back or anything like that.”
His son clearly considered it as he sought his father’s knees with toes and then smiled, “Did your papa do that with your mama for you?”
More like cause my battles… Hades thought to himself and then took advantage of his son’s blindness to not bother to hide the wicked smile that spread across his face. His memory of locking his father away after his defeat felt less than a year ago. It was still so vivid. Still made his heart pound in excitement. The Underworld had still be so empty, so primitive – he hadn’t even had a home built yet but he also remembered not caring. He locked his father and the other Titans away and then celebrated with the few present until he collapsed into the surprisingly gentle waves of the Styx for much needed rest.
It was the most joyous day he had ever experienced in the shadows of the lands of death.
“No, son,” he finally managed to answer when he was confident he wouldn’t just laugh at his three year old son’s question, “My father was a bad man and never did anything nice for me.”
The boy’s eyes widened in surprise and his father’s wicked smile softened to just one of joy in response. His son couldn’t imagine a bad father. It was the greatest gift his son would probably ever be able to give him. Hades couldn’t imagine something greater than it. He sounded so incredulous as he asked, “He didn’t even play one game with you ever?”
“No.” It was an easy confession. Now, if Eric had asked if Hades had played with his father… His answer may have less simple. But in the end he would have still eventually answered no. It wouldn’t have been what the boy meant and Hades honestly hoped none of his children would understand the pleasure of torturing someone. “He never hugged me or even said a nice thing to me. He was a very bad father.”
“Is that why you play with me and Eddy and Del and Teddybear so much?” Eric asked with surprising astuteness.
He was wrong but the question was still surprisingly perceptive for a three year old. If Hades wasn’t so accustomed to Delaney’s unnatural intellect or Zale catching him from left field, he may have been taken back by it. But he wasn’t. The fact his son was bright and of good judgment was not surprising to him. “No. Play with you so much because I love you so much. I wanted to play with you for so long but you weren’t here yet.”
“Why? Where was I?” Eric asked yet again this time with childish simplicity.
“You weren’t born yet. Like when Dasha wasn’t here and then she was,” Hades tried to explain and it seemed that Eric understood but was not satisfied with the explanation, “What is it?”
“How long did you want to play with me…?”
“Well…” Leaning back in his leather office chair, Hades actually had to take a moment to think. How to explain the terrible multiple millennia long wait to a child who thought a three minute time out was an unbearable agony and to whom dinner was never made fast enough. Hmm. “You know when your Mama makes those big cookies for you sometimes?”
“Uh huh. The whole house smells like cookies but there’s no cookies…” Eric’s eyes widened at his own words with sudden sympathy, “You had to wait that long, Papa?”
His son was adorable and Hades knew he was going to break his son’s heart if only a single cookie was bringing on that level of sympathy. “Longer. It was like your Mama let you have 11 million cookies before I even had one but I had to smell them cooking and watch you eating yours… That’s how long I had to wait for you, Eddy and your sisters.”
Sympathy transformed into horror with each passing number the boy counted softly to himself. Hades didn’t stop him as he counted. He waited patiently as his son counted all the way to a hundred and ninety eight before throwing up his hands. His expression was priceless. His son’s thoughts were so clear on his face. One hundred ninety eight was a lot of cookies and that was much less than 11 million… Suddenly, the boy pounced his father, pinning him against his chair in a hug. He muttered something against his chest that was completely intelligible but it didn’t matter. Hades didn’t have to understand the words. The sentiment was more than enough.
He wouldn’t tell his son about how for all that time he had thought he would never get to play with his children. It would be a horror too much for the young boy now that he was relating his wait to cookies.
Hades wrapped his arms around the boy clung to him like a koala and murmured, “So, U never mean to make you sad or hurt you. I love you so much.”
Eric squeezed his father tightly, “That’s why Papa so sad when you bring us home but no come with!”
Now his son’s judgment was right. What he wouldn’t give for all his children to live under one roof. For them to sleep beneath one roof with him always. Only in the rarest of moments, in the stillest of nights when he found himself sitting too close to a fireplace or taking a long drag of a cigarette did he think physically of Hestia but every car ride back to his home with his sons’ car seats empty made him think about the evenings he and his sister shared, tucking them in for sleep. Every drive home was a time for him to mourn the time he squandered in his grief and insanity.
He was glad his sons didn’t understand that he was a terrible father, too.
If he was ever offered the chance to change something in his life, he would really have to consider for the first time if it would be changing how he squandered so much of his time with his children or if it would be his traditional choice of altering the events involving the kidnap of Persephone.
He was a terrible father who squandered his time with them…
His own harsh judgment forced him to look at his youngest son and then shift his gaze to include all his children in his glance. Simply not including Eric in the game had upset him… How much more upset would his children be if there were complications when he stormed the Underworld? If everything went wrong, it would cost him everything but they would have to live with that burden. If he was successful, maybe he would never be able to emerge from the depths or even just brief visits…
His eyes slipped shut.
No. If he was successful, even if never saw them alive again, it would still be worth it. When they closed their eyes in death, he would be able to protect them from their flames and the ice and the darkness. They would be safe.
He would keep them safe.
It wasn’t just for the righteous dead of yesteryear he fought for. His mortal children needed their father to do what he had to do…
“[And then I’ll fight your battles again,]” he muttered unknowingly.
Eric laughed softly as he snuggled against his father’s chest. His laughter only stopped when a huge yawn overtook him, “Papa talking to himself ‘gain. Tuck me in? Sleepy now.”
“Nah,” Hades returned to his senses and opened his eyes. Tuck him in? That would involve moving him. That wasn’t happening. “Nap on my chest. They got to play with me. You get to use me as a recliner. Then you’re even.”
The boy nodded with another yawn, “Kay, Papa.”
Draping one arm over the boy, a small, true smile snuck across his face. His son was quick to quietly drift off and Hades was quick to ignore anything else he had to do but watch his children sleep. His work could wait. He had an pro/con analysis of ABC’s marketing and programming decisions to do, waiting on his desk, but it could wait. It wasn’t like ABC was going to listen to him anyway.
Everything could wait for an hour or so.
He had waited too many years for moments like this one and knowing there was a possibility he could many more years if his plans didn’t work perfectly to even see his children again, he wasn’t going to squander it.
Summary: Hades, king of being unable to convey his feelings and thoughts to adults and pretty much everyone around him, finds no problem telling his son, Eric, everything he wants to know and being perfectly understood.