InsaneJournal

Hazel was, for lack of a better word, uncomfortable. Having your dad show up only for him to be from an entirely different world was one thing. But trying to get around explaining yourself to him while also casually wanting to get to know him more was another. And she’d stumbled her way through it while internally and externally complaining about it. She’d spent a ridiculous amount of time letting a toddler pat her hair while she laid face down on the sofa, mumbling her complaints into the pillow. She was a Praetor. She should have been more graceful at handling these things. At least she could have been less awkward at it, but she wasn’t. She’d avoided the places he seemed likely to go to: libraries, any of the swimming places, and definitely the ocean.

The forest was pretty big and it moved around on its own, which made it both a good place and a potentially dangerous place if you were trying to avoid someone. But she was going to hope it was more of an ‘Artemis’ place than a Hades place. The Hotel was gone, so the dangers were less anyway. She could handle herself anyway if something attacked, but nothing did. Most animals stayed away from her unless they were horses and Arion wasn’t around today. She’d looked for him, but he was usually off on his own until he got bored or there was danger involved.

There was the feeling of something familiar in the air, but she brushed it off as Sabrina’s hellhound or maybe the entirety of her castle from Hell. Even if she was more familiar with the auras of those. But she’d just hope that the Hellhound felt different with blood in its system.

She let out a breath, reaching out to search for the underground tunnels, finding them off to the right. Those, it seemed, moved in the forest as well as the trees themselves, but there weren’t many. When went around a bend in the trail, it continued forward until she found herself at the lake. She remembered it from the time they came on Mother’s Day. Respect for the mothers that weren’t around anymore. Her heart ached a little at the thought of it. “I think you’d have liked it here,” she said quietly as she crouched down by the water. “Maybe things could have been different.”

Hades was out of his element. His place was ruler of the Underworld. It had been ever since the end of the war when his brother had so graciously saddled him with the responsibility and gone off to party on Mount Olympus. It was fine. He preferred the Underworld anyway. He was good at his job, and so that’s what he’d focused on- for thousands of years.

And now, here he was. Without his Underworld, without his work. Without everything that most people had come to associate with him. So what was left? He had Persephone, of course, for which he would be eternally grateful. He couldn’t be in her company all the time, however, as much as he’d like to. So he’d begun trying to fill his days in other ways. Attempting to be sociable, reading, exploring this new world he’d found himself in. On this day, it was the latter. He wandered without purpose, simply allowing himself to go wherever his feet took him.

Without realizing it right away, he’d begun to head deeper into the forest. He was not a forest person. The dirt had muddied his fine shoes, and small branches tugged at the seams of his suit. It was only when he stopped to wonder just why he had come this way, when he sensed it. A...familiarity. Hades quickly realized that is what his body had been unconsciously drawing him toward. His curiosity piqued, he began walking forward with a bit more purpose now.

Hazel let herself get lost in thoughts about her mom and how things could have been, but the niggling feeling of something coming closer drew her out of her thoughts. It took everything in her not to draw her spatha. She always had it with her. Especially in the forest. She did try to leave it at home when she knew she’d be in the forest. Sometimes creatures would attack. She wondered idly if this was something from home, but something inside her told her that it probably wasn’t.

She tensed slightly, debating whether to use the Mist to move herself somewhere else, but there was no telling if she’d be able to escape. The forest had a mind of its own. She looked around, starting to walk away from the lake, but she saw a man walking toward her and froze briefly before trying to hide behind a tree.

If her feelings were anything to go by, this was not what she wanted to deal with right now. She would have brought up some form of illusion, but she didn’t know her dad enough to know what he’d believe. Much less an alternate universe version. Maybe he was just a half-sibling? Please just be a half-sibling.

Once her panicked feelings subsided, she reminded herself that she was, in fact, a Praetor of Rome and she was acting a bit more childish than was called for, so she stepped out from behind the tree. “Er. Hi?”

An intense expression on his face, Hades moved closer to the being he felt so drawn toward. His eyes had taken on a slightly reddish hue. Movement caught his attention and he turned to locate it. At first he could see nothing, but that didn’t change that he could feel it.

He held himself perfectly still, waiting. After a moment, a young woman stepped out from behind a tree. Hades stared at her. There was still that sense of familiarity about her and he couldn’t place it. After a moment he was able to place her as someone he had spoken to on the network after his arrival. The girl who liked horses and to draw.

But that didn’t explain why he could feel her power. And she had power. It came off her in waves. He could feel how similar it was to his own. He realized he’d been staring at her in utter silence like an absolute psychopath. His expression changed from intense curiosity to one of awkwardness. “Oh. Hazel, was it? Hello, there.”

Hazel studied him as he stared at her. He wasn’t saying anything, so she wasn’t sure that she should actually say anything past what she had. So she stayed silent until he spoke again. “Yes. Hazel.” She looked him over again for a moment. “Hades.” Her voice was soft when she said it. It was him. This whole time. And she knew that, but she was hoping that wanting it to be someone else would change it. But it didn’t.

“What...brings you out into the woods in...your suit?’ Because most people in suits didn’t wander the woods. She paused for a moment before, “Um. I mean...You can wear whatever you want in the woods. Obviously.” She pushed the sleeve of her jacket up, revealing her tattoo. But now what was she supposed to say? Ugh. She needed lessons on how to deal with alternate versions of a parent. The anxiety caused a couple of gems to pop up by her right foot and she glanced down and sighed, focusing on shoving them back under the ground before looking back up. “Weird forest traits. Sometimes it just manifests things.” Yep. Definitely nothing to do with her.

What was it about this girl? Hades was still finding himself completely flummoxed by her presence. He felt like he should know something that he didn’t. It was beginning to irk him. Though his face currently showed nothing more than polite semi-awkwardness at their unexpected social encounter.

“I wasn’t really intending to end up here. Though, even if I had, it’s doubtful I would have changed.” He gave a weak laugh that fell completely short. “I felt a presence in the forest that drew me to it. And here you are.”

Gemstones popped out of the ground near Hazel’s feet and Hades’ eyes widened in response. A moment after the gems disappeared back under the ground again, they re-appeared in Hades’ palm. He studied them, then looked at Hazel. “Weird forest traits,” he repeated.

She nodded at his words. “Sounds...interesting.” She’d been trying to avoid drawing his attention and here she was, drawing it anyway. “I’m in the forest often.” A pause. “Did you find what you were looking for?” As if he hadn’t basically said she was the thing that had been drawing him toward her.

When he made the gems appear in his hand, she felt herself tense just slightly. “Oh.” Her voice was even softer than the last time. “Don’t use those to pay for anything,” she said after a moment. “If you’re going to keep them.” She didn’t have Frank here and so she didn’t want anyone to suffer from her curse. Not even an alternate Greek version of her dad.

She let the silence stretch on for a moment, trying to decide exactly how to explain herself and if she should. “Um. Hazel Levesque,” she said after a moment, motioning to herself. “Daughter of Pluto.” Her gaze dropped after that, not wanting to see his reaction in case it was negative.

Hades glanced again from the gems resting in his palm to the young woman standing in front of him. He closed his palm and they disappeared. He opened it again to reveal a small mound of diamonds. “I don’t need them to pay for anything, I assure you.”

When the words Daughter of Pluto escaped her lips, Hades froze. His eyes widened and the diamonds tumbled from his hand down to the forest floor. He paid them no mind as he stared at her, mouth agape. “You...daughter…” was all he managed to get out. Pathetic.

Given the fact that she was looking down, she noted the gems on the ground and casually pushed them back under the ground. She looked up after a moment, not really sure what to make of his response. “Sorry. There wasn’t really an easy way to reveal it and I don’t think you’d believe I just feel weird for no reason.” She pressed her lips together briefly.

“It’s okay. I don’t have expectations. You’re not from my world and I don’t really…” She gestured vaguely, not really sure how to say what she wanted to say. She didn’t really want to upset him because she’d seen angry gods before. “It’s fine.” What was fine? She didn’t know. You can go if you want. But she bit back the words and looked back at the ground for a moment.

A million thoughts were currently racing through his mind. He had a daughter. Here. Who was standing in front of him. He was internally flailing. Say something you ill-equipped imbecile! he ordered himself. After a moment, Hades was able to inhale and forced his muscles to relax. He wiped his palms gently on the leg of his trousers. “That was an inappropriate reaction, Hazel. I am sorry. Given what I’d just told you about feeling a connection, I don’t know what else I was expecting.” He cleared his throat.

Even though they drove him absolutely crazy, family was still important to Hades. It’s why he still continued to go to those infernal Sunday brunches with his brothers. Being faced with a child, even if she wasn’t “his,” was no small thing. His gaze toward her softened. “If I were to suggest a walk down toward the lake, would you care to join me?”

The fact that he asked her to walk toward the lake was definitely surprising. Hazel didn’t hide her surprise very well as she just stared at him for a long moment before nodding. “Sure.” She hadn’t expected him to stick around. At least, she’d been scared he wouldn’t. She would deal with it. She really would. Gods and mortals...it was one of those things. The gods usually just made a mess that they had to clean up or showed up for the end fight. At least Juno wasn’t there. That was a little bonus.

“It could have just been that I’d been dead once, to be fair. I could have easily gone with that, but it would have been a somewhat convoluted explanation in the end.” She sighed. “And it’d have come out eventually.” What was it Thalia said? Best to get things out in the open sometimes. She glanced over at him before starting to walk back toward the lake. “My half brother, Nico, snuck me out of the Underworld. My dad sort of pretended not to notice, I assume.” But that was probably an awkward start off. “But it’s not a big deal.” It was, but she didn’t want to make things weird. “So...what is your world like?”

He breathed a small exhale of relief when she agreed to join him. A very long life-time of being rejected had left Hades with a multitude of insecurities, and he’d half been expecting her to laugh in his face at the mere suggestion. He turned and began slowly making his way along the trail toward the lake. He measured his stride to match hers so that they could continue speaking with ease.

He raised an eyebrow at her admission that she had died and was snuck out of the Underworld by a sibling. Yes, now that she’d brought his attention to it, he could sense that about her. Death was no easy thing. If anyone understood that, it was Hades. So while he was extremely curious about what had happened to Hazel that she had died so very young, he did not press the issue for now. It was a conversation for another time. Instead he nodded and answered her question.

“My world. I mostly keep to the Underworld and Olympus. There’s rarely cause for me to visit the Mortal Realm. I stay busy with business and occasionally am dragged into the dramas of the other Olympians. Zeus and Hera fighting, Ares stirring up trouble for fun, that sort of thing.”

It was curious to Hazel how casual he was in general. He’d seemed mostly okay the last time she’d seen him before she’d died. He’d given her her colored pencils and sketchbook. It was the one thing that kept her sane in Alaska. It was a pretty place with more than enough places and things to see, but she didn’t get to see much of it. But since then, the last time she’d seen him was the fight against the giants.

“That sounds like our world.” Her face settled into something with a touch more annoyance than she’d meant to show. Juno wasn’t exactly her favorite and neither was Mars. “My boy- Er. Frank’s dad is Mars, but he’s also a descendent of Neptune. I’ve met Mars and Juno.” Her tone did not imply that it made her happy, but she’d still take them over Gaea. Or the Emperors.

“Are you all strictly Greek or do you also have the Roman side?”

He chuckled dryly. “I supposed certain things are always inevitable” He placed his hands in his pockets as they walked. . “I’d ask how your experience with them went, but I think I can hazard a guess.”

“Strictly Greek, though we are aware of our Roman counterparts. Is that how the Gods are in your world?”

“Juno likes to interfere in things and make a mess of them. Or at least the last time I saw her she did. We do a lot of godly clean up sometimes.” She shrugged. It was part of the whole demigod adventure. Someone always made a mess and they had to clean it up.

“It’s more like two side of the same coin. The last time Juno messed with things, the gods were kind of a mess with that. Both sides warring with the other. She mixed the Greek and Roman demigods together. She wasn’t supposed to because everytime we’ve ever found out about one another, we fight. Someone a long time ago stole the Athena Parthanos and hid it away and each side blamed the other for it. We got it back, though. But we had to go across the world to get it.”

It was a long story.

“Apollo was probably the only one not driving himself crazy because he’s Apollo either way.”

He chuckled slightly at her godly clean up comment. He did not have so much ego that he couldn’t admit he and his fellow Olympians had a bad habit of leaving messes around. Both in their realm and the mortal one. It did not surprise him to hear these demigods were often tasked with playing fix-it afterward.

At her explanation of what had happened between the Greek and Roman demigods, his brow furrowed slightly. “I’m starting to get the impression you have lots of similar stories. Yes?”

She considered his question for a moment before nodding. “We’ve had a lot of things happen, I guess.” There was a lot of things that she hadn’t explained. “We do a lot of fighting and dangerous things. It’s kind of part of the whole...demigod territory.” She shrugged slightly and looked up at him for a moment.

“It’s not all bad. It’s just sometimes it sounds like it’s more bad than good. Sometimes the bad is...well, bad but there’s some good stuff mixed in.” That was life. She paused at the edge of the lake, looking down. “You can ask about whatever you like. It’s nothing I haven’t talked about before.”

A lot of fighting. He thought of his own role in the war, and the various skirmishes that had cropped up throughout his lifetime. Perhaps it did just...come with the territory. He looked over at her and smiled. “You seem like you have a very good head on your shoulders.” He paused, thinking. What did he want to know about her?

“Most demigods tend to inherit certain abilities. I’ve already seen your ability to produce gemstones. What other powers do you have? Do you need help with any of them?”

She shrugged slightly. “Someone has to. And now that I’m Praetor, I definitely have to.” But she was proud of her position. She was surprised still, but proud. Her and Frank would rule together and they were going to make sure that the other demigods were ready for the life that was handed to them.

“Yes. We do. And it’s not so much producing them as sensing precious metals and gems and summoning them. But whatever I summon is cursed.” Which probably needed an explanation. “Anything that I draw from the Earth will cause injury or death to those that use it for monetary means. Before I was born, my mom got my dad to promise on the River Styx to give her a wish. She wished for all the riches of the Underworld. She got me. But I know my dad told her that the greatest wishes brought sorrow or something similar. She still wanted it and so…” She trailed off looking out at the water. “I don’t really want to think about how many people’s lives were changed for the worse because of me. But sometimes I can’t help it.”

As for her other powers. “I can control bones, sense and navigate underground tunnels, sense trapdoors in those tunnels, cause earthquakes, I haven’t really tried necromancy but Nico can do that, cause cave ins, shadow travel.” Here she paused before adding, “But I don’t do that much if at all cause I’ve seen the effect doing it too often can have. I prefer Mist travel, but that’s from Mom.” To explain - or really show - she focused carefully and moved a boulder from one side of the lake to the other. “But I can also make other things travel through it like that and people, too.”

But back to what her Dad’s side of the family gave her. “Um. Slight telumkinesis, and I can sense death. Which...seems sort of obvious?” She tried to look nonchalant about it all. “Mom was a witch. According to Hecate. She didn’t believe in her abilities, but I believe it was a spell that brought my dad to her. So I can do some magic. I’ve been learning tarot and I learned a spell to turn all my books into Latin. It’s easier to read,” she explained.

Hades felt a heaviness settle around his shoulders. He reminded himself that she wasn’t really his daughter. But she had experienced so much hardship for someone so young. He couldn’t help but relate. He wanted to help her. A promise on the River Styx was no small thing, however. He tucked that information away to stew on for another day, and nodded along as she explained the rest of her abilities to him.

He watched with no small amount of curiosity and interest as she moved the boulder, seemingly with ease. When Hazel mentioned Hecate, he visibly brightened. “You know Hecate? She’s...well, probably more colleague than actual friend, but I’m very fond of her. At least in my realm she’s very reliable when it comes to information.” He suddenly found himself missing her, and let the silence between them drag on a bit too long.

Eventually he clued into the awkward silence and cleared his throat. “I’m glad you’re able to practice your magic here. If you…” more awkwardness. Hades looked down and shuffled his feet. “Should you need or want any help with your other abilities, my door is open to you.”

“I’m...um...a favorite of hers, I guess?” It felt like bragging to say it and she wasn’t really sure how she felt about it. But she tried not to overthink it. But at least they could relate in a way to this version of Hades. He wasn’t quite her dad, but it wasn’t hard to see the similarities. Though, she wasn’t sure who her dad considered even somewhat close to a friend.

She wasn’t really sure where he’d gone when the silence stretched on, but she waited for him to come back from it. She gave him a small smile. “Thanks. Um…” She studied him for a moment. “It’s good to know you’re...sort of like I remember.” She glanced down briefly before looking up again. “If you or the others need anything, I’m here, too. I live with my...um...with Zee and her son at Shadowcrest. Or if you just want. Maybe text first. I’ve got school in the morning.” She paused briefly before holding out her hand. “I can put my number in your phone?”

He smiled. Hecate did have her favorites. Apparently that was true in any realm. He rather liked the idea of her helping Hazel. Looking after her in her own way.

“Awkward and not very good at being social?” He laughed softly as he poked fun at himself. He wasn’t fond of many- a byproduct of hundreds of years of isolation and being synonymous with Death- but he already liked this young woman very much. He was genuinely touched by her offer to help him with anything. Hades reached his hand inside his jacket pocket and produced his phone. He placed it gently in her palm. “I would like that.”

Hazel wasn’t sure if she was supposed to laugh or not. She didn’t want to laugh and then realize it for the mistake it was and be in danger. “Quiet, I guess. Dad was always kind to me. He was just not really around. Rules. I only met him a couple times.”

She took his phone and put her number in before handing it back. “I’m still getting used to technology some. I was born in 1928. Then I died in 1942 before my birthday. And demigods and technology usually don’t mix, but I’ve gotten okay at texting. Not so much emojis.”

“I never cared for emojis much myself, anyway.” Hades quietly sent a text to her number so she would have his in her phone as well. Once that was taken care of, he slipped it back into his jacket pocket once more. He looked out over the water, and back to Hazel again. “I appreciate you telling me everything. I’m sure it wasn’t very comfortable for you. I won’t pester you with more questions for now, but perhaps we can speak again soon.”

“They’re generally confusing.” Hazel looked at her phone when he texted. He added him as a contact. She nodded at his words. “Not everything about my life is, but you know...it happens?” There was a pause. “Yeah. We can talk later. I’ll be around.” She looked up at him and smiled. “Thanks for not freaking out too bad about the whole...parentage thing.”