Miami only really had two weather patterns: hot and sunny or rainy. Rainy never lasted long enough for Hades' liking and the warm, sunny weather went on far too long. No matter how much he pretended he liked the sunlight, when his eyes decided to ache, he knew the truth. It was one of those warm, sunny days and it forced him to shield his eyes with his Ray-Ban sunglasses as he watched Zale playing on the far too expensive swing set built in the backyard through the window. Clearly, it had been built for the little horse whisperer; his almost toddler sons were still much too small to be able to enjoy it..
The days weighed heavily on him. Even though he had told no one the exact day he was going to stop taking his pills, he knew the date. It was much too soon and he had things he needed to do still to prepare for it.
With a deep sigh, he decided to delay no more and stepped outside only to sit down on one of the free swings beside the preteen. The boy instantly stopped swinging. Even Zale knew that when the Dread Judge plopped himself down on a swing it was rarely to play. And Hades did not disappoint, “We need to talk, Kiddo.”
Zale frowned slightly. That certainly wasn’t playing at all. These conversations were rarely pleasant. They were not good in movies and TV and they were even worse from the mouth of his uncle. “What’s wrong now?”
If he didn’t already know that it was the boy’s parents that had taught their light-hearted son the ways of despair and pessimism, he would feel terrible. However, he knew that truth and it both relieved and infuriated him. But he still didn’t want to meet Zale’s eyes and so lowered them to the ground. He was going to ruin this kid’s day, he could feel it in his bones and the child had suffered enough in his young life without another helping of his uncle’s nonsense. But, “[Me. Which is what I want to talk about. I rarely sugar coat things for you and I don’t see why I should start now. I’m not well.]”
Sometimes Zale regretted the fact that Hades was the relative that would treat him like an adult when things went bad. His frown deepened as he looked his uncle over. He looked fine. Was it something inside of him? “I thought gods didn’t get sick. Wait… are you hurt? Is it bad?” His voice softened. If he was getting a speech like this… His bright eyes clouded with concern, “[Are you going to be okay, Uncle Hades?]”
Concern. Maybe Hades would remember this next week and it would be a consolation during his detox, which he knew was going to be terrible, not only for himself but anyone unlucky enough not to leave the state. But he could easily see that the boy was going too far and placed a hand on his shoulder to steady him, not only physically, but emotionally, “[Nothing life threatening. I’m just gonna come out and say this, since I know you must know already. I’ve been pretty messed up in my head…”
Zale nodded, “Yeah, I know. I figured things were getting better when you came back though....”
“They are. Kinda. It’s complicated and even I don’t know all of it, but listen, I was in a lot of pain not too long ago. And well, I was able to manage it by taking some prescriptions a couple of doctors gave me…” Hades sighed and looked up at the sky. His life had become an after-school special. Great. Lovely. It was enough to drive someone to drink, which would sadly be an improvement. “Those commercials don’t lie when they say they’re habit forming. But now, I don’t need them so I have to break the habit.”
For once, Hades proved lucky. Zale didn’t blink an eye or question the notion of why a god would need a prescription like that. It was a combination of being childish naive and the memory of his own mother’s distress, pain and injuries. His uncle didn’t have the benefit of all of nature reaching out to him and almost being an apothecary. “But you’ll be okay, right?”
Hades returned his attention to the boy beside him, “Yeah, but I’m gonna get a lot worse probably first, so I want to apologize to you in advance.” He shook his head. This was humbling – he was once the supreme god of the afterlife and now he was preemptively apologizing to a mortal child. He noted, silently, the power of desperation, like he didn’t know its strength all too well previously. If only he didn’t feel like his family was something he had to hold onto with both hands, lest they disappear – the closer the person, the tighter he felt he had to hold on. Of course, that was on a long list of things he had given up on ever accomplishing. “[I am going to be irritable. Actually, I’m probably going to be angry at everyone and everything for a bit. I won’t mean whatever I say or do but…]”
“So, you’re going to be temporarily insane like Dr. House was?” Zale asked abruptly, purposely trying to halt his uncle’s speech, knowing it could easily and quickly begin to ramble.
The reference almost made Hades smile as he pushed back on his swing and allowed himself to drift to and fro a little bit. “Yeah, only the insane he hallucinated he was, not the insane he actually was. But,don’t try to distract me and cheer me up right now, this is important and serious.”
Zale, on the other hand, couldn’t help but grin, but he nodded, “Okay, Uncle.”
“Good.” Though Hades couldn’t help but crack a little bit of a smile this time, but it quickly faded as he remembered what he was going to say. “[If I ever scare you or worry you, get out of there. Run if need be. I won’t hurt you but just run and call someone. Hestia or Persephone, whichever one of them isn’t around me to begin with, okay?]”
Nodding again, but much more serious, the boy quietly took in how grave this actually was for maybe the first time. “But not too long, right?”
“Not too long but it might feel incredibly long in the duration.” Hades took a deep breath, “And again, I’m sorry.”
“You’re forgiven,” Zale regained his smile and his urge to swing, mostly for his uncle’s sake. If he was playful, maybe his uncle would stop being so serious, stop worrying and be playful for a little bit, too. He definitely needed to.
And it did work to some degree; Hades at least swung a little. The conversation was done and there was a sense relief in the god as he changed topics, “Think dinner is going to be late tonight.”
Swinging a little higher, now all Zale worried about was ignoring the rumbling of his own stomach, “Yeah, Aunt Tessie just took out the puff pastry sheets…”
Summary: Hades knows that when he actually goes through withdrawal it's not going to be good -- for anyone. So, he goes and tells Zale what is going to happen to prepare the boy.