WHAT: Persephone and Hades come to check on Katou when he complains of memory and healing issues WHERE: Katou's apartment at Morningside WHEN: Backdated; November 13th WARNINGS: Language, memory problems, trauma. Katou's body is rotting and Hades regenerates him a new arm? STATUS: Complete
This wasn’t the first time Katou had lived on his own. In fact, he’d been, more or less, on his own for three years before he’d died and found himself under the watchful eye of Uriel, Angel of Death. But it was the first time Katou’d really had a place of his own. He’d run away from home when he was fourteen, but most of his time had been spent either on the street or in the little hideaway that Kira had found - just a small room, hidden under some rubble in a section of Tokyo where the authorities didn’t really check into that sort of thing.
And so Katou’s apartment was about what one would expect from a teenager living on their own. It wasn’t filthy, per se, but if any of his dirty clothes ever made it to a hamper, there was no evidence of that, and most surfaces were covered with either chocolate bar wrappers or empty beer bottles. The smell of cigarettes clung to the walls and hung in the air, stronger now since Katou had one hanging out of his mouth as he stared at his books.
If he’d remembered that Persephone and Hades were coming, he might have made an effort to clean up a little, but all he had now was a nagging sensation that he was forgetting something. It wasn’t a new sensation, so he was trying to drown it out with music and by doing something that he knew needed to be done: his homework. He almost didn’t hear the knock over the sound of his music, and he frowned to himself, snubbing out his cigarette in the overflowing ashtray.
He turned down the music on the way to the door, and blinked when he saw Persephone and Hades there, though his surprise quickly gave way to remembrance. “Oh hey,” he said, with a practiced casualness, turning away from the door and walking back into his apartment in a silent invitation for them to follow. “Weren’t expecting you already.”
Persephone had been anticipating hearing from Katou for a while now. She’d known what she’d felt that day she and Hades had found him on the sidewalk and had known that the magical bandaid she’d used to help him had been a short-term solution to a long-term problem. She also knew, however, that it was easier to pretend a problem wasn’t that big of a deal for as long as possible so the timing of the message from Katou had been a toss up. Even so, she’d been prepared for it. She’d been thinking about his problem since the day they’d met and, though she wasn’t entirely sure what the solution would look like, she knew she wanted to find one.
The only thing she hadn’t been prepared for was finding out that it was also Katou’s birthday because it then had become utterly impossible for her to resist baking him a cake for it. After all, birthdays were meant to be celebrated and Persephone couldn’t help the fact that she needed to make sure his was.
That was why when Katou opened the door, she stood there, just beside Hades, arms full of a cake that was sure to be much more delicious than it was pretty. She took the cue to follow him inside the apartment and shrugged. “I was worried that I wasn’t hurrying fast enough, so it’s good to know we’re early rather than late!” she joked, casting her gaze around for somewhere to set the cake. Not wanting to intrude and clear off space for it, though, she held it out toward him and said, “Happy birthday!”
While Hades’ expression was currently neutral, there was a certain tension about his shoulders that gave away his worry about the situation. Katou was a unique individual, and Hades couldn’t help feeling protective of him. Finding out the troubles he’d been experiencing had set the God’s teeth on edge.
When the door opened, he automatically scanned Katou to assuage his worries about the boy’s condition. He seemed outwardly well enough. And certainly didn’t seem to be in any kind of hurry. Hades nodded a hello and followed Persephone through the door. He echoed her with a “Happy Birthday” of his own.
Katou stared at the cake for a moment as if he’d never seen one before. He had, obviously - hell, someone had bought him a piece of cake earlier, and while Persephone had asked if he liked cake, he hadn’t thought she was going to bake him one. He didn’t think anyone had ever baked him a cake before.
He realized, belatedly, that he’d probably stared too long and grinned, taking the cake like it was his due. “Thanks,” he said. Cake in one hand, he closed his school books with the other and shoved them out of the way to clear a space. “Still don’t really feel like it’s supposta be my birthday, but if it means that I get free shit then I’ll take it. You guys want a slice?”
Persephone let out a small breath of relief that Katou took the cake. She was never quite sure if she was being too much or just enough, but the grin on Katou’s face was evidence enough that the choice to bake the cake had been a good one. She had to smile too at the way he made room for it at the expense of his schoolbooks. She could absolutely appreciate those priorities.
Shaking her head, though, she said, “I’m good! I may or may not have been testing the batter the whole time I was throwing it together, then I licked the spoon. And possibly save a little bit of the icing to eat by itself later.” She moved further into the apartment and resisted the urge to help him clean up if he wanted, not because she thought he needed the help but because she felt a slight tug of protectiveness herself. Like she wanted to help him however she could. She didn’t say anything, though, because the urge reminded her of her own mother and the last thing she wanted to be was Demeter’s brand of overbearing.
“But if you want to have some before we get started, that’s okay!” she added, glancing toward Hades to let him answer for himself.
Hades gave him a soft smile and a shake of the head. “Thank you, but no, I’m fine.” Living with Persephone certainly came with an abundance of baked goods and sweet things. He wanted Katou to have as much as possible for himself or to share with others.
Katou was pretty sure he didn’t actually need to eat anymore - sunshine and water probably did it for him, as far as nutrition went - but eating made him feel a little more normal somehow. Like there was still maybe something of him that resembled a human, even if in actuality there probably wasn’t. Besides, sugar, and chocolate especially, helped settle his nerves.
From the kitchen he grabbed himself a knife, fork, and plate, and he cut himself a piece, plated it, and leaned casually against the counter, plate in hand. He took a bite, gave the cake and then Persephone a surprised, impressed look. “This ain’t bad.”
Persephone couldn’t help herself. She positively beamed when Katou gave her cake his seal of approval. She knew it wasn’t fancy, but she’d hoped he’d enjoy it anyway. She wasn’t sure what kind of bad omen bad cake on your birthday meant, and she certainly didn’t want to find out. This was especially true because she didn’t think Katou needed his situation to get any worse. It wouldn’t, if she had her way.
“Good,” she said, clapping her hands together in delight. “I’ll have to bring you some of my baklava sometime. That’s the thing I’m really good at. In the kitchen, at least. Obviously my Thing is more the plant thing, but you know.” She hesitated, not wanting to dampen the mood, but ultimately decided to press ahead. “Speaking of, we should probably discuss your…situation?”
While Katou busied himself with getting a slice of cake, Hades removed his suit jacket and folded it carefully over the back of a chair. He may not have shared Persephone’s impulse to start cleaning up some of the mess around them, but it was still difficult to ignore. He did his best, however, and found a relatively clear place to sit.
“Tell us everything you’ve been dealing with since we saw you last, please.” His tone was kind, but it still held the air of a no-nonsense parent who wanted the truth. “And don’t try to play anything off as not a big deal this time.”
Katou grimaced. He knew that eventually this was coming - he’d asked Persephone and Hades for their help, after all - but somehow he thought this whole ‘asking for help’ thing would be easier. It wasn’t. He put the cake down.
“I mean, I’m already a corpse, so it really ain’t that big of a deal,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “But it’s been alright so far. It’s been rotting again, a little.” He could see if he looked for it, but if he didn’t, it was as easy to ignore as the mild, earthy scent that wafted up from his shoulder every now and then. “And I’ve been forgetting shi - stuff, is all. Little things, I think, like people’s names or like, what I did this morning or whatever. Nothing important, I don’t think.” He thought he’d know if it was anything important. He had before.
“Before I got here…” He cleared his throat, and dropped his hand from his neck, crossing them across his chest in what he hoped was a casual, carefree manner if no one looked too closely at how tightly he was grabbing his arms. “I lost my arm a while before I got here, so like, by the end - or what I thought was the end, I guess - I didn’t know my sister’s name or like, who I was or whatever. I think Uriel thought he could probably build me a new body or fix this one maybe, but it weren’t like we could just pick up and go back to Hades. ”
Uriel had made the offer, but Katou wasn’t about to abandon everyone when they could still get some use out of him.
Persephone looked at Hades then back at Katou, brow knitted together as she worried at her lip in contemplation. “And forgetting things, that wasn’t something you dealt with before you lost your arm?” She said it casually, but she felt anything but casual about it. He was barely younger than she was and he’d clearly been through quite enough in his thus far short life. It wasn’t productive to linger on how that made her feel, though. This was about Katou and what would help him, so she focused instead on what she thought might solve the issue.
“Hm. And this Uriel? Do you know what his plans were to fix this body?” she asked. “Is it just your arm that gives you fits, or your whole body? I’m just wondering if this is a matter of sustaining life and growth through routine maintenance, or if something like–what do they call it?--prosthetics might help.” She pulled her legs up to her and crossed them as she floated where she’d been stood, wanting to get comfortable as they continued this discussion. “I don’t know how to build a whole new body, so I guess first we really just need to establish if this is something the three of us can solve, and what solution is going to be best for how you want to live your life.”
Hades kept his attention focused on Katou while he spoke, his expression unreadable. However, as impassive as his face may have seemed, he was every bit as concerned as Persephone. He filed each bit of information away to try and piece together a solution.
“If it is limited to your arm, I may be able to help. Healing isn’t really my greatest strength, but I do have the ability to regenerate things to a degree. Giving you an entirely new body would be beyond my talents, but an arm….an arm I can manage.”
“No, not really,” Katou said, and then frowned. “I mean I forgot who I was once for a while, but that’s because Heaven and Hell collapsed and fell on my head. But that was different. That was like… I dunno, a blank slate and I could build new memories, and when Sets -- when my friends found me, it all came back to me. But this is like…” Like sand through an hourglass. Like once it had filtered through, there’d be nothing left to build on again. Like everything that made him him was leaving him until all that was left was his rage and grief, and he had nothing to fight for in this world like he had back home. “I dunno, not like that,” he finished, with a small, tight shrug.
“It sounded like he might try to fix the arm,” he said after a moment. His memories from then were hazy, like they were made of fog. Some of them were more solid than others, but he’d just been trying desperately, at that point, to make it to the end of the fight and a lot of it hadn’t stuck. “It’s the rot, I think. My soul can’t stay in a body that’s rotting like this. There weren’t time to let the original wound heal, and I don’t think Rivet were too worried about how shit might heal when they took my old arm and shoved this one,” he managed to unclench his fingers from his arm - the metal fingernails, he noticed, had left divots in his arm - to give a small wave, “in its place.”
Persephone considered that, running all the things he’d said–and some that he had not–through her thoughts. Once again, she focused on the more immediate threat which was the thought that he might be actively and aggressively dying thanks to the problem with his arm. “What do you think about seeing what Hades can do first, then? I mean, if he can generate an organic new arm that your body won’t reject like it does the one you have now, that might solve the problem.”
She was hopeful that the solution could be that simple, but she was also a realist. Knowing that it was possible that the first solution might not work, she added, “I can also work on helping you sustain life after Hades does what he can, so that we have ample time to find a permanent overall solution that doesn’t depend on me being here. I like to think I’ll be here to help whenever you need it, but we know there’s no guarantee of that.”
Hades took a brief mental step backward from the problem at hand to admire the way Persephone was handling this situation. They may not have the Underworld here to rule over, but she was still every inch a Queen in his opinion. He turned his attention back to Katou and nodded slightly. He agreed that attempting to regenerate the arm was likely their best option at this moment, but it was a decision that only Katou could really make at this time.
Katou frowned, looking down at his metal arm. He opened and closed his fingers a couple times, watching how the wires and the gears moved, both under the leather and where they were visible overtop, like steel tendons. Or something. They probably were some angelic version of steel instead of the stuff itself.
The arm looked cool, he had to admit that much. But when he’d given his old arm to Rivet and asked for this one in return, he’d done so with the understanding that he was giving up his humanity. That from then on, he’d do what he had to do to kill Lucifer and get to the end of the war, no matter the cost and no matter what he had to do.
He didn’t need to be not human anymore. He wasn’t human, but maybe he could live something that was almost a regular life here. Except for the fact that he’d ended the world in what ended up being a failed attempt to take out Lucifer, and that it had been in the light of the Star of Wormwood, the Star that would wipe out two-thirds of creation, that he’d brought to Vallo in the first place. So maybe this whole thing was his just desserts.
He could almost hear Setsuna saying Fuck that in the back of his head. Screw whatever divine punishment they think they can dish out. His lips twitched.
“Yeah, alright,” Katou said, rolling his shoulder. “This thing’s heavy as hell anyway. Might as well see what you can do with it. Ain’t like it can get any worse, right?”
Persephone nodded. "Okay, good, we have a game plan. Should we … get started now? Are you okay with moving that fast? Or do you want time to prepare?"
“I’m fine getting started now if you guys are. Ain’t like there’s anything I gotta do to prepare.” Mentally, maybe, but Katou’d never had a chance to mentally prepare for anything in his life, so why bother starting now?
“The sooner the better.” Hades stood up and began to unbutton and roll up his sleeves. “I think this may be easier if you lie down throughout. The couch, perhaps?”
He wasn’t 100% certain how or even if he was going to manage this, but he would certainly give it his best attempt. Katou deserved it. Once Katou had settled himself down on the couch, Hades knelt down next to him. “Would you mind closing your eyes, please?” The request was spoken in a low, quiet voice. Hades never felt comfortable showing his true form to anyone, and he would need it for what he was about to do.
His skin deepened from it’s regular blue to a dark, midnight color that was dotted with stars. His hair turned black and grew long, flowing out behind him. His eyes flashed a bright blue and power radiated from him. With a deep breath, Hades set to work detaching Katou’s arm and generating a new, healthy one in its place.
The task was complicated, and took some time. There were several moments when Hades was absolutely certain that he wouldn’t be able to do it. A glance at Persephone, however, would renew his determination to find a way.
He sat back against his heels, both mentally and physically exhausted. His true form hadn’t faded, and the stars still dotted his skin. Given the amount of power he’d exerted, he figured it would take a little time to go back to normal. As usual, it made him uncomfortable, but it was worth it. For on the couch in front of him, Katou had a new, strong, flesh and blood arm.
Katou followed Hades' instructions without question, though he did hesitate when it came to closing his eyes. It wasn't that he wanted to watch whatever gruesome process was about to happen, but it was better than not seeing what was happening at all.
Except Hades was okay, and he was doing him a favour, and so Katou grit his teeth and screwed his eyes shut. It wasn't comfortable and it wasn't pleasant, except for the fact that Katou could actually feel something there. Something real, and not just phantom pains or the near-constant ache where his body had been rotting around the prosthetic.
Katou didn't sit up when he opened his eyes. He held his hands in front of his face, comparing them, almost not believing that it was real, and then he glanced at Hades, some distant part of his mind registering the change in appearance but not noting it with any importance. He meant to say something -- maybe not thank you, because Katou didn't say thank you, but something -- but the words caught in throat. He pushed the palms of his hands, both of them soft and warm, against his eyes as if he could shove the tears back inside.
Persephone hadn’t helped much with the actual process, but she found purpose in making sure Hades had all of the support that he needed. It wasn’t an easy process and she could see the effort he was putting into fixing this, into helping Katou. But after what felt like hours, he was done and Katou was…crying?
Her immediate reaction was to panic. She had every confidence in Hades’ skills, but she knew this situation was new to both of them and had been from the moment she’d thought to help Katou on that sidewalk when he’d first shown up. Was Katou hurt? Was it not working? Was his body already rejecting the new arm?
She moved forward and knelt beside Katou, placing a gentle hand on his arm. “Katou? Are you okay?”
Hades reached over and placed his hand comfortingly in the small of Persephone’s back. “He’ll be fine,” he murmured gently to her. “I think it’s just a little overwhelming.” He’d seen the look Katou had given him just moments earlier. It wasn’t pain or panic, or anything else that would have set alarm bells off for him.
He looked to the floor where the prosthetic lay. It seemed much smaller now. Hades made the item vanish. He sent it somewhere he could retrieve it once more if Katou ever asked, but he figured the boy wouldn’t want to see it at this moment. With that done, Hades pushed himself back up to his feet again.
Katou felt another wave of gratitude toward Hades; he was pretty sure that if he’d had to answer Persephone himself, he’d only have managed to lose it even more, probably even complete with his voice cracking, and this was embarrassing enough as it was without turning into a blubbering baby.
After a moment, he managed a breath, only a little shuddering, and sat up, rubbing the rest of the dampness from his eyes with his forearm. “I’m alright,” he confirmed. “I just… I didn’t think…” His voice was wavering again and he was pretty sure if he kept going he was going to start crying again, so he just glared up at the ceiling for a moment instead; if he looked at Persephone and she was looking at him all concerned like, he’d probably just start sobbing again.
And then, he managed, quiet enough that he was almost inaudible, “Thanks.”
Persephone’s features softened as relief flooded her. It seemed that, for now, it had worked, and that was the only thing that mattered. She wanted to move forward and wrap him in a hug, but she didn’t know Katou well enough to know how he felt about personal touch, and didn’t want to violate his boundaries. Hesitating, not wanting to make Katou uncomfortable, she asked, “Is it okay if I give you a hug?”
That did get Katou to look at Persephone, surprised. Katou didn’t mind hugs - brief hugs between friends, or longer hugs meant to annoy said friends. He was, generally, a kinda touchy-feely kind of guy. He tended to drape himself over the shoulders of the people he cared about, or use their laps as pillows, or whatever else. But no one had ever asked him if they could hug him before, and no one had ever hugged him as some sort of comfort or whatever the hell this was supposed to be, and he realized that yeah, he could really use a hug right now.
Except that he was pretty sure if he did accept a hug he’d just start crying again. And anyway, who just said ‘yeah, sure, give me a hug’ like it wasn’t the lamest thing in the world? So instead he crossed his arms, and said, “Whatever. Do what you want.”
Hades almost chuckled. It was very much a response he might have given in his own youth. Instead he just smiled softly and placed a gentle hand on Katou’s shoulder. Partially to provide some physical comfort in the moment, but also partially to help brace him against the exuberant hug he knew Persephone was moments away from bestowing on him.
Hades knew her well, because Persephone took Katou’s consent and jumped forward to wrap her arms around him and pull him into a hug. He was mostly done crying now, and his arms wrapped tightly around her to hug her back which made her heart warm. She had so hoped that this would work and, though she realized they still needed to monitor his progress and make sure there weren’t other side effects to the regrowth, she couldn’t help the joy spreading through her.
Reaching an arm to the side, she pulled Hades to them, as well. Group hugs were part of the treatment plan now.