Chapter Text
Hadestown Pt.4
Yoongi had never seen Hades before, but it couldn’t be anyone but him. He wasn’t much taller than any ordinary person, but he towered over them with a presence that seemed to stretch all the way to the cavern ceiling.
“Now, don’t be shy.” Though hardly above a drawl, his voice filled the air with a low vibration. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
Yoongi hadn’t realized he’d been backing up until he felt Hoseok’s hands on his arms.
“Cat got your tongue?” Hades cocked his head in mock sympathy. “Cat must have gotten your papers, too, I should hope, or you’d best run back where you came from.”
“Yoongi,” Hoseok whispered.
Yoongi disentangled himself from Hoseok’s clinging arms and bowed deeply. “King Hades, if you’ll forgive me, I believe there’s been a mistake.”
“A mistake.”
Yoongi felt like a speck of dust on the floor, but he drew himself up to his full height.
“Yoongi, no.” Hoseok spun him back around to face him. “You should go.”
“Not without you.”
“Now this is interesting,” said Hades while they both tried to crowd each other out of his sight. “What do we have here?”
“There’s been a mistake,” said Yoongi firmly. “I came to bring him home.”
Hades threw back his head and laughed.
“And just who do you think you are?” he boomed, all traces of mirth gone in an instant. “To creep into my domain and tell ME I’m mistaken. You’re sorely mistaken, if you think you can take what’s mine.”
Yoongi cowered involuntarily back against Hoseok, but tried to sound brave anyway when he spoke up. “He’s not yours.”
“Actually I am,” said Hoseok rather miserably.
Yoongi rounded on him. “What?”
“I signed his contract.” Hoseok looked like he expected to be hit, and like he might not even resent it.
“What kind of contract means-“ Yoongi silenced himself in time avoid a probable godly smiting. “You couldn’t mention this earlier? I thought were coming with me,” he hissed.
“Yeah, secretly.” Hoseok hissed back, but then expression softened, and he gently took Yoongi’s tense arms. “It’s okay, Yoongi-hyung.”
“It’s not.” Yoongi felt like shouting, but he didn’t dare shout at Hades, and he didn’t want to shout at Hoseok. “I’m not going to just turn around and leave you!”
“Now isn’t that touching,” said Hades. “Where have I seen this before… Namjoon!”
Yoongi’s heart plummeted, but he arranged his face into what he hoped was a mask of non-recognition when Namjoon appeared.
“This young man is demanding I return something that isn’t his. Do you recall anything like this happening before?”
Namjoon’s stony expression didn’t so much as twitch. “Yes sir.”
“And what became of them?”
“They both stayed.”
“Indeed,” Hades intoned. “If the two of you are so determined not to be separated, that would be an acceptable solution. I can always use extra hands around here.”
“No!” Hoseok seemed to have startled himself as well as the rest of them, but he recovered quickly and turned to Hades. “That’s more generous than we deserve, but Yoongi needs to go home. He won’t cause any more trouble for you.”
Yoongi turned to glare at him. “And what if I do want to stay with you?”
“You don’t.” Hoseok leveled him with a stare of his own, which quickly evaporated once he saw the hurt in Yoongi’s face. “Please, hyung. Do you want to watch me forget you again, and have me watch you forget me?”
Yoongi didn’t.
“Then that’s decided,” said Hades as cheerfully as the Lord of the Dead could sound. “Back home you go.”
“Just a minute.” It was now or never. Yoongi set his fingers to the strings of his guitar and opened his mouth to begin a half-finished song.
Hades snatched the guitar from his hands before he could play a note. “Get out.”
Yoongi stood shaken where he was while his mind raced for a plan. He threw himself dramatically into Hoseok’s arms, and Hoseok hugged him tight.
“Run with me,” Yoongi whispered in his ear.
“That’s a terrible idea,” Hoseok whispered back.
“What do you have to lose?”
“You!”
“Well how do you think I feel?”
After a long silence, Hoseok let go of him in favor of giving his hands a squeeze. “Okay.”
“Okay?” Yoongi breathed.
“Go.”
Yoongi ran. Blindly, as fast as he could, knowing Hoseok could usually outpace him and not wanting the other to hold back and risk getting caught on his account. But he couldn’t hear Hoseok’s footfalls or breath behind him, nor could he hear anyone else giving chase, and he risked his speed for a glance over his shoulder.
Hoseok stood where he’d left him, a stricken look on his face. Yoongi ground to a halt.
“I see,” murmured Hades. The very walls seemed to suck in a breath. “Show him what happens to impertinent trespassers like him.”
Workers, formerly part of the landscape, put down their shovels and advanced on him. Hoseok’s pleas for him to be left alone seemed to fall on deaf ears, and Yoongi got ready to defend himself as best he could. He was sorely outnumbered, and the workers were strong, and soon it was all he could do to try to shield himself as the blows rained down.
Hoseok would have run to Yoongi’s aid, but Namjoon caught him by the arm and held him fast.
“Let me go!” he protested.
“They won’t kill him,” said Namjoon, as if that made things all better.
“This doesn’t concern you any longer,” said Hades. “You’ve wasted enough of your use as it is.”
“But-“
“Your friend will crawl out of here as fast as he can if he knows what’s good for him. Isn’t that what you want?”
“You don’t have to hurt him first!”
“Evidently, I do.”
Hoseok bit back a remark that would have gotten him beaten up, too, or worse. Before he had a chance to go on and say it anyway, Hades was gone, and Namjoon was dragging him away from Yoongi and his attackers. Hoseok dug in his heels to try to get back to him, but it was no use.
“Stop!” called a new voice.
A smallish man- not a man, a god- came hurrying toward the scene. His black clothes did little to dull the glow that seemed to emanate from him- not the fiery glow of the ironworks, nor the artificial glow of the big industrial lights, but a soft, outdoor kind of glow- like a spring morning after a long, cold night.
“Namjoon, stop this!” Jimin, for that was who it had to be, blustered toward them more like a spring storm.
“It’s the boss’s orders,” said Namjoon.
Jimin snorted. “Everybody STOP!” he hollered, and Hoseok jumped.
The attack on Yoongi stopped instantly.
“Thank you,” said Jimin.
Hoseok craned to try to see Yoongi as Namjoon continued to usher him away, but now Jimin partially blocked his view as well. Yoongi seemed able to sit upright in his own, while Jimin knelt over him and tried to coax his hands away from his head.
“Make sure he finds his way out,” Namjoon called.
Jimin gave a thumbs up.
“Wait-“
“He’s in safe hands,” said Namjoon.
Hoseok would rather Yoongi be in his hands, but then Yoongi would probably refuse to leave again, and that was no good. None of it was any good. Hoseok had to fight against himself and the way his face twisted of its own accord. He’d been a fool to actually believe he could just run off with Yoongi and escape, but he’d been so overjoyed to see Yoongi, and had felt so safe with him, that he’d let himself believe there was a chance. Now Yoongi had to pay the price for it all, and neither of them would be any better off.
At least they’d sort of gotten a goodbye, Hoseok thought. He’d have liked to go to Yoongi and make sure he’d really be alright, and tell him he was sorry and ask him to remember him, please, but he’d have to be content with just knowing Yoongi would get out. He’d been content with just knowing Yoongi was alive before, so it could be enough.
So deep was he in his own melancholy thoughts that he didn’t register at first that Yoongi was singing.
Yoongi didn’t sing often. He claimed he wasn’t good at it, that he was only good at words or melody but not both at once. He was absolutely incorrect, however, and now the mere sound of his voice was enough to break down the last of Hoseok’s resolve and bring him to tears.
It was like remembering his entire life, but… more. The song wasn’t even about him personally at all, but he was important, precious, even, and so was the world he’d almost forgotten. Not perfect, not even always very good, but he was filled with such yearning that he felt he could find his way back by will alone.
“Hoseok?” said a soft voice right next to him.
Hoseok looked up in confusion and met a pair of equally bewildered brown eyes.
“… Jungkook?”
“That’s my name!” Jungkook beamed at him, his eyes crinkling up at the corners.
“How are you…”
“Jungkook-ah?”
Jungkook whipped around and jumped into Seokjin’s arms. While the two brothers hugged, Hoseok looked back for Yoongi who wasn’t looking at any of them, but instead staring off toward the end of the cavern. He ached to go to him, but something held him back, maybe the lingering knowledge that he couldn’t really, or the guilt of trying to trick him so cruelly before.
But nothing was holding Seokjin back. He took Jungkook by the hand, and they both left their places, followed by a tide of others. Their hands were empty of shovels or buckets, and their eyes were clear.
Yoongi didn’t know what he’d done, but he seemed to have amassed an army. It was unnerving to have so many people watching him, some of them the very ones who had attacked him without hesitation at Hades’s command. But they were different now, alive, and seeming to hang on his every word. He was about out of words now, however, never a believer in dragging out a song just for its own sake.
The cavern was silent after he finished, and then a murmur went up among the crowd- talking among themselves- something he’d never seen them do before. Somewhere, a lone voice was screaming for order, but no one listened.
“You know the way out?” said a broad-shouldered man about Yoongi’s own age.
“I do. But I don’t know if I can bring any of you with me.” He searched the assembly for Hoseok, but couldn’t find him.
“We’ll come with you anyway,” said someone much younger. “They can’t stop all of us.”
More streamed in from the passage, and far away, with several loud bangs, the rumble of machinery ground to a stop.
“Okay,” said Yoongi, and he didn’t sound very sure, so he tried again. “Alright! This way!”
He scanned for Hoseok again. The crowd pushed forward, and Yoongi was carried along with them.
“ENOUGH!”
The Hades that stood in their path was a far different Hades than the one Yoongi had encountered before: neat jacket undone, hair mussed with sweat, and face red with fury. Less intimidating, perhaps, but far more dangerous. Held by a painful grip on his ear, Namjoon was trying to cringe away from him, but he couldn’t get far.
“What is the meaning of this!” Hades released Namjoon and sent him stumbling. “I should have done this long ago.” He raised his hand, and power crackled in the air.
“It was me!” Yoongi rushed forward. “It was all me. I stirred them up to revolt.”
“ You? ” Yoongi shrank under the ferocious stare. “I thought I told you to leave.”
“Well I didn’t.” Yoongi raised his chin. He was beyond dead already, he might as well draw as much of Hades’s wrath as possible upon himself instead of Namjoon or the others. A hand slipped into his, and he almost regretted his decision when he saw Hoseok there- almost. He gave Hoseok’s hand a squeeze and let him go.
Instead of smiting him to atoms or banishing his soul to some lightless place, Hades studied him for a long, appraising moment.
“Young man.” It was said with a near-chuckle and- maybe it was just Yoongi imagining things- a hint of admiration. “Well I have to hand it to you, you don’t scare easily. To come all this way, charm my guards at the gate, and stir the whole underworld to rebellion- it’s impressive, I’ll give you that.”
Yoongi waited for the inevitable shift.
“And I must say, my Jimin is quite taken with you and your music. Did you know I keep him for a similar purpose? A canary, if you will.”
Hoseok was holding his hand again, and Yoongi couldn’t bring himself to let go again.
“You obviously have a gift, to turn this whole rabble against their employer on a dime. So I’ll tell you what.”
Yoongi knew he was squeezing the life out of Hoseok’s hand now.
“One more song,” said Hades. “Before I put you out of your misery and send you where no one can hear you again, one more. I expect to be moved.”
Yoongi stepped away from Hoseok without looking at him and accepted his guitar from Jimin. He tuned for a long minute, until Hades cleared his throat. Finally, Yoongi began to play.
It’s hard to describe a song in words. Hoseok knew this firsthand, but he wished he could think of an accurate description of this song to hold on to, even after the sound of the melody and the words themselves had faded from his memory. He’d repeat it over and over to himself long after he forgot his own name again, just to have something so beautiful to hold on to.
The sound of the guitar reverberated in the cavern until it seemed Yoongi’s fingers must be playing the walls themselves. Had it not been the home of Hades and a place of suffering, Yoongi might have been at home in the deep places of the earth himself: strong and steady, his voice a smooth rumble. Some other voice joined him and rose like sunlight off spring snow twining among the columns and shadows until nothing could be hidden any more: Jimin. Hoseok felt his heart was also illuminated and laid bare, so softly that he hardly minded, because it was a compassionate light that gently coaxed him to bring his secret thoughts forward rather than dragging them into its beam by force. Curious, Hoseok looked to see how Hades was faring under the song’s light.
The god wasn’t moving, still as the stone Hoseok thought his heart must be carved from. He was smaller than Hoseok remembered, no more than a man in a suit. He wasn’t, of course; he was still the Lord of the Dead, which would soon include Yoongi and Namjoon and quite possibly Hoseok too- if they were afforded the kindness of actually dying, but- Hades bowed his head and wept, and hope glimmered in Hoseok’s heart.
When the last strains of the song hovered breathless in the air, before they had settled back to earth, Hades swept from the room like a gust of wind. Yoongi’s guitar hung silent in his hands, and he seemed to be trying to search Jimin’s face for an answer he didn’t have. Hoseok didn’t dare move for fear of breaking whatever spell had settled over the whole underworld, and neither, it seemed, did anyone else.
“Nice job,” said a deep voice, and Yoongi jumped.
“Taehyung?”
“Long time no see. Hoseok.” He nodded to him.
“I thought you couldn’t be here,” said Yoongi.
“I’m the messenger of the gods, and Hades sent for me.”
“Ah.”
Friendly and humble, for a god, Taehyung had never seemed very intimidating to Hoseok, but now bearing the word of Hades, he seemed nearly as fearsome. “He doesn’t wish to speak to you directly.”
Yoongi replaced his guitar on his back and offered Hoseok a crooked smile. The air was too tense to speak to each other. Around them, the inhabitants of Hadestown were almost as eerily still as they’d been before.
“I’m summoned,” said Taehyung. “Good luck.”
Hoseok felt positively sick, and he was probably hurting Yoongi’s arm, which he hadn’t realized he was clinging to. Taehyung brushed a hand across Jimin’s taut shoulders as he left. Hoseok looked over to see Jungkook and Seokjin holding Namjoon protectively between them.
When Taehyung returned with a carefully blank expression, Hoseok had to fight not to throw up all over the god’s winged shoes.
“Well?” said Yoongi carefully.
“The good news is, you can go.”
“We can?”
“We can?”
The crowd of souls pressed closer.
“What’s the bad news?” Hoseok dreaded to ask.
“You can go freely, both of you” said Taehyung with a strange twist of his mouth. “But you, Yoongi, have to walk in front, and Hoseok behind.”
“Why?”
“If you turn around to look, even for a moment, he goes back to Hadestown, and there’s nothing you can do.”
“But why?” Hoseok insisted.
Taehyung raised an eyebrow. “An easy fix.”
Yoongi was scowling. “It must be a trick.”
“No,” said Taehyung sternly. “A test.”
“I believe it.” Hoseok took Yoongi’s hands and turned him to face him. “It won’t be that hard. I’ll keep talking to you so you know I’m really there, and we’ll be out before you know it. Just make sure not to turn around.”
Yoongi grimaced.
“We can do it.” Hoseok squeezed his hands and wiggled them around a little for good measure. “I trust you.”
“Okay,” Yoongi breathed. “Stay close. If you need me to slow down or wait for you, tell me.”
“I will.”
“I’m trusting you, too.”
“Good.” Hoseok gave him a big smile. “Ready?”
“I guess so. Hoseok?” Yoongi looked him full in the eye, and Hoseok almost crumbled under the worry he saw swimming there. “ Don’t leave me again.”
“I won’t. I promise.”
“Please.”
“I’m sorry.” Hoseok pulled him close. “I only thought of saving you, and I’m sorry for lying. We’re getting out together now.” He bonked their foreheads gently together. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Yoongi took a deep breath. Then looked at Namjoon who gave a slight nod. If they could do it, the others might as well.
“See you outside,” said Hoseok, and they turned to go.
It was immediately clear to Yoongi how much more difficult the task would be than to simply walk forward. The passages around them had the same disorienting effect that they had when Yoongi came in, but even more now that he was trying to keep track of someone behind him. Sometimes, Hoseok’s voice seemed to come from directly over his shoulder, sometimes only the faintest echo.
“I’ll let you catch up.”
“I’m right behind you, hyung,” said Hoseok from what sounded like a mile away.
Against every instinct, Yoongi kept walking. His own footfalls echoed until it sounded like two, three, four, a hundred people were walking with him. Then it was as if the walls swallowed all sound altogether, and even his own feet were silent. He hadn’t heard from Hoseok in a long time.
“Hoseok?” No answer. Yoongi stopped. “Hoseok, are you there?”
He stood for a long time, calling occasionally, but there was never any reply. Finally, he made himself keep walking. Hoseok was either there or he wasn’t, and everything in Yoongi screamed against walking off without being sure, but he couldn’t look back.
It had become a mantra of sorts, lest he forget even for a moment and doom his best friend with a single careless glance.
Don’t look back. Don’t look back.
Don’t.
Look.
Back.
Don’t look back, you child of earth
All your songs they have no worth
All your words and all your rhymes
Can’t help him another time
Why would Hades let you win?
Who are you to resist him?
A trap, a trick, the scheme of a god
To let you go was all a fraud
Where is he you call your friend?
He forgot you once, he’ll forget you again
His own name he can’t recall
He won’t remember you at all
Or let you go and save your skin
He wouldn’t let you rescue him
On you walk, and on and on
Behind you he’s already gone
There’s the light, you’re almost free
But where is he? Where is he?