Chapter Text
He breathed in, feeling his lungs almost exploding with pain of being used after so long of staying completely asleep. But he didn’t know where it was coming from or why, for that matter, everything hurt so much. He coughed up and hands caught him, strong and steady, lifting him gently. He felt himself being nestled against someone’s side, his head too heavy to keep it upright yet.
“Lord Hades?” soft voice called, but there was no reaction; the one that was called still too dazed to reply, or even understand what was going on.
He only knew his head was throbbing, bitter taste in his mouth. Still, the presence by his side was warm and slowly he drifted into slumber once more.
***
“What the fuck is going on?” Kagaho hissed in the moment he felt body in his arms going completely limp; again. He looked almost madly at twin gods. If it wasn’t for Hades…
Thanatos stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the nearest wall, while Hypnos was crouching down next to the bed. His expression was serious and just a little bit troubled.
Usually when the seal broke, Hades was the first one to wake up, his cosmos slowly reviving specters and fixing what should have been fixed in the Underworld. His vessel was never ready yet, at that time, but it didn’t stop his soul from taking its image.
But once the kingdom has awoken without its king.
Hypnos was utterly shocked when he could feel flickering aura of Hades’ energy, but the God itself was not present. He has been found dead-asleep in his tomb, not reacting to any motion, words, or even at Hypnos trying to lift this weird spell. But even the God of Sleep couldn’t lift something he didn’t cast, in the first place.
Other than being comatose, Hades seemed alright. It was enough, however, for Kagaho to see red out of concern and anger. The pillars he crashed were falling like matches.
It has been a week since Hades has been taken from the cold and hard crypt to the bed in his palace and Kagaho has been continuously dotting on him. He massaged his muscles, making sure they were not stiff or sore from disuse. He brushed his hair and changed his position couple of times throughout the day, always minding how Hades liked to rest, before all that happened. He was wiping his dry mouth with a satin, wet cloth.
But Hades didn’t react. And now, when they hoped he would wake up, the God just fall asleep again.
“Kagaho, mind your words. You’re talking to a God.” Hypnos raised his eyebrow disapprovingly, but it wasn’t like it made any impact on him. His God was lying lifeless in his arms, head lolling against his shoulder.
“What the fuck is going on?” Kagaho repeated instead and Thanatos approached them, this time.
He grabbed Hades’ by the chin, but overly gently (the gentleness wasn’t like him, really) and stared at him. He was doing this so often it started creeping Kagaho out. He doubted he could read anything from that face, anyway. It was like made out of marble; not even a single twitch went through it.
Hades’ skin was usually white as milk, flawless, but now it seemed sickeningly grey. That was making Kagaho nauseated. Just the mere thought that his lord could have been hurt only because he wasn’t revived yet made him go insane. Unluckily, though, he had no idea where this anger should be placed.
Hypnos and Thanatos tried to reassure him no one has ever entered the Underworld when all their inhabitants were sealed, but then again Hades was never in this state, either!
The moment he was revived, Kagaho was both relieved and shocked. He thought that after he had betrayed Hades’ trust during the last Holy War and decided to help Alone, the God would never decide to depend on him again.
He hoped the revival would be perfect opportunity to claim all his sins on his knees, in front of real Hades and not some pathetic vessel… But he wasn’t given even that. He wanted to prove his loyalty, assure Hades such a thing would never happen again… And now no one knew what the hell was wrong. Pandora has been either weeping or lying to Specters that Hades was still recovering from the seal and everything just seemed like a complete chaos.
Even twin gods couldn’t do anything about it.
In fact, twin gods seemed rather terrified. Calmer Hypnos immediately began to look for clues, he kept on inspecting Hades’ body, read tons of books. Thanatos, on the other hand, went almost as feral as Kagaho. All nymphs disappeared from Elysion when he started yelling curses, wanting to immediately find whoever was responsible for that. Kagaho sympathized with him on that matter, but Hypnos quickly talked them down, ”And who else will protect Lord Hades if both of you are gone?”.
“The seal is different.” Thanatos said, placing Hades’ cheek back against Kagaho’s shoulder. Keeping his head from dropping down again, Kagaho cupped his chin gently, fighting the urge to yell so long until his throat won’t be bleeding. They have already established that! But it didn’t give them any answers.
“No shit Sherlock.” Kagaho muttered under his breath. If not the fact he was holding Hades, Thanatos would probably already smack him a couple of times. He only hissed, though, and took a step back, like afraid of not being able to hold it in himself.
“Shut up you both.” Hypnos shushed quickly, getting up. Kagaho didn’t think he was going to leave, the two of them were barely leaving him alone with Hades anyway. One part of him was grateful for that, the other, not at all.
Kagaho tried to tell himself they were as worried as he was, but it didn’t always work. Sometimes, though, seeing black holes under Hypnos’ eyes, on his usually perfectly godly face, made him feel bad for them. After all, they were Hades’ closest assistants. If Kagaho failed to protect him, so did they. It must have weighted on them heavily. Twin gods were indifferent, caring for no one… Except themselves and Hades, probably. Maybe they didn’t know him as good as Kagaho (unless?), but they did know him the longest. Hades trusted them enough to confide them his body.
“The progress is little, but it’s there. Perhaps Lord Hades will awake in a couple of days.”
then, he moved on the other side of bed and slowly began rearranging the pillows on it. There was a lot of them and when Pandora offered to take some away, Kagaho almost cut her mid-sentence. He knew and remembered Hades loved being comfortable and soft; when he was resting without Kagaho he had pillows all over himself. When he was resting with him, it was usually on top of the other and the specter didn’t, just didn’t let himself be convinced that it was Alone, not Hades.
Obviously, they were mixing up from time to time; Alone perfected imitating Hades to the extent of being almost his copy. But despite these moments Kagaho knew to which one of them he was talking. Alone wasn’t used to luxuries, Hades was. They were in one body, but so different. And Kagaho… Cherished them both.
Long and mournful howl echoed from the deeper part of the palace and Kagaho was pretty sure Thanatos rolled his eyes. He had seen this expression so much past couple of days he was almost growing used to it.
“Lord Hades spoiled this dog so much and now no one can tame him.” he heard how Thanatos murmured, almost disgusted, as he slowly lowered Hades back on the bed, tucking him in with heavy blankets.
Cerberus was Hades favorite. Each time the seal broke he was waiting for his master at the gates of the Underworld, wagging his tail excitedly. The moment Hades appeared he was all over him, barking and jumping, like he wasn’t three headed beast. To Hades, in fact, he wasn’t. Cerberus was so used to acting like a puppy around him, yet at the same time he had never let Hades to be harmed in any way. He could have been in the deepest parts of Hell, yet still came running and knocking everything on his way when he felt Hades was distressed. Hades was often seen by Pandora settled by Cerberus’ side, sometimes almost completely hidden against his fluffy tails; it seemed like he found it relaxing.
Now Cerberus was nothing but pain in the ass. He did feel there was something wrong; Underworld was lively, but Hades did not come to greet him yet. He was often howling painfully, baring teeth at everyone who approached him and who wasn’t Hades.
Even beast like him was heartbroken.
“Stop complaining and go bring him, Thanatos. Army will go insane if he keeps acting like this.” if the situation was different, Kagaho would have laughed his ass off at Thanatos. If the situation was different, the God of Death would probably never agree on that, bickering with his brother until the end of the world. Now, though, Thanatos only sent him threatening gaze and left the chamber.
Somehow, Kagaho ended up with twin gods and Cerberus all in the same room. While twin gods kept their respectful distance from Hades unless it was really necessary, Cerberus rested his all three heads at the feet of the bed, blinking at his master. His gaze was almost sad and Kagaho was damn glad, for once, that Hades bed was so big, otherwise the beast would nothing but squeeze their God into a pulp.