Chapter Text
Tartarus, as unfriendly a name as it was, was the premier summer camp for adults. Adult families, corporate teams, couples, all sorts of people made the journey out into the Underwoods to stay in the cramped cabins, eat mediocre food, and participate in grueling team-building activities.
How Hades ended up in charges of such an organization was a mystery to his only son, Zagreus. Well, mystery in the sense that it made no sense. Zagreus knew the story from his uncles - their father left them three businesses after his death, and they drew straws. Hades drew the short straw in every sense of the word. While Poseidon owns a series of worldwide water parks and aquariums and Zeus an entire luxury airline, Hades had just one quiet campground.
Some kids dreams of sleepaway camp. Zagreus had lived with it all his days, and now in his twenties with no sign of ever escaping the dense woods, he had to say it wasn't so great.
Maybe it would be better if his father didn't keep the most important, most vital work locked away in his office, never trusting the young, if dedicated Zagreus to touch it. Which was fair, considering Zagreus was no good with the business side of things. Particularly when no one thought to teach him.
It was easier as an adult, really. As a child he was completely bereft of anyone his age. It left him lonely, small, inadequate compared to the towering figures always around him.
His days at the camp would have been completely unbearable if not for Achilles, his mentor and one of his father's most loyal staff members. He met his every task with a calm, content sort of focus that lived in contrast to Zagreus's more untamed, unpolished ways. But it was that endless patience that allowed Zagreus to learn from him, survival skills, building, woodworking, cooking, even how to fight. It was a close bond, something like an elder brother, perhaps. And it was the only thing that kept Zagreus sane through the endless summer that was his home.
"We're getting a new group in today," Achilles told Zagreus, reviewing the bit of paperwork detailing their new campers. "A family. Wealthy, it seems."
"Everyone who comes here is wealthy," Zagreus muttered, focused on the bit of carving he was doing. He was trying to made a wooden version of their dog, the enormous and endearing great dane. The ears required a steady hand and careful breath.
With that part done, he released a breath and relaxed. "So new people? Entirely new?"
Achilles nodded. "Yes, seems someone your mother recommended visit."
"Hm?" That caught his attention, as Achilles knew it would.
Zagreus had spent the past five years hunting down the woman who had given birth to him, despite his father's every warning and threat and act of sabotage. And now Persephone was among them again, building a garden just as she built a relationship with the son she thought lost.
"Someone she knows?"
Achilles shrugged. "I would presume. You should ask her."
"I will," he said, stowing the carving blade and his Cerberus-themed project.
Finding his mother was strangely difficult, despite his near-perfect knowledge of the campgrounds. Perhaps it was because she was still so new, only a few months back into this new version of an old life. He always expected her to be in her garden, but he never seemed to catch her in those moments. After some poking around, he found her cleaning out one of the cabins.
The cabin doors were propped open with a hefty rock. Persephone was stepping outside and down the cabin’s steps, arms laden with dark bags of trash.
"Mother, let me handle that," he said.
He stepped forward, gently taking the bags from her arms.
"Good morning Zagreus," she said. "Warm one, isn't it?"
"It's always hot here. Achilles said you're expecting a friend."
She gestured back to the cabin, furniture splayed about and more bags of trash within. Dust, he'd assume. "A friend of both of ours - your father and mine. I'm clearing this one out for her. I take it you haven't met Nyx?"
"No, though if Father had her visit there's a good chance he kept me busy so he wouldn't have to itnriduce me."
"Don't be silly, Nyx will like you just fine."
"Nyx isn't the problem," Zagreus muttered, setting the bags on the grass. He might as well pull all of them out and help his mother finish cleaning before taking them to the dumpster. "She's coming with family?"
Following his mother inside, Zagreus found the cabin to be empty aside from the base furniture. This particular cabin was one of their larger ones, but it was also a bit on the edge of camp, so not terribly popular. Their larger cabins were more like connected cabins, attached with a door like a hotel suite. This one had a small main area and three "bedrooms". They had other cabins available, but he supposed his mother had her reasons for fixating on this one.
All of the decor was mysteriously gone, not that they kept much around if Zagreus himself didn't put it up. The sheets and mattresses were gone, all the doors wide open, windows sparkling clean and as open as they would go.
Persephone plucked the broom from its place against the wall and set about knocking a few cobwebs from the ceiling. "Yes, Nyx and her family. Well, some of her family. Her daughters couldn't make it - they're very busy women I understand. But Nyx and her parent and her two sons. I haven't seen her sons in, well, since before you were born."
Older, then. Zagreus deflated a little. He was an adult now, yes, but the prospect of there being anyone his age around would never cease to fill him with a childlike excitement.
"I think she and her parents are hoping to reconnect. They fell out of touch for a long time. Different circumstances than ours, of course, but distant all the same. I got back in touch with her when I came back, so I'm just learning about them reconnecting. I told her she ought to come out here, get some quiet time together. She decided to invite her children, likely to avoid the same problem with them down the line."
"That's thoughtful of her," he said. "So I'm guessing she's not the mattress type?"
"Hm?" Persephone paused to stare at him. "Oh! No, of course she is. I took everything out to get it cleaned properly. Started washing all the sheets we had covering the furniture, set Meg about cleaning the mattresses last night so they should be done any moment. Had to rush order some new sheets - we've gotten dangerously low."
"That's what I told Father two months ago," Zagreus agreed, mother and son sharing a moment of exasperation. "He said the sheets were fine as they were, that no one had complained yet."
"He's not an easy man to complain to."
"Exactly!"
Persephone chuckled, sweeping up the last of the dust that had fallen to the floor. "You'll help me finish preparing? I could use your eye for decor to make this place a little more comfortable for them."
Zagreus smiled. "Of course."
It took them the rest of the morning, several gallons of water, and a great deal of sweat to get the cabin sorted. From Zagreus's stockpile of unapproved purchases they found a collection of small rugs, a few lamps, some pictures and art, and a few odds and ends to fill the cabin's rooms with.
"Are you sure they'll like it?" Zagreus asked as they reviewed their work. He dragged a hand through his hair and winced at how wet it was. This summer would be a rough one. "It's a bit dark."
"They're that sort," she said. "I don't think I've ever seen Nyx in anything brighter than burgundy. I remember the boys being quite similar. Well, Hypnos less so. Hm."
Zagreus laughed, imagining a dramatically goth family. "I'll make sure to keep an eye on them for signs of heatstroke."
She nodded severely. "You probably should. Oh-- You were joking. Zagreus!"
She laughed and jostled him slightly. And wasn't it nice to have a parent with a sense of humor after all these years? Even Achilles had a severe mood about him always.
"Persephone?" came a smooth, low feminine voice.
They turned from their place in the cabin's doorway to see the promised Nyx and family.
The only woman present, whom Zagreus assumed to be Nyx, was tall and sleight and willowy with dark, almost purple-black hair and a deep purple ensemble that granted some legitimacy to his concerns on heatstroke. Persephone rushed forward to embrace her, laughing out a greeting in her jubilant way.
"All these years, and you're just the same as I remember," Persephone said as she pulled back. "You look marvelous Nyx."
"You, too, have aged well," Nyx said, the faintest smile on her lips. She glanced up, over Persephone's head to Zagreus intently. There was something intense about her expression without being aggressive. She seemed wise, and he supposed she must be to be friends with both his parents.
"Zagreus, this is Nyx," Persephone said, stepping out of their way.
Still coated in a film of dust and sweat and heat, Zagreus kept his distance with a polite, "It's good to meet you, Nyx."
Another tiny smile. "And a pleasure to meet you, at last."
"Oh goodness!" Persephone cried, hurrying across the group to a pair of young men. "Look at the two of you! You can't be the boys I remember!"
"But they are," Nyx assured her, and Zagreus wondered if there wasn't the tiniest hint of a joke in her voice. "Children seem to grow, despite my best efforts."
"It's all the sleep, they tell me!" said one of the two men, a little shorter and with bright silver, curling hair. He looked half-asleep even as he stood there, though his voice was light and energetic. "Though maybe that's why I came out so much shorter than Thanatos!"
The other young man made a noise in his throat, perhaps agreement or agitation? He was in fact taller, with more tanned skin but matching silver hair. He wore a kind of black tank top, but the kind that inexplicably came with a hood. He lowered his hood to greet Persephone, listening politely as she raved about how handsome the two had become.
Not so much older, after all, Zagreus thought. Alright, this summer might be a good one after all.