Chapter Text
As soon as his phone starts vibrating on the nightstand next to him, Thanatos considers death.
Smother himself with a pillow, maybe? Burrow so deep into his bed they won’t be able to find him for months? Both sound promising.
He’d just gotten settled in bed after rejecting Hypnos’ proposition of playing Wii Sports Resort for the third time because that’s not a normal thing to do at 3 in the morning, seriously, go to sleep. He had work early in the morning and as of right now was only scheduled for 4 hours and 17 minutes of sleep. This phone call could seriously cut into that precious time.
Nonetheless, he grumbled and stuck an arm out blindly to search for the offending device, retrieving it only to accept the call and shove it against his ear with a tense, “What?” without even checking caller ID.
“Than!” he hears Zagreus say, probably the last person he expected to be calling him, “You sound mad.”
His mood instantly softens at his presence, but even Zag’s cheerfulness isn’t enough to fully sate him. “Well, I was about to fall asleep,” Than retorts.
“Right. About that. So sorry, seriously, I would not be calling you at this time if I didn’t need to, really.”
“What do you want.”
“Wow, so judgy! You know, you’re much nicer in the day when–”
Something clicks in his mind. “Have you been hanging out with Dionysus?”
Silence.
“Zag.”
“How could you tell?” he asks, slightly quieter than before.
Than sighs. “You always start talking like him after spending time together. Are you drunk?”
“No, no!” Zag insists, “I just– well, we were together, and I was supposed to go hang with ‘Dite after but I got totally sidetracked with Dionysus, and we ended up going to that shitty pet store in the mall ‘cause he said they just got new puppies and ugh, it’s been so long since I’ve seen Cerberus so I thought–”
“Zagreus,” Than interrupts, patience thinning, “the point.”
“Right! The point, well. Basically, I accidentally stood up Aphrodite so then she called Dio and told him I said he was lame last week which I didn’t,” he adds pointedly, “but they both got mad at me and now I’m stranded at the mall with no ride home.”
He tries to process this insane amount of information with his sleep-addled brain. It’s partially successful. “It’s three in the morning,” he adds, “how late was this pet store even open?”
“Heh, well, they closed at eleven, but then Dio and I got food after and he just got a new skateboard and was trying to show me how to kickflip, which did not work,” he laments, “then ‘Dite called and we had, like, an hour long argument in his car. It was not fun.”
“So you need me to come pick you up,” he finishes.
“Yes,” Zag says guiltily, “I didn’t know who else to call. Meg is still super pissed at me and I have the feeling this isn’t the reunion Father has in mind so–”
“No, I’m glad you called. Text me the address,” he blurts out.
“Oh, Than, bless you, I’ll buy you a coffee tomorrow, yeah? I knew I could count on you, you always–”
“The address, Zagreus,” Than reminds him before he can start laving on compliments again. He holds the phone between his shoulder and ear as he roots around for a tank top and some sweats. He nearly forgets his glasses on the nightstand in his haste, throwing them on last minute but wishing he’d kept his contacts in.
“Right! I’ll text it now. Thanks so much, see you soon!” Zagrues says, hanging up. As predicted his phone pings seconds later with an address, and after nearly falling on the floor trying to put on shoes he’s ready. This is not how he expected to spend his Sunday night– Monday morning? But it beats staring at the ceiling cursing whatever God thought it was funny to make him an insomniac while his brother could sleep twenty out of the twenty-four hours in a day.
He toes quietly around Hypnos’ room, knowing despite the LED lights blasting from under the door and loud music he’s surely sleeping. Nyx’s room is across the hall so he’s less scared about waking her, and soon enough he’s outside and instantly regretting his attire. A thin white tank-top is proving ineffective against the cold that hits him like a truck.
He grumbles and cranks the heat. For Zagreus, he thinks.
*
If it weren’t horribly early in the morning, the sight of Zagreus lying down in a massive mall parking lot, head resting on a concrete parking block would cause Than to laugh and take a picture.
The rumbling of his car gets Zag’s attention before he can even attempt to sneak his phone up to grab a shot for future blackmail. He looks annoyingly happy for someone stranded in the lot between a Chipotle and Claires.
“Than!” Zag grunts as he gets up, “My savior, my knight in shining armor, my– you’re wearing your glasses!” and even through the closed windows and doors of the car Than still feels the words take affect as his face flushes.
Thanatos honks.
“Alriiiight,” he gripes, swinging around to open the passenger door. “Don’t have to be rude about it, was just thanking you, and besides I haven’t seen you wear those in years. Forgot how good they looked.”
“Thank me like a normal person,” Than greets, turning up the heat in response to all the cool air being let in and ignoring his latter statement. “And close the door.”
“Sir yes sir” Zag taunts, getting in quickly, hopefully ignoring the blush gracing Than’s cheeks and neck.
“So,” Than starts, “I assume you’ll need to crash with me tonight?”
After abandoning his Father’s house a few months ago Zagreus had mainly gotten by couch-surfing with all his newly discovered slightly-insane extended family while he tried to figure out what the hell to do with his life. According to him, it was going mildly successful.
“If Nyx doesn’t mind. I could call Artemis, but I’m pretty sure she has Callisto over and I would not be getting sleep if I were there.”
“Mother is perfectly fine having you stay with us,” Than retorts, “she’s ready to replace Hypnos with you, I think.” He shifts into drive, pulling out of the lot.
“Aw, he’s not that bad,” Zag defends.
“I ate one of his brownies the other day and got so high I thought I was dying.”
Zag pauses. “Well, you should know better than to eat any of his food.”
“It was in the kitchen!” Than protests, “I thought it was a regular brownie!”
Zagreus bursts out laughing, and he can’t help but feel his lips twitch in response. Looking back, it was rather funny, but he’d rather die than let Hypnos know that.
“Gods, I’m so mad I missed that,” Zag says, laughter trailing away. “I can’t imagine you high.”
He’s glad Zagreus wasn’t there. He spent an hour playing Mario Kart with his brother all while gushing over Zag, and may have astral projected onto Rainbow Road at some point? He still wasn’t sure. After that he had laid on his brother’s bedroom floor for a bit, body absolutely buzzing as Hypnos tried to sober him up with water and food. “It wasn’t that eventful,” he lied.
“I don’t know, might have to invite you to one of Dio’s party next time to recreate the experience,” Zag teases.
Than scoffs, “I think he wouldn’t want me there more than I wouldn’t want to be there.”
He was… different than Zag’s family, he knew that much. They were all loud, touchy, either loving or hating each other. The one time he had met Hermes at a holiday dinner (thanks to Charon), the man took one glance at Than and said, “Yup, you had a My Chemical Romance obsession in middle school. You don’t even need to tell me.”
He still wasn’t sure how he felt about that.
Zag paused, “Do you really think that?” he asked in a quiet voice.
Than pulled to a stop at the light despite the road being completely empty and sighed. “It’s obvious they’re all about… having fun, or, their version of it. It’s who they are. I’m who you call when you need a ride home.”
“You’re fun!” Zag protested. “Besides, if I hung out with them all the time I think I’d either end up in jail or… yeah, actually, I think it would all end in a cell. You’re there to balance me out– provide a cool head. And I’m there to make sure you don’t work too much,” he adds.
He thinks to his shift that starts in less than four hours. Considers asking Zag to dump him on the side of the road to die, but decides against it.
“Speaking of that, I have work in the morning but feel free to stick around for breakfast. I’m sure they both miss you.”
Zag groans, letting his face fall in his hands. “I forgot you picked up the Monday shift. Gods, I’m such an asshole for waking you up. You should be sleeping.”
“It’s fine,” he insists. “I wasn’t sleeping anyway.”
He sees Zag cast him a sad look out of the corner of his eyes. “Shut up, evidently your sleep schedule isn’t great either.”
Zag scoffs, “Yeah, but I don’t work at eight in the morning every day! I’m normal!”
“I think if one of us has the normal schedule here, it’s me.”
Zagreus waves a hand dismissively as they pull into Than’s driveway. He hopes Hypnos cleaned up all his garbage from the couch, he was not in the mood to sleep on the wood floor.
As they made their way inside it was evident he hadn’t cleaned up because he was there, sitting on the couch munching on Funyuns watching… old X-Files episodes?
“Oh, hey, Zag! I didn’t know you were coming other! Man, you should’ve seen when Than got stoned the other day, he would not shut up about–”
“Hypnos!” Than interrupted, fixing him with a glare that hopefully said ‘shut it or I’m throwing away all the weed you think I don’t know about.’
Zag laughs, “Aw, he won’t tell me anything. Did you take any videos?”
Than looks at him, shocked at his betrayal. Zag only laughs at this, the bastard.
“Nah, I forgot. Next time!”
Than mumbles, “There won’t be a next time,” under his breath as he drags Zag away before Hypnos can reveal any more embarrassing information.
“Gods, I’ve missed him,” he hears Zag say. Before his brain can even form a coherent thought he responds, “Well, maybe if you visited more that wouldn’t be a probem.”
He freezes, standing awkwardly in the hall between his and Hypnos’ room. Zag is silent.
“Sorry,” he mutters. Gods, that was stupid of him. Why would Zag bother to visit them when he suddenly had ten plus new people in his life, all wishing to win his favor over the others. He and Hypnos were old news.
“No,” Zagreus sighed, “you’re right. I haven’t been–”
“I said sorry. Let’s just go to bed,” Than interrupts, not emotionally stable enough to hear how exciting all these new people in his life were.
Zag followed him into his room silently making Than feel even worse. It wasn’t easy to make the other boy grow quiet.
“Take the bed. I’ll get some blankets for the floor,” Than said, accepting his fate of an inevitable back ache tomorrow– today?
“No,” Zag said insistently enough to make Than look at him. “We’re not gonna play this game of you take the bed, no, you take the bed. Let’s share. It’ll be like being little kids again.”
Forts made out of carefully balanced sheets and pillows, seeing who could find Mort first after having Nyx hide him, sneaking in the kitchen to get snacks. He’s hit with the sudden loss of innocence and purity only a child can have.
“Fine,” Than says tiredly. “Let’s just… sleep already. I’ll try not to wake you in the morning.”
After giving Zag some spare clothes they settle into his bed together keeping a careful distance that Than constantly measures. He sets his alarm quiet enough to wake him but hopefully not disturb Zag, and sets his glasses on the table. It’s silent except for the murmurs of TV from Hypnos.
“I’m sorry,” Than hears, barely. “I’ve missed you too.”
He closes his eyes and tries to sleep.