Work Text:
The leaves were falling from trees to love the ground, in a slow, painless death. And sometimes Thanatos would love to be a leaf. A leaf made a thousand shades of colors, of those that children crush with bright and amused laugh, the kind of laughters that filled the atmosphere with tenderness.
But today he felt like being a leaf was bliss, he wanted to be one, just to taste the tender kiss of death, that cold beam on his lips, a few seconds before the darkness. It was silly and somewhat naive to believe that death was so sweet and pleasant ; but he believed it a bit, because it was the only thing that attracted it those days.
He closed his eyes, letting his body fall onto the mattress. He could hear Hypnos talking nearby, on the other side of the wall. He recognized his voice, a little hoarse but infinitely soft, because it had calmed many of his nightly anxieties. And there was Nyx's voice singing a soft melody in a language he didn't know, just below the wooden stairs. Wooden stairs that creaked with the breath of the wind, that quivered and that lived day and night in ghostly sighs. The voices and noises of the house gave Thanatos heart a soft lullaby, calming his heart, making him beat slowly, with the warmth of the first sunset. He felt the silence and admired the whispers of the ghosts that lived between the walls.
And in the distance, like an old, almost forgotten memory, a chalk outline drew years ago, he heard a laugh. A singing laughter, a laughter that made his heart shiver in tumultuous upheavals, a laughter that nobody will ever forget. It was a laugh that remained like a scar, branded in his soul, still burning. This laugh, he knew its tones through and through. That laugh, he had fallen in love with it, years ago.
But the laughter has faded, turned pale, washed out. He had lived the seconds and the hours, the days and the years - this laugh, he would have liked to forget it. He would have liked to forget the rustling of his heart, the chills on his skin, the smile in the corners of the lips.
Because that laugh he had fallen in love with had left him.
Zagreus, the man he had fallen in love with, the man he loved completely, from his laughter to his voice, was gone. Somewhere on the other side of the world or maybe just the city, he had given up Thanatos' loving soul for something new - something less dark than his golden eyes animated by sadness. Because where Thanatos was broken, it created shards of black roses in his eyes yet so bright ; grains of sand and dust that tarnished his eyes with the colors of the sun.
Hypnos finally fell silent, he was laughing now ; he was laughing because there was a cat on his window, which was meowing softly. Thanatos, hidden under his heavy blankets, heard the window slam when it closed and the meows seemed closer. His sibling exclaimed, Thanatos smiled and his heart broke.
He would have liked to smile a little bit more, with a smile that was a little bit more true ; he would have liked the corner of his lips not to crumble in a sweet cacophony. But Zagreus was not there to rekindle that smile.
There were tears, who flowed slowly, stormy clouds that slipped into his soul to cover it all. He would like to sleep, but under his eyelids were the features of his old flame. So he sculpted his untouchable memories in gold, blew stardust on his heart, gave birth to a doll with a radiant smile and joyful laugh, bursting of flowers with thousands of colors.
He knew that they were looks on his face, expressions, that he would not recognize anymore. Time passed by, and his memories were feiling him, he always had a bad one, eclipses that prevented him from fully remembering.
With his eyes closed, he drew another portrait he fell in love with - and somewhere on the other side of the world, of the town, sobs bursted, echoing his sadness.