Chapter Text
Megaera could tell that something was different about today. She drummed her freshly-manicured nails against the steering wheel, sipping on the last of her coffee as she sat in the parking lot of H-Mart, the small, locally-owned grocery store run by her boss, Hades. It always did serve to remind her of her old flame, just briefly, but nowadays, that was more of a distant memory than the odd stinging that it had brought when she first started working there.
She wondered if the strange feeling that settled in her stomach meant that something was going to go wrong at work today. She had just been promoted as the manager, and there was no shortage of incompetent people that she was now in charge of, aside from Dusa, who she’d actually grown to like in the short time she’d started working there.
With a curious hum, she shut her car off and strolled towards the supermarket. As she walked, she spotted an old beat-up red car parked up at the front, and she frowned when she saw Hypnos fast asleep in the driver’s seat. He hadn’t even bothered to use the car window curtains that his brother had given him after he realized that Hypnos often spent the mornings before his shift asleep in his car.
Megaera walked over to him, with the heel of her boots clacking against the pavement. Once she was at the driver’s side, she leaned down, then knocked as loudly as possible. She only barely hid the smirk at the sight of Hypnos jolting awake with a jump and rapidly blinking eyes.
He opened the car door. “Good morning, Megaera! Boy, did you scare me. I thought for a second that it might’ve been Hades,” he said. Megaera was half-convinced that if it had been Hades, he would’ve ripped the door from the hinges.
Megaera looked at her watch. “You’re almost late, Hypnos.”
“Almost isn’t late,” Hypnos replied, yawning into his hand while also hopping out of the car with a burst of energy. “Besides, if that were the case, then technically you’re almost late too! Isn’t that funny.”
“You know, I didn’t think of that,” Megaera replied, cool sarcasm dripping into her voice.
“Really? Good thing I’m here to remind you then,” Hypnos said cheerfully.
Megaera sighed. “You’re such an idiot.” He was hopeless, but he did at least make her job a little more interesting.
Hypnos just grinned and grabbed his Switch from the backseat. Megaera cut her eyes at him, and he just shrugged with an even wider smile. “I have to do something during my breaks.”
The two of them walked into the store, and Megaera was happy that at least the others on her shift were already there. At the fresh produce section, Dusa was hard at work stocking and labeling the food. She flitted from one section to another, like she might cease to exist if she stopped working. Dusa looked up when she saw the two of them enter, and extended her arm wide to wave at them.
Near her was Orpheus, who almost always had his headphones in before the store officially opened. He helped her take stock, tapping his pencil against the clipboard like a drum. Megaera could often find him either humming a song or pretending not to stare at Eurydice, who was over in the bakery department. One of the pride-and-joys of the store was the promise of freshly baked goods prepared every day.
And by the bathrooms, Sisyphus was in the process of putting down the warning sign for wet floors as he finished mopping. However, it looked more like he was just dragging a dry mop across the floor. Megaera fought back a frown. The two of them had gone to college together, and hadn’t had the greatest of experiences, but she was warming up to him, slowly. If only he knew how to do his job rather than try to find slick ways of getting out of it. Either way, she would deal with it later.
Before Megaera could fully walk over to the back, Dusa caught her halfway. “Hey, Dusa,” she said with a hint of a smile towards her. Dusa had just started college, so in a way, Megaera had come to take her under her wing and was close to considering her a friend.
“Hey,” Dusa said. She hopped back and forth on each foot, and Megaera furrowed her eyebrows. “I mean, good morning! And good morning to you too, Hypnos.”
“You okay?” She asked, giving a pointed look at Dusa’s feet.
Dusa quickly shot her eyes downward, then pressed the sides of her feet together. “Oh! Um. It’s just—I think we have a new person that’ll—well, I think he’ll be starting today.”
“What?” Megaera said. She scoffed. Wasn’t she supposed to be made aware of these things ahead of time? Even still, she didn’t exactly want to be caught on Hades’ bad side, so she would do what everyone else in the store tended to do – put their heads down in quiet emotion. So this was the reason that the day had felt so strange. “Does he at least seem like he knows what he’s doing?” She said.
Dusa fidgeted and the clipboard in her hand visibly shook. “I—well—that is—“
“You look nervous. I wonder who it could be,” Hypnos said, though he hummed in a way that suggested that he did, in fact, know.
Megaera was just about to ask him—no, force him—to tell him what he knew, but she didn’t have to. The back door slammed open, and a frustrated sigh reverberated through the entire store.
There were few times in Megaera’s life when she was truly caught off-guard. The first time was when she’d lost her first kickboxing competition (once was enough, and she made sure that would never happen again). The second was when she realized that she’d fallen in love for the first time.
Third time’s the charm, they say. She stared at the person who had just emerged from the room.
There, with his arms folded tautly and his face flushed slightly red from anger, was—
“Wow, Zagreus, is that you?” Hypnos piped up.
At the sound of his name, he looked up, then his eyes widened. It had been three years since she’d seen her ex. Zagerus looked the same as he did their sophomore year of college, the last year before he’d dropped out. His hair was slightly longer, but he still had that same look in his eyes. Kind, defiant, but hopelessly lost.
A part of her was disappointed. She had secretly hoped that he’d found whatever it was he planned to find after leaving. They had only dated during freshman year of college, but it had been intense and passionate, and Megaera quickly learned that Zagreus never dove half-heartedly into anything that he actually wanted. And this, she could tell, was not something that he wanted.
---
Zagreus could think of a million places that he would rather be besides here. Actually, he had been to those places and could confirm that they were much better. After all that he’d done -- impulsively dropping out of the college nearby to move abroad to be free of his father’s gaze and working random jobs to prove to his father that he didn’t need his money – he’d ended up back in this godforsaken town and on his father’s paycheck.
And Zagreus still didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. He’d returned just as he’d left – directionless.
But still, it had been a nice to surprise to at least see Meg and Hypnos. He and Meg hadn’t ended things on the best of terms, but he knew Meg wasn’t the type to hold grudges. And as for Hypnos, well…
“Getting the register open might help with giving the customer change!” Hypnos had said after Zagreus failed to get it to pop open.
Well, Hypnos was always enjoyable to be around, in his own way. It had ended up being a broken register, which Meg only told him after Zagreus felt like he was failing at the most basic of tasks – pressing buttons.
Zagreus hoped that they would make this bearable. Still, he sighed. To spend his days toiling away at Hades’ store, until gods only knew when. His feet itched with a desire to bolt out the door already, cashless but determined. The thing he was searching for could be right through those doors, if only…
“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sure this is boring you.” Dusa’s words broke him out of his thoughts. Zagreus was leaned up against one of the empty racks down an aisle, with his head in the palm of his hand. He looked down at Dusa, who gave him a small, shy smile. “Or maybe I’m just not a good teacher.”
Zagreus quickly shook his head. “You’re a wonderful teacher, Dusa. Much better than Hypnos trying to teach me the register. I’m sorry. It’s my head that’s elsewhere. Please continue. You were talking about the—something, with the items?” he said, gesturing to the cart of boxes that had packs of water bottles in them.
“You should listen to her.” Meg said from behind him. She stood at Dusa’s side, and the latter gripped her clipboard with both hands and peered up at the two of them sheepishly. “Dusa knows what she’s doing. Don’t make me quiz you on what she teaches you.”
“A quiz on my first day? You wouldn’t really kick a man while he’s down, would you?” Zagreus asked, a teasing lilt to his voice. Meg cocked him the briefest of side smiles.
“You think I wouldn’t?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’m serious, Zagreus. Listen to Dusa. She’s the best teacher you’ll have here.”
Zagreus grinned. “Why, Meg, when did you become such a softie?”
At this, Meg dropped her smile and pursed her lips at him. “Don’t be an idiot. But if anyone has the patience to teach someone like you, it’s Dusa.”
He was about to comment on the ‘someone like you’ phrase, but Dusa looked back and forth between time with her face growing more nervous by the second. Zagreus relented. “Alright, alright. Dusa, I’m at your service,” he said, giving a lazy salute. “Though, what time is lunch, by the way? It must be soon.”
Both Meg and Dusa stared at him incredulously. Before Meg could remark on it, they heard Hypnos chirp up from a nearby aisle.
“Oh, which aisle was it. Two? Maybe four? I don’t know, have you tried reading the signs above each aisle?” Hypnos said. Zagreus snorted and poorly stifled a laugh. Of course it would be Hypnos that would talk to the customers like that.
Meg, however, pressed her fingers to her forehead for a second. “You want to know what happens when you don’t follow procedures?” Meg asked Zagreus. “Come on. Here’s lesson number one.”
Zagreus followed her, amused. “Don’t tell me you’re going to berate him in public.”
The two of them went into the aisle to the left. Zagreus didn’t bother to ask Meg how she already knew where Hypnos would be. Perhaps it was some kind of manager intuition. They turned to the corner, only to hear—
“…Why do I even bother asking you? Shouldn’t you know where the lentils are located?”
Zagreus froze as soon as he made it around the corner. Hypnos was being chided by his brother, Thanatos. Suddenly, the air felt like it was being sucked out of the room. Thanatos was here. In front of him. Looking the same as always, yet different. He didn’t have any social media, so Zagreus didn’t have any idea what Thanatos had been up to or where he'd ended up, and he never appeared on any of Hypnos’ few and far between posts. His silver hair no longer fell down his back – instead it was chopped short. He looked taller, but as Zagreus looked closer, he realized that it was more so that Thanatos seemed more sure of himself, more confident, even in his exasperation with his brother. And, Zagreus noted, he looked more tired.
Zagreus couldn’t stop staring.
Meg didn’t bother to wait for Zagreus and kept walking. When she got to them, she nodded towards Thanatos, who had a shopping basket hanging from his elbow and a folded paper in his hand.
“Hey, Than.” Meg said. Then she turned her gaze to Hypnos, narrowing her eyes slightly. “Shouldn’t you be at the register?”
Hypnos shrugged. “Sisyphus took over. I got tired of standing,” he said.
“But you’re standing now,” Meg said.
“Yeah, but I was tired of standing over there.” Hypnos said, pointing back towards the registers. “And then I saw Thanatos come in, so I thought I’d help him with his shopping.”
“If this is you helping, brother, I could sorely do without. You’ve led me to the wrong aisles twice already,” Thanatos said.
“You should think of it as being about the journey, not the destination,” Hypnos said, unbothered. There was a slight twitch at Thanatos’ mouth, betraying his slight amusement at his brother's antics against his stoic expression. It was a quirk that most people missed, but Zagreus always had a tendency to catch them. Even after all this time.
Thanatos sighed at Meg. “I apologize on behalf of my brother, Megaera. I was searching for a few things for a new recipe I intended to try tonight, but I couldn’t…find…” He gestured around, then drifted off when he finally looked straight ahead and caught Zagreus’ eye. He opened his mouth, then when nothing came out, he closed it again.
“…Zagreus?” he finally said.
Zagreus broke out of his trance and walked over, plastering a genuine but forced smile. He couldn’t tell if Than was even happy to see him. “Than! Hey. Wow. It’s been…It’s been a while, hasn’t it? It’s good to see you.” He tried to ignore the look at that Meg was giving him and the mischievous glint in Hypnos’ eyes. He hadn’t spoken to his childhood friend in years, but unlike with Meg, Zagreus didn’t have a bad breakup to blame it on.
Thanatos darted his eyes all over, and Zagreus could see the question marks in them. Eventually, Thanatos focused on the H-Mart vest and nametag that Zagreus (unfortunately) had to wear. “You work here now.” He didn’t pose it as a question.
Zagreus lifted his arms halfway and spun around once to show off his uniform. “Lucky me, right?” he said with a bitter edge. “It’s my first day, and I think it’s going swimmingly, wouldn’t you say, Meg?”
“He hasn’t broken anything yet, at least. Or stormed off,” Meg said. “I’ll show you where they are. Didn’t you hate the last recipe that had lentils in it?” She added.
“I did. But I was convinced to give it another shot. I’ll remain cautiously hopeful.” There was a bit of mirth in his voice, and Meg smiled.
Right. Meg and Than lived here. They were still friends after Zagreus left. Maybe Meg knew Than better than he did now. The thought made something ugly twist in Zagreus’ stomach. He tried to shove it down as much as possible. You have no right to feel that way, he tried to tell himself. Than stared a moment longer before swallowing thickly and nodding towards Meg.
“Wait, I can show you,” Zagreus blurted. “It can’t be too hard to find, can it?” He thought for a moment that Meg’s look was filled with pity, but he didn’t care to focus on it. Thanatos looked at him, and the mirth was gone from his face. Okay, maybe he deserved it. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.
“I don’t have time to go on a scavenger hunt, Zag.” The nickname rolled off his tongue with ease, and Thanatos cleared his throat. “Zagreus. I only have half an hour before I have to get back to campus.”
“You’re still in school?”
“Graduate school, yes.” And Zagreus realized that maybe he didn’t know much about Thanatos anymore. He’d planned to go to law school when they were younger, but maybe he changed his mind. And he cooked! Zagreus had never seen him cook before.
“Oh.” It was difficult to keep the disappointment out of his voice. “Well, I won’t keep you then. Maybe we can catch up later. It has been a while, and I’ve missed you.” He said.
Thanatos hummed. “Did you? That’s a bit surprising,” he said coolly. Ouch. Leave it to Than to be as honest as possible.
“You know, you should come over for dinner tonight. Since it’s been so long, and I’m sure Thanatos—“ Thanatos whipped around to stare at his brother in cold fury. “Would love to catch up! And me too, since I live with him.”
Thanatos stood there, stone-faced. After what seemed like a minute, Zagreus uncomfortably shifted his weight back and forth against each foot while Hypnos returned his stare with a dopey smile.
“You don’t have to, Than,” Zagreus said quietly.
Suddenly, Thanatos reached into his pants pocket to pull out a vibrating phone. He pressed it against his ear, and Zagreus wondered who was on the other end as he saw some of the tension leave Than’s body. “Hello? Yes, I’m almost done here.” The creases in Than’s forehead softened out, and Zagreus was reminded of the one of the last times that they’d hung out together.
Than had taken him on a drive three hours away on a road that cut through the mountains after one of Zagreus’ especially bad bouts with his father, blasting alternate playlists, drinking and staring up at the stars. Zagreus had almost asked him right then and there if he could just keep driving until the ache in his chest became a distant memory. But then they woke up the next morning with a panicked Than worried about being late for his class, and he was forced back to reality.
Yet, all that was now was a distant memory itself. Than glanced over at Zagreus, then sighed, resigned. “We’ll have one more at dinner tonight.” He said into his phone. “I’ll text you about it later.”
“Who was that?” Zagreus said, his curiosity peaking. The ugly thing twisted itself deeper.
Instead of answering, Thanatos slipped his phone back into his pocket. Then he gripped his paper tighter, crinkling it. “…If you'd like to come, be there at seven.”
“Ares is coming too? How exciting! I had no idea,” Hypnos said. With the glare that Than gave in return, Zagreus knew that Hypnos was lying. Ares? Zagreus vaguely recalled that name. “It’ll be like a party. Why don’t you come too, Megaera?”
“As entertaining as I’m sure it will be, I’ll have to pass,” Meg said. “Zagreus, go finish your training with Dusa. I’ll help Than find his ingredients. And Hypnos—back to the register.”
Meg and Than started to leave the aisle when Zagreus remembered something. He moved to pull his phone from his back pocket. “Wait, Than, I don’t have your number.”
Thanatos turned so that only his head faced him. He looked exhausted, like years of weariness and something else that Zagreus couldn’t place was hitting him all at once. “It never changed, Zagreus.”