Chapter Text
Living with Zagreus is both exactly what Hypnos thought it would be like and nothing at all.
He sleeps just as much, if not more, than Hypnos does. Which is funny, because that’s Hypnos’s job, which he finally has the luxury to commit the proper amount of time to. He spends at least eight hours a night tending to dreams, weaving in happy endings and dipping the nightmares into pools of softer, gentler thoughts.
During the day, Zagreus gardens. He grants wishes and goes outside to whack things with his sword, which he’d learned to make out of his own chthonic energy. He trains with Hypnos and often manages not to destroy anything in the process.
Hypnos isn’t sure what he expected. Maybe for the cabin to feel emptier? Colder?
“Lonelier” is probably the word he’s searching for.
But Zag is always here. Whenever he leaves to visit town or the forest, he always comes back.
So why is Hypnos so afraid?
He knows why, but he doesn’t want to admit it.
Back in the House, no one ever batted much of an eyelash about his wellbeing. They probably still don’t miss him.
But Hypnos is afraid of being alone again. Of sitting in that stupid hallway all day and all night, all by himself, having orders and berating remarks spat in his face whenever he doesn’t do a good enough job.
Having Zag here means Hypnos finally has something to hold onto, but also something to lose.
And he knows it won’t last forever. Heck, it feels like a miracle that they’ve even made it this long without the façade shattering.
There is no such thing as a happy ending. There’s no way this is going to last forever.
He tries to savor it for as long as he can, but it tastes bittersweet on his tongue.
When Hypnos wakes today, he feels Zagreus curled against his back, hands and lips pressed against his spine. Sweet thing still forgets sometimes to regulate his temperature while asleep, but Hypnos doesn’t mind the icy toes that jab into his leg. It gives him an excuse to pull the blanket tighter around both of them.
Their bed is small. Arguably too small for two people, and an insufficient length to where their feet hang off the end of the mattress, but neither complain. Just gives them a bigger excuse to cuddle.
“Hypnos…” Zagreus whispers.
Hypnos perks up. He thought Zag had been asleep. “What is it, my sleepy love?”
“Is it morning yet?”
“Mmhm,” Hypnos hums.
“But I don’t wanna get outta bed.”
“Then don’t. We have all day.”
“But I agreed to meet with Andreas today.”
Andreas is a carpenter who lives nearby. Zag’s been visiting him almost every day to help him out with some chores. In return, Andreas teaches Zag how to build different things.
He’s already built a greenhouse to shield his crops from the cold, and he’s been tossing around the idea of building a cottage. (“Just like hers,” Hypnos had overheard him mumbling through half-parted lips shortly afterward, with the distant sound of a sigh following.)
“Then you better get going,” Hypnos says. “He might already be waiting for you.”
Zag sighs. Hypnos is right, and Zag knows it, too.
He sits up. Lets his spiky hair puff out like a giant black soot ball on the top of his head. Hypnos reaches out, pushing the hair out of the way, and plants a kiss on Zag’s forehead.
And just like that, his sleep spell’s been broken. He smiles and gathers Hypnos up in his arms. They hug, then Zag’s stomach grumbles and he finally lets go to detangle himself from Hypnos’s blanket and stand.
“Gods, it’s so cold,” Zag grumbles.
It doesn’t help that he’s nude.
Hypnos leans back against the headboard and cups his cheek in his hand. “That might have to do with it being winter outside, or your lack of clothing. Have you tried putting something on?”
Zagreus blushes and glances down. It’s not like there’s much to hide — Hypnos has seen it all before. But Zag snaps his fingers and summons the usual tunic to cover the important bits.
“Being part-human is so much work,” Zag groans. “It takes so much energy!”
He pads over to the kitchen and looks through the cupboards. The more Zag learns about his powers, the better able he is to manage them. But they still take a lot of energy, and he says that sometimes sleep isn’t enough. That’s when Zag learned this nifty thing called “eating.”
It isn’t necessary for either of them, but Zag says it helps. And there’s even something to be said of some of the things Zag has brought home before. Though none of it can hold a candle to ambrosia or nectar, food is… an interesting experience.
Zag pops something into his mouth — it might be bread, but Hypnos can’t be sure — and pads over to the doorway. Then he stands there and turns his attention back onto Hypnos.
Hypnos grins and rises from bed. He’d dressed in pajamas last night, though it doesn’t really matter as he brings his large red comforter with him as a makeshift cloak.
It’s practically law that Zag requires at least one more hug before leaving every day, and today is no exception. Hypnos wraps him up in his blanket and gives him a large, wet kiss on his cheek. He laughs and squeezes Hypnos tightly enough to crush bones if he were human. It’s Hypnos’s habit to shower Zag with too many kisses over too few, and it’s good that he has a partner who thinks similarly.
“I’ll be back before nightfall,” Zag says.
“See you,” Hypnos says.
Zag opens the door, steps outside, and closes it behind him.
As soon as the door closes, Hypnos sighs and looks around their cabin. It’s cold and the wood is rotting away in some places, revealing patches of dead earth underneath. It’s so small that if Hypnos lays down, he covers a third of the floor. At least it’s well-furnished, with room for their (few) belongings.
Despite its size, it feels strange to live somewhere that belongs to Hypnos. A space that’s his— theirs. Back in the House, Zag had his own room. But the closest thing Hypnos ever got was the settee that Zag brought in just for him…
It’s not good to get wrapped up in such things. They’re here now, not back at the House.
Hypnos pulls his sketchbook from the bookshelf near their bed and fetches a quilled pen. It feels like a good day to sit out on the porch and do some sketching. And he should get out there now, when the sun is still up from behind the shroud of graying snow clouds.
The porch has a swing that’s a little too shallow for Hypnos’s blanket to come along, but he brings it anyway and tucks his feet in its fluff. He sucks in the sharp, cool air and exhales. His breath comes out in white puffs. There’s a layer of fresh snow in the clearing in front of him, then forest at the end. Hypnos glimpses a deer and its faun walking past.
He flips to the page he was working on yesterday and hums.
Zagreus is a hard subject to draw. He never stays still long, and he’s very muscular. It’s hard to get his dimensions just right. But it’s fun, and he has a much softer expression than most other people Hypnos has tried to sketch in the past.
Hypnos pinches the end of his pen and makes long, sweeping motions. He’s going for a more relaxed style today. And this is much less likely to lead his hand to cramp later.
It’s started to snow outside.
Hypnos first notices when he feels a chill run down his spine and yanks the blanket closer around his shoulders.
He looks up at the sky and sighs.
The snow is beautiful, but after seeing it every day for several weeks, it’s starting to get a little tiring. At least at the House—
No. Stop it already! He’s not thinking about that place anymore. They didn’t appreciate him there anyway.
Hypnos sighs. He closes his eyes for a second, focusing on bringing the warmth back to his muscles.
The sun will set soon. He spent a lot of the day sketching and dreaming. Er, working. Though at least it doesn’t feel like work in the way it used to.
He lifts his head and catches movement in his peripheral vision.
His blood runs cold.
Across the clearing, under the copse of trees, stands a familiar figure.
Hypnos swallows. He knew he’d see him again eventually, but not like this. Not now.
He’d been hoping his peace would last a little longer before someone came to shatter its illusion.
A poof of that all-too-familiar magic, and Thanatos is floating just a foot away from him. Hypnos starts, and his sketchbook hits the floor with a light thump.
Thanatos glances down and his lips twist. “Sketching drawings of your boyfriend. How cute.”
Hypnos crosses his arms. “What do you want?”
“I need to talk to Zagreus. Where is he?”
That’s just like Thanatos to cut straight to what he wants. It was like that before, too, when Hypnos had convinced himself that Zagreus was gone forever.
And, as usual, it has nothing to do with him; Than just wants information.
“He’s talking to Andreas.”
“I don’t know who Andreas is.”
And that’s exactly the point.
“Then I can’t help you,” Hypnos says.
Thanatos sighs. He looks marginally less stressed than he had the last time Hypnos saw him.
Hypnos feels the faintest twang of guilt at the shadows under Thanatos’s eyes, then knocks the thought aside. How many times did Hypnos suffer in silence just for Thanatos to march all over him, leaving Hypnos to pick up any scrap of compassion he could find from someone who clearly couldn’t stand even the sight of him?
“Hypnos. I know we… didn’t leave things off on the best of terms last we spoke.”
He bites the inside of his cheek. That statement doesn’t warrant a response. They’re empty words, a nudge to get Hypnos into saying something substantial first.
Than notices this silence and scoffs. “So that’s how it’s going to be, huh? Giving me the cold shoulder?”
“It is winter.”
“Tch. So typical of you to treat everything like a joke.”
“Nothing I ever do is going to be enough to satisfy you, is it? I’m not going to apologize, if that’s what you were hoping for. I’m not another one of the House’s doormats anymore, Than.”
That makes Than’s cheeks flare in a way that Hypnos hasn’t seen in a long time. Hypnos can’t help the smug smirk that crawls onto his lips at the sight of it.
“A waste of my fucking—“
“Hey!”
A shout interrupts Than’s useless words, and Hypnos slides from his seat and onto his feet.
He doesn’t understand how Zag can look so happy sprinting across the snowy field with his arm raised in a wave.
“Than. What are you doing here?” Zag asks.
He’s reached the front porch now. Close enough that Hypnos could touch him.
Than crosses his arms and turns his back on Hypnos. This is a conversation between just them, now.
“I’ve been looking for you. It’s about your mother.”
Zag’s face contorts. His delicately crafted mask has been torn apart.
Hypnos shakes his head. “No, you don’t get to say that.”
Than twists around and stares, the shock clear in his eyes.
“You don’t get to barge in here when it’s convenient for you and say that. We’re not a part of that world anymore; it would do you good to remember that.”
Than scowls. “You make it sound like it’s a choice. You will come back, eventually. Even if it takes shaking up that empty brain of yours to realize that.”
Hypnos’s heart is fuming now. He feels chthonic energy rising to his fingertips. He sucks in a breath.
“I’m not going to ask you twice. Leave.”
“This isn’t about you. This is between me and Zagreus!”
“And that’s exactly the problem. I already told you: I’m done being a doormat. Find someone else to spout your nonsense to because we’re done listening to it.”
Than’s eyelids droop and he shakes his head back into wakefulness. Hypnos usually keeps a super-tight rein on his powers, but he lets them slip just a little. To see the anger and confusion and shock mixing on Than’s face as the power pools over him.
“Fine, you’ve made your point. I’m sorry, alright? Is that what you wanted to hear?”
“I don’t accept your apology.”
Hypnos says it flatly. He’s proud of himself — the delivery is just what he was hoping it’d be, after so many rehearsals in dreams that he never thought would become reality.
There’s a look on Than’s face that Hypnos can’t properly place. Is it disappointment? Pain? Or just the sleep-based magic that’s probably boiling out of Hypnos’s pores?
Than turns back to Zag and mutters something Hypnos can’t quite hear. Then he disappears in another aggressive cloud of smoke and Hypnos drops the tight hold he had on his shoulders.
His nose stings like he might cry, but he know he won’t. That emotional wound is one he doesn’t want to tear open anew.
“Hypnos.”
Zagreus looks so… amazed. His eyebrows climb so high up into his forehead that they disappear behind his hair.
Hypnos gasps. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to shut him down like that without giving you an opportunity to connect if you wanted. I guess I got a little carried away…”
Zag shakes his head. He closes the space between them and reaches for Hypnos’s hands.
“You don’t have to apologize. That was amazing. You’re amazing.”
Hypnos squeaks out a laugh. He’s not used to hearing that. “You don’t have to lie just to make me feel better.”
“I’m not lying.”
Zag kisses Hypnos’s cheek and curls his hands around his hips. One tug and they press flush together. Zag leans in for another kiss, this time on the lips, and unlatches a hand from Hypnos’s waist to curl into his hair.
The kiss has fire to it, but Zag’s fingers gently press against Hypnos’s scalp.
“Mmm…” Hypnos hums.
Their lips work together slowly. When Zag pulls away, he’s smiling.
“You’re worked up,” Hypnos remarks.
“I can’t help myself. You’re so hot when you’re angry.”
“Am I?”
“And you’re tall, and you have frost on your lashes.”
Hypnos is sure that he’s blushing. He laughs again. “Flattery will get you everywhere, love.”
He wraps his arms around Zag’s middle and lifts him up. He erupts in laughter, and Hypnos pulls him close, brushing his lips across the tip of Zag’s nose.
“You’re cold,” Hypnos says.
Zag has that wonderfully smug look on his face when he reaches up to hang his arms from Hypnos’s shoulders. “If only there were some way to warm me up.”
“I think something can be arranged.”
Hypnos nudges the door to their cabin open with his hip and carries Zag to their bed. He keeps his eyes on him, willing Zag’s two-toned eyes to whisk him somewhere else, just for a while, so he doesn’t have to think about the things that hurt.
Zag curls his legs around Hypnos’s hips and drags him down for better ease of access. Another kiss spirals into a dozen, and time unravels under their fingertips.