Achilles clears his throat. “Look, I tried to say this to Thanatos last night, but it didn’t go over well. If you and Thanatos ever want some… privatetime, and need me to make myself scarce—”
“We’re saving ourselves for marriage,” Zagreus cuts in and then tries very hard to look like he’s not surprised that that’s the first lie that came to mind and straight out his mouth.
Maybe it’s not exactly a lie. There’s some truth in it. Alright, it’s entirely a lie, but there are basic implied facts that… are also lies. No, it’s a lie. No part of it means anything relevant to their situation. There is nothing to save. ‘Marriage’ might be the only truthful word in the sentence, and even that is iffy when it comes to them.
Achilles closes his eyes for at least as long as it takes Zagreus to decide all that and ten seconds longer after. “In case you change your mind on that, we can figure out a codeword, something.”
The conversation is blissfully interrupted by a knock on the door and Zagreus has never gotten up and over a sofa with so much speed in his life. Than’s doorman is standing outside with a trolley and a number of boxes.
“Did Than order something?” Zagreus asks no one. The boxes have his name on them, not Thanatos’s. Once they are inside, he opens the first, the heaviest, and finds a packing slip for computer parts. He digs around a little more and finds a note on Hades Corp stationery.
Work from home has been approved.
It’s under his name, not Than’s.
After that is a list of equipment he’ll need to begin working for his father again and signatures from their HR department. He finds his eyes naturally turning to his flowers on the balcony as he crumples the note in his hand.
He kicks the box toward a corner before Achilles comes over to help him with them.
“You’re not going to open the others?” he asks.
Zagreus shakes his head. He doesn’t need to know what’s in them. He doesn’t care. Hades Corp rubbish that he didn’t ask for. He heads toward the balcony to get some air, but Achilles steps in his path.
“I’ve known you long enough to know the look you get when you are considering going out a window. You don’t have to do that here. Talk to me.”
Still devouring Hades fics, now with a healthy dose of modern AU
1.I’d Burn This City Down To Show You the LightsbyLaugan (Incomplete) Thanzag (M). After a seven year separation, former best friends Thanatos and Zagreus spot each other at a work function and all those feelings come flooding back in the most delicious, gut-punch angst. Two chapters in and I’m obsessed.
2.what a drag to love you like I doby@juliafied (incomplete) Thanzag (T). Thanatos and Zagreus as kids making mischief in the Underworld Still thinking about those paper airplanes.
3.darling you’re the one I want by@userachilles. Thanzag. Modern AU in which Zagreus decides it’s time to seduce his best friend and roommate and he’s terrible at it. Every text message conversation had me cackling.
4.Night Drivebythe_patron_saint. Thanzag (T). Thanatos is a hot mess with a very cool car and a very teenage plan to sneak Zagreus out at night. Reading this gave me vivid flashbacks to when my friends learned to drive in high school and we had freedom for the first time.
