* / Sᴡᴇᴇᴛ Nᴏᴛʜɪɴɢs \*

“Hnng…”

Hades started to stir. And he was grumpy. Before he even opened his eyes, he was grumpy. Even with them closed, the sun was too bright. 

“How ‘bout I don’t?” He mumbled before rolling over and putting the pillow over his head. Fresh coffee or not, he was not ready for it to be morning yet and he needed it to go away. It had taken him a while fall asleep, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the couch or because he’d grown  accustomed to having someone next to him.

He was sore. He’d ended up sleeping on his neck funny, and now it was stiff. Stupid useless fucking human body… The limitations of his human form was a downside to life on campus compared to the underworld. But, in all fairness, it was probably the only downside. He briefly considered the possibility of cancelling class for the day. But even with the extra few moments with his head under the pillow, morning was still there and it wasn’t going away. He let out a sigh and finally managed to get up to a sitting position. He looked and felt about as dead as the souls swimming in the river styx. 

“…Coffee?” he asked, almost certain he had heard his wife say something about that. He spotted the mug next to him. He held the it with one hand while the other rubbed at his sore muscles in an attempt to lessen the achiness. 

&&.                  he was in one of his moods . . she could feel it. “ hades . . “ she softly called out to him again watching him stir on the small . . uncomfortable couch. each movement he made . . there was a creak followed by other noises a couch shouldn’t make. perhaps . . all the times he’d been sent to sleep on the piece of furniture was finally catching up in the form of wear and tear. “ you’re being such a child . . “ she rolled her eyes while pulling another pillow over, hitting his covered head with it. of course . . her putting in effort to apologize was falling on deaf ears. “ fine . . stay asleep , i don’t care. “ she crossed her legs then . . her arms as she found herself not so subtly pouting. 

flowers sat in ash and ironically it was the same look that was left after hades had a fit of rage. there was no difference once again, it only infuriated bruce more. “you make it seem like it’s so easy. ive…we’ve been trying my whole life to control this and it fails every time.” he sighed knowing that maybe the underworld was just where he belonged after all. “all i do is try to talk it down but it only makes it worse.” he explained. she was so patient and kind, it helped at times with him but as he grew the control didn’t and he was still always having his fits. “but i could. i could lose control so bad that i don’t know what im doing. get so angry that the fire in me burns too hot…just look at hades. look where his anger gets him.” bruce sat on the ground and shrugged with a heavy sigh. “the girl…the one i was meeting… what if.” he choked on the words. “i just want to do it right.” he mumbles, even around his mother the thought of being soft shook him slightly. “especially with who and what she is, i have to make sure us together will even work if i can just end up hurting her.” 

 bruce rolled his eyes. “you’re so…aggravating, callista.” he said never daring call zeus anything than what he was. a big headed oaf just like hercules and the rest of the gods sucking it up in olympus. “you sit there and tell me that im welcome? then where where they? leaving my mother locked away down there? not only has no one welcomed me to olympus but they never tried to get me from the underworld. but no…i was left with my father.” he scolded her. “and i call them what they are. papa zeus being the biggest of all. when she didn’t have a reason on why no one spoke to him he nodded. it was easier said then done. “i don’t come with her because i don’t want to sit there awkwardly being stared at for what i am. and don’t sit there and say they have open arms for death and darkness. the only reason they like you is because you are the daughter of golden boy. the son of the big man. and im the making of the one who tried to destroy it. no one wants me there. and hercules was the reason my father’s plan was going to fail, obviously anyone would have killed him.” to bruce the one thing hades did that he always agreed with was try to kill hercules and claim what should have been his. he leaned close to his cousin and gave her a wicked grin. “oh…calista, i don’t give a shit about the rules…besides, speaking to the dead isn’t a power, it’s just something im cursed with. and just like you i can’t get rid of them. so, i might as well use them while i can, tell them i will bring them back if they do me a few favors…” only there is no coming back… it was all a lie to get what he wanted. 

“Of course not, I just wanted to see you. Why can’t a mother see her daughter, did you not want me to be here or something” Rapunzel said 

the sun rays beat down on him as he finished up his jog - sweat beading on his brow. he reaches up to take out his earphones, stopping in the courtyard to stretch for a moment and cool down from the work out. As he stops he gazes around him, a small smile on his face. It is times like these that he really appreciates the world around him and the ability for him to live in it, even if it was at a school where he spent most of his time grading. Turning to the first person who comes next to him he speaks happily, ‘beautiful day isn’t it?’ // @drearwoodmembers​

“im sure they are… though, i’ve never come across anyone’s food who could do that to me so if it’s true then i’d be impressed.” he simply “you’re really going to hit me with that overused lie to get people to move on? im hurt that im not worth a little more effort to lie to honestly. but im fine is what i tell my mother when i want her off my back, learn something better.” he simply said with a shrug before he turned a bit, he looked away from her and shrugged. “besides, it’s obvious even to me, the last time i saw you i thought you were going to beam a laser of optimism through me and now… well, you just seem blue.” bruce definitely fed off the emotion well. any upset royal was a good use for him. “don’t tell me or do… i think my curiosity quickly was lost.” 

“…Flynn. Um. King Rider,” he answered – still having trouble seeing the roguish thief in the script as royalty. 

“And not to worry, Mother. My mouth hasn’t brought complete shame and disgrace to the family name yet. But hey, there’s still time,” he said dryly, before something in him shifted and he dropped the joking tone. 

“…I know reputation is important. I…I’m trying. So, no, I haven’t cursed at any professors.”

Not out loud or to their faces, anyway. Not yet.

&&.       “ oh wow . . “ she blinked a few times, truly shocked that he decided to take on a key role to one of the plays. she would have guessed her son would have taken up a stage hand position. “ i think that’s amazing, really . . and i can’t wait to cheer you on from the front row with your father. “ she smiled. 

hearing his remark . . she unexpectedly frowned. her husband spent many years rebuilding his reputation from the ground up . . the once feared and despised beast turned charming and loved king. she never wanted to see his hard efforts go to waste . . which is why she tried to make sure her children were a proper extension of him. 

Rose already hated this. She didn’t want to pretend to be nice to the royals just because it would be easier on her family. Sure, she was going to do it, since Haven was clearly playing the part of princess, but Rose wasn’t as good at it as she was. Still, she tried putting a bit more of a smile on her face. “Yeah, you too,” she said, taking a seat next to her.

She missed the ‘small detail’ of the entire assignment? She had to force herself to keep from rolling her eyes. Rose had been in classes where she was paired up with people who refused to do their share of the work. She prayed she wasn’t about to be in that situation again. “It’s basically a glorified book report,” she explained. “Pick a book from the list, come up with a thesis, and do a project proving it. Could be a paper or a slideshow presentation or a video or whatever.”

&&.         the light smile that once appeared on her features, slowly disappeared. clearly rose wasn’t remotely happy to see her. could she really blame her though ? it wasn’t like they were close growing up. if anything, they were just polar opposites. haven portrayed to be an extreme extrovert that oozed this dazzling light ( didn’t help that she had sickeningly bright golden locks that seemed to just . . glow ) . . while rose seemed more introverted and reserved, much like her mother if she recalled. maybe that’s why they never really put in an effort to be best friends. “ mhm . . “ she forced out slightly in a soft breathy hum. this was going to be . . excruciating. 

Rose was surprisingly unresponsive to the fork through the hair thing that just happened. Rose wasn’t exactly a poster-child of normalcy herself, so she had no room to judge. Rose shrugged in response to it being a ‘good thing’ or not; she could interpret it however she wanted. “I’m… not a great swimmer,” she explained. “If we got in a boat or whatever, I could probably put the kelp into tubes, but I think I’d only hold you back in the water.”

Azalea excitedly applauded her final efforts. “Oh, bravo! I quite liked that one!” Her jaw dropped as she began to snap her fingers, a gesture she often did on her own whenever she’d felt like someone finally understood her. “Right!? How do they do that? I can hardly keep a straight face, it takes away half the fun of letting one slip right under their noses!”