Tenebris (Hades x Male!Reader)

Kindness and Worship

It was only when the strange god left again — with lingering eyes and lingering fingers entangled with Y/n's own — did the (h/c) divine realize he had forgotten to ask for his name. Y/n had barely spared the other a thought these past few days but he had wondered in the back of his mind what the other god's name was. And he had missed his chance, yet again, to ask for it.

Ah well, Y/n shrugged to himself. It hardly mattered. The other god, after all, made the strange, breathy promise of "I will return" again so Y/n suspected he would soon have another opportunity to ask for his name anyway.

As it was now, evening was descending upon Nysa and as much as Y/n would love to lose himself in the surrounding forestry, hiding himself amongst the vegetation and living his life out like a nymph (just to avoid his mother's horrid mood as of late), he had responsibilities. One such responsibility was helping his mother create the grain seed the farmers would plant come next month. Though Y/n couldn't yet manage to do that much... How did one create seeds anyway? Life's very essence?

His mother made it look effortless. Y/n, on the other hand, couldn't figure it out. Divine power was a confusing practice really.

As Y/n glided up the steps to the temple, he noticed Demeter immediately. She stood quietly between the two large marble columns that held up the temple's grand entrance. There was a minute downturn to her lips but her eyes were not alit with fury so Y/n dared to harbor hope in his heart that he wouldn't be spending tonight in the undercroft.

"You've succeeded in avoiding me today," Demeter greeted him with those words, eyes unbearably cold.

"I wasn't —"

Demeter raised a hand, "Spare me your lies. We do not have time to argue. I have begun making the seeds. You may place each one of them into the appropriate urns."

That was how the two settled in for the night. Demeter, on her throne, seeds bursting to life from her hands while Y/n, kneeling on the ground, placed them into one of the four large, gold-rimmed urns. At dawn, they would be standing in front of the temple's steps; a gift from Demeter to her worshippers. A signal, as well, to begin planting for this season.

"Mother," Y/n was the first to break the silence between the two of them, dropping a few seeds into the nearest urn. "Do you know of any gods who have a temple near here?"

Demeter paused, eyebrows drawing together. "We are the only gods here in Nysa, Y/n. Why do you ask? Have you seen another god?"

"Yes," Y/n admitted.

"What was their name?"

"I do not know," Y/n replied. "I did not ask."

Demeter showed her annoyance at his lack of knowledge by the frown upon her lips deepening. "Then, what did they look like?"

Demeter was seized by no small amount of concern. Considering the recent events, it was possible that Zeus — who so clearly stated his dislike for his own son to the entire world — might do something horribly predictable like send someone after her son to either torment or kill him. Zeus was petty like that. Whimsical in bedding women and having all manners of deplorable half-bred children. Y/n was of the rare few true gods born from Zeus's escapades. One of the few born not a bastard either.

Demeter's hands clenched around the marble armrests of her throne. She would never allow anyone — not even Zeus — to lay a finger on Y/n.

Y/n might've been many things. A failure, never meeting her expectations. A bit of free spirit, running off to some far corner of Nysa, hiding from her and no doubt taking the time to frolic beneath the sun. Y/n could be a bit of a laze at times, he had killed more things than he ever brought to life, and was terribly humble before all but at the end of the day, he was still Demeter's son.