Lack of sleep [Zagnos] • Hades

Chapter 1 | wheres Hypnos?

Rising from the Styx, Zagreus shakes the bloodied water from his hair and rubs his eyes dry. His vision blurs and is met with the halls of the house of hades. Another run, another death. Although something was different this time. The usual line of shades from the Styx up the hall was still and at the end where they were usually checked in was empty.

Hypnos was gone.

It wasn't too unusual, since the workers of the house did get breaks every so often. But last run Hypnos was gone too.

Where was he?

Talking to Hades was always like talking to a brick wall, the only person he really listened to was Persephone, Nyx too since she is all powerful. Zagreus walked up to the desk, standing on his tip toes to see over it.

"Dad, where's Hypnos?" He asked.

"As if I know. Probably sleeping on the job again, tch. He's holding up the line, he was doing so well and he just leaves past his break time? I should have known" Hades scoffed.

"Hey give him a break, even sleep needs rest you know. He's been working his butt off recently, enough to earn a spot on the Bulletin board remember?"

Hades never really payed much attention to that board, he was too busy running the underworld and such. But it was clear to zag his father has no answers. It was odd not being greeted by Hypnos coming out of the Styx, Zag was so used to it by now. The lack of a playful jab at his death was unusual and off putting to him.

Walking around the corner down the hall, he ran inside Nyx. Perhaps Hypnos' mother would know where he was.

"Nyx, you gave a minute?" Zag asked.

"Of curse my child" Nyx replied, not doing much at the moment anyway.

"Where's your son may I ask, the sleepy one?"

"Hypnos? I'm afraid I don't know. He should be back by now but I wouldn't be surprised if he'd fallen asleep on his break and lost track of time. Time doesn't really exist down here anyway so it's an easy task to loose track of it"

Even Nyx didn't know where he was. That was odd. Hypnos usually never left the house, not like there's much to do in the underworld aside from dungeon crawl anyway. But that wasn't really Hypnos' style.

"Hmm... where's he gone then? It's not like him to be away this long" Zagreus pondered.

"I'm not sure, if is definitely out of character for him... he worries me" Nyx replied.

"I'm sure he's just sleeping somewhere, don't worry too much. He's your son after all, all your children are more than capable of handling themselves"

"Yes but... Hypnos has always been the dependent type. It took a lot to push him out of the next, I may of coddled him a bit much as a child..."

It was no secret to Zagreus that Hypnos' relationship with his family was a little confusing at the moment. He used to he incredibly close with them when he was a godling, always asleep in his mothers arms and playing games with his twin Thanatos. Older brother Charon set to babysit with Nyx was busy. But as they all grew, Thanatos took his work very seriously and became distant, as did charon. And then Nyx felt Hypnos was too dependent on her and had to push him to be more independent.

There'd been distance between them all recently. And while it'd slowly been getting repaired it was clear it wasn't quite there yet.

People tended to overlook how important sleep is.

With no answers as to where the sleepy god could be, Zagreus became concerned. After many a run through the underworld followed by a painful death, he'd grown to enjoy Hypnos' company every time he rose from the Styx. Not seeing him was... worrying to him.

He'd go looking for him.

Wandering the halls of the house, he checked the rooms, asked the shades and workers only to come up empty handed.

So where was Hypnos?

Perhaps he'd show up after the next run. So Zagreus set out on his next crawl through the underworld and room after room of fighting creatures showed no sign of any gods.

Until he made it to a room with a boon in it.

"Hm? Ah, butterflies I know who that is. In the name of Hades Olympus I accept this message" he spoke.

And the window up to Olympus opened, revealing the love goddess herself.

"I can feel a worry within you young prince, almost as if you're missing someone you care for am I correct?" Aphrodite asked.

"Yeah I'm.... A little worried about Hypnos, he's not shown up the last few runs" Zagreus explained.

"Sleep himself isn't at his post huh? Perhaps he's napping somewhere you know how he is. But my, zag you're just bursting with emotions aren't you? I can feel it all the way on Olympus! Is this another crush I feel?"

He... hadn't even noticed. The worry over where Hypnos was was distracting him from the reason why he was even worried in the first place. He misses Hypnos. He wanted his sleepy friend back at the Styx to greet him each death.

"I uh... I suppose I... huh- I have been feeling rather strongly for him haven't I?" Zag mumbled.

"I knew it. Can't hide feelings from me darling, I know everything. Take yourself a boon and go find the narcoleptic boy" Aphrodite replied.

Well a boon would definitely be useful, so he'd gladly take the best boon she had to offer. And with the exchange over he was off to continue his run with new found powers thanks to lady Aphrodite.

But his distraction was getting the better of him this run. He couldn't help but wonder where Hypnos was and if he was ok. Him being missing one run? Sure that's not unusual, he's probably on break. But two runs? Three runs? Staying away past break? That was very unusual.

Hypnos usually jumped as the chance to see Zagreus.

So where was he?