Firstborn [malexmale]

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

"Son of a bitch."

I grimaced as Hades nearly smacked his head into the desk. I'd gone from sitting in every seat in the library, walking through objects just because I could, and checking in on my family; all of whom were mostly just silent or crying and it hurt too much to watch, so I'd come back here. And yet, the entire time, Hades was parked in the library, surrounded by books and scrolls, and his iPad sitting in front of him as he made notations and wrote things down that looked like completely gibberish to me. Formulas, things that looked like grocery lists, but with words I'd never seen before in my life.

All the while, Dio's Rainbow in the Dark was playing through the iPad speakers.

And Hades was struggling to stay awake.

Lucifer had come in several times with food, offered to help, only to be denied. He seemed to understand that Hades needed to do his solitary research, though, and didn't take offense. He'd just give Hades a kiss and Hades would mindlessly kiss back before he went back to work.

It'd been hours since Hades had even gotten up to grab a scroll from a fragile tube across the room in one of the racks. He'd been hunched over reading, started to play music to keep himself awake, but his eyelids were sliding shut and every time they did, he'd start to slide forward, only to catch himself. Except he'd reached his limit, and even I could see that.

"Dad, you need to take a break," I murmured, walking over to the table to look over his shoulder at all the open books, "I appreciate this, but you're wearing yourself out. At least take a nap." I knew he couldn't hear me, but I couldn't help worrying. Not to mention, it was hard to break the habit of saying things.

Hades blinked sleepily down at the iPad, scrolling through his list of notations. He rubbed at his eyes, gave his head a shake, then yawned and went back to reading. And that was mostly all he'd done. Sit there, reading book after book, scroll after scroll, making notes and flipping through his playlist for the loudest songs he could find to keep himself up.

As Rainbow in the Dark faded away, Marilyn Manson's Beautiful People came blasting on next and Hades stiffened for a second, like the sound was too abrupt for him. He blinked a few times.

"Fuck, you look like shit." I jumped, looking up.

Zeus was standing at the end of the table. He'd appeared out of nowhere. He looked as dressed up as he could be, given the situation. His hair was slicked back, as usual, like he was on his way to an important business tycoon meeting. Though, instead of a full fuit, he was wearing a gray vest with matching slacks and a pale blue button up, his black loafers gleaming in the lights. On his wrist, an expensive diamond studded watch and on his finger, a pale blue and silver ring that I hadn't seen there before. Actually, when I looked closer, I noted the inside of the ring was lined with sharp little points.

Well, if that didn't say possessive, I had no idea what did.

"I've waited my whole life for you to say that," Hades said dryly, turning back to his book. Zeus rolled his eyes, lowering his arms and walking over to take a seat across from Hades. He picked up a book, flipping through the pages, grimacing.

"The fuck is this? I can barely read any of it."

"It's Sumerian... Oh wait, no, that's in Japanese, an early form of it anyway. I can't read half the shit and I'm waiting for Tsukuyomi to get back to me on it."

"You're still in contact with that guy?"

"Duh. He just got a Facebook, so he's been trying to figure out the whole Messenger app. I think I've finally found something that annoys him more than me."