Revelations [malexmale]

Chapter Thirty-Six

Chapter Thirty-Six (Lucifer)

Something was up with Hades.

My husband was a naturally gruff male. Dressed like the poster child of a Goth metal band, stalked the halls and the streets with long legs and big boots, had a permanent scowl on his face that defied those around him to speak. To anyone else, Hades was just behaving the way he normally did. Except I knew better. I noticed the falter in his steps, the fact that he had put his shirt on backwards this morning and hadn't realized it until one of his sons had said something, earning a tongue lashing that was completely unwarranted and resulted in another fight.

Yeah. Something was bothering Hades.

And he wasn't telling me.

Which meant I had to be nosy. I had to know what was bothering him. Perhaps I could fix it. Perhaps I could help him fix it. Either way, it was something that needed to change before Hades launched another war over something minimal.

"So," I said slowly, sitting on the sofa in our bedroom, frowning at Hades, who sat on the opposite sofa, typing away on his laptop, "What's got you grumpy today?" Hades blinked and looked up, reaching up to tuck a lock of long black hair behind his ear.

"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. I'm just peachy keen," he answered dryly, looking back down at his laptop and punching the space bar pretty hard. I raised an eyebrow, staring at him until he looked up with a pointed glare.

"I said I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine."

"Leave it alone, Lucy."

"Stop calling me that. And no. You almost bit Charon's head off today over a shirt. If something's bothering you, you talk about it. We went over this," I added. Hades wrinkled his nose, looking down at his laptop again for a moment before he looked back up, annoyed.

"I was supposed to have something for you, but it's not ready yet and I'm annoyed about it. There. You happy now?" He demanded, folding his arms over his chest. I looked at him, surprised. Something for me? What did I do to deserve a present?

"What is it?" I asked. Hades glared.

"It's a surprise. Fuck off."

"Well, if it's not ready yet, I could at least know what it is. That'll still be a surprise."

"Not good enough. Now shut up and let me work or I'm going to bite your head off next," Hades warned before he looked back down at his laptop and returned to typing like a madman. I sighed, tempted to push it, but Hades was on thin ice. One more push and he'd crack, so I gave up and decided to get some work done.

I left Hades to his work in the room and went upstairs to my office to fill out paperwork. It took a good four hours to go through everything on my desk before I took a break and ordered some lunch. I would've gone to meet Hades for lunch, but I decided against it. He was probably still irked and it was best to give him his space before I launched myself at him again.

"Having lunch by yourself?" I looked up to see Alaric walking into my office. He was dressed casually for once, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, holding a bunch of papers that were no doubt for me to sign. I smiled thinly.

"Hades is in a mood," I responded. Alaric nodded in understanding as he came up to my desk and handed me a folder stuffed full of papers.

"Paperwork about the security system at the local precinct," he said, then cocked his head, "What's got Hades all bent out of shape?"

"I don't know," I admitted, "He said something about getting something for me, but it wasn't ready." Alaric raised an eyebrow.

"A present?"