Bonus Content - Hades & Charon

Hey everyone!

If you're not aware, I've been doing a bonus content series where one of the characters gives their perspective on another, usually from an existing or 'missing' game scene somewhere, and assuming that the second character is in a romance with the PC.

So, this month, Charon's POV is about Hades, just after the PC's post-trial return to the Underworld, but pre-epilogue. For these, I usually settle a few small details about the PC as I need them, so this one refers to a Persephone who assists the Moirae, but that need not be taken too seriously—one can assume the scene would run roughly the same for a Dionysus or anyone else, really. :)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

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Hades leans back heavily against the wall, a soft breath passing quietly over his lips. A half-aborted hand gesture is all the invitation Charon needs, however, and he takes a seat across from his friend, folding his legs across each other beneath him and laying his staff down on the floor next to the cushion.

The dark tones of Hades’s sitting room aren’t the best for seeing, but Charon is long accustomed to low visibility, and they can see that his face is paler than usual, drawn tight with a subtle weariness that he has no doubt been doing a very effective job of hiding up until this point.

“How is she?” Charon asks, idly wrapping his fingers around the cork in the amphora. It pops free with a small, resonant sound, and the smell of heady ambrosia wine follows. With a small gesture, he calls two cups from the cabinet in the kitchen, both appearing on the table between them. He pours, the sound almost soothing in the quiet, then pushes one of the cups towards Hades.

The Lord of the Dead cracks his eyes open, slivers of red irises nearly luminous in the gloom.

“She is… I hesitate to say ‘well,’ but it seems she is pleased to be back,” he replies, his tone measured, cautious.

Charon can understand a bit of caution, now of all times, this of all subjects. It has been a very long day on Olympus, and it was an easy one for precisely none of the parties involved. Even unflappable Hekate is tired; she’d gone to rest almost as soon as the group had splintered.

“I’m sure everyone else is likewise pleased to have her.” Charon takes a sip of the wine, holding it in their mouth and allowing the taste of it to roll over their tongue. Sometimes, ambrosia seems almost too sweet. Cloying, sickly. But when made into wine in the Underworld, it takes into itself a pleasing bitterness in contrast, something that makes it much more palatable to drink.

Or perhaps they have simply grown into the sorts of people who prefer what is familiar to them.

“No doubt,” Hades murmurs. “She has made herself rather indispensable, by the Moirae’s estimation.”

Charon’s lips twitch slightly, and he nods. “If even Atropos agrees, then it must be so. But I rather think you would know that even without their opinion.” His brow ticks up just slightly, and Hades expels a short breath, the sound just the tiniest bit amused.

“What gave it away? The constant low-level panic in her absence or the fact that this is the first time I’ve stopped working in weeks?”

Sometimes, Charon thinks, Hades can be an awful lot more self-aware than most people would give him credit for. It’s always his awareness of other people that is the trickier bet, so to speak.

“What will you do now? She will be on Olympus for three months every year. Spring, I would assume.” It would be rather like Demeter to want that arrangement, and Persephone seems generally amenable to her mother’s wishes, if perhaps not the sort to obey just because.

“I will learn to treat spring as winter, I suppose,” Hades says, a touch wryly, lifting his cup at last and taking a swallow as well. “But in truth, I am… glad that this was the result. Anyone can see that she and Demeter are close. They need to talk about some things, I would guess, but they are close. I never wanted to take her away from everything she knew and loved.”

“Mm.” Charon tilts their head. “And yet, when the time came to choose between ‘everything she knew and loved’ and you—”

“You’re exaggerating,” Hades replies, shaking his head. “I am far from the sum total of the life she has built here.”

Charon huffs. “Yes, of course. And yet I think perhaps your stake in it is greater than you think. You have made room for her in your life. I daresay she has made just as much room for you. It wouldn’t make you a worse person, to enjoy that knowledge.”

“Perhaps, then, I will enjoy it—should I ever acquire it.”

“You can be so utterly stubborn.” Charon clicks his tongue. “I know she’s young, Hades, but as she herself pointed out, she is old enough to decide where she resides, and whom with. Is it really so much of a stretch to suppose she is old enough to know her own heart?”

“I’m not sure I’m old enough to know my own heart.”

“Well, then, perhaps she’s the mature one in the situation, after all.” Charon rolls their eyes, taking a somewhat larger swallow from their cup.

“Of that, I have little doubt,” Hades replies, a hint of irony in his tone. “Nevertheless, I must put the question to her, and abide by the answer.”

Really. Charon of all people could understand, perhaps, wanting to treat important things with as much care as possible. Perhaps, were their situations reversed, it would be he hesitating and Hades pushing him forward with gentle exasperation. No—no perhaps about it. If anything, he might be even worse. But still, they’re in the situation they’re in, and it’s a little frustrating to watch his closest friend put barrier after barrier between himself and what he wants. Or at least what he could want, if he ever let himself explore his own feelings.

“I am quite sure she will ask you—rightly—what your opinion is on the matter,” Charon points out. “Will you have an answer for her?”

“Yes.”

“The real answer?”

“I… perhaps. If I can decide what that is.”

Well… at least he knows he needs to. Perhaps, for now, that is enough.