IN THE BEGINNING

[erebos_dotcom]

"Daddy! Daddy! DAAAAAA!!"

The Darkness looked up from his writing just in time to catch a lapful of Cloey. She was bouncing around, waving her cupped hands frantically.

"Look what I found, you have to look! You have to!!"Like a good father, he held Cloey still until he could capture her small hands with his own. As soon as she opened them, a

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[nyx__dot__com]

Nyx leaned up to kiss Erebos' cheek before settling into his arms, and cuddling Thanatos closer to her. Her little son's voice and manner of speaking was infinitely endearing to her, trying hard not to frown as he recounted Styx and Moros' behavior.

She resisted the urge to cast a look back at Erebos, though she did think exclusively to him,

I do not like this, Ere. Surely they could have traumatized him! He's so little, why must they pick on him?

Nyx was distressed, though her face didn't show it. She simply snuggled Than, and kissed his cheek, and said,

"Moros and Styxie can sometimes be fibbers, which is Not Very Nice at all, but you'll have to ignore it a little, my little love."

Since I'm starting to fear that this kind of thing is in both their natures.

"But you needn't ever worry that Mummy and Daddy won't be here, or that we're rocks or anything else like that, my sweet boy, because we'll always be somewhere. Da can be found almost anywhere, and I'm never more than a few hours or a thought away."

She paused to tip his chin up to look at her and said, "And of course, love, you can call either or both of us any time and we'll be right there, quick as thought!"

[erebos_dotcom]

"At any time," Erebos reiterated to Thanatos gently (or..as gently as Erebos got). "For any reason. All you have to do is call on us. We are family. And Family means everything."

Squeezing his wife tight, he answered her silently.
Yes. They have some darkness in them, do they not? I will speak with... Styx. You should speak to Moros. He listens better to you.

[swift_wings]

Thanatos cupped a small pallid hand over his mommy’s hand feeling a slight twinge of what was that?…something similar to how he felt when his bigger brother and sister tried making him believe mommy and daddy were rocks.

Mommy kissed his cheek and confirmed that Moros and Styxie were fibbers. He was telling them so when he next saw them.

He looked up into mommy’s pretty pretty eyes and repeated looking from her to his daddy: “Quicker than I can think? That is fast.”

He’d show Moros and Styxie next time they fibbed he’d call mom and dad.

[nyx__dot__com]

There was a tiny bit of a grin in Nyx's mental voice as she thought to Erebos:

Are you sure you don't want to talk to Moros, beasty? I would be more than happy to speak with Styx - I wouldn't want to deprive you the opportunity to speak with your son...

Nyx smiled down at Than and kissed his forehead once more.

"It is fast, isn't it, my little love? But that's how fast we will be."

[erebos_dotcom]

Do not test me, Princess, he warned silently. But he gave her hair a kiss nonetheless.

He did wish that he and Moros were on better terms. The boy always needed to prove that he was better, stronger, more powerful. And not subject to the rule of his father. With Nyx, Moros made some concessions. But with Erebos, it was plain that they would never get along. Erebos still loved him; he was his son. Talking to him (especially to reprimand him yet again for teasing his fellow siblings), however, was not Erebos' idea of a pleasant time.

Moros. The Darkness just shook his head. One day, there would come a reckoning between them. He wondered who would come out on top.

All this went through his head while he nodded reassurance to his young son. Ruffling his hair again, he winked to Thanatos. "Don't ever be scared," he said. "Just remember who you are. And that we will always come when you call."

It did bother him that his other children were picking on Thanatos. He was really too gentle to be picked on. Maybe Erebos should teach him how to fight.

But looking at him, he realized that it was not to be. Besides, Nyx would glare at him if he taught their children any more uncouth things. And Nyx glaring was bad.

[swift_wings]

"Faster then the floo of Styxie's wettles," he modestly exclaimed! Mommy and daddy sure could move fast if they could move that fast. He hoped he could move that fast one day.

He smiled up at his daddy wide-eyed, "Not even of the mon-sters?"

[nyx__dot__com]

Nyx settled closer to Erebos, and turned her head to the side and up to kiss his jaw. She knew that her husband didn't hate Moros - that he loved him, in fact - and it was just that fact that kept the topic from being sacrosanct. Overall, it had to be expected that certain tensions would exist between some of their children and either or both of them. The personalities in their family were so widely varied that conflict, even between a few of the children and Erebos or Nyx, was practically inevitable.

Ere's assurances to their son, however, made her smile. She knew that Than wasn't what he'd expected, but he accepted and loved him dearly, and this made Nyx Happy. She never wanted any of her children to feel that they would be rejected for who they were.

But then Than said something that snapped her attention back.

"Monsters?" Nyx repeated quizzically. Granted, some of the denizens of the Underworld could look rather... unconventional, but it was hardly polite to refer to them as monsters, wasn't it then? Nyx's expression pulled into a puzzled frown. "What monsters, love?"