Family [1/1]
Fanfiction: Family
Characters/Pairing: Akira, Hypnos, Thanatos
Words: ~3000 words
Notes: for atrypical, who requested cuddlytiems. For a drabble. That grew.
"Hypnos?"
He thought he heard a voice calling him. Since heard was a whole different concept than he thought he heard, he tugged the blankets closer up to his chest and sank deeper into sleep.
Or, since sank was a whole different concept than trying to sink...
"Hypnos...?"
He blindly patted around the bed for a pillow and stuffed it over his face, trying to block the voice away. It had been a long day - another person thrown into that odd realm of what they called television, another dungeon run (as his other duplicates liked to call it; he didn't see the point, since when can you run in dungeons?), another session of using powers that he never had to use as much before. Granted, he was one of the most powerful spellcasters in Tartarus, but after sleeping through the entirety of the Trojan War (and the aftermath, and Odysseus, and - ), and suddenly getting dumped in this rift in reality - he was bound to get rusty. He was tired. And for the first time in a long time, he actually needed to sleep.
"Hypnos..."
It had to have been barely a mortal hour since he hit the pillows -
"Hypnos..."
This time, the voice came from right beside his ear, and he shot up from the bed with a gasp.
Akira stared right back at him, looking vaguely surprised. Hypnos fought the urge to curse the boy into oblivion.
"What is it," he snapped, and the boy shrank back a little. Hypnos sighed; it seemed that the amount if the boy's fear was directly proportional to the amount that he would feel guilty a few seconds afterwards - but then again, tonight, he wasn't really in the best of moods. In fact, he had kicked out his brother earlier (an impressive feat, considering that normally he would never let Thanatos out of his sight) for being too damn noisy when he was trying to catch some shut-eye.
Akira sniffed a little.
Hypnos muttered a few choice Greek words under his breath. Calm. Yes. Calm, through the pounding headache that was starting to make its presence known like one of his fathered children. Calm. "Akira, is there something the matter?"
The boy bit his lip (adorably, and he stopped that thought dead cold) and hugged himself around the midriff. "I - the storm - "
Hypnos looked up, past him, and saw through the windows that the aftermath of the magic influx earlier had still not passed. The weather here seemed quite attuned to the balance of powers, and it seemed that every single time, after a person had gone missing or after the Mall had had its fun, the weather would swing to the extremes. Tonight it seemed that it favoured storms. A magnificent one, at that. He hadn't noticed, since he had made the room completely soundproof when the windows were shut.
He remembered he was to ask Akira if he wanted to do the same for his. He also remembered that he wasn't woken up to watch the storm lashing at his windows, but that there was a boy standing next to his bed with the most adorably sad expression on his face and -
Hypnos coughed. And gestured for Akira to continue.
The boy rubbed his arms and looked to the side, looking oddly smaller without his favourite headphones and in a larger pajama set than what fitted him. "The storm...I - " he was visibly struggling for words, but Hypnos recognised that particular thought, that particular pull that was part of his job.
"You cannot sleep, can you?"
Akira stared at him, before nodding hesitantly.
Of course, being the god of sleep, Hypnos thought, he'd be the first person Akira ran to. Awfully convenient that their rooms were just adjacent, wasn't it? He threw the covers of the bed back, and he felt rather than saw the boy flinch.
"Would you stop being so nervous," he muttered, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Waking the god of sleep in the middle of the night came with repercussions; in this case, it was one (1) very irritable said god. He once thought of switching sleep patterns with those mortals he so loathed to help, but that plan failed when he actually did fall asleep in the morning - and continued to sleep on, unbroken, until he woke up two months later. "I would rather you fall asleep in bed, not where you stand."
"Actually, I - "
Hypnos slanted him a Look.
To his incredulity, Akira shook his head and stared at his toes. Hypnos' eyebrow did its usual I-cannot-believe-the-nerve-of-you-mortals dance. "IwaswonderingifIcansleephere."
Fortunately he had enough practice with fast talkers (case in point: his brother after a mug of his special cocoa), and he easily deciphered what the boy was saying. And then what he actually meant sunk in, and Hypnos stared at him flatly.
Akira blushed. (Adorably.)
"Here."
He bobbed his head up and down, hair flouncing in front of his eyes.
"No."
Now Akira was staring at him with something akin to betrayal.
Hypnos stood up and blinked his eyes blearily, brushing his reaction off. "I can easily soundproof your room as well as this." Get on with it so I can get some sleep already, damn it.
"But I - "
Another Look. Akira fell silent and looked down again. Something like regret tugged at the something that passed for Hypnos' heart (seeing that it was never really any use except for keeping this corporeal body alive), and he sighed. "Look, Akira, you will sleep better if you sleep in your own room. Sleeping in familiar surroundings brings more restful sleep."
"...but you're familiar too."
He was going to run out of variations of flat stares at this point. "What?"
"I mean," the blue-haired boy started, wringing his hands and still talking to his feet, "You're right. People always sleep better when they're somewhere familiar. And I think you're really familiar, because you're really nice and you look out for me and everything, and - "
Behind him, a fork of lightning cut across the sky, and thunder crashed, echoing around the room. Akira jumped and dived right into the spot he had just gotten up from. Hypnos cursed inwardly once again. Small wards didn't stand up too well to magical storms. And he hadn't recovered enough strength to hold wards against storms of this magnitude while asleep. Damn. He really, really needed to sleep right now. He pinched the bridge of his nose to hold off the worst of the pounding headache.
Akira peeked out from under the blankets. Hypnos almost gave him a flat look before sighing and crossing the room again, to stand next to his own bed, a reversal of their positions earlier.
"Fine."
The smile that the boy gave him almost made up for the entire waking-him-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night thing. Almost.
He had long ago transfigured the single bed into a larger queen-size one (because he was the god of sleep, damn it, and if he was going to be stuck here he'd better make himself comfortable), and he and Thanatos would usually sleep side-by-side, just because. Akira didn't nearly take up as much space. Now if only the boy stayed on his side of the bed...
Hypnos got under the covers and resisted the urge (as with all small children and small furry animals) to pat him (or hug him, really now, this was getting out of character). He really did look so small and vulnerable; a child lost in a dimensional nexus. Not for the first time, Hypnos felt more than a little annoyed that this place had the tenacity to pull mortals as young as him into such a place of violence such as this. Also, not for the first time, he mentally kicked himself for being so sappy over a mortal.
He sighed, and rolled his eyes when another thunderclap sounded overhead. Akira clutched at the blankets and scooted closer to him. Hypnos turned his head to give the boy a flat stare. Again.
His eyes met with hair, and he had to hold back a sneeze when he inhaled the strands. Akira was now clutching the front of his shirt with his face buried in Hypnos' collarbone, body trembling.
He sighed, and started stroking the boy's hair, as proclaimed in Section 18.4, paragraph D of Hypnos' Sleeping For Dummies mental catalogue of How To Get Mortals To Fall Asleep. As was his job. Not that he was actually enjoying this. "Ssshh. It is all right. I am not going anywhere," he murmured into his hair as he did the customary prelude-to-sleep routine. He had to do what he had to do, after all...
And it was just then that the door banged open, and Akira whimpered a little as he clung to Hypnos so tightly he thought his shirt was going to get ripped into shreds.
Hypnos lifted his head - and rolled his eyes, before gently releasing the boy's grip on his shirt. "You idiot."
Thanatos grinned at him sheepishly from the doorway, dripping wet, his feathers bedraggled so badly Hypnos winced aloud. He sat up again, and Akira tugged the blankets over his head nervously.
"Your body shall catch a cold," he said, irritated, as he slid out of bed and as Thanatos shook his head violently, spraying water everywhere. "What were you doing?"
"Standing in the rain," his older twin replied a bit happily. "It feels nice."
Hypnos was pretty sure he'd given this particular flat look over a dozen times to Thanatos now, who had the grace to look embarrassed. "Idiot," he repeated, waving a hand towards the door and shutting it, before demanding that Thanatos take off his boots before they dripped all over the carpet. Honestly. Grooming his wings when they'd dried would be an utter pain in the ass.
Thanatos just smiled at him, and, as always, he smiled back.
"Um," a voice said from somewhere beside them, and Hypnos looked down to see Akira holding a thick cotton towel and tugging at Thanatos' sleeve. "He's right!" he piped up. "You'll get sick if you don't dry off."
Hypnos felt a brief flash of jealousy - one that he still felt sometimes whenever Mitsuru doted on his brother - but he swallowed it down and just nodded in agreement. Distraction, yes. He pursed his lips and just picked up Thanatos' boots, shaking them out and drying them with a controlled combination of hot air.
"Oh, thanks, Akira," he heard Thanatos say. Hypnos just aimed his flat stare at the wall when the other god shook out his wings and sprinkled water everywhere, before winching them into nonexistence. God. Did he never learn that letting his wings dry in nonexistence caused moulting?
"I've started to run the hot water, too," Akira replied matter-of-factly, and Hypnos dumped the boots near the door with a huff. Really now. Stop mothering my brother, you little brat.
Thanatos peeled off his gloves and patted the boy on the head. "You're really something, huh?" he said, laughing a little, before disappearing in the direction of the bathroom. Why, Hypnos could've dried him in an instant, but no, he had to take that shower that the little brat had started for his brother.
Really.
He crossed his arms and when he and Akira's eyes met, he gave the boy the coldest glare he could muster. Which was saying a lot, since it was a glare that made even Zeus quail (right after he learned that Hera was pissed at him helping her husband commit adultery).
What he didn't expect was for Akira to burst into tears and dive once again for the bed, covers and pillows flying around him.
"A - "
Who the hell cared about what the boy thought, or how he felt, anyway?
Hypnos stood, staring at the sniffling lump in the middle of the bedcovers, trying to pinpoint the moment when he found out that he actually did. Somehow, in the whirlwind of it all, this boy -
He walked over to the side of the bed and tugged the covers back. Akira recoiled as if struck by a physical blow, and Hypnos sighed.
The boy was just being himself - helpful, innocent, uncaring of what anyone said. He didn't do anything. Hypnos realised he was being in one of his moods once again; the mood he got into whenever he was - jealous. Coupled with the fact that he was tired, and that he really did need sleep, it was no wonder that for someone supposedly as calm as him, was irritable.
Akira even trusted him enough to watch (keep him company) over him when he was asleep; a position that any mortal (or immortal) would find the most vulnerable. Huh. Children.
He got under the covers for the third time, and Akira slid as far away from him as possible, back turned to him. Hypnos refused to believe that the squeezing feeling in his chest was regret - at least, until, the boy's shoulders started shaking and quiet sobs drummed an accompaniment to the pattering of rain outside the windows.
"Akira - " he started, reaching out a hand that quite nearly didn't reach across to him, "I apologise. I was tired. I did not mean to...be so out of sorts."
The sobs quietened, a little, and Hypnos took a deep breath as he raised himself up and leant on an elbow. "Well, at least crying would help you fall asleep on your own."
"Y-you're not helping," Akira hiccuped suddenly, but he turned a fraction of an inch in Hypnos' direction. He took this as a good sign, and reached across the bed to ruffle the boy's hair.
All part of his job, he thought. But where did the job stop and his own actions begin?
"Familiar surroundings help you sleep better," Hypnos repeated, not caring about this dilemma for once. "And it is warmer when you sleep next to someone, correct?"
Akira turned to face him, tear tracks down his cheeks, and Hypnos winced inwardly. He wasn't entirely made from stone, and seeing such an expression on a child's face was bound to crack even the hardest of hearts. Or excuse for hearts; it didn't matter.
"Come here," he said softly, letting his head hit the pillow and letting a headwing fold underneath as an additional cushion. "I...am sorry."
Akira should really look into a career of stealth; all that diving and darting around that he was good at had to be good for something. Hypnos felt the breath leave him in one fell swoop as the boy lunged across the bed and hugged him tight, almost sending the both of them toppling over the other edge.
He sniffed a little, uneven breathing flattening slowly until it tapered off into the evenness of sleep. Hypnos kept on patting him on the head, absentmindedly. And he didn't even need to make the boy fall asleep this time; this was unusual.
"Cute," Thanatos said from the shadows, drying his hair off and grinning at the both of them.
Hypnos...stared at him.
"How long have you been standing there?" he hissed, his other traitorous headwing automatically reaching around and covering his face, as it usually did when he was flustered. Which he wasn't. He wasn't flustered at being caught being excessively nice to a mortal. No, nope.
"A while," his older twin said cheerily, chucking to towel over to a chair. Unfortunately, Thanatos knew about his headwings, and his grin said it all. "So you do have a heart after all, o frigid one."
"S-shut up," he muttered, feeling his cheeks heat up as he watched the god of death pad over, bare-chested and barefoot, to their bed and sit down on the other side. "...are those my pants?"
He ran a hand through his still-damp hair, and made a vague sound of affirmation. Hypnos aimed a flat look between his shoulder blades this time, and if it wasn't for Akira between them, he would've jumped Thanatos. For entirely pure reasons, of course.
(Or not.)
"You're not using them," he pointed out, yawning and climbing under the covers. Well, he had a point. But that was beside his point. Which was - he was supposed to loathe mortals. (Or anyone besides the gods he knew, anyway.) And this -
"Stop thinking so loudly, I can't fall asleep," Thanatos cut into his thoughts, shifting and turning to face him and Akira, a hand reaching over to brush the hair out of his eyes. Hypnos tried to hide his blush behind their charges' hair. Hell, when Thanatos was freshly showered, their hair looked identical except for colour.
Why was he thinking about hair again?
Akira shifted a little in the middle of them, mumbling something as he turned to the other side and clung to a surprised Thanatos' arm. Jealousy bubbled up once again, up Hypnos' throat, but it died once he realised he couldn't distinguish of whom he was jealous of, at this point.
"Feels nice, doesn't it?" Thanatos said softly, gently shaking his arm free and wrapping it around Akira instead. "Helping someone, I mean."
Hypnos thought it was sometimes unfair that the one who was supposed to be above it all - humanity, feelings, love - would be the one who knew more about this affection thing, the one who accepts it so readily.
He ignored the question. He knew Thanatos knew the answer anyway. "I thought I had, to coin a phrase, 'kicked you out'."
"You did. I just came back in," he replied cheekily, and Hypnos couldn't supress a smile.
"Idiot," he said fondly, pulling the covers back up around them, the rain merely background noise now. He really did need to sleep; the adrenalin was starting to wear off.
"Come here," He heard Thanatos say softly, motioning for him to move closer, Akira securely asleep between them. He complied, drawing in closer, eyes already drooping closed as he did. He felt a hand stroke his headwings, and a voice say goodnight, before drifting away into the abyss that was his realm.
---
"Honestly, I don't know what to do with you boys," Mitsuru said, exasperated, as she set down the thermos of chicken soup that she brought.
Thanatos and Akira exchanged amused looks, and Hypnos sulked under the covers; all three of them were nursing colds a few days later.
Characters/Pairing: Akira, Hypnos, Thanatos
Words: ~3000 words
Notes: for atrypical, who requested cuddlytiems. For a drabble. That grew.
"Hypnos?"
He thought he heard a voice calling him. Since heard was a whole different concept than he thought he heard, he tugged the blankets closer up to his chest and sank deeper into sleep.
Or, since sank was a whole different concept than trying to sink...
"Hypnos...?"
He blindly patted around the bed for a pillow and stuffed it over his face, trying to block the voice away. It had been a long day - another person thrown into that odd realm of what they called television, another dungeon run (as his other duplicates liked to call it; he didn't see the point, since when can you run in dungeons?), another session of using powers that he never had to use as much before. Granted, he was one of the most powerful spellcasters in Tartarus, but after sleeping through the entirety of the Trojan War (and the aftermath, and Odysseus, and - ), and suddenly getting dumped in this rift in reality - he was bound to get rusty. He was tired. And for the first time in a long time, he actually needed to sleep.
"Hypnos..."
It had to have been barely a mortal hour since he hit the pillows -
"Hypnos..."
This time, the voice came from right beside his ear, and he shot up from the bed with a gasp.
Akira stared right back at him, looking vaguely surprised. Hypnos fought the urge to curse the boy into oblivion.
"What is it," he snapped, and the boy shrank back a little. Hypnos sighed; it seemed that the amount if the boy's fear was directly proportional to the amount that he would feel guilty a few seconds afterwards - but then again, tonight, he wasn't really in the best of moods. In fact, he had kicked out his brother earlier (an impressive feat, considering that normally he would never let Thanatos out of his sight) for being too damn noisy when he was trying to catch some shut-eye.
Akira sniffed a little.
Hypnos muttered a few choice Greek words under his breath. Calm. Yes. Calm, through the pounding headache that was starting to make its presence known like one of his fathered children. Calm. "Akira, is there something the matter?"
The boy bit his lip (adorably, and he stopped that thought dead cold) and hugged himself around the midriff. "I - the storm - "
Hypnos looked up, past him, and saw through the windows that the aftermath of the magic influx earlier had still not passed. The weather here seemed quite attuned to the balance of powers, and it seemed that every single time, after a person had gone missing or after the Mall had had its fun, the weather would swing to the extremes. Tonight it seemed that it favoured storms. A magnificent one, at that. He hadn't noticed, since he had made the room completely soundproof when the windows were shut.
He remembered he was to ask Akira if he wanted to do the same for his. He also remembered that he wasn't woken up to watch the storm lashing at his windows, but that there was a boy standing next to his bed with the most adorably sad expression on his face and -
Hypnos coughed. And gestured for Akira to continue.
The boy rubbed his arms and looked to the side, looking oddly smaller without his favourite headphones and in a larger pajama set than what fitted him. "The storm...I - " he was visibly struggling for words, but Hypnos recognised that particular thought, that particular pull that was part of his job.
"You cannot sleep, can you?"
Akira stared at him, before nodding hesitantly.
Of course, being the god of sleep, Hypnos thought, he'd be the first person Akira ran to. Awfully convenient that their rooms were just adjacent, wasn't it? He threw the covers of the bed back, and he felt rather than saw the boy flinch.
"Would you stop being so nervous," he muttered, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. Waking the god of sleep in the middle of the night came with repercussions; in this case, it was one (1) very irritable said god. He once thought of switching sleep patterns with those mortals he so loathed to help, but that plan failed when he actually did fall asleep in the morning - and continued to sleep on, unbroken, until he woke up two months later. "I would rather you fall asleep in bed, not where you stand."
"Actually, I - "
Hypnos slanted him a Look.
To his incredulity, Akira shook his head and stared at his toes. Hypnos' eyebrow did its usual I-cannot-believe-the-nerve-of-you-mortals dance. "IwaswonderingifIcansleephere."
Fortunately he had enough practice with fast talkers (case in point: his brother after a mug of his special cocoa), and he easily deciphered what the boy was saying. And then what he actually meant sunk in, and Hypnos stared at him flatly.
Akira blushed. (Adorably.)
"Here."
He bobbed his head up and down, hair flouncing in front of his eyes.
"No."
Now Akira was staring at him with something akin to betrayal.
Hypnos stood up and blinked his eyes blearily, brushing his reaction off. "I can easily soundproof your room as well as this." Get on with it so I can get some sleep already, damn it.
"But I - "
Another Look. Akira fell silent and looked down again. Something like regret tugged at the something that passed for Hypnos' heart (seeing that it was never really any use except for keeping this corporeal body alive), and he sighed. "Look, Akira, you will sleep better if you sleep in your own room. Sleeping in familiar surroundings brings more restful sleep."
"...but you're familiar too."
He was going to run out of variations of flat stares at this point. "What?"
"I mean," the blue-haired boy started, wringing his hands and still talking to his feet, "You're right. People always sleep better when they're somewhere familiar. And I think you're really familiar, because you're really nice and you look out for me and everything, and - "
Behind him, a fork of lightning cut across the sky, and thunder crashed, echoing around the room. Akira jumped and dived right into the spot he had just gotten up from. Hypnos cursed inwardly once again. Small wards didn't stand up too well to magical storms. And he hadn't recovered enough strength to hold wards against storms of this magnitude while asleep. Damn. He really, really needed to sleep right now. He pinched the bridge of his nose to hold off the worst of the pounding headache.
Akira peeked out from under the blankets. Hypnos almost gave him a flat look before sighing and crossing the room again, to stand next to his own bed, a reversal of their positions earlier.
"Fine."
The smile that the boy gave him almost made up for the entire waking-him-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night thing. Almost.
He had long ago transfigured the single bed into a larger queen-size one (because he was the god of sleep, damn it, and if he was going to be stuck here he'd better make himself comfortable), and he and Thanatos would usually sleep side-by-side, just because. Akira didn't nearly take up as much space. Now if only the boy stayed on his side of the bed...
Hypnos got under the covers and resisted the urge (as with all small children and small furry animals) to pat him (or hug him, really now, this was getting out of character). He really did look so small and vulnerable; a child lost in a dimensional nexus. Not for the first time, Hypnos felt more than a little annoyed that this place had the tenacity to pull mortals as young as him into such a place of violence such as this. Also, not for the first time, he mentally kicked himself for being so sappy over a mortal.
He sighed, and rolled his eyes when another thunderclap sounded overhead. Akira clutched at the blankets and scooted closer to him. Hypnos turned his head to give the boy a flat stare. Again.
His eyes met with hair, and he had to hold back a sneeze when he inhaled the strands. Akira was now clutching the front of his shirt with his face buried in Hypnos' collarbone, body trembling.
He sighed, and started stroking the boy's hair, as proclaimed in Section 18.4, paragraph D of Hypnos' Sleeping For Dummies mental catalogue of How To Get Mortals To Fall Asleep. As was his job. Not that he was actually enjoying this. "Ssshh. It is all right. I am not going anywhere," he murmured into his hair as he did the customary prelude-to-sleep routine. He had to do what he had to do, after all...
And it was just then that the door banged open, and Akira whimpered a little as he clung to Hypnos so tightly he thought his shirt was going to get ripped into shreds.
Hypnos lifted his head - and rolled his eyes, before gently releasing the boy's grip on his shirt. "You idiot."
Thanatos grinned at him sheepishly from the doorway, dripping wet, his feathers bedraggled so badly Hypnos winced aloud. He sat up again, and Akira tugged the blankets over his head nervously.
"Your body shall catch a cold," he said, irritated, as he slid out of bed and as Thanatos shook his head violently, spraying water everywhere. "What were you doing?"
"Standing in the rain," his older twin replied a bit happily. "It feels nice."
Hypnos was pretty sure he'd given this particular flat look over a dozen times to Thanatos now, who had the grace to look embarrassed. "Idiot," he repeated, waving a hand towards the door and shutting it, before demanding that Thanatos take off his boots before they dripped all over the carpet. Honestly. Grooming his wings when they'd dried would be an utter pain in the ass.
Thanatos just smiled at him, and, as always, he smiled back.
"Um," a voice said from somewhere beside them, and Hypnos looked down to see Akira holding a thick cotton towel and tugging at Thanatos' sleeve. "He's right!" he piped up. "You'll get sick if you don't dry off."
Hypnos felt a brief flash of jealousy - one that he still felt sometimes whenever Mitsuru doted on his brother - but he swallowed it down and just nodded in agreement. Distraction, yes. He pursed his lips and just picked up Thanatos' boots, shaking them out and drying them with a controlled combination of hot air.
"Oh, thanks, Akira," he heard Thanatos say. Hypnos just aimed his flat stare at the wall when the other god shook out his wings and sprinkled water everywhere, before winching them into nonexistence. God. Did he never learn that letting his wings dry in nonexistence caused moulting?
"I've started to run the hot water, too," Akira replied matter-of-factly, and Hypnos dumped the boots near the door with a huff. Really now. Stop mothering my brother, you little brat.
Thanatos peeled off his gloves and patted the boy on the head. "You're really something, huh?" he said, laughing a little, before disappearing in the direction of the bathroom. Why, Hypnos could've dried him in an instant, but no, he had to take that shower that the little brat had started for his brother.
Really.
He crossed his arms and when he and Akira's eyes met, he gave the boy the coldest glare he could muster. Which was saying a lot, since it was a glare that made even Zeus quail (right after he learned that Hera was pissed at him helping her husband commit adultery).
What he didn't expect was for Akira to burst into tears and dive once again for the bed, covers and pillows flying around him.
"A - "
Who the hell cared about what the boy thought, or how he felt, anyway?
Hypnos stood, staring at the sniffling lump in the middle of the bedcovers, trying to pinpoint the moment when he found out that he actually did. Somehow, in the whirlwind of it all, this boy -
He walked over to the side of the bed and tugged the covers back. Akira recoiled as if struck by a physical blow, and Hypnos sighed.
The boy was just being himself - helpful, innocent, uncaring of what anyone said. He didn't do anything. Hypnos realised he was being in one of his moods once again; the mood he got into whenever he was - jealous. Coupled with the fact that he was tired, and that he really did need sleep, it was no wonder that for someone supposedly as calm as him, was irritable.
Akira even trusted him enough to watch (keep him company) over him when he was asleep; a position that any mortal (or immortal) would find the most vulnerable. Huh. Children.
He got under the covers for the third time, and Akira slid as far away from him as possible, back turned to him. Hypnos refused to believe that the squeezing feeling in his chest was regret - at least, until, the boy's shoulders started shaking and quiet sobs drummed an accompaniment to the pattering of rain outside the windows.
"Akira - " he started, reaching out a hand that quite nearly didn't reach across to him, "I apologise. I was tired. I did not mean to...be so out of sorts."
The sobs quietened, a little, and Hypnos took a deep breath as he raised himself up and leant on an elbow. "Well, at least crying would help you fall asleep on your own."
"Y-you're not helping," Akira hiccuped suddenly, but he turned a fraction of an inch in Hypnos' direction. He took this as a good sign, and reached across the bed to ruffle the boy's hair.
All part of his job, he thought. But where did the job stop and his own actions begin?
"Familiar surroundings help you sleep better," Hypnos repeated, not caring about this dilemma for once. "And it is warmer when you sleep next to someone, correct?"
Akira turned to face him, tear tracks down his cheeks, and Hypnos winced inwardly. He wasn't entirely made from stone, and seeing such an expression on a child's face was bound to crack even the hardest of hearts. Or excuse for hearts; it didn't matter.
"Come here," he said softly, letting his head hit the pillow and letting a headwing fold underneath as an additional cushion. "I...am sorry."
Akira should really look into a career of stealth; all that diving and darting around that he was good at had to be good for something. Hypnos felt the breath leave him in one fell swoop as the boy lunged across the bed and hugged him tight, almost sending the both of them toppling over the other edge.
He sniffed a little, uneven breathing flattening slowly until it tapered off into the evenness of sleep. Hypnos kept on patting him on the head, absentmindedly. And he didn't even need to make the boy fall asleep this time; this was unusual.
"Cute," Thanatos said from the shadows, drying his hair off and grinning at the both of them.
Hypnos...stared at him.
"How long have you been standing there?" he hissed, his other traitorous headwing automatically reaching around and covering his face, as it usually did when he was flustered. Which he wasn't. He wasn't flustered at being caught being excessively nice to a mortal. No, nope.
"A while," his older twin said cheerily, chucking to towel over to a chair. Unfortunately, Thanatos knew about his headwings, and his grin said it all. "So you do have a heart after all, o frigid one."
"S-shut up," he muttered, feeling his cheeks heat up as he watched the god of death pad over, bare-chested and barefoot, to their bed and sit down on the other side. "...are those my pants?"
He ran a hand through his still-damp hair, and made a vague sound of affirmation. Hypnos aimed a flat look between his shoulder blades this time, and if it wasn't for Akira between them, he would've jumped Thanatos. For entirely pure reasons, of course.
(Or not.)
"You're not using them," he pointed out, yawning and climbing under the covers. Well, he had a point. But that was beside his point. Which was - he was supposed to loathe mortals. (Or anyone besides the gods he knew, anyway.) And this -
"Stop thinking so loudly, I can't fall asleep," Thanatos cut into his thoughts, shifting and turning to face him and Akira, a hand reaching over to brush the hair out of his eyes. Hypnos tried to hide his blush behind their charges' hair. Hell, when Thanatos was freshly showered, their hair looked identical except for colour.
Why was he thinking about hair again?
Akira shifted a little in the middle of them, mumbling something as he turned to the other side and clung to a surprised Thanatos' arm. Jealousy bubbled up once again, up Hypnos' throat, but it died once he realised he couldn't distinguish of whom he was jealous of, at this point.
"Feels nice, doesn't it?" Thanatos said softly, gently shaking his arm free and wrapping it around Akira instead. "Helping someone, I mean."
Hypnos thought it was sometimes unfair that the one who was supposed to be above it all - humanity, feelings, love - would be the one who knew more about this affection thing, the one who accepts it so readily.
He ignored the question. He knew Thanatos knew the answer anyway. "I thought I had, to coin a phrase, 'kicked you out'."
"You did. I just came back in," he replied cheekily, and Hypnos couldn't supress a smile.
"Idiot," he said fondly, pulling the covers back up around them, the rain merely background noise now. He really did need to sleep; the adrenalin was starting to wear off.
"Come here," He heard Thanatos say softly, motioning for him to move closer, Akira securely asleep between them. He complied, drawing in closer, eyes already drooping closed as he did. He felt a hand stroke his headwings, and a voice say goodnight, before drifting away into the abyss that was his realm.
---
"Honestly, I don't know what to do with you boys," Mitsuru said, exasperated, as she set down the thermos of chicken soup that she brought.
Thanatos and Akira exchanged amused looks, and Hypnos sulked under the covers; all three of them were nursing colds a few days later.