"Why the fuck would you do this?"
"Why are you looking at me like I control the Moirai?"
"Maybe because they're your children, Mother."
"So are you, my dear Thanatos, and I don't control you."
"Maybe because the last time you tried to I told you I'd give you to Cerberus as a fucking chew toy and told you to go to Hell."
"To Tartarus, sweet boy."
"No, I explicitly said Hell just to piss you off by referring to the human's version."
"Child, what's done is done. She's just a human, pass her soul and move on. There's a million like her every century, you'll find another toy to entertain you."
"Fuck you."
"No, sweet child, we'll leave the incest for Zeus and all his halfbreeds running around. Your father and I prefer to have the superior genes for our offspring."
His lips curled down as he stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind him. He hadn't wasted all of those fucking months, nay, fucking years now, keeping the pretty little mortal away from a gruesome death just to take her now. For days his siblings had hounded him, hour after fucking hour to pay heed to the one in the realm below, the one meant for his domain but steadily leading herself toward that of his sisters.
He should have let the Ker fucking have her and moved on. All of this pain for one little mortal who had wormed her way into his heart.
"I curse thee to lose your sight and never again steal what is mine."
"That's not a very nice thing to wish upon one's kin, brother."
"Bite me, witch."
He observed the triplet facing him with a bored expression, her lips set in a thin line and her eyes looking straight through him.
"Did one of the Ker put you up to this so they could steal the carnage for themselves? Or was it that bitch Nemesis, forever unhappy when one of our kind toys with a mortal? She should save her wrath for Zeus and his inability to keep his dick in his pants, not for those of us who had found our true sou-"
"My, what a mouth on you today, Thanny."
"My name is not fucking Thanny."
"Quit acting like a child. You were never meant to guide the mortal into days of wrinkles and gray hairs, you were only meant to guide her from the violence your sisters reign and pass her over with your domain of peace."
"Fuck my peace. Let her live, their lives are so short as it is. I need more time with her."
"Her lifetime is but a minute of ours, a tiny fragment that you'll forget in just a matter of weeks. Did you expect her to live forever and stay by your side here?"
"No, but that's not the bloody point. Why are you all so fucking stubborn?"
"Says the boy standing here screaming over a mortal you've known what, a mere five years?"
"The five bloody years I spent with her was better than the fucking millennia I've dealt with all of your asses. Tell Lachesis to change it."
"Tell me yourself, brother. And no, I will not. That was her allotment, and it is nearly over. You must prepare--"
"LIKE HELL I WILL. CHANGE IT." The two identical women looked wholly unimpressed by his roaring of words, and the third entering the room with a sleepy expression took in the situation and snorted.
"Just take her soul and move on. Have a drink with Apollo and forget about Nessie--"
"For fucks' sake, do not care call my soul that like she's a fucking mythical water beast the humans made up."
"She's not your soul, Thanatos. She's just a human you took pity on and fixed up so she didn't die a gruesome and lonely death."
"No." He shook his head and pounded his fist against the wall, hating the look of pity that was simultaneously crossing all three of the Moirai's faces. "Don't fucking look at me like that. You control Fate, you can change this and you stand here and tell me you won't do a damn thing? How many times have you changed your allotments because Zeus ployed you with gifts, or Mother promised to make it worth your while? You've changed your roles as decider, executioner, allowed strings to be toyed with to entertain that whore Aphrodite because she wanted a lover to live another year to fuck to her heart's content. Yet you would not give me another year, another decade with Nessa when she completes me? You are a traitorous den of vipers, I curse the day I learned to call you my sisters."
"Thanatos, look at her. Would you wish her to grow old and experience the pains of age all for your selfish desire to have more time?"
The rage on his face cracked as he was beckoned forward to the pool built into the middle of the room. He approached it with hesitant steps, each one feeling heavier than the last until he halted mere feet from it. He didn't want to fucking see this, not now, not when he was fighting everything including his family to buy her more time. Maybe he'd just refuse to take her soul and tell whatever cunt had done this to suck his dick, it wasn't happening.
"Thanatos, look at her. See how peaceful she sleeps now that the demons that once plagued her were gone. Does it not bring you peace to know you'll take her soul to the afterlife knowing happiness?"
"Don't make me look. Don't fucking do it, Lachesis."
"Look, brother."
"Fuck you for ever giving her to me," He spoke through clenched teeth as he looked down in the pool, drinking in the sight of the slumbering mortal and her fiery mane splayed across her pillow. "Curse you for not letting the Ker have her. They could have ripped her limb from limb and tormented her for all eternity and it would not cause the pain you cause me now." How could one little mortal be so fucking beautiful that it hurt his heart to look at her? Hurt his heart to know that her time was near and he would have to guide her soul on and let Charon ferry it across the River?
"Five fucking years, Lachesis. Five years of dragging her back from the edge of insanity. Day after damn day making sure she didn't jump in front of those damned trains they're so fond of getting hit by, day after fucking day of convincing her that she was worth more than the words of those around her. Have you ever laid awake at night and watched the other half of yourself sleep? Watched them dream and murmur, cling to you and wake from terror only to look at you with complete fucking trust in their eyes?" He shuddered and looked away from the pool, flexing his hands and staring down at the imprints the stone had left in them.
"You cannot ask me to take her. She needs more time. I need more damn time with her."
"You have until morning. Do you wish her soul to be lost to the void because you cannot do your duty?"
"Fuck off, Lach." She was right and he knew it, but it didn't make what he had to do any easier. "Open the goddamn Aether."
"Ask him yourself."
"Lach, I swear to everything in fucking existence if you don't open it right now so I can spend her last fucking hours with her, I am going to destroy everything you fucking hold dear. Do you understand me? I will rip your fucking heart from your chest and let our sisters fight over who gets to eat it."
"So much for the god of peaceful death." She snorted and splashed a hand through the water, breaking up the image of the sleeping mortal and waving her other hand in the air.
"Fuck off." The bright room and pool were replaced by the dark room he'd become familiar with over the years. "Fuck." He cursed quietly upon settling on the carpet clad floor and stared down at Nessa sleeping peacefully.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" How was he supposed to do this when she looked so content? When she'd finally fucking started to enjoy the human world and the things it had to offer her? "I'm so fucking sorry, Ness."
"...Than?"
"Shit." He cursed again when he saw her lashes flutter and his name escape her lips. "Shit, go back to sleep, sweet Ness." Just his fucking luck, of course he'd woken her up instead of just lying down and holding her until it was time.
"Than, are you really here?"
"I'm here, little disaster. Sleep."
"What's wrong?"
"Shit, I'm sorry for waking you, go back to sleep."
"Than, what's wrong?"
"I curse the day you learned to read me like an open book." She was already sitting up when he climbed onto bed and sighed. "Forgive me for waking you, precious." She crawled into his lap like she had many a night, and he cursed existence itself for causing him this pain.
"It's time, isn't it?"
"I... Fuck." The quiver in his voice betrayed him as he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. "Nearly, little disaster. When the sun rises it will be your last."
"That's okay, I'm ready."
"Damn it, Ness, don't fucking say that."
"Really, Than, I am. It was a good few years and I got to know you. It was worth it."
"I curse Chronos for not giving us more time."
"We had five years, love." Her arms were around his neck, fingers running through his hair in an attempt to soothe him.
"I curse Lachesis for not allotting more time."
"Than, look at me."
"Just let me hold you for a moment."
"Thanatos."
"Don't call me that fucking name, little one. I'm much happier to hear the name you call me." He tried to sound amused as his arms around her tightened slightly, his fingers tracing over her back until she wriggled and forced their faces apart.
"Damnit, Ness." She left him with no time to wipe his face, and he uttered a series of curses as her fingers gently wiped the tears from his cheeks. "Fucking... Come here, Ness. Just let me hold you until the sunrises."
"I love you, Than."
"I love you too, my little disaster. So fucking much."
"Yeah, I really was a disaster, wasn't I?"
"The fucking biggest one I ever fucking saw." She crawled back into his lap and nestled under his chin as he scooted back to the wall and cradled her. "Such a fucking disaster, but the most beautiful one in the world."
"It was a good five years, Than."
"Five years would never fucking be enough. I would spend an eternity with you and damn countless others to the Hell you mortals are so fond of. You're fucking mine, Ness. There will never be another like you, not in a decade, nor a century, nor an endless stream of millennia. No mortal will ever fucking compare to you."
"Stop it, Than. I don't want you to be angry and miserable for the rest of your eternal life. You'll move on."
"Don't you fucking say that." He pressed a kiss to her head and inhaled a shaky breath. "Don't you ever fucking say that again. You are my soul, and you always will be."
"Think of me when it rains."
"When it rains? What does the damn rain have to do with—Oh, for fuck's sake, Ness, you want me to remember the day I found you half naked trying to die in the rain? What the fuck is wrong with you? Why not the way your hair is like fire under the sunlight, or the way you looked after I fucked you "six ways to Sunday" as you mortals say? Why the rain?"
"Because that day in the rain was when I fell in love with you. The day I decided to start living if it meant more time with you." A shudder forced its way through him as he grumbled and wiped at his wet face, pressing another kiss to her head and laughing bitterly.
"Then I curse the rain for giving us a love so great that even Fate would destroy it."
"Than?"
"Yes, little disaster?"
She pointed at the window where the pattering of raindrops were leaving streaks against the pane.
"I think the rain says fuck you back."
"Why are you looking at me like I control the Moirai?"
"Maybe because they're your children, Mother."
"So are you, my dear Thanatos, and I don't control you."
"Maybe because the last time you tried to I told you I'd give you to Cerberus as a fucking chew toy and told you to go to Hell."
"To Tartarus, sweet boy."
"No, I explicitly said Hell just to piss you off by referring to the human's version."
"Child, what's done is done. She's just a human, pass her soul and move on. There's a million like her every century, you'll find another toy to entertain you."
"Fuck you."
"No, sweet child, we'll leave the incest for Zeus and all his halfbreeds running around. Your father and I prefer to have the superior genes for our offspring."
His lips curled down as he stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind him. He hadn't wasted all of those fucking months, nay, fucking years now, keeping the pretty little mortal away from a gruesome death just to take her now. For days his siblings had hounded him, hour after fucking hour to pay heed to the one in the realm below, the one meant for his domain but steadily leading herself toward that of his sisters.
He should have let the Ker fucking have her and moved on. All of this pain for one little mortal who had wormed her way into his heart.
"I curse thee to lose your sight and never again steal what is mine."
"That's not a very nice thing to wish upon one's kin, brother."
"Bite me, witch."
He observed the triplet facing him with a bored expression, her lips set in a thin line and her eyes looking straight through him.
"Did one of the Ker put you up to this so they could steal the carnage for themselves? Or was it that bitch Nemesis, forever unhappy when one of our kind toys with a mortal? She should save her wrath for Zeus and his inability to keep his dick in his pants, not for those of us who had found our true sou-"
"My, what a mouth on you today, Thanny."
"My name is not fucking Thanny."
"Quit acting like a child. You were never meant to guide the mortal into days of wrinkles and gray hairs, you were only meant to guide her from the violence your sisters reign and pass her over with your domain of peace."
"Fuck my peace. Let her live, their lives are so short as it is. I need more time with her."
"Her lifetime is but a minute of ours, a tiny fragment that you'll forget in just a matter of weeks. Did you expect her to live forever and stay by your side here?"
"No, but that's not the bloody point. Why are you all so fucking stubborn?"
"Says the boy standing here screaming over a mortal you've known what, a mere five years?"
"The five bloody years I spent with her was better than the fucking millennia I've dealt with all of your asses. Tell Lachesis to change it."
"Tell me yourself, brother. And no, I will not. That was her allotment, and it is nearly over. You must prepare--"
"LIKE HELL I WILL. CHANGE IT." The two identical women looked wholly unimpressed by his roaring of words, and the third entering the room with a sleepy expression took in the situation and snorted.
"Just take her soul and move on. Have a drink with Apollo and forget about Nessie--"
"For fucks' sake, do not care call my soul that like she's a fucking mythical water beast the humans made up."
"She's not your soul, Thanatos. She's just a human you took pity on and fixed up so she didn't die a gruesome and lonely death."
"No." He shook his head and pounded his fist against the wall, hating the look of pity that was simultaneously crossing all three of the Moirai's faces. "Don't fucking look at me like that. You control Fate, you can change this and you stand here and tell me you won't do a damn thing? How many times have you changed your allotments because Zeus ployed you with gifts, or Mother promised to make it worth your while? You've changed your roles as decider, executioner, allowed strings to be toyed with to entertain that whore Aphrodite because she wanted a lover to live another year to fuck to her heart's content. Yet you would not give me another year, another decade with Nessa when she completes me? You are a traitorous den of vipers, I curse the day I learned to call you my sisters."
"Thanatos, look at her. Would you wish her to grow old and experience the pains of age all for your selfish desire to have more time?"
The rage on his face cracked as he was beckoned forward to the pool built into the middle of the room. He approached it with hesitant steps, each one feeling heavier than the last until he halted mere feet from it. He didn't want to fucking see this, not now, not when he was fighting everything including his family to buy her more time. Maybe he'd just refuse to take her soul and tell whatever cunt had done this to suck his dick, it wasn't happening.
"Thanatos, look at her. See how peaceful she sleeps now that the demons that once plagued her were gone. Does it not bring you peace to know you'll take her soul to the afterlife knowing happiness?"
"Don't make me look. Don't fucking do it, Lachesis."
"Look, brother."
"Fuck you for ever giving her to me," He spoke through clenched teeth as he looked down in the pool, drinking in the sight of the slumbering mortal and her fiery mane splayed across her pillow. "Curse you for not letting the Ker have her. They could have ripped her limb from limb and tormented her for all eternity and it would not cause the pain you cause me now." How could one little mortal be so fucking beautiful that it hurt his heart to look at her? Hurt his heart to know that her time was near and he would have to guide her soul on and let Charon ferry it across the River?
"Five fucking years, Lachesis. Five years of dragging her back from the edge of insanity. Day after damn day making sure she didn't jump in front of those damned trains they're so fond of getting hit by, day after fucking day of convincing her that she was worth more than the words of those around her. Have you ever laid awake at night and watched the other half of yourself sleep? Watched them dream and murmur, cling to you and wake from terror only to look at you with complete fucking trust in their eyes?" He shuddered and looked away from the pool, flexing his hands and staring down at the imprints the stone had left in them.
"You cannot ask me to take her. She needs more time. I need more damn time with her."
"You have until morning. Do you wish her soul to be lost to the void because you cannot do your duty?"
"Fuck off, Lach." She was right and he knew it, but it didn't make what he had to do any easier. "Open the goddamn Aether."
"Ask him yourself."
"Lach, I swear to everything in fucking existence if you don't open it right now so I can spend her last fucking hours with her, I am going to destroy everything you fucking hold dear. Do you understand me? I will rip your fucking heart from your chest and let our sisters fight over who gets to eat it."
"So much for the god of peaceful death." She snorted and splashed a hand through the water, breaking up the image of the sleeping mortal and waving her other hand in the air.
"Fuck off." The bright room and pool were replaced by the dark room he'd become familiar with over the years. "Fuck." He cursed quietly upon settling on the carpet clad floor and stared down at Nessa sleeping peacefully.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" How was he supposed to do this when she looked so content? When she'd finally fucking started to enjoy the human world and the things it had to offer her? "I'm so fucking sorry, Ness."
"...Than?"
"Shit." He cursed again when he saw her lashes flutter and his name escape her lips. "Shit, go back to sleep, sweet Ness." Just his fucking luck, of course he'd woken her up instead of just lying down and holding her until it was time.
"Than, are you really here?"
"I'm here, little disaster. Sleep."
"What's wrong?"
"Shit, I'm sorry for waking you, go back to sleep."
"Than, what's wrong?"
"I curse the day you learned to read me like an open book." She was already sitting up when he climbed onto bed and sighed. "Forgive me for waking you, precious." She crawled into his lap like she had many a night, and he cursed existence itself for causing him this pain.
"It's time, isn't it?"
"I... Fuck." The quiver in his voice betrayed him as he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair. "Nearly, little disaster. When the sun rises it will be your last."
"That's okay, I'm ready."
"Damn it, Ness, don't fucking say that."
"Really, Than, I am. It was a good few years and I got to know you. It was worth it."
"I curse Chronos for not giving us more time."
"We had five years, love." Her arms were around his neck, fingers running through his hair in an attempt to soothe him.
"I curse Lachesis for not allotting more time."
"Than, look at me."
"Just let me hold you for a moment."
"Thanatos."
"Don't call me that fucking name, little one. I'm much happier to hear the name you call me." He tried to sound amused as his arms around her tightened slightly, his fingers tracing over her back until she wriggled and forced their faces apart.
"Damnit, Ness." She left him with no time to wipe his face, and he uttered a series of curses as her fingers gently wiped the tears from his cheeks. "Fucking... Come here, Ness. Just let me hold you until the sunrises."
"I love you, Than."
"I love you too, my little disaster. So fucking much."
"Yeah, I really was a disaster, wasn't I?"
"The fucking biggest one I ever fucking saw." She crawled back into his lap and nestled under his chin as he scooted back to the wall and cradled her. "Such a fucking disaster, but the most beautiful one in the world."
"It was a good five years, Than."
"Five years would never fucking be enough. I would spend an eternity with you and damn countless others to the Hell you mortals are so fond of. You're fucking mine, Ness. There will never be another like you, not in a decade, nor a century, nor an endless stream of millennia. No mortal will ever fucking compare to you."
"Stop it, Than. I don't want you to be angry and miserable for the rest of your eternal life. You'll move on."
"Don't you fucking say that." He pressed a kiss to her head and inhaled a shaky breath. "Don't you ever fucking say that again. You are my soul, and you always will be."
"Think of me when it rains."
"When it rains? What does the damn rain have to do with—Oh, for fuck's sake, Ness, you want me to remember the day I found you half naked trying to die in the rain? What the fuck is wrong with you? Why not the way your hair is like fire under the sunlight, or the way you looked after I fucked you "six ways to Sunday" as you mortals say? Why the rain?"
"Because that day in the rain was when I fell in love with you. The day I decided to start living if it meant more time with you." A shudder forced its way through him as he grumbled and wiped at his wet face, pressing another kiss to her head and laughing bitterly.
"Then I curse the rain for giving us a love so great that even Fate would destroy it."
"Than?"
"Yes, little disaster?"
She pointed at the window where the pattering of raindrops were leaving streaks against the pane.
"I think the rain says fuck you back."