Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Disclaimer: Own nothing and no one used herein. All belong to other people
Title: The Fosterling 1/? The Foundling
Author: Kate
Pairings: A/J, C/S, Z/H, A/H.
Warnings: Slash hinted at before the kid is old enough then just slash
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Olympus receives a gift that gives them a new lease on Family.
AN: This story will have a lot of Strife and Cupid when I get it going. Bear with me for the slowness please.
Vermont, Present day
Emily was setting the alter up. Her younger twin brother sat quietly watching her. She had to do this right. She had to send Will someplace safe. Someplace away from their grandmother. She was safe because she was a girl in a line of Dianic Witches. Will was not. He had two strikes against him in her grandmother's eyes. He was male and he had power.
Now their parents were dead and Emily knew it was up to her to fulfill her mother's last request. She'd told Emily that if they died, she was to read this incantation to send her brother to the goddess she worshipped. Emily was now preparing to do so. She heard their grandmother come in and started to read the chant to send him to Hestia.
"Goddesses above hear my plea," she read from the scroll. Then she began to read it in the language it was written in. She didn't hear herself mispronounce the name of the deity her brother was to go to as just as she finished the chant, her grandmother burst into the room. Seeing the empty pace in the circle where 'The Boy' was, she knew Emily had done what her mother told her to do.
"He's gone form you grandma," Emily said softly. "And I hope he's better off wherever I sent him."
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Mt. Olympus:
His temple had been silent since the Twilight. There was no laughter or joy here since the death of his wife. He had forgotten it seemed what those emotions were since the day he'd held his wife as her energy faded away into himself and her mother. Demeter had never forgiven him even though he had tried to save her. Everyone on Olympus made sure Demeter knew of their displeasure with her for what she did to him on a daily basis. He did his best to avoid her. Not being present during the day was one way.
The peace of his temple was destroyed suddenly by the weight that landed smack on his chest scaring the life out of him. He woke up shocked beyond anything and reached blindly to keep whatever it was from falling off of him when the sat up.
"What the fuck?" he exclaimed in Ancient Greek. Something told him not to curse like that in English for some reason and his instincts had never been wrong before.
Looking at what 'it' was that had landed on him, he found the soft blue eyes of a child staring at him.
"Who are you?" Hades asked softly. He make not have been one for company but he did at least like children. The child smiled at him as if he was a lifeline and for some reason, that scared him a little. Most people ran from him, even in this day and age if he was called. "Do you have a name?" Hades asked as his brief mind scan showed him the child spoke English and a brief glimmering of what he'd been running from.
"'M Will," he said. Hades looked into his mind and saw that was what everyone called the child. Everyone but his grandmother at any rate. She called him 'Child' or 'It.'
"My name is Hades," he told the child. Who were you supposed to be with?" he asked. He did not recognize the boy's family so he assumed the child had been sent to him by mistake.
"Hess-Tee-Uh," the boy enunciated and Hades groaned. His name and his siter's name were similar when used in sending and calling rituals. Now what did he do?
"Play?" the boy asked. And again Hades groaned. He knew those spells. The child would bond with the first adult he touched. That adult being him. He did get up though and he did find something for the boy to play with. He'd take the child with him to the night meeting that night and see if he could get some idea of what to do. The spell could not be reversed so the bond was permanent.
Hades summoned some food for the kid and let him eat. The child was careful of not spilling anything which confused him. Children at the age of this boy tended to wear a lot of their food. This boy was going through pains not to spill anything which Hades knew was just wrong.
A few hours later, he dressed for the meeting and took the boys hand to lead him out into the Olympian night. He was tired from his schedule being off but the child needed him to be up. The boy, Will, held on to his cape as they walked so he could look around. Hades couldn't help the slight smile at that.
Arriving at Zeus' temple, Hades led his young charge in. He knew the meeting had started early so he was quiet as he took his seat. The boy sat next to him on the floor and listened.
"Uncle Hades," Strife said at the break, "what is that?"
Hades looked at Strife and his husband Cupid and their son Bliss and sighed.
"I would think that was obvious considering you two have one. It's a child Strife," he said. "He landed on me this noon and.."
Hestia chuckled then.
"Sorry, Hades," she said honestly sorry about it. "I forgot to tell that family the pronunciation had to be exact."
"From what I got, his sister sent him," Hades said. He looked at the others in the room and felt the boy shift closer to him as everyone stared at him. His protective instinct kicked in for the first time in 2,000 years.
"Something funny?" Hades asked them. The boy was frightened by all these people and Hades briefly reconsidered the wisdom of bringing him along.
"Unc, Strife said quietly. "Why don't'cha let me play with him while you have the meetin'? These things ain't no place for a kid."
Hades looked at Strife and briefly nodded. He was right. This meeting would bore the child senseless.
"Don't go far," Hades said as he turned back to Zeus.
"Well behaved child," Poseidon said.
"Too well behaved Hades answered. I gave him some things to play with this afternoon and he was confused as to what to do with them until I showed him. His name is Will."
"Do you want someone else to take him?" Cupid asked. Hades shook his head no.
"The spell used to send him to me had a distinct effect if it was used to send a child. He's bonded to me now," he said.
"I suppose we'd better set up a learning schedule for him then," Athena said. We'll all have things to teach him after..."
Strife cam running in covered in mud and cursing.
"Hades, get that brat! He dumped a bucket of mud on me!" Strife exclaimed.
Everyone started laughing at the mischief God leaving him fuming.
"It ain't funny he said huffily. Even Hades was smiling.
"Yes, it is," Cupid said. "It's so funny. Pranked by a six year old. Too good."
Hades smiled as Will peeked around the door and opened his arms for him. He knew the bond worked both ways.
"Looks like you'll have an apt pupil Strife," Hades said, "when it's your turn to teach him. I'll see you all later. Have to go sort a room for this little one.
Chapter Two: Adopted.
Hades sighed as he found the child hanging onto him the next morning. It was early. As it always was when he was woken lately.
"Wha' 's it Will?" he asked groggily. He could tell by the expression on his boy's face he'd had another nightmare. Hades lifted the edge of the blanket for the boy to climb into bed with him and yawned. He wouls lay still for another half hour before he had to get up. IN his mind he was wondering when the boy had gone from "The Boy" to "His Boy" but he didn't care. For the first time in millennia, he felt something warming his heart.
"Sun rise!" Will said as he got up to go watch Apollo go off on his Air Board. Hades chuckled thinking maybe Apollo could teach Will to air board since he was fascinated with flying. Hades sighed thinking maybe Apollo would do it.
Hades got up and dressed and led the boy out so he could watch Apollo go. Will loved this part of the day. He liked to play like he could fly. Gods knew it had taken long enough for the boy to realize he could play.
"Hades," Apollo called. "Would you be terribly upset if I took him with me this morning? See if he really wants to learn or not?"
Will looked at Hades beseechingly and so he nodded and handed him very gently up to Apollo.
"Be good for him little one," Hades said.
He would stay on the ground and watch his son fly. He knew he truly wanted to learn and watching Apollo interact with him might ease some of his fears. Will wanted to learn everything and Zeus had said he had the capability to take a little of each of them and make himself something new and never before seen.
A few hours later, Apollo was back with Will who was smiling and ran to Hades to tell him everything about flying. Apollo chuckled.
"He's a natural Unc. I wouldn't mind teaching him. Course, he'll need his own board. Mine's too big for him."
Hades nodded and let Apollo go to ask Heph to make a board for Will.
"He needs to be named in the Pantheon Hades," Zeus said as he watched his brother put Will down for a nap. Hades nodded.
"We're going to adopt him brother," Zeus reassured. "But he needs to be formally welcomed. Apollo would skin me if we didn't adopt him fully."
Hades chuckled not having seen Apollo interested in anything since the twilight. Now, he was offering to teach this child to sky surf, to heal and to play music. Something Hades thought would be good for both of them.
Later that day at the council meeting, Hades brought Will. He hadn't done so since the first night a month ago. Zeus smiled as they came in and Will sat on Hades' lap. For many, this was the earliest they'd seen Hades in years.
"We welcome William to our Family," Zeus said as he stood before them all. "We welcome this child who was sent to Hades and we offer him shelter and family and belonging."
Zeus watched as Will climbed off Hades' lap and walked to the grieving Demeter.
"It wasn't your fault either," was all the child said. Demeter looked at him about to ask how he knew when she realized what he saw was he pain over her daughter's death.
"My mommy and daddy went away like your and Pa Dis' Sephie. I miss them too but It wasn't my fault and it wasn't your fault. Sometimes...Bad things just happen."
Will sounded older then. Like he'd had to be all his young life it seemed and Demeter could see the absolute truth in his eyes. Her facade slowly crumbled and she finally wept. Hades stood and moved to her side and for the first time in centuries she did not push him away.
"You can be my mommy if you want," Will said. "I have enough room here," he pointed to his heart, "for all of you."
The entire pantheon just stared as the boy stood quietly between Demeter and Hades. His gentle soul healing them both a little more. And Zeus wondered as he and Hera looked on, who was truly the most blessed by this child's presence on Olympus. The child, or them, the Gods.
Title: The Fosterling 3/? : Family
Hades woke hearing laughter as Will ran around. Six months and he was doing much better and playing more. He had his morning classes with Athena so Hades could sleep in but Hades had him all afternoon. He heard Will run in to the room and hop on to his bed. Hades chuckled as Will bounced a little. Athena said Will was a very intelligent boy. He had answers to things three grade levels above his age as it would be said in the Mortal world.
"Can we look at Emmy today?" Will asked. Hades nodded and got up. He was slowly but surely becoming a day person again. Will's need for him to be awake during the day had resulted in Hades changing his schedule.
"Yes, we can," Hades said as he took Will to his Mirror Of Souls and found his sister. Emily was learning her mother's path but she did not think, like her grandmother did, that women were the only ones who could have power. She was as intelligent as her brother and doing just as well in mortal school. Hades chuckled as Will touched the image of his sister on the glass and sent a thought of love to her. Hades watched her react to it and chuckled.
"Apollo teach you that this morning?" Hades asked. Will nodded and smiled. Apollo taught him a lot of things during his air board lessons. He taught him how to feel the board and the air shifts and to apply that to people. Apollo was a good person and great teacher and Hades knew he was also teaching Will philosophies as the Air Surfed. Hades was pleased and Athena was happy as well because Apollo's teaching him to contemplate things made him ask intelligent questions.
Will also had asked Demeter to teach him to make things grow next spring. Hades had to smile as he remembered Deemster's face when Will had asked that. It was like he gave her happiness asking for her to share her knowledge. He asked everyone that and so far had shown how those who had taught him were connected in their jobs. It was a beautiful thing to see the family being healed. And all of it was the result of this on, little boy who wanted a family.
Hades smiled as Will pulled him out to the dining room where Hestia had put their lunch. She had said that until Hades learned to make the food normally or until Will was ready to learn to cook, she would make the food for the two of them. Her comment of someone needing to take care of Hades had made him realize he really was neglecting himself.
"Dad," Will asked. "Could we...sometime...could we go to your palace and you could show me around? Please?"
Hades was surprised to say the least and Will smiled.
"I like it here but Uncle Don is going to show me his palace and I've never even had yours described to me and Aunt Dem said it's a little dark but it's pretty and she thinks I might like to see it. Aunt Hera said you have lots of stuff down there and Aunt Hes and Uncle Zeus said it would be good if I got to see it since I'm part of all of you...I think that's what he meant anyway. He said I was fixing what was broken in you and making you better 'cause I'm the best in all of you or something. It got confusing."
Hades chuckled and nodded.
"We can see Asphodel this weekend okay? Your Aunt The wants you to finish your classes this week. You know you learn almost a year a day right?"
"Uh huh," Will said. "She said I was a 'Prodigee' or sumthin'."
"Something," Hades corrected automatically. Will nodded.
"Yeah, that. And she said I would be done mortal school soon and then I can learn God stuff. Uncle Pol is already teaching me lots of God Stuff and Uncle Hep showed me a neat way to get torque on something. It was cool."
Hades laughed. "When your Uncle Hermes teaches you, I'm going to wonder how many times you'll say cool. Your Uncle Strife will be teaching you soon too."
Will nodded and snuggled against Hades for his afternoon nap. He wouldn't need them much longer but he liked to sit with his dad for a while and rest. Dad was a very restful person as far as dads went and he would be happy to stay with him now. He had a family though. And that was good and he liked having a family. A nice family this time....
His thoughts trailed off as he fell asleep in Hades' arms. Dreaming of that evening's learning with Uncle Zeus.
His last thought as sleep completely claimed him was 'Watching the satrs was cool.'
tbc