Chapter 1
It’s yet another day of strenuous evaluations that leave Dan drained in every way possible. He finally has a chance to take a break, laying in his bed and playing with the plants that hung from the ceiling. With a wave of his hand, the plants would gently sway in the breeze he creates. Being by himself gives Dan time to think about everything. The people of the Underworld are seriously doubting his ability to take over when his father, Hades, will step down. Dan is the sole heir of the throne as Hades and Persephone’s only child. Despite the fact that he is one of the, if not the most, powerful demons to ever exist, he is constantly being doubted. The people’s opinions bring on a slew of evaluations and interviews and most of all: stress. Thankfully, there is only one more evaluation Dan will have to go through for the day, and he plans to relax until then.
Relaxing isn’t exactly possible when your boyfriend loves to scare the ever-loving shit out of you at any given minute.
“Another day of evaluations, I assume?” asks a voice out of seemingly nowhere. Dan jumps at the voice, the calm breeze he was creating turning into a strong gust of wind. He’s ready to defend himself until the intruder reveals himself to be Dan’s boyfriend and mate, Phil.
“Fucks sake, Phil. Can you not scare me like that?” Dan huffs, crossing his arms and glaring at Phil. Phil finds it hilarious, covering his mouth as he laughs.
“It’s so worth it to watch you jump like that. How have you not gotten used to that yet?” Phil chuckles, walking over to Dan and pulling him close. Dan rolls his eyes but leans into Phil’s touch anyways. He goes to reply to Phil, but is interrupted by his father calling for him to go to his evaluation. Dan sighs and stands on his toes to give Phil a quick kiss.
“I better go before he gets angry. Meet me back in here in an hour,” Dan says as he leaves the room. He quietly ignores the way he sees his father frown at the sight of Phil.
The evaluation starts off as usual, full of invasive and judgemental questions. The one thing that catches him off guard is the question “who will you choose to rule with you?” It terrifies him to think about having to ask someone to rule the entire Underworld with him. Obviously he wants to ask Phil, but how would Phil react? He simply brushes the question off and tries to get through the rest of the evaluation without having a panic attack.
Once Dan leaves to go back to his room, he really starts to panic. He takes a moment to gather himself before Phil can sense something is wrong, then walks into his room. He’ll figure this out later.
Phil is laying on his bed, caught up in a book until he hears Dan entering the room. He smiles at Dan in a way that makes Dan heart flutter in such a cliche way that he wants to puke.
“How’d it go?” Phil asks, setting the book aside and opening his arms for Dan to crawl into. Dan eagerly does so, curling up and resting his head on Phil’s chest. He finds himself calming down as he listens to Phil’s heart start to beat. He loved that he was the only one that could make Phil’s heart beat again.
“It went fairly well. It was just another verbal evaluation so it wasn’t too taxing.” Dan shrugged, his voice soft as he talked.
“I knew it would,” Phil says as he pulls Dan close, kissing his forehead.
“Yeah…” Dan sighs and hides his face in Phil’s chest. Phil quickly notices something is wrong and frowns, sliding his hand up the back of Dan’s jumper and rubbing his back. He gently presses his fingers against the bite mark on the back of Dan’s shoulder, hoping that the reminder of their bond would help calm Dan down.
“What’s wrong, mellītum*?” Phil asks quietly, feeling Dan slowly relax.
“Just tired is all.” Dan shrugs, yawning and closing his eyes.
“Get some rest then, love. I’ll be here when you wake up,” Phil promises, keeping his hand on Dan’s bond mark. Dan nods in response, quickly falling asleep.
Dan wakes up to the feeling of Phil drawing on his back. It’s certainly not the first time, but with all of Dan’s anxieties and the feeling of being half asleep make him a bit more over-reactive than normal.
“Please say you’re not drawing flowers or something on me,” Dan grumbles, trying to sit up, but failing when Phil pushes him back down.
“I am, why?” Phil asks, putting the cap back on the marker. Dan groans, getting up ad pacing the room.
“Because I don’t need ‘feminine’ things on my back when I have physical evaluations coming at me left and right. I have be as masculine as possible or they’ll deem me unfit even though I’m the most powerful demon in existence. Did everyone magically forget that I destroyed a demon over twice my size while I was wearing a flower crown I made literally five minutes before I was attacked? I’m tired of it! I have done nothing but show that I am fully capable of doing this yet they keep putting through test after test after test! I’ve been to thirty evaluations, Phil. Thirty! It’s all because I turned out more like my mother than my father! I should have been like him. Strong, fearless, cold-hearted, and masculine. Not like a harmless fucking pansy!” Dan had quickly worked himself up, snapping and causing his room to be destroyed. Papers were flying everywhere and the plants were out of control.
Phil is sat at Dan’s desk, patiently waiting this out. It hurt to hear Dan in so much emotional stress, but there was nothing he could do.
“They’ll find one thing wrong with me and I’m out. I’ll be cast aside and shamed by everyone. My parents will have another kid and they’ll take my place...:” Dan trails off, everything calming down slowly.
Phil gets up and walks over to Dan, offering him a small, slightly sad smile. “If it means anything, you scare the shit out of me still,” he says, only somewhat joking. He gets no response, though, as Dan falls to the ground from exhaustion. Phil sighs and picks him up. The energy that took is enough to make anyone pass out. He puts Dan to bed and waits for him to wake up.
Roughly six hours later, Dan is awake and has had two nightmares already. He calls out for Phil who’s walking through the door. Phil closes the door behind himself and walks over to Dan. “Hey, mellītum. I just got done talking with your father. You have one last evaluation in a few days and it’ll be the toughest one yet. I know you can do it, though.” Phil smiles as he sits next to Dan. Dan sits up, sighing shakily.
“I can’t do it. What if I fail? I’ll be banished and anyone who associates themselves with me they’ll be shamed. I’ll never be able to see my family again. They’ll hate me,” Dan’s breath gets faster as he rambles, starting to panic.
“Hey, calm down. You’re going to do wonderfully.” Phil tries to reassure Dan, grabbing his hands but Dan just gets up. He makes a run for it, but Phil knows exactly where Dan is going. He gets up and runs after Dan, thankful that he is much faster than Dan.
Phil won’t admit it, but he’s lost. He’s hopelessly lost in this giant forest while looking for Dan. He’s been looking for at least two hours now and he’s getting frustrated over Dan running from his problems.
“Dan! Where are you?” Phil calls out in hopes Dan will finally answer him. He’s beyond relieved when he hears a sigh and sees Dan walking towards him.
“I’m not worth all this trouble, Phil,” Dan says as he stops a few feet in front of Phil. Phil just shakes his head and runs a hand through his hair.
“You’re worth everything to me, Dan. Now come here so we can get back to the castle,” Phil says as he reaches out for Dan. Dan steps back, shaking his head.
“Why should I come with you?” Dan asks, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow at Phil in a way that should be annoying, but Phil can only find it endearing.
“You’ll come with me because you love me and I need to make sure you don’t get lost on your way home,” Phil says as he tries to reach out for Dan again. Dan just rolls his eyes and grabs Phil’s hand.
“Like I’d be the one to get lost. Let’s go to your place, yeah?” Dan suggests as they start making their way out of the forest. Phil doesn’t get the chance to respond since Cerberus howls from the castle gates. Dan sighs and stops walking, knowing Cerberus would find them before they could escape.
“Looks like I pissed my dad off, Again.” Dan runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head, Cerberus finding them in record time. Dan smiles softly at the giant, three-headed dog in front of them like a kid looks at a puppy. Phil on the other hand, backs up a little bit.
“Oh, come one. He won’t hurt a fly. Well, unless you’ve upset me or mom, but you get the point.” Dan reached out and patted the dog’s paw. Phil shook his head and kept his distance as they walked back to the castle.
Once they were back at the castle, Dan was greeted by an angry shout of his name, but not from his father, no, but his mother.
“Daniel James! Where did you run off to?” Persephone asked as she walked over to Dan and Phil, looking graceful as ever despite having been stress gardening.
“Sorry, mum. I just needed to clear my head for a bit. I was actually on my way here when you sent Cerberus after me,” Dan says as he’s pulled into a hug. Persephone sighs and hold her son close, shaking her head.
“You know you can always come to me to talk about what’s on your mind, right?” Persephone says in such a soft tone that Dan can’t help but relax. He nods and hugs her back tightly. He turns his head to look at Phil, a weak smile on his face.
“Can you take Cerberus back to the castle, matia mou*?” Dan asks quietly, hoping Phil would understand he needed to talk to his mum alone. Phil nodded and gave Dan a quick kiss before leaving, Cerberus leading the way.
Persephone grabs Dan hand and brings him to the heart of the garden, sitting on a bench with him. “What’s wrong, Dan? You’ve never acted like this before,” she says with a troubled look on her face. Dan sighs and rests his head on Persephone’s shoulder.
“It’s just the evaluations and the things people keep saying about me and my abilities to take the throne. If I fuck up this next evaluation, I’ll be banished and shamed and you and dad will have to have another kid. I’ll be all alone…” Dan says quietly, his voice getting quieter as he starts to cry. Persephone is quick to pull Dan close and rub his back.
“I will love you for the rest of our lives. No amount of shaming can change that,” Persephone says firmly. Dan hugs her tighter when she says that, sniffling.
“I know that, but dad is not going to have the reaction and that’s… That’s what terrifies me.”
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Meanwhile, Phil is cleaning up the mess left by Dan’s breakdown. It’s been 1,600 years that Phil has known Dan, and 600 of those years they’ve been mated, and Dan has never been this anxious. That was usually Phil’s job, but as of late, all of the stress Dan has gone through is turning him into someone that Phil doesn't know. He sighs softly and keeps cleaning.
Eventually, Dan comes home and storms into his bedroom, fresh tears falling down his face. Phil almost sighs in relief when he sees Dan.
“Mellītum,” Phil says, hoping the term of endearment will help calm Dan down. It does the exact opposite however, causing Dan to snap and glare at Phil.
“Don’t,” he says weakly, but with enough venom that Phil backs off a bit.
“I changed your bedding and cleaned up. You get some rest, yeah?” Phil says softly, watching as Dan got into bed and curled up in a ball. Phil sits next to him and rubs his back, sighing softly. “We’ll be okay, Dan. I promise.”