Regulus' very bad day part 2
They emerged from the darkness behind a small, crème colored building with a large cross on top of it, which Regulus recognised as a catholic mausoleum, thanks to Andrea. He looked sharply at the tiny, grinning monster whose hand was still firmly in his.
“Really?” He asked judgmentally, gesturing at the mausoleum and graves around them. “You took us to a graveyard? This is your idea of a fun place to play?”
“SÌ!” She replied excitedly, practically bouncing on her feet.
Regulus shook his head fondly. She was so weird. Well, at least they were in a temple of their father now, he supposed. What place outside could be safer than a graveyard?
Bianca excitedly wiggled her hand loose from his. “Tonio said that I should bring you and the next time I'd come to his house!”
He glanced around them, but yet only saw graves. What kind of person would willingly live in a graveyard? Did he live in the mausoleum? He must be homeless, then.
“Who is Tonio?” He asked warily. He didn't like the idea of some probably homeless guy who allegedly lived in a graveyard being familiar enough with his baby sister for her to say his name that excitedly at all.
He was not above getting rid of this ‘Tonio’ person if he turned out to be some creep, creeping on his sister. Perhaps he'd ask Persephone to turn him into fertilizer for his mother's garden. She would probably appreciate the gesture, especially as Regulus already had accidentally killed so many plants. Especially today.
Precisely at that moment, the apparition of a teenage boy around give or take fourteen years old appeared from behind a tombstone that was so dirty, Regulus could not even read what was written on it - although, he doubted he could without focusing and he really did not want to get a headache by trying to read what some moving letters said.
The teenager resembled the ghosts at Hogwarts, with the exception of his attire. With straw blond hair, sky blue eyes, peasant clothes, and a crooked nose, he appeared so ordinary that he would have been overlooked in a crowd. He had only ever encountered one other teenage ghost, Moaning Myrtle, and there was no reason for him to explain why he had avoided her.
Regulus, only being seven years old yet, slid in front of his sister with a practiced ease. A ghost, the boy may be, but he was at least twice his size. He did not want to risk Bianca getting hurt, or needing to see it if her new friend would turn out to be far less pleasant than she originally had thought. In his experience, trust and respect needed to be earned, and this boy was a stranger. A stranger he already disliked and distrusted.
Bianca squealed delightfully and ran towards the ghost. Did the girl have no sense of self-preservation at all?! No wait, this was Bianca he was thinking about, who happily befriended every monster she stumbled upon. Regulus would have to rectify that as soon as possible.
“Tonio!" She hugged him. Regulus felt his eye twitch at the sight. Why couldn't he curse him anymore like he could have done when he had magic? Wait, could he? The boy was a ghost and therefore, Regulus surely must be able to use his inherited powers to curse him? Hmm, it was a nice thought.
Speaking of nice thoughts: Perhaps if he asked nicely, Persephone would curse him and then turn him into fertilizer? She probably would love the flower-mamma son bonding moment
The teenager brightened tremendously, looking down at Bianca and resembled Giallo after getting a snack. He looked entirely too happy to hug his sister.
Giallo was sitting next to Regulus, appearing to be fully at ease (Regulus wondered how many times the dog had seen the ghost boy). His tail even wiggled, which was something Regulus could understand. The graveyard felt like the Underworld had, just less. It felt like home, and Giallo was a creature of the Underworld too.
"You can see me too?" He gasped, looking happily at Regulus with a voice filled with wonder. Regulus firmly believed in hated at first sight, and he definitely hated him.
"I am Antonio." He rambled enthusiastically and obliviously on, before gulping and straightening. "Erm, what I intended to say was 'My name is Antonio Bruni. It is an honour to meet you, my Lord.’"
Regulus lifted a critical eyebrow at his sister, as if to say. 'Really? This is the imbecile you've been secretly hanging out with all along?!’ Bianca must have gotten the message, as she oh-so subtly stuck her tongue out at him.
Regulus nodded slightly after a silence that was clearly too long to be comfortable - at least for the teenager, who was annoyingly fumbling his thumbs and bouncing his knee with such acute awkward energy that it almost gave him second-hand embarrassment.
“I am sure it is.” He replied dryly, at which Bianca painfully porred his side.
He scrunched up his nose. “My name is Regulus. How do you know my sister?”
Antonio exhaled relievedly, his shoulders slumped, revealing an unfortunate posture that once again almost gave him second hand embarrassment, but the boy quickly straightened when he saw Regulus's judgmental expression.
“I have been dead since the war. My older brother went to fight and never returned.” His bright eyes lost their sparkle for a moment. “I couldn't bear the news.”
Regulus nodded politely, but inwardly, he sighed. Sure! Why not share his entire life story?! It is not as if he had anything better to do with his time at all than to listen to the summary of some peasant's life!
“No one could see me for years, no matter how hard I tried to attract their attention. No matter how much I screamed! Until the day I met your sister! She was playing with a CYCLOPS of all creatures! A one-eyed Bitch, I tell ya!"
Regulus's eyes narrowed into slits. “You are the one who taught her how to cuss.” He hissed, eyes intense. The grass beneath his feet died.
Antonio's face flushed. “I know, I know, I'm sorry.”
"Our little brother's first word was Bitch!" He responded harshly. "You taught my not yet three-year-old sister how to swear. And all you have to say is, ‘I'm sorry?’"
The freshly put bouquets on the surrounding graves had all died at once, and Antonio looked about anxiously. Good, he should.
Regulus noted that his’ was the sole unkempt grave. He wondered why, as surely he was young enough to still have living friends? He said that he had died during the war, which was not too long ago for him to have been forgotten.
Then again, many people died during wars. Entire ancient bloodlines died out; Antonio was probably just unlucky. Or he was just as annoying when he was alive as he was now. Regulus knew that he, for sure, would not want to visit this fool's grave.
"I know." He mumbled just loud enough to be understandable. "I'm sorry. "I never intended to teach your sister how to swear." He grimaced. "Nor did I mean for your little brother's first word to be the same swear word."
Regulus breathed in deeply to calm down. He didn't want to accidentally kill even more life on this temple of his father. “You mentioned a cyclops and called me ‘my Lord’. How do you know those terms?”
Antonio floated into a sitting position, crossing his legs over each other. “Every dead guy would know a child of Lord Hades when they see one.” He whispered his father's name and looked if he was afraid to be smited for speaking it out loud.
He didn't think it possible, but Regulus liked him even less than he did before. Not only was he a fool, but he was also a coward. From a clinical perspective, it could have been understandable; This boy was a ghost and therefore was directly a part of his father's domain. However, this fool was a fool, so he probably didn't think of that. Regulus, for one, wouldn't blame his father for smiting him.
“My older brother and I are sons of Lord Aristaeus.” He huffed out a bitter laugh.
Regulus took yet another deep breath. Of course he would continue with his life story instead of saying why he, a fourteen year old teenage boy, decided to befriend his two year old baby sister.
“My father is the God of useful arts, such as bee-keeping and cheese-making, olive-growing, herding, and hunting. He is a rustic god, a god of the countryside and pastoral places. My mother was a young farmster when she met my father, and had my older brother and later, me. Life was good for a while. Hard, but good. The life of a farmer is a simple and honest one, even when you only have your mother, your grandparents, uncle and older brother as company.”
His eyes turned away from Regulus. “Then the big war came and Tommaso had to go to war, to fight a meaningless war and die a meaningless death, like so many other young men. He was only eighteen years old when he had to go.”
Bianca patted Antonio's leg comfortably, making him smile thinly.
“Our father is a minor God, he was born like you and me, you see? A mortal son of a God. Apollo was his father, and later on, he was turned into a God and got his own domains. Tommy was the best olive-grower I had ever met, a daughter of Athena we knew who had inherited her olive arts included, but I was so good at hunting…”
Regulus could guess how it ended. “You followed him?”
Antonio nodded regretfully. “Yes. I fled the farm in the middle of the night, too cowardly to give my mother and the rest of my family one last goodbye, and never saw them or my brother again. Instead, a cyclops ate me only two nights after I left. I never stood a chance.”
Regulus sat down on a clean, freshly painted black bench near the grave. He appreciated the colour. Bianca and Antonio followed him. He had to pick his sister up for her to be able to sit on his lap, however.
"Why have you not moved on, then?" He asked, gesturing at the graves around them. The sooner he could be gone, the better.
Antonio gazed down at his hands. "I tried but couldn't. I have unfinished business in this realm. I need to find my brother." His eyes gleamed intensely. "Which means that he's still alive, somewhere."
Regulus hummed non committedly. "The world is so big." He replied dryly, "and you think that you can find your brother to move on?"
Antonio's shoulders dropped. “I know. I hoped that your sister or you could help me with that, but now I understand that I have to find Tommy to be able to go to the fields of Asphodel.” his face dropped. “A coward like me could never go anywhere else.”
Bianca jumped off Regulus's lap. “Come with us!”
Regulus immediately shook his head. That was perhaps the worst idea she had ever had. And that included the time she let a cyclops sleep under his bed.
“No.”
“SÌ!”
He put his hands on his hips - Oh gods, he was practically becoming his mother already, wasn't he?! He was only seven years old! Lady Magic, preserve him! - and looked silently at Bianca until she pouted disappointedly.
Antonio smiled gently at Bianca. “It's okay, Sorellina.”
Regulus gaped. “What did you just call her?” He asked calmly, calmer than he had ever said anything in this life.
Not getting the hint, Antonio smiled widely (his death must have affected his brain capacity) at him. “Sorellina!” He replied, floating teasingly towards him. “There's no need to be jealous, little dude. You can be my fratellino!”
If someone would have ask him what happened years in the future, he would claim it was on purpose, if only because Antonio had been, as Nico would say, a Bitch. But to be honest, he had no idea what he was doing until the ghost boy was literally swallowed by shadows into the ground, and he was unable to sense him any longer.
Bianca's eyes widened as she looked at him. "You made Tonio disappear!" She screamed, jumping off his lap. "Give him back!"
Regulus stood up and paced, looking worriedly at the now entirely dead grass Bianca and him were standing on. He had just done that. He had literally just made a ghost that claimed to be tethered to this world disappear! As an accident!.
Despite himself, he grinned. This was exactly what the ghost wanted to ask of them, wasn't it? How ironic.
“It's not funny!” Bianca shrieked so loudly that the black ravens that were sitting on a bench near them flew away. “Bring him back!”
He glanced at his heartbroken sister, who fought - and failed - to keep from crying. "I cannot." He responded. "He was never supposed to be here in the first place." Regulus had a foul taste in his mouth after witnessing his sister this way and cursed Antonio once more in his head. She should not cry like this because of something he did. Nevertheless, his voice remained steady. "He's where he belongs now."
Bianca sobbed openly now. When Regulus walked towards her and held out his hand, she glared and looked away.
“No!”
He crouched down to look her in the eyes. “Come on Bi, let's go home? Mamma's tiramisu would make you feel better. I'm sure she would make it if we asked.”
She glared even more fiercely at him now. “Tonio was supposed to find his brother! Now he never will and will be trapped in the fields of phodel forever!” Regulus didn't even correct her pronunciation this time.
Bianca turned her face away from him, now glaring at the dead grass. He heard her cry softly. When Regulus put a gentle hand on her shoulder, she gave in and sobbed loudly. He picked her up and looked at Giallo.
“Come on boy, let's go home.”
Even most of the whispers in the shadows remained quiet this time, only the truly desperate continuing to try to get his attention; they must have noticed Regulus's (and Bianca's) foul mood.
To make this day even worse, they emerged out of the shadows in the inside garden, ruining some of the plants his mother and step-mother had undoubtedly worked hard on. He wanted this day to be over already and sleep and wake up, discovering it to have been nothing but a bad dream.
“Stop killing the plants!” Bianca hissed, killing more plants herself.
Regulus hurried out of the garden, still carrying his little sister. Giallo, who had not killed a plant, but ate one, fortunately followed them.
He didn't need to search for his mother, as he heard her melodious laughter ring through the sitting room. Opening the room, he saw that his father and step-mother also were there. Nico was sleeping on his father's lap and drooling all over it.
“-And then Cerberus ate Demeter's dress again!” Hades finished the story with a voice full of mirth, before looking at them, joyful mood instantly serious.
“My angels, what happened?” He asked softly, looking at the still softly crying Bianca.
“Reggie killed Tonio!” She shouted.
Maria paled. “Madre Mia! You killed someone?! Where is the body? Do we know him? Were you seen?!” She asked him, before frantically looking at Hades and Persephone. “Do we need to flee or pay someone to make this incident disappear?!”
Hades waved his hand, making an enormous sack full of money appear out of thin air. “Just in case.” He replied to Maria, before looking seriously at Regulus.
“Who was ‘Tonio’, and what happened?” He was glad that his father didn't panic the way his mother did.
Regulus inhaled deeply before exhaling just as deeply. He was calm, he wouldn't kill any more plants today; he could do this. “Antonio Bruni was a teenage Demigod ghost tethered to this world because of the unfinished business of needing to find his brother. He had befriended Bianca and taught her how to swear. I accidentally made the ground swallow him when he called Bianca ‘Little sister’ and said he'd also call me ‘Little brother’ if I wanted to, implying that I was jealous of him.”
Maria let out a relieved breath. “If he was already dead, you did not kill him, my little lion king.”
Persephone nodded, agreeing. “True, and even if you did, it would have been an entirely acceptable response to his audacity.” She smiled comfortingly at them. “Everyone knows that it's sometimes best to kill weeds; When left unchecked, they can reduce the growth and productivity of crops, flowers, and other plants.”
Bianca sobbed even louder now. “Tonio was not a weed!”
Nico remained blissfully asleep, sucking on his thumb and drooling all over his father's suit. Regulus envied him.
Persephone and Hades looked like they disagreed with Bianca's statement; Regulus agreed with that.
“Perhaps he will see his brother again in the afterlife when he dies?” Maria suggested. “You said they knew they were Demigods, so that probably means that they believe in the afterlife.” Bianca climbed on top of her lap and sobbed into her dress. Maria patted her comfortingly.
Regulus looked carefully at the crying Bianca but decided to continue to speak nevertheless. “He said that he'd probably go to the fields of Asphodel. I saw no reason to disagree with that.”
Hades hummed to himself. “A Demigod, you said? Do you know the name of his father?”
Regulus nodded. “Antonio said that his father's name was Aristaeus.”
Hades looked as if he had bitten into a lemon. “Demeter likes him.”
Persephone sighed. “Yes, she does.” She looked at him. “Doing him a favor would mean doing my mother a favor, which would mean that she'd perhaps finally stop spreading the rumor that you abducted me all those years ago.”
Hades didn't look convinced. “That won't happen.”
Persephone shrugged. “Who knows? She can be unpredictable.”
He sighed. “Very well. I will get him out of the fields of Asphodel and offer to reincarnate him. Charon won't like the paperwork, though.”
Persephone chuckled. “You should give him a raise then.”
Hades ignored the proposal and ruffled Bianca's hair, who gazed up with tear-filled eyes and hugged him. "Thank you, papa!"
"Of course, my little flower." He responded, kissing the top of her head, then kissing the top of Nico's head, who had awoken and looked groggy around him. He gazed at Regulus.
“I am glad that you came with this to us, my little king. You did the right thing in sending the spirit away; he could have turned bitter and restless if he stayed tethered to this realm, and our world already has far too many of those."
He stood up, kissed the top of his head, slipped into the shadows, and vanished.
Persephone smiled wryly. "Well, Maria, if you continue to comfort our children, I will replace the plants in this house.” She looked teasingly at Regulus. “Again.”