10 • Something

Neither Hector nor Priam asked about the hare on Ganymede’s lap during breakfast, but if their curious and wary glances were any indication, they knew exactly who had joined them. Apollo’s disgruntlement was certainly verification.

When Dionysus strolled in, yawning and picking at his bedhead curls, he sat on Ganymede’s other side. The hare stepped off his lap, nestling over the god’s thighs while Dionysus’ hand fell over the soft fur without surprise. In a moment, the discoloration around his eyes lifted, and Dionysus visibly looked upon Hector with ease. “Figs and capers? My favorite.”

Hector smiled and obliged in passing the dish of bread sprinkled in baked fruit and salty contrast. They tried to stare discretely as the god pulled vegetation from the sleeve of his robe: a branch of shining green fruit, lush and soft as if it was growing from the god’s ribs.

“I can’t wait for the Silk Road,” he proclaimed as he bit into the pepper, long and thin like an aged, pointed finger.

“Dion,” Apollo warned, his voice akin to dark velvet.

“What? It’s already growing. Trade with the east,” he leaned toward Priam with a wink, “highly recommend it. The food is marvelous.”

He stood his elbow on the arm of his chair, stacking his cheek on his knuckles while he held another to Ganymede. His eyes were pulled to the offered pepper before he accepted and bit into it. Priam and Hector stared with food in their mouths while Ganymede coughed. “That’s hot!”

“Isn’t it?” Dionysus smiled. “Use it to scoop the hummus and rice.”

Apollo quickly passed the dish of yogurt to Ganymede. “That will quell the pepper’s oil.”

Priam and Hector’s meal came to a halt when Dionysus dropped the entire branch of peppers onto the table. “What? Did you think I only spoil Ganymede? You’re right, but I’m generous.”

“Gratitude, my Lord,” Priam bowed as far as the table allowed.

“They cannot have the seeds,” Apollo growled.

Dionysus sighed and splayed his fingers over his chest innocently. “I’m not hastening history.”

But Ganymede saw the pale seeds within his own pepper vanish as the brothers stared venomously at one another.

Breakfast was a quiet affair, with Priam asking briefly of his younger children and Hector’s reply; otherwise conversation rose and fell. During the long silences, Ganymede drank the robust tea that was as red as a garnet, and floral on his palette. He soon could only stomach the liquid, however, as his stomach swayed from side to side. Time was visceral in how little of it he had in Troy as well as how eager he was to meet Zeus.

“Would you sit with me on the terrace, Ganymede?”

Ganymede looked up at Priam and nodded the same moment a great amount of fur entered his arms. Silently obeying, he carried Eros with him to where he and the king sat on a bench overlooking the city. Ganymede realized he had brought with him a pitcher of milk and glasses.

“I had intended to serve you,” Priam chuckled when Ganymede began to pour.

“I feel better with something in my hands.” He felt the hare’s nails dig into his legs as he set the pitcher down, but as soon as the pain spiked through his mind, Eros adjusted. It’s all right, he thought silently when an apology nibbled his knee.

“I understand that well enough.” Priam’s chin lifted for the breeze to move against his face, through his hair. Ganymede’s eyes looked past him at the swath of color Priam could not see; the vapor curling and dissipating and reforming again as it moved through the air.

As Ganymede peered across the rooftops, there were a great many vapors, in all colors and opacities. Most lifted from the temples’ fires, but the beautiful ones came from homes and unexpected places. A golden shimmer sliding from a chimney. A rose cloud moving along the broadest street. A turquoise hue drifting from the brothel’s window.

“What are you watching?” Priam murmured.

Ganymede blinked, unsure if he should say, and how he might even explain it. “The worship of your city.”

Priam’s voice was warm and intrigued. “How do you mean?”

Ganymede rotated the glass in his hands. “Do you know what the gods eat?”

“We have an abstract knowledge of it.” Priam leaned back upon the bench. “We encapsulate it into objects our minds can better understand: golden apples, special wine, cattle the gods themselves raise. I suppose you would know better than anyone what exactly feeds immortality.”

Ganymede’s brows twitched into a furrow. “I’m not sure you can feed immortality.”

Priam laughed. “That does contradict itself, doesn’t it? Or maybe you can. Maybe therein lies the paradoxical truth: even the gods must eat.”

He laughed all the more, garnering Ganymede’s puzzled stare. “I don’t suppose you happened to listen to any of the speakers while in Athens? I enjoy visiting my agora—in secret, of course. There, men can be heard speaking of things normal civilians often find uncomfortable. Not that there is anything wrong with having a small mind, but so many close their doors and their windows, and their very words are stale. Lackluster ideas given to them by somebody else.

“But these men, they churn up old thoughts, they challenge comfortable normalcies. I’ve heard tell of punishments in other cities for their open discussions. Intelligent people are difficult to control, you see. It is a great courtesy that Lady Athena taught you to read, for it is no accident that a people are illiterate. A person who thinks for themselves is far more difficult to conquer.”

Ganymede’s fingers slid through the soft brown fur, peppered with white and black hairs. “And these men discuss the gods?”

“Oh yes, both in grave conversation as well as ridiculous hilarity. I have protected them because I enjoy their japes, I enjoy their philosophies. Many of my people fear them, however. They worry that the gods will hear and punish the city. They do not fully understand what it means to worship Athena and to not thoroughly explore wisdom. These particular men would discuss why the gods must eat, if they must at all. Why might you think so?”

Ganymede blinked softly. “Because the world has a beginning. It can’t have always existed because…the same thing as constancy is nothing. But we are something.”

Priam’s gentle smile lingered. “I quite agree. We are something. We must sustain our something. If we are nothing, than we needn’t eat. And if the gods mustn’t eat, then there aren’t gods at all. You see how these conversations can startle fretful people.”

Ganymede felt a tingle in his eyes, stimulation in the forefront of his mind as his lips pulled into a similar smile. “Then what do they say of immorality? How do they question the lines drawn between mortal and—”

A familiar, low giggle swiveled his head at Athena leaning against the terrace. Priam slid down to one knee in time with her silken tone declaring, “Please, King Priam, your knees give away your age. Return to your seat.”

“Thank you very much, my Lady,” he nodded, doing just that while she sat on Ganymede’s other side.

Her arm rested behind his shoulders on the bench. “I am drawn to clever and troublesome discussions. What colorful ideas are you weaving in my sweet Ganymede’s head?”

Priam hummed over his milk while he drank. “Nothing so much as troublesome as it is clever. You’ve grown into an intelligent man, Gany. I feel spoiled by our time together.”

His stomach swayed low in his abdomen. Ganymede could not hide the sentiment in his voice as he agreed, “Yes. It…hasn’t been long at all.”

“What would you do,” Athena surprised him, “if given more time?”

Ganymede shook his head. “Zeus is expecting me—”

Athena guffawed. “Has that fool made you think that good things may be received only once? How hypocritical. Nobody is expecting you to settle with but one meeting. I’m surprised at you, Gany. I encourage you to thoroughly torment my father. Demand what you want.”

Ganymede’s jaw dropped. “I-I’m not wanting to be cruel!”

But she merely continued to grin at him. “There is a difference between cruelty and cruelty.”

The corner of Ganymede’s mouth lifted as he blinked at her. Priam’s voice was quiet but touched with mirth. “Who is the one dealing in dangerous ideas now, my Lady?”

“I incite exactly what I know how to resolve,” she returned. “You wish to hear the philosophers? I will be your guide when that time arrives. There are already far too many gods in this mortal place for now. I will see you back at our palace, Gany.”

He bowed his head, but she was already gone.

“I would like to see you to our gates, if that is all right? Though we may not necessarily use the gates, as that would draw a crowd.”

Ganymede rubbed Eros’ large ear as he thanked, “I would like that, but I don’t want to take you away from your-r—”

Eros jumped down from his lap as scalding heat flushed across his shoulder blades, rushing down his scars like water flowing through a ravine. Ganymede looked up at the horizon of scarlet trees the same moment Dionysus strolled onto the terrace. “Father neediest is calling.”

It was difficult to pull his gaze from the trees, but Ganymede did so to see the now red pepper in Dionysus’ hand.

“Ah, I won’t postpone you.” Priam planted his hands on his knees to rise and then held his arms open. “May I bid you farewell?”

Ganymede was on his feet in an instant, causing Priam to sway as he pressed his body to him. The king chuckled as his arms fell lightly around him, a hand stroking his hair. “My halls are always open to you, but haste is not required.”

Ganymede’s mouth turned down as Priam pulled away from him. “This is how we say farewell to friends.”

His eyes widened slightly as Priam took his hands, and then leaned to one side. Gently touching his cheek to Ganymede’s, he then moved to the other side. Touch, touch, soft as feathers but it was the press of ornate metal in his hands that held Ganymede still.

Ganymede stared at the man smiling at him, his eyes warm to Ganymede’s searching ones. “Even though her citizens will never know, Troy welcomes her lost son home.”

Tears rushed to his eyes. He knew without looking what Priam had given him, but it took everything he had not to gaze at the lyre pin of his family.

He nodded jerkily, a sob escaping him when he tried to wipe his eyes. Priam let him embrace him one more time, and then Hector was waiting in the doorway. He smoothly pinned the sigil among the gold medallions of his belt so Ganymede’s hands were free as he touched their cheeks together. “It was an honor, Ganymede. I look forward to next time.”

As he parted from Hector, Dionysus caught him in his robes, the fabric moving over his face and inducing his eyes closed. He startled awake like he was falling through a dream. He stumbled on his feet, disoriented until hands steadied him. He blinked up at grey eyes and a relieved smile.

They moved together, Ganymede lunging up and Zeus lifting him against his body. “Oh Gany…” he breathed, arms tight around him.

The god’s body was as hot as if he had been in the sun all morning. Ganymede lounged in the warmth, his heart buoying as Zeus swayed them gently from side to side. His head turned to plant kisses in Ganymede’s hair, on his neck; the youth felt himself rise and fall with the god’s heave of breath. A bird’s song made him realize they were in the forest outside of the city.

“May we go home?”

Ganymede nodded against his neck, and let himself fall into slumber once more.

* * * * * * *

The crackling and spitting of a fire filtered through Ganymede’s dreams. He knew he had slept much longer than travel this time. A hand was repeating a pattern of strokes between his shoulder blades while his consciousness emerged from the darkness to see the fire flickering on his eyelids.

His weight shifted, adjusting on the pillow between him and Zeus’s thighs. The hair on the god’s knee glistened gold in the firelight as he waited for Ganymede to speak. “Where are we?”

“My rooms,” he murmured.

“It looks different.”

“I’ve done some rearranging.”

Ganymede let that rest until he was more able to see for himself. A glass of water was held before him, enticing him to rise and realize that it was late in the evening. “I slept all day?”

Zeus hummed and replied, “A sleep well deserved. I take it that Troy was not boring?”

Ganymede finished drinking as something moved on his belly, or rather, the lack thereof. His himation moved freely around his waist, his belt removed and now draped across Zeus’s other knee, the emblem of Troy alive in the fire’s movements.

Ganymede held his breath, but after seeing where his gaze was, Zeus plucked the lightning pin from his blue fabric. “This is dangerous to sleep in.”

He watched mutely as the pin was clenched in his fist until a golden marble rolled under Zeus’s thumb. “You’re not angry?” he breathed.

Zeus’s head lifted. “No, I’m not angry. Impulsive, perhaps. Worried, certainly.”

Before Ganymede could ask what worried him, Zeus was kissing his forehead. “Things would be simpler if you were docile, but that is not who you are. It never was.”

Ganymede’s lashes fluttered as his head lowered to Zeus’s shoulder. “You don’t want me to go back.”

His silence said enough. A hand slid over Ganymede’s knee, holding his inner thigh. “No, I don’t. But your encasement in my palace has come to an end without my readying for it. It is selfish of me to want to keep you after you’ve already traveled so extensively.”

Ganymede’s thoughts moved with many currents, but what emerged at the forefront was, “Is travel around one sea extensive?”

To Zeus’s look he went further, “I haven’t been to the east. Or met the people of the north. And what is south of us?”

“Please, Gany, you’re wounding me,” he whined, pulling the young man onto his lap before reclining on the sofa’s arm. Ganymede was high enough on his chest for his honey hair to mix with the god’s darker tresses. Zeus’s knee lifted, allowing Ganymede’s leg to drape between his while the belt fell low over his thigh.

A thumb stroked over Ganymede’s shoulder when his own hand reached for the bare thigh, resting there a while before he dragged the belt up for his inspection. Nimbly pulling the needle from the pin, the rest of the belt fell onto Zeus’s belly. Ganymede realized the pin was a spear. His fingertip explored the spearhead as Zeus’s own lightly moved over his knuckles as if to warn against the sharp point.

“The harmony of peace and music earned through war’s brutality.”

The firelight danced on the fringe of Ganymede’s vision. “Does it have to be that way?”

Zeus’s hand moved to the belt. With his touch, the medallions lengthened and curved; veins both embossed and lifted in the metal until the leather string held golden olive leaves. “That is a long discussion. One you may partake in at the agora.”

Ganymede’s head tilted to stare at him. “Eavesdropping again.”

Zeus smirked. “No. Athena told me. I also enjoy such discourse. The occasions in which humans’ curiosity and intelligence takes them beyond themselves. When hours of discussion reap the same results as centuries of war.”

“That’s the difference between Athena and Ares?”

“Indeed, though they both enjoy the strategy of combat and the work put into a body to overcome an oppressor. Ares, however, is indifferent to the bloodshed while Athena feels its weight in the earth’s soil.”

Ganymede frowned, feeling the familiar wariness he usually did around Ares. “That’s…bad, though, isn’t it? They’re soldiers to him but they’re people with lives—”

“We’ve come full circle,” Zeus curtailed gently. “Over the necessity or lack thereof of war, it is a difficult discussion because a god’s interaction with it will be entirely different than a human’s.”

“But…no it wouldn’t,” Ganymede insisted. “Ares has never been in a war where he could lose, has he? You have.”

He had succeeded in taking Zeus by surprise. His eyes softened despite the smirk there. “Who am I to keep your mind from expanding.”

His arms tightened around Ganymede, whose head relaxed on his chest. After a time, the latter said, “You are the one…if you wanted to.”

Zeus was smelling his hair, and exhaled as he nuzzled there. “One cannot be a god to their lover.”

“You are a god.”

“And you are human. It is a delicate arrangement. More so in the presence of other gods and humans, but you and I, just as we are now, we are not different.”

Ganymede wiggled as heat moved over his back. It was different this time, not summoning or urgent. He let himself lounge in it, feeling how it ebbed and flowed, gently swathing him in warmth. Ganymede realized it was steady like a heartbeat but fluttered like the wind, and he wondered if it was less a conscious decision on Zeus’s part and more of a reflection of his soul. The part of his divinity that had been embedded in his skin.

Ganymede let the pin rest on Zeus’s abdomen as his hand found his forearm. “Just because Troy is the one place you cannot go, doesn’t mean you can’t have me everywhere else.”

A low hum reverberated in his chest. “You do appeal to my darker impulses too well.”

Ganymede giggled against the prickle of stubble on his forehead. “I thought you were one of the smart ones. You seem to forget a lot of things—ah!”

Fingers wiggled against his sides, startling laughter from him as Zeus’s leg trapped Ganymede’s. “I am one of the smart ones,” he rumbled upon rolling them over, planting kisses across his chest and throat. “You consume my faculties entirely.”

Ganymede felt his cock pulsing to stand. Sensing his change, Zeus’s lips found Ganymede’s, and a swirl of molten sensation moved through him. But first he needed to ask, “When can I go back?”

“Whenever you want,” Zeus breathed, his eyes closed beneath the furrowed brow he pressed against Ganymede’s forehead.

His lungs felt higher in his chest as he exhaled. He tilted his face to touch his lips to Zeus’s; relief rushed through him to be kissed back. The relief flushed his cheeks and chest as his hands came to hold Zeus’s face. “I want to stay here for a while.”

Zeus nodded against him, capturing his lips while he moved the pin to the arm of the sofa. Ganymede felt himself rise off the furniture, his arms around Zeus’s shoulders as he sighed against the kisses on his neck.

“Oh. It is different.”

“Focus,” Zeus scolded, carrying him to the empty pool where his bed was. He had moved the wall separating Ganymede’s courtyard and Zeus’s room, enlarging the space and placing the sofa and fire pit on one side.

He laughed as Zeus sat with him on his lap. Among the cushions he reclined, pulling the blue fabric off Ganymede’s shoulder—

“Are you cold?” he paused.

“No,” Ganymede pushed against his mouth, his own hands sliding underneath the simple white fabric around the broad shoulders. “Are you?”

His rumbling chuckle. “No, love.”

Ganymede rocked into his kiss, his lips parting against the tongue tasting his lips. He slid into Zeus’s mouth as his himation was pulled and hitched, hanging off a shoulder while warm hands moved up his thighs and rear.

“Ahh!” he moaned as his chest pressed against Zeus’s chest. His throat was tasted and suckled while fingers pushed inside him. Ganymede held onto him as his insides were massaged and stretched.

“Put me in.”

Clumsily rearranging himself, Ganymede reached between them for Zeus’s member. He was held aloft to fit the head to his entrance, and then Zeus lowered him. Ganymede gasped against the slow drag of being filled, his breath falling into a yelp as he was dipped back for teeth to claim a nipple. The sensation of Zeus inside him changed; the alternate tilt of his pelvis pleasurable in a new way.

Then he slipped.

“Yeep!” he shrieked indignantly, falling the last of the way over Zeus’s cock while his legs otherwise flailed.

Zeus laughed in contrast to Ganymede’s heart pum pum pumming inside his ribs. “I have you.”

“I’m not sure about this,” he exhaled.

Zeus was kissing his ribs, his sternum. “Hm?”

“This position is dangerous.”

He laughed some more and leaned back again so Ganymede’s hands poised over his chest. “This way, then.” But when those lips pursed to the side during his hesitation, Zeus chimed, “Nervous?”

“I’ve never been the one doing…”

Lips nuzzled Ganymede’s cheek. “Are you worried you’ll disappoint?”

“Maybe,” his shoulder lifted, bumping Zeus’s jaw. “I’m…embarrassed.”

“Then take your time,” he kissed along Ganymede’s jaw. “I’m at your mercy.”

“I’m going to look ridiculous.”

Zeus guffawed, making Ganymede wince against the scratch of his stubble. “If by ‘ridiculous,’ you mean arousing, then I’m looking forward to it.”

Ganymede grabbed his face, wiggling the flesh around. “Be gentle with this!”

But Zeus seized his mouth, ravishing him into silence before he planted scratchy and tickling kisses over his throat and chest as he lifted Ganymede up and back down. He jerked and trembled—

“Seek your pleasure, in whatever way it comes.”

Ganymede kissed him, forcefully pushing his back against the cushions. “Are you being lazy?”

He smiled. “Spoil me.”

Pushing on his chest so he could rise, Ganymede hesitated. “Don’t laugh at me.”

“I am entirely serious.”

Ganymede made a face, to which Zeus smirked beneath hooded eyes. “I won’t laugh. Please, Gany...”

Swallowing, Ganymede began so sink over him, feeling every bit as uncoordinated as he felt. Then he blinked down at the hands encompassing his erection, teasing him to full hardness and tantalizing the tip. Ganymede involuntarily rutted into his hands, in so moving himself over Zeus’s pelvis. Fingers rose to tickle and tease his nipple, inducing Ganymede to clumsily ride his cock.

“Is this good?”

Teeth flashed in Zeus’s blissed expression. His hand slid down to rest in the curve of Ganymede’s waist. “Wonderful.”

His lashes lifted at the sound of Ganymede’s shy giggle. He scrubbed a hand over his face and inhaled to speak, but his gaze met Zeus’s. His movements stilled. He let Zeus reach up and take the hand from his face, interlacing their fingers. Zeus found his other hand, lifting it to kiss his palm. To take a finger in his mouth. Ganymede’s breath shuddered out of him, the wet heat of his mouth inspiring him to move again over his cock.

Pulling his lips off the finger, Zeus squeezed his hands, palm to palm as he whispered, “Faster.”

Something inside Ganymede settled. His pelvis began to move, rocking and thrusting. His pace built—

“Unn…” his eyelids pressed shut. They opened at the feeling of Zeus’s thumbs stroking his hands.

“I adore you.”

Sensation had spiked all at once and did so again as Ganymede felt a silly grin on his face. Zeus held onto him as he moved, his cockhead bouncing on Zeus’s abdomen. Rushed moans escaped him as seed speckled Zeus’s skin. Ganymede’s pace faltered and he gasped when Zeus sat up all at once.

He drew his legs under himself as he slid a hand behind him with Ganymede’s calf. “Put your legs around me, Gany.”

He did so, crossing them along with his arms as Zeus began thrusting up into him. His tongue, his lips caught Ganymede’s moans, until he quickened enough for Ganymede’s need to hold on took precedence.

“Ah!” he exhaled when he came again, but it was different. He knew Zeus could affect his climaxes but this was not stopping. “Z-Zeus!”

A hand cradled the back of his head, both holding him for a kiss as well as cushioning him when he was lowered onto his back. Milky fluid slid over his stomach as Zeus kissed down his body on his way to standing on his knees. He held Ganymede’s pelvis up, his pace slowing.

“L-Let me stop!” he exclaimed. He shuddered with each thrust.

For a long moment, it seemed he wouldn’t. Then Zeus slowed even more, and pulled out as he set Ganymede down. His head swam, the orgasm pulsing and fading through him. Eventually he knew the seed was licked and cleaned from his torso. His hips were kissed and his calming erection lavished while Zeus held his thighs.

“Relentless…”

A loud smooch to his inner thigh answered him.

* * * * * * *

Ganymede woke upon Zeus’s chest, a wet cloth sliding over his arm. Hot water cooled as it traveled from his shoulder to his wrist. His eyelashes moved on Zeus’s skin, inviting him to lift the hand to his lips before continuing to wash him.

A soft squeak opened his eyes again to Phil stretching beside them on the bed. The cat’s pink tongue curled out before bleary green eyes peered at him as a bubbling chirp sounded. Ganymede hummed in response, the both of them shutting their eyes against the morning.

Eventually Ganymede was rolled over; Zeus’s hands pushing while an arm supported his head. He was being carried. His head snapped up when they descended into water, and he fell once more upon Zeus’s shoulder after seeing the copper baths.

A wet kiss met his forehead, and then, “Drink, my love.”

Ganymede roused at the milky tea held before him. To his surprise, it was cold and pleasant against the scalding water around him. “Mmm…”

“Do you like it?”

Ganymede returned to his shoulder. “Is it nectar?”

“It is. Your tastes have changed.”

“I like Priam’s tea.”

“And you still like milk,” he agreed with amusement. “Have some more. You’re weak today.”

Ganymede obliged, sipping what tasted like floral black tea and the richest cream. “I’m just tired.”

“Then you will rest today. Hephaestus has made a number of things. I think he missed your presence among us.”

“The spicy rice? And beans?” Ganymede was better able to hold his head up. “Eggs, cakes, and fruit?”

“It is good to know food will wake you after all of my failed attempts,” Zeus sassed. Ganymede smiled crookedly, drinking his tea while the water and heat did their work. He dozed some more with Zeus’s sudsy fingers massaging his scalp.

Afterward, he was able to walk on his own to his chest of clothes. New pieces were there: a deep blue diamond of fabric with a hole for his head to go through. He experimentally pulled it on and liked how the thick cashmere fell around him as good as a shirt. Zeus came behind him with copper pins to secure the fabric under his arms so the loose wool did not hinder him. He pulled on his white, baggy trousers, relishing their familiar fit while he noticed Zeus had donned a similar pair: white with turquoise pattern around the ankles whereas his torso remained bare in the morning light.

He scooped Phil up to otherwise lounge on his lap as Ganymede dived into his feast of dishes around the edge of the pool. Phil purred loudly, ears moving underneath his fingers. “That garment is from Apollo.”

“It’z zoft,” Ganymede uttered around his rice. He swallowed, “I like it.”

“I do too,” Zeus crooned, eyeing the flesh of his torso peeking out the sides of the poncho.

Eventually the purring felt right behind him, and Ganymede realized Zeus had moved and was doing something along the hem. Gold and copper beads were pushed up the tassels, and Ganymede craned his neck to see glass beads spun with gold dust and green pigment too. He thought it might be a silly question to ask where he had gotten such beads. As he swayed contently under Zeus’s doting hands, he felt even sillier at forgetting how the king occupied himself in artistic things.

“Why’d you change the rooms?” he inquired instead.

“You’ve never asked for anything in here,” Zeus answered, focused on tying a tassel. Ganymede looked around, absorbing his new room. Still a renovated courtyard, it was slightly larger to accommodate the sofa and fire pits on either side. Sconces lined the long wall behind him while ivy covered the short walls flanking the room. A petite version of one of Athena’s shelves was between the sconces, full of colorful book spines and piles of scrolls that stuck out of the marble tower.

“Do you like them?”

His head swiveled to Athena leaning against the pillar dividing them from Zeus’s quarters. She smiled as brightly as her glinting blond hair. He tried to mirror it as much as his full mouth allowed. “I picked what I thought you’d like, but trade anything from my library as you want.”

She looked over her shoulder as a hummed melody began to enter the room. Dionysus, with a mouth bulging with the vegetable-filled pita in his hand, arrived and lifted it in greeting. “Hm. Mm!” he chimed as if accepting the invitation for more food.

Ganymede’s eyes watered as he watched Dion sit on the edge of his pool and scoop rice into his pita. As he watched Athena do the same, lifting the dish of anchovies to rest upon her lap while her long, athletic legs stretched near him. The same tingle rushed between his eyes, the titillating happiness of being with someone he enjoyed.

The gods made quick work of the feast and Dionysus was swatting a ball of feathers around for Phil while Ganymede announced he would return the dishes.

Zeus rubbed his back as he stood. “This isn’t resting.”

“I want to,” he insisted, accepting Zeus’s hand to push himself the rest of the way to his feet.

He moved through the corridors slowly, not out of fatigue but enjoying how marvelous the palace looked when it was calm and quiet. Shafts of sunlight illuminated the peach marble columns or cast pleasant shadows through the wading pools. It was not the same as when it was full of Olympian company, of laughter and conversation, but he was free to be himself in the empty halls.

He thumped his hand on the platform lowering with the dishes the same moment a meow came from behind him. Semele was walking beside the trotting cat, her lithe, cheetah form regal as ever. “Hi, Semele.”

She purred against him, rubbing along his body in passing. “Come on, Phil!”

A water reed entered his vision and he looked up into the mercurial visage of a naiad. She smiled and stepped back through the pillars to her pool. Ganymede smiled to himself, liking how even when the palace was vacant, he was never alone.

Phil chased the reed, swatting and hissing when the reed hit his face. Ganymede laughed when his hands were attacked directly and the cat bounded after him…

He turned around to find the cat poised before a doorway. He backtracked to one of the many parlors and froze. Her Majesty was standing with someone he had never seen, and yet, as with any god’s presence, he knew exactly who it was.

Lord Hades stood close to her, listening with calm intent…until his vivid eyes slid to him, shocking Ganymede in place.

Hera rotated and Ganymede quickly bowed to see Phil sauntering beneath him into the room. He gasped, moving to stop the creature, but Phil trotted over to the crouching god. “I-I’m sorry, my Queen, Lord Hades. I didn’t mean—”

“He is a King, Ganymede. Address him pro—”

“It’s all right,” Hades uttered, so softly Ganymede was not sure he had heard correctly. He gaped at the gentle hand caressing the feline. “There are many cats in my world. All of them kind and equally stubborn.”

Ganymede shut his mouth and leveled his head so he no longer stared. “I’m sorry we interrupted your discourse, Majesties. I’ll take the cat and leave you.”

He stared at the soft, black leather shoes beneath his gaze. They were unlike any shoes he had ever seen, as were the ironed trousers around his legs. Curved fingers told Ganymede to stand, which he did as he beheld the King holding Phil in his arms. A cape, not unlike his own cashmere, hung over one shoulder as if shoved aside; a unique chain of gold and orange baked amethysts held it together. Ganymede stared, realizing they were dragonflies with orange hearts.

“Do you like dragonflies, Ganymede?”

He blinked dreamily and swallowed. “I hardly remember them, Your Majesty.”

“But you do remember.”

Ganymede peeked up at him, surprised how easy it was to meet Hades’ almond eyes. His hair was almost as pale as Artemis’s; where hers was white, Hades’ was the palest blond. Like the rest of him, his torso was enclosed in something black and close fitting with a high collar. It looked…restrictive. Or protective, maybe.

Only the cloak chain and the god’s turquoise eyes held color. His hair and mono-lids made his human form vastly different from his siblings, but for some reason, Ganymede did not feel frightened.

“I remember them being blue, Your Majesty.”

Hades was expressionless. And yet…Ganymede felt many things gazing back at him; a fathomless power he could not understand, but on its surface was kindness.

“Good.”

Ganymede held his breath as Hades reached for his hand and bowed low enough for his forehead to touch its back. He set the cat back on his feet before rising. “Blessed sleep, Ganymede.”

“You need to go,” Hera’s voice interrupted, “before Demeter senses your presence.”

“I am not afraid,” he murmured, giving a last look at Phil.

Ganymede blinked, and he was gone.

The air viscerally changed, his absence so well felt. Ganymede began to bow, but Hera stared evenly at him as she said, “Ask your question.”

He exhaled, considering. “Is King Hades more powerful than King Zeus?”

Hera did not give away what she felt, but it was a long moment before she answered. “Yes, he is.”

Ganymede absorbed this and slowly nodded. “Good morning, my Queen.”

“He was here to ask me to be kind to you.”

The feast moved of its own volition in his stomach. His voice was hollow. “Why?”

Again, she waited. Like she needed time to scrutinize him. “I asked the same thing.”

Pause.

“Unlike my other brothers, there are no secrets between Hades and me.”

The sentiment which infused Ganymede’s eyes in that moment reflected in Hera’s as unsettled surprise, so unexpected was the heartbreak mixed with fear there.

“I’m sorry, Majesty,” he breathed, looking away. He sniffled. When he met her gaze, his face was pale and his eyes were wet. “M-May I say…thank you first? For protecting Priam’s marriage. I didn’t get to meet his wife but even I could see they were devoted to one another. Between Priam and the man Hector has become, I know you have looked after them. Thank you, my Queen.”

Her angled brows had slowly furrowed. “I am not killing you, boy.”

Tears ran down his face. “But you know.”

“Of course I know. I am not Queen because I once fit Zeus’s fancy.”

“I never meant—”

“He is not like the others. That is what Hades told me.”

They gazed at one another. “He’s always been short of words but I suppose with what he carries upon his shoulders, he hasn’t the energy for superfluous speech.”

A brow pricked over her dark eyes as she remarked, “Zeus adores his children evermore, but his heart never burns consistently for their bearers. I wondered whether it is because you cannot make children that he is still obsessed with you.”

Ganymede lurched slightly, swaying on the heels of his feet as his heart cringed. Obsessed. Unreal. Unhealthy. Infatuation. Temporary. All of the words he had read in place of love.

Her jaw shifted to the side, her chin lifting as she appraised him anew. “But he has always been different where you are concerned. For all his rash decisions, he does not do them spontaneously. You caught us all by surprise. The human too beautiful to live your life among your kind…you were a child. As good as a doll he carried everywhere with him. I don’t think even he knew what you were to him…now here we are. You’ve risen as his lover. The only thing left to us is to see how long this goes.”

Even as fresh tears slipped free from his eyelids, his belly steeled. “Your Majesty.”

He waited for her to deny his right to speak. She did not. “Why do you punish them?”

Hera’s features relaxed, as if no one had ever asked her before. “I do not punish them. I punish him. Until now, Zeus has been fickle and unreliable as a husband, and dangerous as a lover. I relieve them of uncertainty and heartbreak. I return their dignity, regardless of how humans change the history of their lives. They go to Hades’ realm, where they want for nothing. Usually. Escort him back to his room.”

Ganymede felt air return to his lungs as if Hera had granted it back to him. Puzzled, he watched her walk away and then rotated. Semele sat in the doorway, tranquil.