This chapters is of 4000 words in an apology for the Late update. Stay safe and have a wonderful day..

My face lifts from my hands on catching the familiar assemblance of black and gold.

Over a black gown was an armour of gold cascading his torso and a dark cloak with golden rims adding to the layers but he makes it look effortless with his hair left tousled.

"Can I meet your designer." I blurt out without thinking, hoping she could help me with my average fashion choices.

His eyes narrows under dark brows, "I don't have one." My mouth shuts close with a forced smile across it as he pads through the room. Why the HELL is he so perfect?

And reminded painfully of the fact that he was even an AMAZING cook, a GREEK god, FREAKING royalty and FILTHY rich, my mind wanders off to find the reason for my existence....drifting.

"Elia." He takes a moment to only stare at my face that looks to have lost all hope.

Drifting...

"We have somewhere to be." He pauses awaiting an answer which he does not gain. "Elia are you sleeping?" Brought back to life by the amused tone, I blink attaining focus on reality.

"What are you...I mean where are we going. Is it official, should I fix my hair?" I ask, my left hand reaching upto my locks that almost has me cut them off to pass through the tangles.

Hades takes a look at it, not even contemplating before he replies. "There is no need." He comes over to where I sat with my feet dangling in air, but as he bents I raise a hand for him to stop.

"It's fine, you don't have to carry me. I feel much more energetic than before, its all good." He gazes down at my smiling lips frowning slightly as he steps back for me to rise. My brain rambles in nervousness as he watches, not moving an inch from his place as I walk around the bed obliged to prove myself right.

I receive no word nor nod of approval as he turns away, his figure disappearing through the open doors. Following in slow steps, I am thankfully never left behind with the short pauses he takes, that were just enough for him to not loose sight of the fawn like creature on two legs.

Sighing at my own state, I call out to him. "Where are we going?" And my smile widens as he stops waiting for me to near and he only speaks when I am well within his arms to reach.

"We are going to meet Thanatos." My eyes widen. "You were mumbling about him the while you slept, so I assumed that you wanted to meet him after your last encounter. " He finishes and I almost feel his hesitation as he runs his fingers through his dark locks.

I nod lowering my gaze as my eyes glaze over with salty liquid that threatens to spill without control when realising how badly I wanted to meet him. Just for the ample time to quench my curiosity whether I would break my hand if I punch him in the nose.

"Thank you." I sincerely meet his eyes as he turns away continuing forward. I smile without a reason as I trail behind the strong back with an urge to stride a little faster and walk by his side, but my legs were already trembling though not fully fatigued to collapse.

But we do not make it far before he stops, but doesn't turn around when he extends his cloak. "Hold onto it."

I do not think twice before grabbing on, only wondering how he always knew when I was suffering and how I was never going to admit it. My smile was comical in its upward tilt with how he slowed his pace in this rare moment.

But my expression turns blasè when we are no longer alone and the unhindered chatters and gossip the palace works shares as we pass only turns louder. And I always knew he could hear every word of their whispers, but he had never once bothered to acknowledge the fact and so my surprise is justified as he returns their stares with a stern gaze and silence falls unquestioned.

A weird feeling surges telling me that something was wrong, but I couldn't put a finger on it. Our steps slow as we enter the east wing of Zeus' palace more quiter than the inner and a bronze door opens to let us into a glassed room giving access to view the palace gardens, but it isn't Izumi that I find inside.

"Don't look so disappointed." Aphrodite dramatically places her arm over her heart.

"Hey." I almost wail with stress when she in my mother's appearance skips over in a pale blue fork, its neckline too low for my liking though fairly modest. The piece of clothing I held was tugged free of my grip as Hades moves to the simple wooden bench, one of the two on each side and the only furniture there is and my lips press together as he his gaze moves away from us, distant and indifferent to all.

"Its fine, he just doesn't like looking at me." Aphrodite whispers to my ears when my mind forgets her presence and in reflex I step back from the sudden closeness never intending to seem repulsed.

Thankfully she smiles unbothered by the action and holds me by the shoulders to spin my body to the door. "Elie listen, Thanatos is not really going to be here"

"Why?" It comes out close to a scream and knowing the look on my face she soothes my shoulders.

"Oops my words came out wrong. Elie he will be here... but it will be a fragment of him." She tries to explain but I do not understand.

"Its like this, the one you are going to meet is Thanatos, but its only a part of him so it brings you less harm from him being close to you." I nod.

"But when we take such bodies, we always have our powers but considering the situation Thanatos has to keep on a form close to a mortal' constitution which is quite unstable and so he can't remain like that for too long, minutes at max. Elie in simpler words this a small part of his soul and almost close to a human because he has to keep his powers dispersed from this form."

"If its only a fragment, then where is he really?"

"Have you not heard that we are omnipotent?." Aphrodite curves around my body to look at my face.

"Yes."

"We are everywhere like air, it is why no one can ever capture a god, and one of the simple reasons why we are immortal but then we can also choose to exist in such solid form." She motions to her body- my mother' body. "And while I am here I can also be sipping tequila in the Caribbean."

"But since my powers and in a way my existence is more concentrated in this body, you can say that this is the real me."

I nod and she smiles moving her gaze to the door that lets out a creak. "And the one who was with you for all those years was the real him, though he chose to look younger."

And as he steps in my defences are torn like paper and before I could even draw in the breath my body clearly needs I was in his arms not knowing who was the first to reach out for the other.

"Rain." His hands fold over my body, drawing me closer to his firm torso as if he wants to crush me to a powder of bones. And the tears dripping down my cheeks were not from the pain of tightening limbs but from how it seemed I wasn't the one who craved the most for this moment.

"Rain." He calls my name again lowering his face to my shoulders as he holds on without ever wanting to let go. "I am sorry that I made you cry."

I pull back but not completely letting go. "Its fine you know how much of a cry baby I am."

"No, you were never a cry baby." And it never felt as good on being refuted.

"You two should sit, Elie is still recovering. " Izumi's smile falls when Aphrodite speaks, her voice grim as if she was recently scolded and I turn to where she sat by Hades who remains silent and foreboding.

Suddenly I am well aware that we are not alone as I sit down with Izumi opposite to them and he keeps my hand in his.

"Is it hard to maintain this form?" I ask and he seems to want to lie but he doesn't in the end.

"It is, and I still cannot be as close to you without them being here." He glances to the pair of gods as I did. "Rain...how angry are you at me?"

I raise a brow. "On the scale of 10? A thousand." And he has the audacity to laugh when pulling me into a hug and smiling through his words. "That doesn't make sense."

"You know I always had doubts about you being a human but never came up with the idea of a god, more of wizards and black magic cultivators."

And when he seemed surprised I tried to point out his flaws. "Because you were never subtle in keeping your identity in wraps!"

"You had a license at 14 and you joined my class eventhough you were older than me and pretended that you flunked two grades though you always showed off how intelligent you were to the teachers and come on! You jumped off a cliff!"

"After you." His eyes narrow and I remember his anger from the incident.

"Why did you jump off like that and you didn't even tell me why, it wouldn't have ended well if I hadn't saved you. Was it part of your doubts?"

My nose crunch as I admit with embarrassment. "Yes, I wanted to know if you were an angel."

"But it turns out I am the opposite." His eyes were dull, but his tone one of lightheartedness.

"That' not right. Isn't it an angel duty to guide a soul, don't you do the same...Stop! I don't wanna see that goofy smile."

But disregarding my request, he keeps his beautiful smile. "Why didn't you ever ask me?" And on the surface it was joking and light, but his eyes pull me into a vortex swirling with emotions I cannot understand.

"You were my first friend." I take a moment and then my voice flows out calmly. "I didn't want you to leave in case you felt uncomfortable with me suddenly questioning you, I was just scared." And in silence he lets it sink in.

"Did you...know about my curse?" With this question his grip tightens and his brows crease as if it triggered unpleasant memories.

"I too had my guesses." With inexplicable storms behind grey eyes, he admits already seeming to know the query that would follow.

"Did you always come to my room when I slept." My eyes narrow in accusation.

"Yes." His hands raise in surrender, but immediately falls back over mine. "I used to sit outside on the roof, the nights you fell asleep...And one day when you started to cry I came in but you woke up and I was too startled to leave...so I just sat by you, but you thought it was a dream. After that...it became a routine." By this confession I began to imagine myself as a wise judge listening to a criminal willing to make amendments for his deeds.

"Creepy." I poke his chest intending to puncture the heart if possible, but I was not angry in the slightest.

His adams apple bobbed, "I..."

"Years." I purposefully point out trying to meet his eyes.

"I..." Izumi' voice sounds muffled."I back then, knew I was wrong, very wrong, Rain."

A smile replaces my fake seriousness and he finally relax. "Why didn't you ask me about my curse?"

"I knew you disliked the topic and I never wanted you to have your guard up around me...I never wanted anything to change." His thumbs run in circles over my palm.

"But life is never predictable, and though I would have preferred for you to stay ignorant to our world, I realise that you have the tendency to stumble into immortals."

I laugh and turn to Hades whose amber eyes meet mine but I do not hold the gaze and offer Aphrodite who seemed unused to such a silent company, a small smile.

"Izumi." I lower my voice and he leans in. "Is there anyway that they can't hear what I am going to ask."

He keeps his eyes level to mine. "Both of them already chose not to, I think they want to give us some privacy since its kind of mandatory that I have adults - though I am older than them, look after me so that I don't just kidnap you."

"What! Idiot." I laugh smacking away his hand reaching up to over my face and it deviates to my hair. "Now listen, the time you looked at Hades when we sat down why did you look surprised. "

His fingers comb away the short strands that brush my forehead and his other hand rests on my wrist silently keeping count of my heart beat and I realise that these tender touches was a harbour to him, a secure attachment to assure himself that I was alright and by his side. And I don't know how long I have yearned for the same, and he smiles when my hands slip around his neck.

"Why are you so observant?" He asks tugging at my hair and it seems like even in my memories he has always loved touching me, never anywhere other than my face, hands and my messy hair, always bringing comfort. "Like you said it is true that I was shocked when I saw him. Did you understand the whole omnipotent concept?"

I force a smile. "Yes, but don't ask me questions about it."

Pristine white teeth gleam under pale lips, but then his expression falls serious. "Lord Hades' powers maintain the Underworld as it is, protects and defends the land. And he rarely leaves his kingdom and everyone believes it is because of his hatred towards the rest of us, and though it maybe a part of the reason, its not the entire truth and I think you know why."

My brows were creasing knowing well why, but I make no comment on his illness and do not risk the chance to ask Izumi if he knew as well. "But now he is here in Olympus after centuries and the one with us here is in the most powerful form."

"But extending his presence in such a manner with his sickn...." He stops himself and softy concludes in a whisper even though they could not hear. "It is not good."

His fingers press down on my quickening pulse, as I have no words in response.

"Your smile is slipping." He chuckles. "Act along...and don't look at him like that! Please..I don't think I would be able to lie if he asks why you look like you want someone in this room dead, your violent tendencies clearly haven't changed."

"Izumi!" I exclaim, but withdrew my hand before I strangle him almost caught guilty and his chuckles only make me want to prove him right.

"Why did you give me this name?" Izumi suddenly asks kneading the soft flesh of my ear out of an old habit and I relish the countless memories that it brings along.

"You never knew?" He shakes his head. "Ahh! Do you know its meaning then?"

"I took it as it is." He shrugs and I laugh finding it ridiculous that he never tried to know what the name a stranger many years back gave him meant.

His fingers pinch my ears while offering a reason. "I always knew it never meant anything bad or silly because your neighbour found it pleasant."

"Yes he did because he was Japanese and I kinnda later lied to him that you had some Japanese relatives and hence the name. But I still can't believe that you used the name for so long." I smile remembering how he was even registered in the same name in our school.

"Oh god." I poke his nose and he smiles transforming the god of death from someone cold and menacing to someone who you wish you knew.

"Your name, it means spring." I state as his nail gently graze my neck as if wondering if it could make the birth mark in black vanish.

"The day we met, it was late winter and I was waiting for spring and then you came along...and ruined everything."

The widening stretch of his lips parts in laughter, in honest rumblings of the soul and it reaches my ears in a tickle and bounce calling for me to join.

"Izumi Airlea." He says, and his eyes were no longer the grey of ashes and smoke, but the shade, of a dove' feather as it flew through the sunlit skies, relaxed and at ease, the ones I love. "How easily you had given me your last name when your parents asked."

"I did." I smirk and a smile upturn his lips extending to his eyes.

"Because you are family to me."

And when the last minute had passed this form of his disappeared to the air and my vision dims with tears that do not trace my cheeks.

Aphrodite was the one who came over to pat my back and I smile letting her know I was alright and then she tells me that she and Hades had to leave to meet Zeus.

"Somone will come for you." She assures following behind Hades who left without a word. I nod and wave her goodbye while deeply bothered by the subtle changes in Hades' behaviour.

It seems that Hades was avoiding me, but something tells me it was not because of a kiss and what Izumi told me was deeply unsettling. There must be only a handful of people who knew that he falls sick, and for him to use too much of his powers it may bring him harm, but why would he take such risks if this was true.

My heart almost stops as I suddenly take notice of the person sticking their face to the glass from the other side silently following me with ocean eyes.

"Will!"

"Elie!" He calls out loud with equal excitement, but already seem to have known that his voice couldn't pass through and smiling at my frown he points to something behind me and mouths, 'door.'

My brows crease when I don't find it, but then the light reflecting from a glass knob catches my eye and I give Will a thumbs up before jogging to it. And it was after a while of pushing and pulling and watching Will double over in laughter that I realised there was no glass wall for a meter in width to the right of the knob.

Keeping a straight face and my chin high I walk over to the bafoon of a friend who looks up to capture me to his chest in a soft embrace like he was fearful it would hurt if he holds me tighter.

"Ouch." I flinch pushing at his shoulder and his hands uncoil in alarm while letting me lean onto his body. But when my smirking face comes into view his body slumps in relief and almost squeezes the life out of me in his arms as he laments. "You were so much sweeter when you were drunk."

I laugh at how he always falls for each prank with his guard so low for me to breach and pull at his cheeks without receiving any objection when he picks me up in his arms and walks in joyful steps towards an outdoor sitting area carefully put together with a mordern outlook.

"You guys sure do have awesome meeting places." He chuckles as I take in the candle lanters hanging low from the lush green trees.

Keeping his smile, he lowers me running his hands up and down my sleeves with no reason to give for the gesture. "You are going to meet a few more gods today, so be prepared to stop yourself from attacking them." And I come to know how much of a hypocrite my blue eyed friend is with his eyes that shown with concern not for to any god, but for me.

And so I shrug off the alarming news and only asks in a neutral tone. "Why are they coming to meet me." He doesn't let go of my long sleeves as his jaws set in annoyance for whomever was to come.

"They are curious about you. It will be fine, I will be there and so will Lord Hades. It will take them a while so here." He suddenly hands me a lemonade pulling me down to a grey sofa.

"Where did you get it from?" I ask ready to murder if he has always had this skill.

"From the nymphs." He takes a sip and taking one look at my clueless face he explains. "They are female deities associated with nature and the one who gave me these was a dryad, a forest nymph. They live up in the trees and are extremely timid so they do not usually come out freely in public."

"So they are like fairies?" I imagine a small girl in green with beautiful wings shyly pass Will the drinks and instantly fly off as he says his thanks.

He nods noting my fascination and finishes his drink in three gulps and places it on the armrest. "So did something happen last night?"