Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

‘I can’t tell if I will have the courage to walk through the gates when we get to Olympus.’ Hephaestus slouched against a tree, while looking at the boys jumping into the river from a low bridge.

Dionysus looked down at Hephaestus. He finally could, now that he was sitting in a tree. ‘The courage?’

‘I have been searching for the right word the whole day. I think it’s courage. I don’t know if, when we are at the gates of Olympus, I can set myself to walk through them.’

‘Well, you’ll have to, courage or not. Why else did we walk this far?’

Hephaestus sighed and looked up. From where they were now, they could clearly see mount Olympus. It wasn’t even the largest mountain Hephaestus had ever seen, but what mattered was what it represented.

‘I feel like, when we get there, I’ll stop right in front of the gates. I think I’ll freeze.’

‘Why do you think that?’

Hephaestus shrugged. He pulled his sacks close and began rummaging through it. ‘The crushing realisation that they’ll never accept me on Olympus.’

He handed Dionysus a piece of bread. The half-god gladly took it. ‘They’ll have to accept you. Otherwise, it would be bad for the universe.’

‘Dionysus!’

‘So you mean on a more personal level. Well, some of them will, others will not. There are some that approve of your stunt, Heph, bad for the universe or not. Others don’t. That’s relationship dynamics for you…’

‘You already said that. Not everyone will like everyone.’

‘Hm. I learned that the hard way too.’

Hephaestus looked up. ‘Even when you break it down like that, I still think I’ll lack the courage to walk in there, if I know I’ll be either a pariah or a martyr for the people there.’

Dionysus stuck out his hand. Hephaestus reached up to hold it. ‘There is a wide range between those things. Some gods probably couldn’t care less, so they won’t think you are a pariah or a martyr too. Some others mildly care, for a variety of reasons, and others might have fought it huge sin against Olympus. But Heph, quickly enough they’ll have forgotten it. Thousands of years roll over an issue like this. They’ll see the newer versions of you, and the old image will be replaced.’

Hephaestus went quiet for a moment. It was oddly comforting to hear that. ‘Still…’

‘You have already managed to get away from Lemnos. I think that took more courage than walking onto Olympus will.’

‘You were the reason I walked onto the road.’

He felt a tug on his arm. ‘And I’ll be there when you get off of it.’

Hephaestus snickered. ‘I am sure you will.’

Dionysus was quiet for a moment, while looking at the boys, who were beginning to dry themselves off. It seemed like they were done with jumping for today.

He ate the last bit of bread, before slipping out of the tree. He took off his cloak.

Hephaestus raised an eyebrow. ‘What are you doing?’

Dionysus was just wearing a simple chiton at this point. He looked right at the river. ‘Come.’

‘No way.’

The young god looked over at him. Hephaestus bit his lip and followed, to the bridge.

By the riverside, the boys stopped packing their stuff to look. Two strangers thinking they could gracefully jump off the bridge? Now that was something they had to see!

Dionysus grabbed Hephaestus’ hands. ‘If I say you can jump, it’s safe.’

‘This feels more like a test of trust than of courage.’

‘Maybe it is also a test of trust, for you at least. But just see.’

Hephaestus shrugged. ‘Please don’t get hurt,’ he whimpered.

Dionysus laughed. ‘Of course not.’ With a wink, he flung himself off the bridge, into the river.

He shivered when he felt the cold water. The water was deeper then he thought. It took a few seconds before het broke through the surface, gasping for air. But man, it felt good too.

He looked up. Hephaestus looked afraid, but he was still on the bridge. The new god smiled.

‘I didn’t hit the bottom,’ he yelled. ‘And some of those kids? They are almost as brawny as you. It’ll be okay. I promise.’

Hephaestus looked down at Dionysus.The question wasn’t whether he trusted him, he realised now. He had been travelling with his friend for a few months. He would trust him with everything.

This really was a test of courage. Of course, the metaphor of jumping off a bridge, something inherently useless, was not entirely apt. But he understood what Dionysus meant: It wasn’t dangerous to do so. If he wanted, or needed to, he could.

He could.

The next moment, he was laying next to his friend, who began to laugh. ‘I told you! I told you!’

Hephaestus began to laugh as well. ‘You told me,’ he said. ‘And I did.’

‘You have the courage to do things, Heph. To do things that matter. You understand why the bridge mattered, right?’

Hephaestus slowly nodded. ‘Yes. Yes I do.’ He was quiet for a moment, before he send a splash of water his friends’ way, which was countered by another splash.

After a minute or so, they climbed out of the water and walked to the place they left their stuff. Dionysus was shivering.

Hephaestus wondered whether he should pick him up, but eventually settled on putting an arm around his shoulders. ‘You need to change your chiton and put your cloak on, half-mortal, or you’ll freeze to death.’

‘I won’t.’

‘Hm.’ He personally handed his friend the cloak. ‘Still. We won’t be taking the risk. Daring to freeze to death is not a sign of courage, I’d say.’

Chapter Text

‘Wait! Here, as a gesture of thanks…’ The traveller's wife came towards them, with a cotton bag in her hands. Dionysus took it from her, to find that it was filled with Cherries.

‘Oh, thank you!’

She smiled. ‘You two helped out my husband with a group of bandits, I heard. Giving you a few of our cherries is the least I can do.’

Hephaestus looked at his friend with one eye raised when the bandits were mentioned. Dionysus thanked the woman once again, before they said their goodbyes and got back on the road.

‘Helped out with those bandits, eh.’

Dionysus smirked. ‘They will never bother anyone again, you know. I think everyone who lives in this area should thank me with a bag of cherries.’

Hephaestus sighed. ‘You... I mean, just... oh, damn it. At least we got food for a few days now. Which one of us will carry it? Maybe you, you are light. You won’t accidently crush them. And of course you are a god of vegetation, so…’

‘I was thinking we would eat them this very evening. All of them.’

Hephaestus abruptly stopped walking. ‘What? But we could eat for days!’

Dionysus slowly shook his head. ‘We can’t keep them that long. They’ll go bad soon, it’s hot out. And as you said, there is a good chance we crush them if we wait too long.’

Hephaestus looked aghast. ‘You really just want to eat them?’

‘Well, yes.’

Hephaestus didn’t reply.

‘So… now we eat the cherries?’ Hephaestus asked, while they were setteling in for the night.

Dionysus looked around. ‘Yes.’

‘Ah-ha.’

‘Is that why you were quiet all day?’

Hephaestus shrugged. ‘It just feels so wasteful. To eat it all at once. Then we won’t have anything for the coming days.’

Dionysus continued setting up shelter, waiting for his friend to continue talking of his own accord.

‘And, I know we can’t keep them anyway. You told me why. But, still…’

Dionysus put down the last blanket, before sitting down next to his friend. ‘But still it doesn’t feel right?’

‘Still, it doesn’t feel right. It just doesn’t.’

Dionysus picked up a cherry. ‘You said it was wasteful. Why would it be wasteful? We are going to enjoy these cherries, together as friends. It will be fun.’

‘Because… As I said, it could be food for days. And we are just going to woolf through that. It feels like I need to save them.’

Dionysus winked while he ate another cherry. ‘That’s rational, I think. Because of being stuck at Lemnos and such, you couldn’t just set a single step to your palace dining room, where food is always piling high.’

‘Is that what Olympus is like?’

‘From the few days I’ve seen it, Yes, it is.’

‘That sounds… wow.’

‘It was a shock for me, too. Most mortals need to do stuff like wait for their food.’

Hephaestus chuckled. ‘Unbelievable. Food, just right then and there...’

‘It actually is. And remember, these days I can just wave my hands to make food appear.’

‘Still you find it unbelievable.’

‘I do. Just as unbelievable as the fact that you have eaten a few cherries while I said that, and you didn’t even say anything about it.’

Hephaestus looked at his hands. They were, in fact, as red as the cherries.

‘Ah-ha.’

‘Want some more?’ Dionysus asked.

‘If you stop with those puppy eyes and just let me live.’ Hephaestus smiled, while he grabbed another cherry. ‘They are sweet.’

Dionysus nodded. ‘Do you like them?’

‘Yes,’ Hephaestus said. ‘They… make me feel happy.’

‘That’s good.’

Dionysus studied his friend for a moment. He did look happier, now. Happier and healthier, as if the trip they were taking did him good. As if it finally got him out of his rut.

Of course, it did, of course. He just hadn’t seen it until now.