mount olympus coffee

“I’m so tired,” Hades mutters, “of these Gorgons taking so long to place an order.”

“To be fair,” Persephone says, gesturing at the stony-faced barista, “sometimes there’s a shift change.”

“Put on a hat, or a bonnet, or a thousand tiny pairs of sunglasses,” Hades says, and one of the snakes on Medusa’s head snaps back to hiss at him. He glares at it until it turns away.

“I told you we should have bought the coffee machine,” Persephone says, patting Cerberus gently as he pants and drools all over Hades’s loafers. “We’d save so much time and money…”

Hades gives her a dry look. “Giver of wealth,” he says, and she shrugs.

“Give your wealth away,” she says, “and let me make my Americano at home instead of dragging me all the way across town to complain about the Gorgons.”

“But it’s the best mocha in town,” he whines, then whips around to glare at the foolish mortal snickering behind him.

Except…

“Hey, Uncle H!”

Hades groans. “Hercules.”

The young man bounces up and down on the balls of his feet, hair flopping over a sweatband stretched across his forehead while his arms move rapidly against his sides.

“Hey Auntie P!”

Persephone smiles sweetly. “Hey, Herc. How far did you go today?”

“Lifted a few tons, ran fifty miles,” he says, pausing his bouncing to tug his socks back up his calf.

(Hades cringes at the socked toes sticking out of the sandals and tries to focus on the counter where the staff is wheeling the barista-turned-garden-decoration away from the register.)

While Hercules is adjusting his second sock, Cerberus catches a whiff and spins to charge head-first into the boy, licking and nipping and yowling happily. His tail beats Hades’s shin rhythmically.

Divine punishment, it seems to say. Divine punishment. Listen to your wife and buy the Mr. Coffee next time.

“Next.”

Hades steps forward, Persephone and Hercules chatting behind him, and realizes he’s never going to get his coffee in time for his meeting with Zeus.

Because Adonis is ordering a half-caf no whip extra foam something something something all while flirting with the poor girl who’s probably going to be struck down by Aphrodite in about ten seconds.