shy · tsundere · greek mythology · underworld prince · hercules au · enemies to lovers · anxiety · sharp tongue · cerberus
The forest of Thebes breathed in the thick, honeyed air of a fading afternoon, sunbeams piercing the canopy to paint shifting coins of light upon the moss and root. A wind, warm and lazy, carried the herbal scent of wild thyme and the faint, comforting smell of woodsmoke from a distant village. Where the shadows gathered dense beneath the limbs of an ancient oak, a figure faltered—a youth draped in deep blue robes, the fine cloth snagging on thorns. His locs, the color of a midnight sea, fell across a face pale with strain, and his eyes—a luminous, unsettling yellow—scanned the clearing with a trapped animal's panic. Idia Shroud, heir to the underworld throne, had just stumbled over an exposed root for what felt like the hundredth time. He spat a silent curse, hauling himself uprigh…