Inspired by a post of gatesofember
Summary: Acient greek au where Jason is a priest of Hades and becomes obsessed over Hades immortal son, worshipping him with devotion. Nico becomes curious and decides to meet this mortal who spents hours kneeling at his altar. Jason does not recignise the beautiful stranger as the minor god he so adores but there is no way this beauty before him is mortal.
Jason kneels before the altar of the son of Hades. No one has giving the beautiful god a name and if someone dared, no one has spoken it out loud. Most call him just "The son of Hades" or "the dark prince" since his altar is always in the shadows but Jason secretly calls him "shadow flower" after all his is not just Hades's son. Jason knows he probably should not spent this much time as this one altar but he can not stay away. Every day he spents hours sitting before the statue of the young god, staring at the statue of the beautiful godling, giving offerings and praining. His fallow priest just roll their eyes at him and the few citizens who come this far into the dark temple wisper that he is possesed or crazy. Cursed by Hades for ignoring his duties or shot by Erros error to be in love with a statue. He does not care, he does not listen.
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Nicoloó titles his head in confusion. For quit a while this mortal took care of his altar. He was a miner god with a small and less important domain. Morals rarely praid to him, let along build him an altar or give him offerings. Exept this mortal, he spent more time at his altar then at his fathers or mothers. Which annoyed them, to his own amusement. His parents were not petty enough to strike the mortal down so there was no worry there. Still it confused him. What did this young man want from him? Did he hope to gain favour with his father through him? But somehow that did not seem right.
"What do you have on your mind my son?", his father asked, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looks up, meeting his fathers questioning eyes. "Nothing important", he mutters flushing slightly. His mother laughts "Thinking about the little priest of yours again darling?", Nicos face turned scarled, he wants to argue that it is one "his" priest but with how much time he spents kneeling at Nicos small altar he knows the paint is mute. "Why don't you go and see for yourself?", Presephone asked. Nico stills, staring at her. "But mother my duties. I can not simply leave and -" "Your work will still be here when you return", his father cuts in, "you do not need to rest as mortals do. Go to the temple by day and come back when Apollos sun goes down." Nico can not help but stare at his parents, stunned but he can't come up with a reason not to go. So he simple nods and takes a bite out of the pomagranet in his hand.
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As he often does Jason once more kneels at the altar of the young god he so loves to worship when he hears a voice he dreads, the head priest of Hades' temple. "Jason this can't go on like this", he says. Jason sights, well used the the same argument over and over again. "I am not doing anything wrong Octavian", he says eyes still closed, "I am a priest. I am praying, worshipping the gods, caring for their altars and giving them offerings." The man scoffs: "You mean your one god. You are a priest of Hades, not-", he gestured to the statue, "him." Jason gritts his teeth finally turning around, still half on his knees. "I do not think Hades will mind me praining to his son", he says. Octavian scoffs "You will see what happens when you ignore your duties", he turns around but before he disappears he calls out: "You are on floor duty!". Jason resisted the urge to curse. Floor duty was tidious and embarrassing duty which was mostly used as a punishment. It ways otherwise suppost to rotate but his fellow priest had made him do it for weeks now. His hands were still row from doing it a few days ago.
"Wow what a cunt", a voice said. Jason turned around standing up fully and stopped half way. A young man, a few years younger then him, stept out of the shadow. This could not be a mortal. Such beauty could not belong to a mere human. Hair as black as ebeny, skin as pale as the rare snow and lips blood red, dark-brown, big eyes which reminded him of a young deer. The stanger was dressed in black clothes, well made but for some reason he was barefoot. Jason stood there, open mouthed which cased the stanger to laugh. "Well hello stranger", the boy said, "have I frightend you?" Jason shock himself off. "My apologies", he mumbled, "I have not seen you there-" Jason stopped, he was not sure how to adress the stranger. "Nicoloó", the boy said, "my name is Nicoloó, but call me Nico. So tell me who are you and what was that about?" Jason knew he should not tell a stranger to much and should not talk badly about his head priest but for some reason he wanted to trust the boy and the loneliness of the last times had left him isolated.
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Nico was furious. The priest has been humiliated and put down for weeks because he praid at his altar. When Jason explained that he was to scrup the temple floor by himself he barely resisted the urge to find the head priest and rip him apart. But that what surely scare Jason away and Nico find he liked the priest so he offered to help with the cleaning. Jason had protested but at the end that has agreed that they would work together and talk durting it. Nico was very corious and Jason did not disappoint. "Why did you become a priest of Hades?", he asked. Hades was not a very popular god. Most mortals were to afraid to even speak his fathers name, let along mentain his temple.
Jason snorted: "Well intresting story... let's call it a mix of rebellion and punishment." Nico raised an eyebrown and Jason contined, "My homelife was... let's say complicated. I am one of my fathers bastards and my stepmother wanted to use my for political gain. So I was trained and was to be married off but well.. the problem was that I was more interested in my sword instructor then the woman I was suppost to wed." Jason turned dark red, seemingly regretting his words but still he continued, "My stepmother lost it. My father disowned me on the spot and they tried to brush it under the table since they found it shameful that I... well you know. So they send me away. They wanted to sent me to the temple of Zeus but I refused. I was sick and tired of being their tool so I-", "You chose the god who would piss your parents off the most but they couldn't refuse." Jason flushed once more but nodded.
Their friendship grew fast after that. By day Jason and Nico spent their time in the temple but by night Nico would disapear without a trace and Jason would spent more time at the altar of the prince of the underworld. Jason was still confinced that Nico was not mortal but had not found out who exectly he has and Nico kept deflecting his questions.
Jason found himself conflicted as he started to develope feelings for devine boy but at the same time his obsession with the god he worshipped also grew. One day Nico asked what so many had asked: "Why do you worship a minor god so devotedly? Why this one?" Others had asked in with condecention or even mocker, Nico seemed simply curious.
Jason wasn't sure how to answer. "I guess it's because he faszinates me", he answers, "I can hardly put it into words. I spent hours everyday staring at the statue and-" but Jason stopped. For countless hours he started at the perfect face of the young god but was unable to recugnize him when he met him in real life.
Jason was sure he would faint. "Gods of Olympus have mercy" he muttered, frozen in place. Nico smiled "I see you have finally figured it out", he wispered a glitter in his eyes. Jason wasn't sure if he would die of embarrassment or cry with joy. All the things he had told Nico... .
He fell to his knees. Staring at the god in awe and shock. "My Lord...", Jason wasn't sure how to continue so he simple asked "Why are you here? Why me?"
"I wanted to see who was the mortal who worships a minor god with such devotion.", the god replied, "and I have to say I am not disappionted." Nico reached out and pulled the priest to his feet.
💬 2 🔁 10 ❤️ 71 · ancient Rome Jasico au with priest Jason working at a cave/temple sacred to Pluto and he obsesses over the shrine to Plut















