@worldwarme | just like i always hoped it would be.
“And why would you? Picture it this way?”
Hera startles at Harlem’s question, caught off guard by its suddenness and the uncertainty of her own thoughts. Why did she picture it this way? And why did she say that in the first place? She doesn’t have an answer ready, at least not one that she finds suitable for speech.
What could Hera possibly say? That this had been her fantasy? Her baby laying down on his daddy’s chest, a moment of sweet tenderness drenched in the Sunday afternoon’s fading light. That Harlem wasn’t Arias’ child was beside the point; Zeus hadn’t taken to fatherhood with half the enthusiasm that his older brother seemed to enjoy, and her husband resisted domesticity at every turn.
Where Zeus faltered, his brother took over: the Rossi family dynamic at its very finest. Why not have Harlem pick up the slack in his marriage? His family? Why would Zeus ever bother doing anything so pedestrian as taking an active interest in his wife and son if he had a brother more than willing to do it for him?
Bitterness, hot and heavy on her tongue, chokes her until she catches sight of her brother-in-law running his fingers through her baby’s hair. Arias stirs softly on his uncle’s chest, then quiets.
The smile that dawns across Harlem’s face---it transforms him. Hera’s breath catches and she can’t help the matching smile that his inspires, something as soft and sweet as the new baby scent that still clings to Arias.
“You should be. That lucky, I mean. You make an excellent father.” Hera meets his gaze steadily, unflinching even as something passes between them unsaid. She is the first to break eye contact, looking at her son with the fierce tenderness of a mother. Was there anything she would not do for her son? “Yes, he’s beautiful.”
She bites down on her bottom lip at Harlem’s offer. It isn’t that she doesn’t trust him with Arias---she trusts him more than she does Zeus with their son, though even thinking that truth feels like a betrayal---but she... She doesn’t want to leave.
“I don’t---I don’t have anywhere I need to be. I can... make dinner? If you’d like.”