Through the Manhole

[charisstoma]

Title: Through the Manhole
Author: charisstoma
Word count: 959
Meep wrote a very nice fic for this prompt found here if we poke her enough I think she'll write more.


“I’d move if I were you. That’s not a good place to stand too close to,” Morton heard from behind him. He looked around the area trying to discover what could be the danger.

“Why? I don’t see anything,” this time he looked over his shoulder at the person who must be the source of the voice. A man stood there, nothing too unusual about him, just your garden variety boy next door grown up into a not too unpleasant looking man.

“Look near your feet,” Morton was advised and saw at the edge of where his shoes touched an interestingly patterned manhole cover with TELEPORT across the center.

“So what? It’s a manhole but the cover is solid looking and seems to be well in place.” Morton stomped one foot on the steel round plate and felt a hand grip hard around his upper arm and the man cry, “Don’t!”

An iridescent glow surrounded them for an instant.

“You are an idiot!” The man sighed and laughed. “My idiot for now. Come on. There’s unintended teleport incident paperwork that needs to be filled out. I hope that you don’t have anyone waiting for you at home; wife, parents, lover.”

“I don’t understand. Unintended teleport?” Morton said dazedly. “No, no one. I’m between boyfriends,” as if he'd had any.

“Really,” the man grinned, “good to know. He looked Morton up and down. “Not a bad thing then. Makes things easier too.”

“Easier? Bad thing?”

“Uh huh. You’re my idiot now, remember?” The grin had become a leer, bending down to touch one of the hexagons on the plate. “Today I was told that it would be a good time to go looking for a special someone in your world. I didn’t expect that you would make the choice for me.”

“Choice? My world? What?!” Morton’s voice rose and he moved around the man to stomp on the manhole cover which did absolutely nothing. He tried another stomp and felt stupid when he saw the amused smile on the man’s face. “Alright. Turn the damned thing back on and take me home.”

With a shake of his head, “How about I take you home and we try out a few interesting things first before you start making demands. I’ll feed you and who knows, you may find you want to stay.” The man’s hand gripped Morton around his arm again.

“I thought we had to fill out some paperwork,” Morton tried to wrench his arm away.

The man smiled, “I think we’ll start with dinner and get that problem of the need for that particular paperwork out of the way first. You’re feisty. I like feisty. Then after having a getting to know each other time, we’ll go see my Dad. By the way, my name is Zagreus.”

“Morton,” Morton replied. His stomach took that moment to complain about missing the lunch he’d been out trying to get. “Okay, food is good. After seeing your Dad, you will take me back?”

“Yep,” was said with a playful pop at the ‘p’ and a grin. “There will be some taking involved.”

Thinking to get a conversation going Morton asked, as he took some pomegranate seeds from the bowl offered to him, “so tell me about yourself. You’ve got a father…,” he poured some of the seeds from his loosely clenched fist into his mouth.

Zagreus’s smile broadened and he leaned forward to kiss Morton murmuring, “Swallow love.”

Things got hot and heavy after that. Morton didn’t remember much of the meal. Who knew balsamic oil, used for dipping pieces of bread into, could be useful for that other activity. Zag didn’t let him wash up after, just sort of wiped him down a bit, but Morton really hoped that his dark pants didn’t show any leakage.

“Dad. I’ll need to fill out some paperwork.”

Caught between wanting to at least stay the night to explore this thing he and Zag had started and afraid that he wouldn’t be going home at all because of fines or whatever happened from unintended teleporting, Morton waited pensively slightly behind him.

Zag’s Dad, on what looked to be a large ornate chair, looked first at Zag and then at Morton and drew in a deep breath. “Did you even get any food into him first before you got into him? There is the scent of basil in the air.”

Blood rushed to Morton’s cheeks. Surreptitiously Morton poked Zag in the back and heard a laughed, “Oh I followed family tradition. He ate a handful of pomegranate seeds first.”

“Dad, I’d like you to meet Morton, my consort. Morton, this is my Dad, Hades, Lord of the Underworld.”

A chair was provided Morton as his brain had a white out moment as it put the pieces together. “Consort. Hades. Pomegranate seeds. That damn manhole cover lead to the Underworld.” Vaguely he heard, “he’ll get over it. Pressie did. We can do the paperwork later.” There was a laugh, “Use a better lube, one of those warming ones. More romantic than oil though oil does have a certain caught up in the feeling, field expediency to it. Your mother should be home soon as Winter is near. She’ll want to meet him.”

He was offered a pillow to sit on when he met the Queen of the Underworld, who kindly patted his hand with a gentle sympathetic smile and said, yes the men of their family had a randy virile streak in their natures. Especially at the beginning.” Morton looked over at Zag and nodded, sharing a smile, as Zag shifted uncomfortably in his chair, that didn’t have a pillow in it like Morton’s. They were both well pleased with each other’s virile nature and man hole.