the blooming years

Summary

Thanatos is a typical biochem undergrad; middle-class, pre-med, and maybe not all that interested in med school. Zagreus is a typical commerce undergrad; rich, drifting, and not at all interested in taking over his father’s business. They’re easy friends and unlikely boyfriends, but with graduation only two years away, they’ll both soon have to decide what their futures are going to be.

Notes

This started as a joke with G about how Hades is the high expectations Asian dad meme and how Zag is that fuerdai student who drives a McLaren — and now I have a fic. Thanks to G for enabling, to V for holding my hand through crying about Chinese name numerology, and to F for moral support. Title is, of course, from the Wong Kar-Wai film 《花樣年華》.

I am very aware that racebending can get dicey. Of Hades characters in this fic, only Zagreus and his family, Thanatos and his family, the Furies, and Aphrodite will be of Chinese descent. (Canon Nyx reads Chinese to me anyway.)

Cantonese dialogue is in typewriter font.