11 - It's the "I won't say I'm in love" musical number but there's also a frat party somewhere in the middle

Michela smiled lightly at him. "Sure, why not. Some day then", she nodded. By the way Hypnos had talked about his brothers, and by the way they looked (even though she knew better than to judge by how someone got dressed) in the pictures she had been shown, she'd probably get along with them. "Oh- yeah, Lucia's waiting. She's probably about to finish with her weekly pack reunion", she added, glancing again at her phone. Unknowingly to both of them, they felt the exact same way about saying goodbye. "Well- I'll be seeing you next time then", she added. "I'll text you."

Hypnos nodded. "I'll text you too!" Thankfully, he managed to grin as he waved Michela goodbye, to keep up the appearances.

But that situation had lasted for far too long. Hypnos loved Michela, and although he was glad to have her as a friend, he couldn't keep on pretending that there was nothing more. The least he could do was to be honest with her, and hope that if she didn't share his feelings, she would at least agree to still keep on talking to him.
That night, he finished working on his next card for Michela. It was a lovely card with a starry sky, which he was particularly fond of. There were a few decorations on the sides - colorful stars, comets and galaxies - but it seemed completely empty, safe for the 'read me at night ;-)" written in a corner.
He had highlighted a few stars with fluorescent ink for the card to read "You are the star of my life, and I love you."
There were also a much smaller caption that read "please reject me kindly", that he added with a nervous chuckle. At least that bit would ensure Michela wouldn't misinterpret his confession, but it kind of made it heavier too. For a moment, he felt like he should make it a little less serious...
So he drew the nyancat in that phosphorescent ink in one corner.

It took him a few days to come across Lucia again so that he might be able to give her the enveloppe to deliver to her sister, and from that moment on, all he had to do was wait and chat with Michela as if he wasn't dying to know if she had read the letter yet or not.

When Michela had been given Hypnos' latest card, it had been a late Friday evening - Lucia's pack usually went cookie-selling door-to-door on Friday afternoons. She rose her brow at the writing at first ('Read me at night'? Oh no, what had he planned this time?), but she simply dubbed it as one of her friend's jokes, so she didn't think too much about it and just went on doing her own thing.
Until the night had come along.
Until she had opened it under the safety of her plaid, on her couch, the lights all off, and the phosphorescent ink had sent back to her a luminous, cute, and uncharacteristically shy (considering who it was coming from) confession of love.
Along with a honestly heart-wrecking, quiet offering for a way out should she not wish for this, with only the request not to hurt him.
Granted, the Nyancat grinning at her face with a rainbow shooting out of its butt kinda made her feel like wanting to hurt him, but. It was definitely the minor problem.

Michela passed the night half burying her face in her pillow to scream into it and half overthinking about this, even when she already knew perfectly well, deep inside of her, what her answer to this would have been.

As she drank her tea glancing outside her bedroom window early on Saturday morning, looking as the sun rose behind skyscrapers, and as her eyes fell on the pile of cards Hypnos had been sending to her via her sister, she took her decision.

Granted, to do things the right way, she had to twist the truth around a little bit. She would act out a little lie if Hypnos would ask her about the card ("Ah, damn it, Lucia must have forgotten - she's staying the weekend over to her best friend's. I'll get it back as soon as she comes back, but if it really ends up being the Nyancat I will strangle you )-:<"), and in the meanwhile she went out, bought a whole lot of cards and paper and closed herself off in the kitchen for two days, working away with scissors and Lucia's coloring marks.

Her sister seemed to have half an idea of what she was up to, because the few times she came up to her, she only had wanted to point out that one of the two bees she was drawing sat on top of a violet should have been looking grumpy, like she did all the time. Michela complied to that candid suggestion.
But no glitter. She refused to add glitter.

By Sunday evening, her own hand-made card was ready. It was definitely not as artfully made as Hypnos' were - she was no artist, not by a long shot. She was actually kind of terrible -, but she had put all of herself into making it, and it kind of showed, let's be honest. It was a very colorful card, with flowers she had cut off from various magazines and some she had drawn herself to fill in the blanks. Inside, a big violet with two bees sitting side by side, one of them with evident grumpy eyebrows, both holding out a tiny (hand drawn) little arm to reach the other.
Taking from the very first card Hypnos had sent her, she had simply written on top of the picture "Roses are red, violets are NOT blue, you are an idiot but I love you too."
She had needed to stop several times while she wrote that, because she would be taken by the instinct to scream into something again - but she was strong.
She managed.
To make it less heavy, she had written off in a simple black pen, in a corner high up, "but I've seen the Nyancat and now I will have to strangle you when we see each other for our Monday coffee. Sorry, it's the rules."

She drove all the way to Hypnos' place in the night, and left the card in the mailbox. She was too cowardly to give it to him in person. The last thing she did, before trying to get some sleep, was to write "Remember to check your mailbox tomorrow morning, you idiot".

Michela hadn't read the letter.

That was the worst news Hypnos could have ever heard from her. How could it be? Lucia had promised him that she would deliver it as soon as she got home, and she never failed to comply. Hell, it usually took Michela a few minutes after reading the letter to message him about whatever was inside. But the night had passed, and Michela still hadn't mentioned the letter.

Or had she read it, and did it now make things awkward between them? The thought made Hypnos nervously sick. Of course, it didn't prevent him from sleeping - nothing ever did, with his condition - but he slept so bad for the next two days that even his mother expressed concern about it. He'd fall asleep without a warning and wake up ten minutes later to look anxiously at his phone, but - nothing. He had tried to start a conversation with Michela, but she still didn't mention any letter.

His sleeping schedule was so disrupted that he saw Michela's enigmatic message at 4 on Monday morning. Five minutes later, he was rummaging around in the staff's room, looking for the mailbox' key.
Five more minutes and he was sneezing as he opened said mailbox in his pajamas to retrieve the letter. He alerted one of the outside guards and his dog in doing so, apologized awkwardly and got back inside, where he hurried to his room again and opened the letter.

At first, he was speechless when he realized that he had gotten a fully decorated letter. His heart began racing in his chest when he realized that it came from Michela, and he let out a squeal when he finally read that sweet, sweet message... only to burst out laughing when he saw her mention the nyancat incident.

Michela would definitely wake up to two messages : one round of heart emojis, and the second being a picture of her own card with the caption "Will you bee my girlfriend? :-)"
Like hell he was wasting the opportunity to throw in a pun.

Michela hadn't slept much that night in the end. But then again, that wasn't anything new, she never slept much anyway. She woke up grumpier than usual, and actually had to drag herself all the way to the kitchen for a first cup of coffee before she deemed herself functional enough to look at her phone.
The first thing she noticed was the timestamp, and just how soon after her message Hypnos had answered to her. She felt a pang of guilt - he must have really been on his toes all that time. The guilt washed away when she saw all those hearts, which made her stomach squeeze a little bit (was it in a happy way? She guessed so).
She felt less guilty when she saw the stupid pun, and she groaned, letting her head fall on the table with a loud thunk. "Uuuughhhh oh my god why did you have to ask it like that", she typed back. "I knew it. I should have drawn some other animal. I brought this on myself." She felt herself pull off a little smile as she typed her irritated answer, though. "See you at the bar, nerd." A little pause.
"Nerd-boyfriend, I guess."

Hypnos couldn't possibly catch up with such bad sleep before his scheduled meeting with Michela, but he was so happy when he woke up that he felt awake as if he had just slept for 10 hours straight.

Hell, he felt so happy that he messaged both of his brothers to tell them "I. Have. A. Girlfriend!!!!!!!" with tons of celebrating emojis before he finally got dressed for his first rendez-vous with Michela.

He had, of course, replied to her with a few more heart emojis before he let her know he was still intending to go to their rendez-vous.

When he showed up there, he was still giddy. He looked like his usual self, but there was something different in his attitude - namely, the fact that he didn't have to tone down his affection for Michela anymore.
Little did he know that, by being so energetic he would soon collapse from exhaustion.

A weird message would come as an answer from Thanatos, saying "What, really!? Wow, congrats!! I can't wait to meet her - actually you know what, send pictures, we're all too curious!" A second, later message read "Sorry, Zag got a hold of my phone. I'm happy for you, though - and I hope we get to meet her soon."

Michela was soon enough walking to her appointment - date? Was it a date now? It definitely was, right? -, heart working overtime and stomach twisted up. It was such a weird feeling to have, since they had both already confessed, but she just couldn't shake the giddiness away. She spotted him from far away and automatically brought a hand to her face, to try and make her hair make sense. At least a little bit. She got closer and cleared his throat. "Uhm. Hi", she greeted him awkwardly.

Let's be honest, Hypnos knew something was fishy about Than's reply until it was confirmed that Zagreus had snatched his phone. He laughed, and merrily replied to his brother. "Lol :-) It might take a bit though, we just went from friends to dating, I want her to be comfortable enough first. But thanks! At least you were more wordy than Charon lol"
Charon had written him a row of thumbs up. His brother was quite the minimalist sometimes.

He grinned at Michela the moment he spotted her. "Hi Michi! How are you today?" He figured it might be best not to address the elephant in the room right away, to make her a little more comfortable first.

Michela scoffed, holding back a little smile. "Well. Tired, I guess, but that's hardly anything new", she admitted, looking up at him with a raised brow. "You, on the other hand. You look quite chipper this morning. Thought you'd be consuming yourself with nervousness all over the weekend, waiting for my answer, and instead here you are, looking as if you've just been to a spa."
It was her own way to mention the 'elephant in the room', yeah.

Hypnos chuckled. "Oh, that's only because I'm in a good mood. I'd completely exhausted, trust me." He massaged his neck, and smiled at her. "I have, in fact, been consuming myself with nervousness for the whole week-end. I feared that confessing might completely blow up our friendship. Speaking of which- I don't expect of you to completely change your attitude with me now. We can take it slow!"

Michela threw him an apologetic glance. "Sorry for keeping you on the coals. I needed to pull out something that wouldn't have meant just. You know. Saying it out loud while standing awkwardly in front of each other." She shook her head, and shrugged. "Well... that's good. You know me by now, so I'm sure you're not exactly expecting some lovey-dovey couple nonsense from me like, stupid pet names or stuff like that anyway. I'm guessing you know what you're getting yourself into." She hesitated. "I... would like to hold hands, though.

"Don't worry, I loved your card. It was definitely worth the wait." Hypnos' grin widened, and he reached for Michela's hand. "I'm very fine with hand holding. I was thinking of going to the café right away and then taking a short stroll outside since the weather's so good. What do you think?" He gently squeezed her hand, already at ease with the newfound contact.

Michela scoffed, shrugging dismissively. "I'm not really an artist, it's not that great of a card. But if you say so." She felt her face grow a bit warm when Hypnos just immediately reached for her hand to hold it, without hesitation.
"Sure. Sounds good to me", she answered, tentatively squeezing his hand back.

"I love it still," Hypnos countered with a chuckle.

Their date was like any other of their friendly meetings. Hypnos made a bunch of jokes, talked with Michela about things they both liked. It wasn't so difficult, to make their relationship slowly evolve. He felt bold enough to reach for her hand at least once or twice, but looked for nothing more than a gentle hold.

When they got out of the café, he suggested they took a small stroll in a park that he liked, and was still chatting with Michela until he quieted down significantly. "Uh. Michi. Tell me when you see a bench, I need to sit down soon."

Michela had thought that probably this first 'actual' date would have been awkward, to say the least. After all it was all new and uncharted territory, and honestly her relationships had been kind of sparce and in-between, especially since she had become Lucia's only caretaker - so it was quite safe to assume she knew nothing about what a couple talked about usually. Was there even something in particular they should talk about?
Instead she was positively surprised by how casual all still was - granted, there was the occasional hand holding, but. She liked that. It was nice. Very nice.

She was surprised when Hypnos asked her to find a bench all of a sudden while they were walking in the park, but she didn't question it - she quickly found a non-occupied one and made sure Hypnos would sit on it. "What's wrong?", she asked, noting his expression. "Are you feeling sick?"

Hypnos could tell by now when he was having one of his sudden "Imma fall asleep now" moments. He should have expected it, actually - he had slept so bad on that week-end that it was only a matter of time until he collapsed from exhaustion while he was out with Michela.

"Nothing's wrong, I just need to take a nap," he explained sleepily to her when she sat him down on the bench by her side. He let out a soft smile. "I'll be back in 10 minutes or a quarter, alright? Shouldn't take me long..." Before she got a chance to protest, his eyes closed and he leaned against her, falling rapidly into deep sleep.

Michela had indeed no time to protest. She had barely opened her mouth to ask what the hell did he mean with I just need to take a nap and Hypnos had fallen asleep on her shoulder. Just like that. no further warning, no other explanation.
Of course, being somewhat a doctor herself, the first thing she did was to quickly check his vitals, to see if there was something wrong. No, the pulse was there, breathing was regular - then what the hell!? How can a person just fall peacefully asleep on a public bench like that!?
She was worried, alright. She was worried sick. What was she supposed to do? He had said he'd wake back up in ten or fifteen minutes, but how could he be sure about that? How could she?
The answer was that she couldn't. And that she needed to know if this was a normal occurrence (she was positive it couldn't be) or if she needed to call an ambulance. She maneuvered herself to reach for the pocket of his hoodie, where she had seen him put his cellphone before, and quickly pressed the button sequence that she knew would call the first emergency number enlisted on the phone.

Nyx was a very busy woman. She had always been very work-driven, and ever since her three sons had grown independent, she had begun to spend more time at her workplace. She was there almost every day of the week, and was basically co-managing Hades' company with him by now.

Since she was so busy, her sons rarely called her during office hours, or if they did so, they used the internal lines.
Now, the fact that Hypnos called her on her personal cellphone at such a time was sure odd, but not too alarming yet.
"Hello, child," she said, picking the call up. "Is something the matter?"

Michela only had a split second to wonder who she had called (the woman that had picked up the call sounded older than her for sure, and she had addressed the caller as 'child' - maybe Hypnos' mom?), and a split second to hesitate, before she answered. "Uh, uhm. Hello madam- I'm sorry for the sudden call but this was the first emergency contact of this phone and I need some help?" Why did she sound like she was asking a question!? God damnit Michela- "I was out with Hypnos, and he suddenly told me he needed to sit, so we sat on a bench- and then he just fell asleep, and- and now I don't know what to do! I mean, I've checked his pulse and he seems to be okay, except for the fact that he just reached the night-level sleep super fast, but- should I call an ambulance, or-?"

Nyx was surprised at first, then concerned when she understood that whoever was calling her was using Hypnos' phone because something might have happened to him. She relaxed, however, when she understood what it was about. "Oh- Do not worry. Please, breathe. There is nothing wrong with Hypnos, and you needn't call for an ambulance. He's bound to fall asleep at random time, in unusual places. If anything I'm relieved he wasn't alone today. Are you one of his friends?"

Michela ran her hand through her hair, letting out a little sigh. Well, at least this wasn't an unusual occurrence, then, or something she needed to worry about. Too much, at least. "Oh. I see. Some sort of narcolepsy then, I guess?", she answered finally, feeling suddenly a little embarrassed about overreacting like that. And feeling even more embarrassed with her answer, because there was no way that a girlfriend wouldn't know about her boyfriend's conditions, right? "I'm... well I am his friend, but I guess I'm closer to be his girlfriend", she let out.

Nyx was silent, at first, but it was because Michela couldn't see the surprised smile that bloomed on her lips. "Oh. Well, then- I am pleased to know he's got someone nice to look after him. I am Hypnos' mother, but you've probably guessed as such. You may call me Nyx." She took a deep breath. "As for my son- you may pull on his ear for me when he wakes up. He does have a kind of narcolepsy, and always fails to mention it to his friends or acquaintances, which leads to stressful situations such as the one he put you through right now."

Yeah, by now Michela had guessed that this was Hypnos' mother - which both made her feel better because she hadn't bothered someone of the emergency services for nothing, and also more awkward because that was definitely not the way to introduce yourself to your new boyfriend's family. Michela chuckled nervously, but she had managed to calm down by now. "I will pull both of his ears then, one for you and one for me", she replied. "He really made me get frightened. But thank you - sorry I've bothered you during what I guess would be working hours, miss Nyx."

Nyx smiled to herself. "Thank you. I have but one last question for you before I resume to my work- may I ask for your name?" Well, she sure intended to question Hypnos a little bit on that night about his friend-into-girlfriend. She hoped it was this Michela she had heard so much about, but didn't ask for a confirmation out loud, from fear she might offend her correspondant in case she wasn't, in fact, said girl.

"Oh- right, I haven't even introduced myself", Michela muttered, inwardly smacking her head for overlooking that fundamental step. "My name is Michela. Thank you again for your time, and- is Hypnos good at guessing how long he'll be asleep, usually?", she asked as her final question, still unmoving since the moment Hypnos had laid his head on her shoulder.