To Hell and Back AU

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/48167710.

Rating: Mature
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Dangan Ronpa Series
Relationship: Ishimaru Kiyotaka & Ishimaru Takaaki, Ishimaru Kiyotaka/Oowada
Mondo, Hagakure Yasuhiro/Owada Daiya, Hagakure Hiroko/Ishimaru
Takaaki
Character: Ishimaru Kiyotaka, Ishimaru Takaaki, Oowada Mondo, Owada Daiya,
Hagakure Yasuhiro, Yukimaru Takemichi
Additional Tags: Omega Verse, Alpha/Omega, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Inspired
by Hades and Persephone (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Alternate
Universe - Gods & Goddesses
Language: English
Series: Part 3 of Tumblr Ask Series
Stats: Published: 2023-06-26 Completed: 2023-08-22 Words: 9,436 Chapters:
9/9

To Hell and Back AU

by LifeCherry

Summary

Mondo, God of the Dead, has an embarrassingly huge crush on Taka, God(dess) of Verdue
and Morality, but has like no way to express it. He asks Hiro, God of Prophecy for help and
for once, his advice isn't completely shit! Shame that Taka fell into the Underworld and his
dad doesn't know where he is and is freaking out!

Notes

This one was a fun one to write! It was over the course of like a year I think.

Written through private asks sent to CrazyNekoChan

See the end of the work for more notes

 Chapter 1

To Hell and Back AU (Omegaverse Fantasy AU) (I just, I had to): Mondo, the young god of the
dead, has fallen in love with the goddess of verdure and morals, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, like an
absolute numpty. 3 problems with this are Mondo's chronic problems with asking people out
turning into shouting at them from nervousness; Mondo being god of the dead being unable to
really leave the Underworld for longer than a week at best, making going up to him not an option;
and Kiyotaka being the son of Takaaki, god of the harvest, who is a lawful good hardass that's very
protective over his son and hates Mondo's guts.

In mourning of his miserable love life, Mondo bitches to Yasuhiro, god of prophecy, Taka's
stepbrother, and his brother Daiya's [no idea what to make him, any ideas?] boyfriend about what
he should do. Hiro, always a fountain of bad ideas and wanting to help them genuinely, suggests
that he bring Taka down to the Underworld if he can't go up, most likely by challenging him. Taka
can't resist a good challenge and Mondo's general delinquent nature despite being the leader of one
of the greatest aspect of life would drive him fucking crazy.

Since Mondo's not exactly known for critical thinking skills anyhow, he follows his advice. He
assembles the Diamonds (his demon army) and starts to go absolutely fucking ham on the surface
in a classic Wild Hunt, deliberately where Hiro said that Taka would be at the time. Taka, not
knowing what's going on and being very irate about the demon army rampaging on the surface,
decides to go make them stop ASAP. Mondo tells him that to get them to stop, Taka has to beat
him in a fight, which Taka takes without hesitation. At first, Mondo was shocked that Hiro's advice
was actually working. Then Taka said that he thinks that Mondo's a coward who needs his big gang
to fight and now it's on.

They fight and it's awesome but right as Taka's about to land the finishing blow by elbow dropping
Mondo in the gut, the ground opens up under both of them as Mondo's time on the surface runs out.
Taka can't correct his course in time and they fall all the way down, the Diamonds following after,
variously excited for the rest of the fight and bummed that the fun on the surface is over.

Problem is, Taka hadn't told anyone where he was going before confronting the rampant demon
army and it's much harder to get out of the Underworld than in, especially if you're not a
psychopomp or otherwise operating on both the surface and in the Underworld

Well at least now Mondo has the tiny excuse that he didn’t personally drag Taka to the underworld
and Taka just kinda fell into it with him. But it was his goal, so Takaaki can decide later on if he
will accept that or not. Most likely not, cause he still kidnapped his son even if it was indirectly,
and now Taka is stuck in the underworld

Regarding Daiya, if you want to make him a straight up god, then maybe give him the role of
Thanatos, thus the god of death? Would fit to the theme at least. And if your rather not have him an
actual god but some immortal deity maybe give him the role of Charon, who transports the dead
through the underworld?
 Vanishing Act/Fury
Chapter Notes

Yeah, Taka and Mondo aren't exactly friendly right now, gotta say x")

Though poor Takaaki is right now living through a parent's worst nightmare

To Hell and Back AU: Taka's very disoriented when he wakes up, but when he sees that it's not
anywhere he recognizes, he's immediately on high alert. He clambers up and sees that he's in some
sort of guest room but with very morbid decor. Since it's not exactly confirmation of where he is,
he headed out to examine just where he is, only for him to nearly run into someone. He apologizes,
only to find out that the person who he ran into is not, in fact, a living being but an undead shade.
The shade offers to take Taka to see the master of the house, since he's been worried about him.
Taka follows the shade through the hallways of the absurdly huge palace, to then confront Mondo.
Then they start to just yell at each other, loud enough to shake the walls and ceiling of the
Underworld Palace

Meanwhile, in the surface, Takaaki has come back home from his latest trip put to bless the mortals
with a good harvest and finds their home oddly empty. He knew that Hiroko (goddess of healing)
likely wouldn't be back, but Taka definitely should be home. It's far too late for Taka to still be out.
But no matter where Takaaki looked around their home, Taka was nowhere to be found. And
Takaaki is beginning to panic

Well the confrontation between Mondo and Taka did go better than it could’ve gone. They are only
shouting at each other and not duelling again. Well it’s not like anyone can blame Taka for getting
a bit on the agitate side here, but Mondo really has to work on his communication skills

But up on the surface things are quickly turning bad since Takaaki has noticed that his son is
missing

To Hell and Back AU: Takaaki's freaking out and no one can really blame him, his son is the
quintessential good son and very naive about many, many things in this world especially as they
relate to people. He wouldn't run away but he could definitely be abducted, especially with him
being such a dutiful son and would be a wonderful spouse and all these demigods and monsters
starting to get so uppity! He enlists the help of the other gods that know Taka to search for him on
the surface, but as places keep coming up empty, his hope begins to wither. And with that comes
the withering of the world

Meanwhile, the actual direct arguing has ended due to Daiya (god of death) coming down again
after a long time of being on the surface (man, plagues suck; least it's harvest season so the humans
are fine at least for long enough to get a nap and some food), and Taka takes the opportunity of
being escorted back to his guest room before Daiya catches him to try to escape the underworld.
The problem is that he's got no weapons and generally it's way easier to enter the Underworld than
leave. He barely makes it to the edge of the deepest part before ending up back in the room, but
he's determined. He will get out, no matter what!

Yeah Daiya, you better get up there again since even if the plague is over, the extreme dying rates
will for sure not go down. Cause the harvest might not go as well this year because of some god
who might have asked the wrong god for tips and might now have angered another powerful god.
But that is not something he would know, unlike a certain boyfriend of his

Taka in the meantime is really making a valiant effort of trying to get out and back to the surface.
However the underworld is kinda not designed to be left, it’s usually a one way kind of deal, so it
will be very hard to do even for him. But it’s not like Taka is ever one to give up
 No Escape?
Chapter Notes

Ok this is the part where it's really obvious that I have played Hades, tbh.

Yeah I know they move real fast here but imagine that Taka needed at least a couple
dozen runs to make it to the final fight

Was supposed to be posted yesterday but then the DDOS attack happened (fucking
Russian trolls)

See the end of the chapter for more notes

To Hell and Back AU: Taka's progress has been slow, but he is having some progress. He managed
to find a sword (that was given to him by a ghost he helped out), and he keeps getting further and
further up before being sent back! He can very much do without Mondo's comments about Taka's
efforts being futile because he will never give up, no matter what that asshole says! Mondo, for his
part, is really not doing so hot on this whole "romance" thing, but that's because he's running the
kingdom of the dead and there's always something new he needs to do, and the whole "repeated
escapes from the kidnapping" thing really isn't conducive to spending time together. This is, of
course, ignoring the whole "can't talk to his crushes without yelling" problem poor Mondo has.
And he has to do way more work now (Takaaki's on the surface in meltdown mode and since the
mortals aren't very prepared for a dead harvest, they're beginning to starve)

At least Taka is getting somewhere with his attempts of getting out of the underworld. Even if
everyone knows that it’s still kinda futile, but hey you never know until you tried and gave it your
everything! Taka is after all one hell of a hard worker and doesn’t know the concept of giving up!

Unlike Mondo who is not getting anywhere with actually wooing the love of his life, or making
him like him. But then again, partly, but really only partly, he can’t be blamed with all the extra
work coming into the underworld with all the extra humans dying from starvation. Still Mondo my
dear, talk to Taka geez

To Hell and Back AU: Finally, after a long time of setbacks, Taka is at the gates of the
Underworld. He bribed Cerberus (called Chuck by his master and given that Chuck is a very fluffy
and cute 15 foot 3-headed dog, Chuck definitely fits better) with some meat that took ages to track
down (he knows it's the Underworld but seriously, how can meat be so hard to find?) and prepared
himself before heading outside. To find Mondo already waiting for him because someone trying to
break out of the Underworld and getting past Chuck is not at all allowed. To get around this, Taka
makes Mondo an challenge: he wants a rematch, no tricks, no holding back, just a duel for Taka to
earn his freedom. Mondo, always up for a good fight, agrees.
 They have their duel, Taka's sword matching Mondo's pickax measure for measure, strike for
strike as they almost danced their way across the battlefield, Taka's precise strikes equaling
Mondo's heavy blows. They even start to banter during the fight too, Mondo leaning more into the
trash talk than Taka. As they swing and dodge, they get to genuinely talking to each other, the most
conversation they've had ever. Then Mondo says "well this wouldn't have happened if I wasn't
dumb enough to like you".

Taka, shocked, jumps back from Mondo as he swings again, telling him to repeat what he just said.
Mondo, frustrated and not really paying much attention, says that he sucks at asking dams out, and
it's already hard to get a date as the god of the dead when everyone's fucking scared of you. Taka,
unimpressed, questions if kidnapping him to be his bride was the idea. Mondo yells out that's not
the idea at all, he just wanted to get Taka to talk to him without being a stupid idiot, but then the
Underworld dragged him back during their first fight and then this crap happened and he didn't
even get to talk to Taka outside of yelling at each other.

Mondo and Taka both stop fighting, panting heavily and leaning on their weapons for support.
Then Taka comes over to Mondo and kisses him on the cheek. Mondo stares at him with wide eyes
before kissing him, this time on the mouth. Leading to a makeout session where Taka grips onto
Mondo's shirt and Mondo's hands wrap around Taka's waist before they slide back down into the
Underworld palace

Thank the gods, they finally talked to each other! And also at the same time got to resolve their
sexual tension at the same time, which both seriously needed. But seriously, it was time that
Mondo finally got his mouth open. Like yeah he was seriously busy and Taka was in no mood to
talk to him, but there was no way that Taka could’ve ever understood what has been going on with
Mondo being in love with him and too stupid to talk, and Taka being dragged into the underworld
along sinde Mondo was more of an accident than anything planned. Though will still not make
Takaaki happy in any way

Chapter End Notes

Hope this was worth the wait! Let me know what you all think!
 New Love/Grief and Rage
Chapter Notes

Bruh, the contrast in this one really does hit different now that I have space from
writing it

See the end of the chapter for more notes

To Hell and Back AU: There's a camellia tree right by one of the main entrances to the
Underworld, and its dryad is Chihiro, a very crafty and freaking adorable young man who likes to
hang around the gods of craftsmanship (Kazuichi and Miu) and the gods of the Underworld.
Mondo's his best friend and is incredibly protective over Chihiro because cute young nymphs tend
to get something bad happening to them a lot and that's when they can naturally defend
themselves. So naturally, Chihiro knows all the time when people of interest are coming and going
and can alert the Underworld inhabitants to what's going on up above since a lot of the time, they
only get much news when someone comes back down. So naturally, as an above-ground dweller
and a dryad, Chihiro knows all about what's going on but since he's never met Taka or Takaaki
before, he doesn't know any of the specfics or even that the new boyfriend that Mondo's mooning
over is the harvest god's missing son. Frankly he doesn't even know why or how they ended up
together but they at least seem happy together.

Meanwhile, Takaaki has tracked his last witness down, Leon the sun god, who saw everything that
went down. Since Leon's kind of a wuss and Takaaki looks straight up wendigo/harvest god that
wants blood sacrifice from all the stress, he starts spilling everything, from Mondo riding out with
his crew to Mondo falling back down to the Underworld in the middle of their fight, taking Taka
with him. As you can guess, this did not appease Takaaki at all but just made him even more
furious. Leon had the good sense to run the hell away but not before Takaaki made the winter so
much worse

Everyone in the underworld must be so thankful for Chihiro, cause with their jobs they can not
leave for very long and thus hardly really learn much about the surface and what is going on.
Unlike Chihiro who lives there and doesn’t really have much of a job due to only being a minor
deity

However now Mondo better hides, cause Takaaki is going to rip him a new one. Cause he now
knows where his son is and who has him. And he is very much not happy. Hiro also better hides,
cause Takaaki will eventually also find out who is also involved in this

To Hell and Back AU: Taka and Mondo are very gross and lovey-dovey together, though they do
still like to yell at each other, quite a lot. Taka's highly organized and very determined so he's
already whipping the Underworld into shape. Does everyone call Mondo a simp? Yes, they do and
he is, but considering that they've all seen Taka hold his own against Mondo in a fight, twice, with
 Mondo having actual home field advantage the second time, he has the right to be a simp. Besides,
Taka's so good-natured that it's hard to hate on him. At least without clearly making him feel bad
and getting Mondo on your ass about it for daring to make Taka upset. And with how Taka ends up
acting like a housewife and mother to everyone he knows, everyone else will get on the hater's
case too.

Taka's taken up being the functional queen of the Underworld very well, making the demon army
much more organized and streamlining the process for deceased souls. Which is very good
because there are a whole lot more dead souls coming down, to the point of Daiya and Takemichi
(the ferryman of souls) looking about ready to drop dead themselves from overwork and Mondo
barely looking better. Even the nymphs are coming underground for some shelter and pretty much
only Chihiro would only come down willingly.

Up on the surface, Takaaki is rampaging around like crazy to find (or make) an entrance to the
Underworld and everyone else is suffering as the winter weather gets much worse. The realm of
the gods is even starting to get frozen and if that's not bad enough, Junko's having fun with all the
starving, sick, dying mortals giving into despair and shit is not going well for the others to make
him stop. Faced with the prospect of possibly having all their worshippers freeze and die, king of
the gods Jin sends Yuta, messenger of the gods, down to the Underworld to fix whatever the hell
the Underworld gods did and make Takaaki stop.

Yuta, phenomenally exhausted from his psychopomp duties getting even harder with this ages long
winter, speeds right on down, without even saying much of a hi to anyone. He heads inside the
Underworld palace to find Taka and Mondo jointly working through the absolute mountain of
paperwork that Mondo's suffering through. And while Yuta was just going to relay the message,
he's so shocked and angry that all he can yell out is "WHAT?!?"

Well Taka ending up in the underworld is for sure the best thing that happened to the general
underworld with everything becoming way more orderly and nice. With the exception of the ones
who now have more work due to the super harsh and long winter killing off the humans. Cause if
even the nymphs have to hide away in the underworld to protect themselves from the never-ending
winter things are bad

At least the gods, especially Jin, are doing their best to stop what is going on. And this means
finding Taka and getting him back since otherwise Takaaki will not listen to a single thing. Fully
understandable that Yuta is angry, cause the surface is hell and these two are more occupied with
being a work couple doing paperwork. That they kinda indirectly caused, mind you

Chapter End Notes

Wish I wrote more Ishimondo, this was fun
 Resurfacing
Chapter Notes

Takaaki finally gets to stop freaking out and honestly, good for him, he needs it

See the end of the chapter for more notes

To Hell and Back AU: Yuta sincerely doesn't give a fuck that everyone in this room could kick his
ass, he's mad as hell and going to express it. Because what the hell, Takaaki's about to cause an
eternal winter up there because he's looking for Taka and here he is, being a lovey-dovey couple
with the king of the Underworld!! How the hell did no one know where he was, he fucking talks to
Takemichi all the time!! He sees Daiya multiple times a day by now with how much the mortals
are dying, the fuck, man!

The couple themselves, who genuinely had no idea what was going on other than a lot more people
dying than normal for a plague year, freak out. Taka immediately runs up to Yuta (way too close in
personal space) to demand to know what he knows while Mondo goes to ask Takemichi if this is
true and then get absolutely reamed out for this whole mess.

Taka prepares to make the journey back up to the surface himself, this time with Mondo's blessing
so that he can get back up as soon as possible. But Mondo is weirdly scared. Takaaki will definitely
kill him or worse if he figures out that he was the one who kept Taka, sure, but then he thinks of
possibly never seeing Taka again and he gets scared. He genuinely likes Taka, but no way in hell
would Takaaki let him see Taka again if he gets his way.

So right as Taka's about to leave, Mondo holds him back really quick. He makes Taka make him a
man's promise that he would come back to him. Even if Taka knows that he needs to leave right
now, he makes the promise before running off. Little does both of them know that making vows to
the king of the Underworld make them very important to keep, lest you get a Fury sicced after you.
And y'know how you're not supposed to eat Underworld food? Well, Taka did not and had all the
meals he could find and were provided for him since he wasn't raised to waste food

Yuta has every right to be angry, cause Taka and Mondo really fucked up here and didn’t even
notice, or how it could’ve seemed to Yuta didn’t care

But at least Taka can now go and make things right again, even if it means going back to the
surface with the danger of not being able to go back. Not that his dad could stop him that easily,
however Taka is raised to obey authority which for sure includes his dad with whom he has a great
relationship with. And frankly Taka has to admit that he did kinda fuck up by not contacting his
 dad the whole time

To Hell and Back AU: Taka rushes up to the surface, feeling the fresh air for the first time in who
knows how long, along with an absolutely fucking biting cold that seems to cut right through him.
The world above is an absolute whiteout of a blizzard, but he has to keep moving, he has to find his
father.

It gets harder and harder to move but still Taka endures. He's very thankful for his magic flowers to
track down his father, since the blizzard gets worse and worse when he gets closer. Right outside
the liminal space that guards the entrances to the Underworld, Takaaki paces, with the occasional
strike against the magic that prevents unwanted guests to let him in. He can hardly see, can hardly
think over his rage and desperate desire for his son to be ok. He's winding up with another strike
when Taka comes back out.

Takaaki freezes, just staring in disbelief and a hopeful stunned silence. Then he asks in a quiet
voice "Taka?" Before dropping the magic and rushing right over to hug his baby boy, who's here
and real and safe in his arms again. As he gratefully weeps and hugs Taka close to his chest, the
blizzard stops and gradually, the snow and ice finally starts to melt

Takaaki really went very far in his rage and worry. Can’t blame him, but he still almost caused an
eternal winter and needs to sort that out now. Which Taka will probably make sure of, after he
himself apologised for being away so long and explaining what had even happened of course

To Hell and Back AU: Takaaki's rage subsides and the world comes back into bloom as Takaaki
goes out to pay penance for all the chaos and destruction his freakout over Taka's abduction and
ordeal in the Underworld caused. Down below, Mondo's very antsy and really unhappy. He got
absolutely reamed out by Daiya and Takemichi when they found out (for good reason, his stupidity
made so much more work for everyone; Michi didn't even know there were that many ways for a
mortal to die of the cold and the plague year just got way worse with the winter), and since Taka's
gone, he's taking it out on everyone who he can find. Taka's trying to find an opportunity to tell his
dad about the promise he made to Mondo, but he doubts that it will be received well. Also, he's
starting to feel weaker and he doesn't know why (the Underworld food he ate is starting to kick in)

Finally Takaaki calmed down again now that Taka is back. A moment of relieve for all the mortals
on the planet and everyone else who was affected by the never ending blizzard

However now comes the problem of Taka explaining things to his dad without his dad flipping out
more, and him also telling him that he wants to go back. And also kinda needs to, since he's bound
to the underworld now to a degree. Which will not be pretty

Chapter End Notes

I should write more Takaaki too, he seems fun
 Lasting Effects (and a random tangent)
Chapter Notes

Yeah there's a random tangent at the start, I just thought that Taka being an absolute
terrifying death god when he's Taka is funny

See the end of the chapter for more notes

To Hell and Back AU: Random thought I had in the shower: so according to the Overly Sarcastic
Productions video about Hades and Persephone, Persephone had the epithet 'dread Persephone' and
would be the one that ancient Greeks would invoke to curse their enemies, even giving her separate
names to refer to her, in the hopes of not drawing her (very unwanted) attention. Then I got the idea
of Taka somehow becoming absolutely fucking terrifying to the mortals and being the much more
feared one compared to Mondo to them, to the confusion of everyone who knows them, at least
until they see Taka really go off on someone or worse, horrifically torment them with absolutely no
change in expression

Well there is a saying (though not sure which language it was originally) that basically means:
Make a calm person angry and you will learn true fear (Or something along the lines)

Which very much fits with Taka, cause with how much he keeps everything in, the moment he
actually gets angry he will explode and by fuck must that be scary when he's a god, and now an
even more powerful god after his marriage with Mondo

To Hell and Back AU: Takaaki's noticed that Taka's getting sicker and makes him rest, before
getting Hiroko (who's still busy with that plague but she needs to check, it's Taka after all). The
initial examination doesn't turn up much, but then Taka tried to leave the house to help with the
gardening (kinda behind Takaaki's back while he's telling Hiroko about what he knows). The
second his foot was out the door, the ground opened up under him to swallow him up before
Takaaki managed to drag him back. Getting an idea, Hiroko decided to ask Taka if he had eaten
anything while he was stuck in the Underworld. When Taka answers in the affirmative, there was a
moment of clarity before shit went down.

Takaaki is fucking furious about this while Taka's arguing like a seasoned debater that no, he
shouldn't go down to murder Mondo when Taka ate the food and made the deal of his own
volition. Hiroko's basically gotta chain smoke outside so that she can start coping, just in time for
Hiro to come over and catch the argument reaching its peak. Since Hiroko is his mother, she makes
him give a prophecy for the prospective fix for this. Hiro's mostly just hoping that they don't figure
out that he was involved but he gives the prophecy anyway. Which said that Taka would have to
spend part of the year in the Underworld. As you can guess, Takaaki was incredibly unhappy

—
At least the news are out now, and that before Taka can actually start getting to feel even worse
and have god knows what happen to him. But oh boy, now Takaaki is really going to have Mondo's
hide. Because Mondo should've known what would happen if Taka ate the food of the underworld
and thus at the very least mentioned it. At least in Takaaki's mind, since Taka ate that stuff while
he and Mondo were still on no-speaking terms

To Hell and Back AU: The next few moments were pretty crazy, really. Takaaki had passed from
explosive anger into the kind of tranquil fury where you can beat someone within an inch of their
life and still never change expression. And that's what Takaaki is definitely planning to do to
Mondo now, despite the protests from Taka, Hiroko, and Hiro. While Mondo was sulking angrily
(which he will deny if asked), he was definitely not expecting Hiro to suddenly appear to give him
some good news and bad news. Good news, Taka's coming back! Bad news, so's his dad and he's
absolutely furious with Mondo right now.

Hiro just barely gets that out before Takaaki bursts in, with the efforts of 5 different gods, including
Taka and both goddesses of war Mukuro and Sakura, holding him back and not really working.
Takaaki quite clearly blames Mondo for his son being partially trapped in the Underworld (which
is definitely news to Mondo) and if it wasn't for intervention from Jin, he definitely would've killed
Mondo, the difficulty in killing a god be damned.

Fortunately for everyone, Jin makes everyone explain the situation and makes a decision. Taka's
going to have to spend half of the year in the Underworld since the Underworld food already has
taken its toll on Taka's general integrity, but he will be permitted to return to the surface for the
other half of the year, since Taka can't be stuck here forever. Takaaki is still unhappy that Taka has
to spend half of the year in the Underworld with that fucker Mondo, but it's for Taka's health. It's
not gonna get better when Taka tells him that he wants to be officially married to Mondo later

Thank god (no pun intended) for Jin. Because without him being there and having brought along
backup, then Mondo would be a dead man. One hell of a confused dead man since he has yet to be
fully filled in with the fact that Taka is partly bound to the underworld now. Which is kinda good
news for Mondo, if only it didn't come with being the most hated being for Takaaki now. And
when Taka comes forth that he wants to marry Mondo, which is again something that will make
Mondo even more happy, Takaaki will hate him even more than before. Which everyone will be
shocked to learn that it was possible

To Hell and Back AU: After explaining everything to poor Mondo, who still has no clue what was
going on, and getting into an argument because what the fuck was Taka thinking?! (He was
hungry, food was offered to him, and he didn't know that you weren't meant to eat Underworld
food.) They try to settle in for Taka's half-year stay in the Underworld while Takaaki heads back
up to the surface to mourn for a while. They share a last hug as father and son before Taka has to
head back to the Underworld, with the reassurance that he'll come back.

Now that Taka's back in the Underworld, Mondo's mood has improved greatly, which is great
because dude's already scary enough normally but he's been so much worse when Taka was on the
 surface. Taka's definitely adapting to being the functional madam of the Underworld very well,
even establishing a garden for the enjoyment of the denizens and his own personal satisfaction.
Experimenting with what kinds of plants will and won't be able to grow in the Underworld is a
great pet project for himself. And he's growing much closer to Mondo as well

Mondo should learn that not everything is common knowledge, even if they are for him and his
peers down in the underworld. Because of course Taka would eat something that is offered to him
from someone genuinely trying to help when he's hungry

But hey, Mondo can be happy now since Taka will stay in the underworld with him. And Taka gets
to enjoy his hobbies down there and bring some organisation into that place. Even if Takaaki is
very much not happy about any of this

Chapter End Notes

Oh yeah, I really should write more Takaaki, this is fun.

At least the happy couple is back together, even if the father really isn't happy
 Wedding Bells
Chapter Notes

This one is definitely a favorite of mine, I like how Taka and Mondo have this
whirlwind romance feel, sue me

See the end of the chapter for more notes

To Hell and Back AU: I just have the feeling that Taka and Mondo would want to be getting
officially married by the time Taka has to go back and see his dad. And Takaaki is not going to be
very happy about it. At all. Because even if that makes the possibility of Taka living with & having
sex with Mondo (gods, he doesn't want to think of it) more acceptable in his eyes, that's still his son
marrying (in Takaaki's extremely biased opinion) his abductor

Takaaki will probably at that point really break into the underworld to beat Mondo up for that,
because no way in hell can he allow Taka getting married to him. However Taka will have the last
word here

To Hell and Back AU: Sadly, Taka has to head back up to the surface soon but Mondo wants to
make things official. So, using some free time and some crafting techniques he picked up from
hanging around Chihiro, he carves matching swords out of a rotten branch from a sacred cedar tree
(symbolizing power and longevity) and bamboo (symbolizing eternal youth and strength), specially
enchanted to strike as hard or as soft, sharp or dull as the user wishes. Mondo has a great sword
(since he's more of a giant 2-handed weapon type) while Taka has a shorter sword (more for speed
and agility).

The carving took forever to get just right, but it was finally done! Just in time, because Taka wants
to show him something that he's been working on too. Mondo follows him there, keeping his eyes
covered because Taka seems to know immediately when he isn't covering his eyes. Then Taka tells
him to uncover his eyes and holy moly, this garden is fucking massive! It's closer to a goth Garden
of Eden (there's only so much that can grow down here in the Underworld), so much more
different than the half burnt messy field that was originally outside the palace. It's only been a few
months, that's amazing! Taka genuinely blushes and Mondo realizes that oh shit, he said that out
loud.

Taka decides to show Mondo around the garden and explain just what he's been doing, Mondo just
smiling more in love like a goddamned sap. They make it to the center and Mondo finally realizes
that ah shit, he needs to do this now. Mondo manifests the swords and while Taka's finishing up his
explanation, Mondo's getting incredibly nervous. Which turns into Mondo yelling out "Take this
and marry me, damn it!!"
 Taka genuinely had no idea what Mondo was doing, so Mondo yells again for Taka to just say yes
or no. Taka at least takes the bundle from him to see the magical wooden sword meant for him,
blade polished to a near metallic shine and very well crafted. It's... amazing, genuinely. Mondo
pulls out another one, like the one he gave to Taka but larger, and says that he made them, to Taka's
embarrassing compliments at the craftsmanship for a death god. Then Taka suggests testing them
out in a battle and well how can Mondo say no?

Nothing, not even the most romantic scene in the world, will ever beat Mondo's screaming in the
face type of confessions/proposals. They are just so him and proof that what he is saying is his
genuine feelings. Also what is a more awesome to accept a proposal then having a sword fight with
the swords that were used instead of a rings (God if someone proposed to me with a sword, I
wouldn't even answer and instead just drag them to the registry office) But the 2 of them are so
sweet ♥ I just love how both of them worked so hard to make the other something nice and
something that they can remember each other with over the next half year while they are apart
♥♥

However Takaaki will not be happy

Chapter End Notes

I hope this was a good one, I just love the love they have for each other ❤️
 A Union Between Souls (and some backstory)
Chapter Notes

There's some backstory notes but this is mostly engagement and wedding stuff and I'm
really proud of it

See the end of the chapter for more notes

To Hell and Back AU: OK, because it was bugging me, here's some background. See, Mondo and
Daiya are 2 young children (Mondo about 7-ish in god years, Daiya a few years older) when the
previous godly regime was overthrown, including their mother being forced to patrol the torment
zone for the losers for all eternity. Which is a bit of a problem because she was the previous ruler
of the Underworld/death and you kinda need people running that place. So Daiya and Mondo were
placed under the guardianship of a surprisingly maternal demon queen and pretty much did
whatever they wanted with the demon army as their crew, even though they were technically
supposed to learn how to rule.

They grow up and their foster mother decides that it's time they decide who's gonna do which
thing, because there's a lot more mortals here and being the god of death and the god of the dead
probably has to be split into 2 positions now. So they decided to do one last chariot (modified,
magical motorcycle) race to decide who got which position, winner taking first pick. They had a
damned good time, but Mondo wanted to win against his brother and pulled on ahead during the
surface portion of the race. Then he accidentally ended up on a collision course with the runaway
sun chariot (that's a whole thing but basically it was stolen and the thief's in Tartarus now), Daiya
knocked him out of the way, and got absolutely atomized in bargain. Now, Daiya came back
because he's a god, but he was stuck as the god of death for good. Mondo feels so fucking guilty
about it, but Daiya keeps telling him that it's fine, at least he came back

I had been wondering a bit if and how you would integrate Mondo's backstory with Daiya's
accident here. And them making a race for the different titles is ideal, and Daiya getting "killed"
when protecting Mondo. Must have been one hell of a shock, especially since in Greek legends
gods can indeed be more or less "killed", as in being unable to reform as they were. So there was a
good chance of Daiya not having come back, or at least not as before. Plus he is not stuck with the
job that was left over (although I doubt that he cares) because in Mondo's mind he was the one who
fucked up and caused things to go south (Well he technically did, but he wasn't doing it with ill
intentions and it was an accident)

To Hell and Back AU: Taka heads back up to the surface, since their time is up. They've been
utterly inseparable and utterly insufferable ever since the engagement and Mondo frankly looks
like a sadder puppy than Chuck right now having to let Taka head back up to the surface. But he
can't keep his father waiting (Takaaki would have Mondo's head), so after a last squeeze of their
hands (somehow the most contact that Taka's willing to do, despite their engagement and all the
casual nudity), they head up to see Takaaki (Mondo's only got a limited time on the surface, he
might as well be there to tell the old man about being engaged to his son).
Takaaki's very glad to have Taka back with him on the surface, but he's only begrudgingly polite to
Mondo. He at least invites them to have some dinner together (before Takaaki has to leave for
spring), which was very nice. Then they decided to tell Takaaki about their engagement and wow,
did the nice mood go sour extremely quickly. Taka actually got into an argument with his father
about whether this was a forced engagement while Mondo was just sitting at the table while Hiro
(who came because he technically lives here too and it's dinner and a show) has to just pat the poor
dude on the shoulder to reconcile it. But at least Takaaki didn't try to kill Mondo, though he sure
wishes he did after Mondo heads back down to spend 6 lonely months in the Underworld

Well it went better than expected. Mondo still has all of his limps attached to his body, which is
only short of a miracle. With that miracle being Taka who would refuse to talk to his father if he
actually touched Mondo in any way, let alone tried to kill him for getting engaged to Taka

But before that engagement can lead to anything akin to a marriage, 6 long months have to first
pass by until Taka can return to the underworld

To Hell and Back AU: Somehow, Mondo's even more of a mopey sap now that he's engaged and
doesn't have Taka there than before. Which, yes does get him teased about being whipped but
Mondo's the boss so he doesn't care what they think when he can assign them some nasty gig to
work on. Besides, at least he's got a decent line of communication to Taka so he doesn't feel
completely alone. Taka, for his part, misses Mondo too, a lot. But Taka sadly can't stay in the
Underworld for the whole year, so they'll have to make up for it when Taka has to go back down.
Which is great, because they're planning the wedding for when Taka has to head back down (the
fall equinox) and that's a lot to arrange in 6 months.

Even more to arrange when considering that this is a wedding of a very major god here, who would
be expected to invite all the other major gods at the very least

But it's so cute to see them both being excited about their upcoming wedding in a few months, even
if it must be rather hard planning everything when being apart the whole time. Still they deserve a
beautiful wedding where they can fall into each other's arms (probably making Takaaki cough up
blood) However first they both have to suffer by being apart from another

To Hell and Back AU: The wedding of a major god is a very big deal and they sure can't skimp out
or show mercy. It's kind of a problem for Takaaki because as the bride's father, he's expected to
provide a good chunk of stuff by tradition but he's not exactly swimming in wealth, even with all
his temples more booming than ever because of fear of winter's destruction. He can definitely
provide a lot of food for the party, enough to feed all these gods, and flowers too, but anything else
is gonna need help. Good thing that Mondo has a whole army's worth of chthonic gods and demons
willing to help him out for his big day!
 And wow, they definitely did not disappoint with their help! When the day finally came, it was
utterly beautiful, even if the father of the bride wasn't very happy about giving away his only
omega son to the man who technically kidnapped him. Both of them had been flanked by 3
wedding party members (Makoto, god of hope; Mukuro, goddess of war; and Hajime, god of the
future, as MOH for Taka. Leon, god of the sun; Yukimaru, the ferryman of the Underworld; and
Daiya, god of Death as Best Man for Mondo), with Chihiro acting as the officiant (he managed to
do some tech support for the goddess of marriage in exchange for being ordained for the marriage
since she just wanted to watch). When they were pronounced married, it was an uproar of joyous
applause and happy yells, despite Mondo yelling "I do" while distracted by just how amazing Taka
looked. Just as they had kissed, Mondo's time was up and they both fell into the underworld for the
reception. Thankfully, the entrance with Chihiro's tree was right next to it.

The reception was just plain lively and fun (and yes, everyone understood the irony of a lively
wedding reception in the Underworld). About half of the guests got utterly wasted, including the
Maid of Honor and his mate, while the other guests were varying levels of buzzed and drunk,
ranging from "sober and ticked off" to "making some very creative meet-cutes in the morning"
(good thing they all have charms that allowed them to stay for at least a full day before they have
to leave). All that time, Taka and Mondo had spent it just being adorable together, even at their first
dance as a couple.

Tough to say, about an hour or so after the happy couple went up to the honeymoon suite to have
the very loud wedding night, Hiro, who was very drunk by this point, inadvertently revealed to
most of the stragglers that he had set the happy couple up in the first place. Which Takaaki, who
was drunk enough to get fight-y but not enough to not put 2 and 2 together, took as a major offense.
By punching Hiro across the room, causing a massive brawl. Thank the gods that it was resolved
pretty quickly, the wedding night was too loud for them to hear the commotion, and no one dared
to tell the happy couple what happened when they left the reception. Taka had no idea what
happened at breakfast the next morning, but he's too busy being cue with Mondo to care

And finally the happy could is married ♥ I'm so happy for them. It's been such a long time since
they last saw each other and now they are finally together as one like they really wanted to be ♥♥

Though they will not not so happy (at least Taka, Mondo might be amused) if they eventually hear
that a huge brawl broke out at the end of the reception after they left. But hey, at least better than if
it happened while they are still there, because otherwise Taka might have finished them all off

Chapter End Notes

This one was so cute, I absolutely loved it

 Deathly Matrimony
Chapter Notes

Hey, so this is the end of the story! I had a lot of fun writing for these guys and I hope
you all had fun reading about them!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

To Hell and Back AU: Taka takes to his new position as queen of the Underworld like a duck takes
to water, making everything more efficient and frankly just a whole lot nicer to deal with, even if
he's strict and pretty annoying sometimes. He makes Mondo so crazy happy, it's adorable. The
problem is that they are clearly the kind with bad communication problems, and they cannot figure
out that they can just ask for sex if they're horny, no, they have to go and get into a fight for that.
They had to literally split them up and tell them that, hey, you can just ask your partner for sex if
you're horny (and please do, the fights are starting to get very intrusive and ruining important
things). The constant sex isn't much fun, but it's better than the dumb sexual frustration radiating
out to everyone. Then when Taka has to go back up makes it miserable, really, even if they're super
schmoopy when they're together

They are equally a sweet couple that makes you happy to see them happy, but also they are so
infuriating that you want to slap them both across the face with a brick. Because it must be straight
up painful seeing this married couple who is too stupid to figure out on their own how to initiate
sex with each other. Must have been rather awkward for Daiya (I'm assuming he was the one to
talk to Mondo) having to sit down with his little brother and explaining to him that he can just ask
his husband for sex and that he doesn't have to do what almost seems like some mating ritual by
this point

To Hell and Back AU: Taka's just returned to the Underworld (like the day prior) and is talking to
his good friend Hajime, god of the future, and just having a good time with a friend he hasn't been
able to talk to in a while because of life being so busy. But Hajime has to head home (his husband
might set himself on fire again if he's away for longer), so the social visit ends and Taka escorts
him to the nearest gate so he could get past. After waving his friend goodbye, he heads back home
himself but decides to take a longer route, since he doesn't get out of the palace much and he wants
to see what the Underworld has to offer.

And a good thing too, because that's when he meets Hakka (Japanese for peppermint), a cute
nymph walking along the edge of the river. Taka greets him and asks what he's doing by the river.
Hakka admits that he lost a coin in the river and is trying to look for it now. Taka produces a coin
and hands it to him. Then he asks why he needs a coin, since he definitely doesn't seem to be the
type to be a permanent resident.

Hakka, clearly a fool who mixed up the day that Taka was coming back and didn't recognize Taka
at all, admits that he's here for the king himself. He heard that his wife was gone for half of the
year, and figured that he could get in something good and warm the poor dude's bed while his
mate's up in the world above. Taka, who's trying very hard to be polite here, asks him if he doesn't
think that this is a bad idea, the seasons are about to change and his mate will be back. Hakka
admits that yeah, he's right, but he's just gonna be here for one last visit until next spring, just to
make sure King Mondo keeps him in mind~

And that's when Taka snaps, revealing himself in his godly glory and turns Hakka into a plant, the
mint plant, and stomps on it in a fit of pique before realizing what he's done and freaking out, with
genuine tears and apologies to the plant that was a confessed attempted homewrecker

—-

I'm impressed how long Taka managed to stay calm. If I were to return to my spouse after ages
apart and meet someone who is planning to kindly warm my spouse's bed, I would instantly
explode. But oh boy Mondo will be in for one hell of a surprise when his beloved Taka finally
comes back, for him to be a mixture of ragingly angry and regretful, because he just probably killed
a nymph for trying to be a homewrecker, and also feels bad about it. While Mondo will probably
be shocked, and also a bit turned on about Taka's reaction

To Hell and Back AU: Mondo knew that Taka was gonna be a bit taking Hajime back to the
surface after their hangout but it shouldn't be taking this long, should it? He's about to head out and
look for him when the grand doors open and there's Taka, holding a small burlap bag with some
sort of new plant inside it and looking very upset. Mondo leaps up and asks him what's wrong, did
something happen, does he need to kick their ass?

Taka drags Mondo down by his collar to plant a firm, angry kiss onto his lips before telling him
that he'll deal with him later. For now, he has to plant this (referring to the new plant) in the garden.
He goes off, leaving Mondo standing shocked, aroused, and pretty fucking scared of what's going
to happen. This is completely unlike Taka and he has no clue what's up.

Taka comes back a bit later and drags Mondo to their bedroom for some of the best possessive
angry sex that Mondo's ever had before collapsing into a fit of tears in the afterglow. Mondo tries
to find out what's wrong but all he can get is something about a "stupid little homewrecker" and
Taka turning him into the plant from earlier and feeling super guilty. All he can do is comfort Taka
until he falls asleep, really not sure what the hell he should do. The next day (or whenever the
hell), that's when all the good deeds started

Well at least the 2 of them got over their problem of being unable to communicate that they want
sex. Which Mondo surely seems to enjoy, and I can't blame him since a demanding and angry Taka
is hot. At least until Taka starts crying from what happened with being angry and probably even
scared who knows, about coming back and finding some nymph trying to steal away his husband
while Taka was forced away
To Hell and Back AU: Taka's good works for the surface can only reach so far when he's the queen
of the Underworld, but that sure doesn't stop him. At first it was nice, seeing all these happier dead
folks coming down, not moaning and upset like they normally are. Then Mondo gets a tip that
maybe he needs to see his husband about getting some rest. And holy hell, Taka looks like a
fucking mess! And not even in a hot way, in a "have you slept or eaten anything but stress and
coffee grounds for the past who knows how long?!" way. Mondo has to physically drag Taka back
to bed to sleep, much to his chagrin because he feels compelled to help people because of the guilt
(even though Hakka was a homewrecking slut, Taka wasn't raised to attack/curse people out of
jealousy and the guilt is still killing him), and the chagrin of the deceased, because what Taka was
doing had actually helped them do some fun out in the world and having them spend time with
their living loved ones and just seeing the world after they left it (yes, Taka did invent Halloween
and the rest of the time around it for the dead, since winter's about to start in earnest and he can't do
much otherwise)

It's great that Taka tries to do things right and all, but he really needs to watch out for his own
health. Because the poor guy is working himself into an early grave from guilt at this rate. Good
thing Mondo found out and is forcing him to rest and eat, before things can really go south

But hey, Taka invented a new holiday where the dead can visit their relatives, which is nice ♥

To Hell and Back AU: About a couple decades after the Hakka incident, some young heroes
named Aze and Satsuke with more balls than brains get the terrible idea to get themselves
heavenly brides. And instead of the reasonable idea of just trying to find some pretty young single
goddesses, Aze gets the bright idea to try to abduct the fucking Queen of the Underworld to be his
mate. Because the last time Taka went missing had gone down so well /s. Satsuke, clearly just as
dumb as his buddy decides to help him out and they're off to abduct a major God!

Mondo hears about it via Chihiro and is very much not happy to hear that these mortals are trying
to kidnap his husband. But he's gotta be subtle about this so that Taka doesn't get on his case about
tormenting the living, no matter how dumb they are. So he comes up with a plan. Mondo, clearly
doing his best to be polite, greets the heroes at the door to the Underworld and offers them seats at
his dinner table. They accept it (recall, more balls than brains), sit down and that's when the demon
army's ambush starts and Mondo calls it a night. He's got some dinner to eat with his husband and
they can just rot in Tartarus for all he cares

It takes both guts and lack of brains to go and try to kidnap and even force marry not only a major
god but the Queen of the Underworld, spouse to one of the most powerful gods there is. And there
are enough people in the world who fulfil both points with ease

But hey, Mondo is rather nice about his punishment, considering he is not hurting them himself.
But Taka's influence on him is really showing itself, because Mondo rather keeps him happy and
has a nice dinner with him than sully his hands with them
 To Hell and Back AU: Taka and Mondo are making names for themselves on the surface, which
they didn't think was possible considering that they're pretty rarely on the surface. But they are,
according to the gods that are on the surface much more often like Daiya and Yuta, and from the
new shades. Mondo's got a reputation of being fearsome and badass, of course, but Taka is the one
that they truly fear. Taka has no idea about this but it does ring some bells about some harvests that
got blighted because Taka wanted to teach some blasphemous farmers abusing his name a lesson
which may have gotten a bit out of hand (look, how was he supposed to know that it would spread
throughout the rest of their crops! He made up for it but the year's harvest was majorly fucked
before planting season ended)

Yeah, when being gods words for sure spreads far and wide with mortals. Sadly bad things spread
further, so no wonder that they are making names for themselves. That they are gods of the
underworld, where mortals usually don't want to go, also isn't the most helpful. But hey, at least
less people (hopefully) who try to annoy them again

Chapter End Notes

I'm super glad to be able to finish this story and I'll see you all on the next one!

End Notes

Let me know what you guys think!

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