Irritation spiked in him, and this time he didn't bother concealing it, even if he couldn't properly identify its source.

"A settlement," he said flatly, stabbing the spoon hard into the ice cream and leaving it there, "You know, I was joking about you unable to survive a week without fucking someone, but it seems it's true. Nice to see you have figured out your main passion in life: other people."

Oh, now that he didn't restrain it, that irritation was bubbling up into a proper snit, a whole lot of weeks of compressing and sitting and ignoring that thorny tangle of emotions - many unrelated to Hades entirely - boiling over. Even the ambient temperature seemed to drop several degrees.