Hades and Persephone Ch. 04

"Hurt...me?" Seph snorted, sputtered, wondering at all the ways she could answer in the affirmative, but instead shook her head "no."

"I saw the kiss," Jessica began.

Persephone held out her still tingling hand. "Then, you probably saw me slap him," Seph mused.

"Why did you?"

Seph's shoulders slumped. "Because, regardless of that kiss, regardless of the other kisses and everything else," she waved her hand vaguely, and Jess wisely did not ask for clarification, "he believes that I don't fit in with his world, his job, his life." And...that was really all there was to it. He wasn't going to budge from that viewpoint.

Jess followed as Seph entered the Owl's Roost. "There are other guys, Seph."

Shrugging, Seph muttered, "I know."

Her best friend nudged her with her arm. "Like my boss, for one. I saw the kiss yesterday," she explained.

"What kiss?" Seph asked, completely nonplussed.

"You kissed Dion on the cheek." Jessica strove to hide it, but Seph caught the hurt in her friend's eyes.

"Kissed? Dion?" Seph struggled to remember, and then suddenly the memory was upon her. "Oh. I kissed him on the cheek. He knows Ha...Mr. Doukas...and found his favorite vintage for me to bring to the picnic." Realizing how her friend felt about Dion, she squeezed Jessica's hand and added, "I have absolutely no interest in Dion -- nor him, me. We are too much like brother and sister."

Knowing -- or at least having a good idea of -- how Jess felt about Dionysus, she did not press or tease her friend.

Jessica squeezed Seph's hand back. "Now -- I want all of the details."

Persephone's groan was drowned out by Demeter's bellow. "Persephone! Where have you been? I've been worried sick!"

With that, Jess waggled her fingers good-bye at Persephone and grinned during her retreat. "Traitor," Seph mock-growled at her, and Jess winked as she hustled away from Demeter's ire.

"Hello, Mother! Hades so generously agreed to show me his home, the Underworld."

Demeter, clad today in faux-leather-fringed boots and an Owl's Roost tie-dye shirt and long denim frontier-style skirt, wrinkled her nose. "How...generous...of him."

Aphrodite arrived in a jasmine-scented cloud. "See, Demeter, I told you Persephone would be okay. She's too level-headed to get in any trouble. And Hades is too much a stick in the mud to do...anything."

"What do you mean, 'anything'?" Seph schooled her features to be a display of innocent curiosity.

The goddess of beauty tittered in a way that set Persephone's teeth on edge. "Not anything you need to concern yourself about."

Between Hades's insistence that she would not fit in the Underworld and Aphrodite's condescending dismissal, Persephone's slow roiling boil of anger boiled over.

"When, then, do I need to concern myself with 'anything'?" Persephone seethed. "My aunt Hera is having me return to Olympus to become engaged and married. Shouldn't I know about 'anything' before we go to Olympus?"

Taken aback, Aphrodite had never seen Persephone speak so heatedly. When Seph did not back down, Aphrodite changed the subject to -- unsurprisingly -- Aphrodite herself.

"I have figured out the perfect revenge for Heph, my evil husband." Aphrodite wiggled a bit and grimaced.

Demeter, while still glaring at her evasive daughter, grinned, listening to Aphrodite. "Oh? Evil?"

"He will never think of designing something so devious again." A frown marred the beauty of the goddess of love. "Stupid plug," she groused.

Persephone's eyes widened, and she pivoted, attempting to hide her reaction. Absent-minded Hephaestus made a butt plug for his wife?

Aphrodite, misinterpreting Seph's reaction, rushed to "explain." "Heph likes to make little tricks for me. It is a 'medical device.'"

Demeter's sputtering laughter distracted both her mother and her friend away from Persephone's burning cheeks.

"So, what is your revenge, Aph?" Demeter finally calmed enough to ask.

The devious goddess of beauty's features were briefly marred by a feline grin of retribution. "I am going to give him a taste of his own medicine. I'm going to make him wild, make him pant with need, as I swallow his cock. Then, I will leave him high and dry just before he orgasms."

Persephone's eyebrows lifted. Even to her newly no-longer-innocent state, this sounded like a bad idea. Hephaestus's self-control rivaled, well, Hades's. And she knew now from painful experience that Hades, once his mind was decided on something, would not budge.

"Um, are you sure that's a good idea, Aphrodite?" Then, she winced. Better to pretend she had no idea what they were talking about.

The eyes of the goddess in question narrowed. "What do you mean, Seph?"

"Well, just that, Hephaestus doesn't really...react to things." Even to her own ears, her response sounded lame.

Aphrodite giggled again. "Oh, Persephone. You don't understand. And that's a good thing." Her smug condescension did everything but pat her on the head.

Persephone, by contrast, gritted her teeth. There was nothing to be gained by pressing further. At least, Aphrodite's questionable plan had distracted her mother from Persephone's long visit with Hades.

Athena came bustling through, checking to see that each shop was ready to open. Clucking her tongue at Aphrodite, she rolled her eyes as the goddess slunk seductively to Hephaestus's workbench.

As for Persephone, she turned to enter her stall. Several bouquet orders were to be picked up today, and very few of them were ready. A buzzing from her phone made her breath catch in her throat. For a brief second, she thought it might be Hades. Seeing a notification from Jessica, she smiled. "Meet @ 1 for lunch?"

"Sure," she texted back.

Stepping to her refrigerated storage for her most delicate blooms, she resolved to think no more of the god of the Underworld.

* * * * * * * *

Hades was struggling not to think about Persephone, as well. Dressed again in the coal robes signifying his status, ensconced upon his throne glinting sullenly in the light of the fire from the massive fireplace, the god pensively stroked the middle of Cerberus's three gargantuan heads.

Suddenly, all three of Cerb's snouts inhaled deeply, then snuffled. A soft cry, a cross between a yelp and a growl escaped all three sets of lips. Hades then detected the aroma. Rose, sandalwood, and water lily. His sister-in-law.

"Welcome to the Underworld, Hera." The grin he pasted on his face was sardonic. "I can't remember the last time you graced my manse with your presence."

His brother's much put-upon wife approached him warily. Hades chuckled. "Cerberus would not hurt you. Either of my brothers, yes. Hermes, definitely. You, no."

"I guess I should be thankful for that." Even with his statement, Hera still skirted a wide berth around Cerberus. "I'm sure you know why I'm here."

Hades's mind raced. Surely, she did not know what had transpired between Persephone and him. No, his mind chided. If she did, she would be picking you apart, verbally, if not physically. "The mission Hermes directed me to do at your insistence?"

Hera's nod was imperious. "Of course. My flake of a sister needs to return home. Prancing about with mortals only causes suffering." Her face pinched, and Hades realized that she was referring to Zeus's multiple exploits with mortal women.

"I think Demeter will return to Olympus. Persephone, too."

Hera's smile grew genuine and beatific. "Excellent! It is past time for Persephone to be wed, for her to take her place at our home."

Hades nodded with a tight smile. "Of course."

"I know you don't concern yourself with relationships and such, Hades, but Persephone needs a husband, a mate. One who is not mortal."

"Of course," Hades blandly echoed himself.

Hera continued as if he had not spoken. "There are, at least, a few choices. Apollo, Hermes, Dionysus, Ares: any would be a good choice."

Her brother-in-law could not resist responding, "Demeter does not want Hermes anywhere near Persephone. He tried to seduce her recently. Your sister was not amused."

Waving a hand dismissively, Hera scoffed, "She can get over it. Hermes is a perfect matrimonial candidate."

In an attempt to appear disinterested, Hades shrugged. "Don't say I didn't try to warn you about Demeter's feelings on the subject."

"Mmmm, pomegranates. I love the pomegranates found here, Hades!" Hera's usual jaded tones were shed in her excitement.

"You can take a couple back home," he offered, hoping his sister-in-law would take the hint. He wanted to be left alone. Alone was best.

"Thank you, brother," she smiled, a genuine one this time. "What did you think of my niece?" she questioned, and Hades had to pause before he could answer.

Reveal none of your feelings, he cautioned himself. "She seems sweet. Young. Under her mother's thumb. She wants to experience all of what the mortal realm and our immortal one have to offer."

Another real grin stretched the goddess's lips. "I cannot wait to meet her. How did you find out so much about her?"

"She and I...dined...together while her mother made her decision." Hades winced as he recognized his folly in retaining Persephone in the Underworld for those hours. Demeter may have decided to not return to Olympus, after all.

Hera nodded, finding nothing lascivious in Hades's words. She would never have considered Hades doing something...well, like he did, with Persephone. That was further proof, in his mind, that he and Persephone were not meant to be together.

"You will attend the welcome party and Persephone's wedding when they happen, won't you?" The steel was back in the queen's tone. While couched as a request, her words were instead an imperious demand.

Hades nodded, his fingers of one hand sliding through the close cut hair on his scalp. Slumping further on his throne, he studiously avoided a voiced response.

Hera finally took the hint. With a sweeping curtsey, she glided from the room. "So much to do to prepare for their return," her voice trilled in her wake.

In a pose reminiscent of Rodin's Thinker, Hades sat for several minutes. His thoughts, as much as he tried to push them away, focused exclusively on Persephone. Her smile. Her laugh. Her gentleness. Her passion. Those thoughts were, at least, better than the ones that came next. Hades tortured himself with mental images of Persephone with each of the suitors Hera had mentioned.

Clenching one hand in a fist, he vowed to a chamber containing only Cerberus and himself, "I will not interfere, for her sake."

* * * * * * * *

The object of his thoughts locked up her stall shortly before the clock struck one and strolled over to Dion's adjacent booth. She slipped in to hear her best friend and Dion arguing, as usual.

"I can't believe you, Dion! I am not going on a business trip with you to Greece. Take one of your 'girls' with you to take...dick-tation," Jess snarled.

Dionysus, meanwhile, was struggling to keep a smile from his face. "Agapite'," he murmured soothingly, "I need you to be the one to close the business deal. You are the business end; I am the creative end. Think about it," he hastened to add when Jess seemed to be searching for something to throw at him.

Seph's friend growled at her boss. "I am not your 'dear one,'" she stressed.

"Of course not," he placated. "Hello, Seph," he called out to her, grateful to shift the focus to Persephone.

"Dion," Seph nodded. "I brought extra for lunch if you want to join us," she proposed.

"No, no. I will just grab a bite to eat while I'm out. I'm sure you both want to be able to talk without me around." The god of wine beat a hasty retreat from his own shop.

A lobbed keychain followed his leaving. "Drat! I missed!"

Persephone could not prevent the laughter from escaping. "So, a business trip to Greece, hmm?"

For a few minutes, Jessica's baleful glare was her only response. "Yes. Dion wants to purchase a vineyard in Greece and wants me to accompany him. I suppose I will have to go, but I would rather travel to Greece with a man who wants to marry me, to have kids with me. Not my manwhore of a boss."

Her friend nodded and handed her a takeout salad container. Opening her own salad box, Seph suggested, "You could always ask Dion out. Don't kill the messenger," the words hurtled from her as Jess reached for something to throw at Seph, as well.

"I can't be one of a number of women he sees; I just can't," Jess responded. "But this lunch isn't about my manly woes; it's for you to spill all the dirt about your lunch and more with the super mysterious Mr. Doukas."

Persephone licked her fork. "Yum. Polly has outdone herself with the salad dressing this time, don't you think."

"Yes, yes, very delicious. Now, was your time with Mr. Doukas as delectable?"

Sighing, Seph nodded. "Even more so. But it does not matter. He does not think I am the type of woman he needs, doesn't think he needs a woman at all, so that's that."

"But you want him to." A statement, not a question, broached Jess's lips.

"Of course. My aunt, my mom's sister, has this wild idea that I am going to be this debutante and attract all of these guys to marry. And he's of the belief that he would not even be able to be considered in the running by my aunt, by my mom, by anyone." Cheeks flushed with color, Persephone stressed each of the last several words with derision.

Jessica stared into her friend's eyes, brown irises trapping blue. "But you think he should be."

Persephone nodded glumly.

"So what happened at the lunch?"

"I took him to the water's edge, but it was very crowded. He doesn't like crowds at all. After he talked about his home, how much he loved it, I asked to see it. And he took me there to finish our meal." Persephone blushed and ducked her head to hide her newly dusky cheeks.

Coughing, Jess spat out. "You went to his house?"

"I, um, suggested it."

Jessica looked in shock at her friend. "You. Persephone. Who has never been on a date, by your own admission."

Persephone nodded. "Yes, yes, I know. I was stupid. But, to be fair, I was the one who made the first move."

Jess could only stare, blinking incredulously.

"I shouldn't have, and I know that we both regret it now."

Lifting one eyebrow, Jessica repeated, "Regret it now? What happened while you were there?"

Seph shrugged. "Stuff."

Realizing that her friend was not going to divulge much more, Jessica attempted another method. "On a scale of one to ten, where one is a peck on the cheek and ten is your much-prized virginity is no more, how much 'stuff' happened?"

"Ten," Persephone mumbled.

"Did you just say what I think you said?"

Persephone again nodded.

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"And was it..."

"Yeah...it was..." Great. Wonderful. Perfect. Amazing.

That conversation was why, even though she strove to all the rest of the day and evening, Hades never vacated Persephone's thoughts. As she curled up under the pale pink comforter and drifted off to sleep, Seph wondered if her dreams would again be invaded by the dark god.