youwantitdarker

[anoixi]

King of shadows, king of shades Hades was King of the Underworld But he fell in love with a beautiful lady Who walked up above In her mother's green fields... It was like she was someone you'd always known It was like you were holding the world when you held her Like yours were the arms that the whole world was in And there were no words for the way that you felt So you opened your mouth and you started to sing...

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[youwantitdarker]

With a slight nod of his head Hades led her towards an arched entryway, stepping out with her into the low, dimly ambient light of the Underworld. "Nothing blooms as brightly as you do here, but," inclining his head towards the gnarled, twisted gardens he looked thoughtful, studying the way she was so staunchly juxtaposed with them.

[anoixi]

"But they are here." She goes ahead a little. They are meager things, the plants, low to the ground and fragile, as things that must fight for every bit of water they get tend to be. She watches as a couple tendrils of a creeping vine-like plant reach for her feet, though they do not reach and their movement suggests they are spending precious energy to do so. It makes her smile. "Hello," she murmurs to them, smiling a little.

She looked back at him over her shoulder. "Any livelier and I don't think they would suit," she told him.

[youwantitdarker]

With her back to him, engrossed in meeting the subjects she retained even here, in a lifeless place like his realm, Persephone couldn't see the deep, smitten grin that spread over his face as she greeted what plants there were to acknowledge her. "Perhaps your being here will help them, you are nothing if not inspirational," she turned and the grin on his face shifted to a small version of itself, the affection in his eyes apparent in the warmth of his gaze.

[anoixi]

"They're quite nice," she replies, kneeling to handle them tenderly. They don't respond, having tired themselves out thoroughly. "Maybe nothing tall and grand like on the surface, but they are here all the same."

[youwantitdarker]

Stepping closer to her Hades leaned over to watch her gently brush her fingers over the plants, finding himself smiling all over again. "The Underworld didn't know happiness before you," his voice was quiet, speaking for himself as much as his realm.

[anoixi]

She blushed, unable to look up at him and unable to acknowledge the compliment. No -- an admission of something. "I..." Someone with a little more sophistication, more experience, might know how to respond with grace. "... don't know what to say," she finally admitted lamely.

[youwantitdarker]

His expression was gentle as he looked down at her, giving a slight shake of his head. "I don't either. There aren't words for it," he had accepted the effect she had on him easily, but that didn't mean he was at all certain what to do with it.

[anoixi]

She rose again, still only coming just to his shoulder, but it wasn't quite as sharp an angle for him to look down at her, or she up at him. "Maybe it's enough that we understand it, then," she said with a bit of a smile.

[youwantitdarker]

"I think it's more than enough, though," his smirk tightened almost impishly before he ducked down to kiss the top of her head. "I would still like to keep trying to articulate it in another ways."

[anoixi]

"Oh, I wouldn't think of stopping you," she said brightly. "Wouldn't be sporting."

[youwantitdarker]

"And you are nothing if not sporting," Hades countered with an amused grin, his arms tensing as he held her to him. "Mind yourself Persephone, I might make my chambers the next stop on your tour."

[anoixi]

She raised one eyebrow. "Straight to the heart, I see."

[youwantitdarker]

"To many, many things," he leaned down and kissed her forehead before releasing her from his embrace, a hand lingering on the small of her back.

[anoixi]

Her cheeks reddened pleasantly. "Then come," she said. "Show me what you will."

[youwantitdarker]

There's a low rumble of a laugh as she issues that command, and Hades ducked his head down, concealing a warm grin. "As my love wills it," he turned and lead her back into the palace. "The Elysian Fields," he began, and at the words the scenery around them seemed to melt away, the darkness of his domain gone and replaced instead by golden fields warmed by the sweetest sunlight. "The Isles of the Blessed, where good and true heroes find their final honorable rest."

[anoixi]

She couldn't help it -- she sighed happily and let her toes grab at the warm grass. It wasn't real sun, like they had above ground, but it was a pleasant facsimile. "I can see how this is a reward," she said.

[youwantitdarker]

"I could construct you a villa here," he offered gently, venturing to look over at her and try to glean from her expression how his suggestion struck her.

[anoixi]

Oh, she knows. It would hardly take more than a thought and she could have whatever she wanted, anything that was in his considerable power to give and maybe even some things that are not. She doesn't care about the riches, not a bit, but knowing there was someone who would give it to her? That was worth more than everything in his kingdom.

"I would never be inside it," she said with a laugh, tipping her head back to look at him, and to better feel the sunshine. "You may as well build me a tent."

[youwantitdarker]

"A tent?" He breathed out a laugh at the suggestion, his dark eyes moving over her, watching the shape of her illuminated in the golden light of the Isles of the Blessed. "It would have to be gilded, and fit for a queen," his head tilted, as though he were agreeing with himself as he said it. He hadn't yet worked up the courage to actually ask her for such a thing, but Hades didn't think he could wait much longer. The idea of being the one permitted to bask in her radiance until the end of time made his heart in a way he would have never been able to believe was possible until her.

[anoixi]

"As you wish," she says with a laugh. There would be little enough interest in being inside anyway, no matter how lavishly appointed. She shaded her eyes to look as far as she could, even raising on her toes to extend her gaze.

[youwantitdarker]

That she doesn't seem to react negatively to him mentioning anything about her having a queenly status here in his realm did not go unnoticed. She was so bright and vibrant, and this place was the closest he could offer her to something worthy of her light. He would spare no effort to bring her joy all the days of the eternities they had each been given.

Beyond the shores of the isles, the water stretched clear and blue out in all directions, the horizon is broken to the east by the high structures of a distant land. "Egypt," Hades explained whenever it was she turned towards it. "Where Ammit came from."

[anoixi]

"Egypt," she says to herself, the word fantastic in her mouth -- places she'd heard but never seen. The structures are just visible to her eye, rising high over sand that shimmered with heat. She could almost feel the hot wind, with a sting of sand on her arms. "It looks majestic."