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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[anoixi]

The rest of the party passed quickly, but somehow seemed to draw out into eternity. It was twilight when she finally sat in the grass, crickets chirping and stars winking into existence far above. She was hesitant just for a moment -- there hadn't exactly been explicit instructions in how to use the ring.

She glanced down at it, turning it this way and that on her hand. "Hades," she said to the falling dark, "I'm ready."

Persephone expected him to materialize in front of her, the way he had done a number of times. But instead of the night air parting and making space for him, it was the ground separating for her. She didn't even have time to shout in surprise, or scream for help, before she was sliding down, and down, and down.

The earth welcomes her, which isn't so bad. Underground is where the growing things she loves and oversees begin, after all. She almost feels roots reaching for her, No, you can't have Persephone, she belongs up here-- but they withdraw as soon as they sense what or who it is that draws her down. They won't tangle with the god of the dead, even for Persephone.

She comes to a surprisingly gentle stop on her feet. Her eyes are still adjusting to the dark, but she makes herself stop, and listen. Besides her own harsh breathing and the beat of her heart in her ears, she hears the sound of water in a cave, dripping into a pool, and the echo of a high ceiling. Once her eyes adjust, she can see that there's just enough light to see by. Not well, but she can see the ground well enough to see where it rises and dips, and that there is a long boat at the water's edge where a man in a long cloak waits -- or what might pass for a man in this low light. He motions to her, to get in the boat.

"I'm sorry, I don't have any coin," she answers. Even the mortals know you have to pay the ferryman to cross safely. And further more, she's not dead. She can't be.

He shakes his head, and motions more insistently, as though to say, Boat. Now. She weighs her options. She's not dead, no coin, and shouldn't be able to cross. But looking back, she sees no way back to where she came from, or to anywhere else for that matter. She's met by a cold, unforgiving wall of black rock, veined in gold. I don't have a choice, she realized. She stepped to the water's edge, lifting her skirt so it wouldn't trail in the water, and stepped onto the boat. The ferryman pushed off from the shore, and they were on their way across the cold water.

[youwantitdarker]

Though technically he had three brains to work with it was the head on the right side that was the most clever, and it was the one Cerberus lifted to sniff the air right now, halting mid-step as it looked to and fro, ears perked and vigilant as it uttered a low, somber 'boof'. It brought Hades to a stop, tilting his head at the dog for a moment before he too felt the shift in the air of the underworld. It felt like someone had opened a window. "Persephone," he didn't need to extend the reach of his power any further to know. It was her, she was here, trailed by Cerberus while Ammit stayed behind to watch his dwelling Hades beat a hasty path to the shores of the river he knew she must travel to reach him. It was the same route everyone took - at least the first time, and only those of his ilk were able to come back a seonc or third time.

Cerberus stayed just behind Hades all three heads finally working in tandem and snuffling at the air, curious and inquisitive and momentarily not focused on its master, who wasn't sure he could breathe properly. She had come to his realm but he couldn't discern quite how she'd done it. The ring should have worked perfectly, fortified by all the oldest magic of the earth. Hades should have heard her call and would have heeded it, sped by the urgency of the love that made him feel almost drunk on her.

The boat came to a smooth stop just outside the gates of the underworld and he was there, oblivious to his lack of cloak and thus standing at the shores of the river Styx, stripped from the waist up like an idiot as he gaped at the shape of her. That she would think he tricked her weighed on his mind, or that she would be disgusted and demand to be taken back to the surface, surely something damning would come of this. Beautiful goddesses didn't just come to his domain every day, and from the way that brightness about her seemed to shine in defiance spoke volumes as to why.

That didn't stop him from extending his hand to help her out of the boat, giving a nod to Chiron and encouraging the ferryman on his way as soon as she was ashore. "This wasn't meant to happen," he began, soft spoken and apologetic, bracing himself for her rebuff.

[anoixi]

It occurs to her somewhere on the wide river that maybe this is what he'd intended all along, and her cheeks begin to burn -- with anger, yes, but also with the humiliation of it. She'd made it so easy, too, hadn't she? All it took was some pretty words, a few kisses, and she was done. She didn't want it to be true, so she tried not to think of it or cry as she was ferried to the other side.

She's not sure how to take that he is waiting for her on that opposite shore. Her first instinct is that she's happy to see him -- that is what she had wanted. But her throat also grows tight. If he's tricked her she shouldn't want to see him. She should demand to be sent home where she can nurse a broken heart alone.

She lets him help her out of the boat and onto the rocky shore, though she takes it back as soon as she's on her own two feet. When he speaks to her, she looks up into his face. He seems sincere, or he really is that committed to his deception. "Was it not?" she said softly, trying not to sound as wounded as she felt. "It's a better strategy than outright stealing me, I'll give you that, but at least that would have been honest."

[youwantitdarker]

When she pulled her hand away he assumes she thinks the worst, and correctly. "This was a mistake," his shoulders sag slightly in disappointment as whatever hope had warmed his expression upon the sight of her ebbed away to somber dismay. Some cosmic folly had robbed him of his one chance, and his face darkened at the realization.

"I will return you to the surface right a-" Hades stopped as the huffing of the head leaning down just over his shoulder, snuffing up big lungfuls of air became too noisy to ignore. He gently reached up to push one of Cerberus' heads away only for it to be replaced by one of its counterparts hovering above his other shoulder, resuming the investigative sniffing at the air around her. When the beast's third head hovered just above his own and he heard an obstinate whimper come from his hound he sighed. "I'll return you to the surface immediately, but please say hello to my dog before he climbs over me to see you."

The ground shook slightly at the thump of the animal's mighty tail and Cerberus, seemingly to understand what Hades had said sat straight up, all three hands panting as it patiently waited to meet this obviously special guest to his master's realm.

[anoixi]

She feels awful, and confused again. She should still be angry... but he wouldn't try to return her if he wanted to keep her here. She bit her lip, looking for something to say, but even if she had said something she wasn't sure Hades would have heard it for the large dog taking his attention. Dogs? No there were three heads but only one body.

Now she bites her lip to keep from laughing -- the dog could care less it was dealing with the god of death. The ground shakes as it wags its tail, and finally, she can't keep from laughing. "Here," she said, offering her hands for them to smell, and lightly scratches one of them between the eyes, and then another as it noses its way in.

[youwantitdarker]

Cerberus craned its three necks, leaning over and around Hades as though he were a mountainous obstacle before, with a weary sigh, the man stepped out of the way. All three noses devoted themselves to snuffing at her face and hair, before, with a consenting deep boof from the head in the middle the big beast flopped over on his back. Its tail pounded against the ground as Cerberus offered Persephone its belly, all three tongues lolling out of its mouths as it panted happily, four paws dangling loftily in the air as it waited to be adored.

"You smell like the outside," Hades offered as he looked on from off to the side. "He," a pause, "doesn't go above very often." Though on the extremely rare outing (the Underworld couldn't spare them both for long after all) Cerberus seemed quite content to roll around in a shady patch of grass and chase shadows for hours.

[anoixi]

She laughs again, and obliges Cerberus by scratching her nails lightly over his belly. Animals are easier than people, she thinks, it's never hard to know what they're thinking or what their motivations might be. But she doesn't say so. "Shame," she answers him. "I bet you'd just love to come roll around in the meadow, wouldn't you?" she asked the dog sweetly.

He doesn't answer her, and it doesn't really require an answer, she supposes. For a long moment the only sound is the thump thump thump of Cerberus's tail and his considerable happy noises while Persephone continues to lavish attention on him. She casts a glance to the side at Hades, as unhappy as his dog is joyful. Maybe she had been overhasty. "Did... you really not know the ring would bring me here?" she asked him softly.

[youwantitdarker]

The beast is delighted by the new friend it had managed to make, and it demonstrates as much by licking one of her hands with slobbery affection, a sight that lessened the tumult Hades was feeling, but only marginally. "Have I led you to think I would trap you?" He responded, knowing that simply being who he was was enough to make anyone draw that conclusion. Hadn't he begun this knowing already that she was far too good for him?

Hades sighed, stepping to the side as Cerberus - forever in tune with his master's moods rolled back over onto his stomach before sitting up to tower over Persephone, still panting happily. "I welcome you here always, but I had wanted you to decide to come when you finally did - not to be taken here like this." He glanced at the ring on her finger and frowned. "Something isn't right," Hades shook his head as his mind already considered how something like that could have gone wrong - a few theories sprang to mind though none were ones he wanted to entertain while she was here. "Shall I take you home?"

[anoixi]

Now the shame is hers. He hasn't done anything but be gentle with her, even when she was frightened, and she repaid him with suspicion. "I-- I'm sorry," she stammered, petting Cerberus on one of his enormous legs, as much as a distraction to herself as to please the dog. "I was frightened, it... scared me, is all." Which was completely redundant. She avoided hiding her face in the dog's fur like a child. "I mean... I'm already here, if you... want me to stay." She peeked up at him to see if he was keen.

[youwantitdarker]

While a sense of relief seemed to flood through him when she spoke again Hades' expression remained unchanged save for that slight softness just at the corners of his eyes - pleased, but uncertain if he ought to be. "Don't apologize, it is frightening to come here when you aren't expecting to." He had seen it in mortals and demi-gods more times than he would recount for her, it was why he had been so careful, wanting to give her the choice over whether or not to descend to his realms.

He wanted to touch her, a want made all the more dire by her apparent willingness to stay for now, but he held back, mired in uncertainty. Offering his hand to her as a milder alternative to simply swooping in and gathering her up in his arms he ducked his head down slightly, one side of his mouth curving in the barest suggestion of a smile. "I want you to stay very much," he said, sotto voce as always. "When you're ready to return I'll take you, you're not a prisoner here."

[anoixi]

The shadows were even more extreme down here, and it suited him immensely. She'd always thought him handsome, if unusually so, but the spare bit of light let the shadows frame his sharp features in a way that made them even more prominent. She shyly reached for his hand, fingers lightly touching his. "I'm not sorry because I was scared, I'm sorry I leapt to the worst conclusion," she replied, still apologetic.

[youwantitdarker]

He let his palm rest against hers as his free hand came to settle on top of her own, stepping forward enough to draw her fingers to his lips to kiss them. "It isn't anything you should apologize for," he knew all too well the deeds and misdeeds of his kin - stories so salacious that any young woman like herself would be quite within reason to assume the worst. He couldn't blame her for her trepidation, knowing that he asked much of her trust merely by adoring her as he did. "Would you like to see my home? Ammit will be excited to meet you." Certainly if Cerberus - who hadn't left Persephone's side - was any indication than his other beast was likely to be as smitten as the first.

[anoixi]

Persephone smiled and her cheeks flushed. Even though he'd waved off her apology she considers it accepted. "I'd love to," she answered quietly, and fit her arm in his. "Who's Ammit?" she asked him.

[youwantitdarker]

While her apologize was ultimately unnecessary to him, that she cared to issue one in the first place spoke volumes about how much she'd come to care for him, and that was something Hades would silently treasure. Adjusting his arm to accommodate her arm as it laced with his own. "The Devourer, you'll like him," the gentle softness of his tone provided an odd contrast to the words Hades said, his gaze flicking sideways to give her a small smirk.

A moment later they were far from the shores of the river Styx, standing in the pavilion that lead to the entrance to his home. The palace loomed above, black marble columns ringed in rich gold flanking either side of them. Hades tilted his head to the side towards the entryway before guiding her there. "I've missed you," it hadn't been very long since he had seen her, but that hardly mattered when all he wanted was to see her.

[anoixi]

Persephone took in the surroundings on their walk from the river to the palace that presides over the landscape around it. Not that there's a lot to look at. It's all stone and sparse, dead foliage; the few things that are not dead she recognizes as poisonous. No flowers spring where her steps fall, and though she had expected that part, in some part of her, it felt eerie.

The palace itself was large, and even though she'd seen such size before -- earlier that very day, on the mountain, even -- she couldn't help but look up, and up. Where Olympus was all gleaming white marble, Hades' home was black rock, with burnished gold laid in. His words bring her back from looking for the top of the columns where they disappeared into the dark. "We were in the garden only today," she protests, but undoubtedly pleased all the same.

[youwantitdarker]

While a large part of him is grateful and fortified to have her walking beside him here in the dimly lit land of the dead Hades stews on whether or not it was right to let her see this so soon. He knew how he felt for her, he knew that having her dwell here beside him would bring him nothing but joy - something he hadn't felt before her, but it was a lot to ask. She was sunlight, and here he had only the weightiest shadows to offer. It was enough to make even Zeus unsettled, and the glances he cast in her direction every so often spoke of how he thought the same, if not more, would come of her being here.

Losing her was unthinkable, he was so lost in her thrall sustaining it seemed to consume his every thought and deed. If he could only be with her on stolen evenings in the fresh air because here was too difficult for her to exist within so be it - but he wanted her as his queen so much his heart ached.

"We were," he slips his arm free of her hand, wrapping it around her instead as he guides her through the open pavilion towards the ascent of black steps that led to the entry of his palace. "No matter how long it is, time spent with you is never enough to satisfy me," Hades' eyes were warm as he turned his head to smile that cautious trace of a smile, his face softening considerably however slight it was. "I'll always want to see more of you Persephone," in any way she wanted to show him, whenever she wanted to show him - forever.

[anoixi]

"Hades," she murmurs, barely managing to keep her eyes on him and at somewhat of a loss as to what to say. She's still not used to being talked to in such a way -- like she's the most precious thing in the universe, and all he wants is to be at her side day and night. For someone who is used to being alone, it was a little overwhelming, no matter how much she might like it.

"I might have called to you earlier," she admitted. "Only... I wasn't sure of myself, you see."

[youwantitdarker]

He slowed to a halt on the stairway leading to his door and slipped his arm free of her waist, the pads of his fingers touching her chin, titling it upwards, turning to face her. "How can I make you sure of me Persephone?" She might have come closer to it before by the banks of the Styx, realizing her arrival her was not something he had commanded into becoming, but she wasn't his yet, not really.

Catching her free hand in his larger one Hades brought her palm to his chest, his face searching hers. His expression was soft, his jaw flexing, seeming to work for and against the trace of a smile on his lips. "I want to love you, how can I convince you to let me?"

[anoixi]

"Seems like you will whether I allow it or not." She says it like a joke, but it's one that falls a little flat. It's not that she doesn't want it...

Her free hand comes up to his face, and lays it lightly on his strong jaw. "I've been alone for a long time, Hades. Just... no one special, someone who takes care of the flowers. It's... strange," she finished, unsure of if she's done an adequate job explaining what would be taken for hesitancy. "I don't know how to be... like others." Her cousins, powerful goddesses who had devastating beauty, martial pursuits, or both.

[youwantitdarker]

"Yes," if it's a joke he doesn't acknowledge it, instead agreeing almost solemnly. "If you willed me to leave you be, I would." He wouldn't even watch her from the shadows if she asked, as painful as it would be. Hades loved her, was entirely devoted to her, but if she didn't want that, he would go.

"Like others?" To that he does laugh, that quiet barely there chuckle he seems to save for her alone. Glancing around them as though he were taking stock of their dismal surroundings his eyes settle back on her face, turning his head just enough to kiss her wrist. "You aren't. I'm not either. I don't want you to be like others, just you."

[anoixi]

His lips on her wrist makes her smile. It makes her want to try to be the sort of woman someone in his position deserves. She decides to take him at his word, again. Maybe that would have to be a decision she made continually. "Then kiss me, and give me the grand tour," she requests shyly.

[youwantitdarker]

"In that order," the curve of his smile deepened as he ducked his head down to comply with her request and press his lips to hers. The heat from her hand against his cheek made his chest tighten and his hand drop back down to her waist, letting his hands fan against her sides as he drew her in against him. Hades hummed low in his throat as he felt her body pressed to his, curving his taller frame around her as one hand left her side to travel the length of her back, his wide palm roving along her spine, touching her for the sake of touching her.

[anoixi]

It was a handsome smile and she wanted to see it as often as possible, rare though it was. He was enthusiastic as ever in his attentions, and she tried to match it. One hand moved to the back of his neck, and she threaded her fingers through the soft hair there. Unbidden, she imagined what it would be like to lay with his head on her breast, and comb her fingers through it, just breathing together. It strikes her that it's the sort of position lovers would find themselves in, once they... well, it was probably only a matter of time.

Judging by the feeling like anticipation coiled in her belly and deeper still, as well as his firm yet gentle hold on her, it wouldn't be long before she was making a fool of herself for him.

[youwantitdarker]

Inwardly he delighted in the way she'd grown bolder and bolder, touching him without his initiating the contact. Hades enjoyed the way she had grown more used to the idea that he was hers, putting her soft hands on him when she wanted to. Each time she had his heart skipped a beat, and now was no exception, consumed by the desire to hold her close and feel her touching all the parts of him he could not press to her intoxicating warmth.

He had wanted to show her his realm, explain to her how it worked and what it meant for the balance they all had a part to play in maintaining, but those plans all but disappeared once he had the warmth of her mouth against his own. Instead of drawing away from her Hades lifted her off the ground, stepping backwards as he broke that kiss away to instead run his lips along her neck. "Persephone," he murmured soft and low against the hollow of her throat before he pulled away far enough for his lips to find hers again.

[anoixi]

She gasped to be taken off her feet unexpectedly, but finished it with a delighted laugh and rested her arms around his neck. She might not ever have to put her feet on the ground ever again, if she only would bid him -- and she dismisses the notion, blushing again.

This kiss is a little sweeter, a little slower, and she smiles at him. "I won't see anything down here if you keep that up," she chides him jokingly.