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]

"Cerberus!" Persephone laughs as he romps about, flopping to the grass with abandon. Rabbits run for cover and birds screech in the trees at the disturbance, but the three-headed beast is entirely too interested in rolling around in the grass to deal with any of them. Maybe once the novelty of the tall grass has worn off.

"He's fine," she says, and happily accepts his greeting, kiss and all. "Hello," she murmurs in return, pleased. One hand raises to his face in her own tender greeting. "I've missed you."

[youwantitdarker]

The three-headed beast was all too content to go between exuberant rolls in the grass and laying on his stomach, head low so he could snuffle at it, absorbing all the scents of above he so infrequently got to learn about. Soon he'd take off through the fields, chasing after everything his noses were only getting hints of, but for now, the beast had found a shaft of sunlight and stayed close to his master.

The gentle brush of her hand made the smile on his face grow deeper and his free hand lifts to permit his fingertips to lightly brush down the underside of her arm as she reaches to touch him. "Marry me." What he'd meant to say was 'I missed you too', but the request he had been possessed with the notion of making since the day they met slipped out instead.

[anoixi]

"Oh?" Persephone doesn't usually bother to hide her true reaction and this moment isn't any different. She's surprised and probably could have been knocked over with a feather. He never would permit her to hit the ground, and maybe she should have expected the question. She doesn't withdraw, lest he think he shouldn't have asked or that she doesn't want to. "Am I to be the wife of Hades?"

[youwantitdarker]

Hades went to his knees smoothly, though the words had come earlier than he intended them it didn't mean that he meant them any less. "If that's your will, yes." His hands took hold of hers and he brought them to his lips to press reverent kisses along her knuckles. "Marry me Persephone."

[anoixi]

"I want to," she said. Who wouldn't agree to being loved like this for their long, long life. She's not sure what she's done to deserve it. Truthfully, by tradition it is not for her to say. But neither is asking the usual way of the Gods. Most will take what they want. But not her Hades. "Yes."

[youwantitdarker]

"Yes?" For a moment there's a hint of boyish disbelief in his voice, as though he's unable to fathom that she would accept. Kissing the backs of her hands one more time he looks up at her and grins an actual unfettered, unabashed grin. On his feet a moment later Hades pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I love you."

[anoixi]

"I love you," she answered, just above a whisper. Gods that smile was as big and bright as she'd ever seen it, and handsome. "So much. More than... I don't even know," she confessed. Loving like this was as new and foreign as being loved, but she was quickly becoming accustomed to it.

[youwantitdarker]

She loved him, she would marry him, it was all almost beyond belief - even for an old god like him. He had come into existence just behind existence itself, but he hadn't ever been in love before, and it continued to surprise him. "I know," he said gently, his hand curving against the back of her head as he kissed her brow. Leaning away enough to meet her gaze his eyes ran over her face as eagerly as they had the first time, treasuring her. "There are no words for how it feels to know you Persephone, but I will try to explain it forever in as many ways as I can." His arm circled her waist before his hand found that spot at the swell of her hip where it fit perfectly.

[anoixi]

She flushed and rested her hands on his arms. "I think you do pretty well at telling me how you feel," she answered. It was still somehow unfathomable and perfectly clear at the same time.

[youwantitdarker]

"Maybe, but, showing you is my preferred method," Hades replied, the smallest smirk in classical history tugging at the corners of his mouth as he did.

[anoixi]

"A man of very few words, my Hades," she says fondly, letting the ends of his hair curl around her fingers. "My husband-to-be."

[youwantitdarker]

"When would you like me to be your husband?" There would be things, perhaps most dreaded a conversation with her mother among them. He respected Demeter, and always had, but their worlds were so far apart there was no path between them. "Or would you just like to come assume your throne now my queen?"

[anoixi]

Only now does she hesitate, because she also knows what will be coming. Her mother isn't a fury, but she could be as cold and implacable as any of them. "Soon," she said. "We should... talk to people first. I don't want it... dragging out."

[youwantitdarker]

Though her hesitancy rends the breath of a laugh from him Hades wasn't smiling in the least. They both knew what 'talk to people' entailed, and neither one of them seemed particularly enthusiastic about it. "Will she forbid it?" He didn't want to think about it, about having come this close to her only to have it taken away by an angry mother, but Demeter was vibrant with life, and Persephone was without question the apple of her eye.

[anoixi]

She bites her lip, afraid of the answer. "Perhaps," she concedes. She hopes she will not. That maybe once, seeing her happy with someone else will give her mother joy instead of jealousy. "I will persuade her," she told him, firmly closing the door to the possibility that her mother will refuse the match. "She'll see me happy and be unable to deny the source of it." Which was him.

(Why should you care what your mother will or will not forbid, a little voice groused in her head. An acorn doesn't ask the tree where it should sprout.)

[youwantitdarker]

Hades was quiet as she spoke, observing the expression on her face pensively as his mind worked over the arduous task of facing Demeter. "I will go with you, if you like," he didn't know if that would make things better or worse, but, he didn't want her to face this alone either.

[anoixi]

She smiles at him. "If I cannot go to her alone, she will say I am not old enough to leave her." But she hesitates again, idly stroking back his hair. "Or that if I come alone, that you should have come and spoken to her yourself." She sighs, frustrated.

[youwantitdarker]

Hades' brow furrowed as he listened to Persephone mull over the possibilities. For all his years he was as unfamiliar with this kind of matter as she. Love in the Underworld was a rare, nearly impossible thing, and he had never been the exception to that before. "Perhaps it's best to go together," he gave a decisive nod. "You're my wife, you're not going to face anything alone anymore."

[anoixi]

She smiles and kisses him briefly. Though she doesn't want to admit it completely she knows she'll be a little relieved having him with her. "Not even my mother?" she said.

[youwantitdarker]

"Not yours, not anyone's," he said, that slight smile softening his features all over again as he lifted his hand to curl his fingers gently in the soft ends of her hair, leaning down to rest his forehead against hers. "I love you."

[anoixi]

"I love you," she replied, her throat tight. "I don't know why you chose me, but... you have."

[youwantitdarker]

"Nothing else has ever made me want for light like you do," he said simply. There was no sense mincing words when it came to the truth.

[anoixi]

"Nothing?" His life had been longer than hers, stretching back into the far past, as long as her mother's.

[youwantitdarker]

"Just you," Hades smile was slight but sincere, reaching down to brush a hand over her cheek.

[anoixi]

She knows that by the time they all faded and time was over, she will have done to many things to see just a sliver of that smile on his handsome face. She raises on her toes to slip her arms around his shoulders, her warmth leaching into him. "I'm going to be your wife," she murmured, partly to herself, and partly to him.