Persephone Hades Chapter VI

            He was so beautiful in that moment, and so kind.  His midnight hair was flying around his lovely pale face, and a hint of a smile was creeping into the corners of his mouth.  His eyes, no longer were they the deep black of what I had known them to be.  Even from where I was sitting I could clearly see his old emerald eyes peeping through, the black was fading away.  I noticed he was wearing just an emerald robe, a pin of emerald holding it up on one side, the other hand no strap. His belt was of fine black silk and so were his shoes, he had dressed so nicely and simply for this.  His muscles screamed masculinity at me, and even though he was pale they glistening just as much as a dark Zeus’s.  
            I placed my thin and fragile finger tips in the middle of his large hand and watched his long fingers wrap around them.  In a second Hades had me standing and pressed against him.  His arm was around my waist so that I didn’t fall and he had me so that my front was next to his shoulder.  Not my boobs, mind you, but I was dangerously close to him.  In that moment I realized what was going on and my eyes instinctively squinted as I looked forward.  
                                                             Sunlight!
            I could see an opening ahead and not far away.  I quickly looked to Hades who was just looking at me.  I didn’t blush as I boldly looked back into his eyes, the light was beginning to shine on his face and cast shadows.  For a moment the way the light shined on his features made him absolutely down right, no lie sexy.  No, not sexy, it was more sophisticated than that.  He was remarkably beautiful.  No, he wasn’t sparkling, but he was close.  Hades’s almost grin finally spread into a sincere and loving smile.  “You’re eyes, they’re almost green.”  I whispered, but his face was so close that I knew he could hear me.  I never saw his reaction because just then the light struck us with full heat and I turned to soak in the warmth.  I closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh hot air and I knew a smile was crossing my lips as I enjoyed every second of the heat caressing my skin.
Rays of sunlight poured over my face and arms warming them to the bone, even places I didn’t know had gone cold.  
            I could feel the color coming back to my cheeks, making them rosy once again.  My heart rose when I heard the rush of the ocean below me and I almost cried with joy when I saw the tip of Mount Olympus, shining like a candle in the darkness.  I could feel Hades staring at me, his heart was hurting to see me excited about Olympus but I couldn’t help it.  I looked back, still smiling and I saw his eyes were almost fully black again.  “Oh don’t be a grouch; we’ll be back home soon.”  I reassured him and rested my head on his shoulder.  For the first time I heard his heart beat and it not only beat, but it jumped with joy and did flips one way then the other.  
            I couldn’t help trying to cheer him up.  Both of us knew there was nothing Zeus could do permanently so I was going back to Hell one way or the other.  In the distance I could see Hermes fluttering around, and racing towards us.  As we met him in the air I gave a wave, with a small laugh.  The child God came up and looked at me curiously, “We’ve been waiting for you.  I’ll go tell His Holiness you’re arriving.”  He started to take off. “Hermes!  Wait, can you first go tell my mother I’m okay?”  The boy smiled and nodded, flying off quickly.  “You really do love your mother, don’t you?”  Hades asked.  I nodded, without looking him in the eye, knowing it would crush him.
            “She’s my everything.  I know her better than I know myself.”  I explained. Hades didn’t say anything, not until we touched down on Olympus.  The first person I saw was my mother, running towards the chariot. “Mother!” I cried, but I didn’t move.  Hades immediately jumped down and reached up take me under my arms and help me down.  When I set my foot down and nothing happened I looked up and smiled.  Before I could stop her my mother was ripping me away from Hades’s arms and screaming in ancient tongues.  Once she made sure I as away from him she lunged herself at him, fists flying.  Hades covered his face with his arms and took a step back.  
            “Mother!” I cried and ran for her, squeezing myself between them, pushing Demeter away gently and standing in front of Hades protectively.  “Demeter!”  Zeus bellowed across the Grand Room.  My mother stared at me for a second then turned to bow to Zeus.  “Did we not discuss that we will act civilly about this?”  He demanded.  My mother apologized and held out her hand for mine.  I hesitated and looked to Hades who nodded. “It’s fine, go.  She misses you as you do her.”  He said quietly to me.  I nodded and ran to my mother, taking her hand.  Her hand was so warm compared to mine, which was warming slowly.  
            “Hades, do you want to eat first or should we just get down to business?”  Zeus asked.  I looked over my shoulder to him as he sighed and walked over to his brother.  Zeus and Hades were so different. Zeus was a giant and tan with long bleach blonde hair that fell half way across his back.  Radiant blue eyes shone with the brilliance of a thousand suns and his voice was a bellowing laugh constantly, unless he was furious. Hades was no short man, he was tall in his own right, but he was a little white boy comparing to a black man in the middle of ghetto town. Zeus clapped a hand on his back and led him to two chairs at a table with some papers.  
            “Mother?  What are they going to do?”  I asked as she closed the door to her suite.  She never said anything but flew into my arms and almost tackled me to the ground.  “Are you okay?  You look so thin, and that material is so cheap.  Have you eaten?  He’s not starving you is he?  You have your own room right?  He doesn’t force you to do anything you don’t want to, does he?  He hasn’t raped you?”  Her final question threw me for a loop and I think my eyebrows might have seriously touched my hairline.
            “What?!  No!  He hasn’t even tried to do something like that.  Yes, he feeds me; my room is right next to the kitchen.  It’s my room, he has his own somewhere else and that’s saying he sleeps.  Every time I talk to him he’s working or trying to work on something.  And this material is not cheap; he tried very hard to find material that would not hurt my skin.” I defended and stepped away from her.  I was glad to see her, and glad to be out of Hell for a short while, but she didn’t know what had gone on, or how I was feeling now.  
             “Look at you; you act like he’s been nice.  He stole you!  He took you from me!”  She said and a tear fell down her face.  “Oh, mom.”  I muttered and walked over to hug her.  “I thought I had lost you forever.  I thought I was going to die when that stupid maid had told me what he had done.”  I stopped.  “What did you do to the maid?”  I asked.  “I fired her; she works in the kitchens now.  She might even be banished to the humans when I found out something bad happened to you.” Demeter wiped away her tear and looked me over again.  
            “Well, you don’t look that bad.  But you certainly need more sun, you are so pale.”  She teased.  “Mom, I was pale to begin with.”  I grinned and hugged her again.  “But really.  What are Zeus and Hades going to talk about?”  I asked.  Mom waved it away.  “Just trying to find a way to get you back.  Zeus said
if Hades said he wasn’t giving you back then he was going to have to find a loophole in the magic.  There has to be a way you can come back here without dying.”  Demeter pulled out her makeup and began to redo her face.  “Summer is almost over.  You going to the Island of Farina to rest later?” I asked.  Demeter nodded.
             “I’m tired of Olympus for now.  I’m going to take my rest for Fall and Winter.”  She replied.  I nodded and sat down on the end of her bed.  “What’s that?”  She asked, looking at something in my lap through the mirror.  “What?”  I asked, worried my dress might be torn.  “On your hand.”  She said and ran over, her fabric fluttering around her.  I looked down and saw the beautiful ring I had woken up to the morning before.  It still glittered and shone prettily.  “Is that a ring?” she asked and grabbed my hand.  “Yes.” I replied and looked at it.  My mother looked at my face and threw my hand down.  
            “You can’t have it.”  She snapped.  “Take it off and give it back.”  
             I scoffed.  “But it’s mine.  Hades gave it to me.”  I looked back down at it.  The band of diamonds were almost singing to me with their gorgeousness.  I never saw my mother turn and give me an incredulous look as I stared at the ring fondly.  “You better be looking at that thing like that because it’s expensive, not because of the bastard that gave it to you.”  She warned.  I snapped my head up.  “He is not a bastard.  Yes he’s a little rough, but he does have a heart.”  I said. “Are you defending that asshole that kidnapped you away from me and took you to hell, then forced you to eat his food so that you were trapped there forever?”  She asked.  
            I lowered my head.  Mother had never liked Hades, and this was making things worse.  “Well, I can’t take it off.  I think only Hades can demand it come off.”  My mother made a sound in her throat that I didn’t know.  “Really now?  We’ll just see about that!”  She sniffed and stood, grabbing my arm as she made her way briskly down the hall and to the Grand Entrance.  I had to practically run to keep up with her, and I tripped over my dress more than once. “Hades!”  She shouted as she rounded the corner.  
            “Mother no!”  I cried and tried to pull away from her.  “Get that damned thing off her finger.  She’s not your wife and you’re not going to treat her as such.” Mother thrust my hand forward.  Hades looked to me, then to Zeus, then my mother, and then landed back on me.  Mother let me go and pushed me forward.  “Go ahead, get it off of her. She says she can’t get it off.”  Hades gave me a hurt look.  “No!  I didn’t say it in that way.  She asked me what it was; I said it was the ring you gave me.  Then she asked me to get it off and I said I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”  I explained.  
            Hades’s face got softer, well to me it was.  To everyone it probably was still cold and featureless. It was more that his shoulders that relaxed where I could tell.  “Do you want me to take it off?” he asked.  “Yes!”  My mother shouted.  “I wasn’t asking you Demeter, I was asking Persephone.”    He looked back at me and stood, taking a step forward, hand out.  I placed my left hand in his as he stopped right in front of me.  “Do you want it off?”  He asked again.  
In that moment I knew this decision would determine where my loyalties lay.  My mother, the woman I loved most in this world, who I was a princess to stood behind me, desperately trying to get me back. In front of me was a handsome and powerful man who I was coming to love, slowly, but I was getting there.  
             He had shown me kindness in ways I never thought he could, he had been gentle and forgiving through my impertinence.  And he was just all around lonely down there, I would know.  There had to be some compromise.  I wanted both my mother and Hades to be happy.  “Persephone?”  Both Hades and my mother asked at the same time.  “No, I don’t want it off.”  I answered, and then quickly added.  “But I can’t live in Hell for the rest of my life.”  Everyone was on edge with my words.  Zeus was becoming more and more interested in what I was saying.  
            “What I said last night was true.  I am a child of the harvest, I need light and sun.  Eventually I would get sick and die if I was there for the rest of my life.  But I can’t be away from you, and you have to live in Hell. I would die if you’re not where I am.”  My mother gasped through tears.  “I love you mother, with all my heart.  That’s why there has to be some compromise to this.”  I took her hand and hugged her.  “How long can she be away from you if you gave consent?”  Zeus finally asked Hades.  “About a season and a half.  After that is she doesn’t consume my food she will die.” I cringed at the thought.  Everyone was silent.  “If I stay here, I will die soon.  If I go back I will die after a few years, but nonetheless.”  I stated.  “What if she came back to Olympus for a season once a year?”  My mother finally spoke up.  
            “Mother?”  I asked, and looked to her.  “During the Spring season.  She is the Daughter of Spring and I need her to bring Spring around.  She can be here for Spring and then live with you for the rest of the year.”  Demeter suggested.  Zeus nodded and looked to Hades, who was looking at me.  “I think…” he paused and wrapped his fingers around mine gently.  “I think that is perfectly manageable.”  He finished.  Zeus gave a bellow of laughter and started writing it on paper.  My mother shouted in rejoice and I smiled to Hades.  “Thank you.” I grinned and squeezed his hand.  His face gave a sallow nod, he was no longer smiling.  He was being generous, so much so that it was hurting him to know I wouldn’t be with him for a long time every year.
            I hugged my mother and smiled.  “Well, we got that settled earlier than I thought.  Do you want to see your rooms Persephone?”  Zeus asked.  “What about my old rooms?”  I asked, confused.  “Well, your Hades’s wife now, you get his rooms.”  My mother almost shit her pants.  “What?”  “Well it goes with her living with him.  She has the ring, all we need is the ceremony and if I say it that should be good enough for everyone.”  Zeus explained.  Demeter backed down and bowed her head.  “All the same, I would like to get things from my old room.”  I said.  Zeus nodded.  “Hades and I need to finalize the agreement so you and your mother can do that.”  I bowed out and walked back to my old room, which was right next to mothers. A servant opened a small trunk for me and I began to throw some things inside of it.  “Why did you say you didn’t want the ring off?”  My mother asked.  “Because I was going to die if I don’t live with him for at least half the year.” I explained and set some nice sandals inside.  
            “I don’t like you being in the same bedroom as him.”  I rolled my eyes.  “Mother, I’m his wife.  It’s kind of expected.  Don’t worry; he respects me enough to not force me to do anything.”  My mother scoffed.  “You say that now, but he hasn’t tried and that’s the only reason you think that.”  I went silent, but my mother caught the silence easily.  “He has tried!”  She screamed.  “No!  Not really.  We were talking and we suddenly kissed.  Nothing happened, I’m still fine. It was partly my fault as well.”  I tried to calm her down.  “He’s kissed you!”  She screamed again.  “Yes mother, he has.  I’m not bothered by it; I don’t see why you should be.”  I shut the trunk and told the maid to take it to my new rooms.  “Something happened down there, and it’s changed you.  I don’t know what it is, but eventually I will know.”  She narrowed her eyes at me.  “But for now I’m glad you’re here.  It’s the last time I see you until Spring a whole two seasons away.”  She brushed her fingers with mine and I smiled, reaching out to take her hand.
            “I know I’m glad to be back here to.  Hell isn’t all that bad, cold but my room is big and comfortable.” I swung our arms back and forth, and then led her out of the room, following the servant carrying my trunk.