Love Me, Love Me Not [KH/Greek Mythology, Hades/Persephone, R]

[syvia.livejournal.com]

Title: Love Me, Love Me Not (Part Two)
Author/Artist: syvia
Rating: R
Warnings: Language, a few humorous sexual situations, adult themes
Word Count: 12285
Summary: Hades and Persephone got married. That's fact. Whether they loved each other... well, the muses are still trying to figure that one out.
Prompt: - Crossover: Kingdom Hearts/Greek Mythology, Hades/Persephone: Dominance (aka, "who wears the toga of the house") - The entire world may think Hades is in complete control of the Underworld, and is the boss of his home. But the truth couldn't be any more different, especially with a rose-with-thorns woman like Persephone.
Author's Notes:Ceci and Os deserve a really, really big hand for this. I think I nearly drove all of us nuts trying to decide what this fic was supposed to be and not let it get further than one chapter out of hand. I wanted to finish by the due-date, and I didn't want to write multiple chapters. XD No, it's not more than one chapter- it's a one-shot that didn't fit into a single post.

I wanted to make it enjoyable- something people would enjoy reading and something I could say I was happy to have written. I'm happy I wrote this.

The rest is up to you.

Part One



Persephone is Demeter's daughter,
the goddess of all of the earth,
and mommy's taught her everything that she knows,
since the day of her little girl's birth

"Including," the muse says with a roll of one hip, "how to stand up for herself. Especially against a man." She arches a knowing eyebrow at her sisters, who laugh and blush. Kairi does the same, which makes Riku smirk and Sora look slightly nervous. "Persephone would argue any time she disagreed with his opinion- and most of the time she got her way! The only thing she couldn't get him to do-"

Was release, release,
release, release,
release the
lockdown!

"He'd yell," the muse says, putting out her hand, "she'd yell," the other hand. "They'd both yell- but they didn't back down when Hades caught fire or the earth trembled at Persephone's feet."

Hades is plenty, plenty frightening,
if you find your self on his bad-side,
but Seph seemed to purposefully get on it,
from the fires of Hades she'd never hide!

But!

Does that mean he loves her?
(he loves her not)
Does that mean she loves him?
(she loves him not)

The next soloist dances forward, waving an arm above her head.

Meanwhile, Demeter-
discontented with Zeus' non-interference,
took matters into her own hands,
there's something to be said for her perseverance-

"And the mortals," interrupts one of her sisters, "would say it was-" another claps a hand over her mouth.

"Thank you, baby," the soloist waves at them.

She wasn't happy at all,
although Zeus had a point
things in the Underworld
weren't so far out of joint.


"Great Zeus," Demeter said, calmly folding her arms across her chest. "I understand that an Olympus Stone takes time to forge, but I did wonder how it would get done when Hephaestus doesn't seem to be working. I'm also fairly certain that the original did not take four months to complete."

Zeus would have asked his wife to take over this meeting, but Hera had washed her lovely pink hands of the whole affair. She sympathized with Demeter, having lost a child herself. Zeus thought they were taking it a little far, really- he'd been devastated when Hercules went missing, but the humans had taken good care of him! Demeter had always been close to Persephone, but Hades wasn't treating her badly. His children were strong and capable- all of them.

But... Hera didn't agree with his brilliant proposal, so Zeus had to explain to Demeter alone.

"Yes... about that. Have you realized," he said grandly, "how quiet things have been in the Underworld since Persephone married Hades?"

Demeter's eyes narrowed.

"Hercules tells me that, during his visits, Persephone seems to be moving things along- making changes! She tells Hades what to do and he actually seems to listen to her!" He laughed loudly, "Seems our little girl can look out for herself and keep my brother in line! It's the perfect match!" Zeus felt his godly presence tremble within him at the look of cold hatred on Demeter's face.


"Uh-oh."

Meg wandered over to the door, looked up and whistled. "That looks like one heck of a thunderstorm," she muttered.

Phil grimaced, spun on his hoof and went back into the coliseum. He marched over to a closet and tossed out a stack of furs- the remnants of various urn-shoots Hercules had done in the past. He threw one over his shoulders and held another out to Meg.

"That's not rain comin' our way, sister."


Panic scuttled from one side of the room to the other like a nervous crab.

"The Elysium population has gone up due to influx of souls re-directed from Asphodel. The population in Asphodel has dropped from the aforementioned transfer and a number of souls being reborn- the transits from our afterlife to the corresponding worlds' have decreased in time and aggravation-"

"Have I maimed you lately?" Hades asked.

Panic froze, clutching the scroll in his claws a little tighter and peeking around it.

"Um... no."

Hades thought about that, humming and tapping his fingers on the throne-arm.

When was the last time he'd barbequed the imps? Sometime last month? What day was it? Scratch that, what month was it? In the past, he could have set a sundial by the degree of burn on Panic's tail.

Lately for some reason he just didn't feel the need. Woah. How had that happened? Were the imps more competent? No... no Pain had insulted that Flying Dutch Octopus guy just a week ago and still smelled like fish guts.

Was work any less onerous?

No, souls still cried and screamed as soon as they got in. Still- it didn't last as long anymore. He'd checked up on his schnookie during the first couple days of her 'project' and realized... it was a good idea. The dead talked to each other now rather than wallow in their own whininess. They didn't come to him begging for one more day upstairs. Some did leave, sure, but only after they'd tasted the Lethe and they left to get a whole new start.

One less sniveling yutz in the pile of sniveling yutzes was never a bad thing.

He almost... looked forward to getting out of bed and starting his day.

Partly because he wanted it over with- he got done, he got to spend time with his night-blossom. He was a genius, no doubt about it. Persephone could hold a conversation that didn't make him want to beat his head against a stalactite (except when she was being particularly stubborn). She wasn't afraid of him, didn't seem to mind the Underworld at all, really. Hell, she had a taste for the Underdrome matches (as often as she smacked him for 'being an satyr's ass', he should have realized sooner she had a taste for violence).

Sure, she had that unfortunate independent streak- kept poking around the edges of the lockdown. She could spend days in the garden if he didn't remind her that she had a bed- and hey, it as oh-so-comfy because he was in it.

He didn't feel surprised anymore when she walked into a room, but he liked to stand back and watch. He still stopped, a little confused, when he caught the scent of flowers nowhere near the garden but it took him less time to remember 'oh, Seph must have been by'.

He grinned. He was actually- wait, wait maybe he shouldn't think it. Ah, hell with it. Happy. He was happy.

He was so happy that he grinned at Panic- still frozen in front of the throne, waiting for Hades' 'moment' to end before he continued the daily report.

Panic started, tentatively, to grin back.

And Hades flamed him.


"Is this a bad time?"

Hades looked up, smirked. "I was thinking you'd wanna celebrate finally getting Auron out of our hair and winning the bet."

"Oh yes," Persephone said, nodding, "winning the bet that allows me to start that project I started months ago which is doing just fine- thanks for asking." She hadn't moved from the bedroom door.

Hades wiggled his hands. "You seem like you're in a better mood these days, and the Olympus Stone is nowhere to be found."

"Sound more enthusiastic about that, why don't you?" but she couldn't be as upset as she probably should have. The longer she was Underground, the more Hades relaxed. When Hades relaxed, he was surprisingly pleasant to be around. "That and I've been eating better since you've let Meg and Pegasus drop in from time to time-"

"Since your energy is back up," Hades leered, "I thought you might like to have your wicked way with me."

Persephone tried not to turn red- tried very hard not to- as she deliberately looked Hades over from the hands that had been chained to the bedposts, to the ankles that were likewise restrained with brass links that disappeared somewhere beneath the bed, and every naked inch between. She tapped her fingers on her lips, thought about it, hmmmed to herself.

Tossed a hand over her shoulder, "Nahhh. I'm not in the mood." She turned around and walked off, leaving her spouse lying, stunned, on the bed. "You have fun, though, m'kay, poopise?"

"Seph? Persephone!?"


Hades started awake no less than four days later. There was a hand beneath his tunic and it wasn't his own.

"Something you wanted, schnookie?" he muttered.

"I haven't been able to get the sight of your naked body out of my head," she murmured. She didn't sound horribly annoyed about that- just a little wry. "Sooo... can I still have my wicked way with you?"

If his ear hadn't been burning before, her breath would have done it. Hades hummed, thinking about it, considered being perverse and telling her to knock it off- he was tired and wanted to sleep.

But he wasn't insane.

He growled, playfully, "C'mere, you."

She laughed in his ear before he grabbed her, kissed her, and their noises became something altogether different.


And then there was sex.

The soloist stops in a very matter-of-fact way, and so does the music.

Everyone stares at her, wide eyed. Then the eldest smiles, rolls her eyes fondly.

To Kairi's embarrassment, she giggles, and hurriedly covers her mouth.

It breaks the astonishment and the rest of the muses join in, laughing, leaning against each other for support and grinning. Smiling, with an edge of the laughter in her words, the soloist belts out the next lines,

I think she loved him!

"Oh I think not," her sister mutters, grinning.

I think he loved her!

"Or thought he was hot!" another sister calls from the chorus.

I can't think of another reason,
why any goddess at all, anywhere,
would go into Hades' bed,
then stay there!

There is an ominous rumble in the earth, a darkening of the clouds, and everyone flinches. The soloist muse claps her hands over her mouth and they all look around. Someone might just be listening- and not so terribly amused by the song.

But the danger seems to pass, the muse straightens her stola and lifts her head high.

He could have tried to force her,
they were married, it was part of the deal,
but no, he waited until she wanted him,
that's only part of the reason I feel-

That he loved her,
(he loved her so)
and that she loved him,
(she loved him, oh)

Her sister comes up, slowly, solemnly, and sings.

But that isn't the end of the story,
that isn't the ending at all,
just when they started getting comfortable,
the mother-in-law came to call.


She woke just a little- hummed and nuzzled the hand stroking her cheek. The edge of it cupped her ear loosely, someone's thumb tickling her skin. The singing... she'd heard it just a bit ago, but it grew louder. A familiar melody... something her mom always-

Persephone forced her eyes open, blinked because they didn't want to.

"Mom?" She looked up- green- and green and a loving smile, "Mom!" she breathed, squirming out of the covers, into a sitting position. Then she grabbed Demeter and hugged her as she leaned half in and half out... of her bed... in the Underground.

What was wrong with this fresco?

"'Mom'?" Hades' tone of voice was more than able to express his incredulity and her own. Persephone glanced at him- hiding under the covers like a bashful maiden. She knew he wore the usual tunic (exactly the same as the one she'd stolen from him for her own nightgown) underneath those blankets so Persephone didn't know why he was being such a... well.

"Um," she said, still hugging, "mom, why are you uh, here? Not that I'm not happy to see you-"

"Could you see her outside our bedroom?" Hades griped.

"I wanted to make sure my baby was getting on alright," Demeter said fondly, ignoring him. "Now that I set Winter firmly in place, I can come and visit my little girl!"

Persephone felt a chill- she had a sinking feeling as she drew back from her mother and looked Demeter in the face. "Winter?"


Hades got dressed, climbed out from under the covers, and announced that he had things to do. Demeter ignored him until Persephone leaned over for their 'have a good day' kiss. He could feel the glare. He could feel the walls creaking and he got the hell out.

Then he went invisible so he could eavesdrop.

"Yes, darling- and it's a lovely garden. I'm sure I can whip up something to help it once you leave." She knelt, drew Persephone down to sit on the grass beside her.

"I'm not so sure I'm leaving, mom."

Demeter patted her on the cheek. "Of course you are, dear. They can't make another Olympus Stone, but that nice young Keyblade Master will have to come back some time, and when he does-"

"That's not what I mean." Persephone took her mother's hand in both of hers. She got that cute 'I really REALLY mean this' expression Hades had learned meant business. "Mom, I love him."

Hades felt his non-existent heart stop.

Demeter didn't sound upset, or shocked, or even phased when she said, "Of course you do, dear."

Huh?

"You love everything- it takes such a great deal of love to bring things back from dormancy-"

"No, mom, I don't mean part of my divine aspect, I love him."

Well wasn't that a kick in the pita?

"Is this some form of guilt, darling? I know he forced you to marry him and to go to his bed-"

"Mom! Mom." Persephone had both hands over her face and her skin was slowly turning red. "Mom... yes, okay, the marriage was forced, but the sex was my idea-"

Oh it had been. His pookie was creative.

"Sweetie!"

"It was, mom. I uh... kicked him, rather hard, the first day I got here. After that Hades wouldn't touch me unless he was sure I'd welcome it- or he was feeling masochistic."

"That's my girl!"

They both giggled. Women. Goddesses, oy.

"You haven't eaten anything, have you?"

"Of course not!" Then Persephone seemed to realize she'd answered too quickly, but it was okay. Hades wasn't anywhere near them.

Riiiiiiiiiight.

"Then we'll get that nice little boy with the Keyblade here... eventually... you can come away from this dark, dank, stinky Underworld and things will be right as rain!"

"Mom, no- look. Hades didn't abduct me- no one forced me to come down here. It just happened. Maybe it was supposed to happen."

"Don't be ridiculous-"

"I've been more use down here helping souls and being a wife than I ever did helping out on a job you've always been more than capable of doing on your own."

Oooh, ouch.

"Now listen here, young lady-"

"You don't need my help, mom," Persephone just barely kept from whining, managed to keep her voice reasonable and understanding. Well, if anyone knew how to handle Demeter, it would be her kid. "You never have. I love you, I love the aboveground... but you gave me spring because I didn't have anything to do!"

Demeter fluffed her daughter's hair, skirted around the crown of flames and cupped her cheek. "But you do it so well-"

"I'm more useful down here."

"You'll feel differently once you're home."

"Mom, this is home- I'm married and I love my husband."

Demeter scoffed. "Lots of goddesses love their husbands-"

"Well maybe fidelity means something to me."

"But that doesn't mean," Demeter sounded a touch harder and ignored what Persephone had just said, "they are loved in return."

He was an idiot. He'd stopped thinking 'this will be nice while it lasts'. He'd stopped thinking of the situation as temporary. He hadn't thought, 'hey- maybe she's like this with everyone'. The thought of Persephone with someone else... his Persephone- oh, but she wasn't really his, was she? Not if she loved everyone the same way she loved him.

He was tired of listening to this, so he left.

There would have been nothing to hear, but the weight of the silence filled Persephone's heart. She stared at her mother for a time, then rose to her feet.

Demeter watched her do it, and wondered suddenly who this was, standing before her. Not a child, not simply a woman either. The flames on Persephone's hair blazed gold and she met Demeter's eyes not child to mother, but deity to deity.

"I'll show you the way out."


Demeter watched her during their walk to the crossroads.

"I know you aren't happy to hear it," Persephone said, almost apologizing, "but I had to grow up sometime. Whether or not I got married, or changed aspects, I... was going to leave you, mom."

Eros hasn't, Demeter thought, and quickly stifled the impulse to say. It wouldn't help. "Are you saying you actually wish to stay here?" Her incredulity was well-deserved, she thought. "You could simply eat the food of the dead and the point would be moot. You haven't, so-"

"I haven't eaten," Persephone said firmly, "because I would like the freedom to leave and come back. Because I'm waiting for Hades to trust me enough that he feels comfortable ending the lockdown. For some reason," she said wryly, mounting the steps that would take her mother outside, "he seems to think you won't let me see him again if I leave."

"He's smarter than I gave him credit for, then."

Persephone groaned. "Mom, you're being unreasonable. You've-" she stopped speaking, stared at the sky beyond the portal- the snow whipping through the air and all that covered the ground. "Mom, what did you do?"

"Your Father has done nothing but shuffle his feet with regard to getting you out of here. He could have journeyed down himself and tried to talk sense into Hades-"

"... You came down here and you didn't try to talk sense into him-"

"-could have worked harder to get the little boy with the Olympus Stone to come back. There is absolutely no reason they cannot send a message with Nyx or one of the other multi-world deities to-"

"Mom, the mortals can't be having an easy time with this-" she'd noticed the average number of incoming souls going up, but she hadn't investigated the why of it.

"It's the only way Zeus will take action, dear," she patted her horrified daughter's cheek and gave her a peck on the lips. "Don't worry. Everything will be fixed once you're back upstairs, safe and sound."

Ohhhh, this wasn't good, and yet, as Demeter stepped out into the snow and poofed away (to warmer climes, undoubtedly), Persephone gritted her teeth.

Her mother hadn't run out of ways to meddle with her life.


So it sounds like...

She doesn't love him
(...loves him)
even if he loves her
(...loves her)

Everything that lives,
and everything that can be reborn,
Persephone is responsible for their care,
and so her heart was torn.

She wanted to stay-
in this life she had made,
she liked it enough,
to keep giving her aid

She was doing some good,
she was helping some souls,
but then mommy dearest
interrupted her goals

Her sister glides out to join her- they put their arms around each other's waists and the new singer takes over.

And what about Hades?
because when you think about it,
how long do you have something,
before you can't live without it?

The God of the Dead has a heart,
Just like anyone (well not quite anyone)
so what do you tell somebody
when their time with someone special is done?

We don't know if he loves her,
(loves her oh)
but he just might love her,
(loves her so)

They sing as one.

Because Seph,
she did not want to go,
and he
did not want her to go.

And that was just fine,
the lockdown was still in place,
and another life-change,
Seph did not want to face,

The Olympus Stone wasn't there,
and Sora was nowhere to be found,
but then one day, our little Keyblade Master,
happened to come around.


Five steps into the Coliseum, Sora knew something was different.

"Wow, we've never been here for the snow before!"

Donald and Goofy, shivering behind him, were somewhat less enthusiastic. Sora watched his breath steam in the air and grinned. He wasn't used to snow- liked it even though it was a.) very cold and b.) painful against bare skin.

"Hey Phil!"

The satyr- already stomping in their direction, shivering although he'd probably have denied it, with little icicles hanging off his horns, glared at Sora's greeting and jumped up, snagging his ear and dragging him down with it.

"Ya bum! You couldn'a been here five months ago? Before the World went into deep freeze?"

Sora winced at the tugging on his earlobe, and the screaming, and his voice came out softer than normal.

"You mean... it isn't supposed to be this cold?"

Being shoved into that snowdrift was really uncalled for.


"Yanno, if we're going up against Hades again, I really should get a few more elixirs and-"

"Sora," Hercules had never looked so frantic before in all the time Sora had known him, "you need to get down there and at least talk to Persephone. Right now."

"But why?"

"Because the last person Demeter asked for help stopped to lace up his sandal and she turned him into a newt."

Donald gulped.

"...Did he get better?" Sora murmured.

"He got eaten."

Goofy gulped.


Hades sat up on his throne and looked around, eyelid twitching. There was that feeling... that was familiar. Off-worlders. He smelled Light- but he'd gotten used to that after marrying his little nightshade blossom. He smelled/felt felt/smelled youth... mortality. Feathers and loyalty and something made of metal- not a sword more like a...

"The Keybrat!" he snarled. They had the Olympus Stone, they had a key to every damn door in his joint, they could...

They could break out Persephone.

No way in... well, yeah.


She heard yelling and it wasn't the imps.

Torture of the Damned actually happened less often than the other gods thought- Hades thought the dead were disgusting and did whatever he could to avoid contact with them. He was more likely to devise some fiendishly complicated device that made them torture themselves and leave, snickering at his own cleverness.

He really was quite creative.

Persephone leaned around the archway and caught sight of three small figures hanging suspended over the well of souls- two of them screaming a set of rather unintelligible insults at Hades.

They were wrapped neck-to-wrist in chains and connected with the ceiling far overhead by the same. A boy- a... duck and a dog. They didn't get mortal visitors very often- most were there for the Underdrome and Hades ignored them outside the ring. Unless they stepped out of bounds. Or they held something of interest.

Persephone caught the glint of gold in Hades' palm- a disk that shimmered softly in the half-light. The Olympus Stone. Then the boy was the Keyblade Master. Interesting companions the boy had.

Persephone sighed. Two steps forward, four steps back. She'd been glad that the Olympus Stone was gone- had stayed missing. As long as it wasn't on this world she had no choice but to stay in the Underworld. Now that it was here... well, the mortals aboveground couldn't be doing well- or they wouldn't in a perpetual winter.

She had thought enough time with Hades- getting him used to her presence, seeing that she liked it here (despite all his insanity and the imps semi-incompetence) would convince him he had nothing to worry about. He'd lift the lockdown and she could go wherever she wanted. Including the Underworld.

Now- now that she could actually get out without his permission, he was back on the defensive. With the Olympus Stone here, she had an out. Considering what her mom had done (and would probably continue to do) she had an obligation to take it. Hades would think she didn't love him- that she'd lied about staying.

She hadn't but... she wasn't sure now, if she loved him because of him, or because it was built into her to love everything that lived or could live. She didn't know if he loved her or just enjoyed being married to her.

The sight of that little gold medallion should have filled her with elation- joy that she could finally escape. From a perfectly good life, work she enjoyed, and a husband she... well. That was the problem, wasn't it?

"Hades," she called, stepping forward, arms crossed over her chest, "why didn't you tell me we had visitors?"


At least, Sora figured, he wasn't sitting right next to Hades. Persephone was nearly as imposing as her husband, but her smile was a little more sincere. She seemed upset- probably about the Olympus Stone thing. Sora would have apologized if Hades hadn't been sitting three feet away.

That capture had been embarrassing. Five heartless were nothing- really! Except if they happened to knock him down long enough for a sixth to rummage around his person- steal six Hi-potions and the Olympus Stone out of his pocket. Hades had popped up, like he'd been there all along, taken the stone and put them all in chains- then just stared at them while they shouted. He'd glared, and held the stone, and glared some more.

The dinner they sat down to was awkward. Hades staring at them and chewing his roast... something or other, like he wished it was one of Sora's favorite body parts. It would have been worse if Persephone hadn't filled the silence with the state of the Styx, the Underworld's garden and details about her 'Twelve Steps to Soul Rehabilitation' process.

"Which will be suspended now that Keybrat here has brought your ticket out," Hades drawled.

Persephone's jaw clenched, but she smiled faintly and her tone was light. "Hardly. I'll go upstairs, fix the weather, tell my mom to stop it-"

"And she'll lock you up on Mount Olympus to keep you safe from me and my evil, stinky, dank Underground."

Her eyes grew wide, then she laughed, shook her head. "You were listening. Well of course you were listening. Gods forbid I have a conversation with my mother without you being there to take offense."

"Well it's a good thing I was listening- wouldn't want you to have to spring the news that you love me like you love topsoil, but you're going back to the real thing now."

"Which is so much worse than you picking the first girl to drop in on you and instead of taking her out on a date- marrying her just because oh- she was there!"

Sora sank in his chair and tried to pretend he wasn't in the room. Donald, on the other side of the table, edged further away from Hades and did the same. Goofy stared with all the focus of a spectator at a ping-pong match.

"Besides," Persephone seethed, "I'm only leaving because my mother has gone sub-zero, because you wouldn't let me leave before she resorted to drastic measures!"

"Oh really? Well it pisses you off, right?"

"Yes, it does."

"Annoys the hell out of you that mommy dearest is poking her nose where it doesn't belong, right?"

"Yes."

"Then how," Hades exploded out of his chair- orange flame, mushroom cloud and all, "do I know you won't be coming back just to spite her?"

She stood up to gain equal height (although she was shorter than he was) and the crown on her hair- gee, Sora hadn't noticed it before- flamed orange and deep red. It climbed several inches as she rose from her chair.

"How," she shouted back, "do I know you didn't marry me just to spite my father?"

This was almost Sora's inner five-year-old mused through its terror, as frightening as when his mom and dad fought.

"I guess you don't!" he said.

"If you did," she raged on, "why do you care so much whether I stay? I'm sure he's lost enough worshippers to mom's cold-shoulder routine!"

Hades bared his teeth, and smoldered, and didn't say anything.

"I believe you love me even if you won't admit it!" she shouted, but she didn't sound quite so angry anymore. Hades stared, and seemed to actually go pale- as pale as someone with blue skin could manage, and still didn't say anything. "Well what if I didn't love you more than topsoil, huh? You aren't entitled to it! You made me marry you, remember?"

Sora winced, chanced a look at Hades and found him... sad. Looking sad. Wow. He actually felt sorry for the jerk.

Which was probably a bad thing because Hades didn't seem like the type to take pity well and was looking right at Sora.

Then he was hanging by the back of his jacket from one of the huge statues outside the Coliseum with Donald clinging to one foot, Goofy the other, and they had bigger problems.


"Come up here," says the soloist, "and take a verse, baby!"

Sora grins, hops to his feet and bounds over. Riku groans.

"It's Atlantica all over again."

Kairi laughs.

Well Donald, Goofy and I,
he sent us back upstairs,
we were hanging from a sword,
'cause Herc had done his repairs

We hightailed it out,
we knew Demeter would be mad,
if we'd been turned into lizards
we knew our friends would all be sad.

They all laugh, and the soloist gives him a little shove back toward Riku and Kairi.

The eldest sister rises and sways to the soloist, who gives her the 'stage'.

It's still not quite the end of the story,
it's not quite the end of our rhyme,
because the seasons have ends and beginnings,
winter had just a little more time.


“Guess that’s it then.”

She blinked at their sudden lack of company. Then at Hades tossing her a... pomegranate? She felt something flare within her chest- like a tiny sun rising. He'd hid the Stone... in a fruit. Persephone's lips twitched at the genius of that move- then her heart clenched at the look on his face.

“Well,” he said, and she could hear how false the lightness in his tone was, “it was great havin’ ya- I guess I’ll see ya around at the next pantheon party. We can have a drink-,” he started to turn away.

"So-"

Hades paused.

“-the last six months didn't matter to you." She didn't want to believe that- didn't believe it. He was just pushing her away because he thought she wouldn't come back- because he didn't want to hurt.

“Not at all,” he said flippantly, not looking at her. “I thought it’d be a nice change of pace to get hitched. You fell on me- I figured it was fate, but you don't love me, so-”

She was red again- moving over to him. Her hand made a satisfying crack as she caught him across the face.

"You're a selfish, juvenile son-of-a-Titan and I never said that I didn't love you," she hissed. "I said you weren't entitled to it."

He hadn't even flinched. "But you're still leaving."

"When I get back," Persephone said, poking him in the chest, "you and I are going to talk about those trust issues."

He took her hand, pulled her close with surprising gentleness. Hades held her- only that. Clutching the Stone in one hand, she wound her arms about him. He held her tightly. It almost hurt.

Her heart did hurt.

“I’ve never been able to have the earth and the sky at the same time, babe,” he muttered. "Someone always takes it away. Can’t really have a flower. You all reach for the sun.”

“This will be different," she whispered. He didn't believe her.

"I've made thousands of contracts, Seph. Everyone looks for a loophole. You got yours. Go on, go."

The warmth surrounding her disappeared. Persephone drew her arms inward and stood still, wanting to run after him.

But she had to fix things. She didn't scream, grit her teeth in frustration and anger before she disappeared from the room- from the Underworld.

Only the quickest of her tears managed to stay behind.


She was glad to feel the sun again- enjoyed it falling on her face. The smell of the wind and the earth from above and the sky- it was so bright, so beautiful, even through the cold. Persephone found herself just outside Hercules' Coliseum and knelt there, heedless of her thin stola or the damp chill of the snow.

She pushed her hands through the cold, letting the pomegranate-with-Stone fall and make a little hole in the snow.

Demeter had killed the earth. No- too harsh. She'd put it to sleep. She'd told it to go to bed and not bother to wake up, or let anything else wake up.

But it knew Persephone. She'd lived in the Underworld long before Winter started- she'd worked with Souls but also known her old aspect- felt the Earth as deeply as she ever had walking upon it and pulling things out of it.

The Earth knew her very well, and she coaxed it awake like a reluctant child, teased it with promises of warm days and living plants, animals and mortals working, growing.

Even if she had to stay upstairs to make sure they would happen.

Persephone's tears continued to fall on the snow as it started to melt. She would have to. She could wake up the world, but Demeter would just put it to sleep again if she went back to Hades. She sat back on her heels and tears ran down her cheeks.

It just wasn’t fair.

She... it was better if she stayed up here. Better for the people of Greece.

What about her? She'd had a life in the Underworld that she... had enjoyed. Even with the strangeness, she'd fit there- Hades listened to her, even if she had to go over his head to do the right thing. She had work that she had made for herself, something only she could do. She got to make choices that mattered- helping the mortals and....

Hades.

The crown on her forehead was still burning- still there. The weight was a physical impossibility but now- she couldn’t lift her head. Why? Why couldn’t she have both? Why couldn’t she leave the Underworld and stay married? Her mother and... everyone else on Olympus had certain ideas about Hades. Certain ideas that were, unfortunately true. But he wasn’t the only god who’d ever been selfish- who’d ever held someone against their will- who’d ever tried to kill another deity- who’d... okay, that one was a rather big no-no.

She couldn’t live aboveground and see Hades.

She couldn’t live in the Underground and see everything upstairs.

She had told him that she'd be back.

Persephone glanced at the pomegranate, reached for it.

She’d talk to her mom- make her see reason about the earth. She’d leave the Olympus Stone for the other gods to use again. If Demeter could manage to forgive her, she'd visit. If not... well, Persephone was an adult- had been for centuries, if Demeter couldn't accept that, it was just too bad.

She wouldn’t leave Hades. Persephone dug her fingers into the pomegranate- frowning in concentration. She opened the fruit, using divine strength on the hard rind, extracted the Olympus Stone. A few seeds were pinned between the jagged edges of the lightning bolt and the raised edge of the medallion. She made the fruit disappear.

Persephone pulled one seed out- slowly and deliberately set it in her mouth. It was sweet.

Another, and another.

She’d closed her lips over the sixth when she heard running footsteps. Her mother caught her close, hugging and murmuring comfort.

Later she would tell Demeter that she'd eaten the food of the dead. Later she would try to explain that she loved her husband enough to stay with him and she hoped her mother could understand that.

Right now though, Demeter embraced her, weeping. Persephone sighed, rubbed her mother's back, repeating that she was okay- things would be okay.

At least, she hoped they would.


Riku leans back against a root, arms crossed. He looks like he's tasted a lemon.

Sora's grimace isn't as disgusted, but it's still there. "Now I actually feel worse for Hades."

"Don't," Riku says bluntly. "I doubt he likes you any better."

Kairi sits her chin in her hand as the muses settle themselves on the grass, all of them thoughtful.

"What do you think?" asks the eldest. "Were they in love?"

"Yes," Riku says, just as blunt, just as annoyed. "But it doesn't change anything. When we go downstairs, we have to be on guard."

Two of the muses grin at that, the vote is now three to two.

Kairi makes a soft sound, shrugs. "I don't think they were in love then, but I think they were getting there."

The other two muses look pleased. They look at each other, and groan.

"It's still a tie!"

The eldest smiles, looks at Sora.

He smiles, sheepishly, and scratches his head.

"I don't know."

The muses groan loudly.

"I don't!" he protests. "But... I think it means a lot that she ate the food of the dead. I came back a few days after that and-"


"What?" Sora asked, staring at the Olympus Stone safely back in his hand- where Meg had tossed it.

"She's back home, but she ate a few seeds from a pomegranate she'd gotten out of the Underworld. Now it's six months upstairs, six months down."

"Well, I guess Hades is happy," Donald murmured.

"Understatement," Meg answered. "The day he found out, all the volcanoes on earth simultaneously erupted."

Goofy seemed oddly pleased to hear it. "A'hyuck, ya' better get some warm coats!"

Meg snorted. "Yeah, Phil already has the marketing team working on it- something to match the new covered-toe Air Hercs. He's been grumbling that it'll be the only good thing to come out of the situation."

"Wait, wait," Sora knocked a hand against his head, "she ate the food of the dead? She's the one who told us not to do that."

Meg's grin was rueful and soft. "People do crazy things when they're in love."