Not Yet

Rating: T for language and death.

A/N: I did some more research on the gods to give them more character, so some aspects aren't necessarily canon to the show, but I wanted to use them anyway.

"Give her what she wants!"

"Give her what she…?"

"Give her what she wants

"Love has many powers

"If the love is true

"It can cross the Earth

"And withstand the storm

"It can conquer even you!"

"Love conquer death? Why, I could stop her heart like that!"

"Stop her heart from beating, yes. But not from loving. Not if love is what she chooses."

"Agwe has gone to make the storm."

"And Asaka has gone off to do whatever the fuck she does when she's not thinking about mangos. Hell, she probably is off, watching some mortals eat right now."

Erzulie looked at Papa Ge, challenge written all over her face while Papa Ge broke his fingers and fused them anew. It was something of a bad habit. The observation led Erzulie to begin filing her own nails. She was due for a new polish.

"I don't believe we ever made terms for our bet," Erzulie said, casual as could be.

"Not yet," Papa Ge said eagerly, his breath rattling at the excitement of it. "When I win, you have to enter a mortal's body and I get to kill them,"

"Oh, but that will hurt!"

Papa Ge hissed, "That's the fucking fun of it. Now what do you want?"

Erzulie put a finger to her chin and hummed, taking her time just to grate Papa Ge's nerves.

It was less than ten seconds before he screamed, "The bet isn't official yet! I can go down there and kill both of them right now if you don't hurry up!"

"Fine, no need to get your ribs in a twist," Erzulie said, her laugh sounding like the tinkling of a glockenspiel. "I want you to polish all my silver—"

Papa Ge groaned.

"—And I'll need a nice champagne. To celebrate my win."

"Is that all?"

"An expensive prosecco will do in a pinch."

Erzulie smiled wide enough that her perfect white teeth almost blinded Papa Ge. Papa Ge knew better than to try to physically attack another god, but Gods if he didn't want to wrestle that loa to the ground and take a bite out of her collarbone.

Instead, he used his words.

"I think you forget, little loa, that I can read minds. I know what this mortal boy thinks. And he isn't thinking about any black peasant girl."

Erzulie kept smiling. "You know what he thinks. But not what he feels. And I think you'll find, Papa Ge, that love always wins."

"Well, that mothafucka done fucked up."

By then, many weeks had passed, and all the Gods had learned of Erzulie and Papa Ge's arrangement. Agwe was decidedly with Erzulie while Asaka was just keeping tabs for entertainment.

Hence the wide smile on her face as Ti Moune stood alone in the ballroom, after Daniel and Andrea had left. "Well, Erzulie, you might as well hop into a body right now and get it over with! You gonna make it the boy or the girl?"

Despite all Asaka's yammering, Erzulie was calm, confident even. "Neither."

"Ooh, you're gonna have Papa Ge kill some rando?"

"Papa Ge isn't killing anyone right now," Agwe said, stepping to Erzulie's aid. "The bet is whether love or death will win. And no one's dead. Hence, neither have won."

"Yeah, no one's dead…" Papa Ge brandished a knife and cracked his neck menacingly, "yet."

And just like that, he disappeared to the mortal plane.

It was time for Ti Moune to choose.

When Papa Ge returned, Asaka is once again hooting and hollering.

"She chose love, bitch! Oho, I can't wait to see you polishing Erzulie's silver!"

Papa Ge snarled at Asaka, showing her blackened teeth. "Just because I lost the battle doesn't mean I lost the war!"

"That's right," Erzulie piped up, surprising everyone. "No one's won yet. The bet is still in play."

"Not for long, though!"

Everyone looked at Agwe, who was still watching the mortals. Days were passing and Ti Moune wasn't moving. The world around her blurred with motion, but Ti Moune was frozen in front of the gates of Hotel Beauxhomme. They watched the wedding.

"My Gods," Asaka breathed.

Agwe's eyes filled with tears, and a put a fist to his mouth, hoping to keep back his sobs. Asaka rubbed his back and he took a deep breath. He'd almost reined it in when cracking from the mortal world into the immortal was the terrible keen, "Oh, Ti Moune."

Erzulie took Papa Ge's hand and looked him in the eye, a temporary truce met.

"Let's go take her."

The truce brought Ti Moune to the other side and left the Gods momentarily humbled. There was no spit flying, no bone-snapping as Papa Ge leaned over to Erzulie and said, "Pay up, little loa."

But Erzulie's eyes were on the mortal world, watching nothing more than the little sapling Asaka had planted.

"Not yet."

The years passed. Ti Moune's village went back to normal, when her name was rarely spoken and her adoptive parents went back to picking fruit and catching fish. People pitied them, but rarely spoke of what had occurred between them and the grand hommes.

Then, one day, on the property of Hotel Beauxhomme, a baby was born, not yet light or dark, but pink and wailing. It was a beautiful moment on the island, but among the Gods…

"He's had a baby and moved on! Fucking pay up!"

Erzulie was quiet, so Agwe came to her aid. "It's a baby! How can you say a baby is anything other than love?"

"I don't care about your goddamn semantics! Whatever love it is, it's not between him and Ti Moune, which was a part of the agreement."

"I don't remember any addendums to your agreement," Asaka chuckled under her breath.

"Who asked you? Erzulie! Hop in a body and let me kill them!"

At the direct address, Erzulie did nothing but shake her head and say, "Not yet."

"Alright, this stopped being fun many years ago."

Asaka was fanning herself as Papa Ge began ranting about Daniel once again.

"We are Gods! We do not stand for debts unpaid even among each other! The boy and that girl have had many children together. He has taken over the family business. He hasn't strayed from the life laid before him like Ti Moune wanted. It's over. Let me fucking kill you!"

Erzulie looked for all the world like she wasn't listening to Papa Ge's argument. Even as one could see the steam of anger coming off Papa Ge's body, Erzulie was simply smelling her different perfumes, spritzing a few in the air every once in a while.

"I think I've forgotten what some of these smell like…"

"Erzulie!" Papa Ge shouted. "Stop being a bitch-ass little bitch!"

"Papa Ge," Erzulie snapped back. "You can read minds, right?"

"Erzulie, I swear to us—"

"Is that right?"

Papa Ge bit his tongue, the tip almost coming off. Then he grit out, "Yes."

"So, tell me. Does Daniel still think of Ti Moune?"

Papa Ge didn't answer.

"That's what I thought. So, not yet, Papa Ge. Not yet."

"Asaka! Asaka!"

"Whoa, what happened?" Asaka had fallen asleep in her chair, and was startled out of it by the sound of her name being shouted. She surreptitiously wiped some drool off of her breast and blinked her eyes a few times to find Agwe in front of her. "What, is a harvest going poorly somewhere? Did I forget to sow seeds again?"

"No, it's not that at all!" Agwe's voice had quieted down and he put a hand in front of his lips as he came close to Asaka. He whispered, "Look at the tree."

Both Gods looked down at the familiar island and noticed a couple guards for the Hotel Beauxhomme trying to close the gates, but it seemed as though, overnight, the tree, their beautiful tree of Ti Moune, had cracked them open.

The guards ran inside the palace, and it took a few minutes for Daniel to come outside. He surveyed the situation and the guards demonstrated how the tree blocked both sides of the gate from coming to their proper position.

"We could cut down the tree, monsieur," one of them said.

It was true—the tree had grown tall in the years since Asaka had planted it, but it was still young and thin. It would have been easy to chop it down and haul up the roots.

But still, Daniel said: "No. Leave it." He smiled. "I've always wanted a tree."

With that, he walked back inside, a dumb smile that the Gods hadn't seen in many years reappear on his face.

Agwe and Asaka watched the whole scene take place, and when the guards returned to their posts, Agwe began laughing. "Hoo! Papa Ge is gonna be pissed!"

"I sure think so! Man, I wish I could read minds like him right now!"

"No, no, no, no, no, Asaka, you miss my point," Agwe said, still laughing. "You planted the tree—you handicapped him; he's gonna be mad at you."

Asaka blanched. "You know what? I think the mortals deserve a bountiful harvest this year. I had better check on them!"

"Oh, fuck, here we go again!"

Asaka was looking down on the mortal world, checking in on their tree. It had grown strong, with enough branches to shade the Beauxhomme Hotel path. Daniel had ordered the gate be taken down a few years back as the tree continued to grow and flourish. There was no stopping it.

The outburst led the other Gods to join Asaka in watching the mortals, and they gasped when they saw the same thing she had.

"Here we go again is righ—" Agwe began to say…before Papa Ge cut him off.

"I ain't making no more bets! Not till the old one is done with!"

Asaka jumped in. "Nobody's asking you to! Just watch!"

They watched as the familiar scene unfolded of a dark-skinned peasant girl, high in a tree, was greeted by someone on the ground. But this someone wasn't a parent or another peasant. It was a grand homme boy, who had walked past the place where the gates used to stand, like it was nothing and sat at the base of the tree.

"That's Daniel's son," Erzulie whispered, taken in by the scene. She recognized him immediately from their years of watching.

"Something's happening," Agwe agreed.

"But the bet's not over yet!" Papa Ge inserted.

Erzulie shook her head. "No. Not yet."

That day wasn't the last time the peasant girl and Daniel's son met. In fact, they continued to meet nearly every day as they hid their friendship from their families. They got away with it for weeks. And then, one day, Daniel caught them.

The Gods watched, rapt, waiting to see what Daniel would do. Able to read Daniel's thoughts first, Papa Ge's face went ashen before the others and he stepped away.

That same day, the guards who stood watch where the gate was gone, but not forgotten, were fired. But they weren't thrown off the hotel grounds. No, instead, they were invited in for a meal, and then sent home to their families. The other residents of Hotel Beauxhomme were shocked, but dared not speak against Daniel's authority.

But from that day, peasants were allowed on the Hotel Beauxhomme grounds—even welcomed. And slowly, the Gods began to hear whispers of a name they'd hardly heard in years.

"This is Ti Moune."

"Ti Moune would have wanted this."

"So he really did love, Ti Moune."

"Ti Moune did this for us."

And her story began to be told.

The Gods continued to watch the island, as peasants and grand hommes intermingled. As the young peasant girl from the tree and Daniel's son continued to spend time together, and fall in love.

They were wed in a few years' time. And Daniel was happy.

The Gods celebrated the beautiful wedding, but they noticed that Papa Ge was nowhere to be found.

"Just as well," Asaka said. "He's a killjoy."

"What did you say, Asaka?"

Asaka screamed when she felt Papa Ge's breath, hot on her ear, and ran behind Agwe.

"Welcome, Papa Ge," Agwe said, fully ignoring Asaka behind him. "Here to celebrate?"

"More or less," Papa Ge said before pulling a bottle of champagne out from behind his skeletal frame.

"Ooh, gimme!"

Asaka went running for the bottle, but Papa Ge held it over his head, and Asaka tumbled right past him.

"This isn't for a party." He walked over to Erzulie and bowed. "It's for you. I believe I have some silver to polish."

Erzulie wasn't above gloating, but she wasn't one to purposely seek out Papa Ge's wrath. If he was being generous, the least she could do was save her gloating for another day. So all she said was, "I believe you do. But we can save it for another day."

She took the bottle and popped the cork. Fizz shot up and splashed the Gods, who cheered.

"Today, we rejoice!"

And they did. In the following days, Papa Ge grumbled as he polished all of Erzulie's—extensive collection of—silver. Erzulie, meanwhile, bragged about the strength of love, much to Papa Ge's increased torment. But Asaka and Agwe couldn't hide their pleasure in knowing who the true victor was after all that time.

Meanwhile, on the island, the people followed Ti Moune's—and Daniel's—example and soon, the only memory of the island of two different worlds only remained in the stories passed down from generation to generation. There was no more curse of the boy longing for France, and the difference between the grand hommes and the peasants shrank and shrank until it was indistinguishable.

As for the tree, it grew until it was taller than the Hotel itself, and throughout a single day, the shade traveled almost the entirety of the Hotel Beauxhomme grounds. It grew and grew and not a single storm or hurricane could tear it down. It was as much a part of the island as the Gods themselves.

And so was Ti Moune.

A/N: Wow, it's a good thing I didn't write this show, because these potty-mouth Gods never would have made it to Broadway! Anyway, it's been quite a while since I've written a story for a theatre fandom, but I managed to squeak in and see this show before it closed and I was so inspired. Such a beautiful story. So that, combined with a storyline in How I Met Your Mother, led to this quick, silly mess. I hope someone enjoyed it!