Hades and Persephone

Hades sat on his throne of fused human bones and thought. Zeus had Hera (but then again, look how well that didn't turn out)and Poseidon had Amphitrite. Did it not make sense for him as well to take a wife? But who would accept him as he was and agree to live in the underworld with him? Certainly no woman he knew, immortal or otherwise.

He rose from his throne and strode out of the room. His underworld palace was a perfect reflection of the one on Olympus. He felt the familiar twinge of sadness and hurt as he recalled the place he had been banished from by his upstart of a younger brother. Him, Hades, the eldest of the children of Kronos and Rhea! After he had even helped his obnoxious brothers get rid of their father, they divided the world and he got the decidedly shorter end of the stick. After being forcibly sent from the light of the surface to rule the gloomy and dismal underworld, Hades privately felt he had every right to be as bitter, heartless and cruel as his relatives thought him to be. If any of them cared to remember, he had not once been intentionally hurtful or nasty, but of course, none of them would risk telling Zeus that, for fear they would share the most unpopular Olympians fate.

Yes, the only people who might have a chance of pointing that out and not being blasted were his siblings. Poseidon in particular, but why should he care? The sea was not nearly as bad as the underworld. At least he was allowed on Olympus as he pleased. At least he had a cabin at that new, ridiculous place for the gods to send their children, oh, what was it called- Camp Half-Blood. Zeus did not seem to despise him as much, so why should he complain or intervene, especially since there would be little to nothing in it for him. Zeus might also listen to his wife Hera, but Hades remembered her as a temperamental shrew, and was completely disinclined to ask her to do anything for him, partly because he didn't want her holding it over his head for the next century, and partly because she would certainly refuse and make him look like even more of a fool to the other gods. Demeter was little more than a wishy-washy of a woman, bending as easily under pressure as the stalks of grain she loved so much she even wove thru her hair. Hestia would be the best choice. She was the most empathic, the kindest of is siblings, and so the one most likely to be able to see thing thru his point of view and sympathize. But talking to Zeus about him might cause even more problems than they already had going on in Olympus, so the chances of her interceding on his behalf we remote.

He passed many of the reanimated dead he used to do his bidding, and all of them bowed to him. Admittedly, having servants bow to him, and having a place to rule had to be a little bit better than living on Olympus, but having to be

submissive to his little brother. And if it wasn't better, it helped make up for some of the scorching injustice of it all. Things could have been worse, or at least, that what he told himself on days when he was trying to be particularly upbeat about his situation. Yeah right. On the days that didn't end in y. Being Lord of the Dead was downright depressing about 99.9999999% of the time. He worked like a dog night and day to ensure the dead didn't go screaming out of the underworld and into the world of the living and wreak havoc. He had to judge souls who thought they qualified for Elysium or those who deserved to be sent to the Fields of Punishment. He had to open new subdivisions, oversee the hellhounds and the monsters and make sure they didn't completely overrun the earth with their slobber and their stench. Oh, and on your days off, could you make sure our father doesn't rise from Tartarus and kill us all? Thanks. As if he didn't have enough to do, now he was charged with this as well. He hadn't taken a single day off in all the centuries he had ruled under the surface.

Looking back on himself, he scoffed. After they had sliced their dear papa to pieces and thrown him, essentially, in the trash, he had been so full of hope. Now that he no longer lived in a stomach, he had been so excited, to see the world, to learn things. And best of all had been the prospect of a democracy, all things equal, governed by his brothers and sisters and him, the world flourishing and in peace, all work shared, all burdens falling on everyone's' shoulders. That was pretty much what happened, except that he had been cut out of the picture, and exiled underground to do a backbreaking, thankless, never-ending job. At least their grandmother Gaia was sorry for him. She had even made him a special flower, the narcissus. They grew where the ground between the underworld and the earth was especially thin, and put down very deep roots.

At last he reached his destination, a room with the only running water in the entire underworld. It was warm, and it bubbled and splashed, creating a mist over everything. In comparison to the rest o the ice-cold underworld, this room was practically tropical and Hades instantly felt stifled in his long, formal black robes. He waved his hand, and a golden drachma materialized in his long, pale fingers. "O Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my-" but he was interrupted by the realization that he already had an Iris-message, from the very person he had been trying to contact: his dear baby brother, Zeus. "Hades, brother!" Zeus thundered. Hades felt his face morph into his tried-and-true "I am extremely skeptical of anything you say" look.

"Perfect timing," his brother continued. He attempted a smile at the older brother he hardly knew, but Hades remained impassive and aloof, trying to ignore the drop of perspiration that was making its slow, insolent way down his back. "What have you contacted me for, brother?" Hades inquired in a voice that was colder than Stygian Iron. He knew this was probably not helpful for his campaign to leave the underworld, but the gods were all about living in the moment, and at this moment, it was completely worth the obvious squirm on Zeus' face. "I decided it was high time you took a wife. Ruling the Underworld must be hard, dreary work, and you've been alone all these past centuries……….." Hades felt his utter shock color the carefully calculated look on his face and his mouth hanging open slightly. This was exactly what he had been thinking about, and here was his brother doing something about it. When people did nice things for him, it was in his nature to become suspicious, but because it was his all-powerful, immortal, king-of-the-gods-higher-and-mightier-than-thou-lord-of-the-skies brother, he passed suspicious and became extremely suspicious.

"Why?" Hades asked suddenly. Zeus looked confused "Pardon?" he asked "I said, why. As in, why would you be doing something nice for me? You'd auction off my stem cells if you thought you could get away with it." Now Zeus looked even more confused. "And a stem cell would be….? Oh, never mind. I have my reasons." Hades responded dourly with, "And I'd like to know what those reasons are." Zeus looked even squirmier, and internally, Hades laughed, meanly.

"Well, if you must know, I…. I think you and my daughter Persephone would be a good match. " "What?" Hades choked out. "Are you crazy? I don't even know this- well, I presume it is a girl." Now Zeus looked like he was getting irritated. "Of course my DAUGHTER is a girl. And my son Ares is pursuing her and I do NOT want her to accept him. Demeter would los her mind." Hades snorted. "Demeter our sister, Demeter of the agriculture, Demeter the delicate little flower who will undoubtedly have a daughter much the same, and so both of them will be thrilled that Persephone gets to come and live in the dank, dark underworld with bitter, spiteful, gloomy me, naturally. That Demeter? And just how many children do you have?"

Okay, so what did yall think? If I get ten reviews, I'll keep going, so DEFINITELY r&r and tell me what you think.