Lady and Darkness
Author: Lady Casper
Summary: This was written for Church of Lemons (CoL). An AU setting with much mythology intacted. There is a lemon in here so be wary.
(This Love)
The sky lit beautiful rays of sunlight as it graced the spring meadow. Birds chirping and singing their songs, to the river's quiet stream of songs one was at peace here. Holding back a yawn, the young man stifled it with his hand as he closed his eyes, resting his arms behind his head. Even a man with his power over others had to rest a bit otherwise he'd have gone insane along ago; if there were such a thing as sane at all.
It had been maybe a year since he had finally gotten out of the stuffy place. Anyone would want to run for a place like this instead of having corpses and dead souls swarming you and almost stealing the air he did breath. Not that he really needed to breathe.
Running his hand across his dark chocolate mane whenever he started to think on his life in the dungeons of the Underworld, he heard twigs snapping. His dark Prussian eyes snapped open and examined his surroundings. Nothing stood in his view or tried to obscure him by hiding behind the many bushes of pink.
Readjusting his position against the thick oak tree's roots, he huffed and tried closing his eyes again. When had he become so tense?
A lovely gust of wind tousled the leaves of the oak tree, knocking a few into his hair. Not bothering to brush them off, he started to nod off to sleep. The leaves started to slip off the top of his head, lightly touching the closed lid of his left eye. Brow knitted in frustration for the fight of sleep; he tried to ignore it only causing it to land on his nose.
Tired of it already, the man smacked the leaves off his head and nose and tried once again, grabbing his hat and placing it over his face. Covering himself from any intrusion of precious leaves from Demeter's creatures, his eyes slowly started to close again.
Apollo's magical rays of sunshine played across the figure in the meadow, sleeping away another decade's anguish that he called life.
----
The butterflies tickled her stomach as she laughed at her friend who had been stuck in a small root sticking up from the Earth.
"Are you alright?" The maiden asked her companion who was giving a glare from the corner of her eye.
"Quite." Sounding sarcastic more than factorial, the woman with beads of the ocean lifted purplish-violet eyes towards the meadows surroundings.
It was a beautiful day to get away from the world's chaos. Even they needed a break from life. It had become so hard, especially on her friend. It wasn't easy living up to the maiden's mother. Let alone her father's. One would only wish to be half as she. But the maiden who started to pick up dandelions and spun in her ivory and pink dress was very much higher in gratitude and purity than anyone could ever have expected.
The laughing face of her friend caused the young woman to stir from her revere. Smiling back at the young blonde, the woman with jet black hair bowed down and picked a few flowers that had caught her eye before being called by her Goddess.
Looking up, she did not see the woman and looked throughout the fields. Where had she gone?
"Relena!" The short haired woman called.
"Relen-" Her breath was cut short as she spotted the woman with the lavishing long blonde locks looked over the bushes filled with pink. "What are you doing?"
Approaching the girl, she started to notice that Relena wasn't looking at the flowers and instead peering over them.
"Rel-"
"Ssh! Hilde hush." The maiden placed a finger over her lips and then acted with a zip of the lips before she peered back over the bush and waved her friend to come over.
This poked the woman's interest as Relena never seemed to be this interested in anything other than flowers and learning how to use a bow and arrow like her cousin, Artemis.
Walking up to the bush, Hilde leaned in, her hand holding on to a bit of the bush for leverage as she peered over.
There lying in the tall meadow grass, was a man with a black leather hat draping over his face. He seemed young around her and Relena's age; if they were mortals that was. Spikes of brunette hair spilled around his ears as his chest rose and fell with the timing of his heartbeat.
"Who do you think he is?" Hilde asked her friend who had a strange look in her eyes as she started to get further through the bush.
"Not quite sure," the smile broadened into a curious cherisher cat sneer, "but I'm going to find out." Before her friend could stop her from the quest of finding the identity of the man who slept under the tree, Relena already had passed through the bush quietly and waltzed towards the man.
Watching as his chest rose and fell, the maiden became intrigued. Never had she felt pulled so much towards a man, human no less. Humming a tune that came from nowhere, she sat beside the dark figure. Up close she could see much of his features. Toned slick muscles hid under the fabric of silk and leather that matched the hat which was currently hiding the mysterious man's mystery.
Something about him, continued to pull her soul to touch him. Two slender fingers lightly touched his black covered leg as she inched closer to see his face. Something about him; it just called to her. What was it about this man?
What was it about this human?
Muscles flexed under her touch. Someone was touching him, but who? The sweet sound of a feminine tone reached his ears and he couldn't break the contact to the stranger's touch.
Who was it?
A Siren?
No. He would have been able to break away.
This was something different. As if he wanted to be touched by this figure.
Relena ran another finger to trail down his chest. Biting her bottom lip, she looked down his chest. Gods, he must have been the sexiest man she'd seen. And she wanted him. Deeply.
"Relena?" Hilde loud whisper startled the maiden and turned around to find her friend waving her to come back immediately.
But she couldn't. Not until she saw the man under the hat's face.
Cautiously, her hand moved towards the black leather hat and touched the rim when it was pulled from her grasp and the man's head tilted to the side.
Her brow knitting with frustration, the maiden tried again and succeeded. Pulling it off slowly, she slowly watched as the no face now became a handsome precious face that made her melt.
Dark locks fell over his eyes as structured face curved perfectly. Not even realizing she was doing it, Relena moved closer until with her dress hiked up her leg, pressed a naked thigh against his clothed one.
Her body was going taut just by being so close to this man. It wanted to touch him, feel his curves against hers.
Tracing the luscious lips with her forefinger, she licked her own in hunger for the lips that beckoned to be bruised under the pressure of desire and lust.
By now, Hilde's face had lit up red and turned away with embarrassment.
'She could have thought to know his name first, Gods.' With that, she smiled. Then again it was something new for Relena, Heaven's Gift to the mortals to have some of her own fun for a change. Going back towards the garden, the maiden winked at the Goddess.
'Good luck.'
Relena had nearly been an inch away from his face, when she felt his breath touch hers. Her own was now caught in her throat as she tried not to gulp down hard and wake him up. Relena continued to touch his face; learned every texture of his skin and every scar that had been chiseled into his body.
The world seemed to phase out as the Goddess and this man seemed to be the only ones living. Sighing, Relena wished it weren't so difficult to kiss him. True, he was gorgeous and she never had been drawn to someone like this but he was also mortal.
Leaning over the stranger, two light kisses pecked his lips before a soft sigh of disappointment echoed from the maiden's mouth.
"If only you weren't a mortal." The quiet whisper sent chills down his spine. Something that had been unfamiliar with him was slowly swirling around this individual.
Moving to walk away and return to her venture of the garden, Relena mentally sighed at the luck she had. Finding a beautiful man under the forest trees only to be ridden with grief that he was no more than a human was more than she could take for a day. Although something still strung about her heart to not leave the handsome man, she willed herself to leave; heavens forbid her mother ever found out she was frolicking with a mortal.
The wind lightly grazed against the woods, letting the story be told of a young storm approaching that would shake the earth and rattle the grounds which the mortals walked. History had changed. Blonde tresses licked at her face as her lips moved in a firm line to fight the speeding waves of the sky.
As quick as the world seemed to faze out, a hand, calloused from around textures of the tips of the fingers, gripped around the slender wrist of the maiden, holding her from moving. Time swiftly crashed again. Leaving her breath stolen and her mind frozen with a feeling that even she had never known: anxious.
Slowly her eyes rose from the ground and turned to meet her small fragile hand clasped under a powerful masculine one that had no plans of letting go.
The sounds of movements caught to the maiden's attention, but didn't dare look up, if not she wouldn't be able to look away.
"Too bad I'm no mere mortal." The voice lifted to her head and clouded her vision.
Soon however the casting spell broke loose.
"How dare you! Let go of me! Who in Zeus do you think you are?" Struggling to get free from his grasp, Relena started to claw at the flesh, leaving small trails of scratch marks that didn't seem to faze him.
An eyebrow rose high as he watched her face crease with nervousness and her hand flex under his own.
"I might ask you the same, maiden. Startling a man out of slumber and showing affection to a stranger no less." An eyebrow cocked up, he watched the woman's face contour.
"Let me go!" Relena pulled away again but wasted her energy fruitlessly. If she were to call her mother, this man would think twice.
The man smirked; his face lighting up as his dark features seemed to turn even more desirable to her than when first discovering the stranger lying under the tress with a hat hiding his face.
"When a maiden can come up to me and disturb my slumber, why shouldn't she be punished for the mischievous actions?"
Not knowing what could be retorted back at the man, Relena pulled her wrist harder, trying to break his grasp, when suddenly her bum landed against the hard ground making her ache.
"Ow." Rubbing her bottom, the maiden pulled herself up and glared at Heero. "What did you do that for!"
"Well, I though you might wanted to be let go, seeing how much you struggled.
Standing up, the man brushes off some of the greenery the woods left on him and started to walk away.
Relena's eyes followed. Storming for an answer to know the identity of the man, they swirled and hazed over.
No man ever interested her this much. Not even the gods that sought to bed her.
Something about him infuriated her but at the same time turned her towards him. The maiden wanted him and it seemed to make her anger more. What was it about this man?
Thinking that he would just leave her, Relena was surprised to see a hand cross her view as Heero handed out help.
"You may be coy, but I don't treat women like such." Sarcasm must have been a first as Relena couldn't help but giggle at his words.
"My you have a way with words." Taking his hand, he lifted her body off the ground and on two feet as he waited for her thanks.
There was none.
"And your manners seem vague."
"Pardon, you were the one who had placed me on the ground. Gratitude is if one helped me from my own fault." Relena sneered, as her hands came about her waist.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you to be polite to a man who helped you?" Picking up the hat that lay forgotten by the tree, Heero started to circle the woman, making goose bumps rise from her pearl silk skin.
"You didn't help me." The young blonde remarked as she started to walk away when a hand grasped her wrist again.
"You really are an ungrateful wench aren't you." Heero stated more than asked as a glare flared in his direction.
"Again you grab me. Desperate to have a woman's touch by only having them forced to touch your body…" Trailing off, Relena glanced at his handsome features. Even though the man was an arrogant pompous he was also a quite breathing taking pompous.
An eyebrow shot up; he could feel the tension raking her body as she stood there. Trying her hardest to fight off the feelings of wanting to be against him, she became nothing more than a bickering nymph to him.
"Is that so?" Pulling her closer to his body with his one arm around the waist, his chest rubbed against her heaving one. Two hardened nipples dug into his chest, making his knees want to give out and lips crash against hers; he looked down upon the quivering maiden and smirked.
"Are you not sure that it is you that is desperate?"
Relena had no breath. It had run away from her lungs as he closed the space between the two. If she were to move, he would have just held her harder.
He was toying with her. Having knowledge of the effect he had on her, the man was using it against her. A low growl emitted from her lips.
"Growling? How un-lady like of you." Two soft lips became dangerously close to a quivering pair.
"Lady!"
"Princess! Princess Rel-"
Voices cut through the air, slicing away the tension between the two. Glaring down upon the maiden, he growled himself in protest. Damn, an interruption.
Huffing, the man let go, pushing her away from him leaving a bewildered Relena to stare at him in puzzlement.
"Why did you push me away? You-you jack-" Confusion was evident in her manner. Fingers curled up into a ball as they all but wanted to plant themselves into the man's chest. How could he treat her like that?
"You're a princess. I do not deal with such." With that, he looked at the maiden one last time, one last pull at his heart to console her and worship the ground she walked on, and then he was gone; into the dark abyss of the forest.
The world seemed to crash down upon from the waters of Poseidon.
Soon the man she had become infatuated had disappeared from her world, back facing her. Tears tugged at the corners of her eyes but biting her lip, she snipped out a snide remark about men being arrogant enough to think women would fall all over them just by saying a few words.
She was hardly a woman to do such.
The calls of the maidens in her harem poured on both sides of her, asking if she was alright. Why she had fallen to the ground on her knees with a far off look?
When had she fallen?
Had she done it in front of him or after he had left?
Lifting herself up off the ground, Relena brushed off the grassy greens that attached themselves to her gown and ushered the others back to the garden, a side glance back to where he had laid against the oak was all she granted herself before letting it all slip away into the past.
Hilde kept her eye on the maiden.
Something had definitely flustered the feathers of her goddess.
"I am telling you! The master must be betrothed. It is unfit for him not to have a queen by his side!" The minister bellowed at the council of the Underworld.
"Yes, but the Master does not wish to have a female counterpart." Said a calm voice coming from the corner of robes.
A feminine voice rose, "Then why not ask Zeus if his brother should have a wife? He of all should know exactly what to do." Eris, who some how managed to slip in the conversation unnoticed now sat on the mantle that which fire brimmed to life just below.
"HOW DID YOU GET HERE?" The minister shouted with rage.
"Tsk tsk, do not tempt me by slaying you with a single wave of my hand for your vulgar manners." She smirked waving a finger as saying 'bad' to a child.
"It does not matter how I am here. What matters is finding out if Hades should have a woman at his side. And if he does not, well then," a coy smirk rose against her pale skin, "I'll just have to be."
"YOU! But that is up sired!" The minister raised again, his face stricken with mad red flames against his complexion.
Eris's smile faded back and in placement took on a feral scowl.
"It is not for you to decide, you insignificant man. But I see Zeus shall play a lovely role in this don't you?" With that, laughter erupted through the Underworld, sending shivers down the evilest creatures that resided down in the hells.
"Tell your Master, I shall be waiting for an answer. Otherwise," the smirk came back upon her face, "he and his kingdom shall be mine." With a wink, her body dissolved into thin air as if no one had ever been sitting up on the fireplace.
The minister grounded out his teeth, and paced the room.
"Shall we tell the Master, Kariel?" A younger minister asked, fright still showing in his face by Eros's sudden appearance.
"No. We shall only tell that he needs to have a wife, by the orders of the King of the Heavens."
"You know he won't listen. Even with a direct order from his brother. Hee- I mean Master is very…stubborn." The young man's eyes shifted to the ground in sorrow. What were they to do?
"You strike a good point. I'll speak to the Master once he has returned and nourished himself. Go and prepare a chamber for a newly arrival."
"There isn't any scheduled at the moment sir." Checking his list, he double checked everything and came back empty with a confused stare.
"It's a last minute arrangement."
The old man walked off into the far space of the darkness, leaving the younger minister to ponder what he meant but went to do as told.
Little did either now, that two pairs of eyes watched the scene that had just taken place.
Leaving the bewildered apprentice behind, the minister Kariel walked toward a silhouetted glowing orb that sat in the center of a spacious room. Dark purple curtains covered the cave walls leaving a darker effect than the actual cave's natural depth.
Crystal green eyes locked with the orb, almost watching, waiting for something to appear.
Putting his calloused old hands against the cold metal plate that sat in front with inscriptions of the Gods, he closed his eyes and took a deep solemn breath before humming a tune that bounced off the walls in chorus.
Within moments, the inscriptions glowed brightly, filling the room a brilliant light as a hum followed along with the minister's, echoing with only a higher note above his.
The green eyes opened and stormed over.
"Oracle! I ask of you, tell me who shall reign beside my Master and ruler of the Underworld Hades?" Held breath, his hands shaking with nervousness, the old man waited for a reply in the swollen orb that seemed to sparkle and crack, lightening flashing against the crystal flesh that was its being.
A form started to form inside the lightening storm, centering in the crystal that made the man squint, his aging eyes in protest to focus in on the figure that started to bleed a figure of a maiden.
Golden blonde.
Hips curved and shaped perfectly.
Eyes like the sky and yet like the crashing waves of Poseidon.
She was by far breath-taking.
"But who is this maiden with features that behold the blessings of the goddess, Aphrodite?"
The oracle's focus shifted, giving view up close to the young girl's face.
"She is Persephone. Daughter of the Goddess of agriculture, Demeter."
The voice came from no one. But the man was not startled by the unknown voice. Instead he was flabbergasted by what he saw.
"By Zeus, I cannot take her. She is the only daughter of the Mother of Life. I cannot take her only child from her." The man wailed, stricken with anxiety and worry.
"Ask Zeus. For Hades, ask the Almighty Father of Gods to give this girl to him as his partner, his wife."
Sighing, the old man ran a shaky hand through his salt pepper hair. Asking the highest of all Gods to give something to his Master? He had known Hades, who he called Heero since he could remember. Feeling though he had a small parental guidance role over the young Hades, he felt he would do anything for the Master.
"Alright. Then it shall be settled by the highest of them all."
"There is more thing," the oracle's voice, whom which he figured it to be, became grave; "when the girl comes down here, let her eat pomegranate seeds that grow out by the gardens. It is important that she eats these otherwise all will fail and the goddess will go back to her mother, leaving Hades heartbroken and torn."
The man nodded at the oracles words.
Soon the oracle's soft yet piercing glow died within moments of the unspoken silence, leaving the man to run over his words to the Father of Gods.
Surely, his own brother, Zeus would give him a wife. Happiness…wouldn't he?
Leaving with his head hung low, the hood now covering the old sagging skin of an elderly man, while contemplating his own predicament and that of his master and the goddess who he was to kidnap, he realized, "I'm in hell."
Tbc...