On the last day of her stay in the underworld, Hades always gave Persephone a large feast, though they never ate much. Exotic meats from all over the world were exquisitely displayed all over the table, every type of bread imaginable filled the space in between dishes. Pomegranates filled any spare space. A single pomegranate sat at Persephone's end of the long table, and Hades sat opposite of her, gazing at her with the careful neutral expression Persephone had grown accustomed to. Persephone returned his gaze occasionally, but mostly kept her gaze on the pomegranate.
After the dinner, they usually went up to Hades' room for a good bye before long months apart. Persephone blushed at the thought. She looked up to meet Hades eyes, and found that he was smirking, as if he could read her thoughts. Thinking of their last goodbye always made her neck grow hot and limbs feel weak.
"Am I so easy to read?" She asked, trying to keep her voice steady. It wasn't usually this hard to keep up the image of the stone cold queen of the underworld. However, the day before she reemerged always gave her an inexplicable sadness. Throughout the years, she'd become more accustomed to the underworld. The world above and her mother were becoming foreign to her, instead of the opposite. Hades' smirk twitched slightly.
"Somewhat. You only blush when thinking about…" Hades trailed off and resumed smirking. He pushed a piece of meat around with his fork, but his eyes never left hers. Persephone smiled somewhat briefly, then sighed and looked back to the pomegranate, allowing some inclination of her distaste for what was coming the next day begin to show on her face. "What is bothering you?" He asked, in more of a rhetoric way. He knew what was bothering, even if she never said it outright.
They sat in silence, Persephone staring at the pomegranate.
"I will miss you." She murmured, and Hades' smirk slipped off his face, returning to the careful neutral look that he always adorned. This evening, it irritated Persephone so. It made her think he wouldn't miss her at all. A ridiculous assumption, she knew. She fought to wipe it from her mind. Hades sighed as if on cue.
"Then stay." She could feel him looking at her, but she still refused to meet his eyes.
"I can't." He knew that fact very well. She'd thought he'd given up on trying to convince her. He'd tried so hard once he learned she started to enjoy the underworld more than her old one.
"Then I can't help you." He looked somewhat irritated with her, and Persephone felt body tense in annoyance. She didn't know why he couldn't just drop it. He knew full well what her mother would do.
"The humans will perish if I stay." Hades scoffed in response. Persephone pursed her lips. "Zeus would be angry if that happened."
"We don't need the mortals." Hades' growled, and Persephone felt a sad smile start to pull at the corners of her moth.
"But then, who will worship us?" She laughed, and Hades gave her one of his rare smiles. "Who would populate the underworld?"
"You raise a compelling argument." he chuckled as he rose from his seat, and strode around the table and in front of Persephone. Then in one swift motion, took her face in his hand and leaned down, letting his lips meet her own. "Let's go. We're not eating much, anyhow."