He felt the push rather than saw it, his eyes much too fixed on the swirling portal of orange magic that was tickling the edges of his lime green feet. He was just about to decide to seal off the area until he could run some magic tests on it when the pressure of four traitorous hands between his shoulder blades sent him twisting and falling into the very phenomenon he'd been staring at.
The fall was not pleasant, as the poor man's body was whipped back and forth in the vortex, slamming into unseen objects until a blinding light filled his vision and he hit a stone floor hard, cracking his chin on the inlaid tile markings.
In between cursing and spitting blood his vision slowly returned and he pushed up on his hands, glancing around at the circular platform he seemed to be standing on and the five colored rivers that flowed from somewhere under it.
The outer edge of the platform was decorated with the strangest of items from a violin, to a pool table with the balls already broken, and a small chaise lounge. The cavern the platform resided in was huge but the platform itself seemed to be one small room with no walls.
"That was quite an entrance," came a silky voice from behind him.
He spun around, and there on a red vinyl throne sat a woman, delicately cleaning her black nails and slightly smirking at him. Her long legs were crossed through the slit of a sinful black halter dress whose body appeared to be made of interconnected metal feathers. Black stilettos gleamed on her bare feet, also with pitch black nails, their ends carved to a spike that looked utterly impossible to walk on.
Her ruinously red lips curved even more as she saw his eyes sweep her body and she freely tossed her glorious mane of fiery curls down her back, making sure he followed the pale column of her neck and saw the flecks of gold in her pale blue eyes. He tried not to stare but it was really difficult to help when she was so very beautiful.
He cleared his throat awkwardly and twisted his hands behind his back.
"Nice to meet you…," He glanced up at the enormous spindly obsidian crown that sat atop her head, "…your highness."
The woman laughed and clapped her hands lightly, the nail cleaning instrument falling from her delicate fingers then completely disappearing in a puff of blue smoke. He stared at the spot where it had just been, then looked back up at the woman, with new respect for her prowess in magic.
"Your highness hmm? Well I suppose it will do."
She pouted childishly at him and he rushed to correct any mistake he may have made.
"I'm so sorry, what would you like me to call you?"
The woman stood in one graceful motion and walked towards him only to smooth a hand over the top of his shoulder. There was a deep and primal fear growing slowly in him the closer she got but he pushed it down, somehow strangely unwilling to be afraid of her.
She drew right up next to his head and just before her lips grazed his ear he saw the gold flecks in her eyes shimmer.
"You can call me Persephone. Goddess of Death."
Now the fear took over. He absolutely couldn't resist shivering to which she gave a cackling laugh but did pride himself immensely on not running away.
With a strength he didn't know he had, he turned his head and met her eyes, swallowed once, then spoke.
"It is nice to meet you Persephone."
He stepped away from her and excused the movement by dropping into a deep bow.
"Hades, Wizard of Oz."
Despite himself he reached out and lightly gripped her hand before kissing the back of it gallantly. Her skin was freezing and veins he could see lightly crawling over the back of her hand were a strange green color. He couldn't feel any pulse from her palm either.
The Goddess laughed at his action, smiling then inclining her head towards him mockingly.
"Is the dead man flirting with me?"
"Ah, but I'm not dead," he replied playfully.
All amusement left her expression then and she moved right up in his face again, gripping his chin in one cold hand so their faces were barely inches apart. It was difficult to hold eye contact with the sporadic twinkling of the gold flecks in her eyes but her stare was locked steadily on his face.
He felt a creeping sensation and several of her long fingers curled down from the rest to touch right under his chin where his pulse was. She pressed down lightly and he stiffened but the consistent beat must have convinced her for she released him abruptly and began to pace around him, those impossible heels stabbing sparks out of the tile as she went.
"A living man in the Underworld," she mused, tapping her jet nails against her face. "There must be some sort of solution to this."
He turned to follow her but a careless wave of her hand froze his feet to the ground. He struggled and she continued to pace, ignoring his frantic movements and attempted incantations. Her hand left her face and flopped out into space as if supporting an unseen plate. She stopped walking.
"There is always the easy option."
"What's the easy option?"
She started walking again and disappeared behind his back.
"I could just kill you."
"What!" He yelped, twisting towards her as she came around again. "Why would you do that?!"
She paid his panic no attention.
"You're a living man in the realm of death. Your being here upsets the balance. As Goddess of Death it is my responsibility to take care of liabilities like you."
"Liabilities!" He choked out. "Why can't I just go back home? I'll gone as though you never saw me."
He slightly noticed his voice getting higher as he spoke but there was nothing much he could do to stop it. She tapped a manicured finger against her lips.
"It isn't that easy dear. There are few ways to get out of the Underworld, even fewer that won't get me killed, and pretty much only one that has the slightest chance of success but down here frankly, you're unlikely to find it."
"And what would that one be?"
Persephone stopped pacing and faced him directly, her arms wrapped around her waist pensively.
"Why True Love dear. It can break any curse, it can raise the dead, it can save you from the Underworld."
He started a little, clenching his fists in his green robes.
"But no one can raise the dead, it's one of the three basic rules of magic-"
"Yes, yes, dear but you're in the Underworld, playing with gods now. No rules apply as there is no game for them to serve," Persephone cut him off sharply.
He shook his head in disbelief. He was really out of his element. This had been such the weirdest day.
"So True Love. You say that's all I need to leave?"
Persephone clapped her hands again and settled into her throne.
"Well when you put it that way it sounds so easy, now doesn't it? Have you ever been in love Hades?"
He blinked at her use of his name, enjoying all too much how it rolled off her tongue.
"I don't believe so, Persephone. I mean, I have loved my family since the moment I was born and occasionally felt something for several women but love, no I don't believe I ever have had feelings that strong yet."
She tilted her head at him, acknowledging his use of her preferred name.
"Yet? Strange wording indeed Mr. Wizard."
He scratched the back of his head and tried to change his posture but the binding still on his legs made it a bit awkward.
"I'm sure I'll find love someday. I mean, everybody does."
Persephone scowled.
"Everybody does not find love Hades. I can guarantee it."
Her voice held a painful finality that shut him up immediately. A wicked light burned in her eyes and while she leaned back from him in the chair her eyes seemed to move closer to him, so close as to be looking into his very soul. She giggled.
"You've been lying to me."
"Lying? No I haven't."
"Yes you have. You don't believe you'll find love. In fact recently you've been agonizing about how much your job takes over your time and how impossible it is to have the time for relationships."
He swallowed hard. She had nailed him completely. He sighed.
"I suppose so. I didn't intend to lie but believing in love is much preferable to the idea of dying in order to fit in."
"I suppose so as well," Persephone responded.
She waved her hand and a pair of wineglasses appeared on the end table next to her. The wave also released his legs and he shook them out gratefully as she poured a red wine in each glass then teleported one into his hand.
"Go on," she prompted. "Have a drink."
He glanced warily at her and she snorted.
"I haven't poisoned them. You won't be stuck in the Underworld for six months of the year if you eat six pomegranate seeds or other such nonsense."
He laughed awkwardly and lifted the glass to his lips. The wine went down flaming, but somehow he didn't feel very drunk, it tasted more of magic than of alcohol. Feeling rather perturbed, he glanced up at Persephone to see the last of the of her glass slipping down her throat.
She twirled the glass in her fingers then crushed the stem in her hand. It immediately shattered but the pieces disappeared before they hit the floor and she was left with several sharp cuts on her hand, dripping gold ichor.
Hades barely had time to marvel at this when a suddenly pain stung into his own right hand. He curled inward on it, seeing no injury but feeling as though his palm had just been serrated. Persephone glanced lazily at him then waved magic over her own hand to fix it. The pain in his disappeared and he stared openly at her. Before he could gasp out a question she stopped him.
"Looks like it worked."
He gasped and looked at the glass in his hand then back up at her.
"What did you do?!"
"A connection potion. If you're going to be looking for love in the Underworld as a living man, it'd do for me to keep an eye on you. This way you'll feel what I feel and I'll feel what you do. Of course the transmission isn't perfect due to several anatomical differences but it should do just nicely."
His mind raced through the facts: she and he were now somehow magically connected, connection potions were supposed to be impossible to make, and somehow a routine day serving the citizens of Oz had turned into a mission to find love in the Underworld. He glared at her.
"You told me it wasn't poisoned."
"Oh. Dear, I'm the Goddess of Death, did you really expect me to be honest?"
"No, but I expected you to be fair."
She started a little at this and leaned forward, connecting her elbow to her knee and her chin to her palm.
"So you've done your research on gods then have you?"
Hades straightened and clasped his hands behind his back.
"Indeed. In ancient times the ruler of the Underworld was not supposed to be evil, merely apathetic. Modern interpretations of what most consider myth has turned the personage so."
Persephone nodded approvingly.
"That's how things used to be. I guess time has just made me bitter."
Hades shook his head, she was incorrigible.
He raised his hands awkwardly to the sides then slapped them on his thighs.
"What do I do now?"
"You go find that True Love of yours. I'd wish you luck but it's not a lucky venture."
Hades scoffed then gathered his robes around him once more to bow to her.
"Thank you for not killing me."
There was a silence, then Persephone began to laugh raucously. Her whole body shook with the movement and her razor-sharp nails clutched at convulsing sides. Hades began to smile then he noticed that no matter how wide her smile stretched, he may have been wrong, but were the torches glinting off tears in her eyes?
He made to move forward when abruptly she stopped laughing, clear tear tracks blazing down her cheeks. She didn't seem to see them and just waved him off. Taken aback by how sad she looked the minute he began to turn away, Hades stopped walking.
The death goddess scared him, no matter how he looked at it, in a primal way that made his body want to turn and run but somewhere deep inside him he found it impossible to feel anything but care for her. His heart and his head fought for a moment then he sighed and gave in to an impulse baser than fight or flight.
Spinning on his heel, he made his way right up to Persephone's throne and knelt at her feet. Her eyes widened and he leaned forward, raising a hand to wipe the tears from under each of her eyes. He stood again before she could reprimand him and began to leave.
She didn't stop him but just as he was about to enter a tunnel he hoped led to the outside he heard her silky voice call out.
"Good luck."
Author's note: I'm just a Zades machine, wow. I don't think I've written so much for one pairing in my whole fanfic writing career. Please R&R.