She was a queen. A queen too sick to leave bed most days. "With what illness?"she had heard Thanatos ask Hades once. How was Hades to respond? A lack of sunshine? A lack of flowers? These were not excuses.
But It was the truth. The underworld could be so dark. Her mind too became dark the longer she stayed. Hades was good to her, through every day. He awoke still happy to greet her. Even on days when she could not muster up a greeting herself.
It hurt to love him so much.
And to hate his realm so much.
That's not to say the underworld had no pleasure in it.
Cerberus, the King's loyal guard dog, was one of Persephone's favorite creature in any of the three realms. Each one of his heads was slightly different in nature but she loved each one completely.
Hecate, who was a stand in mother, always left the room having brightened Persephone's day.
The fields of Asphodel were not terrible either, though not at all like above ground. They held their own kind of life in them.
But as a whole this realm felt, too thin. The air hollow. Nothing felt solid, save for the walls of rock and steel. And these walls felt like they were holding her in. Choking the life out of her.
Hades had already suggested it.
Some time apart.
"Time away" he had said just yesterday morning.
As if sending her off wasn't like ripping apart of him off too. As if leaving him here alone wasn't an awful thought. "Your mother would be glad to see you after all."
Eventually it would become too much. She was spring and eventually she would sprout from beneath the earth.
But not today. Today she would stay here beneath the soil trapped but well looked after.