Disclaimer: Umm... I don't own anything.

Around her souls stood, whispering frantically to themselves, waiting to be judged for the sins or great deeds they had committed.

They stood, in the cold, brick judging hall. Tall enough to have a roof of shadow with crevices and crannies filled with darkness, the only light in the room came from lanterns on the side walls and the occupants themselves, with the ghosts having their own silvery glow about them. The floor was cold, hard, unforgiving brick and Persephone could feel it's chill even through the skirts of her dress. The walls were the darkest blue, an almost black, and the air around them was damp and made you shiver.

Even the ghosts felt the chill here, Persephone thought dryly, and ghosts felt nothing at all.

Then there was the man beside her.

There was a raised part of the room, right in front of the end wall, with three wide steps giving berth to it. And on the raised platform, sat two thrones. On one was Persephone herself, sitting quietly beside her master on her beautiful throne of golden hues. Covered with a mixture of flowers and gems, her throne was the brightest thing in the room apart from the Queen herself, and Persephone was dreadfully and mournfully aware of the fact.

The woman was beautiful looking in a fitted black strapless dress. The skirts poofed out slightly from the waist down and effectively covered her ankles and bare feet. They swished on the ground when she moved or crossed her legs, and were a comfortingly warm silk against her otherwise bare legs. The top portion of the dress dipped slightly between the valley of her breasts, and was otherwise tight and covering. It sparkled with the small glittering gems threaded neatly into the cloth, giving the impression of stars in the darkest night sky. This was the riskiest article of clothing Persephone would wear in front of anyone apart from her husband and even then she could only wear such things during the winter months.

There was no way Persephone's mother would have ever allowed her to wear something so revealing, especially when she could be seen by men. But Hades loved seeing Persephone dress up, and as always she had to succumb to his wishes.

The thought of her companion made Persephone glance over at him swiftly to see that he was already staring at her. His dark hair was just long enough to fall just above his eyebrows, his pale skin a stark contrast to the usual black attire he had donned today. His hands were on each arm of his chair, his legs and feet hidden from view by his long black pants and dark shoes. His cloak clasped at his shoulders, giving the impression of regalness and pride, and Persephone saw his helm of darkness sitting on a table close to his throne.

But his eyes were what she stared at. The rest she had memorized already, and it hadn't changed, but his eyes were constantly holding different emotions and despite herself Persephone had always been drawn and fascinated by them.

They were an onyx black, usually emotionless to everyone apart from her. It seemed that only Persephone was able to see the great depths of emotion Hades so carefully hid from everyone else, and she knew that even when he tried to stop her from seeing them he could never completely block them from her. Now they were filled with curiosity and a slight hint of worry.

When Persephone finally looked away from him she followed his gaze and saw what he had been staring at her for. She had subconsciously been twisting her hands in the folds of her dress and had been drawing the attention of almost everyone in the room by doing so.

Suddenly an overwhelming feeling of suffocation closed in on Persephone. So many dead eyes staring at her made her self conscious, but the one pair of living eyes made her blood boil and her heart pound.

She hated it in this room. Had always hated it. She had never been one for judging, rejecting her husbands queries to whether she wanted to try it herself. In fact, she had rejected all of the responsibilities of being Queen of the Underworld. The only thing that even allowed her to rightfully possess the title was her marriage to Hades himself, and even that was unwilling on her part. Oh gods knew it was unwilling.

She couldn't stand it any longer, the weight of his gaze made it hard for her to breathe. Abruptly she stood up, once again causing all eyes to turn to her. With a curt nod to the shades in front of her and ignoring her husband completely, Persephone turned and strode out of the room, just slow enough for the stride not to be frantic.

But the moment Persephone heard the door to the chamber shut with a resounding slam behind her she burst into a run, gathering the fluttering dress and hiking it up as she did so. She ran and ran and ran, not caring about the almost burning coolness of the floor beneath her, or the surprised servants hurrying to the side of the hall to get out of her way. She didn't stop to admire the what she had once thought beautiful hallway. It was all the same and therefore was all dull and dark now.

She should have known better. Nothing here was beautiful. Not even her.

No, all she did was run, trying, as futile as she knew it was, to get as far away from the man she had left behind her.

Finally, with her chest heaving, she almost slammed into the closed door of his bedroom. It was not theirs. It was his. While she was gone, he occupied the room alone, and while she was there she forced herself to accompany him to these chambers. To lay beside him while he drifted off to sleep, or more often than not, lay quietly watching her until she fell under Hypnos's spell.

Now she rested her head against the cool brown wood, a very obvious change in color since everything else around her was black. The wood was nothing special, mahogany Persephone vaguely remembered a servant saying, and was bare with no pattern on it. The doorknob was brass with an almost golden sheen, smelling of polish from the cleaning it had been subjected to this morning by yet another slave of Persephone's husband.

With her eyes closed she moved her hand, searching to twist the knob and open the door but unwilling to open her eyes, to see the darkness around her. All she wanted to feel was the coolness of the silken sheets adorning the magnificent Olympus-sized four poster bed in the room beneath her. Finally her hand fumbled over the knob, managing to twist it before Persephone stumbled into the room.

This room was slightly warmer than the rest of the palace but not by much. A chest pf drawers which held Hades's clothes, a desk with a simple chair. There was a huge wardrobe devoted to all of Persephone's clothing, gowns and other fashions alike, and a smaller vanity beside it holding lotions, makeup and hair tools. Above it hung a mirror, just large enough for Persephone to be able to see all angles of her face and above the mirror a lantern providing eternal light so she could see.

Despite what some women thought Persephone was not a vain goddess, despite her natural beauty. She paid no attention to having her luscious, curly brown hair perfect, or outlining her plump lips to show them off and attract attention. She preferred loose dresses that flowed around her and made her feel young, and she spent minimal to no time defining her warm chocolate eyes. And unlike the gods on Olympus, she only spent time in the sun when she was planting or frolicking with her nymph friends, not basking in it's glow like the others. Her tan was one from years of working outdoors and sweating from the heat, not tanning on a floating palace.

The Spring Goddess threw herself on the black coverings of the bed located in the center of the far wall. The softness of the sheets were welcome against her skin and Persephone pressed first one cheek to them and then the other, allowing to cold to warm her flushed face.

He had always had this effect on her. Even before he had taken her, before she had grown to hate him and despise even the mention of his name.

Even now, when she had all the reason in the world to hate him he still made her feel something no one, immortal or not, could ever even begin to make her feel.

She heard the soft sound of the wooden door swing over the floor and immediately sat up, with her legs dangling from the side of the bed.

No one was allowed to enter their chambers when one of them were occupying it. Servants only came to clean and others usually came to deliver messages, but they always knocked, never daring to enter.

So Persephone knew who it was the moment he took a step in the room. She would have known it by the feeling of his presence if she had not realized it before.

His eyes studied her, obviously trying to figure out what she was thinking. His mouth was puckered into a slight frown, but not in anger like Persephone had thought (or maybe hoped) it would be. In fact he seemed calm, almost relaxed.

She sat there, staring stoically back at him. No indication of her emotions on her face she watched as he closed the door behind him and took a few steps towards her before obviously thinking better of it and stopping.

Persephone tried to ignore her pounding heart. She did not try to figure out why it was pounding as it did that every time Hades neared her lately.

Persephone thought it was from anger. Or at least... she hoped it was.

Finally he cut through the tension in the room. "You left in quite a hurry." There was a question at the end of his statement and Persephone knew he wanted to know why she had departed as she had.

But the sight of him made her so furious, so unreasonable, that she decided, no matter how childish it was, to play dumb. "Did I?"

The slightest spark of something entered his eyes, but it was gone before she could identify it. All they held was expectancy. "May I inquire as to why?"

She shrugged, faking nonchalance and her hand moved to play with the sheets beside her. Her eyes were averted from his as she spoke, "I needed to get out of there."

She heard him heave a sigh and for a moment thought she saw disappointment in his eyes when she raised hers to meet his. "Persephone-"

"You know how I hate this darkness, and that room is particularly morbid. All of the death in there," she suppressed a shiver, "it is not my domain, and I will never feel myself here."

Her hand was still twisting itself in the covering, her eyes focused solely on it. She did not hear him move towards her, nor see him lean down. She only noticed the sudden lack of space between them when he placed his hand over hers, stopping her from fidgeting any longer.

Despite was people thought Hades was warm. Like any other god his temperature changed but he was not ice cold as everybody seemed to think. In fact, Persephone thought grudgingly, his touch was one of the most comforting she had ever felt, the only other person who's skin comforted her so was her mother's.

Now, when Hades touched her, she felt fire burn through her veins and spread throughout her body. Another shiver made it's way up Persephone's spine and this time she could not resist it. She raised her eyes to meet his and saw him looking at her worriedly.

Without saying anything she yanked her hand away and stood. She took a few steps away before turning to look at him.

He did not seem affected by her rejection. Zeus knew it happened enough that he should be used to it by now it happened often enough. In the beginning Persephone had felt guilt at her flinches and pulling away from him, but he hadn't appeared to be bothered by it so the guilt had eased to be replaced by a sick satisfaction.

Marriage should not be like this, Persephone knew that. Wasn't love supposed to be kind, and beautiful? The best feeling in the world?

Why did Aphrodite hate her so much to cause this to happen to her? Hades may have been under the illusion that he loved her but he did not. Because people shouldn't get satisfaction from hurting the person they loved and Hades had done that to her.

Just thinking about it made her blood boil and Persephone's mind went blank apart from one thought. But you can only get hatred from love, and you can only get love from hatred. They were the two most powerful emotions and therefore countered one another but the goddess had heard the the two went hand in hand.

When he spoke his voice was bordering on pleading. "Persephone I understand that you do not enjoy what I do. I know that you do not want to admit to yourself exactly what you do feel, but I want you to respect that I am the master here. If I cannot gain loyalty and respect from my own bride then how can I expect others to serve me? I need you to give me-"

"Give you? Give you?!" She laughed a vicious and cold laugh, one entirely unlike her nature. "What more could I give you? No, what more could you take from me? You have taken my innocence, shredded my purity, and abducted me from my home! You crushed my mothers heart and have almost diminished my own! My friends cannot act how they used to around me because I am now so much more powerful than before! I am no longer the goddess of light and spring I am now the total opposite of that, Queen of the Underworld! You have taken my joy and turned it into dead wishes. I cannot laugh anymore because nothing makes me want to do so. I used to find joy out of every little thing and now I can only see the dark side to them! People fear me! I have unwanted servants and an unthinkable amount of riches that I have no wish for! No one asks me what I want and no one argues with me anymore because they are scared I will cast them here, to you!" She yelled before shaking her head at him, bowing it to hide her quickly watering eyes. "No, husband, there is nothing more that you could take from me. I have already submitted to you everything I have."

Hades looked at her in shock as her fevered breathing slowed and her watering eyes grew damper by the second. Her tears did not spill over but they were so close to doing so.

"You are wrong." Hades finally said to her.

"Wrong? What, is there some unheard of object that you do not have that I somehow possess? Something to give you that could cause me even more pain?" Now one droplet of water fell from her eye and streamed down her cheek.

Suddenly Hades moved towards her, his hands gripping her shoulders firmly but gently. His eyes held such sudden sorrow and pain that Persephone, despite hating every part of him, couldn't bear to see. Softly he whispered to her.

"You have not willingly given me your love, which is all I have ever wanted from you."

She took in a breath, shocked at the astounding earnestness in his tone. She blinked rapidly a few times and her blurry vision cleared and she froze in his grip.

Suddenly she threw herself at him, knocking him to the ground with her falling on his chest. As soon as she regained her strength she started hitting him, she hit every part of him she could reach and tried to cause as much pain onto him as he had inflicted to her.

And he did nothing to stop her.

He lay there beneath her, still and silent, only wincing occasionally at the multiple blows to his chest. His eyes never left her face however, and it never occurred to her until later that maybe she should have hidden her emotions from him.

Eventually, after what seemed like hours of beating him, Persephone's arms dropped to her sides and she lay on his chest, gasping for breath. Her throat was raw and it was only then that she realized she had been screaming at him. Wordless screaming that had shattered the Lord of the Underworld's heart and left his mind in a haze from the raw emotions behind it.

Slowly she dragged herself off of him, trying to get away from the man beneath her. She hurriedly crawled away, pulling her knees to her chest when she was a few feet apart from him.

And then, staring at his form which was just laying on the ground staring at the ceiling, Persephone started to cry.

It was just crying at first, but then it turned into horrible heart twisting sobs. Hades turned to look at her and saw the tears streaming down her face as she just sat and stared at him, wanting him to do something, to make her feel better in some way.

But he could not. At least, he thought he couldn't.

However he used his arms to support him and made his way over to her. Hesitantly he wrapped his arms around her shaking form, trying to ignore the racking of her body. He just held her and slowly, oh ever so slowly, he bent his head down, and kissed her hair.

She froze, her sobs suddenly stopping, before she started to cry all over again. New tears, new animalistic sounds coming from her, and Hades was at a loss of what to do.

"Persephone," he pleaded quietly, "please stop. Please don't- I don't want you- I wish..." He trailed off, unable to find the words to say. He spoke without thinking then, the only thing he wanted was for her to calm down. "Aphrodite was horribly cruel to you when she made me fall in love with you. From the first moment I saw you I knew I had to have you, and I know- gods please believe me when I say this- I know everything I've done is wrong. I went about this all wrong but- when it came to you I couldn't just not have you. So I took you, knowing that way you could not refuse me and break my heart in the process. So I took you and married you and made you eat those seeds so that there was no way you could ever be taken from me."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, not noticing that Persephone's sobs had turned into small gasps of air and that she was looking at him intently. "And then I- oh Hell- I raped you. I pained you and I fear that now I have broken you, which was the last thing I wanted. I am no saint, and I know that, but you... when I met you you were the first person who didn't look at me as if I was death itself. You made me feel something that I hadn't felt in millennium. You made me hopeful that- that at least one person could look past what I do and see who I am."

Now it was him taking deep breaths, trying desperately to calm himself and get his cool mask back. But it was gone, and for the moment it would stay that way. "I wanted to see you look at me like that for the rest of my existence. I knew in that moment that it was you who I needed to be by my side and when my brother told me to take a wife it was your image that flashed into my head and burned itself behind my eyelids. I went about it all wrong, and I know that but Persephone... please know that I do love you. In my own twisted way, I really do."

She was quiet now, her tears and sobs forgotten amidst his heartfelt confession and Persephone could see just how much her next words would affect the god in front of her. He was fragile, she realized with surprise.

He went on almost like he was speaking to himself. "But you love me too you know."

Her head shot up, her anger returning full force. "Excuse me? How could I love you!? You're the most cruel, evil, snake-like-"

He shook his head. "No. In the beginning you trusted me. You acted with me in a way you didn't act with another soul. You began to fall in love with me, I know that now I just couldn't see it before. But then I took you and the trust turned into hatred because you were wrong and you hated me for what I did to you." His eyes captured hers and held them. "But when you begin to fall in love with someone you cannot just stop loving them. And with what I did to you... you should have stopped loving me, you should have feared me. But you didn't. Instead you hated me. You hated me because you knew you still wanted me, despite the sins I had committed against you and you loved me still. You hated that I had that sort of power over you, I didn't see it before but I do now. And Persephone... I need to know if there's any way I could somehow fix everything."

She shook her head, denial filling her and a retort found her way to the tip of her tongue but then she thought over his words. Hades had never forced Persephone to enter his bedchambers (apart from that one, unspeakable time) with him, she had always forced herself to go. Hades had asked her to start doing her Underworld duties but had not insisted and had let the matter drop after she had very clearly expressed her feelings on the matter.

Hades did love her, she realized with a start, and he had tried. Wrongly, definitely wrongly, but he had at least tried.

Something warm filled Persephone's chest. And unknown emotion that made her want to dance and scream at the same time.

Slowly, hesitantly, her hand made it's way to his chest and rested on the fabric that separated skin from skin. Even through the thick layers she could feel his heart pounding and Persephone thought suddenly that it was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard.

She looked up and met his eyes, hers were alight with happy surprise. "Let me kiss you." she whispered to him.

Surprise blanketed his face but he started to lean down slowly until Persephone pushed him back slightly, shaking her head as she did so. "No," she said firmly, "let me kiss you."

"But why-"

"I want to do this because I want to, not because I was forced to." Her eyes pleaded with him to understand and filled with relief when he finally nodded, his eyelids fluttering shut.

Slowly, oh ever so slowly, she leaned towards him, so close that she could feel his breath on her face and saw his lips open with anticipation. She stopped, millimeters away from his lips suddenly filled with a school-girl type of nervousness. This would be her first kiss that wasn't taken from her. The first kiss that she gave up willingly to a man.

One of his eyes opened a crack, filled with worry and silently asking her what was wrong. She scolded herself internally while she leaned forwards and finally closed the space between them.

His lips were hesitant and careful. They were not forceful like she had experienced with him before, or demanding. Slow, almost nervous. She had never really taken time to think about how his lips felt on hers before. They were soft and smooth and somehow sent jitters all the way to Persephone's toes. Their lips molded to one another's, tasting and feeling while still being careful. Persephone felt one of Hades's arms wrap around her waist and pull her closer to him and she gasped in surprise and pleasure.

At hearing her gasp he immediately pulled back, unlike all of the other times. This time he was respecting what she wanted, not what he needed. "Persephone are you all right? Did I hurt you?"

She bit her lip, looking down at him before finally meeting his gaze. She let her lip go and smiled at him happily. "No my lord, I am perfectly fine."

He drew his head back a bit to get a better look at her, unsure whether she was lying or not. "Are you sure?"

She took a deep breath. "Hades I can take care of myself. I am fine, I assure you."

He smiled at her and she couldn't help but smile back.

Maybe she did love him. They could be the most unsuited pair in history but Persephone felt it, working it's way into the very marrow of her bones. She cared for this man, she realized. She had already forgiven him for everything he had done to her because she could never stay mad at him. She forgave him and she was sure that in the next few centuries she would be able to almost forget what he had done as well.

It had taken over 5 years of the pomegranate arrangement to make Persephone and Hades realized what exactly the other meant to them. Each year the Spring Goddess had dreaded going to the Underworld and couldn't wait to see above the earth again.

This year, Persephone knew, was going to be very different.

oooOOOooo

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