There were soft sounds that came from the inside of my closet. I crossed my arms and whispered, "alright, no more hiding. You can't hide forever."
There was a tiny giggle that was quickly stiffened. I moved my sweaters aside and Milo screeched as he tried to leap past me. I caught him and carried him over my shoulder out of the closet. He screamed and laughed, his hand grabbing at my shirt since he felt he was going to fall. I set him on the bed and he curled up, and then scampered to hide under the pillows. I smiled and pulled away the pillow, only for Milo to try to leap past me again. He landed on the floor and ran for the door. I sighed and reappeared right in front of him; I caught him and scooped him up. He laughed and I said, "Milo, you stop doing that."
He laughs and I set him back down on the bed, I smooth down his dark hair which is sticking up with static from rubbing against the blankets and my sweaters. I sigh and he grabs his feet and rolls onto his back. He laughs his little chortling laugh. I smile and sit down to finish getting ready. With a pang I remember how Ava had been the one to do this. My heart aches for a moment, and it's then I know though that I'm keeping my promise. I'd sworn to remember her, and the pain was what helped me know I was keeping that oath. Milo chortled again and Pogo leaped onto the bed with him and licked Milo's forehead. I smiled at them in the mirror and continued to get ready.
The door opened sometime later and I finished containing Milo for the fifth time, he leaped off the bed anyway though and ran straight to Henry. Henry smiled and scooped Milo up into his arms. I smiled and Milo tried to climb onto Henry's shoulders.
When Henry had finished handling the toddler in his arms he said, "Your mother's here. She's practically dying to see you and Milo."
I smile and cross over to them saying, "Then why am I keeping her waiting?"
Henry smiled and pulled Milo up onto his shoulders and says, "She just arrived."
I rolled my eyes and helped Henry control Milo since our son was practically trying to fall off Henry's shoulders.
Henry smiled; it looked so happy and wonderful that my heart swelled with joy as well.

"Maybe you want to take him? I need to go and see who else is arriving." Henry smiled as he handed me Milo and then disappeared.
I roll my eyes and say to Milo, "now you be good, you daddy and I have more than enough to deal with."
He gives me that toddler smile that only says that more trouble and mischief is on the way. I sigh and then reappear in the opening. There's a small gasp and then my mother is there and smiling. I smile as well and she says, "Oh let me see my grandson!"
I smile and hand he Milo. "Careful, he's in the terrible twos." My mother smiles and says, "oh but they're so sweet and adorable at that age!" Henry arrives and says, "Not when you're the one getting up to put him back to bed." I smile and give him a small push. "Hey! I did that last night not you!" Henry shrugs and replies, "but who does it almost every other night?"
I open my mouth to argue but close it quickly and narrow my eyes at him. Then I smile and say, "Just because you're god of the underworld doesn't mean that you have power over everything."
He narrows his eyes and I smile at having the upper hand. Milo screeches and reaches for me. My mother hands him back to me and I take him in my arms. For once he doesn't squirm like he had been doing for the past few months.
My mother smiles and for a moment it looks painful as she says, "how is everything down here. I miss getting to seed you during the spring and summer."
I fidget and Milo lets out a loud obnoxious yawn.
"Everything's fine down here." I respond with a smile, really everything was fine. I told Henry I was going to stay here with him all year, and now I realized that I did miss my mother during those other six months that I was supposed to be on the surface. And I missed James. Sure he visited every other week for a few hours, and during those hours he'd sit with me and play with Milo, or he'd just talk about what new adventure he was planning, and he was keeping his promise. He'd said that there was one girl he liked, he'd seen her a couple times and she apparently liked him as well, he planned to try and stay with her soon.
I still missed him though, and I missed Ava, and my mother, I even missed Dylan on rare occasions. Being with Henry though, that made up for everything.

There was silence for a moment as I thought about this, then I came back and said, "Yes, everything is just fine, I enjoy being down here. I couldn't leave Henry and Milo even if I wanted to."

My mother sighs and says, "Just let me know if you want to leave, I can come anytime."

"She can leave anytime she wants; we established that before the war." Henry states softly, but I can hear the worry behind his carefully placed mask. I took his hand and said, "And I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, so let's drop the subject."

Milo laughs and reaches over my shoulder for whoever has arrived behind me, I look over my shoulder and see James leaning against one of the pillars, his blond hair light from all his time in the sun, and his eyes are sparkling with mischief. I smile and he says, "You're getting paler, it looks like you need to see the sun."

"I look into that when Milo doesn't wake up in the middle of the night anymore." I respond with a huff, he really didn't have to say that, the subject of me staying down here all year was already a touchy subject with Henry, and I could tell that all of us bringing it up like this was upsetting him, Persephone wasn't the only one who could read him now. I look at him and smile, he gives me a smile as well, but it's slightly forced and I say, "I'm doing just fine down here, and besides, I couldn't leave Milo for more than five minutes without him getting into some kind of trouble and Henry already has enough to do without having to take care of a two year old."

Henry smiles and behind his eyes I can see that he's happy that I'm skittering the topic like its hot coals. James shrugs and says, "Good for you two then, I'm glad it's all working out."

Milo wraps his arms around my neck and makes soft sounds in my ear as he tries to grab my earrings with her teeth. I sigh and shift him so he doesn't have the chance. He gurgles his displeasure and I say, "How about we set you and Milo up together so that I can have a few minutes of rest."

James shrugs and says, "I didn't come to play with your kid, but if you insist." He crosses to us and Milo lets out a squeal as I set him down on the floor to let him run to James. Milo toddles his way over and grabs James's leg laughing in joy as James rubs his head. Henry's arm winds around my waist and I lay my hand on his softly, my mother smiles and says, "You're both doing just fine, he's happier than any toddler I've ever seen."

"That's because he gets away with so much." I say and look at Henry; he blinks and then gives me that tiny smile that says he is slightly guilty at the moment. I roll my eyes playfully and say, "And he's probably the most spoiled little thing we could have raised."

Henry's smile widens and he says, "That's your doing."

I narrow my eyes and say, "Yes, that is, but everything else is generally you."

My mother smiled and says, "You poor things, maybe I can take care of him for a week, just let you guys relax and try to wade through whatever you two have to down here."

Milo screeches and we all look over and see James holding him up on his shoulders as Milo grabs James's hair. I sigh and go over and pull Milo off of James's shoulders, he laughs and smiles up at me. I shake my head smiling as well and James says, "I bet you Henry told him to do that."

"I might have, but no one's investing to see." Henry says as he takes Milo from me, Milo lays his head on Henry's shoulder and murmurs. I smile at how he seems to relax in Henry's arms; Henry really was the go to if I couldn't put Milo back to sleep at night.

I smile and we all move out of entryway and towards the small room that I had been busy decorating for Christmas, Milo's first really Christmas with the family considering the fact that Henry and I had begged to spend the last Christmas with him alone.

Henry set Milo down in the room and Milo screamed and ran to Cerberus, who was resting comfortably by the tree. Milo landing on top of the dog and Cerberus raised his large head and started down at Milo with a mixture of what could have been seen as laughter and faint worry. Milo smiled up at him and then Cerberus licked Milo across the forehead, Milo screamed with laughter and touched Cerberus's soft ears with his little hands.

James sat down next to them and Cerberus growled at James and wrapped his neck around Milo, Henry snorted and I could see the faintest of smiles on his lips. I crossed my arms and gave him a look of disagreement. Henry's small smile fell and he sighed then said, "Cerberus that is our guest."

The gray hound narrowed his eyes and then rested his head back down, but he watched James carefully, and seemed to keep an eye on Milo as well. My mother sat down in one of the chairs and says, "You decorated it just like we used to."

I nod and move past Milo moving my hand softly across his hair, he reaches for my hand and I give him one of my fingers. "I wanted I guess a little taste of the past."

Henry sits down facing my mother and says, "It's very similar to Eden Manor."

I roll my eyes playfully and say, "Don't tell me you haven't seen this room, you helped me decorate it recently."

Henry shrugs and rests back his face looked dark and handsome like it always did in low light, and his eyes were at their full glory in this lighting. Milo grabs at Cerberus's ears and pulls slightly, the hound whines and I look down at Milo and say, "Milo, no! We don't pull on ears."

Milo looks up at me with those little blue eyes and then smiles and laughs. I sigh and James says, "He's a little trouble maker like you."

I narrow my eyes and say, "I was never a trouble maker!"

"Oh because almost dying like four times, handing yourself over to Cronus isn't making trouble." James counters, his smile widening he sees how furious his comment has made me. Henry shifts, bad comment for James to make, no one wanted to think back then, especially Henry. I look at him and say, "We all know I had to do what I had to do."

Henry nods tightly and my mother speaks quickly to cover the awkwardness that has settled, "and the decision was a smart one at that, but we can all also agree that it was rash, but it's behind us."

I smile and say, "thank you, it is behind us," I look at James and hiss, "and that's all that matters."

He shrugs and goes back to playing with Milo. I sit next to Henry, who finds a way to slip his arm around my shoulders and hold me close, his hand squeezing my shoulder.

"You guys haven't had any problems with him, right?" James questions when he looks up from Milo who has found the inside of James's bag to be absolutely enthralling. I narrow my eyes, Cronus was a delicate subject, Henry and I didn't discuss the fact that I sometimes visited to make sure he was still tightly imprisoned, even though I stated it was to give him company.

"He won't be bothering us for millennia." Whispered Henry to keep the silence from expanding. Milo made a noise inside James's bag as he stood up with the bag covering his head; he stumbled about and eventually found his way to me where he grabbed my leg. I smile and lift the bag off his head and say, "what are you doing in there silly?"

He squeals and then pulls the bag down out of my grip and stumbles back across the room to James who pulls his bag off of Milo's head.