Persephone sighed, it was spring but for some reason she did not feel as she usually did; the colours did not seem as beautiful this year, as though they had faded in the bright sunshine. She could take no delight in the wonders she usually saw in spring, the season of rebirth. She had been found and brought back to the surface by her mother, Demeter, but after her time in the underworld she could find no beauty in this world above the surface. She wanted to return to the dark of the underworld where the dead roses bloomed. She had tried to make roses, to show her love what he was missing but they had not worked. She smiled in memory of that conversation.

She curled upon the bed sobbing in disgust at her failure. Hades sat by her and reached his hand out to touch her shoulder tentatively.

"What is wrong my love?"

She sat up and leaned against him; he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly against him.

"The flowers aren't alive, I can't make them live," she sobbed.

Hades chuckled and she stiffened.

"Is that all?" He asked.

She pulled free of his grasp and turned to glare at him.

"Is that all?" She snapped. "I, the goddess of Spring, cannot make the flowers bloom and you act as if this is some trivial matter."

Hades reached out to her.

"I did not mean to trivialize the matter, I'm sorry."

Persephone curled up on the bed again with her back to him.

"May I ask one question? After that I'll leave you in peace if you wish,"

She sat up and pouted.

"Just one?"

"Just one," he promised.

She sighed melodramatically.

"Go on then," she said with a wave of her hand as though she was granting him some great favour.

He smiled at her response and she pouted back at him.

"Why were you trying to make flowers anyway?"

She sighed and drew her knees up to her chin; wrapping her arms round them she rested her chin on her knees and studied him for a moment.

"I wanted to show you something beautiful."

He smiled gravely at her.

"You already have."

She smiled weakly then replied:

"I wanted to show you I could create something beautiful."

"Why?"

"I wanted to make everywhere beautiful for you."

"These halls have been the same way for millennia, at the moment you're all the beauty I can take."

She smiled at him and when he held his arms out to her again she moved back with him again.

"Why wouldn't the flowers grow?"

He sighed and Persephone smiled as she felt him kiss the top of her head.

"Because this is the realm of the dead, Persephone. Nothing can live here."

"Oh."

He suddenly stood up and she fell back on the bed.

"I shouldn't have brought you here, it was a mistake."

"Oh really and why is that?"

"For the exact reason I've just said."

"I don't care Hades. I really don't, I'd rather be here than with all the living creatures in the world."

He glanced at her and raised an eyebrow; she nodded with determination on her face. He sighed.

"Well, I've done it now I can't change the past."

"No you can't."

He eyed her thoughtfully.

"I could take you back however."

"Don't you dare!"

He chuckled.

"Don't worry I won't."

"You better not."

Persephone smiled to herself as she remembered how she had tried to impress him with her roses but had failed. She sighed wondering if she would ever see him again. Her mother had been adamant that she would never return however Hades was intending to plead their case to Zeus. She hoped Zeus would listen because if he didn't then she may have lost her chances at seeing Hades again. She remembered how desperately he had searched for some food of living he could eat when she felt her powers begin to wane. In the realm of the dead they at the food of the dead but this could not sustain a goddess of the living.

Hades silently entered the room is left hand holding something Persephone could not see.

"This is all we have."

She held out her hand and he dropped into it six pomegranate seeds.

"If you'd let me take you above to the surface then you could find food that you can eat."

Persephone shook her head.

"Down here I am safe you can keep me shielded but up there Mother would see u in an instant."

"So we could come back down here where she cannot follow."

"If I can survive down here so can she."

Hades sighed.

"You are getting weaker and six pomegranate seeds will not sustain you for long."

"I can make them last."

"Not long enough though."

"What can we do then?"

"Maybe you should return when you have eaten all the pomegranate seeds and we will ask Zeus to allow you to stay. The rules say whoever eats in the realms of the dead has to stay in the realms of the dead; maybe Zeus will uphold this rule."

"And if he doesn't?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Well we're almost at that bridge now and I hope you've got a plan for getting across because the only thing I can think of is me hiding in the underworld but we already know that won't work forever. She wished there had been some way of making flowers grow in the underworld for that ha only been one part of her plan. While what she had told Hades had been truthful it had not been the whole truth. She had wanted to grow flowers for their beauty yes but she had also wanted to grow things she could eat so she would never have to return to the surface again. If her plan had worked she would not now be facing her predicament. The pomegranate seeds were about to run out and when they did she had promised Hades that she would return with him to the surface to try and find some way of solving their predicament. She did not want to run the risk of losing him and though she had tried to make the pomegranate seeds last as long as possible she couldn't stretch it out any longer. She would have to return soon though she dreaded it.