This Persephone and Macaria are MINE. Anyone who uses them without my permission gets thrown in the Phlegethon River.

Everything/everyone else belongs to Disney. Use 'em at your own risk.

Little Miss Flames and Flowers

Chapter VIII--Persephone Struggles With Keeping Her Little Secret, and Her Visit to the Underworld Doesn't Go So Well

"Idiots," Persephone muttered under her breath as yet another cluster of goddesses passed, whispering about her and staring at her out of the corner of their eyes.

Three and a half months exactly had passed since she had come back to Earth (that was three and a half months minus a day since Hades had ordered the Underworldians to babyproof his realm; three months since he had gotten the notion to release the Titans).

It had not been easy three-point-five months. She was swelling steadily, her baby growing inside her, but no-one had figured out she was pregnant yet. The rumor spreading around Olympus was so outrageous that Persephone would have laughed if she wasn't so fed up with hearing about it.

They believed that she missed the attention she usually got from Hades, and so to get the attention of Olympus, she was binge-eating and purposely putting on weight.

…Persephone's opinion of Olympus was that they were all mentally challenged.

All anyone had to do to figure out why the hell she was getting so huge was shove her next to Hera and compare the two. When Persephone had arrived on Olympus 3.5 months ago, Zeus, who had apparently been waiting for her to get back to tell everyone, had gathered all of Olympus together and proudly announced that Hera was pregnant for the fifth time. Persephone had nearly gasped out loud when Zeus had revealed that she had been carrying a kid for the exact same time Seph had been…

That meant that the prince or princess of the Underworld would be born around the same time as the prince or princess of Olympus. Weird coincidence.

This fact also worked to her advantage, though, in a way. Everyone was paying so much attention to Hera, it was Hera, Hera, Hera, Hera, Hera, Hera…even Zeus was getting ignored, because it was Hera who was pregnant, Hera who was ill, poor Hera, Hera needed care, Hera, Hera, Hera, Hera…

Persephone hid herself under all the attention Hera was getting. Demeter visited her sister frequently, and spent days on end with her, so Seph was able to hide the fact that she was pregnant pretty easily. And she could have easily made it through the six months without being discovered if she wasn't so homesick.

Sure, it was a good thing of her to be ignored, but she still had issues that needed tending to, and since Olympus was so focused on Hera, Persephone was forced to suffer through her so far 5.5 (approximately. Might've been six. She wasn't keeping track.) month long pregnancy alone. She missed Hades, terribly.

Now she was perched on the edge of a cloud, staring downwards at other clouds and past those, the mortals scattered on Earth. They were so tiny, like little dots. She was so high up.

Nike, the goddess of victory, and Harmonia, the goddess of harmony and balance, slid past behind her. Persephone turned and glared, catching the two in the middle of shooting a disapproving and giggly glance at her.

Persephone scowled and returned her attention back to the clouds and the mortals. Her hands moved to rest on her stomach and she sighed. Part of the stress was keeping her pregnancy a secret. She was happy about it, and would have very much liked to tell someone, to gush about her upcoming child to someone

"That cloud's gonna collapse with her on it," she heard someone whisper behind her. Persephone scowled again, and shakily stood up, spreading her arms for some type of balance.

Yeah, I have to tell someone about this. Persephone frowned and placed her hands on her womb again, feeling queasy.

She couldn't tell Demeter. That was a definite.

She couldn't tell Zeus or Poseidon. They wouldn't care. Both looked down on their brother and would only feel the same about her and their child.

Hera maybe? Oh gods no, Persephone thought immediately and winced. Two hormonal and pregnant goddesses together in once place, whose husbands were rivals, whose children would grow to probably hate each other…it was a recipe for disaster and a disaster did it prove to be indeed. Persephone probably would have been thrown off a cloud by now, if it hadn't been for Bacchus and Hermes running to split the two goddesses apart. If they had come any later, either Persephone or Hera would have been lying in ichor-y pieces on the floor.

I can tell Aph, thought Persephone suddenly. The two couldn't be any different from each other (Aphrodite was vain and prissy and girly and bubbly and all about love, whilst Persephone couldn't care less about looks, was sarcastic, nasty, gothic in a way, the Queen of the frickin' Underworld…), however for some weird reason that Persephone didn't know, the two were practically best friends. Opposites attracted, apparently. Demeter approved of Aphrodite and during Persephone's childhood imprisonment in her and Demeter's earthly cottage, the goddess of love had visited her frequently and since Demeter had cut her off from the rest of Olympus, little Persephone had grown on her. They rarely spoke during the winter/fall (Aph thought the Underworld was "icky") but were together on many occasions during the spring/summer. And Aphrodite was, after all, the one who had remarried Seph and Hades…

"Persephone," said Demeter suddenly, her voice sickeningly cheerful and cutting into her train of thought like a big knife. Persephone winced and turned around.

"Sephy, sweetheart," Demeter continued brightly, flitting over to her daughter and wrapping a green arm around Persephone's waist, "Why are you all the way over here, on the edge of this cloud? I don't want you all by yourself, sweetie, come with me, we'll go back to the cottage, and you can work in the fields while I go talk to Hera, okay? Sephy? How does that sound? Okay?"

Persephone groaned. Of course she had to appear now. Of course. She sighed softly; Aph would have to wait. She could keep her secret a secret for a little longer. No problem.

…Ugh.


It was the next day and Persephone was again perched on a cloud. Demeter and Hestia had been talking for the past…half hour. She had tuned them out, but she was bored, so now she tuned back in to see what was so fascinating…

They were talking about the eternal fire of the hearth, like they had been doing before she had decided to tune them out. Persephone clenched her teeth in a sort of a scowl. How could two people talk about something like this for hours?! It wasn't even something! It was nothing. It was a fire, that didn't go out, ever, big whoop-dee-freaking-doo, but they had managed to talk about it and talk about it and talk about it…

Persephone didn't groan like was her instinct, but she did sigh to express her annoyance. Her mother and aunt ignored her and continued their mindless conversation. Persephone cast an irritated glance at them, placed a fluttery hand on her womb, and sighed again.

The eternal fire…

…fire…

Fire was…

Fire was Hades…

Persephone trembled and then without warning burst into miserable tears and vanished. A formerly very ignorant Demeter blinked and paused in her chatter, staring, confused, down at the spot where her daughter had just been perched.


"I can't do this any longer," Persephone whispered furiously, pacing around her room like a caged animal. She stepped cautiously over the tons and dozens of thorny branches and vines she had (subconsciously) created in her anger and frustration.

"I can't," she repeated, "I can't!"

Her mother had tried, and failed, to get her to come out from solitary, to communicate with her in some way. The stupid woman couldn't understand what was troubling her. She had given up after a few dozen thistles had shot out of the door in her direction.

Persephone knew Demeter wouldn't try to intrude again. She was alone for the night. And that gave her just enough time to sneak down to the Underworld and see her husband, and then sneak quickly back.

And she'll never even know I was gone. Persephone smirked.


Unfortunately for the goddess, she was tired. Cranky. Upset. Moody. And on top of that, pregnant. When Seph snapped her fingers, planning to appear in their bedroom, or maybe the throne room, she didn't.

Brilliant. Freaking brilliant. All the places in the Underworld…and I land in the Styx.

Persephone scowled bitterly, took a breath and tried not to freak out. The shockingly cool waters would have been refreshing if not for the souls literally swirling around her. If she was mortal, Persephone had a feeling that she would have drowned in a matter of moments. The ghosts were creating a type of whirlpool around her.

Persephone knew that the shades of the Underworld had a tendency to try and pull people in the river or by the riverbank underwater and so all she did was hold her breath as cold and eerily dead hands grasped at her arms. Besides, she didn't have the strength to swim, not now.

To her surprise, instead of pulling her in, they pushed her (gently. She was shocked.) to Charon's drifting and passenger-less boat. Some groped at her midsection and she winced automatically.

Coughing, Persephone managed to get herself over the edge of the boat. She lay on the floor after tumbling in, looking and feeling like a drowned rat. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to imagine that she wasn't wet, cold, uncomfortable, and achy.

Charon looked down sharply without eyes at the unexpected passenger on his boat. After eyelessly blinking, confused, he pointed to a sign positioned on the riverbank with his bargepole. "Can't you read?" he snarled, and then read it for her in case the stranger couldn't, "No Swimming in the River Styx."

Persephone coughed again and glared up at Charon, her eyes flying open. "Charon."

He only glared back at her, inspecting her closely. Suddenly, he blinked again. "You're alive," he observed with a little scowl.

"Charon," said Persephone.

He glared at her again, cruelly. "And with another live one, too. Two for one. Ooh." He moved his barge pole over to her side, about to push her overboard.

Idiot! She fumed and quickly sat up, coughed again, tossed her hair away from her face and scowled up at him and his idiocy. "Charon! You moron. It's me, Persephone. For the love of Olympus, Charon…" She shook her head indignantly and rolled her eyes.

The ferryman let out a choked gasp and snapped to attention, shrinking under the glare of his second master.

"L-Lady Persephone," Charon stammered, "I….I didn't….uh…you….it's n-not….autumn yet­—"

"I need to see Hades," she told him flatly, "And I need to see him, like, A.S.A.P. Can you do that for me? Do ya think you'll be able to accomplish that task?" Her voice turned sarcastic towards the end. Charon nodded rapidly.

"Excellent," Persephone said, "Now row me to shore, please, and make it quick, I have to be home by morning, otherwise my mother'll flip."

"Yes ma'am," said Charon and stuck his barge pole in the murky waters. Several souls that were swimming aimlessly there were hit and they melted into one another like some sort of slime.

Persephone was silent as they rowed down the river. There was something different here, she realized, but she didn't know what it was.

More silence filled the air. Persephone blinked as her violet eyes fell upon a fence that wound around the river bank. She twisted her head around to stare at the opposite bank. There was a fence there, too. A few bat-winged green things fluttered around the fence, checking to see if it was secure. They saw her in the boat and saluted with clawed hands, their yellow and red eyes focused on the Queen and their scaly mouths open to reveal rows of jagged fangs set in a grin. Persephone tore her eyes away from the creatures and turned to a silent Charon, still pushing his pole through the waters of the river Styx. The creatures turned and choppily flew away.

"Fences?" questioned Persephone, her head tilting. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. It was wet with Stygian water.

"Yup," said Charon.

Persephone glanced back behind her. Some kind of grayish demon lumbered along the bank. It had maroon spots on its back and legs that could have been blood; Persephone shuddered and again turned to Charon.

"Why?" she pressed.

Charon glanced at her, their eyes (or lack thereof in Charon's case) met. "Didn't Hades tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Charon grinned twistedly. A gnarled hand adjusted the black cape tied 'round his neck.

"Tell me what?" Persephone pressed, and Charon's twisted grin grew.

"Ask him yourself," said Charon and the boat bumped against the bank.

Persephone sighed and stepped awkwardly out of the boat. She stood on the bank, just behind the gate that was stuck firmly in the mud. The goddess placed a hand on it to steady herself and glanced behind her. Charon was already rowing away.

"This is great," Persephone said under her breath. How the hell was she supposed to climb a fence now? She was wet and tired and pregnant for Zeus' sake…

She tentatively placed a foot on a gap in the fence, both hands clutching at the fence as she tried to keep her balance.

But the stupid Stygian water had soaked the sandals strapped to her feet and made them all slippery; plus, the gate was already slicked down from water being repeatedly splashed on it all day. Her hands slid off the top of the fence and her sandal slipped off the bottom of the fence and with a loud, high-pitched shriek, Persephone fell backwards into the water of the river Styx.

Again.

"OH, JUST KILL ME NOW," Persephone screamed, agitated, sitting up again and pushing her soaking hair out of her face again.

"Stupid…" she hissed under her breath, but before she could finish the thought (and the remainder of the thought would most definitely not have been G-rated), she became aware of another presence standing over her.

Well, looking down at her from the other side of the fence. Persephone's annoyed violet eyes traveled upwards to meet a pair of yellow eyes, belonging to her currently very amused husband. She supposed he had poofed here when she had screamed. Hades currently was looking at her with a raised eyebrow and an expression that said, 'this is the funniest thing in the world.' It made her already flared temper rise a few levels.

"Laugh and I kill you," was Persephone's growled statement, spoken before he could even get a word out.


"Aren't you charming," said Meg, laughing.

Persephone flicked a lock of hair over her shoulder, glowered at the Grecian mortal, and said huffily, "Shut up."

Hercules decided it was safer not to even comment.


~Author's Note~ Sorry for chapter delay! :3