A/N: I can only say this, a) I'm gonna be taking some MAJOR liberties with the relationships of the gods and b) this means Hades won't like it. But who cares?

VMorticia: No matter how evil and demon-spawned he is, Cerberus is a dog. He does dog things. Like trying to eat Pain and Panic, drooling inanely, and drinking out of the toilet or the Styx. And I'm not exactly surprised you think I'm the more evil one, based on the tiny fact you've known me since we were twelve.

Crimson Fuchsia: I'm intense? I like that! And relax, not ending this fic any time soon!

Silverscreen: Don't encourage him. I have to put up with him when he gets riled. But very funky site.

Micer: Thanks for the info babe!

Melora: Heh. Always knew ya were a softy.

Hades: Pardon me?

Melora: OK, within reason. Sheesh. I'm the writer and I'm getting intimidated by a guy who overdid the pyromania as a baby…

Disclaimer: Own Seph and nothing else, thank the lord…

/.../ denotes thoughts

I Won't Say It: Part 10

The first impression she got was of white.

Then various glowing figures.

Then…oh boy.

Green.

In a big way.

Persephone barely managed to disentangle herself from Hades before she got the air crushed out of her by her mother.

'My baby! Oh my little Sephy mommy's been so worried about you what did he do to you if he's hurt you then I'll...'

'Mooooom! Quit it, it's embarrassing!'

The goddess's face was turning a few shades darker than her normal light red, reverting back to type as Demeter turned her wrath on the Lord of the Dead.

'And you! What in the name of Olympus did you think you were doing?'

Oh great. And now to the disadvantages of marriage.

In-laws.

Particularly if one of them happened to be a very over-protective goddess of the plants.

Time for a little indulgence of the urge to gloat.

'Demeter, babe. Nice work on Greece. Did I even thank you for increasing business productivity?'

This earned Hades a resounding slap across the face. It wasn't hard enough to hurt or even remotely bother him. Only his wife's slaps could ever do that.

'The deaths of those people should be marring your conscience!'

'Question. Why?'

'You stole my baby away from me. I had to ignore my duties to find her. People are dead thanks to you. And you don't even care about how guilty I feel?'

Hades looked relatively nonplussed. 'Ah…nope. Can't say I do.'

'Well, you will be, little brother. You will be.' Zeus intervened in the spat before either side turned violent and addressed his next comment to the assembled throng.

'I must ask all of you to leave, including Persephone. This is between Hades and myself.'

Yay. Verbal sparring take one.

'I'm not leaving.'

Ok, sparring on hold.

Zeus looked taken aback. 'Persephone dear, this…isn't something you really need to hear. You'll be notified of the decision we come to.'

'Sorry, but only my mom and Hades can tell me what to do. And more to the point, it's my life you're discussing. Don't I get a say in it?'

Hades shot her a semi-regretful look. 'Technically, yeah. If Zeus is running the show, not a chance babe.'

'Then I'll wait in the Underworld.'

Demeter opened her mouth.

'No guilt trips and no reproaches. I'm waiting there.'

With that, she vanished.

Sparring off hold.

/Let's get ready to rumble…/

'You abducted the goddess of rebirth from the foot of Olympus, forced her to marry you, caused her mother indescribable grief, made her neglect her duties, thereby causing the death of over half of Greece's population and you have nothing to say?'

Zeus couldn't believe the nerve of his baby brother. He was just sitting there sulking like a two-year-old.

'Hey, I'm a spur of the moment kinda god.'

Hades didn't see the point in trying to fling a comment back. A wall was probably easier to argue with.

Prometheus had been right. Zeus never listened.

'That's all?'

'Ummm…yeah.'

'Well, you should able to say something about this. Persephone will be released and returned to Olympus. Tomorrow.'

The nervous tic reappeared, upstaged by Hades's hair flaring into a cosmic fireball. 'WHAT?'

'No arguments.'

'But…but…she's married to me! Ya can't just split us up! Hera's the protector of marriage; even she can't do this!'

'True enough. I cannot end your marriage, and indeed, you will still be married. She just won't be living with you any more.'

There was some sort of lump building up in Hades's throat which he didn't like whatsoever. It seemed to be directly connected to the prickling feeling behind his eyes and trembling hands.

'Ok, review, babe. Seph, married to me. Marriage, impossible to break. Small print here: I LOVE HER!'

Zeus smiled sympathetically at his raging younger sibling.

'Maybe you do love her. But she doesn't love you. And you really should've thought about all of this beforehand, little brother.'

Hades disappeared in a flash of blue fire. Any longer and…well, he wasn't about to be held responsible for his actions.

'Nice moves, big Z.'

Hermes zipped up to Zeus's throne as soon as he heard the Lord of the Dead depart.

'Well, it's all for the best. You know how Demeter gets when Persephone's in any kind of danger.'

The messenger god peered over the top of his shades. 'He's not gonna let this go, though.'

'Why else d'you think I didn't mention about the food of the dead? He'd only make her eat something, and then where would we be?'

The howl of rage told Persephone that Hades was back. And apparently the little chat with Zeus hadn't gone too well either.

She tentatively peered round the door of the throne-room.

Ares would've been proud at the carnage in there. The gigantic chessboard had been burnt to a flaming pile of stones and ash, paintings were burning on every wall, the ceiling had scorch marks on it several meters wide and just about every piece of furniture was either completely destroyed or halfway there. Pain and Panic were both nursing third degree burns and one of Panic's wings was on fire.

In the middle of this stood a column of red and orange flame, recognisable only by the black and grey robes around its middle.

She narrowly dodged a fireball and sprinted towards the column, skidding to a halt just beneath the flames, arms over her head.

'Should I take it something got boo-booed?'

The flames died down as Hades managed to get some form of control over his temper. At least until he looked into Persephone's face.

One of the most perfect beings in the cosmos and she was being taken away from him forever.

He stormed out of the throne-room, ignoring the goddess and the now smouldering Pain and Panic. The only thing he was focussing on was the feeling of his heart getting ripped into pieces and stamped on by all the gods of Olympus.

The goddess of rebirth knelt beside the two imps, apprehension carved into her features. 'W-what happened? Did Zeus make his mind up?'

Panic managed to beat out the flames on his wing. 'He said that…that you're going back to Olympus. Tomorrow. No arguments.'

It was like a dream. She dazedly made her way up to her throne, putting out the fires as she went.

All she could do was sit.

Zeus had made his mind up.

She would be back on Olympus tomorrow.

She'd be with her parents and her friends again.
She'd be able to irritate Hermes again.
She'd be able to see the stars again.
She'd be able to see the sun and the moon, and see all the life of the Earth again.

All she had ever wanted. A dream come true.

And that was when her heart broke.

/Hades…/

Not much grew in the Underworld, aside from a collection of weird moulds, piles of Cerberus's little messes and the inevitable collection of laundry.

However, there was one area of the palace where plants flourished. Not exactly normal, but hey, whatever worked.

It wasn't something anyone would ever associate with Hades. Therefore it was exactly where Persephone found him.

He was sitting hunched over on one of the benches with his head in his hands, and a cluster of poplars interspersed with pomegranate trees surrounding him.

She quietly sat down next to him, knowing he wouldn't say much. The orange flames meant he was still furious, but she knew full well that he was hurting.

Badly.

Just as badly as her.

'Guess ya know.' Hades didn't look up.

'Yeah. Panic told me.'

Now he looked up. Persephone flinched as she looked at him. Hades wasn't the type of god to show much emotion, other than various degrees of rage. Hurt and grief weren't a main feature in his emotional dictionary.

And tears definitely weren't in there, period.

She just wanted to cry. She was the only one who could bring him out of this, yet she was the one who had caused him all this pain.

Hades scrubbed at the tear-skids marking his face with the back of his hand and tried to keep his voice from wavering.

'Well, 'least you get out of here. No psycho husband around to annoy you. No pathetic little yutzes or three-headed guard-dogs. No gloom, doom or dead people. Back on Olympus again. Got everything you wanted, I guess.'

She looked at the various plants. 'No. Not everything.'

He raised a disbelieving eyebrow. 'Yeah, right.'

'Olympus doesn't have everything. It doesn't have mortals. It doesn't have Cerberus. It doesn't have Pain and Panic.'

She leant against him and pulled his larger hands into her smaller ones.

'Olympus doesn't have you.'

Confusion immediately replaced mind-numbing hurt, and got replaced in itself by a vague sense of completeness as Persephone wrapped her arms round his neck and kissed him.

Timeless as always.

He had an almost childish hope that if they stayed together like this for long enough, time really would stop and he would never have to lose her.

Reality made an unwelcome visit. Tomorrow, he would lose her forever.

He never saw Persephone reach behind him and snag a pomegranate from the overhanging tree. If he had, it probably wouldn't have sunken in.

She knew now what she had to do.

Eternal annoyance in the Underworld was a small price to pay.

Especially when you were in love.

TBC

Hades: This is just cruelty to muses.

Melora: I'm trying to develop complex characters here. Muse cruelty is part of that development.

Hades: I thought you were a humanitarian.

Melora: I am. You're just the exception to the rule.

Hades: Great. I end up with the nut job. Lousy karma.