Oh my God, guys, I can't express how sorry I am. I kept you waiting for months. I was super busy with university and my work, but here's the next chapter, finally! I'm sorry that it's not that long, but I'll publish another one in the next days.

Chapter Ten

The next day Hades was busy with working, but he made sure to have another surprise gift for his wife. He had changed the garden according to her wishes and planned a little picnic where he would reveal the real surprise. He quickly looked at one soul after another, trying to make up for the last days. The judges did a good job representing him, but they always sent the difficult cases over to him.

The last person he had to take a look at was a young girl. She had died because her parents had neglected her and eventually she had starved. Hades didn't like children that much, but stories like these were the reason why he always kept his heart out of his work He wanted to be stern, yet fair, and not let personal opinions influence his decisions. Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to cope with all the suffering he saw as well. Times were hard and many people died because of war or the famine Demeter had recently caused when the whole harvest died.

The ruler of the Underworld sent the girl to Elysium and stood up from his throne, popping his spine. Sitting all day always strained his back.

He knocked at Persephone's door only minutes later and when she opened, she looked beautiful as always. Clad in a flowing dress of the colour of cornflowers that accented her dark hair she smiled at him.

"Good afternoon. Are you done judging for today?"

"Yes. There was quite a lot to do after I took the last days of, but the judges should be glad that we didn't decide to have a honeymoon and travel around for a few weeks."

Persephone chuckled at the thought as she took her husband's arm.

"I would have loved to see their faces."

"Oh, Minos always gets all red when he's angry. Would you have liked to have a honeymoon?"

"I like travelling around, but right now I can't leave the Underworld anyway..."

"No, but I could visit you when you're back on earth. I usually only ever leave this place during the Winter Solstice, but we could travel around the earth for a while. There are some countries with beautiful flowers, such as tulips or lavender."

"Yes...yes, I would like that."

She smiled and followed her husband to the garden where a big lake had formed. The pomegranate tree was standing right next to it, still glowing and pretty as ever. Koi were swimming in the clear water that nearly asked her to jump into it.

"Do you like it?", Hades muttered at her ear, hunting shivers down her spine, before sitting down on a blanket under the tree. He had ordered one of the shades to get them food too.

"I love it, thank you so much! I really want to swim in it after we ate."

She smiled widely and sat down next to him, eyeing the lake all the time while eating. As soon as they were ready, she walked over to it and stuck a toe into the water. It was warmer than she would have thought. She lifted her dress a little and walked into the water until it reached her knees, chuckling when the Koi nibbed at her toes. Hades watched her with a fond expression.

"I can leave if you want to swim, you know..."

Persephone turned around to her husband, blushing slightly. She had totally forgotten that he was still there.

"Yes...I mean yes, I want to swim, but you don't need to leave. We...we are married, after all, so this will not be indecent. Could you just...close your eyes for a second?"

Her cheeks blushed even more and Hades closed his eyes while she pulled the dress over her head, leaving her in the plain white cloth around her hips that resembled antique underpants. She quickly moved into the water until only her head stuck out before telling her husband to look again. Hades didn't know if he was glad or disappointed when he couldn't see her body through the water – probably a mixture of both. Persephone swam around for a while, surrounded by a group of fish while Hades sat down close by, his eyes always focused on his wife.

"You should come in too!", she said after a while while swimming a little closer to him and for a second Hades could see more than she probably wanted him to see. He quickly looked down to not strain his self control more than needed. Being able to look at a woman but not being allowed to touch her was a very unsatisfying experience indeed.

"No, thank you...I'm not particularly fond of water unless it's in my bathtub."

That wasn't entirely true, he just didn't want to push himself.

"Alright, then close your eyes, I'm coming out!"

Persephone swam back to the shore and pulled her dress over her head. She should have decided for a darker colour today, considering that the fabric hugged her wet body and got transparent. When Hades opened his eyes again, he breathed in sharply and immediately pulled his chiton over his head so she had more and, more importantly, darker fabric to cover her chest. She pulled it over her head too and a tiny voice in the back of Hades' mind told him that he shouldn't have done that as seeing the exact form of her beautiful breasts through the transparent dress had been quite an experience. He quickly thought about something else before the voice could go on about her pink mammillae that stuck out due to the coldness. He cleared his throat before looking at Persephone again whose cheeks were reddened.

"Anyway, there's still a present I'd like to give you."

"Hades...you don't need to give me so many riches, I can't give you anything in return, after all."

"It's not jewellery, don't worry. It's something I just got the idea for as you enjoy the time with my pets. I have to work a lot and I don't want you to be too lonely."

He whistled and a dark brown mare appeared out of nothing and elegantly trotted over to them. She shook her small head and pushed her nose against Persephone's arm.

"Her name is Despina. I hope you find her to your liking."

Persephone smiled widely as she stroked the mahogany brown fur that was nearly exactly the colour of her hair before leaning over to her husband and kissing his cheek.

"Thank you so much, she is truly beautiful."

In case you were wondering: I really hate the word nipple, it sounds super gross, so I always use the medical term instead (I'm a medical student). Again, I'm sorry for the chapter being so short, but see (or rather read?) you in a few days!