The cool Olympus' air caressed his face, playing with his black curls, ruffling its color, clearing his face. Breathing heavily, Hades struggled not to fade; his lungs were weakened and his mind fragmented. So much time away from his realm was making him fragile; he longed for his palace, the calm of his lands, the silence of his world. Out of the corner of his eye he could see her sitting under the shade of a tree, not taking her big green eyes off him. Several butterflies and rose petals were swimming in the spring air which surrounded her; small white flowers wound in her golden hair, and a hint of a smile was dying to escape her lips. He looked at her for a brief moment only to look away again at once. "How come I don't remember her?" He muttered under his breath.

Hades couldn't understand what had happened, what had gone wrong. How in Gaia's name had he found himself in that inexplicable situation, dispossessed of his memories, of what had supposedly been his life for the past months. Not once in his entire life could he recall ever experiencing such a pathetic sensation, such a lack of control; He had never witnessed it before, making him uneasy and agitated to no end. He had to put an end to it, for his sanity's sake. He thought of Demeter, of all the things they had in common; wary of their privacy, withdrawn, secretive; and how things would have come to end up that way. How important Persephone had to be to have provoked a God like him to make such a radical decision.

Subtle as a spring breeze, Persephone rose nimbly, straightening her dress and smoothing the ruffled clothing that had become wrinkled as she sat on the fresh grass. With her feminine movements and steps the atmosphere changed rapidly, lightening the air and giving it a dreamy touch, making everything around her seem like a dream, one of those you never want to wake up from. Hades turned his neck slightly to contemplate her, there was a mysterious thing about that Goddess. She was extraordinarily beautiful, but there was something even deeper behind those big green eyes, which shone like two suns. When their gazes met, Hades could recognize himself in her eyes even though he didn't know it, missing a sensation he had never experienced. Touched by that strange sensation, he looked down quickly, ashamed to feel vulnerable in front of her.

Already very close to him, Persephone could feel his heart beating like a rampaging drum, his limbs were tense and his eyes remained still, trapped in a fixed point as if his whole being was being kept upright by a subtle taut thread that protected him from falling into the darkest abyss. Persephone stared at him for a long time until she finally touched his arm gently, a soft smile lighting her face; causing the most strangling wave of something to go through him, like nausea and warmth. She appeared as though she wanted to say something, though instead, she drew back and clasped her hands in front of her.

Her simple touch made him shudder, feeling his shoulders shrink. There was something special about her, of that he was sure, but not knowing what she was to him terrified him and made him feel little more than a mortal, an entity with no past or future. "Sorry, I'm not feeling well." He said without meeting her eyes, his voice low and tired.

Persephone caught his hands, his blue eyes now facing her. This was not a situation she knew how to handle. Her eyes were filled with tears that were fighting not to come out, just begging to brim over and run silent paths down her soft cheeks. "Hades..." She said in a quivering voice. "I just want for you, for both of us, to regain the happiness we both deserve. To go back to what we were." He stared into her glossy eyes for a moment, not entirely sure how to take that declaration. The very barest hint of a smile tried to curl her mouth as she reached out one hand to smooth through his hair, the same way she had done when he would fall asleep with his head on her stomach. Her hand wavered, her muscles drained of their strength, and she moved slightly to give him some space. "We can leave whenever you want, I am sure coming home will help you." Her voice came softly and, plucking up her courage, she uttered the words she fearest the most. "I… We have missed you very much."

He left the palace and walked slowly, taking advantage of the fact that the darkness and the intense cold had emptied the roads in spite of the great activity of fluxes that travelled those paths. This was his realm, the place where he had lived the most years of his immortal life. It was part of him like a genetic imprint, it was the place he returned to when he dreamed. He returned there, to those paths and walls, to those stones, to that place where he was always alone but safe.

He crossed the palace gardens and appreciated the beauty of the huge trees that surrounded it, competing in height with the palace towers. He thought of the strange sensation that haunted him in those places, feeling the wind in the folds of his tunic as he gazed at that garden that possessed a magical charm. The warm atmosphere of the garden dissipated the cold that was clinging to his body like unwanted travelers. The smell of the damp grass, the thick trunks that guarded the place and the incessant dancing of butterflies around the flowers that sprouted in the infertile soil, welcomed Hades. Once he asked Hecate why it was impossible for life to exist in that place and she answered: "It is the echo of the world. Do you know what the echo is? A voice that is heard when the real one has already been extinguished. And so is the underworld, death in life."

Back in the present, Persephone took his hand and led him out onto the porch. "You are pale, my love." She smiled. "More so, I mean."

He looked up at her, searching her green eyes. "How? How did you do it?"

Persephone looked at him gently. "My powers as queen are growing by the day. In fact, the garden has been in bloom for a few days now, it has never endured so much. I guess it was waiting for your arrival." She said in a tender, feminine voice, her thumb stroking his hand. "When I came here I gained the respect of the citizens of this place, and with them my powers grew stronger. But it wasn't until you and I were truly one that the domain accepted me as well. Since then, my powers here have grown greater every day."

"One?" Hades breathed, trying to study every detail on her face.

"Yes, well... I mean when I fell in love with you."

"You fell in love with me after I abducted you?" He asked, ashamed.

"Not exactly." She replied.

"I can't understand..." Hades looked at her, desolate.

Persephone hesitated for a few moments before she began to speak. "I had a hard time coming to terms with what happened to me. You abducted me from my home and took me with you. The first few months were a torment, I couldn't understand why this was happening to me, what I had done to deserve this. I came to hate you, to fear you." Persephone paused for a moment realizing that she had never verbalized her ordeal in front of him. "But I finally made peace with my situation and wanted to move on, you gave me the opportunity to know you and I fell madly in love with you."

Hades did not answer, he looked into her eyes and contracted his lips as if he was holding back something he did not want to say.

"I know it's hard to understand. But I guess that's what love is like." She said coming closer to him, looking him straight in the face. "Unpredictable."

Persephone steeled herself and gave in to the urgency she felt in her body, the longing for her husband's touch, for his warmth. With trembling arms, she wrapped her arms around him and felt herself faint, as she always did when she noticed him near. She breathed in the scent of his chest through his robe and stayed there, holding him in her embrace.

After a moment, he pulled away enough to see her face.

"Persephone..." He whispered, his voice cracking. "The burden you're bearing right now has to be exhausting. I hope my memory recovers, I'm sure with your help it will. But right now... I'm sorry. I don't remember anything."

Persephone looked at the floor, about to burst into tears, but instead of breaking into a thousand little pieces in front of him, she cupped his face in her hands and pressed her lips to his in a desperate kiss. The contact of Hades' lips was enough to make any thought other than him be relegated to the depths of her mind, as if a single moment with him was enough to make all the evils of the world disappear.

He almost stopped breathing when her mouth brushed his lips, her warm breath fanning over them. He noticed how a flash of electricity was born in his chest, reaching everywhere with its energy, activating all his senses. The connection felt heavy and firm. There was desperation in her mouth, and he couldn't help but give in more when she licked his lower lip. He responded to her demanding lips and instinctively trapped her between his muscular arms, pressing her against him, chest to chest.

Suddenly, Hades broke the kiss and rested his forehead on hers. With her touch, he felt something awaken in him, something strange and unknown, as if something in him wanted to reveal itself to be free again. But instead of letting it go, something inside him seized that feeling of well-being and turned it into something dark and heavy, buried deep inside him.

"I'm sorry..." He mused. "No... I can't, I don't feel well. I must rest." Panicked, Hades looked left and right before leaning down to kiss her forehead, hoping against hope that that small gesture could bring her some comfort. He took her hands and kissed her, her taste still on his lips. He looked into her glossy eyes, pleading voicelessly for forgiveness, that this wasn't her fault. "Excuse me." And with a shy smile, he walked away, leaving Persephone alone in her garden, with the memory of a brief but longed-for kiss.

Hades opened the door of his chamber, closing it heavily and leaning his back against it, letting his tired body rest, his drained mind about to explode. A mixture of anger, sadness and rage welled up inside him, making his heart pound so hard that the air in his room suddenly seemed scarce to feed the need in his chest. He felt ashamed, like a child after committing a foolish thing; ashamed after running away from her.

He scowled into the darkness; It wasn't late but his body and mind were exhausted. The silence was echoing in his ears, only interrupted by the loose but persistent ring that resonated inside his head from the first moment he regained consciousness.

Lazily glancing up, Hades studied his surroundings making sure it was just as he remembered it: how his bed was still the same, the impressive collection of books piled on top of the wood desk, the chair by the window, his armour where it belonged. But a strange scent permeated the entire room, intoxicating everything with its seductive aroma. It was her; her scent was beginning to fade but there she was, sneaking into every possible corner of the room.

Puzzled questions quickly clogged his mind, painfully hammering against his temple. He felt a heavy and dense weight pulsate in his chest. With a frustrated breath, he chucked his hair out of his face and glanced over his books, looking for a distraction to let his mind rest. He stopped in front of a large history book that piqued his interest and plucked it delicately from the table, opening it to flip through the pages. He spent the next hour doing that, skimming through books and placing them back, revealing him little more than what he already knew. He snorted again in frustration and set off in search of something minimally interesting.

His attention wandered to the side of him, catching a book that was not familiar to him, if he wasn't mistaken. Running his hand over the cover, he was surprised that he had no memory of it. However, his surprise was even greater when, while opening the book, he saw his own handwriting reflected on its pages. Sheets were revealed in front of his perplexed eyes, his restless fingers running through the book without stopping on a particular fragment. Overwhelmed by the discovery of his own diary, the book fell from his hands and lay open on the floor, fate choosing a page at random.

He bent down hurriedly to pick it up, not sure if he was ready to read it. Fear and hope were born in his heart; fear of knowing what Demeter had really wanted to erase and hope to finally know the truth.

"I never swear or try not to swear, but I promise to always remember that rare night where we finally slept together. Nothing else, just sleep, breathe the same air. Sometimes I walk slowly thinking about going back... And my cold heart shrinks just thinking about it. Every time I think about not having her in my life, I literally break into a million pieces. There is nothing before Persephone, she is everything. The way she treats people, her compassion, her optimism in the face of obstacles. The way she loves me in spite of everything. How could a prisoner fall in love with her captor? I will never be able to look at her without loving her. I never want to wake up from this. Sometimes it scares me to think how lucky I am."

His heart began to pound, his breath hitched with every word, with every confession. Suddenly, the air in the room was not enough for his lungs, searching for some fresh air. Distressed, he threw the diary on the bed and opened the window, throwing aside the two windows violently, without worrying about damaging the crystalline glass of the window.

Leaning his two hands on the window frame, Hades breathed the dense air of his kingdom, transporting him back to the calm of his lands. He waited a few seconds until his clear eyes became accustomed to the gloom. From his chamber he could see the garden and, like another flower, Persephone was still there, sitting on the ground, doing nothing. He remembered the kiss, how he was torn between pleasure and pain, how her kiss transported him to a place he had never been before; calm, pleasant, happy. He cursed Demeter, now more than ever, discovering what she had cruelly torn from his heart. He wanted to get his life back, to get her back; but this desire seemed impossible because it was unachievable to get back something that had never existed for him.

He settled himself on his bed, absently running his fingertips over the covers. His lids felt heavy and he leaned back; lulled by how strong her scent was amongst his pillows and blankets; sleeping surrounded by soothing whispers of her presence.

Notes:

Hope this chapter was okay. I am keen to know your opinions on!

Read and review, don't be shy!

As always, be safe!