For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?

By Asso

Chapter Twenty

For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?

For who could ever learn to love The One who doesn't know love?

FOR WHO COULD EVER LEARN TO LOVE THE ONE WHO DOESN'T KNOW LOVE?

But…

But love doesn't know rules.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Do not you sleep, my floret?"

Persephone startled on the bed.

And, if she had been capable of thinking lucidly at that moment, she wouldn't be able to tell if her startle were due more to hearing herself be called a floret by him or to the surprise of simply being called by him, so immersed in sleep as he appeared to be.

But Persephone recovered immediately.

She rolled into his arms and looked at him from below up, with such innocent eyes that more they couldn't have been.

"Neither do you, it seems to me, my Lord." Her blue-green eyes winked maliciously. "Who knows why."

And those bright eyes of hers laughed, as playful as her voice.

And Hades laughed.

Yes.

He too.

He laughed heartily.

And playful, cheerful, was his voice as well.

"No, my floret. I too can't sleep." His eyes, darker than night, sparkled like unearthly gems. "Who knows why, eh, my graceful floret?"

Suddenly, Persephone's expression changed. It became serious, grave even, as well as her gaze.

Abruptly, she extricated herself from his embrace and rose to sit on the bed.

She rolled over and put herself astride him.

The sheet that previously covered her, in a total mess on the thalamus.

Her splendid nakedness flourishing in all its glory.

She rested her small hands on his chest.

Her long, tawny hair fell around her.

Her glistening eyes looked at him, as shining as stars.

"Tell me about you, my Lord. Narrate me about you." Persephone's gaze got fixed intensely into the eyes of him. "I want to know everything about you, my Lord. I want to know everything about the Lord of my heart".

Imperceptible.

But not so much.

A hiss. Low.

From Hades' pale mouth.

A hiss of surprise.

Of incredulous pleasure.

Then he recomposed himself.

His face regained its usual marble appearance.

At least... enough. He hoped.

He returned Persephone's gaze; his thin, arched eyebrows frowning.

"Everything, Persephone? Really everything?"

"Yes, everything, my Lord. Everything. Everything!"

"Persephone..." Hades took the small hands that were leaning on his chest in his. "... There is nothing that is worth knowing about me that you, like everyone else, do not know already. And certainly nothing good. Nothing good there's in my life, as well as in me."

"It is not true! It is not true my Lord! You are good! You are good and… and beautiful! You are the most beautiful thing that could happen to me! You are beautiful outside and... and inside! "

"Persephone, what are you ever saying?"

"The truth, my Lord!"

"Persephone..."

Persephone freed her little hands from his with an abrupt gesture. She looked at him with blazing eyes.

"You told me, my Lord, that I would have found the answers to my questions if I had followed you."

Hades moved uncomfortable. Or, perhaps, embarrassed.

"Yes, actually I ..."

"And you were right, my Lord. You were right!"

"I was...?"

"Yes! I found the answers! I know why I couldn't do nothing but thinking of you, without me even knowing you - frightened and yet fascinated by you, by what I believed to know of you - the night of my consecration!"

Hades' eyes widened. "You couldn't do nothing but thinking of me?"

Persephone did not even care of his words. Of his amazement.

"I know now why my steps led me to the dark forest that marks the border between your world and the world... the world that was - WAS! - mine! I know now why I - and only I - could see you, though protected by the helmet that makes you invisible to all the others! I know... "

Persephone fell silent.

Her gaze seemed to get lost in distant horizons.

Almost with difficulty, she resumed talking, as her eyes, deeper than sea, returned staring at him.

With a dreamy voice.

"I know now why I followed you."

Her eyes, gleaming like stars, stared at him brightly.

She lowered down on him.

She lay on him.

Low and hoarse were the words that her lips whispered, as caressing his neck.

"I followed you because I wanted to be yours".

Persephone stopped talking. A brief moment. Then she spoke again. In a very, very soft and low voice.

"And you have fulfilled my recondite desire, my Lord. You have made me yours."

For a few moments there was silence.

Hades was silent. Immersed in his astonishment, as well as his hands were immersed in the soft mass of her shiny hair.

Then, finally, he managed to speak.

And it did not sound like the voice of Hades, the King of Underworld.

It was a voice remorseful voice.

Of guilt.

And, at the same time, of timid - of unsaid - quest for confirmation.

"Persephone, I kidnapped you."

Persephone did not change position. She did not move. Did not even sigh.

"Yes, you've done it, my Lord."

Hades held his breath.

He searched for enough voice to say something in answer.

But he could not.

Persephone gave him no time.

"But yours was a needless act, my Lord. I belonged to you already."

What thoughts passed into that rapid yet eternal instant in the mind of the dark Lord of Nothing?

Can someone think of being able to grasp the astonished amazement that, at those words, those words that substantially told him he was loved - and by the most splendid of the females! - couldn't but permeate the mind of the one who could not even conceive love essence?

Of the one who doesn't know love?

"For all my thunderbolts! Helios! You! Just you! In the middle of the night! A thing rather unusual, to say the least! Really serious the reasons have to be that led you to introduce yourself to me - to your supreme Lord - in spite of every established practice."

Hera narrowed her eyes.

She understood that scoundrel of her husband more than anyone else could do.

He was...

He was really a scoundrel!

He...

He was intimidating Helios!

He was substantially telling him he had to be very careful about what he would say.

About what he would say to his supreme lord!

Hera sighed.

Damn! Beyond the good and the bad, beyond all, her husband was really a damn - very clever! Very cunning! - scoundrel!

And she could not help but admire - and love! - him for this too!

He was...

He was the man - the God! - who was for her!

Hera shook her head, getting rid of her thoughts.

She had to focus on what was happening in front of her.

Oh Destiny! Destiny! Do not mock me! Do not trick me! Do not fool me! Tell me it's true! Tell me that I really found love! That I understood what really it is! And that I really love! And that really - really! - my love is reciprocated!

Formless, elusive, unseizable, almost. Yet these ones were the thoughts that swirled in the King of Underworld's mind.

His eyes got shut, in desperate yearning; as his face plunged into the soft mass of Persephone' soft hair; as his arms embraced the soft flesh that never he would have thought that he could hug; that he could possess.

Give me a sign, Destiny! Give me a tangible sign that really - really! – I discovered love! That I found it! After so many gray eons of gray existence! And… and that this love is reciprocated by...

BY HER!

"I love you, Hades."

Her words!

The sign!

The sign of Destiny!

Hades' eyes snapped open.

He raised his face from her soft, fragrant hair.

He gently - shyly, almost. Nervously - lifted her chin up so that her face could be turned to him, so that she could look at him.

He watched her.

Intensely.

Just as intense it was her gaze.

The look she struck him with.

Which accompanied her words. More intense, if possible, than her stare.

The same words as before

But deliberately, purposely, intentionally, loaded with a mighty force.

With a puissant significance.

Deliberately, purposely, intentionally expressed.

"I love you, Hades."

"Tell me, Helios. Tell me, my friend. What do you have to tell me so important to push you to introduce you to me - to the Lord of everything and everyone - in the middle of the night? In the middle of a time that does not belong to you?"

A scoundrel!

A damned, veritable - wonderful - rascal!

But how was it possible that she, Hera - the great Hera - could feel so attracted to that damned husband of hers?

Yet it was so!

And...

Hera clouded over for a moment.

And not just her, this was certain.

Even...

Even Demeter - damn it to her too! - had yielded to the crafty lure of that damned! That same Demeter who had now brought Helios in front of Zeus, so that he could reveal what he - evidently - knew.

And that Zeus did not want to make him say.

Hera smiled.

Sadly.

But also slyly.

Voluptuously, almost.

Enough!

She did not have to let herself be distracted.

It was a show that had to be tasted in all its respects.

"I was born to love you."

Persephone's words were gems.

Sparkling gems.

Falling, sweet and mighty, from her velvety mouth.

One behind the other.

To form a precious waterfall.

Sparkling.

Dazzling.

Which clouded everything with its splendour.

Every lucid thought that Hades could conceive.

"And I will always love you."

Gems. Invaluable.

More precious than any gem of his Kingdom.

"Whatever happens, I will always love you. Even in case you do not want me anymore, in case you get tired of me, in case you want to get rid of me after making me yours, I will love you. "

Gems. More precious than diamonds and warmer than the sun.

"Because I am yours, my Lord. From the moment I was born and even before. And for all eternity."

Words - gems - brighter than the brightest stars.

"You've kidnapped something that already was yours, my Lord. You've kidnapped my heart. My heart as well as all of me."

Words so bright as to make the shining stars pale.

"This is what Destiny has decreed for me. I know it now. I fully understand it now. And I accept it with joy. I welcome happy my destiny."

Persephone raised her torso.

She looked down straight at that diaphanous face staring at her with those dark eyes of him open wide.

"The destiny that my destiny it's you."

Her voice was no longer a whisper.

It rumbled loudly under the high vaults.

It re-echoed, bouncing all along them.

"You, Hades. My Lord and my love."

End of Chapter Twenty

TBC

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

No.

Love doesn't know rules.