Solitaire
Chapter Five:
Aidon
"Hades." Zeus pulled him aside. Persephone still waited for her fate in his office. She, Zeus an Hera had been talking for several minutes now. "Can I speak with you?"
"Ye-yes." Hades nodded. He got up from the spot on his wall. He was tired of seeing Demeter storm up and down the waiting room. "Is everything okay?"
Zeus pushed his older brother down the hallway and into a side door. "No everything is not okay." Zeus rubbed his forehead warily. "You idiot. Of course everything is not okay. It's bad. It's real bad."
Hades clenched his jaw. "If you've come to ask me to punish her, I won't-"
"You'll do as I say, brother."
"You know how I feel about her."
"You don't know anything about her. Will you defy me?" Zeus' eyes filled with an electric light. "Don't forget who you answer to."
Hades simmered and ground his teeth together. "What do you want from me?"
Zeus groaned. "I make this decision with all the realms in mind. Please remember that."
"Just say it." Hades felt his tie loosening. He knew what Zeus was about to ask of him. To take her to Tower 4. To the lowest level.
"She's too powerful, Hades." Zeus pinched the bridge of his nose. "There is no controlling her. Why do you think Demeter, who had raised her in the mortal realm since birth, allowed her to move up to Olympus? She's too dangerous. And now she's too dangerous for Olympus. I haven't announced it yet, but I need your. . ." Zeus paused trying to find the right word. "I need to have your permission."
"Permission?"
"For lack of a better word. I need to have your approval."
"For Gaia's sake, you've sent men and gods into Tartarus before without my permission, why do you ask this of me now?"
"Tartarus?" Zeus blinked. "Oh, no." He shook his head. "No, my dear brother. No. I need you to swear to me, that you'll protect her."
"What?" Hades blinked.
"Protecting her will keep your kingdom safe. I'm sending her to the Underworld, but not to Tartarus. She's not-" Zeus paused. "She needs time to think about what she's done. Attacking an Olympian..." Zeus shivered.
"I swear it. I swear to protect her." Hades said quickly before Zeus could change his mind.
"Will you also swear, to keep your distance from her?"
Hades eyes narrowed. "You ask me to protect her and then ask me to stay away from her? Which is it?"
"The same request." Zeus smoothed his hair back.
"I don't understand."
"You don't have to." Zeus began to walk back to the office. Demeter stared at the both of them with tears in her eyes. "Stay away from her, brother." He whispered to Hades. "Remember that she is dangerous."
Hades blinked his eyes open. Slowly the room came into focus. Dark haze turning into soft blue color. The chilly room caused him to shiver, so he pulled up his silk covers, but his fingers only found a knitted wool blanket. He blinked again. More colors filling in his head. He shifted to his side. His head adjusted on a velvet throw pillow. His side sunk into a gap in the cushion. He wasn't in his own bed.
He remembered it now. "Aidoneous," She called him. His heart warmed at the memory. They had sat at the dining room table, forgetting to play the game in front of them. His fingers curled around a pawn, tapping it against the board.
"Tell me about how you and Hecate first met." She asked, sipping on her coffee. She didn't care about the game anymore. They'd been playing round after round, their focus slipping each match and realigning on each other's stories. The sound of his voice. The way he brooded on certain subjects. The dimple when he smiled. Persephone felt selfish, knowing time was slipping away, but she didn't want this moment to end.
"Oh man." Hades yawned. "That was such a long time ago. Before I was King."
Persephone leaned in, wondering what that young boy must have been like. Wondering everything about him. "Tell me." She begged, like a sinner begging for the gospel.
Hades saw the intensity in her eyes and paused, completely forgetting about the tiles before him or that his hand was still wrapped around a pawn. "Why do you want to know?" He asked, unsure.
Persephone sat back and blushed. "S-sorry." She bit her lip. "I forgot my place."
"No, it's alright." Hades smiled. He instinctively reached out to hold her hand to know that she had said nothing wrong. The pawn dropped to the table, but he didn't care. "It's just no one has ever . . .asked me about these kinds of things before."
She saw something in his face that made her relax again. "I-I just." She tried to find an answer but was becoming too self conscious again. "I haven't lived very long. I'm young even for a mortal." She relished in the warmth of his hand around hers. "By the time my sentence is over, I'll have lived more years in this room than I have above in the sunshine." Hades squeezed his hand, his heart breaking for her once again.
"But um." Persephone blushed and turned away. "You ask why I want to know more about you. And Um. I suppose the answer is that," She bit her lip. "I like. . ." Her heart thudded. Her hand felt hot wrapped inside his. "Well, what I mean is. That I like. . ."
Hades held his breath.
"I like your stories. I like your voice.I like hearing about all your adventures. I like the way you speak and the way you listen. I like the way your hand feels in mine. And I like-" She gulped. "Sorry. Is it my turn?" She turned to the game of chess again.
"I can't remember." Hades face burned.
"Oh." Kore nodded and sat back into her chair. She tried to remove her hand away from his, but he held onto it.
"Kore?" Hades looked up at her through long eyelashes.
"Yes?"
"The first time I met Hecate she tackled me to the ground, thinking I was an emissary for Kronus. I had to convince her of my intentions of releasing the underworld gods, that my father kept as prisoners. She hated me at first and I wasn't too keen on her either."
Persephone smiled again. Her eyes taking her to the couch. It would be so much more comfortable to talk on the sofa.
Hades seemed to read her mind and he rose, his hand still entangled with hers and they walked to the living room. Persephone curled against his chest.
"Kore?" He looked down at her.
"Yes?" Her head nestled into his arm.
"I like talking to you too."
Persephone smiled and pulled a blanket around the both of them and they talked like that until their eyes went heavy and the colors of the room faded into the darkness of sleep.
Hades clutched his chest where her head had been. He sat up, still bleary eyed. Hoping that perhaps this wasn't a dream. Or that if it was a dream that he was still asleep. He didn't want to wake up in his empty bed.
"Aidon, you're awake." Persephone appeared from the kitchen with a spatula in her hand. "Good morning."
"Good -" He checked his watch. "Aidon?"
Persephone shrugged and walked back into the kitchen, speaking over her shoulder. "Short for Aidoneus. Do you not like it?"
"I-" Hades yawned and rubbed his head. "I'm not sure to be honest."
"Oh?"
"You'll have to keep calling me Aidon before I make up my mind entirely."
"Yes, sir." Persephone appeared again and walked over to the King of the Underworld, setting down a plate of pancakes on the coffee table in front of him. "Do you like chocolate chip?"
"Wow. What is this all for?"
"Part of my wicked plan." Persephone sat on the chair opposite him, curling her legs underneath her. When Hades froze in place, Persephone laughed. "My wicked plan of waking up the King of the Underworld with baked goods so that he won't feel so bad for losing in chess so many times."
Hades lifted a piece of the pancake with his fork. "Ha. Ha." He rolled his eyes and took a bite. "Mm. I normally don't eat breakfast." He checked his watch again. "I normally don't sleep in either."
"Well, I don't suppose you normally sleep on the coach of your prisoner do you?"
"Pri-" Hades face dropped. Persephone smiled. "Is that what you think you are?"
"Well." She shrugged and yawned, stretching out her hand into the air. "That's what I'm supposed to be, aren't I?"
Hades took another bite, not sure how to answer.
"So, what are you going to do today?" She asked like the questions posed the night before.
He thought it odd her enthusiasm, but then realized that she wouldn't be going anywhere today herself. She had no plans for the weekend but to continue existing.
"Well, I-"
A knock on the door interrupted him. They both froze.
"Persephone." A voice called. "It's Zeus."
"Fuck." Hades sighed under his breath.
Persephone panicked. She turned to Hades and grabbed at him.
"What are you doing?" Hades whispered.
"Hiding you. You aren't supposed to be here." She hissed back. She pushed him forward through the living room. She turned back to the door and called to her new visitor, "Uh- Just a second!"
"You're trying to hide me?' Hades almost laughed.
"Just get in the bathroom." She opened the door to a light grey tiled room. "I can't argue about this right now."
Zeus yelled again from the door. "Persephone, I need to speak with you. I know you haven't been getting any news-"
Persephone flung the door open. "S-sorry. I wasn't expecting anybody." Her face was flushed and she blew a stray hair off of her forehead. Her neck was red with embarrassment.
"No. I would think not." Zeus poked his head in.
"What-what do I owe the honor?" She remembered too late to bow.
Zeus waved her off. "This is not my Kingdom, you needn't bow to me here."
"Well, but you are still-"
"Is there a man hiding in your bathroom?" Zeus sniffed the air.
"What?" Persephone reddened. "A man? In my bathroom? I don't think so."
Zeus eyed her unconvinced. He saw the pancakes on the coffee table and the two mugs of coffee. "Having a breakfast of one." He turned to the kitchen, inspecting it. Still looking for this man.
"Well. I have to do something to cheer myself up." Persephone shrugged.
"I thought you liked it here." Zeus raised his eyebrows. "Didn't you ask me if you could spend your-"
"Sssshhh." Persephone grew red again. "I have neighbors."
"Neighbors?" Zeus tilted his head and his eyes narrowed. "Or do you have a man in your bathroom." Zeus grinned wickedly and kicked the door open. "A-Ha!" Zeus peered inside. Just the grey tiles reflected back to him. A rusty four claw bathtub at the end and a cracked mirror above a porcelain sink. He stepped inside, still not convinced. "Damn. I could have sworn."
Persephone also looked inside and knitted her eyebrows together. Where did he go?
"Come on, Zeus. What did you come all this way for?"
He hummed and took a seat on the couch where his brother had been sleeping just a few moments ago. "Ah, well. Speaking of your sentence. There's been a bit of a problem."
"What do you mean?" Persephone followed him back, swinging her arms out, sweeping for an invisible man in her apartment.
Zeus pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled sharply. "You're not going to like this." He looked up at Persephone. "Demeter is demanding you be released. Making an awful fuss about it too."