AN: Just a little treat for you all. I haven't forgotten this story. Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy this little update.
xoxo
-Goldie

Last time:
After coming from her sentencing rearrangements, (where she is to return to her mother soon) Persephone's apartment caught on fire. Hades literally killed the flames. It was pretty hot. (pun intended)

Hera and Zeus offered to look after the girl in the interim, but annoyed Hades decided to keep Persephone with him until her mother came for her.

Solitaire

Chapter 9: Easy

The Eyriness were many things to many people. Be it righteous goddess of fury and vengeance, or Hades own mercenaries, enforcers of pain, bringers of justice. Right now, they were punishment bringers. The noble job of seeing out the verdict. They'd been tasked with relocating the newly convicted felon to her new arrangements.

"Home sweet home." Alecto opened the door to the apartment.

Peresphone peered in curiously. The wood flooring was warped, but she imagined how fun they would be to slide on in her socks. The walls had a few dings, but she could already see how artwork would breath warmth into the space. She crept forward, cautiously to the threshold then paused.

"Here." Alecto handed her a key, it glinted off the flickering overhead light in the hallway.

Persephone eyed the key like a bag of snakes. Speaking of which, Alecto's hair appraised Persephone curiously. Tiny tongue reaching out to understand the goddess of spring. When they couldn't, they curled back up into a high ponytail and closed their eyes.

"I'm a prisoner, am I not?" Persephone folded her arms over her chest. "Why would you give a prisoner a key?"

Megeara stepped forward before Tisiphone could say something mean. "What— are these furnishings not to your liking?"

Persephone peered back into the apartment like it might disappear at any moment. "Oh, no. It's. . . it's too nice. I-I wasn't expecting a place of my own." She gulped. A place of her own. Her heart beat a little faster.

"It is a bit nice." Tisiphone had a face betraying no emotion. "We could always take you down to Tartarus if you-"

"Stop." Meg pushed her sister. "Persephone, just go on."

"But I don't understand. I'm to be in solitary confinement."

Meg and Alecto shared a knowing glance. Alecto stepped forward and placed the key in Persephone's palm. "Don't question this housing again during your stay with us in the Underworld."

"I really am to live here?" Persephone started to get hopeful. A place of her own. Sure, it wasn't pretty. Sure, it wasn't under good circumstances. She gripped the key to her chest and began to hope.

As she stepped through the threshold, Tisiphone leaned in. A huge toothy grin spread across her dark face. "No prison cell is as perfectly crafted as the one we make in our own mind. Enjoy your stay."

Meg waved timidly before they closed the door and Persephone was alone.

Alone in her own place.

She'd known a thing or too about being trapped. Of cells both real and unreal. The goddess of spring sighed and laid down on the old warped wood, staring up at the ceiling. Tisiphone was right. Prisoners made their own prisons. And Persephone would never be a prisoner again.

A red eye popped open in the dark. Earlier, he had heard through his light sleep, the door opening, no doubt Cerberus sneaking out to try to find some left-overs in the rubbish bin. That wasn't enough to rouse Hades, but now he sank to his right, into the center of the bed towards the massive dog curled up at the other end taking up nearly all the space left. His tail brushed against the whole of Hades's side.

"Hey." Hades nudged his magical dog with his foot. "No. No-uh. No big—" He paused trying to find the word in his sleepiness. "No big… ugh, come on Cerb, power down now or get off the bed." His voice was low and gravely, thick with heavy sleep.

Cerberus didn't move.

Hades dug his knee in Cerberus' side. "Move."

The fur on Cerberus's back bristled and he curled tighter. A low growl rumbled through the mattress, quietly though as if a whisper of a rumble.

Hades fidgeted up out of bed, grumbling under his breath as he cast off his sheets. "Cerberus. I said get down or size down." He marched over to where Cerberus' large mass took up the three quarters of the bed.

One large eye tracked the King of the Underworld's movements but he still didn't move.

"What?" Hades folded his arms across his chest. After everything that happened the previous day, he didn't need this.

Cerberus watched Hades closely.

"Ugh." Hades clapped his palm to his face, resigned. "Cerberus, are you okay?" This was extremely odd behavior. Something was up.

Sensing the shift, Cerberus began to uncurl a little bit, moving his head from the center of his body. A splash of pink revealed itself. Persephone snuggled closer into Cerberus' fur.

Hades jaw dropped. In his frustration with Cerberus he'd nearly forgotten about the young spring goddess sleeping in his guest room this evening. When his mouth started working again he brought his hands together in front of his nose. "Cerberus, why is Persephone on my bed?"

Cerberus stretched his leg off the bed, causing Persephone to adjust herself automatically, shivering at the cold now touching her skin. Her cheeks were stained with tear tracks, dried and lacy like the wings of a dragonfly. She was bundled up in the sheets of the guest bed, the corners of which were wet with Cerberus' slobber. He'd brung her here.

Of course. The poor thing had a horrible day. An odd and exhausting day. The past still haunting her.

Hades clutched his hand to his chest and pouted. "Well. Well uh. She's cold." He approached her cautiously. She was wearing one of his old work shirts. Her skin was baby fresh and clean after she bathed after supper, but she still smelled a bit like smoke, sweet and dangerous.

Cerberus loosened again, so that Persephone's body was exposed to Hades and he could pick her up. Though – as if she were the gates of the kingdom – Cerberus watched protectively as Hades picked up the pink goddess in his arms. She folded softly into his chest, easily as she had before. As if this was familiar. As if this might be normal.

With an odd pained expression, Hades carried her from the bottom to the side of the bed. Cerberus slowly clawed down from the bed and then peeled back the covers between a soft nip so that Hades could smoothly lay Persephone underneath. The King replaced the covers over her softly, making sure the chilled air had no avenue to disrupt her slumber. She sighed into the pillow, worry lines relaxing as she settled back into bed.

Hades brought his hands back up to his chest, not wanting to watch her, but not really wanting to look away. Cerberus sized down to a normal dog and sat next to where he stood. "What do I do now?" He whispered out the side of his mouth before a yawn interrupted him. It was late. He should probably try to get some more sleep. His eyes flicked to the other side of the bed. He squinted testing his moral judgment in this moment. It would be easy, like her head on his chest, to just. . . go back to bed.