Last time:
The felon, Persephone, was relocated to Hades' home after her living arrangements went up in flame.
Hades awoke to find Persephone squished between a protective Cerberus on his bed and wrestled with what to do now.

Solitaire

Chapter 10: Ready

"Apollo." She greeted him coldly. Her dress dazzling in the twinkling lights above them.

"My." Yellow eyes looked her over in a way that left her feeling stripped and vulnerable. "You're talking to me again? Let me guess. Have you reconsidered my offer?" Apollo grinned in a way some unfortunate nymph may find, charming, but it made Persephone's blood boil.

"I have." She swallowed down her passion. This wasn't about him, she reminded herself. This wasn't about him.

Her hands rested on a warm door handle. It fit in her palm like a glove or an extension of herself. She'd been trapped in the greenhouse for so long, how had she not seen this door before? She'd searched every pane. She'd pressed on every window. Her heavy breath had fogged up the greenhouse from the inside, ensuring that the plants would thrive while she suffocated.

When did it appear? She twisted her wrist and felt the latch catch as her breath did. And the door opened. Bringing with it fresh, crisp, cool air. No longer stifled from the humidity of her own panic.

She breathed and she hadn't realized she had been holding her breath.

She wavered, looking back into the greenhouse. A home she had made for herself.

A hand replaced the door handle. It still fit warmly and perfectly in her hand. She gripped it tight.

"You're nearly free, young one."

She felt a tear run down her cheek and she released his clasp. "It's not what you think."

He called for her. Beckoning her to stay.

"I'm sorry." She stumbled over her heels as she backed into the greenhouse and closed the door. Her reflection swung back to her, overlayed across him. There was fire in her eyes.

She awoke with a start into a dark room. "Dammit, Morpheus." She groaned into her pillow. She was sure these dreams were a trick by the god of dreams. She'd pissed off many gods, but wasn't sure what his beef was.

Then she felt a sigh, that was not her own. At first she thought the deep escape of breath had come from her depths, but then she felt air on blow on the strands of hair bunched up at her forehead.

She held her own breath, quickly running through the events of last night in her mind like trying to focus a kaleidoscope. When that failed, before she panicked, she quickly ran through a list of truths about her current situation.

She was surrounded in warmth down to her toes. The air was cool, but there were two flat sheets, a comforter, and a quilt on top of her. The sheets were cool to the touch and as soft as a rose petal. Gray, or perhaps blue in the light, she couldn't tell.

She adjusted her waist ever so slightly, and the mattress followed her effortlessly, but cushioned her weight in all the right places.

She took in a deep breath and smelled fresh linen and something else she couldn't quite place but knew immediately. She'd smelled it before.

Her heart beat faster.

The guest room? She looked up where the tapestry she'd noticed her first night had hung. No tapestry. But a display case with a velvet rod. Empty. The glass door swung open. Her stomach twisted in knots at the familiarity. In her head flashed the open door of the greenhouse.

Where the walls of the guest room had been was a much more ornate and detailed part of the room she couldn't appreciate yet in the darkness.

Nope. She gulped. Not the guest room.

Another deep breath. His chest rose so much it moved the sheets away from her. Warmth radiated from the other side of the bed.

Steeling herself, Persephone carefully turned towards him, like a moth to flame. "Aidoneus?" She reached her hand out to the gentle rising and falling. She trembled as she pressed her palm against his chest.

In between her fingers, black fur tufted. Ceberus groaned and stretched his four limbs, pressing a large paw into Persephone's shoulder. His head perfectly centered on his masters pillow. Lazily, he looked at her in the dark and licked her arm still outstretched towards him.

"Oh." She gasped and stifled a ricochet of laughter. "Good morning, Cerberus." In response, Cerberus licked her face. "Thank you." She said through closed lips and a scrunched expression. "Yes, yes, thank you." She laughed as Cerberus continued his wet affection. "Goodness, this wasn't really the morning kiss I might have hoped for, but welcome all the same."

Cerberus gave her a dubious look then hopped off the bed. He stood straight and pointed his nose. With his front right paw lifted and his tail as straight as Artemis's arrow.

Following his line of sight, she saw Hades - Aidoneous, folded over awkwardly on a chaise couch, a thin blanket wrapped around him, with the skyline of his city behind him. It seemed odd. This was now the second time she'd be waking up to find him on a nearby couch. She felt a wave of deja vu wash over her. It wrangled down to her fingers, and she stretched them uncomfortably, trying to remember the memory of being here, in his bedroom, before.

Cerberus pressed his head into the back of her knees and huffed, meaningfully. His blue eyes conveying a message she could almost interpret.

She stepped forward towards Hades, obligingly. She saw his arm dangling by his side, and she immediately wanted to wrap her fingers around his. A burning question singed on her like a brand. Would his hand feel. . . like the handle of the door in her dream?

He woke up bleary eyed. Blinking back a surprisingly dreamless sleep. Then the color seeped back into his vision. "Am I dreaming?" He said in a low graveled voice. No, he knew it immediately, because his voice had racked through a coarse throat. He wasn't dreaming.

"Good morning, Aidoneus." Persephone came into focus, a flower opening up into a goddess.

He gulped.

"I - I tried to figure out your coffee maker. I think I got it." She handed him a small espresso cup. He could see the grounds in the murky liquid but he didn't care.

"Thank you. Good morning, Kore."

She dipped her head."I'm also making scones. They should be ready in about 30 minutes."

"Scones?"

"Yes, and my own strawberry jam. Grew the strawberries myself." She beamed. When Hades didn't say anything she rambled on. "Croissants are my speciality, but I prefer to have a couple of days for that. A-and I wasn't sure when you would wake up, so- "

"Oh. Well, maybe I'll get to try some of your croissants one day."

Persephone blushed.

Hades tweaked his head to the side, realizing how strange that sounded. Before he could stop it the thought of Persephone's buttery croissants wouldn't leave his mind.

Before he could reply Persephone sat down next to him. "So, I was wondering. . ." She started hesitantly. "How exactly I woke up here."

This time Hades had the deja-vu. "You have a strange penchant for waking up in my house without prior knowledge."

"It's becoming a bad habit."

"A bad habit you're good at."

"Not for lack of trying." She bit her lip. "I briefly remember Cerberus whining at my bedroom door in the middle of the night."

Hades slapped the side of his face with his right hand. "Cerberus. Have you been a bad dog?"

Cerberus perked his ears up and growled.

"On the contrary. I think he was trying to comfort me. He's a very good boy." Cerberus padded over to her, his butt shaking along with his tail. "Yes, you are." She confirmed it with a good jowl scratch.

"Well, then." Hades grinned as he watched her pet his longest companion. Truly, he'd never seen Cerberus take to anyone else. Most people he tolerated, ignored or chewed their heads off. Much like Cerberus' master himself.

"I'm sorry for displacing you." She looked back at the bed. "I didn't realize."

"It's alright."

"Not worried about your appearance,are you?" She tossed him a wry arched eyebrow. "Giving your bed up to a prisoner, while you sleep on the couch?"

"I won't say anything if you won't."

They both grinned.

A beat passed.

"There is something I've been meaning to ask you about."

Persephone fidgeted nervously. She knew this would happen sooner or later. And she knew she'd lose him. When things went back to normal, he'd remember his station. And she hers.

"I was wondering why you have this?" He reached up and grabbed something off a nearby shelf, carelessly placed as if he'd just set it down recently. He placed a worn book into the palms of her hands, the edges slightly blackened with smoke. The title glistened with a worn silvery script. "Resurrection and the Methodology of Necromancy."

Hades watched her carefully. "You know the practice of necromancy is illegal in all three realms."

"Yes." Persephone nodded, careful of her reactions now.

"And did you know that this book has been banned and the release of this information is punishable in court?"

"Yes."

"And I take it you knew that I have the only known copy." He didn't say it in an accusing voice.

"Yes."

"And you stole it." It wasn't a question.

"Borrowed it." Persephone countered.

"Why?" Hades searched in her eyes for an explanation, painfully aware of his own biases. He was many things, but Hades King of the Underworld was not a fool.

A buzzer rang through the hallway.

"That'll be the scones." Persephone straightened up at the sound of the oven timer. "They're ready."

The scones were ready. But was she?