Hades didn't expect to find the respite of living within Demeter's compound so delightful, nor the pastoral grace of sunny fields and elegant country living to suit his tastes so well. Hades was a businessman and practical besides, he was devoted to his work and it was often dark stuff. Not evil or cruel, but there was nothing cheery in running the realm of the dead and deciding appropriate punishments of rewards for mortals after death. It, paired with his taste for solitude and reluctance to attend the lavish, loud banquets his brother threw far too often had garnered him a rather bleak reputation. But he enjoyed the drowsy heat of Demeter's summer realm, so different from his drafty, marble halls, and the long evenings spent on the wraparound porch, watching the nymphs gather fruit from the fields while Persephone lay on her stomach at his feet, humming and reading…Were pure bliss.
The few days Hades had been reluctant to spend in Demeter's home had turned into a languid collection of weeks, which he savored, secure in the fact that the management he had left behind in the Underworld and the differences in the passing of time between the two realms would ensure that his absence would not be felt too strongly. Demeter was a perfect host, although the extended stay had enabled her to get closer to Hades, something he indulged because it was warm and familiar and probably harmless. He allowed her to link her arm through his as they walked through her property, Persephone darting about in front of them with her skirts swirling around skinned knees, or didn't shy away when she fell asleep with her head on his chest as the two reclined by the fireplace. Demeter was an old friend, nearly his sister; the interaction was neither unnatural nor uncomfortable. Persephone however, was a completely new experience.
She drifted in and out of his daily life like the lightest of summer breezes, jumping out from corners in an effort to startle him at all hours of the night, nudging his leg under the table at supper with her tiny feet, or braiding that glorious hair as she asked for the thousandth time what he was doing. She was always curious, so curious. It soon became apparent to Hades that Persephone had an unquenchable thirst for practical knowledge, and the only education her mother had her receive was a glossing over of scientific principles in a larger curriculum of dusty humanities and magical gardening. Hades, whose love for applied mathematics was equal to his prolificacy in fine literature, had volunteered upon occasion to critique the poetry Persephone's mother made her write, but proofreading nearly always turned into instruction in natural physics of spatial geometry at the girl's wide-eyed pleading. Persephone was convinced she had Hades wrapped around her little finger, but the way he occasionally snapped at her when she did something too wicked to overlook or how he purposefully ignored her when she bid for his attention out of boredom made her work for it. Truth be told, she had the slightest whisper of a crush on the god, her first one, and she didn't probably know how to cope with it.
Hades soon turned into Persephone's refuge from her mother along with being friend, tutor, and occasional disciplinarian when Demeter was away. Persephone liked to play her emotional cards close to her chest, but sometimes she let her guard down utterly, like the time she came running into the sunroom in tears.
Hades, who had been standing and looking out the window in contemplation, was hit with a dull thump from behind as Persephone wrapped her arms around his waist and sobbed. He turned in surprise, then took in her condition and embraced her, even though the top of her head only came up to his shoulders.
"Sephne," He murmured, smoothing back her hair with a gentle palm. "What's happened?"
"I hate my mother!" She cried angrily, tears staining the front of his button-down. Hades tsked his tongue, kissing her head and inhaling the scent of flowers she always gave off.
"Don't say things you don't truly mean. Your mother is kind to you Persephone, you want for nothing."
"She never lets me do anything! I have no freedom! I can't leave this place, I can't see have any guests, I can't study what I want, I can't wear what I want…She just accused me of acting out to get attention! Can you believe that?"
Yes, Hades muttered inwardly, but her understood Persephone's anger. Girls her age usually didn't realize when they were pandering for attention, they just did whatever it took to feel loved and validated. For Persephone, this meant making a fuss over the most trifling thing and tormenting her mother, and Hades suspected it was the way she draped herself all over Hades as well. She may not have understood what she was doing completely, but she understood that it did something to Hades, and that made her feel powerful.
But she wasn't looking for power now, now she was just a scared little girl, and Hades sighed,
"You will appreciate what your mother has done one day…But I do understand, Persephone. Perhaps I could have a word with her on the subject? She could shout less if you promise not to interrupt."
"Please," Persephone sniffed. Then quietly, muffled by his shirt. "I wish you were my father, Hades."
Hades felt his heart plummet into his stomach, and all manner of awful names directed at himself and his actions flashed through his mind, but he forced a smile all the same. He reached down to brush the gleaming tears off her face with a thumb.
"Why don't you come sit with me, hmm? I'll show you what I'm working on."
Persephone grinned, tugging Hades eagerly by the hand to the table in the middle of the sun room. She always wanted to see what he was working on, and he very rarely let her.
Hades sat in his recently vacated chair, expecting Persephone to sit or stand beside him, but she sank down on his lap instead, balancing on his knees with an eager smile. Hades shifted uncomfortably for a moment guilty conscience wondering what Demeter would think if she walked in, but he pushed these thoughts away and slid an arm around Persephone's slim waist, pulling her close.
The girl was perusing the few papers and charts spread out on the table with bright eyes.
"They're maps," She announced.
"Clever you. Maps off all the realms, divine, mortal, and in-between."
"What are these?" Persephone asked, pointing to white X's that had been marked over some strategic points on the maps.
"They're portals," Hades murmured, free hand resting lightly on the table, gesturing as he spoke. "Places in the material world where my realm can be accessed. Naturally occurring, but troublesome. I'm trying to find them all and have them closed."
"Why?"
"Well they're dangerous. Mortals wander into my realm all the time, out of suicidal tendencies, search of a lost loved one, or simple curiosity. Botches the whole system up and infuriates the Fates. I promised those old bags I'd look into walling up some of the portals."
Persephone chuckled at Hades' teasing. "They are terrible old things, aren't they? But haven't mortals won back someone they loved from you, fair and square?"
"I suppose," Hades muttered blackly, all the paperwork the Orpheus fiasco had caused coming to immediate mind. "Although fair is debatable. "
"I think it's romantic," Persephone muttered. "What's that like?"
"What's what like?" Hades asked, nuzzling the crook of her neck.
"Being in love like that. So in love it makes you stupid and heedless."
Hades paused, drawing back a little to look at Persephone squarely. "It's like drowning in light. And being so enraptured by something you can hardly breathe and not being able to think straight when they're around or when they're gone. It's like living here, where it's always summer, even in the most bitter of winter. It hurts and it heals and makes you…Stupid and heedless I suppose."
"Have you ever been stupid and heedless?"
Hades smiled, kissing the hidden spot behind her ear before catching her earlobe between his teeth momentarily. "A few times."
Persephone giggled, bunching up her shoulders a little. "Are you married?"
"No."
"Do you want to be? Do that again," She added almost as an afterthought, an innocent tongue speaking dangerous words that had Hades stomach in sudden knots. "That was nice."
"Someday. When I find the right person. This?" He breathed gently, kissing the spot where her neck met her shoulder. His lips were warm and parted just enough that he could savor the fleeting taste of her skin. Persephone leaned slightly into the point of contact, making a low, contended mmming sound that made Hades grit his teeth with the physical restraint it took him from covering every inch of her exposed skin in lips, tongue, and teeth.
"I like your work," Persephone announced. "I like your maps. As a matter of fact…I think I'll keep them!"
With this childish exclamation, she seized one of his maps and hopped off his lap, already darting for the door. Hades roared with laughter, chasing her and catching her around the waist before she could leave, spinning her around a few times while she squealed and swore, trying to escape. He finally set her down but kept his arms locked around her waist and growled into her hair,
"Give me my map, Sephne."
"No!"
"You're a little brat," He snarled, grinning as he bit her earlobe again. "Give. Me. My map."
"Take it from me," She panted daringly, still trying to squirm away, but exhilarated because she finally had all his attention.
Hades was done playing games. Persephone was teasing him with herself, and he didn't appreciate her coyness. After a while, outright shamelessness was the only way to go.
Hades dragged his mouth down the length of Persephone's pale neck, relishing the shudder he felt go through her body, then traced the delicate scrollwork of her ear with the hot tip of his tongue. If the fire she was playing with wasn't apparent up to this point, it was now.
"Do what I say, Persephone."
She said nothing for a moment, then burst forth laughing again. "No!"
Then she elbowed him hard in the gut before flying out the door and into the nearest field, squealing with laughter and shouting at him to come and get her. Hades would have loved to say he had more dignity and self-restraint than chasing her though the field before catching her and dragging her down squalling into the tall grass, but that would be lying. The pair of them crashed into the moss of the earth in a flurry of battling limbs and breathless laughter, Hades trying to pry his map from Persephone's talon fingers.
"It's not funny, Sephne!"
"It's hilarious!" She lay on her back on the ground with the map curled up tight and pressed to her stomach. "Okay, I'll hand it over."
Hades held out a hand expectantly, feeling like a fool for wrestling thirteen year old demi-goddesses in the heat and dust. Persephone's eyes took on a wicked sparkle.
"On one condition."
"I'm about to get scary, Persephone, what is it?"
She looked up at him, biting her lower lip shyly, although her voice was brazen and casual. "Give us a kiss. It's a fair price."
Hades had the strange sensation of his blood going cold at the exact moment of his face flushing with hot embarrassment.
"What?"
Persephone seemed injured. "Well don't you think I'm pretty?"
"Unbearably," Hades groaned, trying to be firm and rational. "But I won't do that Persephone, cannot, that would be wrong. You're a baby-"
"I'm thirteen!"
"You know nothing of the things you speak of," Hades snapped, a little harshly. "This isn't a game, don't you see? Besides, I'm your uncle."
"That's never stopped anyone in this family before," Persephone mumbled, put out. "You kissed me in the house…"
"And I shouldn't have. Besides, that was different, that was…"
"Play?" She demanded. "For Zues' sake, I'm not asking you to marry me, I just want to know what love feels like."
"A kiss won't bring you love," Hades scoffed, natural cynicism showing through. "How naïve you are."
Persephone looked up at him from her spot in the grass, wide eyes searching for something real to cling to. "It's the closest thing I know," She said softly, and it was then Hades realized that her inquiry was more of a plea, something she craved desperately. He shook his head, pressing his lips together tight. He cared for Persephone dearly, he wanted to give her the world and teach her everything he knew and claim every bit of her body as his own. But Persephone was just beginning to breach the confines of her youthful innocence, and he refused to be the cause of sudden changes she simply was not ready for.
So he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the delicate hollow of her throat square between her collarbones, gentle and gracious in this gesture.
"That's not what I meant," She grumbled, although her voice was softened by tenderness and curiosity.
"Grow up a few years and then ask me to kiss you on the mouth," Hades murmured into her skin, resisting the urge to add, if I don't beat you to it.
He trailed a line of kisses down her sternum to the soft space between her breasts, exposed graciously by the low-cut shirt Demeter didn't like her to wear. Hades lost himself in the sound of her light breaths slowing and deepening, her pattering heart rate sliding up a few beats per minute, and smiled against a kiss.
"Is this alright?"
"Very," She breathed.
Hades slid his hands up her sides, taking the hem of her shirt up with them so the flat expanse of her stomach was exposed to the sun and the exploration of his mouth. He devoured the taste of her and the sensation of her forbidden flesh burning against the tip of his tongue as he slowed his kisses down; doing everything he could to excite her. Her chest was rising and falling ostentatiously, one tiny hand pressed over her face, either to hide her eyes from the glare of the sun or mask her irregular sighing.
"Hades," She breathed, trying to make some sort of statement, but that was all she could manage, and it came out on a light moan that had Hades swallowing a groan of his own as he bit the edge of her navel. Persephone gasped, arching her stomach into to the warmth of his mouth, and just about the time Hades started to get the feeling that he should probably stop, Demeter's voice broke the heady summer calm.
"Persephone! Where did you go, dear? Persephone?"
The girl's eyes shot open and she scrambled up suddenly, yanking down her shirt and looking all around. She spotted her mother on the front porch and smiled sheepishly, still a little out of breath.
"Coming!"
She darted through the grass without so much of a goodbye, leaving Hades stunned and guilty in the grass, but returned a moment later to press the map into his surprised hands.
She pecked his cheek dryly, beaming at him. "Thanks," She whispered conspiratorially, then ran off with a honey-sweet smile and candy-apple lie for her mother.
In the tall grass, Hades pressed a fist to his tingling lips, wondering how in the world he of all people had ended up in this of all predicaments.