Chapter 20: Honeymooning

Crowley was abruptly interrupted from his reading by Dean flipping the coffee table over. A stunned silence resounded through the room after the small knick knacks which had been atop it had finished clattering and smashing across the floor. Crowley sat in his cushioned leather chair, eye brow raised, Sam gaped unnerved at his brother and Dean stood, shoulders hunched, fists clenched, breath coming hard.

Sam stood up and put a hand on his brother's shoulder, "Dean, it's alright, calm down."

He wrenched away from his brother, "I wouldn't've ganked her."

Sam used his softest voice, "Yeah, Dean, I know that. She was just…grieving."

Crowley, his eyes merciless, laughed cruelly, "You might have. You didn't have any problem getting rid of that Amazon girl of yours. I wonder if that's one of the stories you told her as a wee girl." He continued in a voice that mocked Dean's deeper one, "Once upon a time, Daddy had another little girl much like you, but she wasn't quite what I wanted so I put a bullet in her skull."

The injustice Crowley was feeling at having this girl snatched away from him was coming out in meanness.

Dean launched himself across Crowley's desk. Crowley, for his part, had underestimated just how athletic the butchest Winchester was. From a standstill the man cleared the large desk and landed nearly atop Crowley, bearing him down, demon knife pressing into his ribs. Crowley, having access to a good deal more power than the Winchester whelp, threw him off, sending him crashing against a wall. He stalked toward Dean who writhed against the wall.

"If you hadn't been such an intolerably thick skulled moron about your hunt she would be alive!" He pushed harder against Dean's paltry human chest, moments from crushing it.

Sam rushed him, "Crowley! You need us, remember. This isn't something to kill Dean over. Let him down, we'll finish reading the journal and figure it out from there."

Tentatively, Crowley let Dean down, backing up toward his desk. Dean didn't fight back. He dropped listlessly to the ground and turned his back on the pair of them, walking dejectedly to the body and looking down at it. He pushed her hair back from her face, it was the same color as his and now Crowley knew why she had looked familiar. It was his jaw that jutted too much on her feminine face. She looked like him. Not for the first time, Crowley wondered who her mother had been.

It was Sam this time who took up the journal, Crowley being too busy looking between Dean and Bobby. Sam sat back in his chair and picked up where Crowley had left off.

XXXXX

From the Journal of Bobby Winchester

My return to Hell was triumphal. I stepped through the gate and was met by the ghosts, standing in a crowd before me. They had lost their craze, they looked at me with clear eyes, hopeful eyes, I thought that maybe they hadn't been crazed at all, maybe they had just been scared. I stood tall at the threshold and surveyed them. I took a single step forward and they began to part a path for me. I took my first step onto the lush grass that grew beyond the wall and Hell itself greeted me, golden flowers blooming beneath my feet. I walked through the multitude, as I came level with them the nearest fell to their knees, those behind them following their example. My breath caught in my throat but, unmoved, I held my head high.

I had gone no more than thirty feet when a young woman stepped out of the line, in her hands she held a coronet woven from the golden flowers.

"My lady." And I found I could understand her, despite the language barrier, "You saved us from our suffering." I bent my head slightly and she tenderly placed the crown atop it. She moved to step back into line but, haltingly, she asked, as thought she could not help herself, with eyes so wide they shook, "Are you – my lady are you a goddess?"

I almost said no. But I thought of Crowley and thought of what he would say in my position. I contained my grin, not thinking that did not fit the situation, looked the woman straight and unflinchingly in the eye and said, "Yes."

I raised my eyes to the palace and began the long walk to its door. Each step on my golden flowered path shook as the bowing crowd shouted in ear shattering unity, "PER-SE-PHO-NE!" again and again and again.

I reached the palace and walked boldly up the stairs. At their top, right before the doors, I turned to the crowd. I took the spear off of my back and looked out over them. Silence fell. In a swift motion I jutted the spear toward the sky. They screamed together, jubilant and united. Then I turned and strode into the hall.

Crowley was waiting for me, arms crossed, small scowl on his face. "You seem…popular."

I grinned at him and laughed, "I mean, I just saved them from eternal torment."

He remained looking less than happy. I lost it, laughing brazenly.

"Are you jealous, Crow? Is that what's happening? Did you want them to make you a flower crown?"

"No, but it would have been nice if they had screamed my name."

I thrust out my spear lazily, hooking it in his shirt and wrenching him forward. He stumbled ungainly into me. "Would it help if I screamed you name?"

He righted himself, "Yes, that would help."

I smirked at him and slugged his arm, "Come on, smile. This is the stuff of legend!"

"What was that they were calling you?"

"Oh," I turned away and smirked, walking up the hall, my spear dragging nonchalantly behind me. I looked halfway over my shoulder and gave him a shrug, "Persephone."

XXXXX

From the Journal of Bobby Winchester

It was odd for me, to change so quickly from being around only Crowley, from all other living things being devastatingly dead, to ruling so many. And the ranks just continued to grow. Every dead soul came to us. When they did not, we sent someone to fetch them. But none of the ghosts ever fought us. Sometime they got lost, couldn't find their way to our door, but when given someone to lead the way they came to us happily.

And it was paradise in my fields. Warriors sparred, people danced, children played in the streams. There was a perpetual song lifting from some far flung corner drifting through our open windows. We had staffed our palace with the dead who were not only willing but excited to serve their Queen and King.

XXXXX

From the Journal of Bobby Winchester

I awoke, air fresh in my lungs, head resting on Crowley's chest, "Goodmorning, darling," he murmured at me softly, petting my hair softly. I had begun letting it grow long again. "How did you sleep?"

I snuggled against him contentedly, he bent down and kissed me tenderly. He had started doing that more. Kissing me at unimportant moments. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Using him to hold be back when I felt like if I didn't I would rip the world apart and sweet careless moments seemed like different agreements. We were the King and the Queen of Hell. I wasn't sure if that made him my King, or if it made me his Queen for that matter. I wasn't sure what it would mean if it did. But then, it was nice to have someone call me magnificent.

"G'morn, Crow," I said groggily. I sat up and stretched, yawning widely. I rose and wrapped myself in a silken robe of periwinkle blue.

Without the need to be called in, my handmaiden, Anydka, entered, bowing briefly to us, "My lady, my lord."

I smiled, "Good morning, Anydka."

"Will my lady be wanting a bath this morning?"

"Yeah, that'd be lovely." I said, beaming.

She curtseyed, "And, my Lord Hades."

Upon my insistence he had abandoned 'Crowley,' only I called him that anymore, and only in privacy. It hadn't taken much convincing, just a few snide remarks that if this all got written down in some history book, when a few thousand years had passed and some scruffy newly spawned demon took on his new name, it would be so cliché. And he liked being a god. He smiled at her, "yes?"

"You have a visitor in the throne room."

He furrowed his brow, "Who?"

"He calls himself Zeus, the King of the Skies, my Lord."

Crowley raised his eyebrow at me, "The Queen and I will meet him together."

"Shall I delay your bath, my lady Persephone?"

"No," Crowley answered for me, "Tell Zeus he can wait."

Crowley and I enjoyed getting ready for this encounter. This was the sort of together that we were good at. The sort of together that was a partnership of activity, not the swishy and muddled waters of the difference between friendship and something else. It was end of the world dress up all over again. We wanted to look particularly regal for this.

I dressed him, because I insisted on dressing him. I chose for him a long dark robe embroidered at the border with gold, rubies and obsidian laid carefully into the collar. I belted him in an equally ostentatious belt, black leather, gold studded and buckled with a golden snake with ruby eyes. He wore the crown he had had made for an occasion such as this. We didn't wear crowns often, he said it detrimented their effect, they were also wildly uncomfortable, which was my primary problem with them. His was dark metal, that came up in brief spikes above his head in twisted metal. Even to me, who knew his lackluster ability with a spear, he looked nearly ferocious.

As I had dictated his wardrobe, he equally dictated mine. I was wrapped in a sleeveless draping ivory gown, cinched with a thin belt, the buckle of which was a gilded golden flower, made to match my Hellblooms, as I had named them.

I attached spindly golden cuffs and set my crown carefully over the intricate braids and curls Anydka had arranged. My crown was as light as his was heavy. A gold almost white with thin curving spikes that came up like vines. With my hair done so, it looked almost like a ringlet of golden antlers. I finished the ensemble by strapping a knife to my thigh. I could grow death for from the very stitches of Hell, but I felt more secure with the metal cold against my skin.

I inspected our reflection, "I would have preferred armor." I said a little cuttingly.

He smiled at me, "But in this, my darling, you look like a lovely young flower."

"I can see that, Crow, I want to look formidable. Zeus is gonna think I'm some –"

Crowley cut me off, "Delicate, beautiful jewel for my bed."

I turned my nose up at him and scowled, "Fuck you."

He rolled his eyes, "I hope he does think that."

"Was 'fuck you' not clear enough?"

He took my chin roughly and forced me to look at him, his eyes dark and fierce, "I hope he thinks you're a helpless little maiden who will cry and scream at a the sight of blood, and I hope he thinks the only time you could ever hold a spear would be to cook my dinner, because if there is one thing a Winchester can do well, it's kill gods who underestimate them."

I pulled my chin from his grasp and turned to the door, "Don't forget to call me Persephone."

XXXXX

From the Journal of Bobby Winchester

When we arrived at the throne room, Crowley flicked his wrist and the double doors slammed open, we walked in step up the long pale carpeting. A tall and imposing figure stood in before the throne, thick and tangled beard, dark brooding eyes, wide muscled chest. He gazed at me ravenously. He met us head on as we approached. Towering above both of us, blocking my path. I stopped a few feet from him and gazed up into his storming eyes.

I stood perfectly still, shoulders square, locking eyes with him. The seconds stretched on as we opposed each other. I understood that it would play better to Crowley's idea of how he wanted me to come off to demurely step aside and began to think that I should just play the part.

Hell, it seemed, had a different idea. Without warning the ground beneath him hitched and he stumbled ungainly to the side. Victoriously, and trying not to allow my surprise to play on my face, I stepped passed him and swept to my throne. I turned with a flourish and sat. The guard at the door lifted his helmet to give me a triumphant and approving grin. I tried not to snicker.

I glanced at Crowley who sighed in an 'If you must' sort of way, then I looked back down at Zeus, who had his arms crossed at was looking up at Crowley, regarding him with interest.

"This is a nice little hole you have carved for yourself…Hades, was it?"

Crowley remained silent, looking down his nose at Zeus, a sneer slight enough it could be generously taken as a frown creasing his face. I kept mine neutral, not that Zeus spared me a look.

Zeus waited a few moments to continue, presumably to see if Crowley would say something, when he did not Zeus forged ahead. He had a broad, engaging way of speaking, like he just wanted what was best. "My Queen, Hera, and I, we are building quite the kingdom ourselves."

"On top of a mountain yes, I've been made aware." Crowley said with a bored drawl.

"Oh ho ho!" he laughed heartily, "Who's letting you in on my secrets."

Crowley let a smile spread across his face, "Oh, I have my sources." His sources being basic mythological knowledge from the future.

"Well, it is quite the place, Olympus, we're calling it. Not quite like what you have down here, you understand, this, this, is a palace."

Crowley gave a small nod.

Zeus laughed long and loud. He put his hands on his hips and turned this way and that, looking at every crack of the throne room. He gave a hearty smile to Crowley and winked at me, "Truly, the most magnificent palace."

His smile fell away, "You understand you won't be able to keep it."

My grip on the arms of my throne stiffened but I held my tongue.

Crowley had lifted his chin in defiance, "No, Zeus, I'm not sure I do entirely understand."

"Let me be clearer. My boys and I are going to rip this pretty little gem out of your hands. Your people will be slaves, your life will be forfeit, and your queen will be sold to the highest bidder."

I really thought Crow would rage at this, call in the guard, kill him where he stood. But he sat slouched in his thrown, chin leaning on his hand.

"You're welcome to try."

Zeus looked taken aback. "You've been warned." He turned, eyes storming and dark and crashed out of the room.

"Escort him out of Hell." Crowley barked at the guard who turned and followed the Sky King.

Crowley turned in his seat to regard me, his eyes crept over my face, "Don't be afraid."

I threw my head back and laughed, my whole body shaking, it reverberated from the ceilings and echoed over us.

"Something funny, Bobs?"

I gave him a hungry grin, "Hell is going to need a proper army."

He gave me a mockingly appalled look, "And you just assume you get to lead it?"

I shrugged, "You can negotiate the terms of their surrender."

He gave me a warm smile and tipped his crown to me amicably. "I shall have the finest armor forged for you."

I tossed him a grin, "I'll buy you a pen or something."

AN: Sorry about the wait, lovelies, I was caught up in adult human things. Toss me a review (especially about how much time they are spending running around in the ancient world, is that interesting to you pups?)