Most measured time in twelve month cycles, consisting of four key seasons with contrasting features, or so he'd been told. Hades counted them in pairs of six, one bright season and one dark. By that count, he'd tended these plants for twenty nine bright seasons and what had to be nearing twenty nine of the dark. That thought made him pause in his efforts, he closed his open palm and the eternal river settled back into its regular flow.
He was the god of the underworld; his domain reflected that so very bluntly that it even shared his name. The hedgehog was Hades, lord of Hades. He was surrounded by stone, dwelling within a spiralling cave system that would put the labyrinth to shame, and yet he ruled it all from this single room. Here the land conformed to his will, rather than contorting to torture the bad or reward the good. With a wave he could direct any of the five rives of the dead through his abode, with a point he could transform stalagmites into stone furniture and it'd take no more than a thought to pull precious metals through the earth for use in decoration.
And yet, still the pale hedgehog lived in shadow and stone rather than gleaming gold. The room was only lit by the glowing symbols on his gauntlet covered hands, casting the rocks in a dull blue and never granting him a clear view of his flowers. He wore dark chains and heavy metallic boots, fitting of his station and intended to keep his appearance harsh. He had a helm to complete the appearance, capable of turning him invisible, but it had lain unused on his throne for approaching six months.
Immediately beyond this space, outside his throne room and home, was a cavern that he did not like to tend alone. There all five rivers (Styx, Lethe, Acheron, Phlegethon and Cocytus) met to water and fertilise soil, letting more plants grow. He had only dared visit it to derive what sustenance he needed, not wanting to dwell on all he'd created with his missing companion.
Soon fresh seed would arrive in need of laying, the plants that died on the surface always found their way down here. Autumn was near, his loneliness had about reached its deepest point. Hades hadn't moved from where he was sat in what must have been days... but then, what were days to an eternal being? Prior to that, he'd slumped on his throne for at least a week and done little more than stare at the ceiling through which she would return.
He finally rose from being knelt next to the Styx to give a cursory glance across his domain. Not long after being cast down here, he'd set water filled bowls atop four stalagmites- each representing a different zone within his ruled space. The fiery realm of tartarus held his attention for the shortest time; there all cruel and heinous souls were tormented in macabre manners matching by their misdeeds in life. The Elysian fields fully contrasted this, where those souls who were good thrived on in glory as they had in life and found comfort in rest. Between the two was the Asphodel Meadows, a place for those neither good nor bad and so the largest area of his domain. It was a land of relative peace but no glory, where work was needed but not eternal. It was similar to mortal life... or rather, that was how it had been explained to him.
As was so often the case however, Hades did find himself lingering above the pool that let him observe the Fields of Mourning. It was home to those who died waiting for others, who had lost their life awaiting a love they would now never see again. They would know no peace and no comfort, only the aching of an empty heart and a touchless existence. It was an afterlife of longing, filled with rumination on could and should have beens. Few of that plane's denizens were actually bad people, they'd simply failed to harness their life while longing to combine it with another's.
His eyes did eventually drift skyward again, to the ceiling that separated him from the world of the living. He had tried to pierce it once upon a time, longing for a window into the world above to see all that he was missing. The hedgehog had gathered a great sum of metal, forging a great shining drill and setting it to pierce upwards. He'd worked and worked, spinning and pushing with all his might, but his domain had refused to acquiesce for ten full days. Then, for only a moment, the ceiling finally gave way. A single stray sunbeam had pierced the dark of his domain... carrying a woman upon it.
The woman was Persephone.
She had been enraged upon first arriving, he could remember that moment so clearly. The instant she touched the ground the ceiling had completely resealed itself, leading both her and the other gods to believe she'd been kidnapped. In her fury, the nature goddess had summoned the will of flames, those of forest fires and nurturing sunlight alight, attacking him whilst simultaneously brightening their cavernous surroundings.
He gave up the fight without hesitation, allowing himself to be knocked flying before he began bumbling through an explanation. It had taken him stumbling over a dozen claims that he'd just wanted to see the blue sky and catch a glimpse of grass for her to pause and cease clobbering him. He'd recognised her from the start as the goddess Persephone, daughter of Demeter, and began panicking about the ramifications of what had happened.
He'd been terrified, certain that his foolish lusting for sunlight's touch had doomed him and made a key enemy of a vital nature goddess. Hades was certain she'd chew out the moment others dared to journey along the Styx to save her, that this enemy would lead to others and his isolation would only further. The hedgehog even thought that if he dared rise to his feet, she'd knock him off of them again and the assault would resume.
That was, until the goddess took his words as the truth. Until she begrudgingly allowed him to rise and explain himself further. Until that explanation led into conversation. Until conversation eventually gave way to laughter. Until laughter gave way to venturing through his domain. Until he and Persephone spent some time together.
Hades reputation regularly proceeded him, that he was a figure eternally draped in darkness and that he controlled his domain harshly. It was clear that Persephone had somewhat expected that talk to be more of a day to day reality, rather than how the underworld god handled his work preventing the dead from escaping. Soon however, the harvest goddess was rolling her eyes at his worries and browbeating his lack of maturity when faced with such situations. She'd called him, the god of the underworld, callow. No one had dared do that before!
Days and weeks did pass without sign of rescuers, long enough that conversation drifted to other things. He'd learned of her woes as she learned of his, the feline was practically bound at the hip to her mother and thus her duty over both nature and harvest. Although her role spanned the whole surface world, she had little control over where she went or what she actually did. Her strife was just like his- each claimed a whole domain of their own and yet was unable to do as they so deeply wished. For the first time ever, he was around someone long enough to have fun with them. He'd shown her all of his world, from how the dead were judged to their respective resting places, and been more present across his lair than ever before. Eventually, that had led them to the place where all harnessed crops and dead plants came to be reborn as seeds once more.
That place, a potential garden without the oversight of Demeter, had immediately stolen the cat's attention. He'd made the earth change with the flex of his hand, churning simple stone into soil so that she could plant. With little else to do, the two of them set about the creation of a fresh garden made from once dead plants. Persephone filled the room of barren rocky soil with life so casually, conjuring warm light as the two of them seeded row after row.
At first he'd thought it was due to the growth being so alien to him, to watch a conjured sun rise and the flowers bloom had been undeniably breathtaking, but now he knew the truth. It was seeing her, so free and happy, that had filled his heart with love. He'd felt that vulnerable warmth within his chest for the very first time. It was as if she was the sun itself, the one he'd foolishly sought to see, had actually come to spread warmth through him.
Harnessing his control over their surroundings, he moved that cave to lie just beyond his throne room. Those first six months they spent together soon became truly blissful, they would enchant each other with tales of their so very different lives and yet both were so seemingly lonely. One of them locked to act as an eternal aid, the other simply trapped alone. They lived almost inverse lives and yet he could relate to her as he had no other, and she had claimed the same as him.
Six months however, even to a god, is too long to go fully hungry. For each month that passed without the arrival of her rescue, Persephone had to eat something. Knowing of its potential damage, fearing for the consequences, they settled between themselves to use the bare minimum. A single pomegranate seed for every month, enough that she could survive comfortably and no more. The living were not supposed to eat the fruit of the dead, Hades had feared it might even kill her outright, but she had rolled her eyes and insisted it was preferable to an inevitable death by starvation. Though it made him tense every time, nothing went wrong each time she ate... at least, nothing in the short term.
By the time Demeter and Zeus arrived at the river Styx, Hades domain being the last place they'd thought to check, six months had passed. Though the two were grateful for Persephone's safe return, the ire of Demeter made him all but certain this would be the last time they would meet. Besides, it wasn't as if she truly had a reason to return to his domain. The afterlife was a place without seasons after all.
No, he hadn't expected to see her again, not without some great tragedy and even then only from a distance. The god had considered himself lucky to have even met her; though all may eventually become part of his domain the thought of her in such a position was perturbing. To see someone living and see them dead were very different things. He wanted to never see her again, if it'd mean she'd never suffer death.
That was until six months later, when a sunbeam fell through the slightest of cracks in his ceiling and carried persephone straight to his throne. She had grown sick in the land of the living, owing to the already once dead seeds she'd consumed, but a remedy had been formulated. For every seed she'd eaten, she'd spend a month with him. When he'd flustered and worried, apologising again, she'd just called him callow and led him out toward their gardens to watch the fresh seed of autumn arriving.
The reminiscing faded from Hades mind, this was another stage of his wait. How long had he been stood here? Infinite time with and without her, it was confusing to consider. Presuming the surface world would last in perpetuity, he would always spend six months with her followed by six months alone. Both measures of time would be endless, an endless series of six month chunks, and yet one flew by so much faster than the other. It was foolish to think he was spending an eternity without her, but now he felt it more than ever.
Despite that truth, he wasn't certain what he'd do once she returned. He'd had time enough to plan, even that period it was infinitely less than a blink in terms of his lifespan, and yet he'd come up with nothing... just like the other times she'd been destined to arrive. With that in mind though, he'd always come up with something during these moments. Languishing at his lowest seemed a trigger for inspiration, he'd always come up with something new to do just before she'd returned. Expanding the garden, redirecting the rivers, kissing her for the first time...
Hades eyes lowered back to the dish of water beneath him, catching sight of more mourning figures. They had died awaiting those who had never returned, so now they stayed waiting even in death. Was he all that different? What could he do to separate himself from them? It wasn't as though he could lock her down here and ensure loneliness never returned.
It was another thing he had been refused, just like the domain of the sky which was his birthright. He couldn't love Persephone in the way he longed to love her, for she was a living thing. Even if she wanted to abandon the world of the living, though he knew she would never give up such a duty and he would not ask it of her, the feline could not. In her absence the world grew brittle and cold as Demeter wallowed in her sorrows. All life would die if Persephone left permanently.
To live two eternities in conflict, it was a fate unique to them.
He'd kissed her, and she'd kissed him, but he hadn't found the strength to profess his love... unlike those reflected in the bowl beneath him. It was in part for fear of rejection, that much he could not deny, but mostly the underworld god could not allow himself to ruin the one relationship fate had granted him. While it was true that she was bound to his domain for half of the year, it wasn't by either of their choice. If she could come and go freely he might have been more willing, but the thought of being denied and souring their eternity together was too much to-
A flash of light tore the hedgehog from his thoughts. His gaze was sent spinning in the direction of his throne, just in time to find it filled. Warmth immediately spread through the hedgehog's body, reddening his cheeks and electrifying his heart.
Her garb was just as he'd recalled. A long white robe, tied with ribbon around the waist. Her wrists and ankles were adorned with bangles, each shaped from wicker reed and detailed with etched vines and flowers. Flaxen sandals housed her feet while a floral wreath topped her head; matching the colour of her muzzle with its collection of white flowers, varying from peonies to baby's breath. A second floral band of that same colouration hung from the end of her braided ponytail, positioned just above the small of her back.
She was everything he wasn't, and her outfit reflected that- where he wore rigid metals she wore flowing fabrics. Compared to him, everything about her was bright and shining. She was his sunlight, better than the real thing even. Though the sun itself was Helios claim, its association with plants and their growth was something inherent. The plants needed that light and so she embodied it, from the flames at her disposal to the glowing amber of her eyes. Now that it was within reach, he sought that warmth's embrace more than ever.
But, strangely, the light wasn't shining upon him, despite her return. Immediately upon arriving, the purple furred feline had turned away from him to stare at one of the cave's vacant walls. She'd taken up his helmet, setting it upon her lap, but besides that hadn't moved an inch. From this angle though, with her head turned right, he could see that she was frowning.
Hades stumbled toward her, moving faster than he had in months. He fully tripped before her feet, having to scramble to rise. The hedgehog only actually made it half-way, finding himself still beneath the purple feline. He hadn't seen her like this since the first time she'd arrived, her posture was stiff and her face was sullen.
"Persephone,"His blood felt like ice "Is something wrong?"
Quiet hung in the air for a moment longer, only filled by the trickling of the Styx and the thudding of his heart at his throat.
All his fears fell away at the sight of her eyes, "Still so callow, Hades?"
A relieved grin melted onto his muzzle, "Did you expect me to be otherwise?"
"I suppose not, though I did consider it," The goddess hummed, stroking up and along the ridge of his discarded helmet, "Then again, you've already had more than enough time to grow."
Heat rushed to his face for the first time in what felt like so long, that paranoid pounding of his heart in his throat was fully replaced by a static buzz at his gut and a shot of adrenaline surging through his system. This energy, this spark, he had missed it like he missed the sun. There was an electric tension in the air, more powerful than that generated by her facade. Hades' patience, his want to savour, had fully vanished by the third beat of his heart.
He pushed himself to rise, gripping the arm rests as he leaned in close to her, "I missed you."
"Is that so?" Persephone crooned,"Based on the state you're in, I couldn't tell."
Mirrors weren't exactly commonplace in his domain, and he hadn't stared in Tantalus' pool in some time, but the hedgehog knew he looked awful. With loneliness came the flopping of his quills, the loss of light from his eyes and the muting of his expression. Either way, that didn't stop her from closing the distance and pushing her lips against his. Warmth was finally fully upon him, and it had somehow caught him completely off guard.
Hades reacted as fast as realisation would allow, leaning in to share the effort and unleash what had been pent up for so long. She tasted exactly how he remembered, of the pomegranate that had sealed her fate. He lost himself in her so truly thoroughly, from that lip-lock to hitching of garbs and the mutual brushing of furs.
He couldn't know what had happened in her time away, let alone what all she had thought about, but one thing was clear. He'd been on her mind, just as she had been on his. Their kiss from before, and the kisses that had come after, now felt so simple by comparison. He could feel her convey emotion with contact rather than words, sharing in a way that he had only ever shared with her. This was all purest instinct for him, unbridled emotion made tangible contact and connection, and so he truly had no idea what he was doing.
Hades loved every second of it.
Minutes of lip-lock weren't enough to make up for the time they'd lost, just as quickly as breath was reclaimed that contact did resume. Soon the lord of the underworld found himself hand in hand with her, having blindly tossed his gauntlets aside as their bodies arched to fit each other's. He'd more than happily spend every six months spent like that, soaking up her touch after lacking all contact, but Hades was greedy. As much as he longed for her touch, he needed to hear her voice.
"I missed you," He murmured that phrase again and again between breaths, pushing with his words as he sank deeper into her.
It was only when he was half knelt on the throne's seat, her head pushed against the stone backrest and his helmet preventing them from pressing closer that a response came, "I missed you too."
His forehead found hers as panting claimed him, happy to have stretched beyond the goddess' mental walls and prise those words free. For as close as they'd grown over her sabbaticals from the world of the living, the feline still avoided wasting words. When persephone spoke she was blunt and thoroughly intentioned, more reclusive in conversation than one would think of a nature god. Then again, he was far more open to dialogue than anyone likely thought.
As his eyes reopened, they were met with orbs of amber sunlight. It was common knowledge that absence made the heart grow fonder, that was why he'd sought the sky in the first place, but their endless pattern of being together and apart was somehow more tantalising than more permanent absence. Every time she returned, he could feel them growing closer... only to have that torn away again.
Why was he wasting their precious time with thoughts, he should have been acting.
"So..." For all his thinking, words immediately failed him.
"So?" He could hear the smirk in her voice.
"How are you doing?" He managed to ask, immediately regretting his blandness but still finding his mind blank.
"Better now," She breathlessly admitted, before seeming to catch herself, "And you already look much better."
"You look great," He blurted in response, "Y-You always look great."
Those words did seem to have an impact, Hades felt her hand slip up to his chest. Her head tilted, her cheek brushed against his until a kiss took the place on that contact. He lost himself in her again, his eyes did close, but only so long as to be caught off guard. With a well placed push he was forced to stumble back and to her feet, but Persephone was plainly intent on maintaining their kiss even as he struggled to rise from the awkward position.
She only released the hedgehog, both his chest and lips, once she was fully stood too, "Things on the surface are always so complicated, always so difficult," She mused as she stepped past him with his helmet tucked beneath her arm, "But you're not like life on the surface, Hades. I always know just what to expect from you. I can read you like the seasons, I like that about you," The feline admitted before she seemed to realise she'd over spoken, "Not that I presumed that would be the case at first, of course."
Though her words were complimentary, they reignited the paranoia he'd felt just before she'd returned to him. Unlike those last times, he hadn't arrived with something new to do or offer before she'd arrived. Regret ached in his chest as he watched her walk away, but it didn't last for long.
Realisation stole pain from and replaced it with panic. He had come up with something, he'd just been too afraid to broach it. Could he stand to? Was it right to?
"Come on, harvest has started," She insisted, starting to walk deeper into the caves of Hades, "Let's check the growth before the reaped seed finishes arriving."
Following her and the length of the Styx, Hades soon found himself in the garden they'd made so many visits ago. The verdant space within the otherwise dreary cave seemed to grow all the more alive due to the presence of the nature goddess, flowers came to bloom and almost turn as if to face their arrival.
Beyond the sloshing of the various rivers, another sound filled the air. Turning to his left, Hades found the great well which grain and seed was set to endlessly fill. The seed didn't slip through a crack in the ceiling as she had, nor did it fall from the already grown plants of his domain. Instead, it was carried on the Styx itself, that river passing through the well's basin and depositing the pips, nuts and kernels perfectly. He could hear the sound of the well gradually filling, the seed rising up the shaped stone to make it not dissimilar to a grain silo.
That sound did not hold his attention for long though, his eyes held more sway over him than his ears. He watched as Persephone rose to her tiptoes to claim a pomegranate, the tree lowering its branch so as to meet her halfway. With a simple flex of her strong hands, preternaturally knowing where to pull, the fruit was brought in two and the seeds revealed. She was in her element, just as Hades was certain she was in gardens on the surface, but now so strangely free despite her entrapment. It was beautiful.
She caught him staring before she could eat, extending a hand with half the fruit as if to beckon him closer, "Hungry?"
"Famished, thank you," He professed, taking the offered half, "Are you sure that you can...?"
"I did some research and consulted the riverboat man," The feline responded, drawing some seeds, "How much I eat while here doesn't matter, just that I ate during the month. I'm free to consume up until a month before my leaving. That should make my stay even more comfortable."
Food in hand, they began a survey of the once dead plants. Things weren't in any worse of a state than how she'd left them, but there were improvements still to be made. He'd purposefully spent as little time as possible in here and it did show in areas of wilt, but frankly he preferred those to the rough hewn stone and dark colouration so ever present elsewhere in his abode.
Although the hedgehog was doing his best to pay attention to their garden, but his gaze scarcely left her. By the time she'd finished her seeds, dropping the fruit casing only for it to turn to mulch, he had barely partaken in six. That idea from before was like lightning in his mind, terrifying and yet awe inspiring. He didn't want to break this, he didn't want to ruin his relationship to the only companion he had, but how long could they go on like this? If every return was like the one he'd just experienced, his heart would only long more and more for her. His want to ask and yet need to refuse himself would endlessly consume him if he didn't act quickly.
"About what you said before," He blurted aloud as she peered through the petals of a crocus, "Maybe I do have something unpredictable for you," He forced himself to offer.
"Do you?" She inquired, turning and raising a brow.
"M-Maybe?" He gulped, immediately regretting his choice to act.
"Go on, I'm listening," Persephone claimed, though she moved on to continue leading him through their gardened space.
Hades scrambled for words, "Since you're going to be spending so much time down here, basically an eternity-
"Exactly an eternity," She stopped him, "Just six months at a time."
"Right, yeah," He felt his brain strain, "I was just wondering if you'd..."
She hadn't had to cut him off this time, words had simply failed him, "If I'd?"
"I know you have important work to do on the surface, I know it's important to you and the world," His hand found his quills, only for him to immediately remember and cringe at the juice soaking his hand, "But," He let the fruit drop as he caught up to walk beside her, "Th-This isn't me talking out of loneliness, Persephone. Accidentality stealing you was the best and most important thing to ever happen to me."
The goddess suddenly came to a halt, she turned to him with a quirked brow raised and an analytical look on her muzzle. Almost immediately however, that expression broke down to reveal a look of realisation. In that moment, panic fully struck him.
Words flew from his mouth, "I just want to make sure that, if you don't want what I'm about to offer, we can go back. We can just stay like this, we can just-
"Hades," She took him by his hands, "Just say what's on your mind, nothing can go wrong that eternity could not mend."
His panic was washed away in an instant. She had processed all he was going to say even before he could think it. The goddess had already foreseen how this would all happen, here amongst sunflowers and fruit trees and all five rivers of the underworld. Regardless of that truth though, Hades wanted the words to stick. He had to say it, just as she'd asked.
"I love you," He finally said it, relief flowed through him like souls along the Styx, "And I'd love you to be the queen of Hades."
She leaned in close, raising to her tiptoes, "The place or the person?"
"Both?" The god of the underworld squeaked.
"Oh, well, in that case," She leaned in close before suddenly pulling back, "I'll consider it."
In one swift movement the feline put her hand to her head, promptly placing his own helm atop it. Before the hedgehog could so much as blink the cat had harnessed the power of that artefact to disappear. All of a sudden he was stood alone atop the soil, frantically casting his eyes all around in search of her and failing to process her cryptic answer.
For just a moment he thought she'd vanished, but before panic could claim his heart he felt the goddess leaning into his back, "Are you certain about this? About what it means."
"I am," He responded, not even trying to turn to her, "I don't know what to do with myself during the six months your away. I perform my roles as best I can, fulfil my duties and do what I think is best but," Hades was shocked he wasn't floundering, "I feel so much more alive when you're around, like I'm actually living rather than just working. You brighten my life more than the sun ever could."
"Is that all that's on your mind?" She quietly asked.
He could feel the heat radiating off of her, a warmth like supposed Summer carried upon her touch. Embarrassment was an emotion that Persephone hid well, she rarely allowed herself to show more than the lightest of cracks. Now he truly understood why she was stood behind him, why she had used that helm. He'd seen enough seasons through to understand her, just as she had predicted this predicament.
"I can't lie to you, I don't want to risk what we already have, but I know what I want and can't deny it. Whenever you return I fall even deeper in love with you, and I'm scared that if I don't ask now I'll fall too deeply. I won't be able to ask out of fear of losing what we already have," Words kept flowing from his mouth, he scarcely had time to breathe, "You have brought light and warmth to a home I thought so dark and cold. I know nothing nor anyone I could compare to you, despite holding dominion over so many souls," That sounded a little too macabre, but the lord of Hades swallowed in an attempt to own it, "How could I do anything but love you with all my heart," His mouth was dry after professing that, in the most blunt and honest manner he could. Was that a sign? "Persephone, please give me an answer."
"You're so very callow Hades," He felt something top his head, it took a moment to realise it was his own helm, "But I suppose I can help to balance that out."
"You mean?" He finally turned to look at her.
She was looking up at him, though not with her usual smugness nor seriousness. The feline was admittedly attempting to maintain the latter, her brows were furrowed and she was trying to keep her expression muted but her muzzle was pink. Hades could see through her facade. The goddess was always beautiful, but there was something undeniably cute in seeing the effort crumble. He supposed this is what she was used to seeing from him; harmless panic and embarrassment.
"Come on, it's been a while," The goddess finally averted her gaze, blush still dusting her white cheeks as she snatched up his hand and half shoved him to move, "Why don't you reacquaint this new queen with her domain?"
A smile creased his lips as he felt his heart pound.
"Why of course, Persephone, queen of Hades," He squeezed her hand, feeling himself glow as he turned to lead the way, "I'd be more than happy to."