ELYSIUM, THE UNDERWORLD.

HADES

HE LOOKED HAPPY.

Persephone's gaze was transfixed on the raven haired youth throwing a stick to his puppy, who eagerly chased after it to bring it back to his master. He grinned, giving him a good scratch behind his ears as the dog's tail wagged about in excitement. It reached up to lick his cheeks as the young man threw his head back and laughed.

Her eyes were moist as she looked away, tearing her gaze from him with difficulty - gulping quietly. I could not take my eyes off him - at the normalcy of his life, the way he went about his day with ease - as if he didn't even know...

...didn't even know he was dead.

Rhadamanthys had taken him in and raised him well, brought up alongside the other blessed, rewarded citizens of Elysium. Kind souls, all of them. A place where I knew he wouldn't suffer anymore. It was seeing his face that gave me nightmares - a face the splitting image of his twin sister. Of his living sister.

Of the one who had survived when he did not.

"He..." my wife murmured softly from beside me, watching from the shadows. "He looks almost..."

Almost alive.

Because he did.

He seemed real - real enough to not make that pain in our chest hurt, as he ran after his pet under the cool shadows of the Elysian towers. But it was when the sunlight hit - the brightness of it throwing his body into sharp contrast - that it was apparent. That he was... that he was dead.

Something about him blurred around the edges, splitting about into seven colors - like looking through the refracted light off a slab of glass. He seemed to shimmer and move in a plane that was not of this world. A stark reminder of the fact that no matter how alive he looked, he wasn't.

This pain in my chest ached like a rotting tooth.

I softly wrapped an arm around her, then hugged her tight.

"It's okay," I whispered. She buried her head in my neck, letting a sob slip through. "He's okay."

I clasped her hand tight, then brushed away the wetness clinging to her long lashes. She tried to wipe the grief from her miserable face, doing her best to slip on the icy mask of composure before this part of the year descended on us.

The part when we'd watch him from the shadows of Elysium on the anniversary of his death.

The part when she'd have to leave for her annual visit to Olympus.

"I have to... get going."

I nodded, looping my arm around her as we finally got up from our spot under the willow swaying about merrily in the breeze. Behind us, my dead son's laughs rang about in the air, grating along my already frazzled nerves to the point of almost making me burst into tears.

This part was always the hardest.

At first, we had not had the courage. Not had the guts to go visit him. To see him... in the flesh. In the spirit, I guess. There were nights spent crying at his grave at first, before the misery hardened us enough to be able to go find him. No matter how many years passed, it never got any easier. Not even after having three children.

Thanatos looked harried, agitated beyond the point of tears as our youngest child, Zagreus, pulled about at the tufts of his short cropped hair.

"My King," he croaked hoarsely, balancing the wobbly toddler on his knee. "Thank the heavens you're here-"

"Lord Thanatos was this close to suffering from premature hair loss," a gleeful Minos guffawed from the background, a stack of books resting on his knee as he perched himself on a silk couch. "But I daresay he's been enjoying himself too much-"

"My lady," poor Thanatos pleaded, "he's been trying to eat my hair-" he cried, "- no," he shook his head at the baby who was trying to climb up his shoulder like an adventurous little tiger. "No, Zagreus - leave my hair alone please -"

Persephone laughed, eyes twinkling as she picked up the now babbling Zagreus, lifting him into her arms and hoisting him up her shoulder like a flag.

"Someone looks cranky today," Perse laughed, ruffling our son's hair as the toddler gave her a toothless smile. "Aren't we?" she asked.

I grinned at him, bobbing the tip of his nose. The baby clapped, giving me a toothless grin. His eyes were wide with curiosity - just the same vivid green as his mother's, who was busy fussing over him as he proceeded to start tugging at her hair.

"Is he hungry?"

"I fed him an hour ago," she murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. "Oh dear," Perse groaned, as Zagreus wrapped his chubby fist around a lock of her hair, about to put it in his mouth.

"Let me take him," I held out my arm as the drooling baby climbed eagerly into my arms, fascinated at the sound coming from my throat as I laughed.

"You'll be a good boy for mama, won't you?" she lowered her head to look the wide eyed toddler in the face, a loving grin on her lips. Zagreus let out an incoherent stream of babbles as an answer, beating his fist against the brooch on my cloak. I laughed and took the brooch out, letting him observe the shining object - his eyes so wide that I could see the world in them.

Perse looked at the two of us, shaking her head with amusement, her mouth so red and full and sinful - I wanted to grab her by the waist and ravish her then and there. She seemed to have the same thought as our gazes connected for a moment of blazing, searing passion - before she chuckled, moving to find our younger daughter nestled between Minos and Charon.

"What does pre - mature mean, Uncle Minos?"

The head judge opened his mouth to answer, before Charon took out his stick, suddenly whacking Minos in the head with a gleeful wheeze.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Premature means getting old before our time. Like Minos here," the ferryman clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "Getting slow, old man?"

"I am not old. Or slow," Minos pointed replied, looking personally offended. "Don't you listen to this ghastly creature," he tapped Macaria on the shoulder, handing her a book from his precious pile of tomes. The blond haired girl eagerly took it from him, ruffling over the pages to run her hand over well worn maps discoloured with time.

"What are we upto today?" Persephone asked, approaching the three of them. Zagreus had now begun to tug at a stray thread in the hem of my sleeve, curiously examining the silk unravel from the neatly placed stitches.

"Uncle Minos was telling me about his life as a mortal king," Macaria looked up, her inky black eyes glimmering like diamonds. "Mama, did you know he was King of Crete? That's so cool!"

"He's old," Charon muttered sourly under his breath.

"Shh," Persephone waved him off with a chortle, peering over the huge book in Macaria's lap. She was the deity of blessed death - a quiet, eager soul fueled by an insane hunger for knowledge. "That looks interesting. Are you going to read the entire thing?"

"This one - and hundreds after that! Uncle Minos said that Aunt Hecate has a huuuuge library! I'm going to read every book in there!"

"Okay," I laughed, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "But not if I race you to finish them all first."

"You're on, dad. I daresay you aren't reading anything soon, though," Macaria gave me a knowing look, watching the now bored Zagreus trying to leap from my arms to the floor, waving his arms about in the air.

"Baby," Perse breathed, pressing another kiss to the toddler's rosy pink cheeks, "don't make it so hard for me to leave, okay?" she asked him. He looked wide eyed at her, then began to wave his arms again - as if trying to hold her in his little fists.

Her voice began to break again. No matter how many times we did this, this was the hardest part for her. Leaving behind the children, the home, and me. But we waited patiently for her to get back. We always did.

"Macaria, tell me more about the book when I return, okay?" she called out over her shoulder to the girl who'd gone back and buried her nose in the book. Then she turned to me. "Where's Mel?" she asked.

Melinoe - our eldest. Hecate's partner in crime.

"Probably carving up some poor innocent for dinner," Charon clucked darkly, tutting.

"Perhaps I'll carve you up," a sullen voice drifted from the shadows, "bet you'll taste delicious."

Mel emerged from the darkness, her green eyes startlingly vivid as she moved, her walk smoother than a river of velvet. Her bare arms were paler than the moon, her raven black hair flowing down her back to her ankles. Scowl still on her lips, she put her arms around Persephone, hugging her tight.

"Bye, mother."

"No I miss you for me?" my wife chuckled, tucking a stray strand of Melinoe's hair behind her ear.

"You'll be back in ninety days. That's hardly long enough to miss someone," she muttered. "And I have a ritual to get back to in exactly-" she paused to think, "-five hundred seconds."

"Well then," Perse murmured lovingly, "don't let me keep you from your very important business. I bet Hecate will set her cats loose after you if you're late"

A small smile played on our eldest daughter's lips.

"Give him to me," she beckoned to Zagreus, who'd now figured out how to climb on top of my shoulder and was dangling his tiny feet from the top of me. I carefully hoisted the little man down as he was busily sucking his thumb, drooling all over my shirt.

He wailed loudly as his elder sister picked him up, but she shot him a glare -

"You'll be a quiet little man, won't you?" she pursed her lips.

Zagreus giggled in his sister's arms, reaching for the shiny string of ivory pearls around her white neck. "Here we go again," she rolled her eyes. Thanatos, who'd vanished a few minutes ago, sauntered in again.

"My Queen," he approached Perse, "your bags are packed. Hermes is waiting outside to escort you."

I raised a dark eyebrow at her as she gave me a look of amusement, then gave Zagreus a final peck on the cheek.

"Don't forget to sing to him after dinner," she took hold of my hand. "And if he wakes up in the middle of the night, rock him in the chair by the fire-"

"I know."

"And don't let him go near Cerberus in the morning, he tried chewing off his ear the other day-"

"I know, Perse," I grinned at her, rubbing her back. "I know."

She melted against my chest, pulling me into her embrace one last time for the next three months. I gave her a fluttering kiss on the lips, and she watched with delight as the crimson on them stained my mouth. Ah - I was going to miss that mouth. I ran my fingers through her sleek, smooth hair as it framed her face in curtains of platinum white, kissing her on the corner of her mouth once again as she squealed.

"Don't go too hard on her," I murmured.

Demeter.

It had been so, so long. So many years had passed, yet she had kept her distance from her. I understood Persephone's apprehension - I truly did. I could understand her anger, her stifling, choking rage she swallowed so deep into her throat. But... she was all Demeter had, once. I did not want her to forget her forever - no matter how badly she hurt me. Perse did not deserve losing whatever family she had left, shattering away into bits and pieces.

"Your heart is too big, Hades," she replied. "You hold the entire world in it," I watched my white face reflected in the deep, glimmering pools of her warm eyes.

I held her hand close to my chest, kissing each of her delicate fingers one by one.

"I do not mind having a big heart, Perse - but... I don't want to be the reason you stop talking to her. She's old and lonely. Just... just don't be too mean, okay?"

Amused wickedness glinted in her eyes.

"Can I be a little mean?" she purred.

I grinned at her with a shrug of my shoulders, looping an arm around her neck and holding her so close that our noses almost touched.

"I love it when you are a little mean."

She blushed so beautifully, the pink colouring her rosy cheeks as she gave me a smoldering, crushing smile.

"Go," I gave her a little push, letting go of her soft hand as I swung my arm around Melinoe's shoulders. "They're waiting for you."

"Polydegmon?"

Persephone gave me one last smile, more breathtaking than the brilliant sun rising from behind the snow dappled hills of Olympus. She turned to leave, our gazes locked in one last, final embrace of passion.

"Don't burn the house down while I'm gone, okay?"

We had bid each other goodbye so many times, you'd think we'd be better at it by now.

And, heavens be praised - we were.

Because now, I did not see the love of my life walking out of my world forever. I saw her away, doing something that made her happy - and made me proud.

Because when she left, it was not the crushing misery of spending three months without her swimming in my head. It was the joy of the sweetest reunion I looked forward to - to have her soon for the nine months after.

Because we had both known love, and grief, and misery - had learnt that living a life with peaceful acceptance was better than a life lined in grief. We may not have each other for the whole year, but we had each other's love forever.

Because that would never change. The world might break apart and build itself up from the pieces, but she'd always tell me she loved me - and I'd always be waiting here for her at the end of the day.

"No promises," I said at last, giving her a silver grin more wicked than death.

FINIS.