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A Rose Among the Dark (Ravenofpoe X Strawberry Strip)

As they passed an alcove with a carved tree in the place of a statue. “Like the red of the pomegranate?” There was a red fruit hanging there. Deep red and full of life if it were real. “Lonely is an understatement. Nyx is lovely and the denizens that are not dead make it bearable. IT is a title and job that weighs. The crown is heavy on the brow at times.” He pictured her in a deep red dress. He wouldn’t lie to himself. She would look good anything, he was sure. “Hmm well perhaps you will find one in the city later? You know we have fantastic shops a few of the dress shops have memory cloth. Its like getting five or six dresses or outfits in one package.”

As they continued, he let her walk as close as she wished. It felt natural. It was odd and he liked her being next to him. “Your mother needs a good rubdown. If you allow that observation. She lets her past rule her and bind her to the fates.”
 
"I hope I find something that pleases you," she said softly. She meant it, she wanted to see him happy. Even if over something as small as a dress she picked out. She wanted to bring him joy with her garden. At his comment on her mother, she laughed. "Eros said pretty much the same thing, but not as gently. I'm not allowed to repeat what he said."

"Let me turn the tables on you, my lord. What is your favorite color?" She hoped to use it in her gardens.
 
“Personally, I like deep blues and reds. Blue over red. The color of the eternal universe is a blue.” His personal motif was a star theme little points light that sat in a see of black or blue. Though it may be because light was not natural down here. He moved them closer to the kitchen the palace was massive. It was a walk to get anywhere without using passages. “Oh, it is no secret what might have been said. Eros is given to passionate talk when he gets on the topic of lust and love.”

As they neared the kitchen, he pushed open the door and moved to a fridge to pull food out. “What are you in the mood for breakfast?” He cooked as a hobby at times it depends on mood mostly. With her he felt like showing off. “I can make most things with competence. Though I will never be a Ramsey though when he get here I look forward to adding him to my staff unless he wants to open a restaurant here.”
 
"I will enjoy anything you make. Just, please, no cereal. Mother is obsessed with the stuff." She smiled. "You mentioned bacon before. That would be heavenly."

While he cooked, she took out her phone to call her mother. Demeter answered on the first ring, and Persephone tried to keep the conversation quiet.

"Hello, Mother. Yes, I'm fine. I'm getting started on the garden after breakfast." A pause. "Well, actually, Hades and I are the only ones up right now." A pause. "Oh, it's going wonderfully, so far. I haven't started on the garden yet, but I have seen where I want to put it. Hades has a beautiful little yard with a tree and I want to plant around it. Hm? The tree? Oh, I think they said it was pomegranate." A longer pause. "No, mother, it's not in bloom. It looks quite dead. Well, yes, I would like to bring it to life." A pause and Demeter's voice, angry, can be heard slightly over the phone. "No, mother, it's fine. Okay, I won't eat from it. I promise. Really. Yes. I promise. Okay, yes. I'll be careful. I'm fine, Mother. Okay. Yes. Yes, I love you, too. I'll talk to you soon." She hung up and sighed.

"Hades? What is so dangerous about pomegranates?"
 
He began to cook mixing eggs and spices for omelets and heating his flat top up for the bacon. He listened and let the one-sided conversation echo off the kitchen walls. At the mention of the tree and what it was he heard Demeter voice. He was tempted to take the phone and hang up. HE would do and feed people what he wanted in his domain. At her question he smiled.

“Pomegranates are not of the upper world. They are food from here. There is a version that grows up there but the true pomegranate is an underworld food.” He poured the eggs out and let them cook. “A true pomegranate is the sweetest food that you can eat. It is an aphrodisiac here and if a vow is spoken over the seeds and then eaten you are bound to that vow. It was not hyperbole when Minth said you were to not eat food of my domain. As it is the only one in my domain you have no worries. Any vow has to be made willingly and without coercion. I can’t just trick you into my bed as it were.” Pulling plates, he began to serve breakfast. “AS much as I might want such. IT would not be proper to use trickery and bind a being to this place against their will.”
 
She grinned, blushing. "I don't think you'd need to trick me into your bed," she said softly. To cover up, she went on, "Have you had some? I mean, is it only dangerous if a vow is said over them? If I just eat a handful without making any promises, what would happen? And, you said it was an aphrodisiac. Maybe a handful would be dangerous, but not in the way Mother thinks. Or, maybe she does think." She shrugged. "Don't tell her, but I used to get into her books because, well, I was lonely and she kept me isolated. She has a big collection of Aphrodite's best novels, if you know what I mean." Persephone huffed. "She thinks I'm all sweet and innocent and virginal, but it's really stupid for a fertility goddess to be a virgin. I mean, I haven't done anything. I know the mechanics, but still. And she wants me to enter service with Artemis. She's nice, but I don't want to swear off men without ever being kissed. Would you?"

At that moment, the door opened and Minthe walked in, having been led to the kitchens by a shade. "Oh, my, there you are, Persephone. Your mother is worried sick about you. Call her and let her know you're okay?" Minthe wore a short and strappy sundress.

Persephone wrinkled her nose. "I did. We already talked. You're not gardening in that, are you?"

"Gardening? Oh, no. I'm going to supervise you. Someone needs to keep an eye on your power levels to make sure you're not being drained. The second your power starts to waver, I'm taking you back up. Granted, that means Demeter loses the bet, but she'd rather have you serve in Olympus for a year than have you return a husk." She paused. "Oh, breakfast smells so good. What's cooking?"
 
He was about to reply a blush on his own face when Minth walked in. To answer her question he said, “Omelet and bacon with juice.” He did not offer her any as he smiled to Persephone once again and said, “No I wouldn’t but then again….as for the seeds I’m not sure I haven’t done anything with them in some time.” He picked at the food and felt the air grow heavy. He knew it was the intruder that interrupted them. “Anyway, I will leave you I have a meeting this morning after my shower. He had eaten half of the omelet and dumped the rest into Cerberus bowl the hound appeared as if he knew to dispose of the food and ate it quickly. Hades left and showered.

While he let the hot water run across his back he thought on their conversation. She had said it was stupid for a fertility goddess to be a virgin. That was true and one as lovely as her would not be one long on Olympus. And if stories were true of Artemis she would not be one either. He felt the fire of arousal burn through him again and focused his thoughts elsewhere.

Changing into a suit he walked to the main throne room and sat on the chair and began to go through the daily paperwork and meetings that he had as king. Souls asking for pardons. Souls begging for reprieve. The occasional deity minor ones of course asking for a favor or a loan or something. His thoughts were constantly being pulled off work and back to Persephone.
 
"Exactly what were you two talking about," Minthe demanded after Hades left. "What seeds?"

"We were talking about the garden, that's all. I'm not the first attempt to make things grow here," said Persephone. She finished her breakfast and took Cerberus out to the little garden. She decided to try just a spot of flowers to start off with. While Minthe watched from afar, Persephone concentrated. She could feel her powers and the hum of the soil under her fingers. Everything felt magnified. It wasn't long before she started to glow, the light roping down her arms and into the earth. Little green sprouts appeared, pushing up from the ground, bathed in the same light.

This was easier than she had thought as she produced the first plants. For the rest of the morning, Persephone worked in small batches, creating beds of flowers. The flowers were not of the Aboveworld variety. They were darker in color and twisted around each other, but were healthy and could grow. Some were ones found in nature, like hyacinths and narcissus, and some were of her own creation. She made a whole bed of blue-leafed plants with Hades in mind.

By that afternoon, she had covered one-fourth of the garden.
 
AS the afternoon drug on he took a break as the last meeting ended. He walked to the garden and watched her work from the shadows. He felt Minths eyes on him as he watched Persephone. Turning his gaze to the flowers he smiled. The blues dancing together made him happy. He pictured an entire garden in the pattern. “Looks like you have made progress little flower. Why don’t you call it for the evening and pick it up tomorrow? Hades felt the glow on his skin as h knelt to cradle a flower. “These are pretty. What do you call them?”
 
Persephone blushed, realizing he was there. She had been so invested in her work, she hadn't heard him walk up to her. "I, uh, I don't have a name for them yet. Sometimes, I create things without knowing a lot about them. I...well, I thought of how you like blue when I made them. I guess, if you want, you can name them. I'm not good with that, anyway." She was rather proud of her work. It looked far better than what she had thought it would be. And, better still, she didn't feel like she was drained. She still felt energized.

"I think Nyx is taking us out later today," Persephone said. "I should take a shower before we leave."
 
He nodded and offered a hand to help her up. “Nonsense you made them you get the honor of naming them.” He walked with her back into the house and waited as everyone got ready. He wondered where the ladies were going but also it wasn’t a concern Nyx knew the underworld as well as him and would not let harm come to them.

~*~​

Deep in the bowls of the underworld where most feared to tread a hooded figure walked the dark path that led to an elevator. Taking it to the furthest point it would go there was rows of cells where the underworlds denizens most heinous lived in perpetual torment. IT was here the titans lived chained and bound to the will of the jailer. Hades kept meticulous records and in order to cause the chaos this plan required. A soul would need to be free. A few. Old punishments were good and well to the underworlds king. Though he downsized the punishments to be specific to each occupant. Pulling a key from his robes the figure opened a cell at the far end. A red glow fell out across the floor and the figure inside weakened but still full of rage sat carving. “I will let free Typhon on a condition you steal a prize for me.”

The figure did not look up. He just shrugged. “Tell me the goal and it will be yours. For my freedom I will strike down the very heavens.”

“The head of your jailer for starters and the goddess that is visiting is to be unharmed.”

“Hades will fall and then his brothers will bow.” Laughter filled the cells as a powerful magic bound the deal to them both. As two figures left the cell relocked and another began to carve on a fresh piece of wood.
 
Persephone gratefully took his hand. "I'm sorry if I'm a bit dirty right now." After that, it was quiet while the ladies went to change and freshen up. Minthe finally could not be quiet anymore and stormed into Persephone's room. The younger goddess looked up surprised as she was changing into a sundress.

"Just what the hell are you doing out there," Minthe demanded. "Throwing yourself at Hades! It's disgusting to watch."

Ordinarily, Persephone would shrink away and apologize. But, there was something about Hades, and she would fight back. "Are you sure you're not talking about yourself? You've been really obvious about wanting to be with Hades since we got here. I will not deny that I'm flirting with him, but I am not throwing myself at him." Somewhere, down inside her, she knew she didn't have to throw herself. Hades was such a gentleman.

From the dark look Minthe gave her, Persephone knew she had to step up her game. Even if Hades decided he didn't like her, she would not leave him to the clutches of Minthe. Persephone could not imagine her future without him in it in some aspect. If all they could be was friends, so be it. When she left her room after changing, she went up to Nyx. "Mind if I ask you a personal question about Lord Hades? What kind of woman does he like?"
 
Nyx stood in the foyer waiting dressed in a dress that seemed stitched of stars. “Ah little flower. Why do you ask?” She sat on one of the couches and patted the seat next to her. “To start Hades is not Zeus or Poseidon. He doesn’t chase and if rebuffed he will stop. You don’t have to worry of him changing into a form and taking a woman.”

With a shrug she pulled out a small drawing book and began to sketch the young goddess. “He wants a queen. Someone that …how to put it.” She tapped her pencil against the page the led changing to a red. “He wants someone that if he gets a tiny gift the reaction is the same as a big gift. A flower elicits the same as a ring. He doesn’t want a concubine but a queen his equal in the darkness. The fates have said he would have a queen but…so far it eludes him.”
 
Persephone felt her heart drop. The fates said he'd have a queen. That meant there was already someone perfect for him. But, she also knew that she could be what he looked for. Already, she was falling in love with the Underworld. After this week, she figured she'd come back here if Hades allowed it and play with Cerberus. The garden was already coming along nicely and she was sure she could finish it by the end of the week.

Persephone was the kind of person Nyx described, though she was too humble to assume she could be queen. She forgot, in her crush, that any woman who ends up Hades would be a queen. To keep her mind off that, she said, "Is there a special dress code for tonight? Something I should look for when we are shopping?"
 
“Not really but I will let you in on a secret.” She smiled conspiratorially and whispered. “I have the company credit card with no limit.” Standing the goddess of night incarnate looked at her watch. “I think we will borrow Lord Hades Mustang tonight. He has to catch up on work and won’t need it. While on the subject. I think we will try to lose your chaperone. Shopping may perk her up but she grates on my nerves as well as others in the house of Hades.”

Nyx smiled to herself she was pleased her daughters the fates were right. Something about this goddess was different. She felt the power the underworld had on her. The house was even warmer with her in it and Hades was less bitter. He had a lost look in his eyes if she was mentioned. “Tell me little flower what are you wanting to wear. She took her arm. You are trying to woo the lord or just look pretty for him?”
 
Persephone followed her. She had to think it over. She was hopelessly falling for Hades, so she wanted both. She wanted to woo him and look pretty. "I suppose both," she said. "I want him to notice me. I mean, I know he notices me, but I want it to be special." She thought of how he said he liked the color blue. Maybe she'd find a dress in blue. Or, well, she did like the deep red of that pomegranate he showed her.

Glancing at the door, she said, "Did you want to ditch her here or at the stores?" Minthe was exiting the mansion, wearing a short dress and stupidly high heels. She looked around, obviously looking for Hades.

"It's just us girls," said Persephone.

"Well, that's fine. I'll find something special for him," Minthe said, flipping her hair back.
 
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