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“My Lord Hades, there has been a breach.”
Jimin looks up to find Charon standing before his desk. His hood is pulled over his face, but Jimin can still see the mole under his mouth very clearly.
“Who is it?”
As King of the Underworld, Jimin was surprised to find that many people wanted to break through his defenses and sneak into the Underworld before it was their time. Jimin was certain that when he had divided up the areas of power with his brothers, he had gotten the short end of the stick, but the intruders made him feel otherwise.
There are tales known far and wide about his coldness, about his blank calm that startles all, about the familiarity he has always felt with the dead. When he came into his power, he never understood half of the things he could do, but there was the dead to wrangle under control and even in Death order is needed. Jimin’s work is never done.
He may not have been prepared for intruders before, but now he knows what to do and how to handle these kinds of events.
“A man who appears to look like a woman at first glance, my Lord.” Charon hesitates then, his bottom lip caught between his large, jutting teeth. “He fell right onto the river’s banks, my Lord.”
Jimin’s eyes narrow. “Which one?”
Charon bows his head as he murmurs, “The Styx, my Lord Hades.”
Jimin sighs and stands, pushing piles of paperwork off to the side as he fixes his own black robe around him and holds a hand out for Charon to lead the way. “Take me to him, Jeongguk.”
Charon flinches at the sound of his True Name but takes Jimin’s hand and pulls him along steadily. They walk down the grand and dark hallways of Jimin’s palace in the center of the Underworld and pause on the steps once they have made it past the grand doors. Charon presses his other hand to Jimin’s forearm and twists them roughly in a circle, shadow traveling them away to Charon’s usual post by the edge of the River Styx.
The boat is still there, tied to the docks that stand just a few millimeters away from the water’s edge and Charon immediately flocks to it, taking the drachmas that a new Soul offers him as he approaches. Jimin waits until Charon has set off across the water before he exhales slowly and raises his arms up at his sides. There is a tugging sensation coming from his right and he follows after it, exhaling deeply again when he happens upon the intruder that Charon summoned him for.
He looks like a woman — he looks like a girl, really — but Jimin can see his Soul and it is that of a man’s. He is asleep, head cushioned by a row of flowers that Jimin has never seen before in his life and at that moment he knows exactly who this intruder is.
This is the one the Fates told him about when he crafted their chambers here in the Underworld. The one who he would wed, the one who would bring him the most happiness and the most pain.
This is Hades’ husband.
❧
They used to call her Kore, back when she still amused the dresses and skirts her mother would dress her in during the spring.
A daughter of Zeus, they called her. He has many of those and she can name them all.
Back when she was Kore, she fell onto the land with grace and a strength that surprised even her. Flowers bloomed for her as she walked past and all the different creatures of nature came to her when she was near. She kept to the forests and the rivers, making friends with all the nymphs and naiads she could before her mother allowed her to walk upon the eternal springtime fields.
It felt special to them both that day, but when she realized what her name meant, she went back to the forests and the rivers and her nature friends.
She wasn’t “The Girl” and could not bear to be called Kore any longer.
Soon she suspected she wasn’t much of a girl at all.
❧
Demeter wanted her to wed, wanted her to be a good wife to whoever she chose to be her husband. She played along with it, only so that she could prolong the inevitable faster.
Hermes and Apollo came to court her, but Apollo was insincere and she wanted nothing that the bright god was willing to offer her. Hermes was better, he was honest — or as honest as the god of tricksters could be — but she did not want to wed him either.
If she was going to be honest, then she would have to say that she did not want to be anyone’s wife, let alone a trophy.
But she also knew that her mother could tell she did not want a marriage. Demeter stopped insisting her to choose a husband and left her to her own devices soon afterward. She took to the forests again while her mother brought the harvest in and familiarized herself once more with the nature surrounding her.
She stopped entertaining the two gods seeking her hand after that.
❧
The flower is unlike any she has ever seen before.
She knows that it is new, she knows who it used to be, but at that moment, she doesn’t care much about its origins.
All she knows is that it is beautiful and when she leans on the ground to try and catch a whiff of the flower’s scent, the earth opens up beneath her and swallows her up.
She screams as she falls, but when her voice is rung raw and she is still falling, she decides to sleep and welcome Death with open arms.
At least she won’t have to wed anybody in death.
She closes her eyes and falls, arms spread wide to greet the darkness surrounding her.
Then light flickers across the back of her eyelids and she opens them to see the Underworld spreading out beneath her. The ground is coming up fast and she isn’t sure if she has any power here to help slow her descent, but she already made her choice and as she strikes the ground with a sound like thunder, everything goes blissfully back to black once more.
❧
When she wakes, there is a man at her bedside, a man she recognizes instantly. The Lost Souls around him would be hard to misplace after all.
“Lord Hades,” she croaks out.
“How are you feeling?” Hades asks her with the barest hint of concern in his voice.
It is enough to take her by surprise until she remembers that no one tells tales of Hades’ cruelty. “I’m not sure. I can’t move my limbs, my Lord.”
Hades a waves a hand at her in a nervous manner before saying, “Just Hades is fine. What should I call you?”
She is surprised once more, but there is already a name on the tip of her tongue that she almost mumbles out until she realizes that it is not a name the God of the Underworld should have. So she tries to twist her fingers and sighs under her breath when that wields no results.
“They called me Kore,” she says then, biting her lip before she presses on. “But you may call me Persephone.”
“Persephone,” he says, but there is a glint in his eyes that tells her he’s merely amusing her. As if he somehow knows that wasn’t what she meant to say. “The fall you took depleted you of your power. If you were mortal, you would already be in line for Judgment, but luckily you are not and so we must wait until your power returns to you. You will have to remain here until you are healed and then we can discuss the matter of getting you back home.”
Persephone only nods, not knowing what else to say. Hades brushes his knuckles down her cheek and nods in return before he stands, his black robes billowing out around him as he turns. He has made it to the door already, hand on the wood to step out when she raises her head and stares at his neck, willing herself to speak one last time before he leaves.
“Thank you, Hades.”
She lays back on the bed and closes her eyes, missing the way Hades’ neck flushes as he steps out without another backward glance.
❧
Persephone is a strange name for a man, but Jimin calls him by it anyway. If it is his wish, then so be it. Jimin is not one to tell others how to figure things out for themselves anyway. He merely rules over the dead and tries to keep the order intact.
He heals slowly, so slowly that Jimin worries Persephone might be slowly dying after all. He almost caves and calls Hermes to their aid, but on the third day, Persephone is able to wiggle his toes and move his wrists. That is enough to placate Jimin at the moment.
Jimin works about as often as he usually does and sends many of his servants to wait on Persephone hand and foot while he recovers. Charon visits only when there are no New Souls to ferry across the Styx and takes half of the paperwork from him.
Charon has another name. The mortals have taken to calling him Thanatos and Jimin does not understand why exactly because the actual Thanatos is lazy and never helps Jimin, but if someone else is going to be the stand-in for the god of Death, all that really means is that Jimin doesn’t have to be instead. Being god of the Underworld is tiring enough as is.
Jimin knows Charon’s True Name, of course, but that is more because he is in Jimin’s debt and Jimin knowing his True Name helped to balance it out. True Names are not meant to be given freely. Names have power and that power is almost always used against you if you happen to give your True Name away.
Persephone is a quiet guest and Jimin knows that he is the daughter Demeter is looking all over for, but he also knows that Persephone is no one’s daughter because he is Demeter’s son and Demeter does not get to have him back until they both realize this.
Jimin isn’t going to keep him prisoner here either though. If Persephone wishes to go as soon as he has healed, then so be it. He may be Jimin’s future husband like the three Fates told him so, but he will not create an abusive kind of marriage with him either. They are Fated to be and one way or the other, they will be happy in the end.
It is what he tells himself later that night when he worries that Persephone will be disgusted by him no matter what he does. That is what always happens to Jimin.
❧
The feeling in her limbs returns to her slowly.
On the second day she spends in the Underworld, she panics when she still can’t move her fingers or toes. This is how I go, she thinks, This is how it ends for me. Hades visits her when the flames have gone down low in her room and she is afraid for one paralyzing moment because her hand in marriage was sought out after two Olympians since she is virgin, but Hades only sits at her bedside again and wipes her face clean with a wet rag. He pushes her hair out of her face and tells her about his day after asking how she feels. She listens to him speak, enjoying the way his voice drops in pitch with each passing moment and soon enough she is asleep.
She wakes up to an empty room and tries to move her hands and feet again, crying out in joy when her toes wiggle and her whole hand twitches. Hades visits her during the day with the barest hint of a smile on his face when she tells him of her progress. He wipes her face clean again and lets his knuckles brush across her cheek as he did on the first day, a tiny smile now threatening to spill over his face when she thanks him and leans willingly into his touch. He leaves soon after that and a servant enters the room next, keeping her company as she tests out the rest of her body.
The next day she can move her feet and can bend her elbows, but she feels cold now, shivering non-stop. Hades frowns at her when he visits her again that night and brings her an extra blanket and another lantern, making sure that the flames burn bright the entire night. She feels warm now with him here and follows his movements with her eyes, a feeling she can’t describe settling into her gut.
It becomes routine over the next couple days for her to find another part of her body mobile and the cold bite to Hades’ aura dimming with each visit that he pays her. She greets him with a smile and leans into the hand he presses to her face now.
By the ninth day, she can move enough to sit up in bed and tries to stand, regretting it instantly. Hades catches her as she falls and presses her back into the bed, wrapping the sheets around her to keep her warm.
She thanks him and smiles, not missing the way he looks at her lips after returning a hesitant smile of his own.
On the tenth day, Hades brings word from Hermes about her mother and the unbearable grief she has been enduring ever since her disappearance. But she is still too weak to leave and Hades is kind to her. More than she probably deserves when she feels like she wants to crawl right out of her skin with each passing day. He only keeps giving her those tentative grins and her heart warms at the way his eyes start to curve to smile along with him.
There is a reason no one tells tales of Hades’ cruelty.
❧
Jimin can understand the way Demeter feels, but her accusation of him purposely kidnapping Persephone is a step too far.
Persephone fell into his domain and he is nursing him back to health, all so that Persephone can return home. Jimin did nothing to bring the poor boy into the Underworld.
He asks Persephone how he fell when he takes his first steps again. Jimin does not know what any of it means, but he asks Persephone to describe the flower, pausing again when he explains that the flower was new. The flower used to be a man called Narcissus who fell in love with himself and died because he would not stop staring at his reflection. Jimin winces then, knowing full well who did this.
He and his little brother will be having words… After he handles Demeter.
Jimin leaves Charon and Styx in charge while he visits the upper world and finds Demeter. She attacks first, but he is prepared for this and rolls away from her attacks, dodging all of them. Demeter does not believe a word he says, but she believes him about Zeus. No one would put anything past him.
He wears out soon though, not used to combat or being away from his home for so long. The dead need to be attended to, he does not have any time to waste. So he conjures a few skeletons and lets them restrain Demeter before he kneels in front of her and bows his head.
“I had nothing to do with this, but do not doubt that I will take care of your son until he is strong enough to come home to you,” Jimin says as she quiets.
Demeter’s eyes are glowing a faint brown and he finds that he cannot look away no matter how disturbing the sight of her eyes is. Her brow crumples into a frown, tears in her eyes as the glow slowly recedes.
“M-My son?” She stutters out, sobs wracking her chest.
Jimin nods, knowing full well that Demeter did not know about her daughter not being a daughter at all and being her son instead. “I don’t think he realizes it either yet, but he is a man, Demeter. There is no doubt about that.”
Demeter continues to cry, sagging into the skeletons as they hold her up. “I should have known. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to wed. He just did not want to be anybody’s wife. And — And I told him to be a good wife! To be a good girl and do as he was told! I am a horrible mother!”
“He doesn’t even know yet. Maybe he will realize it himself soon, but you should treat him like a girl until he asks you not to. Otherwise, he will recede back into the timid girl he pretended to be and neither of us wants that,” Jimin says calmly, dismissing the skeletons with a wave of his hand and catching Demeter in his arms when she falls.
She clings to him, sobbing enough to create a spring if she were so inclined, but Jimin holds her anyway. “When he is healthy, I will bring him back to you. I promise.”
Demeter shakes her head, taking deep breaths before she speaks lowly. “No. I want him to be happy with who he is the next time I see him, Hades. I want him to be happy. Can you make sure of that?”
“I can certainly try,” Jimin responds, smiling one of those tiny grins he usually reserves for Persephone when Demeter looks up to meet his gaze again.
“Then all will be well,” Demeter says, rubbing at her eyes as she pulls away and stands up to her full height, fury settling into her features. “I’m going to make Zeus pay.”
Jimin laughs, the sound tinkling in the air around them and Demeter joins soon after.
❧
On the fourteenth day of her stay, she can walk to the gardens and back to her room without aid. Hades watches her from the corner of his eye every time they cross paths and she smiles at him, wishing she had enough of her powers back to make flowers bloom and cause Hades to smile even more.
He still visits her as usual and now cups her face in both his hands as he smiles down at her, a soft gleam in his eyes that cements something into her.
On the twentieth day, Hades presents her with trousers, a tunic, and a burgundy set of robes that look a lot like his. She puts them on and studies herself in the polished silver Hades set against one of the walls of her bedroom so she can look at herself.
If she cut her hair short, she would look like a man — a very handsome man, mind you — and suddenly she’s sobbing into a pillow, not understanding how her gangly limbs and oval face look right on her now that she isn’t in skirts and dresses. A servant comes in and wipes her face clean when she is done crying, helping her to her feet as they walk to the gardens. She passes Hades on her way and cannot help the way her fingertips tingle with power when Hades pauses mid-stride to stare at her.
She smiles to herself and continues to walk, exhaling heavily when they step out into the garden and she is surrounded by bioluminescent stones and gems and artificial flowers. She thinks she could make real flowers bloom here if she had even a fraction of her original powers back.
But on the thirty-fifth day when she has not felt even a tingling of her usual power return to her, she turns to Hades for help again. He frowns and suggests taking a dip in the Styx to be reborn into something more, but refers to it as their last possible solution because not even gods can swim in the Styx without there being dire consequences. They take to the books and Charon joins them soon after, his hood off to reveal a young man with front teeth that jut out past his lips and a hooked nose that complements his wide eyes well.
She ogles him for a few minutes before Hades clears his throat and she flushes, chagrined for being caught staring. She smiles at Hades beside her and goes back to reading, sighing in relief when Hades presses a hand to the middle of her back as he continues to read as well.
By the fiftieth day, they are no closer to a solution than they were before. Hermes visits on the sixty-fourth day and pours over their scrolls and tomes before sighing and announcing a dip in the Styx will be the only way to fix things. Hades growls at him until he leaves, attacking the research with vigor while she and Charon quietly take over his duties as God of the Underworld. Hades does not seem to notice he is shirking his responsibilities until the seventy-seventh day has passed and he collapses in her lap, pressing his face into her throat and falls asleep.
Charon laughs at him and returns to the river to ferry all the New Souls that have just arrived and she is left alone with a sleeping god in her arms.
Hades has always been beautiful, with his curved eyes and thick black hair. His thick lips pop obscenely over the most innocent of words and she does not understand how it came to happen, but she loves him.
Persephone loves Hades.
❧
When they have passed the nineties and are close to the hundreds, Jimin gives in and takes Persephone with him to the River Styx.
Persephone holds his hand as they walk down the riverbank, finding the place Persephone had first landed and then turn towards the water and watch the flow. Persephone is nervous and Jimin is just as nervous for him because it was only the night before when he had decided that the Styx was their best option and Persephone had cupped his face and kissed him.
He had kissed Persephone back and they had lain in Jimin’s bed that night facing one another as they held hands and slept just like that.
Now they are here and Jimin feels like it is time Persephone had something of himself with him wherever he may go in case this all ends badly. So Jimin grips his hand tighter and leans up until his lips can reach Persephone’s ear.
“My name is Jimin.”
Persephone goes still, turning his head to blink back at Jimin. “Why does that sound like a goodbye?”
Jimin only smiles and shrugs. “I’m saying goodbye to this version of yourself. When you rise from the water, you’ll be different. But still you… if Persephone and Kore were ever really you, to begin with, I mean.”
Persephone smiles, kissing Jimin chastely. “They are me, but only parts. When I rise again, it will be a new me, but the same. Promise to pull me out when it feels like I am taking too long?”
“Of course,” Jimin says because Styx blessed him a long time ago and the river’s waters could never hurt him.
Jimin kisses Persephone again then lets go of his hand and watches as the god takes one step into the river and crumbles almost immediately, falling face first into the water. He disappears beneath the inky surface and Jimin waits.
He will wait as long as it takes.
❧
The water burns.
Even as a god, it tears away skin, at memories and Namjoon watches them fly by, only reduced down to who he really is now that he is beneath the river’s surface.
He needs to find an anchor, needs to find himself so that he can be reborn. So he watches his memories and bites back screams as more of his physical body disappears and reforms only to disappear once more.
His childhood passes by in a blur but he can see the unhappiness on his face, the curling in his stomach every time he wore dresses or skirts. When he grew into his body and the growth spurt really hit, he looked too awkward and was all limbs.
But then the memory of him in the trousers and tunic, the burgundy robes that made Jimin stop in his tracks to stare at him. He looked right for once in his life. He looked like who he was always meant to be, what he always felt like deep down even when he was the child who hated their body and wanted to remake everything.
He takes the memory and holds it to his chest with his desecrated arms and throws it to the surface, surprised when he too breaks the surface right after.
Jimin is there and he takes him into his arms, holding Namjoon’s tender and sore body. His hand brushes against the riverbank and flowers bloom, signaling the return of Namjoon’s power.
He aches all over and he knows that he will be on bedrest for the next five days or so, but he has his power and he can heal.
He does not know what his body looks like now, but when he reaches for his chest, he finds it only a tad flatter than usual and gropes between his legs, relaxing when it feels the same as always.
He may be a god, but there are certain things even gods cannot change.
Jimin kisses his face all over, whispering something over and over again that Namjoon can’t catch and kisses Jimin full on the mouth when he gets close enough. Their breaths intermingle in the air between them as their mouths mold together, insistent in a way they never dared to be before. Namjoon doesn’t care anymore because he loves Jimin and Jimin loves him too.
When they break apart, Namjoon smiles up at Jimin and says, “My name is Namjoon.”
Jimin grins and kisses him again.
❧
On the one hundred and thirty-third day, Demeter visits the Underworld in secret to watch her son wed Hades.
Her son holds a single pomegranate seed to his mouth after the vows have been said and eats it, smiling when Hades rushes to kiss his cheeks, his forehead, and nose. Then finally, his mouth and the ceremony is complete.
Demeter watches them dance all night and when she steps into the garden, she knows enough of Kore’s work to recognize the new work her son has created now that he is happy and married.
She leaves before either god can become aware of her presence and cries when her son agrees to come back to her for a fraction of the year. The other parts will be spent with his husband and as a mother, who is she to say no to these terms?
❧
Tales will be told of Hades’ wife Persephone centuries from when the “kidnapping” took place, but neither god has ever put much stock into them. There will be tales of Hades’ cruelty and Namjoon will laugh at each and every one of them.
The legends will become twisted and people will eventually believe that Hades’ wife was taken by force, but they do not know about Namjoon.
They will never know that Hades’ husband loved him with as much love as he could and will continue to love him until they both no longer exist in the upper or Underworld.
And what the mortals don’t know won’t kill them.