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Persephone looked up at the big blue idiot she was currently laying on. My big blue idiot . She thought with a smile. He had fallen asleep, sometime in the middle of the second episode of “The Great Olympian Bake-Off” she had put on. She remembered that he said he didn’t sleep much, but right now, he looked serene. Like he could sleep through the night and probably the next morning too. Still, she didn’t want to disturb what sleep he was able to get. She draped a blanket from a nearby chair across his lap, scribbled out a quick note so he didn’t worry that she had left, and made her way to the guest room she had stayed in the first night she was here.
“All I want is to fall asleep,” Kore thought to herself as she closed her eyes, hoping to drift off softly and quickly.
Instead, she saw golden eyes, and the smell of poppies and lillies filled her senses. “Death,” she thought. “Something is going to die,”
She’d been here before. She knew this was a dream, but she couldn’t come out of it. “You won’t feel a thing,” he said to her. “I know I won’t. I’ll leave, and neither of us will feel anyway about this,”
Persephone felt herself shaking. Nothing could wake her now, bring her out of this nightmare. She would have to live this over and over again, just as she did every night. Her dreams used to be of flower nymphs and baklava, sugary dreams that left her bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning.
But now they’re not.
Her mother was right. She was naive. Men are kind, until they aren’t.
And this man, he was not.
The flowers that had filled her room, the ones she had unknowingly made that had caused the smell, all began to wilt and rot. Persephone opened her mouth to say no, stop, leave, anything to make this end. But no sound came out.
She waited for the pain, but suddenly something felt different. There was no snap, no pain. It was like someone had hit pause.
She smelled pomelia, like the field she grew up in, and something spicy, familiar yet out of place in her bedroom. And there was… warmth, like sunshine, and something gentle across her forehead.
“It’s only a dream,” a gentle voice told her. She was comforted by that voice, like she knew it wouldn’t hurt her. It was far away thought. “Sweetness… you’re safe,”
And then he moved again, pressing into her shoulder -
Persephone woke with a start, suddenly aware of so many things all at once. Her hair was heavy around her, and the room was filled with the stench of rotting flowers. But closer, there was something comforting. That smell from my dream. She looked next to her, seeing Hades. She let out a sigh of relief. It was him.
“Take a deep breath Kore, you’re all right. It’s over,” he said, patting her shoulder. She tried not flinch when he touched her, but she wasn’t totally successful. She hoped he hadn’t noticed.
“I’m sorry,” she said, trying to keep from crying. “Did I wake you?”
“Not at all, I was finally on my way up to bed when I thought you heard you crying. I take it you had a nightmare?” she nodded. “I’m sorry. I know how real they can feel.Would you like to talk about it?”
“Eventually, yes,”
“And right now?”
“I just don’t want to be alone,” she looked down, a bit embarrassed.
When he offered to let her sleep in his room, she almost lost her composure. She did not deserve, or expect, so much kindness from him. He does love you Kore. And he always promised to help you. Why would that change now? The little voice in her head was always more logical than her instincts. Sometimes she just needed a minute to think things through.
With tears of gratitude threatening to spill over her cheeks, Persephone threw herself into Hades arms, promising to herself that she would always take care of him as well as he takes care of her.