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For a stranger, the girl is all alone, talking to herself as she rests under the comfortable half shadow of a tree. No friends to bother, no mother yelling her name, but she's not alone and she's not a little girl anymore, despite of what some may believe.
"You're cheating" she whispers softly. "Mother won't be pleased."
Persephone smiles, as she feels the shadow caress her skin. He became a protection from the sunlight, a very welcomed one. She is always bit tired of the spring, her life was an endless one before he came. Now she wishes for the end of summer and the growing desire of diving into earth.
"Mother won't be pleased" she repeated for herself. She wants to hear his reply, but she can't. Demeter does a good job blinding her from everything that is dark and cruel. He is both. Little her mother knows that she is becoming both too and so much more.
Persephone can be everything she wants to now, but she will never be fully pleased, not until she is able to hear and see her husband even during these long spring days. Hades alone holds this power, to watch her from a far distance, but he is her husband and shall share his secrets, eventually.
It's never easy with Hades, the first months were mainly filled with silence, that only increased her despair. Of course he took it the wrong way. She wondered what was the point in stealing her if he didn't want to talk to her... That's what she first assumed, that he wanted a friend. She was too young and did not understand the desires of men, he soon understood that. So Hades watched as she walked through his kingdom.
One day, she found a funny looking fruit. She had a hunger she could not fully understand, maybe that fruit from such a strange land could satisfy her.
"You are doing it wrong" those were his first kind words to her. He seemed amused by her curiosity. Hades sat down next to Persephone, reaching for her hands. The gesture wasn't so kind, maybe he wasn't so used to it. "You've got to crack it open. See how much easier it gets?" Hades stared at her as she swallowed the seeds, she stared him back. Those cold grey eyes were almost warm. For a moment she wanted to touch him the same way his fingers slightly touched hers. She didn't though. They settled for the near touch instead. Exactly how they had to right now.
Hades was there in that meadow with her at the same time he wasn't. Persephone hoped the nymphs and mortals could keep her mother busy just a little bit longer. She lied down, pretending the grass was her bed in the Underworld. Maybe if she closed her eyes she would be able to see him, she could nearly feel his hands upon her neck.
She remembered the first time they lied together in that bed. She thought nothing would happen, since the kidnapping he avoided touching her. Probably to avoid the anger that surprised him so much. She was surprised when he kissed her lips, it was quick and he waited for her reaction afterwards. "Do you always watch me like this?" she asked, he didn't answer. She got closer and he pulled her in his arms. He was so strong, this time she wasn't scared. Persephone kissed Hades lips, neck, shoulders...
The mortals like to think the pomegranate is what supposedly imprisoned Persephone, that's what her mother spread through the wind. Nobody knows that as Demeter called Hades a rapist, Persephone confronted her mother for the first time. Nobody knows Persephone took his side and held his hand as he held her shoulders with one arm. Zeus made the final decision, he did not ask her what she wanted, but what he decided seemed fair enough. Demeter still can't believe it, Persephone must remain a little girl, even if she's not. "Little she knows you're a Queen" Hades whispered later that night, or was it day? Never seemed to matter. Time doesn't matter in the Underworld.
"I miss you." Persephone says "We are life and death. We belong together."
"I miss you too" Hades says from his throne, staring at the empty one next to him. "Only four more months..." but she cannot hear him.