Little Miss Flames and Flowers (sequel to TRCC!!)

[Warren Peace]

*is currently laughing mah guts out*

MY FAVORITE LINE!!!! YAY!!!!

[Hades]

And now you shall all have to wait for the next chapter like everyone else. Mwahahaha.

Chapter VII-- Hades Gets an Idea from an Unlikely Source and An Unfortunate Obsession is Started...

The inhabitants of the Underworld weren’t thrilled about their new task.

Hades was right. This was the most difficult task they had ever been faced with. The Underworld was created with the intention of it being basically a giant death-trap. It was not meant for a baby, unless, of course, that baby was dead.

Hades had pointed out that since their child would be immortal, injuries wouldn’t really be that bad, if they occurred, still, it would be better to avoid them altogether. Get rid of all the hazards. But there was just too much to fix.

Hades, however, was insistent on the completion of this task and they all grudgingly obeyed him. What choice did they have anyway?

Ever river was fenced off, ditto every bottomless pit and cliff. The cages hanging over the Phlegethon—one of which Persephone had gotten trapped in long ago (although that particular cage was in melted pieces at the bottom of the river)—were taken down so the baby couldn’t get itself accidentally stuck.

The torture instruments in Tartarus were sealed away, much to the relief of the prisoners stored there.

The Furies (Tisiphone, Megaera, and Alecto) teamed up with Poena (the goddess of punishment), and the Curses (practically indistinguishable from the Furies and unnamed) and set about filing down all the sharp edges scattered around the Underworld. Hades had informed them that he didn’t want his kid “getting impaled by some corner sticking off of some rock” and so they had taken it upon themselves to fix this problem.

The more dangerous creatures—the Keres, the Harpies, et cetera—were locked away behind bars for the time being. Each group—because the monsters all came in groups—were warned that there would be severe punishments to deal with if any of them touched Hades’ son or daughter, and they all but rolled their eyes at the warning. So they were locked up.

Hades supervised. He gave out instructions and orders, made sure that everything dangerous was totally sealed off, et cetera, et cetera.

See, I can be a good dad, he thought with an indifferent shrug as he watched a group of Cyclopes destroy a pair of precariously perched rocks, Better then mine, at least…he probably never took the liberty of baby-proofing Olympus for us six…

Granted, Olympus was made of cloud.

‘Sides, I have no plans to eat my child.

The thought made him pause in his musings, and he blinked, ignoring the barked command of one Cyclopes to the other (they all had names but he didn’t care enough to learn and remember them). Hades suddenly disappeared. He left behind only a cloud of smoke that quickly faded away.


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He reappeared in Tartarus.

It was only for precautionary reasons. Hades wouldn’t have set foot in this particular area of Tartarus otherwise.

But he had to make sure his imbecilic employees had remembered to lock up the biggest threat in the Underworld.

Hades peered over the gaping edge of the pit in an absentminded sort of way. There was fire in the seemingly bottomless cavern, lots of it, and the pit looked hot and painful. One couldn’t even imagine what it was like being in the pit. And (Figures, Hades thought with a mental eyeroll) it looked like no-one had even bothered to set foot near the pit, let alone block it off for the oncoming Prince or Princess of the Underworld.

Something roared in the pit, and Hades stepped back automatically and winced.

Oh, yes, he’d just holler for Pain and Panic, and they’d come over here and fence this entire area off and lock it with a big iron lock and he’d casually and discreetly run like hell away from here and go hide in his bedroom for the rest of the day. Sounded like a good plan.

The something in the pit roared again, and Hades could pick out a few curses from his otherwise incoherent sounds.

“Honestly,” Hades worked up the courage to come up with a sarcastically annoyed response, “You crashed n’ burned years ago. No-one cares what you have to say anymore.” He corrected himself. “'Or scream. No-one cares what you have to scream anymore.”

He daringly risked a smirk into the pit, remembering only after he drew back that the Titan was trapped in his eternal fiery pit of a prison and that there was no way he could reach out and drag Hades inside (and eat him).

Hades glowered down at Cronus.

He couldn’t see him, but he was pretty sure his father was glowering right back at him. In between the searing pain, of course.

“Pain! Panic!” Hades hollered suddenly, backing up as Cronus roared something that started with an F and ended with you. The two imps appeared in twin puffs of sparks.

“Pain!” Pain saluted.

“And Panic!” chirped Panic, bowing, and then the two chorused, “Reporting for duty, boss, sir!” Only then did they bother to look around and observe their surroundings. Panic shrieked and jumped into Pain’s arms.

“Save the dramatics,” said Hades with a roll of his yellow eyes, “Look, did I not tell everyone in the Underworld to make sure everything that was extremely dangerous was, ya know, roped off, blocked off, fenced off, off’d and out of reach?!”

They nodded rapidly.

Hades gestured towards Cronus’ prison. “So, explain to me why my dear old daddy—” Cronus screamed something in the pit “—is not blocked off?”

He didn’t get an answer straightaway. Flaring up, Hades hissed, “Do you not agree with me when I say that this sick n’ sadistic Titan is the biggest threat to my unborn kid?!”

They nodded again.

“So…?!” Hades fumed, hands on his hips.

“We didn’t wanna come near him,” gasped Pain in a rather smallish voice, “He….we didn’t want to g-get eaten.”

Hades could understand their fear, but he didn’t bother to show any sort of empathy. “Well,” he spat, “I’d kinda prefer it if my kid didn’t have to spend 16-freaking-years in Cronus’ stomach like I had to.”

Oh, gods, that had been such hell. Contrary to popular belief, Cronus hadn’t swallowed each when they had been born. In fact, none of them had been babies at the time that Cronus had gone insane—Hades had been the youngest at 3, and then Zeus the oldest at 8. Thanks to Rhea, Zeus had (narrowly) escaped the gaping jaws of Cronus and had grown into a “strapping young lad” (to quote Demeter) that had devised a plan to free the siblings from his stomach….

Unfortunately, it had taken him 16 years to devise this plan. By the time they had all been puked up, Hades was ready to never see any of his siblings again.

He supposed he should have been grateful to Zeus for springing him free. But Zeus didn’t really care about his sibling’s well-being, and had just needed allies for the war between the Olympians and the Titans…Hades was only 19 and knew nothing about fighting or battling or whatever. Zeus had given him a Helmet of Invisibility (courtesy of one of the Cyclopes) and had freaking used him as a distraction. Yeah, he had been invisible, but did that stop Cronus and his insane Titan posse from slashing at him with swords and claws?

No, it did not. Hades still had scars.

Understandably, he was still somewhat frightened of his father—all of the siblings excluding Zeus were—and had been less then thrilled when Cronus had been plunked in Tartarus, in his realm. That just showed how much his brothers and sisters cared ‘bout him.

But just because Hades’ childhood and teen years—or lack thereof—had been hell-ish, it didn’t mean that his son or daughter was going to have the same fate. Nuh-uh. No way.

“Just seal ‘im up,” snapped Hades, and he turned to leave, aware that Cronus had stopped roaring and screaming, a rarity, and instead was breathing heavily in a raspy way. His breathing filled the room, creating an eerie effect.

“Yes, boss,” whimpered Pain and Panic, and they set to work, boards and hammers and nails appearing on the ground next to the pit.

Hades sneered, “Thank you, numbskulls,” and continued to glide to the exit.

“Are you leaving so soon?”

Hades sucked in a breath and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull. Pain and Panic gasped and darted as far away from the edge of the pit as possible.

Hades became aware that he was shaking. Cronus didn’t talk. He hadn’t talked in years. He just roared. And screamed. And cursed. But he didn’t…he didn’t just…start talking, he didn’t have conversations. He hadn’t spoken since he had been imprisoned, and that had been thousands of years ago.

An’ I thought it was scary being around here, now he’s talking to me, Hades’ thoughts gasped in his head, because his mouth and every other muscle in his body was incapable of moving.

Cronus’ voice was deep and raspy, and it kept cracking, like it hadn’t been used in centuries, which it hadn’t. He continued to speak, painfully slow. “Please…Hades…we haven’t sat down and….chatted….in a long time…”

“That’s because,” Hades forced—forced, yes, it was painful to speak—himself to make words, “you’re not one for conversation, and I’m not one for conversing with cannibals.”

“Touchè,” Cronus chuckled, a hissing sort of laugh like nails on a chalkboard.

“I’ll just be going now,” said Hades quickly, shuddering, and he continued towards the exit.

“Stop that,” Cronus ordered, his breaths heaving after every word, “I want to talk, Hades…is that so bad?”

“Uh, yeah,” said Hades, turning back to the pit and putting his hands on his hips, “Yeah, actually, it is so bad. Go back to…burning, and I’ll just be on my way.” He bowed in a mocking way.

“A word of advice,” Cronus rasped.

Hades stopped.

“If your child,” he hissed, “is a son…you’re in danger of being overthrown.”

“Pfft,” said Hades flatly.

“I would…recommend not swallowing it,”said Cronus, “The consequences of…that aren’t exactly the best.”

“I guessed,” said Hades sarcastically.

“You can kill it,” said Cronus, “Before it grows up.”

“I’ll consider it.” His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Cronus’ voice took on a more serious tone. But it was mocking behind the serious. “You’d best make sure that your little brat steers clear of the likes of me…the Olympians could barely defeat me and my army way back then…there’s no way a baby could stand a chance…”

Hades allowed himself a smug smirk. “Oh,” he said, “But, uh, we did defeat you, didn’t we?”

“That was by chance!” Cronus suddenly bellowed. The flames rose with a mighty whoosh. Cronus screamed.

“Chance,” repeated Hades, “Right.”

“It was by chance. Foolish mistakes on…on my part. And you all, you all were young and fresh and nimble whereas we were ancient…it was an unfair battle,” Cronus snarled, “You let me go, and you let my comrades, my army go, and let us face the Olympians again, and you’ll see, it’ll be a victory so grand the mortals will be speaking of it for millennia to come.” He laughed again, that rusty nails-on-chalkboard laugh. “Your god-squad wouldn’t stand a chance against us.”

Hades gave him a flat look, but he couldn’t deny that there was truth in his words. Back then, the gods had been “young and fresh and nimble,” but now things were different. Many, many years had passed. They had all aged, and none possessed the fighting skills they used to. Pitted against the Titans, who were still massive and strong, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

If Cronus ever got out and re-assembled his forces, it would be bad for the gods. Zeusie would get overthrown, and then Cronus would be back in charge, and then BOOM, the Dark Ages would be back with a vengeance. Oy, would that be bad.

Wait a second, Hades thought suddenly, wheels turning in his head, What if Cronus isn’t the one who releases the Titans? The ringleader of this whole uprising thingamajig would be eligible to claim the throne of Zeus once Zeus got booted off by the Titans, right? And the gods wouldn’t stand a chance against the Titans, like Cronus said, there’d be no way, they’d never be able to defeat ‘em again all on their own…

Why hadn’t he thought of this before?! This was too, too perfect. This was foolproof. And this meant victory for him if he could pull it off…

“Father,” said Hades, smirking deviously in a way that made Pain and Panic, who were cowering against the wall, shudder, “I give you my most sincere thanks, seeing as you’ve just inspired me with the most brilliant plan on this side of the River Styx…on any side of the River Styx.”

Cronus was silent for a few moments. Then he spoke up, hopefully, “You’re letting me go?”

“Hell no,” said Hades indignantly, “ But I’m letting your little Titan buddies go. In a few years. Depends on when I can get the resources necessary to pull this off. In the meantime…” He mock-saluted, “…enjoy the rest of your eternal punishment, damnation for the rest of time, et cetera, yadda yadda. Have a ball. Pain, Panic, seal this yutz up, okay?”

The two quivered, then leapt to attention as Cronus howled his disapproval.

“Right, sir!” said Panic enthusiactically.

“You can count on us!” added Pain, and the two set to work.

Hades rubbed his hands together in a rather sinister way and exited the area of Cronus’ pit to go find out when the opportune time to release the Titans would be.

On a rather unfortunate side-note, let us point out that all thoughts of Persephone and their child were pushed out of Hades’ mind.

This was the beginning of an equally as unfortunate obsession…

[Persephone]

I UPDATED FINALLY!!!! Link to Chapter:::: www.fanfiction.net/s/5160469/9/Little_Miss_Flames_And_Flowers

Chapter VIII--Persephone Struggles With Keeping Her Little Secret, and Her Visit to the Underworld Doesn't Go So Well

“Idiots,” Persephone muttered under her breath as yet another cluster of goddesses passed, whispering about her and staring at her out of the corner of their eyes.

Three and a half months exactly had passed since she had come back to Earth (that was three and a half months minus a day since Hades had ordered the Underworldians to babyproof his realm; three months since he had gotten the notion to release the Titans).

It had not been easy three-point-five months. She was swelling steadily, her baby growing inside her, but no-one had figured out she was pregnant yet. The rumor spreading around Olympus was so outrageous that Persephone would have laughed if she wasn’t so fed up with hearing about it.

They believed that she missed the attention she usually got from Hades, and so to get the attention of Olympus, she was binge-eating and purposely putting on weight.

…Persephone’s opinion of Olympus was that they were all mentally challenged.

All anyone had to do to figure out why the hell she was getting so huge was shove her next to Hera and compare the two. When Persephone had arrived on Olympus 3.5 months ago, Zeus, who had apparently been waiting for her to get back to tell everyone, had gathered all of Olympus together and proudly announced that Hera was pregnant for the fifth time. Persephone had nearly gasped out loud when Zeus had revealed that she had been carrying a kid for the exact same time Seph had been…

That meant that the prince or princess of the Underworld would be born around the same time as the prince or princess of Olympus. Weird coincidence.

This fact also worked to her advantage, though, in a way. Everyone was paying so much attention to Hera, it was Hera, Hera, Hera, Hera, Hera, Hera…even Zeus was getting ignored, because it was Hera who was pregnant, Hera who was ill, poor Hera, Hera needed care, Hera, Hera, Hera, Hera…

Persephone hid herself under all the attention Hera was getting. Demeter visited her sister frequently, and spent days on end with her, so Seph was able to hide the fact that she was pregnant pretty easily. And she could have easily made it through the six months without being discovered if she wasn’t so homesick.

Sure, it was a good thing of her to be ignored, but she still had issues that needed tending to, and since Olympus was so focused on Hera, Persephone was forced to suffer through her so far 5.5 (approximately. Might’ve been six. She wasn’t keeping track.) month long pregnancy alone. She missed Hades, terribly.

Now she was perched on the edge of a cloud, staring downwards at other clouds and past those, the mortals scattered on Earth. They were so tiny, like little dots. She was so high up.

Nike, the goddess of victory, and Harmonia, the goddess of harmony and balance, slid past behind her. Persephone turned and glared, catching the two in the middle of shooting a disapproving and giggly glance at her.

Persephone scowled and returned her attention back to the clouds and the mortals. Her hands moved to rest on her stomach and she sighed. Part of the stress was keeping her pregnancy a secret. She was happy about it, and would have very much liked to tell someone, to gush about her upcoming child to someone…

“That cloud’s gonna collapse with her on it,” she heard someone whisper behind her. Persephone scowled again, and shakily stood up, spreading her arms for some type of balance.

Yeah, I have to tell someone about this. Persephone frowned and placed her hands on her womb again, feeling queasy.

She couldn’t tell Demeter. That was a definite.

She couldn’t tell Zeus or Poseidon. They wouldn’t care. Both looked down on their brother and would only feel the same about her and their child.

Hera maybe? Oh gods no, Persephone thought immediately and winced. Two hormonal and pregnant goddesses together in once place, whose husbands were rivals, whose children would grow to probably hate each other…it was a recipe for disaster and a disaster did it prove to be indeed. Persephone probably would have been thrown off a cloud by now, if it hadn’t been for Bacchus and Hermes running to split the two goddesses apart. If they had come any later, either Persephone or Hera would have been lying in ichor-y pieces on the floor.

I can tell Aph, thought Persephone suddenly. The two couldn’t be any different from each other (Aphrodite was vain and prissy and girly and bubbly and all about love, whilst Persephone couldn’t care less about looks, was sarcastic, nasty, gothic in a way, the Queen of the frickin’ Underworld…), however for some weird reason that Persephone didn’t know, the two were practically best friends. Opposites attracted, apparently. Demeter approved of Aphrodite and during Persephone’s childhood imprisonment in her and Demeter’s earthly cottage, the goddess of love had visited her frequently and since Demeter had cut her off from the rest of Olympus, little Persephone had grown on her. They rarely spoke during the winter/fall (Aph thought the Underworld was “icky”) but were together on many occasions during the spring/summer. And Aphrodite was, after all, the one who had remarried Seph and Hades…

“Persephone,” said Demeter suddenly, her voice sickeningly cheerful and cutting into her train of thought like a big knife. Persephone winced and turned around.

“Sephy, sweetheart,” Demeter continued brightly, flitting over to her daughter and wrapping a green arm around Persephone’s waist, “Why are you all the way over here, on the edge of this cloud? I don’t want you all by yourself, sweetie, come with me, we’ll go back to the cottage, and you can work in the fields while I go talk to Hera, okay? Sephy? How does that sound? Okay?”

Persephone groaned. Of course she had to appear now. Of course. She sighed softly; Aph would have to wait. She could keep her secret a secret for a little longer. No problem.

…Ugh.


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It was the next day and Persephone was again perched on a cloud. Demeter and Hestia had been talking for the past…half hour. She had tuned them out, but she was bored, so now she tuned back in to see what was so fascinating…

They were talking about the eternal fire of the hearth, like they had been doing before she had decided to tune them out. Persephone clenched her teeth in a sort of a scowl. How could two people talk about something like this for hours?! It wasn’t even something! It was nothing. It was a fire, that didn’t go out, ever, big whoop-dee-freaking-doo, but they had managed to talk about it and talk about it and talk about it…

Persephone didn’t groan like was her instinct, but she did sigh to express her annoyance. Her mother and aunt ignored her and continued their mindless conversation. Persephone cast an irritated glance at them, placed a fluttery hand on her womb, and sighed again.

The eternal fire…

…fire…

Fire was…

Fire was Hades…

Persephone trembled and then without warning burst into miserable tears and vanished. A formerly very ignorant Demeter blinked and paused in her chatter, staring, confused, down at the spot where her daughter had just been perched.


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“I can’t do this any longer,” Persephone whispered furiously, pacing around her room like a caged animal. She stepped cautiously over the tons and dozens of thorny branches and vines she had (subconsciously) created in her anger and frustration.

“I can’t,” she repeated, “I can’t!”

Her mother had tried, and failed, to get her to come out from solitary, to communicate with her in some way. The stupid woman couldn’t understand what was troubling her. She had given up after a few dozen thistles had shot out of the door in her direction.

Persephone knew Demeter wouldn’t try to intrude again. She was alone for the night. And that gave her just enough time to sneak down to the Underworld and see her husband, and then sneak quickly back.

And she’ll never even know I was gone. Persephone smirked.


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Unfortunately for the goddess, she was tired. Cranky. Upset. Moody. And on top of that, pregnant. When Seph snapped her fingers, planning to appear in their bedroom, or maybe the throne room, she didn’t.

Brilliant. Freaking brilliant. All the places in the Underworld…and I land in the Styx.

Persephone scowled bitterly, took a breath and tried not to freak out. The shockingly cool waters would have been refreshing if not for the souls literally swirling around her. If she was mortal, Persephone had a feeling that she would have drowned in a matter of moments. The ghosts were creating a type of whirlpool around her.

Persephone knew that the shades of the Underworld had a tendency to try and pull people in the river or by the riverbank underwater and so all she did was hold her breath as cold and eerily dead hands grasped at her arms. Besides, she didn’t have the strength to swim, not now.

To her surprise, instead of pulling her in, they pushed her (gently. She was shocked.) to Charon’s drifting and passenger-less boat. Some groped at her midsection and she winced automatically.

Coughing, Persephone managed to get herself over the edge of the boat. She lay on the floor after tumbling in, looking and feeling like a drowned rat. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to imagine that she wasn’t wet, cold, uncomfortable, and achy.

Charon looked down sharply without eyes at the unexpected passenger on his boat. After eyelessly blinking, confused, he pointed to a sign positioned on the riverbank with his bargepole. “Can’t you read?” he snarled, and then read it for her in case the stranger couldn’t, “No Swimming in the River Styx.”

Persephone coughed again and glared up at Charon, her eyes flying open. “Charon.”

He only glared back at her, inspecting her closely. Suddenly, he blinked again. “You’re alive,” he observed with a little scowl.

“Charon,” said Persephone.

He glared at her again, cruelly. “And with another live one, too. Two for one. Ooh.” He moved his barge pole over to her side, about to push her overboard.

Idiot! She fumed and quickly sat up, coughed again, tossed her hair away from her face and scowled up at him and his idiocy. “Charon! You moron. It’s me, Persephone. For the love of Olympus, Charon…” She shook her head indignantly and rolled her eyes.

The ferryman let out a choked gasp and snapped to attention, shrinking under the glare of his second master.

“L-Lady Persephone,” Charon stammered, “I….I didn’t….uh…you….it’s n-not….autumn yet­—”

“I need to see Hades,” she told him flatly, “And I need to see him, like, A.S.A.P. Can you do that for me? Do ya think you’ll be able to accomplish that task?” Her voice turned sarcastic towards the end. Charon nodded rapidly.

“Excellent,” Persephone said, “Now row me to shore, please, and make it quick, I have to be home by morning, otherwise my mother’ll flip.”

“Yes ma’am,” said Charon and stuck his barge pole in the murky waters. Several souls that were swimming aimlessly there were hit and they melted into one another like some sort of slime.

Persephone was silent as they rowed down the river. There was something different here, she realized, but she didn’t know what it was.

More silence filled the air. Persephone blinked as her violet eyes fell upon a fence that wound around the river bank. She twisted her head around to stare at the opposite bank. There was a fence there, too. A few bat-winged green things fluttered around the fence, checking to see if it was secure. They saw her in the boat and saluted with clawed hands, their yellow and red eyes focused on the Queen and their scaly mouths open to reveal rows of jagged fangs set in a grin. Persephone tore her eyes away from the creatures and turned to a silent Charon, still pushing his pole through the waters of the river Styx. The creatures turned and choppily flew away.

“Fences?” questioned Persephone, her head tilting. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. It was wet with Stygian water.

“Yup,” said Charon.

Persephone glanced back behind her. Some kind of grayish demon lumbered along the bank. It had maroon spots on its back and legs that could have been blood; Persephone shuddered and again turned to Charon.

“Why?” she pressed.

Charon glanced at her, their eyes (or lack thereof in Charon’s case) met. “Didn’t Hades tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

Charon grinned twistedly. A gnarled hand adjusted the black cape tied ‘round his neck.

“Tell me what?” Persephone pressed, and Charon’s twisted grin grew.

“Ask him yourself,” said Charon and the boat bumped against the bank.

Persephone sighed and stepped awkwardly out of the boat. She stood on the bank, just behind the gate that was stuck firmly in the mud. The goddess placed a hand on it to steady herself and glanced behind her. Charon was already rowing away.

“This is great,” Persephone said under her breath. How the hell was she supposed to climb a fence now? She was wet and tired and pregnant for Zeus’ sake…

She tentatively placed a foot on a gap in the fence, both hands clutching at the fence as she tried to keep her balance.

But the stupid Stygian water had soaked the sandals strapped to her feet and made them all slippery; plus, the gate was already slicked down from water being repeatedly splashed on it all day. Her hands slid off the top of the fence and her sandal slipped off the bottom of the fence and with a loud, high-pitched shriek, Persephone fell backwards into the water of the river Styx.

Again.

“OH, JUST KILL ME NOW,” Persephone screamed, agitated, sitting up again and pushing her soaking hair out of her face again.

“Stupid…” she hissed under her breath, but before she could finish the thought (and the remainder of the thought would most definitely not have been G-rated), she became aware of another presence standing over her.

Well, looking down at her from the other side of the fence. Persephone’s annoyed violet eyes traveled upwards to meet a pair of yellow eyes, belonging to her currently very amused husband. She supposed he had poofed here when she had screamed. Hades currently was looking at her with a raised eyebrow and an expression that said, 'this is the funniest thing in the world.' It made her already flared temper rise a few levels.

“Laugh and I kill you,” was Persephone’s growled statement, spoken before he could even get a word out.


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"Aren't you charming," said Meg, laughing.

Persephone flicked a lock of hair over her shoulder, glowered at the Grecian mortal, and said huffily, "Shut up."

Hercules decided it was safer not to even comment.

[~Eris~]

Eris: *openly laughs at Seph*

[Macaria]

UPDATE!!! YAY! www.fanfiction.net/s/5160469/10/Little_Miss_Flames_And_Flowers

Chapter IX--Hades Reveals His Plan to Persephone, the Baby Moves, and Persephone Plots to Tell Demeter

It was really quite hard to choke down the tidal wave of snickers that had risen in his throat, but Persephone looked explosive and Hades had a sneaking suspicion that she’d find a way to carry out her threat somehow, never mind the immortality thing that stood in the way. So he swallowed his laughter despite the difficulty and peered down at his unexpected visitor with a relatively straight face, his forearm draped casually over the fence.

Persephone groaned, soaking wet and cold and miserable, lying on her back with Stygian water washing over her and mud gathering along her back and hair. Her eyes hadn’t left Hades (although they had closed for a few moments) and now her expression turned less violent and more along the lines of….sulky.

“Why is there a fence around the river Styx?!” Persephone hissed, her teeth tightly clenched. She squeezed her eyes shut, still lying in the river. Something swam over and pulled at her hair; she let out a yelp and her eyes flew open in alarm.

Hades scowled at the offending shade (it slithered away in the water, like a giant eel) and twisted his hand around. The hand that had been twisted dissolved into thick smoke (along with the rest of his arm) and he without a word reached over the fence and picked up Persephone as if she weighed nothing. Depositing her on his side of the fence, she teetered on her feet for a second, and then nearly collapsed against him. Hades caught her and tilted his head.

“You fell in the river?” Hades said, his voice skeptical.

Persephone scowled. “Oh, yes. Yes. Not once, no, oh no, not once, but twice.”

Hades blinked. “How did you manage to do that?”

Persephone reached a hand up and placed it on her forehead, squeezing her eyes shut again as a headache fell upon her. Her face contorted into a grimace. “I tried to…poof here. I don’t…I wasn’t concentrating, and the kid inside me interfered.” Persephone opened her eyes and glanced down at said child, resting in her womb and paying no attention to the conversation around it.

“Oh, fine, blame the half-developed one,” scoffed Hades with an eyeroll. This evoked a look from Persephone and a smirk in return from him; the next moment he had taken her hand and vanished in a plume of smoke with her.


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They appeared in Hades’ throne room (at this time of year, it was his) and Persephone immediately went over and sank into Hades’ throne. Hades positioned himself next to the chair and looked down at her, leaning against the wall. Politeness and all that. Better to let the pregnant lady sit rather then make her stand and risk getting murdered for it by her later that day.

“I’m guessing Demeter has no clue where ya are right now,” Hades spoke finally with his eyebrow crooked after a few minutes of silence. Persephone sighed.

“She doesn’t know I left.” Persephone sighed again, squeezing the bridge of her nose, her eyes closed again. Why does my life have to be so complicated? Persephone wondered for the millionth time in her immortal lifetime, Why do other girls get to run off and get married and have babies while I go do that and end up still tethered to my mother? Why? Why am I being tortured, dammit?

“You’re gonna get her mad,” Hades warned wryly, taking her hand in his and absentmindedly squeezing it as she continued to pinch the bridge of her nose.

“Too late for that,” Persephone muttered, “’Sides, she’ll probably be too preoccupied with Hera to be mad for long, so I suppose I’m safe…”

Hades blinked and cocked his head. “Hera?”

Persephone opened her eyes and sat up. “You didn’t hear?” she said, astonished, “I though Zeus told everyone. He’s been bragging about it nonstop.”

“Well, I don’t typically get informed about happenings above ground,” Hades said dryly, “Hello? ‘Member? This is me we’re talkin’ about, the official outcast of Olympus.”

“Don’t say that,” Persephone said sharply, “Sure, you’re not….um….popular on Olympus, but you’re not the ‘official outcast’—”

“I am, actually,” Hades spoke with a roll of his eyes, “Forget that, though babe, ‘nother story for another time…now, what’d the Queen of Olympus and Jealous Rages do now that’s so important?”

Persephone blew out a sigh and rested her chin in her hands, her elbow leaning on the arm of the throne. “She’s pregnant, too,” she informed Hades matter-of-factly, then shrank back just a bit as his jaw dropped and he flared.

“How the hell did that happen?!” Hades gasped, his eyes widening, “What kind of a weird coincidence is that?!”

Persephone shrugged. “It is weird, right? Zeus knocked her up at the same time you did to me,” she shot him a dry smile, “So the prince or princess of the Underworld is gonna be born at the same time as the prince or princess of Olympus. Crazy, huh?”

“Bizarre,” Hades said disgustedly, “’Course, that means that our kid is gonna be neglected ‘cuz of the appearance of Zeus’ brat…”

“He or she would have gotten neglected anyway,” Persephone rolled her eyes.

“Sucks being unpopular, huh?” Hades agreed monotonously, “Outside of the in-crowd. I feel like we’re in high school.”

Persephone smiled at this.

“So why’re you here?” Hades asked, leaning back against the wall that was behind his throne. The dusty curtains draped across the wall that served as almost wallpaper made a little puff of dust in the air when Hades leaned against them.

Persephone shifted in Hades’ throne to look at him. “I missed you,” she answered.

Hades smirked. “Is that so? You’re not just here ‘cuz Demeter was getting under your skin again?”

“I’m not allowed to miss you?”

“S’not like it’s the first time you’re away from me, we do this every year and ya never snuck back to see me.”

“I’ve never been pregnant before,” Persephone explained briefly, with a raised eyebrow. She folded her arms.

Hades shifted again so that he was standing next to the throne. “I see your point,” he glanced to her and nodded, a little smirk twisting up on his face.

They were both silent for a few moments. Persephone sighed.

“I hate it up there,” she grumbled, frowning, “So busy, so crowded, so bright, so cheerful. I don’t know why you want to live up there. Personally, I think it’s better down h—why do you look so excited?” She paused and tilted her head; her husband’s expression had changed dramatically in a matter of seconds, at the mention of the takeover of Olympus.

“I almost forgot to tell you,” Hades said excitedly, and then he vanished in his trademark poof of smoke, reappearing by the huge chessboard in the center of the room. Persephone’s gaze was curious as he beckoned her over to him.

Rising unsteadily from the throne, Persephone strode over to where her husband was and peered down at all the delicate pieces.

“Okay, so,” started Hades, drumming a few fingers on the edge of the board, facing her, “I got this idea, ‘kay, this brilliant, brilliant plan. It’s, like, fail-proof. Trust me.” He purposely left out just where he had gotten this idea, knowing she’d be quite unhappy about it, and with good reason to…

“So, look,” Hades continued, “’Member how way back when, beginning of time, back in the ye old ages, before all the gods were the power tyrants of the Earth, the Titans were in charge of the world?” Persephone nodded, and Hades moved a few pieces—Zeus, Hera—over to the side and replaced them with a clay Cronus and Rhea, placing them dead center.

“And me, Poseidon, Hestia, Demeter, Hera, we all got swallowed,” Hades’ voice had somewhat of a bitter edge to it and he knocked the aforementioned off the board. The five pieces clattered to the floor. “In a few years, Zeusie, ya know, the unswallowed one, he grew into big-kid-hood and decided he was fabulous enough to take on the King of the Titans. Kid was smart, though….sort of….and he realized that he couldn’t just kinda go up to the most powerful thing in the universe and shove him off his throne all by himself. So what’s he do? He poisons the most powerful thing in the universe, and guess who gets puked up?” Hades bent and picked up the five pieces that he had scattered on the floor. The Zeus piece that had been cast aside was positioned next to Cronus, and the other five pieces were arranged carefully behind him.

“Go on,” said Persephone sweetly.

“All us gods, we were young, strong, fit despite being trapped in a stomach for sixteen years, and we teamed up—ya know, teamwork works, babe,” He grinned cynically, “ and we defeated the Titans, knocked ‘em right off the big mountain known as Olympus, happily ever after. For most of us, anyway,” Hades added, staring with disdain down at his chessboard likeness.

“Hades,” said Persephone earnestly, “I know this story already. What are you getting at?”

Hades flared up, his hair retaining its normal cheerful blue as he became more excited.

“See, the only reason we were able to defeat the Titans was because we were young, in shape, strong, prepared. The Titans, they weren’t. Used to the life of luxury. A bunch of lumps accustomed to lounging about paradise,” Hades told his wife eagerly, “The Olympians, the first 12 plus 2, they were ready to fight. They were made for fighting.” A slow grin spread across his face. “But now look at them.”

He waved his hand and smoke curled out from the digits, 12 different silhouettes appearing in the grey. The Olympians, present-day.

“They’re all either extremely old or extremely fat. Or just….weak,” said Hades, and Persephone had to agree.

“If someone,” Hades continued, “were to, oh, let the imprisoned Titans out, well, then…” His slow grin twisted into a scarily devious grin, “What chance would the gods have to defend themselves against them?”

Persephone blinked. She stared at him with wide eyes. And said nothing as her mind began to race under mounds of blonde hair…

He didn’t mean….he couldn’t mean…

Hades waved his hand, the sudden motion breaking her away from her skeptical, unfinished thoughts. He paced around the chessboard as he continued to speak to her.

“And once all the gods were overthrown by the Titans, the guy in charge of the Titans would be right in line to take the King of the Gods….former King of the Gods’ place.”

He paused, then twisted around and smirked at her. “Right?”

Persephone was speechless, but her thoughts were screaming.

Are you out of your mind?! You can’t release the Titans, they’re locked up for a reason, they’ll hurt you, they’ll destroy the world, and Zeus knows what else, you’ve got to be kidding me, Hades, you can’t possibly be serious, Persephone wanted to scream, And hello, we’ve got a kid to worry about, it’s not just gonna be my safety, your safety, you’re bringing someone else into this, too, gods, Hades—

“That’s great,” Persephone forced a smile and kept her thoughts to herself. Probably a mistake in the grand scheme of things.

But she didn’t think he was actually serious about this. This was hard-core, dangerous, risky, life-threatening…and Hades wasn’t stupid, wasn’t that power-crazy….right?

“Isn’t it?” Hades grinned, not picking up on her forced cheerful tone. He swiftly arranged his pieces back in the order he had had them before.

“Of course, I’m gonna need a little while to get things ready. I don’t have enough power just yet to let ‘em all go, I need, like, a boost or something…” He looked thoughtful, “I’m thinking about talkin’ to the Fates ‘bout it, see when I can do this, what I can use, but they’re just so busy, all the time, cutting stupid little threads—”

“Those stupid little threads increase your business,” Persephone reminded him.

Hades rolled his eyes. “Whatever,” he waved his hand indifferently, “I just want answers, ya know? I won’t need business if I’m up on Olympus.”

Persephone nodded, trailing a finger absentmindedly along the edge of the chessboard as she leaned against it, her other hand draped across her swollen womb. She blinked suddenly as a thought occurred to her.

“Hey!” said Persephone, giving Hades an indignant look, “You never answered my question!”

He turned to face her, tilted his head, and furrowed his brow. “Question?” he echoed, puzzled as he tried to remember.

“Why are there gates around the river Styx?” Persephone repeated her previous question accusingly, putting her hands on her hips, “That’s why I fell in the river, you know, I couldn’t climb over like….this,” And she gestured to the baby.

Hades blinked. With wide eyes, he blinked again—Persephone thought to herself that he looked like an owl—and then shifted, glancing awkwardly down at the floor.

“Well…” Hades said, shrugging uncomfortably. His unfinished sentence hung in the air.

“Well?” said Persephone, “Well what? What did you do?”

“Just…” He shrugged, “I dunno, I just, like, figured that since when you got back to the Underworld, you’d be, like, almost ready to have that thing—” He pointed at the “thing” with a long grey finger, “—so I just kinda thought that I’d, like, get a head start on things.” He shrugged again. “Y’know. Just so our kid doesn’t get drowned or impaled or something bizarre like that.”

Persephone stared at him, stunned, a slow smile curling over her lips. “And you thought you’d have no idea how to raise a child,” she spoke in an I-told-you-so way and smirked. Hades, embarrassed, flushed slightly pink. It was a hidden fact that Hades turned orange when mad, flared blue when happy, and turned pink when embarrassed.

“Yeah, well,” Hades shrugged again, trying to remain indifferent, “Just…y’know, just, I needed something to do to keep myself busy.” He shrugged for the fourth time, and Persephone grinned at him.

“Gods, you amuse me,” she sighed, and smirking Hades vanished and reappeared with his arms around her, his hand flat on her stomach and her hand over his.

“Good to know,” he snickered, “Ya know, make sure you tell Demeter that I know what the hell I’m doing when it comes to fatherhood or whatever. She already hates me, I don’t want her to think that I’m not equipped to handle a child or something.”

Persephone nodded, flashing him a smile. “I really doubt that when we tell her, she’ll be thinking ‘oh, gee, I sure hope he takes care of the kid.’ I think her thoughts would be more along the lines of, ‘oh-my-gods, there’s devil spawn growing in my daughter!’”

“Thank you,” said Hades flatly.

“I don’t think our kid is gonna be devil’s spawn,” Persephone sniffed, “Please, Hades.” She rolled her eyes.

“Poor kid,” Hades mused, “’Devil’s spawn.’ What a title…” He sighed and glanced down at his wife’s protruding middle, his hand positioned on top of it, “Kid’s gonna be labeled for life.” Hades shrugged. “Kid can’t help it’s parents, th—” His words were cut off with a gasp and Hades jumped away from Persephone, startled, staring with wide-eyes at her and their child.

The thing had freaking moved, it had kicked him, scaring him half to death, and weirding him out more then a little. Persephone’s reaction to it was different; she was grinning as she felt the first motions of her kid inside her, while Hades still stared and struggled not to hyperventilate.

“There’s something in there,” he gasped out, stunned, and Persephone looked up at him with a crooked eyebrow.

“Duh,” she said, “Did you think I was swelling with hot air?”

“I just didn’t…” He gulped and catiously inched back to her, like he was afraid the bump was going to bite him, or something or the sort.

The baby kicked again and Persephone felt it against her hand, wincing just a little. Wonderful, now I get to be beaten up from the inside, she thought dryly. And Persephone could swear there was a weird kind of heat in her stomach, like something…someone was flaring inside of her, but she dismissed it as her imagination. Since the heat went a way after a few seconds, Persephone was sure that it had been all in her head.

“We do have to tell Demeter, you know,” Persephone spoke again, giving Hades a glance. He was standing next to her again, but purposely taking care not to touch anything that was gonna kick him again…

Hades paled, and frowned. “But she’ll kill me,” Hades whined, folding his arms stubbornly.

“She won’t kill you,” Persephone scoffed.

“Think of it from her point of view,” said Hades, “Guy you despise kidnaps your daughter, daughter somehow falls in love with despised guy, years pass, all of a sudden, still despised guy knocks her up with some ‘disgusting devil spawn thing.’ She’s not gonna kill me for that?”

Persephone grimaced. “But we still have to tell her!” she said desperately, “You want to wait until I go into labor to tell her? You think she’ll be mad now, she’ll be furious if we just suddenly surprise her like that!” Tears welled up in her eyes suddenly and her voice broke as she continued, not exactly sure why she was crying, but crying nevertheless, “We have to tell her, give her time to get used to it or something, she has to know, gods, Hades—”

“Alright, alright, alright,” Hades said quickly, panicking a little as tears spilled out of her violet eyes, “Fine, we’ll tell her, but be prepared to pick up what’s left of me after it’s all over, okay?”

Persephone smiled through her tears, and sniffed, rubbing at her eyes. “Thank you,” she sighed, then brightened suddenly, “Are you busy tomorrow?”

Hades stared at her. Mood swings….bizarre. “Tomorrow?” he stammered, “Uh, I don’t—”

“Come up to Olympus tomorrow,” Persephone told him cheerfully, “And we’ll tell Demeter together. Okay?”

Hades winced. “I…I guess, but—”

“Excellent!” said Persephone, beaming. She blinked, and cocked her head, and then groaned, scowled. “Damn. I think I have to leave.”

“Don’t try teleporting on your own, who knows where you’ll end up,” Hades warned her, “And when you get home, change your clothes, you’re soaking wet, Demeter’s gonna notice something’s up—”

“Gods, you worry too much,” Persephone sighed and rolled her eyes, “Alright, alright, chill out. Can you teleport me?” She blinked and smiled hesitantly at him, clasping her hands together pleadingly.

“Done,” he said, and she stepped over to him and hugged him.

“Tomorrow. Remember,” she commanded in a low voice.

“Mentally noted,” Hades answered and grinning at her, and kissing her briefly, her waved his hands and the goddess disappeared in a puff of black smoke, hopefully back up to her room up on Olympus.

Hades immediately went and sunk into his throne.

“Tomorrow,” he muttered, “Oy vey.” The Lord of the Dead sighed, tapping an irritated finger against his temples.

“I need to write a will,” Hades said under his breath and slumped lower in his throne.

[~Eris~]

Great chapter.

*hugs Seph*

[Warren Peace]

Wren: *giggle* Aw, that's my girl. Reprimanding daddy-dearest before she was born.

[Hades]

Jim blackmailed me into writing this. <3 She wouldn't update Wren's diary until I updated LMFAF. So thank me for Wren's next entry XDDDD
Link to chapter [AND YES, JIM, I *DID* MENTION YOU IN MY AUTHOR'S NOTE XPP]: www.fanfiction.net/s/5160469/11/Little_Miss_Flames_And_Flowers

Chapter X--It Just Slips Out

Persephone recalled being poofed up to Mt. Olympus, up to her now dark room in her mother’s palace—all the candles had burned out, she had been gone for so long.

The goddess took a step into her room and nearly fell flat on her face. Thistles and vines still littered the floor from her previous bad mood. Persephone waved her hand and instantly at her command, the agriculture moved and cleared the floor, crawling up the walls eerily, giving the room a jungle look.

Taking a match from a nightstand (made of wheat woven together—it was ironic that matches were stored there, because the unique piece of furniture was extremely flammable), Persephone relit the candles scattered around her room and then sank onto her bed, squirming as her damp dress was pressed to her skin.

“Ugh,” Persephone groaned. She undid the pomegranate at her shoulder, letting the fabric that had been held in place by it drop to the floor. Another wave of her hand (she was lazy) and she was changed into something that she could sleep in.

Persephone tugged on the pale green sleeve of her dress, and as she did so, she caught sight of herself in the mirror, swollen womb and all. She paused and turned, a glowing pink hand tentatively placed on the curved surface.

“Jeez,” she muttered under her breath as she felt the baby move inside her. In a matter of months, she’d be a mother. And Hades would be a father. And there’d be a prince…or a princess in the Underworld.

She fully acknowledged that she didn’t currently have nor (most likely) would she acquire in the next few months the skills needed to raise a kid. Persephone was completely unaware of, uh, techniques needed, or whatever. To make matters so much better, she knew Hades was just as inexperienced if not more then she was.

After all, he had spent sixteen of his first years alive in his father’s stomach. Hardly an example of good parenting.

She stepped back and sat on her bed, her legs dangling off the edge with her ankles crossed. Her hand was still on her stomach and she sighed, tapping a few fingers gently against it as her mind wandered.

Persephone’s wandering mind was abruptly brought back to where it was supposed to be (wherever that might have been) when a knock sounded at the door.

With a gasp, she stood up, startled. Her blond hair, usually so carefully tucked behind her ears and out of the way, was messy and disheveled, falling into her face and in her path of view. Persephone tucked the locks away and bit her lip as a voice chimed out from the other side of the door:

“Persephone, dear?” it was Demeter’s voice, curious and puzzled in a sickeningly innocent way, “Are you still awake?”

Persephone hesitated, her eyes wide. “Uh…a little,” she responded, wincing as she hurriedly moved back to seat herself on her bed.

“What are you doing up at this hour?” Demeter demanded, and Persephone could, quite clearly, picture her mother standing with her hands on her wide hips, clothed in a green nightgown that fell all the way to the ground, circling around her when there was no more room for the remaining fabric to go.

“I...” started Persephone uneasily, and then she twisted the question and fired it back at her, “What are you doing up at this hour?”

The goddess on the other side paused. “I heard you moving around,” she flatly responded, “You shouldn’t be up at this late. Is something wrong?”

Persephone heard her rattle the doorknob around, to no avail. Seph had locked it before leaving.

Demeter sarcastically asked, “May I come in?” after a few minutes of fiddling with the door.

Persephone remained silent.

“Sephy,” said Demeter through probably clenched teeth.

Persephone’s look darkened and she swung the door open. As her mother strode into the room, Persephone fixed her with a glare and hissed, “Don’t call me that.”

“Whatever,” she rolled her eyes and waved her green hand. Demeter’s leafy headdress was off, a rarity, and her orange hair hung loosely down, not quite reaching her shoulders, but instead hanging down her neck. If not for the weight issue and the disgusting personality that took away a lot from her appearance, Demeter could have passed for ‘pretty.’

Barely.

“Mother,” said Persephone, folding her hands in her lap as she sat on the edge of her bed, again, “If you want me to go to bed, well, it’s not gonna happen if you’re stalking me like this.”

“I’m not stalking you,” she sniffed, “I’m simply checking on—”

“You mean you’re stalking me.”

Demeter rolled her eyes. “I’m not—”

She cut off abruptly as Persephone jammed two pillows over her ears, scowling.

“How very rude,” muttered Demeter, folding her arms. Subconsciously, her blue eyes traveled to Persephone’s protruding middle, and said goddess noticed her staring with distaste and dropped the pillows in astonished fury.

“Hypocrite,” she said bitterly.

“I said nothing,” said Demeter, raising an eyebrow and moving to her side, her hands clasped together.

“You’re thinking it.”

“I didn’t say it.”

“You’re still a hypocrite.”

Demeter sighed. “Well, Sephy, dear…”

“Sephy?” said Persephone coldly.

“Seph,” said Demeter, glaring at her as she corrected herself, “Please, you have to admit that…that your, um, figure is getting…” She waved her hands desperately as she searched for a word to use, Persephone glaring darkly at her all the while.

“…wider,” said Demeter finally.

Persephone raised an eyebrow and stayed silent, her lips settling into a pressed line. I hate you, she hissed internally.

“Just…it’s not that I….that I have a problem with it or anything,” said Demeter, quickly continuing, “But don’t you think that, uh, your, um, weight is getting a little out of hand?”

“You’re one to talk!” Persephone snapped finally, “I mean, look at you! You’re like a whale with legs!”

“This isn’t about me,” Demeter snapped back, “This is about you. You’re only gaining weight because you’re away from that creature and now look at you; you’re all…all…all—”

“Say it,” sneered Persephone, folding her arms.

Demeter hesitated.

But Persephone’s gaze didn’t waiver and finally Demeter sighed and admitted, flatly, “You’re fat.”

“You’re one to talk,” Persephone hissed again. Where had this conversation even come from? It had started off because her mother had wanted to know why she was still awake. And here they were. Subject totally changed.

Persephone was tired, after traveling to the Underworld and back, and since it was, like, 3 in the morning, all she wanted to do was go to bed before the sun came up and it was too late.

“You are, though,” said Demeter. Suddenly, her voice was patient, “Don’t you think that maybe, I don’t know, you should cut back a little on the, uh, food, maintain your BMI a little better—”

“I’m not ‘fat,’” Persephone finally interjected. She was mad, yes, but her racing hormones only pushed her to the end of her rope.

“You’re not,” echoed Demeter in that same flat tone, her temper also pushed to its limit, “No, of course not. What are you, then?”

Persephone met her mother’s word with a silent look, her eyes narrowed.

“If you’re not fat, then what are you?” Demeter repeated.

“I’m not fat,” hissed Persephone.

“Then what exactly are you? You’re not thin, and you’re not fat, so then what?”

Her temper surged. Then suddenly she was standing up, glowering down at her mother. Demeter instantly rose to meet her, however the fact that Persephone was in fact taller then her subtracted from the menacing effect.

“I am not,” Persephone repeated slowly, scowling, “fat.”

“Then what are you?!” Demeter blew up at her, raising her volume, sarcastically adding just as loudly, “I suppose you’re pregnant, right? Is that it? That’s it, right, that’s why you’re all bloated, is that right?”

And, losing her temper and sense of good judgment completely, Persephone screamed at the top of her lungs, “YES, IT IS!”

This was met with silence. Simultanously, mother and daughter’s eyes widened.

“Tell me that was sarcasm,” said Demeter in a shocked and quiet way.

Persephone, whose hands were clamped over her own mouth in horror, weakly shook her head ‘no.’

Demeter stared at her, and then took a gulp of air in and screamed at the top of her lungs:

“HADES!!!”


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Persephone winced at the memory, but Hercules and Meg looked somewhat amused.

“Smooth,” sneered Meg, studying her fingernails as she commented.

Persephone brought a hand to her forehead and scowled. “I was annoyed and hormonal. It just slipped out…leave me alone.” She winced.

There was a pause. Hercules broke it eagerly, waving his hand and exclaiming, “Continue, please.”

Persephone nodded, then continued where she had left off.


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Persephone guessed that most of Olympus had jumped up, wide awake, at the sound of Demeter’s bellow. Certainly they must have, because Hades had heard it (“Clearly,” he had described later, “It was like she was right next to me, I swear.”) from down in the Underworld. In a matter of moments, Hades had appeared, startled, in Persephone’s room, and was immediately backed up against a wall by a practically red-with-fury Demeter. Stunned, he shrunk back, helpless as Demeter proceeded to scream at him for almost a full minute.

“What’d I do?” Hades gasped out, his eyes wide.

“What did you do,” Demeter repeated scornfully, “What did you do. You know damn well what you did, you disgusting…disgusting…RAPIST!”

Both Hades and Persephone stared at her in astonishment.

“Mom,” said Persephone with narrowed eyes.

“Before you rip my head off,” cut Hades, inching away from Demeter and casually moving to stand behind Persephone, “Ya wanna maybe tell me why I’m getting my head ripped off?!”

Persephone hung her head. “It just slipped out,” she apologized sheepishly, turning to face him. Hades blinked.

“What happened to ‘we’ll tell her tomorrow, don’t forget?’” Hades said finally, staring down at her, “I was all set for tomorrow. What happened to tomorrow?”

“When did this happen?” wailed Demeter before Persephone could respond, “How long have you been hiding this? Why didn’t you tell anyone?!”

“Because you would have reacted horribly,” replied Persephone fiercely,.

“But I’m not reacting horribly now, right?” Demeter said.

“…No,” Persephone admitted reluctantly, and Hades, behind her, looked relieved.

Relieved until, that is, Demeter whirled around to glare at him, shrieking, “I’LL CASTRATE YOU, I SWEAR I WILL! HOW’S THAT FOR HORRIBLE?!”

Hades stumbled back, away from her, as Persephone shoved her away from him.

At the same time, the door banged open, revealing a crowd of confused Olympians standing there.

“BOTH OF YOU KNOCK IT OFF,” Persephone demanded, “Try and behave like civil adults here, okay? No castrating,” she turned and snarled to Demeter, who rolled her eyes and sent Hades her best I’m-going-to-castrate-you-anyway look, which he shrank back from.

“I’ve been pregnant for five months, “said Persephone, ignoring the astonished stares of the crowd by the door. Thoughtfully, she added, “Or something like that.” She glared at Demeter, who was glaring at Hades, who in turn was glaring back at her.

Glaring triangle. Weird, thought Persephone.

She continued, “And I didn’t tell you because I figured you’d freak out. Not something I need.”

“You’re pregnant, too?” said Hera, flatly, shoving her way to the front of the crowd. Persephone pointedly ignored her.

Demeter was silent. Hades, equally as silent, crept back up behind Persephone and stayed there, glowering nervously at Demeter. When she whipped her head around and sent a glare back his way, he took a step backwards. Again.

“Mother, stop intimidating my husband,” Persephone snapped irritably.

“Your rapist,” Demeter mildly corrected; Hades flared and Persephone scowled.

“Obnoxious,” Hades muttered, and Demeter responded with an indignant shriek:

“I’m obnoxious?! Am I the one who impregnanted a girl half my age with….with…demon spawn?”

“Demon spawn?!” Persephone fumed.

“Hah. Told you so,” said Hades under his breath.

“So what do you plan on doing?” hissed Demeter, beginning to pace around the couple. Persephone winced and compared her mentally to a shark circling its prey.

Or a whale. Whichever.

“You expect to go through these remaining months and actually give birth to this thing? Imagine what it’ll look like! You’ve got his genes mixed with yours, that’ll be one hell of an ugly baby, and Zeus knows what powers it’ll inherit—”

“I don’t know, actually,” murmured Zeus, standing by the door with Hera.

Demeter ignored him. “And it’s personality, too, gods, can you imagine?! Do you realize what a monster you’ll be releasing to the world?! You’re going to have the spawn of a demon running about, and you act like this is so normal,” she hissed.

“How do you know that our baby is gonna turn into a monster?” retorted Persephone.

“LOOK WHO THE FATHER IS.”

Hades looked insulted as the rest of the gods nodded silently in agreement.

“You’re disgusting,” Hades and Persephone spat simultaneously, then glanced at each other, amused at their unrehearsed sync.

“If you expect me to take care of you while that thing inside you grows, then you are sadly mistaken,” Demeter announced bitterly, “You might as well go back to the Underworld now, ‘cuz you’re most certainly not welcome here at this time.”

Persephone resisted the urge to roll her eyes. What a threat that was.

“I will then,” sniffed Persephone, allowing Hades to wrap his arms around her, and not snickering when the baby moved just slightly again and Hades blinked, “Seeya in a long while, mom.”

And the two disappeared.


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“She let you leave?” gasped out Hercules, stunned.

Persephone nodded, looking pleased. “Second kindest thing she’s ever done for me,” Persephone beamed.

“Second?” said Meg, “What was the first?”

“You’ll find out,” said Persephone mysteriously. Meg shrugged and returned to nonchalantly examining her nails.

“But she let you leave,” insisted Hercules, “What happened to the Earth? Did the Earth shrivel up and die?”

“Well, yeah,” admitted Persephone, “A little.”

“And she didn’t try to get you to come back?”

“Oh, she did. I just wouldn’t,” replied Seph, “I mean, Hades was taking good care of me in the Underworld, the baby was growing well, I was happy, and there was no need for me to come back on Earth? Why? So I could be ignored by my mother and screamed at by Hera? Nuh-uh. She gave up finally, but after getting me to promise to come back after the six months-and-then-some were up.”

Hercules seemed somewhat satisfied with this answer.

“Y’know,” remarked Meg, “I love how the main character of this little biography hasn’t even been brought into the story yet.” She fixed Persephone with a stare, one eyebrow crooked up. “Funny, huh?”

Persephone rolled her eyes. “What do you want me to do, skip over everything and get to her birth?”

“Yes,” said Meg.

Persephone considered this. “…okay, fine,” she repented, shrugging, and opened her mouth to continue. But Meg cut her off.

“And please don’t get too detailed. We wanna hear about baby Maci, not your disgusting labor pains or whatever.”

Persephone narrowed her eyes into slits, and gave Meg a sarcastic look.

“But it’d be so fun to scar you all for life,” she said dryly.

Hercules blinked.

“We’ve got innocents here,” said Meg, motioning to Herc. Persephone sighed and rolled her eyes, again.

“Okay, so…” Persephone thought aloud to herself, “Fast-fowarding four months later…”

And the author's note included in my story:

~Author's Notes~ I would like you all to know that I was blackmailed into writing this chapter in one night. XPP That fact amuses me greatly. Fanks, Loki!!

^^

[~Elisa Maza~]

My favorite lines:


“You’re one to talk!” Persephone snapped finally, “I mean, look at you! You’re like a whale with legs!”

~~~~~

“What happened to ‘we’ll tell her tomorrow, don’t forget?’” Hades said finally, staring down at her, “I was all set for tomorrow. What happened to tomorrow?”

~~~~~

“But I’m not reacting horribly now, right?” Demeter said.

“…No,” Persephone admitted reluctantly, and Hades, behind her, looked relieved.

Relieved until, that is, Demeter whirled around to glare at him, shrieking, “I’LL CASTRATE YOU, I SWEAR I WILL! HOW’S THAT FOR HORRIBLE?!”

~~~~~~

I did roll my eyes when Demeter told Seph she might as well go back to the Underworld. Then I laughed.

[Macaria]

www.fanfiction.net/s/5160469/12/Little_Miss_Flames_And_Flowers

Yay for the first mention of Hypnos and Thanatos! AND YAY THAT MACI'S FINALLY BORN!

Chapter XI-- The Prince of Olympus and the Princess of the Underworld Are Born in Unison

Seriously, what Demeter had intended to be a threat had turned out to be the best thing she had ever done for Persephone. And what a perfect time, too. Now she didn’t have to deal with her mother’s ridiculousness, Hera’s temper, Zeus’ idiocy and everything else that sucked on Mt. Olympus. Instead, she was allowed to go home, with Hades, and the various other Underworldians who saw it fit to make sure that she didn’t do an ounce of work while the baby was resting inside her.

Hades had done a spectacular job of baby-proofing the Underworld, even though he hadn’t done anything personally, nor had he possessed an ounce of knowledge pertaining to what exactly he was doing. And then the both of them had brainstormed together to find a suitable room for their son or daughter.

They had settled on a room that hadn’t been touched for more then a century. The one that Hades had so courteously decorated lavishly for her way back when. It was the room she had stayed in when she had been kidnapped, when she had thought of herself as a prisoner, all the way back in time. The room was unused now. Persephone shared a room with Hades and her old little luxurious living quarters had just been sitting there, collecting dust, for 100 years and more.

It worked out well, because the room was vacant, and also, it was right next to where Hades and Seph’s room was. Moving quickly, the pairs had ordered the various critters of the Underworld to redecorate the room so that it was fit for a baby.

Pain and Panic had been practically falling over each other during attempts to make sure Persephone got the best possible…anything at all times. Constantly during the day, shades floated daringly over to her to gaze in wonder at the swelling bump at her midsection, a sad reminder of the lives they had left behind on Earth.

The Furies enjoyed fussing over her too, since none of the three would ever (nor did they want to) have children of their own. Personally, Persephone thought them creepy, but she couldn’t protest to the extra care. Being babied was a bit annoying, but she did appreciate the effort. Besides, Persephone had never been spoiled home on Olympus.

Nyx and Erebus were also helpful to the goddess, although Nyx was the one who mostly stuck with Persephone and Erebus busied himself with stalking Hades. The pair were one of the very rare couples in the Underworld who had children—twins, in fact, Hypnos and Thanatos, who were currently “…a handful of trouble at the age of seven,” Nyx had sniffed once, rolling her eyes, and then she had added, “Just pray to the gods you don’t have twin boys and everything’ll be okay.”

“And what if I do?” Persephone had teased back, “Shall I feed them to Cerberus?”

“Believe me, I’ve considered it,” sighed Nyx then, before smirking back at Persephone and then the two of them had giggled together.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“How sadistic,” muttered Meg and Persephone glared at her before continuing.


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Nine months after Hades and Persephone’s (and Zeus and Hera’s) baby had been conceived, the Underworldian couple stood in the Prince/Princess-to-be’s room.

The room had been painted black and grey. An Underworldian styled crib was up against the wall, the head touching said wall and the foot facing the door. A dresser was positioned at the far right of the bed, up against the other wall. Also at the right side of the bed was a window that provided a great view of the Styx, which wound around the entire palace. Tattered—purposely tattered—grey curtains hung on either side of the window.

The imps had taken it upon themselves to find some (of their) old stuffed animals and had tucked them into the crib along with a few battered rattles they had hunted down. Pain and Panic had also teamed up with Nyx and the Furies to find to gender-neutral black chitons for the baby…

Hades and Persephone were standing by the edge of the empty crib, hand in hand, arm in arm.

Somewhere along the line of her pregnancy, Persephone had been forced to make a change from her usual tight black chitons to something that was much looser and didn’t squeeze the damn baby up against her in a painful way for both her and the kid. Her hair had been bugging her, too (although lately, everything had kind of been bugging her), and in a fit of annoyed rage she had hastily swept it back into a messy ponytail, out of her way.

She didn’t look like herself. Her hair was different, her dress was different, and she was so exhausted and internally beaten up that her face looked different somehow. Persephone was practically leaning fully on Hades. If he stepped back, she’d fall over, undoubtedly.

But despite the weary look on her face, Persephone was smiling fondly at her baby’s crib and after a moment she craned her neck so that she could smile fondly at Hades. He grinned back down at her and hugged her gently, his grin broadening as their kid shifted inside Persephone.

“Isn’t this thing supposed to have come out already?” Hades complained lightly.

Persephone gave him a look. “Like I can control when it comes out,” she sneered teasingly, “Do I look like a Fate to you?”

“I won’t answer that.”

He flinched, grinning still, as she glared at him and then pretended to smack his arm. “You ass,” Persephone smirked, and snuggled contentedly in his arms as the baby kicked her furiously.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Olympus, Hera sat on a comfortable cloud couch, Zeus at her side, polishing a static-y lightning bolt that was in his hands. The Queen of Olympus tapped her magenta fingers against her curved womb, her sky blue dress—she too had been forced to alter her outfits—shifting as her hand rested on the fabric. The baby was moving, and kicking, and hitting, and Hera was close to begging to Fates to speed up this pregnancy, because the baby was kicking her with so much force she was sure a hole would be split in her stomach with the next kick. Her baby had probably bruised her organs.

But there was no need for asking the Fates to speed it up, because it’d be coming, it was gonna be coming before the day was over, she was sure of it, she was sure of it…


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Persephone absentmindedly squeezed her husband’s hand, her eyes comfortably closed. “Hades,” she purred softly, and he directed his gaze back onto her.

Without waiting for a verbal response, Persephone continued, “Promise me something?”

“Anything,” he said immediately, and Persephone beamed.

“Just…just promise me that…” She blinked, shrugged one shoulder, and her eyes fluttered open. “Promise that you won’t faint when my water breaks, ‘kay?” Rosy lips twisted into a smirk, and Hades blinked, and then carefully flared and scowled at her.

“Hah, hah,” Hades gave her his best withering look. Persephone giggled. “Gods, you’re hilarious. So-freaking-funny, so funny, I forgot to laugh—”

“Don’t piss off the pregnant lady,” Persephone warned, all teasing aside, and Hades gulped and shut up immediately.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The baby shifted again and so did Hera, wincing as she was kicked from the inside. The feeling, that fluttering feeling she got when she felt someone was about to give birth, was getting stronger and stronger, and she pressed lightly on her stomach, applying a very light amount of pressure as the baby shifted again.

It was coming, it was coming…

The baby shifted again and


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Persephone winced, placing a hand over her womb as she felt the baby stir. She suddenly felt happy, happier then she had felt throughout this entire pregnancy and


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

it was going to come, any minute, any second, her water was going to break, Hera could feel it, she could sense it and she sat up with a gasp and glanced at a suddenly very alert Zeus once she felt something running down her leg. Hera blinked and turned to Zeus and said in as calm a voice as she could muster:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“The baby’s coming,” gasped Persephone suddenly, jerking away from Hades with a terrified squeak.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hades blinked, stared, and then said in perfect synchrony with Zeus up on Olympus, “W-what?!”


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That was where the two scenes merged into totally different scenarios. Hera remained totally calm as gods and goddesses hurried to her assistance. Persephone oddly enough was calm, too, although the only ones who came running were Pain and Panic.

“So now I need you to do something for me,” Persephone gasped out, stepping back again and closing her hand around the crib tightly.

Hades, who was quite busy trying not to have a panic attack like the imps were doing right now, forced a weak smile and said (again), “Anything.”

Persephone grit her teeth. Pregnancy was a pain. Literally. “G-go get Demeter please,” Persephone said as sweetly as possible.

Hades stared at her.

“Hades,” Persephone repeated in a hiss, “Go. Get. Demeter.”

“You’re out of your mind,” Hades blinked at her.

“Am I? Do you know anything about delivering a—” Her words were cut off by a gasp as pain shot through her body again. Oh, yes, pregnancy is a freaking pain, Persephone thought, wincing, How do people do this?! “A-about delivering a baby,” she finished weakly.

Hades saw sense in her logic, but…but Demeter? Why Demeter? There had to be some goddess of childbirth around, someone else that could help her, someone somewhere—

“WOULD YOU GO GET HER ALREADY?!” Persephone screamed at the top of her lungs, and, paling, Hades nodded rapidly. At a total loss, he quickly instructed Pain and Panic to do just that, and they poofed up to Olympus.

He couldn’t leave her, even for just a moment, not when she was—

“WOULD YOU PLEASE JUST GO GET MY MOTHER, HADES, HURRY THE HELL UP I DON’T HAVE ALL DAY DO YOU WANT THIS KID TO COME OUT OR NOT?!” Persephone howled furiously, and Hades again nodded rapidly, and decided that Pain and Panic were far too stupid to accomplish such a simple task, that he’d be back in just a moment, and that you could never trust an imp to do a god’s job.

Obediently, Hades vanished, leaving Persephone alone for about ten seconds before Nyx and Erebus poofed into the room at the sound of her scream.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hades stood hesitantly in Olympus, just inside the gates, and with wide, confused eyes, he watched the crowd that was moving around almost frantically. Within a matter of seconds, Pain and Panic had spotted him and were at his side, watching, just as confused. There was a strict ‘no minion’ policy on Mt. Olympus, but everyone was in such a mad panic that no-one noticed the pair of minions standing shyly off to one side.

“So. Who wants to explain what’s going on?” said Hades evenly, glancing down at Pain and Panic with just a flicker of a scowl flitting across his face. The imps shrugged.

“Something with Hera, I think,” said Pain, shrugging. “We didn’t pick much up, there’s all this chaos around,” added Panic, nodding, and Hades absentmindedly wondered if maybe Eris had something to do with it.

“Aren’t you s’posed to be with Persephone?” said Pain suddenly, a note of alarm in his voice. Hades looked almost guilty.

“She told me…she, uh, ordered me to come up here and get Demeter.”

“So where is she?!” said Panic, standing on his turquoise toes to try and look over the crowd, "Demeter. Where is she? I don't see her!" Hades blinked, cast a nervous glance downwards, then flared and marched forwards, delving directly into the crowd.

“Move outta my way. Shoo, beat it, ‘scuse me, outta the way, stay on one side,” he practically chanted as he pushed his way through the crowd. Hades blinked and tried not to gape when he got to the center of said crowd and realized that the reason for all the people was that Hera had gone into labor too.

‘What kind of a weird coincidence is that?!’ Hades had gaped at Persephone a few months ago when she had informed him about Hera’s pregnancy, and the same thought ran across his mind now. What were the odds that Hera and Persephone had gotten pregnant at the same time, and then had gone into labor at the same time? The Fates were surely messing with them. But Hades had no idea what their motives might have been.

Someone shoved into him in a mad attempt to protect Hera from harm (Hades mentally rolled his eyes at that thought) and he flared up more, turning to glare at the now departing god and instead finding himself being glared at by none other then Demeter.

“And just what do you think you’re doing here?” said Demeter in a hiss.

“Standing,” Hades said flatly, and then took her with some difficulty by the very thick arm and yanked her out of the crowd and over to Pain and Panic, who were both freaking out because they could swear they could hear Persephone yelling from up here.

Demeter frantically squirmed away from him, and then wrinkled her nose and scowled at her brother. “What do you want?!” she demanded furiously, “I’m in the middle of something here, Hera’s baby is gonna come out, and I need to be there for her—”

“And who’s more important, Demeter, your brat of a sister or your daughter?” said Hades solemnly, and Pain and Panic blinked and looked expectantly up at Demeter.

All color drained from Demeter’s face, and she stared at Hades with wide blue eyes. In a hoarse voice, she gasped out, “What did you do to my daughter?”

“Only knocked her up,” Hades said earnestly, smirking slightly, “Now would you like to get the hell down into the Underworld to help your little baby girl give birth before she splits herself accidentally in half?”

Demeter cast a glance back towards Hera, but Hera was being well-taken care of.

And Sephy needed her. For the first time in her life, Sephy needed her. It was too big an opportunity to pass up.

“Let’s go. Now,” said Demeter thinly. Pain and Panic breathed twin sighs of relief, and even Hades looked quite relieved. The three followed the goddess out the gates of Olympus and down the cloud stairs.

“You’re unbelievable, Hades,” said Demeter tightly, “Who leaves their wife alone while she’s in labor? Seriously,” she snorted and rolled her eyes. Hades gave her a look which she didn’t see thankfully, and then all four vanished in a cloud of black smoke to the Underworld.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Souls everywhere had stopped in their tracks. Charon had paused in boat-rowing. The Furies as well as every other demon had frozen. The entire Underworld was quiet, except for Persephone’s frantic shrieks and curses, all spoken in furious ancient Greek. Hades winced, and Demeter stared with distaste at her surroundings for a moment before marching to find Persephone.

“She was in the kid’s room when I left,” Hades informed Demeter.

“Nyx moved her,” Erebus appeared next to the two, melting out of the shadows seamlessly. The god of darkness was a shadow himself—if you looked carefully, you could see his features, but other then that, the only clearly visible trait of him was his eyes, which glowed a pale white. Demeter jumped at his appearance, but Hades and the imps didn’t flinch.

“Well, where did she move her?” Hades demanded, hands on hips as he flared up. Erebus didn’t bat an eyelash and spoke quietly, “Our place,” before melting back into the shadows and vanishing.

So Nyx had moved her to her and Erebus’ home—Hades hoped with a little grimace that the goddess of night had at least had the sense to clear the twins out of there before relocating Persephone. 7-year-olds didn’t need to see a birth in progress.

Demeter looked around herself disgustedly again, and then went to move forward, to find Persephone. Hades lifted an arm and pointed in the direction they had to go. “She’s that way,” said Hades, and then again they all vanished in smoke, reappearing outside the (nearly pitch black) home of Nyx and Erebus. Persephone could be heard quite clearly inside:

“I AM NEVER HAVING CHILDREN AGAIN!” she screamed. Hades suppressed a snicker.

“I don’t know how you stand to live in this place,” said Demeter disgustedly, and she reached for the door. Hades narrowed his eyes, flared again, and then blocked her with his hand.

“Wait a sec,” Hades practically snarled, “You just wait a sec. Look, Seph’s practically being torn in half, I’m about to be a freaking father, you’re about to be a freaking grandmother, and all you can do is insult me, and my realm. Would you chill the hell out already?! At least now, hold your stupid grudge inside you for a little bit and can’t we at least make an attempt to get along, for Persephone’s sake?!” He paused for breath, feeling himself heat up and flare. “I mean, sheesh, really, what’s more important, hating me, or loving Seph?”

Demeter was silent. Hades continued,

“All I’m asking is a temporary patch over our sore little rivalry, okay? Can ya handle that? Can we do a temporary truce, please? Whaddya say?” He hesitantly cooled off and held out his hand. Demeter stared at it for a moment, narrowed her eyes, and then said curtly,

“No. Now move out of my way so I can help my daughter.” Before Hades could respond, she had swung open the door and marched inside, slamming it with a bang.

Hades scowled. Pain and Panic exchanged glances and tried their best not to snicker.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After nearly an hour of waiting outside Nyx’s home, Hades had started pacing. Persephone’s screams/curses still rang throughout the Underworld. And the Underworld was still quiet.

Hades blinked as Persephone’s shriek echoed.

Echoed? Why was she echoing? Sure, there were lots of caves in the Underworld. But they weren’t in one, so why was she echoing? And why didn’t her echo sound like her?

“Boss,” said Panic, who had heard it too as well as Panic, “That’s Hera.”

Hades’ eyes widened.

As Persephone screamed again, he heard the echo once more, and yup, that was Hera screaming. They were screaming in unison. He could hear Hera from up on Olympus, and you could probably hear Persephone up there, too.

But they were screaming in unison.

‘What kind of a weird coincidence is that?!’ The thought ran around again.

“Weird,” remarked Hades quietly, glancing upwards at the ceiling after Hera and Persephone had screamed again in synchrony.

It was bizarre. So bizarre. What were the odds, really?

The two screamed again, and then Hades heard the two of them curse, the same curse at the same time, their voices aligned.

“Weirder,” remarked Pain, staring upwards as well.

“Sheesh,” muttered Hades, beginning to pace again. Another synchronized scream, and then another one after it.

The latter(s), however, was followed quickly by two totally different voices. Or lack thereof.

Hades’ jaw dropped as the son of Zeus and the daughter of Hades vocalized for the first time in unison.

“Weirdest,” whispered Panic, as Hades, totally speechless, gaped helplessly at the closed door.

No, Hyp and Than didn't witness the birth. That'd just be weird.

[elietta]

Elietta *Grins viciously and posts Macaria's story on internet* You know I will never let you hear the end of this, right? What are you willing to do to make me ever shut up? *Smirk*

[Hades]

Yeeee. :3
www.fanfiction.net/s/5160469/13/Little_Miss_Flames_And_Flowers

Chapter XII - Zeus is an Idiot - As Usual - and Hades and Seph's Baby is Named, Albeit Cruelly

Almost shyly, Hades lingered by the door. It was possibly the longest moment in his life he had been utterly speechless.

The entire house was dark—that was, of course, what happened when the goddess of night and the god of darkness got married and lived in a house together—and in the dark, Hades could make out a few dark shapes, gathered around an equally as dark bed. There was one large one easily recognizable as Demeter, perched by the edge of the bed with a faint green glow around her body. Nyx was the slender one next to Demeter, a practically unnoticeable navy blue aura circling her. She was also equally as recognizable; Nyx had a cape that twinkled with dozens of stars, and her hair, which was large, black, poofy, and tied in a ponytail that hung all the way down her back, also sparkled with tiny white dots.

And then Persephone, outlined in soft pink, was the obvious one in the bed.

He squinted, and choked back a gasp as he realized that there was another, much smaller, baby-sized shape, also outlined in pink, nestled in her arms.

Hades wasn’t sure if anyone noticed him standing there. Nyx and Demeter were watching the baby, and any sounds he could have made would have been drowned out by his kid’s screaming. He was practically invisible in the dark, anyway. His hair provided a dim blue light, but didn’t do much to make things any more visible, much like the three (four) other divinities’ auras did nothing to discern their faces. He was silent, listening to the baby scream when suddenly he…she…it quieted (he couldn’t even be sure what gender his new baby was—he couldn’t see it and its crying did nothing to distinguish genders), and he heard Persephone giggle softly.

Hades found his voice. “So anyone wanna light the damn place up so I can actually see the kid?”

Pause. The dark shapes turned to them, and somehow in the dark he saw…sensed, rather, Persephone smiling at him.

“It’s a girl,” offered Nyx.

Hades grinned slowly.

He had a kid. He had a daughter. The King and Queen had a Princess.

“Fabulous,” spoke Hades, his fingers interlacing, “Now, how ‘bout those lights…?”

“Honestly, Hades,” Demeter said, her voice shrill, “Are the lights really all you care about?!”

Hades stared in disbelief, then flared, angrily proclaiming, “I want to see my kid, is that really so much to ask?! I happen to not be able to see in the freaking dark—oh, wait.” He blinked, and struggled to keep himself flared. The light from the furious orange flames was crappy, yes, but there was just enough so that he could see things a bit clearer. The room was cast in a pleasant tangerine glow, and Hades’ eyes fell on first Nyx, then Demeter, then Persephone and then finally the sleeping infant in her arms.

He only got to look at her for a second, and even then, it wasn’t much of a look. The light, as mentioned before, was crappy, and all he could really tell was that she was asleep. He hesitantly changed back to blue and grey, then put his hands on his hips, and hissed to Demeter and Nyx , “Lights, please!”

“Alright,” said Demeter and Nyx in unison. The goddess of night waved a hand, and the darkness in the room brightened, but only slightly. She cocked her head, frowned, and called out as loud as she dared; “Erebus?”

The god of shadows melted from…from wherever, and Demeter instinctively backed up against the wall. Nyx glided over to him, and they spoke softly for a moment. The god of shadows and darkness raised a black hand and instantly the entire dark room brightened. Demeter, Hades, and Persephone blinked in the sudden light, and directed a triple gaze to Nyx and Erebus. The pair bowed to their fellow divinities.

“We’ll leave you three alone,” said Nyx, smiling, and she backed out the door, Erebus silently following her. Her voice (“Where’d you put the twins?”) was heard outside of the house, and then everything was quiet as the two of them teleported somewhere else.

Hades opened his mouth to say something, but the words died abruptly on his tongue.

Persephone motioned him over, and he obeyed without a word, eyes wide. Still silent, Hades leaned back against the wall behind the bed as casually as he possibly could and he stared at the sleeping child in his wife’s arms.

She had light pink skin, like Persephone did, and a tuft of blonde hair stuck straight up on her head. Her (tiny) nose curved like Persephone’s did, and her face was even shaped like Seph’s…

“Persephone, you have a clone,” Hades said, awe-struck.

“Thank the gods,” said Demeter, sounding genuinely happy. Persephone couldn’t help but beam.

“What are the odds?” she mused, twirling a finger around in the baby’s little puff of hair; she continued to sleep, oblivious. “Hm, she didn’t get anything of yours?” Persephone glanced up at Hades, frowning a bit. What were the odds? You needed two to make a baby, and that meant traits from both parents contributed. So why was the baby practically a carbon copy of Persephone?

“Oh, wait, she’s got my ears,” said Hades suddenly, and he grinned as Persephone and Demeter blinked.

“What?” Demeter and Persephone said in unison, and then both looked at the same time. Sure enough, the little goddesses’ pink ears ended in points, like her father’s. Persephone and Hades both looked pleased with this, but Demeter looked less then thrilled.

“Brilliant, Hades, you infected a near-perfect baby with your warped genes,” groaned Demeter, pinching the bridge of her nose and squeezing her eyes shut, “Thank you, thank you very much.”

“So sorry, next time, I’ll try to single out better genes,” snapped Hades sarcastically.

“Better genes or not, they’d still be yours,” Demeter hissed loudly, and Persephone glared at both of them.

“Thank you both, for waking up the baby,” said Persephone, narrowing her eyes. She glanced down at the infant, who was staring up at the three ‘new’ divinities with wide eyes and a trembling lower lip, about to start crying again. Her eyes were, just like Persephone’s, violet. Demeter again looked quite relieved.

“At least we’ll be able to take her out in public,” murmured Demeter happily and Hades and Persephone glared at her. There was always lots of glaring in the Underworld, Hades noted dryly, everyone was always glaring at everyone no matter when or why...

'”Just shut the hell up, please?” said Persephone pleadingly and Demeter rolled her eyes. Hades ignored the both of them and resumed staring at his daughter, who stared back, the tears fading; both equally as curious about each other.

“Hades,” said Persephone suddenly, sounding alarmed, “What are we going to name her?”

Hades shifted his gaze to Persephone, hesitated a moment, and shrugged. The baby blinked and looked over up at Persephone.

Demeter gave a snorting laugh. “Are you kidding me? You’ve had nine months to think about this, and you didn’t pick out a name yet?! Wow.”

“Like you had picked out my name in the first two months,” sneered Persephone, her eyes narrowing again.

“I had, actually,” sniffed Demeter, “So there.”

“Kindly keep your baby naming advice to yourself, Demeter, you’re scaring said baby,” snapped Hades, glancing back down at his daughter, who looked ready to burst into tears any second again. Demeter did look apologetic, but she quickly got over it.

“Well, what are you going to name her? She’s got to have a name,” hissed Demeter through clenched teeth, “You can’t just go around calling her ‘The Baby.’ Gods, you two are so stupid, why didn’t you even think of this bef—”

Demeter had started to yell again and the sudden loudness apparently startled the child that was in Persephone’s arms. Her little pink face contorted, and she started to cry again. Hades instinctively took a step back, and resumed giving Demeter a dirty look from a small distance.

Persephone let her cry, but held onto her tighter and gave Demeter her own nasty look. Her mother was obnoxious, but even an obnoxious person should have more sense then to upset a newborn baby. Evidently Demeter didn’t, and now they all had to pay the earsplitting price.

Persephone supposed that trying to quiet the baby would do no good. After the initial shock of being, well, born, Persephone doubted that anything said or done could quiet her other then the baby deciding to do so herself. And then with Demeter’s yelling…no, Hades and Persephone’s child could keep on crying as long as she liked. Hopefully it’d make Demeter leave faster.

But as the little princesses’ screams grew louder, Demeter didn’t leave; in fact she did quite the opposite, and literally snatched the baby from Persephone’s arms.

“Hey!” cried Persephone and Hades in unintended unison, and noise made her wail louder. Demeter rolled her eyes.

“You two have no idea how to handle a child,” said Demeter, “This poor little girl, she’s so lucky she came out of this looking somewhat normal—” She glared at the ears. “—but now you’ve got to curse her with a pair of outcast parents who have no idea what they’re doing, and she’s going to have to grow up in a….a hellhole. Gods, this poor child…and you two don’t even know how to calm her down when she’s crying, for the love of Zeus, honestly!”

The baby had in fact quieted, and was staring with wide eyes at the stranger who had taken her away from the person she had just been sleeping on. Her voice was the same as the voice that had woken her up, and now she had taken her away from her mommy, and she was yelling…

With a screech, the Princess of the Underworld squirmed in Demeter’s arms and promptly burst into flame.

Hades and Persephone both gaped, jaws hanging open, as Demeter screamed bloody murder and flailed, removing the things that had been supporting the baby A.K.A her arms, and letting the flaming, scowling child drop. Hades’ arm turned to smoke and caught the child seconds before impact.

Said child blinked, a bit stunned, her fists curling under the black mini-blanket that had been previously wrapped around her body. The arm of smoke shrank and turned back to, well, just an arm, and, not bothering to stop the smirk that was slapped across his face, Hades stared at his daughter with pleasure. Her light pink skin had flushed light orange, the blonde tuft had dissolved into a little puff of orange and scarlet fire, and her violet irises had vanished; her eyes had become completely yellow, just like Hades’ were. And if you looked carefully, there were dark shadows all around her eyes. Just like daddy.

Persephone looked on, delighted, while Demeter pressed herself against the wall and hyperventilated. Grinning wider, Hades ignited a finger and held it out for the baby, who grasped it happily and flared back. It wasn’t much of a flare, just a little surge of heat and a few dozen sparks, but considering that, plus her current appearance, Hades was completely and totally impressed.

The fact that she had managed to scare Demeter out of her wits at the age of, um, like, fifteen minutes was a pleasant bonus.

“…well, I’m satisfied,” said Hades happily, and the baby was obviously satisified, too, because she extinguished – everything melted back to normal; pink, blonde, and violet making a grand comeback — and yawned, settling into Hades’ arm and falling back asleep.

Hades became aware that Demeter had calmed down and was staring at them darkly. Depositing the baby in Persephone’s embrace again, he strode over to her and stared darkly back, his eyes narrowing and his arms folding.

“And just what is the problem with you now?” he said, barely controlling his surging temper.

“The problem?” echoed Demeter, her eyes narrowing as well, “Oh, no problem. Just that my daughter gave birth to DEMON SPAWN!” Her words ended in a scream, and Persephone nervously glanced down at the baby; she was still asleep.

“Mother, please,” said Persephone flatly.

“Excuse me,” snapped Hades sarcastically, “I’m terribly sorry that my child doesn’t meet your expectations, Demeter.”

“My expectations?! Never mind my expectations, what about the expectations of Olympus?! Of the Underworld? Of Earth, the mortals?! Your child is a demon,” Demeter shrieked, “Bad enough she got your ears,” she sneered at this, “and now you pass on your….your disgusting powers to her, too, just….ugh!”

Hades flared up, and was about to snap a retort, but suddenly, the room erupted in bright light, and there was a whooshing noise as suddenly, the image of the god Zeus appeared in the air.

It was out of smoke, or whatever, just a mirage…he wasn’t really there, but he was there at the same time, and the image smiled brightly at the three (four) gods in the room. Demeter looked so relieved. Hades and Persephone looked less then thrilled, and the baby whined and opened her eyes.

“I’m guessing you didn’t come to see the baby,” said Persephone, her eyes narrowed. Zeus didn’t pick up on the sarcasm.

“No, no, I’ve come for a different matter entirely,” Zeus said happily, “You all must come up to Olympus. Hera’s just given birth to the new Prince of Olympus—”

Was it her imagination, or had the infant in her arms just scowled at the mention of another baby? Persephone blinked.

“—and you need to come up and see him,” the god finished, and beamed, “His name’s Hercules. He’s just the cutest thing.”

“I’m sure,” said Hades dryly, folding his arms.

“Oh, I’d love to see him!” said Demeter quickly, smiling, and, giving Hades and Seph and the baby nasty looks, she vanished, up to Olympus.

Zeus beamed, and then looked expectantly at Hades and Persephone.

They stared back.

“…oh, you can not be serious,” said Hades, his eyes wide and his hair turning orange, “You’re saying that you honestly expect me and Seph to drop everything—”

“—including our newborn baby,” chimed Persephone, an edge to her voice.

“—and head on up to Olympus to see some brat who neither of us care about?” Hades finished, and glared at Zeus, the rest of him flushing orange to match his hair. Zeus blinked.

“That’s exactly it,” he said happily, and Hades resisted the urge to slap a hand to his forehead and groan.

“You are an idiot,” said Persephone coldly, pressing her baby protectively to her chest. The infant clung to her, whimpering and sniffling, about to start crying again.

Zeus actually looked confused. “I don’t….I…” His voice trailed off, and he scrunched his face up and blinked. “I want both of you to come up to Olympus. Now. You just have to—”

“We’re not going anywhere!” said Persephone, and Hades flared more and agreed, nodding.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, brother dear,” Hades said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, “I’m also relishing my sudden fatherhood.” These words were also spoken sarcastically; however Persephone distinctly noticed that his voice was less sarcastic then before.

Zeus blinked. “Oh really?” he said, skeptical.

“Yes, really,” snapped Hades, and Persephone took her cue and held up the baby, who started to cry again.

Hades and Zeus winced at the volume; Persephone, motherly instincts already kicking in, snuggled the baby back to her and she quieted hesitantly.

“…well,” said Zeus finally, a bit stunned by the fact that his little brother was trying to steal his spotlight. The image of him folded it’s arms. “I still want you on Olympus. Bring the kid,” he said sulkily.

“Uh, no,” said Hades, “I’ll pass on that one.” He shot Zeus a sarcastic grin. Zeus missed the sarcasm in it and slowly grinned back. Idiot.

“Hades, honestly. Don’t you want to meet your nephew?” He turned to Persephone. “And don’t you?”

“Not at all,” said Persephone smoothly.

“Not when we have a kid of our own to worry about,” agreed Hades, vanishing and reappearing next to Seph, his arm around her. She beamed at him.

“That’s ridiculous,” Zeus whined, and Hades flared again in outrage. Ridiculous?! He was the ridiculous one. What kind of moron asked a couple to go up and see some stupid kid after that couple had just given birth to a child themselves. Uh….hello?!

At that moment, Demeter reappeared in the room, to Hades and Persephone’s dismay.

“I thought you were done with us,” Hades said flatly, and Demeter ignored him and turned to Zeus.

“Oh, your baby’s wonderful!” she exclaimed brightly, “So sweet, such a darling little thing. He certainly takes after his parents.” Zeus beamed at this.

“Oh, yes, he’s a sweetie,” Demeter continued to gush, and then she turned and glared directly at Hades, Seph, and the baby. “And he’s perfectly normal, too. No demonic qualities to him.”

“Hmmph,” muttered Hades, scowling.

“See?” said Zeus excitedly, “Now, you must come see him, he’s just the—”

“I don’t care,” Hades said irritably. He really didn’t. He had other things to worry about. The baby, for example.

“We didn’t even name our baby,” said Persephone almost pleadingly, “Go away, leave us alone, we’ll come see your stupid kid tomorrow or something.”

Zeus pouted. “Oh, but—”

“Forget it.” Demeter sighed. “You’ll never get anywhere with these two. Leave them with their hell-spawn baby.” She sniffed haughtily at the end of her sentence and stuck her nose in the air, her hands on her hips. Hades rolled his eyes.

Zeus hesitated, considering this. Finally, he narrowed his eyes. “Well,” said the god, his tone childish and sulky, “I didn’t want you two outsiders infecting my child with your….your Underworld-ness anyway.” And the image vanished, as Hades rolled his eyes and switched to sarcasm.

“Oh, gee, I’m stung. I’m not wanted on Olympus? Really? This is new!” Hades scowled and folded his arms. “Zeus can go screw himself, for all I care.”

“Why would he do that when he has most of Greece’s female population to screw?” Persephone grinned, and Hades gave her a look and snickered.

“So mature,” sneered Demeter, staring with distaste at Persephone’s child, “And you still haven’t named the baby yet.”

“I got nothing,” Hades said, annoyed, “How ‘bout giving us suggestions instead of telling us to just name the baby?”

“Yes, be helpful,” agreed Persephone flatly.

Demeter gave them looks, and then fell silent, considering. Her lips finally twisted up in a cruel smile. “Give her an ironic name,” Demeter suggested dryly, “Macaria.”

Persephone blinked. “Macaria…’blessed’?” she questioned, translating the word, and then the cruelty of the remark sunk in and she gaped at Demeter; Hades’ jaw dropped.

“MOTHER!” shrieked Persephone, “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“You wanted a suggestion,” said Demeter coldly.

“Harsh,” seethed Hades, flaring up. Demeter simply shrugged.

There was a pause. The unnamed baby stirred in Persephone’s arms. She had gone from quiet silence to yawning to sleep and was snoozing comfortably now.

“…actually,” said Hades finally, leaning against the wall, “Call me crazy-slash-cruel-slash-sadistic, but I actually like Macaria. It has a ring to it, y’know? Forget the ironic cruelty.” He glared at Demeter.

Persephone let out a quiet moan. “Oh, she’ll hate us if we name her that.”

“When she’s a teenager, she’ll hate us anyway,” Hades pointed out, smirking, and Persephone hesitated and shrugged.

“Whatever. I don’t know what else to call her, anyway. And you can get cute nicknames from Macaria.” She grinned. “We can call her Maci!”

Demeter’s smile slowly faded, and she scowled at them. “I wasn’t being serious,” she tried to say, but the couple ignored her, and beamed down at the child.

“Macaria it is,” said Hades, smirking, and she actually coincidentally opened her eyes and blinked slowly at the mention of her new name.

Next thing on the list, show off the new baby to the rest of the Underworldians, Hades made a mental note and smirked wider to himself.

[Warren Peace]

*laughing on the floor* Oh, GOD!!! DEMETER named Maci?! I did NOT see that one coming!!!

[~Elisa Maza~]

Neither did I. I love the fact that she burned Demeter though. So saw that coming, and it was awesome. Go Maci.

[Macaria]

Chapter XIII- Hades and Persephone Show Off The Baby, and the Nightmare Pair meet Maci

“I’m sorry,” said Hercules rather flatly, “But I don’t believe my father would do such a…a…a…”

“Stupid?” suggested Meg, and Hercules reluctantly nodded.

“…such a stupid thing like that…I mean…didn’t he see that you had just had a…a baby?!” Hercules folded his arms and glared at Persephone, who rolled her violet eyes.

“Hercules,” said Persephone patiently, “Your father is much less intelligent then you think he is.”

Hercules opened his mouth to reply, then fell silent, seemingly realizing that arguing with her would bring them no-where.

Persephone smiled brightly, satisfied with his silence. “Okay. So, where were we?” She tapped a finger against her chin and thought for a moment. “Hades and I didn’t do anything with little Macaria for the next few days—giving birth is an exhausting experience for mother and baby, neither of us wanted to move,” she giggled a little to herself at this, “So….I guess we’ll jump to…”

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…it was a few weeks after Macaria’s birth, and the couple were perfectly delighted with the new baby.

She had spent most of the first days of her life with her eyes closed, whether in Persephone’s/Hades’ arms or in her all black crib, but around the third day, Maci had decided that she was bored with sleeping. It was a good thing she couldn’t talk yet, because they were sure that she would be demanding to be shown around the Underworld if she could.

She couldn’t talk, no, but she could scream and cry, and she did exactly that. Hades and Seph had no issue with little Maci not sleeping, but the thing was, those moments not sleeping were spent screaming and inducing headaches.

She had woken the two up in the middle of the night once and Hades, who had been surprisingly tolerant of his daughter’s crying, flared and buried his face in his hands furiously. “I’m sure she’s doing this on purpose,” he had muttered under his breath to Persephone, who was awake next to him and was trying not to yawn, “I think she’s just trying to see how mad she can get us before we strangle her or somethin’.”

“She’s a baby,” Persephone had pointed out, her eyes half open but a smile on her lips.

“She’s my daughter. She’s more then capable of being evil at three weeks old.”

Macaria had screamed again and Hades had rolled his eyes and groaned as Persephone hesitantly stood up.

“Hey, d’ya think she’d suffocate if we gagged her?” Hades then had gone on to ask, smirking, “I mean, it’s worth a shot, right?”

Persephone merely glared at him before poofing to the next room.

Between all the crying, Persephone and Hades had begun to pick up on their young daughter’s growing personality. Hades had been ecstatic, in an evil, sadistic way, when she had flared up at Pain and Panic the first time they had tried to approach her, and then had gone on to try and pull off their tails. (She had gotten bored of it after a moment and fallen asleep, but the effect had still been made.) Any moment her parents attention wasn’t on her, she became upset (only further increasing Hades’ suspicions that she was crying and waking them up on purpose)…

It was also pretty obvious that she was, or would be upon growing older, a complete Daddy’s Girl. There were times—many times—when Macaria refused to shut up unless Hades was the one doing the shutting. Persephone didn’t mind it, in fact, she made it a point to be there giggling whenever Hades was with his daughter. She couldn’t help it. Hades was very rarely in such adorable situations.

In terms of powers, all that could be noted was that Macaria, quite obviously, had control of fire like Hades did. When she was angry, she flared up into red and orange flame like Hades did. As for creating fireballs and other fire-related powers, all the godling could do for now was create small heat surges and sparks.

“She’ll get there in time,” Hades had explained to Persephone, “I started out doing pretty much the same thing, until I was like…three. The powers got better, of course, by then, I was in Cronus’ stomach, so they were kinda no use for me.”

Maci had clenched her tiny fists and several bright sparks erupted from them, like fireworks. Hades smirked at her and she giggled back.

“You’re gonna have to show her how to use them,” Persephone had stated, “I’ve got no idea how to work, um, pyromaniacal powers.”

Hades gave her a look, then snickered.

Now, Hades, Persephone, and the new addition were in the throne room, Persephone sitting cross-legged in her throne with Maci in her arms. Hades sat besides her in his own throne, and the two of them were deep into conversation.

“…I just don’t know. I mean, of course I wanna show her off but…” Persephone’s voice trailed off and she glanced down at Macaria. The little goddess was very busy trying to yank Persephone’s necklace down to her level so she could eat it.

“But what? Seph, it’s just us who wanna show her off,” said Hades, reaching over to his wife and Macaria and moving the necklace out of the way with a finger. Macaria made a face at him. “It’s the rest of the Underworld that wanna see her.”

“Yes, but…” Persephone sighed and glanced at Macaria, who was still glaring sulkilyat Hades. “Won’t it be…stressful for her?”

Hades tilted his head, considering this.

“All those people…” added Persephone doubtfully, “I…I dunno, I just think she’d panic, or something.”

Panic glanced up at the sound of his name, looked around, then realized he hadn’t been called and went back to playing Tic Tac Toe with Pain in the dust.

“Why would my daughter get panicky from a crowd?” scoffed Hades, “And you, too….you’re hardly Little Miss People-Avoider yourself.”

“I’m not saying she’s shy or anything,” pointed out Persephone, “I’m just saying that…well, she’s a baby, Hades, she might get overwhelmed—” She gasped suddenly as she was yanked forwards by her necklace, which Macaria had managed to latch onto; Persephone squeaked as the godling pulled it off completely, the thin chain that held the diamond skull snapping.

“You little…” Persephone stared at her daughter with astonishment and a flash of fury, which quickly faded as Macaria giggled sweetly, proud of herself.

Hades was trying his hardest not to laugh, and was failing quite miserably. Persephone glared at him and grabbed the skull out of her hands; she had been trying to eat it.

“Ew. Don’t eat diamond,” said Persephone with wide eyes, closing her fist around the gem and ignoring Macaria’s squeals of protest, “Ugh, Hades, can you fix this for me later?” She deposited the broken necklace into Hades’ outstretched hand, then leaned back with a sigh and a glare at Maci.

“Don’t break things that aren’t yours,” Hades mock-scolded his daughter (she stuck her tongue out at him sullenly), then stood up from his throne and paced across the room to his chessboard.

“So what are we gonna do?” he said from there, “To show or not to show?”

“That is the question,” murmured Persephone dryly, and fell silent, thinking.

Hades paced in a circle around his chessboard, then turned back to Persephone. “C’mon, please?”

Persephone sighed. “…I guess, but—”

Hades beamed triumphantly, and she shot him a glare. She hadn’t been finished talking.

“But, if she gets upset, we’re kicking everyone out straightaway, no arguments, okay? Got it?”

“Fine. Whatever.” Hades rolled his eyes, and turned to the imps. They both stood and snapped to attention, their Tic Tac Toe game swept away with a claw.

“How may we be of assistance, boss?” said Pain brightly.

“’Kay, here’s what ya gotta do, listening?” he said to them, and they nodded. He continued, “Go out there, frolic around the Underworld, spread the word that Seph and I are letting the Underworldians see their new Princess—”

“Cool!” exclaimed Pain and Panic excitedly. Hades ignored them and turned to Persephone.

“When are we doing this, tomorrow?” he looked to her for her input and she shrugged. “Sure. She’s falling asleep now, anyway.” Macaria’s blinking was getting slower and heavier and she yawned idly as both of them looked at her.

“Okay, fine,” said Hades, and he turned back to Pain and Panic, “There’s a showing tomorrow. Spread the word. Here in the Underworld—”

"What time?" asked Persephone.

"I dunno. Whenever." He waved his hand dismissively, not caring. Persephone shrugged.

"We'll disclose details later," Persephone told the imps, who were both focused and attentive, making sure they remembered the details they were getting, "For now, it's just 'showing in the Underworld, tomorrow.'"

"Got it!" said Panic enthusiastically.

"Excellent," said Hades calmly, "Now, shoo. Get moving." The imps nodded and scurried off to fulfill their request. Hades and Persephone beamed at each other, and Macaria blinked up with wide violet eyes at her parents.

They decided on the afternoon of the next day, and that was when they held it. The line to see Princess Macaria stretched down the hall leading up to the throne room, down the stairs, and well out the door. It seemed like every inhabitant of the Underworld was there.

Pain and Panic were letting people in one at a time, or one small group at a time in some occasions, so the chaos was kept to a minimal. Little by little, the creatures, gods, goddesses, demons and shades trailed into the throne room, stared/cooed at the baby, then trailed out, or poofed out, or climbed out, depending on what worked best for them.

Hades had been right; Macaria was far from overwhelmed, in fact, she was utterly fascinated by all the things her realm held. She amused herself by trying to grab onto any shade that came up to her (a difficult task--they were all insubstantial), and to everyone who was easy to cling to, she just giggled at.

The little goddess seemed fearless. Even when the Furies approached her, she neither flinched nor shrank back. Instead, Macaria grinned toothlessly, and tried her best to pull their sharp black claws off.

"Oh, Lord Hades, Lady Persephone, she's adorable," Tisiphone sighed happily, her bright red and pupil-less eyes shining as she and her sisters beamed down at the baby.

Persephone smiled, however, her smile was hollow--the three demon avengers freaked her out.

The fact that they were all leaning over a baby's cradle, Alecto and Megaera making cooing noises, did nothing to unnerve this creeped out feeling. Persephone supressed a shudder, then politely told them their time was up and to let the next people come in, while Hades, knowing the reason she was casting them out, snickered quietly.

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The next few people (a few shades and some cat thing) were boring and created no memorable events (although Macaria enjoyed herself, trying to pull off the cat-thing's whiskers for her own personal gain--whatever that might have been). The next guests--all four of them--were much more interesting, and as soon as the parent figures walked into the room, Hades groaned and covered his face with his hands.

"Splendid," he muttered to Persephone, his voice low enough so that Nyx and Erebus couldn't hear him, "Chances are they brought the Nightmare Pair, huh?"

"Stop it," she scolded him, watching Nyx vanish suddenly to just outside the door from the corner of her eye, "Hypnos and Thanatos are sweet."

"I'm sorry, which Hypnos and Thanatos are we talking about? Nyx-and-Erebus Hypnos and Thanatos? Hah, no, not sweet; violent and insane and destructive, yes, sweet, no."

"Gimme a break," scoffed Persephone, and Hades glared at her and said, "You really wanna bring those two near a newborn-ish baby's crib? Speak up now or forever hold your peace."

"They won't...." she started, but trailed off as Nyx returned to the room, looking sheepish, and dragging a twin behind her in each hand.

The resemblance between the two was uncanny - they had the same faces, and the same hair (Thanatos' was messier, albeit, but...details...pfft...), and were wearing the same type of chitonbut their color schemes were practically opposite from each other. Hypnos' skin was light blue and he had blond hair--Thanatos had scarlet colored skin, and black hair. Hypnos in return had blue eyes, and Thanatos had red ones....their chitons were darker shades of their skin tones. Both of them looked pretty damn miserable, too, although Hypnos looked more like he was about to pass out on the spot rather then throw a temper tantrum like Thanatos looked like he was about to. Fitting, considering their positions - Hypnos was the god of sleep, and Thanatos, the god of death. ...Or, at least, they would be, when they got older...

"I'm sorry," apologized Nyx, smiling wearily, "Couldn't find a place to deposit them."

"Brilliant," muttered Hades, and glared at them both.

"I wanna go home," said Thanatos sulkily, "And give me back my scythe."

"Don't give it back, he tried to slash me with it last time," whimpered Hypnos, shrinking back, and Nyx rolled her eyes and shoved both of them to Erebus.

"So! Let me see Macaria," said Nyx happily, and the goddess of night vanished and reappeared by Macaria's cradle. Maci blinked at her, and stared mystified at the stars that twinkled in her hair and cape.

"Mo-om, I don't want to see the baby." Thanatos glared at her and folded his arms--Hypnos rolled his eyes and stifled a yawn. "That makes one of us," said Hypnos, and Thanatos shot him a glare, too.

"Well, not everything's up to you," said Nyx, turning from Macaria to face her seven year old son, "Chill out, we'll go in a sec."

"Chill out," Hypnos told his brother happily, and Thanatos shoved him. He shoved back, and then the two were clawing at each other.

"Dear gods," muttered Hades, and Persephone blinked.

"Dear gods is right," agreed Nyx miserably, and she raised her voice: "HEY! CUT IT OUT!"

The twins stopped fighting and sulkily folded their arms while sitting on their knees on the floor.

"I wanna go home," stated Thanatos, and for whatever reason, a pair of wings melted out of his back - they were ebony black. The god floated stubbornly off the ground, then hovered in the air with his arms still folded. Hypnos joined him a second later, and his wings were white....Erebus shook his head at both of them and yanked them down to Earth.

"The sooner we go see the Princess, the sooner you can go home, so if I were you, I'd cooperate," Erebus informed them solemnly. Hypnos nodded excitedly, then tugged on Thanatos' chiton sleeve.

"Just co'perate," he repeated, and attempted to drag him across the room.

It might have worked, except he suddenly fell face first onto the floor, fast asleep.

"I don't want to," said Thanatos, "I don't care. It's a stupid baby, they all look the same." He kicked Hypnos in the side and he sat up with a yelp, starting to hover in the air again. They looked like a pair of (extremely young) angels with their feathery wings out like that.

"He kicked me!" Hypnos whined, and Thanatos put his hands on his hips and retorted, "Because you fell asleep again."

"Doesn't mean you can kick me," said Hypnos, pouting.

"Just go see the baby, for crying out loud," sighed Nyx, running a hand through her black, twinkly hair.

"But I don't want to--"

"But he kicked me--"

"NOW," hissed Nyx, and they both shot into the air and flew themselves over to the cradle like a pair of pidgeons, alighting neatly side by side at the edge, and then shoving each other as they stepped in each other's spots, or whatever.

"I am suddenly so glad we didn't have twins," whispered Persephone to Hades, watching this exchange with wide eyes.

"The Nightmare Pair," said Hades simply, and Persephone leaned back against their throne, feeling a trifle nervous with how close they were to little Maci.

"It looks just like every other baby I've seen," said Thanatos flatly, unimpressed, and Hypnos glared at him and said, "Yeah-huh, you haven't seen any others."

"Both of you are ridiculous," said Nyx, "She's adorable." Macaria giggled and reached out for the stars in her hair.

"I think she's cute," said Hypnos happily.

"You would," said Thanatos flatly.

"She is cute, though, lookit, she's all little," said Hypnos, grinning.

"So?" said Thanatos, disinterested.

"So, she--" Hypnos started, broke off abruptly, then fell backwards as he lost consciousness and fell asleep again. Thanatos twisted around to stare at him, and then he reluctantly looked up to Nyx and said, disappointed, "And I'm not allowed to kick him?"

Nyx gave him a warning look, and woke Hypnos up with a sharp nudge. The little god sat up with wide eyes, then stood to peer in Macaria's cradle again. She tried to grab onto him, and as Thanatos rolled his eyes, Hypnos giggled, yawning as he did so.

Hades and Persephone just exchanged slow glances.

Thanatos and Hypnos both simultanously turned away from Macaria, and fell silent as Nyx did the same and faced Hades and Persephone.

"She really is, she's just so sweet," said Nyx, "I can't wait until she gets older, she's going to be such a pleasure to have around the Underworld. This place needed a Princess." She grinned.

"Who knows, maybe when she gets older we can fix her up with Hypnos and Thanatos," remarked Erebus, and the twins whipped around to stare at him in horror.

"Ew," said Thanatos, blinking.

"Oh, that would be interesting," said Persephone, smirking slightly.

Macaria chose that small instant of silence to reach up and yank off a fistful of white feathers from Hypnos' wing.

The god(ling) of sleep screamed at the sudden yank and then the sudden pain, startled, and shot up into the air, hovering near the ceiling while staring down with wide, terrified eyes at Macaria. Thanatos stared at him, then at the baby, who had feathers all over her, then burst out laughing.

"It's not funny!" wailed Hypnos, and Thanatos only giggled harder, slumping to the ground against the cradle, his wings melting back into him to protect them from grabby babies.

"She stole my feathers! MAKE HER GIVE THEM BACK!" shrieked Hypnos, and Nyx floated up to him (the goddess of night had to know how to fly, in order to get around the night sky....) and yanked him back down.

"Maybe we can glue them back on," Thanatos snickered cruelly, wheezing as he tried to catch his breath, "Still think she's cute?" The look Hypnos gave him was enough to send him back into peals of laughter and he fell on his side on the floor, clutching his stomach and howling wildly.

"Make her give me my feathers back," whimpered Hypnos, wide awake and looking like he was about to burst into tears, "She stole them, they're mine. She broke my wings!"

"They're not broken," Nyx told him gently, "And there's not much use for them now."

"They're mine!!" wailed Hypnos.

Thanatos stood back up, still giggling, and peered with more interest at Macaria, who blinked, and offered him a feather.

"I suddenly like her a lot more," he giggled, accepting the feather and waving it at Hypnos, who wailed louder.

"IT'S MINE! GIVE IT BACK! IT'S MINE!" Nyx and Erebus became suddenly very busy with trying to keep them seperate.

"I think we're done here," said Hades, rising from his throne and going over to Macaria's cradle, tossing the remaining feathers out and away from her. She whined and tried to hold on to them. They were her feathers. She had ripped them out fair and square.

Hypnos let out another wail. "She's eating them, she's gonna eat my feathers..."

"Oh boy," muttered Nyx under her breath, and straightened up, picking Hypnos up as she did so, and giving Thanatos a dirty look.

"Yes, we'll be going home now," she said, rolling her eyes, "Hypnos, calm down, she's not eating your feathers."

"B-but..."

"And they'll grow back, relax."

"It hurt...she stole them!"

"It'll stop hurting in a moment, and dammit, Thanatos, stop laughing before I gag you."

Thanatos shut up, still clutching a white feather in his red hands.

"And put the feather down," she sighed.

He tossed the feather back to Macaria, and it fluttered in the air and landed daintily on her nose. Macaria laughed out loud and took it back into her own tiny pink fingers.

"See you guys," said Nyx, smiling wearily, "Have fun with Maci." She, Hypnos, Thanatos, and Erebus vanished, leaving Hades and Persephone alone with Macaria, who was laughing while she played with Hypnos' discarded feather.

Persephone blinked slowly.

"Ookay. That was interesting," she said, and glided over to Macaria, standing next to Hades, "Shall we let someone else in?"

He shrugged. "Why not? Things probably can't get more hectic then that. And she's calm. She's busy with her feather."

Macaria grinned.

Persephone shrugged, and retreated to her throne.

"I've mentioned that I'm glad we didn't have twins, right?" she remarked dryly, running a hand through her hair, and Hades nodded dryly and agreed.