DIVINE - A Persephone And Hades Retelling

ELEVEN || Ugly Words Between Brothers

Hades stood in the hall admiring the view of his wife walking away. It was shameless and unkingly of him to do so, but he was hypnotized by every part of her. The sway of her hips, her laugh, her glamorous eyes, the curve of her neck, the list only seemed to grow by the day. The sway of her hips being the most captivating part at the moment.

He was proud of her for how she was handling every part of the circumstances they found themselves in now. He had tried to keep most of it from her ears so as to not worry her unnecessarily, but she immediately saw the weight on his shoulders. Even then, she handled it like a queen. The last few days had only shown him how much she had begun to grow. It made him so proud to see her grow into herself while also growing out of her mother's shadow.

Thunderous footsteps interrupted his thoughts as Zeus approached him. It had only been one day since they last met, but since then, much had happened. He needed an update on his brother's progress before the trial could start. In the Underworld, Hades had always run his kingdom under a close watch. He kept an eye on all aspects, and if he couldn't be personally involved, he expected regular updates from whoever he trusted with the task. But this trial was far from within his control, and up until this moment, he had been given no updates on how controlling the trial had gone. It made him uneasy, not knowing, something he had worked very hard to keep from Persephone.

"Brother." Hades nodded in acknowledgment as his brother joined him.

"Brother." Zeus joked in a moke salute. Hades had always been more serious in life than Zeus. Meaning Hades had never understood how his brother got anything done with his carefree attitude. "Enjoying the view I see." Zeus nodded towards Persephone. Hades gritted his teeth together, furious at his brother's words. His brother had taken something that Hades had never seen as wrong and made him feel dirty for doing. He wanted to deny it, deny he would do anything as vulgar as his brother was insinuating. But he had been caught, and he knew it. He worked so hard to be different from either of his brothers, but this was just one more incident that proved otherwise.

"Do not be crass and do not say a word about my wife," Hades said, turning to look down at Zeus and away from his wife.

"Alright, my fault. Didn't know you'd be so touchy on the subject." Zeus said, raising his hands in defense.

"You mean you didn't know I would be protective of my wife? The woman I've put everything on the line for?" Hades said, dumbfounded.

"Honestly no, "Zeus honestly told him.

"Sometimes, I don't know how you are the king of the gods," Hades replied.

Zeus returned Hades' remark with an eye roll like he had heard it before. "You sound like my wife." The two brothers started walking in the opposite direction Persephone had, towards the entrance to Zeus' private wing. Zeus must have been looking for a more private area to discuss their plot. "Are you prepared for the shit storm coming your way?" He asked.

"As ready as I can be. What are the odds of our victory?" Hades asked, "How many gods did you get on our side?"

"We have the advantage, but not by much. Aphrodite is, of course, on 'the side of love,' as she puts it, so we can count on her support. As always, this means her puppet of a husband, Hephaestus, is also supporting you. But in turn, Ares is refusing only on the account that he refuses to agree on anything Hephaestus does." Zeus recounted.

"I'd rather have Ares than Hephaestus on our side," Hades said. While he believed the god of war to be thoughtless and bloodthirsty, he could not deny the god had a powerful presence that had a way of achieving what he needed. In a situation like this, it was just what Hades needed.