Persephone: Leonidas' Domina

34- Leonidas

He slowly slid off his rock, landing in the water before swimming towards her as he reached out for it.

When she placed it in his hands and returned back to the stool, he stared at the golden harp that had the word Narcissus engraved on it. "Domina, I can't -,"

"See it as a late birthday present," She said, not bothering to look at him. "And would you return to the rock? I need you to play it while I paint you."

Leonidas kept staring at it, his fingers trailing the name before he returned to the rock and said, "I do not even know your own birthday."

"It is the same as yours."

His head shot up to look at her that same moment, his mouth agape. "You never told me!"

"I do not celebrate it."

"I never celebrated mine either, I did it because of you."

She turned to him again, "Me?"

His face heat up one more time making him look back at the harp, his fingers now plucking the strings gently as he whispered, "It does not matter anymore."

Remembering how they had met made him smile, and even though he knew that it had been a silly encounter in the first place, he was glad that it happened.

"I have always imagined you as a siren."

Leonidas slowly raised his head to face her again, "The creature of the sea?"

"Yes," Persephone pressed the knife to the canvas now, stroking it slightly. "That you would be seated on your rock while a ship passed and playing your harp."

"I would never like to see anyone come to harm," Leonidas replied, striking a chord.

"I know," She said, now returning the knife and taking up a paintbrush, moving it across the canvas now. "Have you ever thought that there are possibly some sirens that do not want all the ships that crossed their paths to sink? Perhaps, that they would rather talk to this sailors instead of causing their doom?"

Leonidas played another note now, his face looking solemn. "I- I have never thought of that"

"I think you are just like that siren."

She kept her focus on the paint, using her thumb to flatten some strokes as she said, "That you do not have many choices on what you want. That you sit on that rock and play your harp with tears over your eyes, turning your back as the ship sinks because you do not wish that is what would happen but you cannot control it."

Leonidas did not say any words as she spoke, his hands making music silently before he began to sing the words.

It was a sad song he had once heard them play in the lounge room when Mother requested to be entertained by musicians.

It had been a man that had found his lover but for some reason, they were not meant to be. No matter what the man did, no matter how many sacrifices he made or how many choices he corrected in every lifetimes they met, they were never just meant to be.

It made him wonder if he and her were star-crossed lovers as the man and woman in the story.

The thought made him sing from the bottom of his earth, letting his sadness flow through each key that left his lips before he finished, opening his eyes as his heartbeat began to slow down, the realization hitting like bricks.

No.

He could not live without her.

No matter what happened.

"You have a lovely voice,"

Her words snapped him out of his trance as he faced her, seeing that there were paint smudges on her hands and some on her cheeks as he said, "Thank you. Was that- Was that enough for you? Do I need to keep singing so you can draw well?"