request: Ok It was about persephone and hades fighting when she isn't that long down there and she's so mad she leaves their castle and gets kinda lost because everything is so foreign and scary and even dangerous to her and he finds her somewhere down there really scared and exhausted
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"I never asked for this, Harry!"
(Y/N)'s shout reverberated against the shimmering granite walls of the underground palace. She was surprised that some of the twinkling gems embedded in the ceiling hadn't rained down around them from the force of her words. She hadn't even known she had that kind of frustration and rage set so deep inside her; she had figured that was more of Harry's thing.
"(Y/N), please..." Harry pleaded, the silence becoming too much for him as the crack of her words morphed into the sound of his shattering heart.
"No! You don't get to call me that! Only people who actually care about me can call me by that name," (Y/N) pressed, the sparkling tulle of her dress curling around her figure, a gift from Harry. "Address me properly, or do not address me at all, Hades."
Harry—Hades, his godly name—inhaled a deep, shaking breath. This wasn't how he saw his night panning out, not after he had gifted her the star-dotted (actual stars of course, nothing but the best for his queen) gown she was wearing and had invited her to a grand dinner in the dining hall. Although a bit quiet, everything was pleasant and Harry could have sworn his (Y/N) was beginning to warm up to the idea of staying with him. Then, he made one comment and she flipped.
Now, she was stood across from him with a furrow in her brow and her fists clenched at her sides. The atmosphere in the hallway was one he had never felt when his Persephone was home; the air heavy and electric in the most unpleasant of ways. Tears of frustration were clouding her vision, and (Y/N) wasn't even sure how she had allowed her feelings to escalate like this. But she did mean it, she meant every word she said.
Harry had never asked her what she wanted, never asked her if she was willing to spend her life underground with him. He never asked her if she wanted to extend her weekend long visit to him to a lifetime long commitment. He never asked her any of those things, only asking if she was happy after the fact. She never thought he'd be just another person who didn't care to ask about her feelings; she never thought he'd be anything like her mother that he so despised.
"Persephone, 'm sorry. You know I would never hurt you. I did all of this thinking y'would be happy, m'love." Harry hardened his voice as he spoke, trying his best to keep his emotions in check and be the strong god he was supposed to be, instead of the crumbling man he was inside.
"Well," she breathed, her words just as watery as the tears lacquering over her eyes, "You were wrong."
And with that, (Y/N) fled the palace. She was gone in a whirlwind of tulle and glitter and luminescent tears. The warmth of her arm just barely grazed Harry's own as she brushed passed him with not so much as a glance.
Persephone had no idea where she was going, still unfamiliar with all of her surroundings, but she knew where she wasn't going to be and that was beside Harry. She didn't care that he had called after her while she marched out of the sprawling palace he called a home, she didn't care about the heartbroken look in his eyes, she didn't care about anything he had to say or do or anything that he might use to sway her into softening. This was the one time she wouldn't allow herself to soften. All she wanted was for him to listen.
In her rush out, (Y/N) didn't even consider what it was that she was walking into. Harry had always been extremely vigilant when showing her around his realm, a list of rules embedded in her memory. She was never to stray too close to the River Styx, never to eat anything he didn't offer her himself, and, most importantly, never to go out alone. She hadn't a care about any of those guidelines in that moment, her mind too hazed by hurt.
All she wanted was to be alone and away from Hades. She didn't care—or notice, really—that she had trailed so far from the palace grounds. She had no idea that the trail of stardust that glittered before her was attracting more things than just the light. Persephone had no idea that by the time she flopped down beside what she had perceived to be an old willow tree, her back cushioned by the trunk, that there was more to the underground garden than she could see.
(Y/N) sat in silence, barely able to hear her own labored breathing as her tears came down. She was surrounded by what she could only describe as a deathly silence, that not even the actual dead could penetrate. All she could hear was the sound of nothing. The perpetual nighttime of this realm was intensified by the way each of the shadows surrounding her seemed to elongate in an attempt to wrap around her and pull the goddess into their clutches.
But all she could think about was Harry.
Gone were her eerie surroundings, instead each of the hungry tree limbs blurred into a mass that somehow ended up resembling that of the King of the Underworld. It only made (Y/N) cry harder.
How had they ended up like this?
Just a week ago, Harry had visited her in her home on the mortal land and lounged with her all day in the sunlight and whispered the sweetest things to her all while holding her more gently than even the flowers that had popped up around their forms. Just a week ago, she had confessed her love for him and she remembers the way his typically pale skin heat with the warm pink of a blush she never even knew he could produce. Just a week ago, she decided she would never love anyone or anything the way she loved her Harry.
Now, she couldn't even think of him without a fresh onslaught of tears to surface.
He could shower her in all of the expensive gifts and sticky, sweet nothings he wanted, but there was never going to be anything more sentimental to her than if he had just talked to her and listened. She was now stuck in the most unfamiliar place to her. As the Goddess of Spring as well as fertility, her entire essence was intertwined with life and rebirth, and everything that didn't exist in this realm. She had never been somewhere so dark and dead.
She had never been somewhere that held such a sinister energy, as if it wanted to take her own soul and add it to the swirling river that moaned all night long of missed loved ones, missed warmth, and the grief over a missed life. Not even she could bring a shred of life to this place.
Especially not to the cold, rotting thing that had just spoken.
Or, more like whispered to her. The curling wisps of its words weaved through her ears and took a heady grip on her spine. The chilling voice cooed behind her, speaking of her warmth. A phantom hand ghosted along her arm, the fingers leaving a streak of blackened goo on her skin in its wake. The substance instantly froze on her skin, making her entire body go rigid.
Call it a morbid curiosity (she figures she kind of had to have a bit of that to be able to fall in love with someone like Hades), but (Y/N) needed to see what it was that had reached out to her. She slowly turned her head, her breath stunted in her windpipe. Behind her, instead of the Weeping Willow she had seen at first, now a mass of tangled, gnarled bodies were planted. The collection was made up of prominently skeletal remains being decorated with strings of rotting flesh and the same black goo that had frozen against Persephone's skin. Although none of the creatures had eyes, she could still feel each gaze on her, accented with the frozen breath coming from their phantom lungs.
She worked up a scream, scrambling away from the tree of bones. Her voice died in her throat at the same time a pair of half decomposed hands wrapped around her neck. A face with skin dripping from the exposed skull surged forward, close enough that if it had a nose, it would be touching her's.
It's crooked jaw opened, sticky, chilling breath fanning across her face. "Stay," it sighed, the word being dragged out in an eerie call. "Warm."
The single syllables shook her more than she ever could have imagined. She tried to fight against the creature's hold, her own fingers unable to complete a grip around the blood-soaked bone it had for a wrist. Instead, several other pairs of hands grabbed ahold of her. She didn't know what else to do, feeling herself become incapacitated at the hands of the skeletons surrounding her as they chained her limbs in the cage of their fingers. They pulled at her skin, tearing the same dress Harry had given to her not even two hours earlier, moaning about feeling her warmth. Soon enough, she could feel the tell-tale sting of her skin being scraped by the rough bones of the creatures around her.
The feeling caused her to jolt back, the force of her movement strong enough to cause the grip on her neck to momentarily fall. She took the opportunity to gulp down as much air as possible before calling out to the one person she knew would come for her no matter what.
"Harry!" she screamed, her voice strong despite the sore throat, "Hades!"
As soon as she got her calls to him out, the skeletons tightened their hold on her with the zombie hands returning to her neck. The grip was twice as strong as before, leaving just enough room for her to keep conscious. She was now getting dragged into the trunk of the "tree", her dress catching on the pin bones that littered the ground and scratched into her skin. Non-stop tears fell from her eyes; the look of Harry's heartbroken face to be the last real thing she ever saw, her final words to him being how wrong he was in his efforts to make her happy.
(Y/N) couldn't hear a thing over the sound of the thousands of voices calling for her to stay and preaching of how warm she was. The creatures were everywhere, no part of her body was safe against their unrest and yearning for her life.
Then, it all stopped.
The hands on her neck disappeared, the cage of bones surrounding each of her limbs crept away from her skin. The same moaning voices that had called for her to stay had now become wails of terror. Persephone had opened her eyes just enough to see each of the creatures recoiling into their previous position, solidifying back into the tree-like creation that had tricked her before. The only evidence of their attack on her was the welts around her neck from the exposed joints pinching her skin, as well as the mix of blood and black sludge marring her skin.
Hades was quick to pull (Y/N) behind him, gently ushering her behind his back as he stalked towards the willow with a murderous glare in his eyes. His signature bident clutched in his hand as he said words she couldn't seem to catch, although he was shouting in a way she had never heard from him before. It wasn't until one of the spirits that had terrorized her came alive again with its hands now trying to clutch at Harry did everything come falling down again.
Heaving sobs pulled at her chest as she fought to breathe again, but it was as if her lungs were unable to support the deep breaths she wanted so badly. She could feel herself becoming lightheaded from her uneven inhales, unable to pay attention to the scene that was playing out just yards from her. She curled in on herself, her knees to her chest with her tattered dress hanging from her body and her face hidden. She felt her tears sting her where the skeletons had pulled at her skin, only adding to the reality of what happened.
"(Y/N)?"
His hand settled on her shoulder, whatever had been happening by the willow now forgotten as his attention was all on her. Harry was here. He came for her, just like she knew he would.
"Harry!"
(Y/N) unfurled her body and scrambled to her feet in a rush to get to Harry as fast as possible. He gathered her into his arms in an instant, his typically cool skin feeling as if it were on fire as he held her. Persephone's tears never lessened, only turning into those of relief. He cooed to her with his lips against her hair, gently hushing her as best he could. He edged them away from the deceiving willow tree, walking his crying goddess as best he could into a slightly safer part of the "garden". She stumbled along with him her with her hands clutching his robes as if the ghouls from before would reach out and take her again. It made Hades' heart hurt. He knew he should have followed her.
"H-Harry," she whispered, her voice cracking.
"'M right here, m'love," he cooed, his voice just as quiet as he tried to soothe her.
She took in a deep stuttering breath, holding herself even tighter against him as she found her next round of jagged words. "T-They—They want—wanted to keep me!" she gasped, "I wasn't going to-to be able to go ba-back to you!"
"I know, I know, m'love. But s'okay, yeah? 'M here now, and I've got you; never gonna let anything take y'from me." Harry began sweeping his hands along her back, his fingers catching in holes of the fabric of her dress. He would have to have another one made, wouldn't he?
"It was s-so scary!"
That bit broke Harry's heart more than anything. He never wanted anything in his realm to scare (Y/N), always trying his best to find a way to cushion the realities around her. He never wanted anything that had to do with him, to be something that she found frightening. She was the one person he wouldn't ever be able to handle being scared of him.
"I know," he whispered, "'M so sorry."
He didn't know what else to say as she continued to cry. The tears were now silent as they fell, her breathing coming down to a few stuttered gasps few and far between the even pulls she was coaching herself through. Harry maneuvered his hold on her, bending down and sliding an arm under her knees and the other anchored around her back. She wrapped her own arms around his neck, the only acknowledgement from her of the position change. She kept her face cuddled into his neck as he continued to croon soothing words to her as he carried her back to the palace.
All of the nymphs and other creatures dwelling in the palace had scuttled away as Hades reentered, the glower on his face enough to ward them off for he rest of the night. He needed to be alone with the woman he wanted as his queen.
He carried (Y/N) over the threshold into her grand bedroom (one that he had designed himself actually), before settling her on the silken primrose pink colored sheets. She reluctantly unlatched from him, her hands falling limp into her lap with her eyes trained on them.
She looked so broken. She looked as if she was trying to cave in on herself, with the tattered and stained fabric of her dress only being a veil to conceal the way she was moments away from crumbling. Harry could pick out each mark on her flesh, the souls having done a number on her in their attempts to steal her warmth for themselves. How could he have let her leave on her own when he knew something like this could happen?
He crouched down in front her her, his knees hitting the floor a hair away from her feet. His large hands settled on her thighs, glimpses of their skin touching through the torn tulle of her dress. He ducked his head so he could see her face properly for the first time since he had heard her calls for him.
Her puffy eyes blinked at him with something he could only describe as an apology in their look.
"Y'alright, darling?"
A fresh wave of tears glossed over Persephone's eyes at Harry's questioning, her eyelids fluttering in an attempt to stave them off.
"I'm so sorry, Harry," she whispered, her voice strained as she pushed the lump in her throat down. "I shouldn't have said you don't make me happy, and I should be grateful for all the things you're doing for me, I'm so sorry—"
"No, stop," he cut her off, his voice gentle but the undertone firm as he took her face between his hands. "You've nothing to be sorry for, (Y/N). You're right. I should have talked to y'before deciding on this plan to keep y'here. I should know y'better than that. 'M the sorry one."
"But, Harry—"
"No," he reiterated, shaking his head as his thumb came to rest on her lips, "You've done nothing wrong, m'darling. And I want y'to know, that you'll never be trapped here and I was being selfish thinking I could make y'stay like this. Y'can leave whenever you'd like and y'don't ever have to come back if y'don't want. I only want you to be happy, m'love."
Hades felt a lump in his throat grow as he spoke, doing his best to stay strong for his love, even at the thought of never seeing her again. But it was true, what he said about her being happy. If her happiness was found elsewhere away from him, he would honor that and do anything in his power to keep her happy, including staying away.
"I-I don't want to leave. I'm happy with you," she sniffled, her lips moving under his thumb. The incident out in the garden was enough to put things into perspective for (Y/N), and she knew it meant something that in what she had perceived to be her final moments, all she could think about was Harry. Of course, there were more details to be figured out on what exactly it would mean for her to stay, but at this moment that was all she wanted. She never wanted to be even a foot away from Harry, let alone a whole realm.
Her words were a relief to him. A small smile spread across his lips, brushing her hair out of her face before tugging himself forward and pressing his lips against her own. The kiss was sweet, and unrushed. Harry used the contact to say everything he wishes he had said the moment she descended to his palace for the weekend, every little coo and hum of adoration and promises of happiness that he had gone about the wrong way in expressing. He wanted to reassure her that their day in the sunshine a week ago, when he told her he loved her with everything in him and everything he had, that he meant it and he still does and there won't ever be a day where that sentiment is untrue.
"I love you," he breathed against her lips, his hands holding her firm against him to ensure she wouldn't stray far from him ever again.
"I know."
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