This is a very light hearted chapter with a very drunk Elie.
"Byee!" I wave off mother dearest as she runs away never looking back at the god who held me and Zeus dumps Ariel on a flabbergasted soilder before he too disappears.
We were the last to leave, my lips pinched to a thin line as I sulked. "What was that drink for?"
Hades looks to me, his expression almost fooling me to believing he had nothing to do with god who had so persistently forced down a hideous looking drink down my throat.
"It will help you recover from your current state faster."
I glare back at him wanting to grab a stone and scrape down at my tongue to kill the lingering taste. "It was disgusting."
Unflinching to my cold gaze he still defends his actions. "You won't suffer from a headache after your rest."
"It was sooo disgusting!" He looks at me for a long time before he nods not in agreement but more to himself knowing nothing would go through.
My chin was resting on his shoulders my face angled towards his in a guilty indulgence I had developed for his lustrous hair, fine like silk but even the comparison wasn't entirely fair to its addicting texture.
But as I am lulled to sleep by its brushes my droopy eyes falls on a stricking figure by the door we just entered through.
"Hey!" My eyes regain its focus and Hades isn't the least bit startled when I inch back as if he was always keeping watch. "Can you let me meet that guard over there." I point at the person who sticks himself painfully close to the wall hoping to become invisible in the eyes of the god who turns back.
"Please."
I do not give deep meaning to his tightening grip as he asks walking further away. "Why do you want to meet him?" He utters each word with careful precision and clarity like he was afraid I wouldn't hear.
Frowning, I grab hold his neckline revealing the pale flawless skin over his collarbones. "Please Hades."
But uncaring of his crumbled clothes he patiently queries. "What matters do you want to consult with him?"
"Consult?" My eyebrows raise. "No, no, I have nothing to consult with him. I just want to tell him something, just tell him something."
"Hades?" I look to him when he doesn't respond. "Can you walk the other way?" I strain my neck to see beyond the corner we now turn. "Hey! I can't see him anymore." Hades is quick to hold me down when I attempt to climb over and down his shoulders, nearly falling off before he realises my intention.
"What do you want to tell him? He asks easily putting an end to my struggle, but my body remains taut like a string about to snap.
I stare at this unparalleled beauty who refuses to let me do as I please and knowing I was no match for him physically I was willing to reach a compromise. "Will you let him know if I tell you?"
"Yes." He agrees without delay and I longer fight his hold and let my body limb to adjust into the comfort of his hands.
A minute pass before anyone of us speaks.
"Elia."
"Hmmm?" My eyes flutter open to his, that were littered with freckles of light delicate blue in the molten pools of amber.
"What do you want me to let him?"
"Yeah, yeah! He looks just like my best friend Alec like the carbon copy of him!" I yell in excitement. "Expect the guy we saw was shorter, I think."
"Ohh, I just miss him so freaking much! I really, really want to punch him."
Hades brows furrow, his gravelly calm voice questioning. "Is he not a good person?"
"No! He is an awesome person." The picture of green eyed boy comes to mind. "Literally everybody loves him. Everybody! But he is weird sometimes."
"How so?"
I meet amber eyes which to me brimmed with curiosity and upon finding such a diligent listener I grin ear to ear before retrieving my arms snaking around his neck as I move back and in quick succession his hand formerly around my waist moves closer to my nape to maintain balance.
"I will tell you about this incident that happened. There was this girl a year younger to us in our school who had a huge crush on Alec..."
"Crush? Hades innocently interrupts and I am obliged to explain to this oblivious god.
"Crushing, is a feeling you have for someone....who is very special and precious to you, okay? And its not love, YET! But you don't see them as a friend either, like its more than just friendship. "
"Its basically....cruelly frustrating, mostly one-sided and very complicated." I sign off and by his nod I continue only to have forgotten what I was previously speaking of.
"Ahh...where was I?"
"Had a huge crush on Alec."
I smile at Hades finding him more and more cute. "Thank you. And so yeah she had a huge crush on him, that that too for around three years and then finally one day, I guess her feelings developed to love and she confessed to him infront of our class."
"This boy, he is your classmate?" He interrupts again.
"Yes, we even sit side by side." I hurriedly answer. "Now, that day she came to our class and called him out, me and the rest of my friends were thrilled because we knew what was about to go down. She is a bold queen man!" I squeal going back in time to the hustle and bustle of classroom as the cute round face of a cheeky girl pops in through the door, her chestnut locks usually let free was tied up in a high ponyatil and her school shoes exchanged for trainers looking ready to run a marathon.
"And it went like this." I bring my hands infront of his face. "So the girl." I wiggle the index finger of my right hand in her personification.
"Hey, Alec I have something to tell you. Then he goes to her without her word to hear about the brief but detailed things she has been doing for the past few years."
"Like how she joined the basketball club to get closer to him, how she has never let any of his photos go by without being saved and some facts were even creepy like her having his jersey he had outgrown that she had somehow found."
"But the cutest thing, you know Hades, was that she fell for him all those years back when he saved her from getting hit by a car with the driver drunk to a daze."
"But there was a glitch and he somehow got his shoulder dislocated badly with her ending up without a scratch."
"You know when the rest of us heard about this we were struck dump because that fool had told us that he got it injured while playing basketball. That liar!"
"But anyway she slowly went in for the kill." I move my gaze to the orbs of a shade brighter than lava. "I love you."
"She told him and you know how this guy replies?" Hades shakes his head in record time. "He said." I wiggle my left index finger. "I know"
"But the girl did not get disheartened at all and asked him immediately, 'Can I take that as a me too?' And the guy nods but soon breaks her heart. 'Yes, if it meant I love me too..."
Hades thick brows once again crease. "You use the same words with William"
"That'! That's different! She loved Alec, it hurt her feelings BAD!" Hades doesn't even flinch at my outburt and listen on.
"But there was a huge plot twist that surprised everyone. They are actually now in a RELATIONSHIP! Wonderful NAH? And do you know why he did what he did?"
"No. Why did..." My fingers pinch close his soft lips pushing back the rest of the words.
"Stop doing that. You are just supposed to nod or shake your head and not interrupt me. And stop asking me questions before I finish."
I scold, but finding him falling silent grow flustered, fearing he would have felt dejected and so add on in a softer tone.
"You can ask you questions after I finish. Its just that I keep forgetting what I am about to say when....I look at your face while clearing doubts...it is nothing personal, truly. "
Hades abruptly stops and I whip my head back expecting an obstacle in out path before but find nothing but empty halls.
"This is very amusing. " Hades muse under soft breaths drawing away my attention as he strides forward.
Curious about the strange behaviour I ask again caught off guard by the gentleness in the eyes of amber and honey.
"Its nothing, truly."
I frown but ask no further on the topic and concludes my story. "The reason why he acted that way was because apparently he loved seeing her getting angry even though he too actually had feelings for her far before she even realised hers. Its too romantic!"
"...But the guy just loved how awkward she got around him and so never told her about his feelings."
"He is indeed weird." Hades says in a soft tone as I fall back to his shoulder snuggling in close to his neck to have stray strands brush my cheeks.
"I can't believe that even that fool got a girlfriend whereas I have been single my whole life." I mumble grudgingly. "Which is hilarious considering how I used to have a fiance."
And once again his steps halt but merely for a second, almost going unnoticed. "You had a betrothed?"
I nod along unable to pull back to meet his eyes under pressuring hands. "I actually had no say it."
"My dad has a very close friend and business partner, uncle Bose and he had a son two years older to me and my dad adored him cause he was really freaking adorable when he was young."
"And one day long long ago according to my dad he couldn't resist his cuteness and while squishing the boys cheeks proclaimed light-heartily 'Hahaha, Bose if my next child is a girl we will have Melvin and her get married!! Haha!" What a nutcase my dad was.
"But."
"When I was around four we met at this party where we got to know about this whole lowkey bethrothal and the same boy started crying and actually put an early end to the party with the tantrum he threw and it was broken off after, I guess."
Hades face turns slightly expressing his confusion with a light nudge and his hands slowly loosen as I edge back with a poker face and deadpan.
"He thought I was a boy."
A smile creeps up my lips in the extending ripples of the laughter vibrating his chest in harmonious beats. His amber eyes hooded without a sense of guard and sharp jaws in ease. And even as the moment passes a haunting smile still lingered invisibly on crimson lips.
"That's not funny." I glare past sleep ridden lashes, but between the silence of the never-ending halls, his warmth and laughter...it had became my favourite memory.
"Yes it is not funny, my apologies." His eyes bring out the lie with its amusement, but then thinking for a bit he follows it with. "I too have had a similar experience in the past."
"You?? No way..." He seemed taken aback from my extreme sense of shock and his hand subconsciously soothe down my spine.
"Yes, many years before there was a mortal Princess who pursued me." His eyes held disinterest for the said Princess. "And eventually broke her engagement with the crown prince of Athens."
"That's sad.. its okay." He nods, and I smile to my fellow heartbroken friend.
Why is that I feel that something wasn't entirely right.
My world suddenly tilts as I felt myself let down onto something exceptionally soft and as he straightens I finally realise where we were. "We got back so quickly, but why aren't we going back to the Underworld?" I sulk sitting up by the pillows.
"We will return home soon, but now I believe you should rest." His voice was stern but his words tender and I only find myself smiling in answer.
"You love talking." He suddenly states crossing his arms and remaims standing by the bed close enough to touch with his stature towering over my curled up self.
"Yes!" I beam but it soon dulls. "Wait, you don't like it?."
"No." He leans to meet my eyes, his gaze like always in blunt refusal to be the first to look away and how strange it was to find those amber eyes devoid of their coldness like they were stolen by skilled thief.
"I sincerely enjoy it." From his deep voice comes an intensity, an honesty, a gentleness that brings joy to even the deepest crease of my smile.
This King, so odd with his ever changing moods always seem to be there...how so? I don't know. And it made no sense while it still did and I knew there was something I had to put right.
"Hades...I never meant to not tell you about you know...whatever that is going on with me and I am sorry that I acted so...so unreasonable. I really want you to know that I am so-"
"No, forgive me." He cuts off my apology with his. "It wasn't right for me to leave you alone as I did previously and Aphrodite shouldn't have had been the one to look after you."
"You sent her?" I finally find reason for why the The goddess of love had suddenly appeared the exact moment I was all alone.
"Yes. I believe I had overreacted with my actions and about the matters regarding Thanatos I chose not to tell you for I thought it was not my place to explain. But it only seems my every decision was wrong." His fingers reach my eyes tracing the lids still swollen from my cries.
I move back with my quickening heartbeat, a strange feeling squeezing it tight that it reflected in my eyes as he retracts his hand. "You shouldn't apologise to me."
"I...want to tell you about... my curse." I stutter but his hand clamp around my mouth.
"Do not tell me now, it would feel like ai took advantage of your drunken state." And when I make no move to continue he lets his hand fall to his side not caring to wipe it over his clothes. I gulp feeling those eyes on, my body squirming in the intensity and I steel my mind further damage.
"Now leave I want to sleep." But disregarding my polite request he stares down at me as if he couldn't understand the language I spoke.
Though I might be slightly drunk, I don't think my words are indistinguishable, but I still test it out. "Cheeseburgers." And sure enough I sounded just as clear.
This was when he decided that I was too ignorant to figure out for myself and gently pokes my hand clutching onto his dark cloak.
Black lines appear over my face as I fail to maintain composture and pat smooth the wrinkles pretending to have been casually dusting off before I retrieve my hand.
But even when labelled a hypocrite so rudely I still keep my politeness. "It's all good now, you may leave."
But the god persisted on with not letting me sleep as he becomes the epitome of hostile hospitality. "You are sleeping on my bed."
I slump deeper into the bed and with him innocently unaware my smile widens to an eerie grin as I roll away from the edges leaving room for one more.
Pausing half way from the middle I turn to him, his beautiful features contracting in undeniable shock. And upon the accomplishment of my goal I stretch out my limbs with laughter reeking of evil intentions booming in declaration.
"It's mine now."
His graceful brows furrowed in a frown but the warmth of his amber eyes were a shade deeper than its eternal flame.
A memory is triggered under his gaze leaving me flustered for a second before the desire for revenge takes over.
I sit up putting away the look of triumph like it never happened and pretend to be in deep thought as I close my eyes. And a minute later my eyes flutter open finally figuring out what I was thinking of.
"Hades come here." I am all smiles as I pat the bed near me eagerly waiting for my beloved listener.
And taking a cautious look at my smiling face he sits right where I motioned, but even only at arms lenght apart he was still too far away.
I look around making sure there were no prying eyes or ears. "I have to tell you something, its a secret." I gently tug at his ears and he leans in letting me whisper to him.
But my fingers still hooked to his ears tremble with an itch with his dark locks tempting it to stretch further and fully fall into their silky trap.
The god of the Underworld stiffen in a timeless moment as my fingers locks through his dark tresses, its texture almost pushing me off cource.
But knowing the risks I do not delay further and as my nonchalance fade away, I smirk leaning in to place a fleeting kiss, but in the same moment he turns to me and in complementing shock we freeze as my lips stray far from its goal, to the corners of his.
Our lips so close that if a smile were to graze those crimson lips, the plump fleshes would have overlapped in a second of recklessness.
Ephemeral was the kiss, but under my lips his jaw had clenched as he remain unmoving, his amber eyes veiled from the lights of the world. "Sorry." I mutter as I instantly pull back, bringing my hands to either sides of his face. "That was not where you kissed me."
My grip stayed firm as I lean in, once again letting my lips fall upon cool skin, an inch below his cheekbones. "Its okay now." I recite his words from a past memory.
Grinning in irrefutable victory I fall back turning my back to the god who seemed to have frozen.
"Good night." I drawl forcing my mind from lingering on the presence of the one who never left as I fell asleep.