Title: Stalemate
Fandom: Greek Mythology
Rating: G
Length: ~200 words
Content notes: Hades/Persephone
Author notes: One of these days I'll start a flashworks more than an hour away from the deadline.
Summary: Hades and Demeter are locked in an eternal battle, but everyone seems to forget what Persephone had to say about all this.


They had been locked in a battle neither of them would ever win; the mother with her corn-golden hair and the lover with his fiery eyes. The humans in their world of blue skies and songbirds told the tale as a combat of good and evil, of light and dark.

What they forgot in the telling was the very person that had sparked it into existence in the first place. But Persephone didn't mind so much. They could make her a tragic heroine all they wanted.

It was the second equinox and, as ever, she descended into the underworld embraced her mother, then turned around and did not look back. With Demeter's salty tears cooling on her skin, she stood on the bank of the river expectantly. She felt her heart beat faster as she boarded the small boat that would bear her to the other side. Slowly, she felt her skin cool down; her mother's hot, smothering love leaving her to breathe the cool air of the eternal night.

Hades awaited her on the other side. He helped her get off the boat, then held out her Queen's robes for her. She closed her eyes as she felt the cool garment caress her skin. She breathed out, then opened her eyes again and looked down at herself. The garment he had given her was black with white sparks in it, like stars in the night sky, and faint lines between them.

"These robes are magnificent, my king."

"They are barely worthy of your beauty, my queen."

His voice was deep and comforting, She pulled Hades down for a kiss.

He held on to her until she broke the kiss and smiled into his skin. Together they walked into the darkness.