This started off as me trying to write RoR Hades/Persephone!Reader porn but….it got away from me so this is mostly just backstory to whenever I write the porn. Make sure to pay attention to the tagged trigger warnings.
He really did try so hard to just….make it stop. He remembers first seeing her when she’d accidentally stumbled into his realm, past monsters and guards alike, to find her just….kneeling by his throne, running her fingers down the soft feathers of his cockatiel. The most innocent expression of awe and joy on her face over….just a simple bird.
She’d taken his heart into her hands from that moment on, even if she didn’t know it.
He had felt guilty about it. Most especially about how, though she was certainly no longer a child, she was still so young. Barely a blink in the eye of a god so old as he. But he couldn’t help it, especially when she turned that sweet face of hers over to him, her eyes lit up in delight.
It took everything he had to bring her back to her parents instead of locking her in his castle. He regretted not doing so the whole way there, and he regretted it most when he was standing beside Zeus, watching Demeter scold their daughter for wandering so far from their home. The pout on his niece’s lips stirring a heat in his belly that he did not welcome.
He wanted her to turn that beautiful face back to him. To pout and smile and laugh freely at his side.
But Zeus was looking at him strangely, and he tried his best to quickly excuse himself without seeming suspicious. But even when he left, she haunted him. Her giggles in his ear while he worked, her body dancing in his dreams, her face curious and shy behind his eyelids as he stroked himself to the image of her.
He was hungry for her, like a starved dog, like a rapid beast that needed to be put out of its misery. He yearned for her, ached for her, needed her more than he’d ever needed anything else in his life. No matter how much time and distance he put between the two of them, it only got worse and worse, a festering wound on his soul.
And it continued to fester, until the day Zeus showed up in his kingdom, unusually quiet and almost….anxious. It had been two decades since they last saw each other.
“I know.” Zeus says when they’re both seated, his voice soft, his head down as he stares at his hands. Hades feels himself freeze, his blood suddenly colder than any of the ice in Helheim. “I’ve known since that day, I think. What you wanted.”
“I…” Hades starts, but is quick to trail off. What could he possibly say? There was nothing that would make this better. His brother’s daughter, flowers and warmth and smiles, longed for by the god of the dead himself. His brother would be right to never allow him near her again, to make certain that her bright shine was never dimmed in a cold and dark place like this.
“It’s okay.” Zeus says, and that is possibly the only thing he could have said to startle Hades in that instant. Seconded only by the way his younger brother grins, bright like a strike of lightning in the night. “I know. I know you’ll take care of her, and love her. So I’ll give her to you, as thanks for all the things you’ve done for me over the years. All the times you protected me from Pops, all the times you supported me after I became the King of Gods.”
“Zeus…” Hades whispers, startling when his brother stands, quickly falling into line behind him, his steps hurried as he’s lead down the corridors and to the throne room, where she sits. Just like when he first saw her, kneeling by his throne, smiling as she pet his bird. Only this time, her smile brightened when she saw him, and she called out.
“Hades!” She says happily, and his heart skipped so many beats that he was sure it had stopped all together. He wanted her to say his name again, call out for him over and over again, for the rest of their lives. Shine that smile at him for as long as he could breathe. “Come look! If you scratch under his chin right here, he makes the cutest noise!”
“…..Coming.” He whispers, moving forward on unsteady feet, his eyes only for her. Not seeing the way Zeus’ smile softened, or when he turned and left. All he cared about now was his flower and sunshine girl, and how he was going to keep her with him.
