I was curious, if people remember my Hades and Persephone coffee shop AU I was thinking about perhaps writing more, if people were interested! I'll most likely stick to some cute Hades and Persephone / Underworld stuff first, but if people are interested I may try to do stuff for other mythos and gods! I've grown quite attactched to Neo-Macedonia as a concept, so I'd love to explore the world ^.^
For now I've uploaded the 'first chapter' to AO3 and FanFiction. I'll see how everything goes in the future :)
I told @thoughtsontomes I would write a Hades and Persephone coffee shop AU like... last year, because she loves Hades and Persephone retellings. I don’t know if it’s any good, or if it’s what she envisioned when she said coffee shop AU, but here it is regardless! (Just about 2000 words)
Set in the world of Neo-Macedonia, a more modernised Greece where the Gods live amongst men, Hades decides to take a walk. At the coffee shop he meets the ~mysterious~ Peri.
Note: Macedonia is where Mount Olympus is. Also, using proper Greek terms, it should be Nea-Macedonia, but that doesn’t sound right to English ears, so its Neo. Edit: Check out more here.
Everyone in Neo-Macedonia knew of the gods. If you didn't, you were quite commonly accused of living under some form of rock. The knowledge that gods lived amongst men was a fact as renowned as the fact that water was a necessity of life.
As renowned as the fact that you did not, under any circumstances, mess with a god.
Hades, God of the Underworld, was most noticeably feared amongst his kin.
He’ll send you to hell, they whispered.
He’ll kill your family, they rumoured.
He’s evil incarnate, they warned.
Of course, Hades was not evil, and he would not kill mortal beings, unless deliberately provoked. If anything, Zeus was the evil one, with his constant affairs and messing around, and ruining everything.
Okay, so maybe calling him evil was a little too much, but he wasn't exactly as good as the mortals perceived him to be.
Hades preferred to keep a low profile. He spent most of his time relaxing in his palace in the Underworld, keeping an eye on the dead souls passing through. He tended to get rather lonely sometimes, since not many came to visit him. It wasn't as if he was entirely alone; he had his three Judges of the Dead, though Minos could get grouchy and rowdy at times.
Which was why, Hades decided, it was time for a walk.
The streets of Neo-Macedonia were a lively place, something that never changed after hundreds and thousands of years. The only thing that had changed was the replacement of horses and carts with cars and bikes, and Hades had to side step around one too many teenagers glued to their phones.
He also had to side step around one too many teenagers trying to snap a picture of him. Everywhere he walked, heads turned. People knew who he was, mostly due to the fact his dog, Cerberus, had three heads.
Cerberus was typically a gigantic dog, too large to fit in most human houses, but for the sake of strolling around outside, Hades had politely asked him to downsize. Cerberus was a good dog and did just that, and Hades trusted him more than enough to behave. He could have even asked Cerberus to switch to one head if he really wanted, but that was simply asking too much.
Hades was off in his own world, when Cerberus’ sudden growl yanked him from his reverie. With a little shake of his head, he glanced over at what Cerberus was growling at and frowned.
“I sense it too,” he said, his gaze resting upon a small coffee shop.
There was no mistaking it. Hades could sense a god’s magic coming from within.
A waitress stood outside, clearing away a few tables. Hades politely asked whether dogs were allowed inside, to which she yelled in response as she had not seen him standing there. When she had recovered somewhat – only somewhat for instead she now looked terrified of Hades himself – she whispered that no, dogs were not allowed inside, but they were allowed at the outside tables. If Hades asked politely, they would be happy enough to lend him a dog bowl full of water.
Hades nodded, and thanked the waitress. He picked a table, left Cerberus there, and headed inside alongside the waitress. Whilst he went to join the queue, the rest of the guests turning to stare at him, the waitress went to put away the dishes she was carrying and fetch the dog bowl for Cerberus.
Ignoring the stares of the other customers, Hades examined the menu board that was attached to the wall behind the counter. He wasn't particularly a coffee person, or a hot drinks person in general. The Underworld had quite a high temperature, so he was accustomed to colder drinks. Alas, coffee would have to do. Or perhaps hot chocolate. He’d never had one and it sounded remarkably tasty.
He placed his order at the till, and waited in line to collect his drink from the barista. He watched her intently, now able to place the magic he had sensed outside down to her.
She was truly a remarkable woman. Her skin was dark, and her black hair was tied back into a bun, loose strands falling free and framing her chin. Her eyes were a bright green, and when she turned to look at him he saw they constantly and subtly changed shades. Sometimes they were forest green, sometimes they were more teal, sometimes they adopted a yellow tinge.
She paused when she saw him, glanced down at his order, then smiled before piling on mountains of whipped cream and marshmallows. It was a rather shocking amount, but he decided not to question it and nodded in thanks.
Just before he left he caught sight of her name badge. Peri.
Who was Peri, he wondered.
He left the shop to take his place outside, where he could see the waitress had already given Cerberus a bowl. Hades sat down at took up people watching as he sipped at the hot chocolate, which was delicious as it sounded, and Cerberus barked softly, asking who was inside.
“I don't recognise her,” Hades told Cerberus. “It's not as if I am familiar with every god in the world. She’d called Peri, if that's helpful.”
Cerberus shrugged, and went back to licking up his water.
A few moments passed, and he heard someone clear their throat. Looking up, he saw Peri stood in front of him and she smiled down. It was truly a gorgeous smile, honestly so. She was too beautiful he wanted to tell her to walk away, before standing next to him was doing her no good. He wasn't beautiful, far from it. That's what years skulking around the Underworld got you.
“Enjoying the hot chocolate?” she asked.
He glanced down at the drink in front of him, which he had barely touched because there was so much cream. Still, he nodded and said, “Yes.”
“Good,” Peri chortled, then she pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down. When he frowned she said, “Don't worry, it's my break. I'm free to sit down for a short while.”
“So you came to talk to me?”
Still, she smiled. “I think you know why.”
He frowned at first, but he quickly nodded once again. “I can sense god-like magic emitting from you.”
“That’s because I am a god, or a goddess if you prefer that term,” Peri replied. “My name’s Persephone, and, if the dog is anything to go by, you must be Hades.”
“Yes,” Hades replied, and he glimpsed back down at her name badge. Peri must have been short for Persephone. “Persephone… Yes, I have heard of you. You're Demeter’s daughter. I apologise that I did not recognise you. I don't leave the Underworld often.”
“It’s not your fault you don’t recognise me, mother keeps me locked up most of the time,” Peri – or Persephone – replied, and with a melodramatic sigh she leant forward against her elbows. “She says it’s for my protection, and I’m only allowed out with her permission, but it’s utterly boring.”
“Yes, I have heard that you are known to be antisocial,” Hades told her.
“Not by choice,” she murmured, and she reached out a finger to catch a marshmallow before it fell from his drink. “She isn’t even aware that I sneak out to work a human job. Only on weekdays when she isn’t fussing over me, she’s ever so insistent I spend my weekends with her.”
“Sounds…” Hades wanted to say something comforting, but comforting wasn’t his forte. He didn’t know what to say her story sounded like, so he let his voice trail away.
“It sounds like a privileged person unfairly complaining, I know,” she said.
“I wasn’t going to say that,” he insisted, which was true. He hadn’t planned on saying anything.
She simply smiled at him, and he was once again struck by how beautiful it was. In fact, he could feel the colour rush to his cheeks. In an attempt to hide it, he mimicked her pose of chin in hands, but then it occurred to him that probably looked ridiculous considering how frightening he looked. He sat back up straight, and stared down at his hands as if they had betrayed him, for he did not know what to do with them.
“The humans here don’t know I’m a god, though they do seem to worship me regardless,” Persephone explained, and she leant back in her chair just as he had done. “It provides little freedom, but at least it is some.”
“I…” Hades frowned. He what? She patiently waited for him to continue, a trait he wasn’t used to amongst the people he conversed with. “I somewhat understand your plight. Not entirely, but I was forced to live in the Underworld against my will. However, I have crafted it into a home.”
Cerberus barked at this, and Persephone directed her smile down at him. “Yes, Cerberus, I would try to craft my own prison into a home, but it is rather difficult when there’s no one to share it with.”
“I somewhat understand that too,” Hades told her, and she looked back up at him. “I have a few friends and acquaintances in the Underworld. I have Cerberus, and there’s the Judges of the Dead, yet I fear I will probably never have a proper companion, no one to share my thoughts and desires with. It is lonely, though not to the extent that you are, I’m sure.”
“I’m not here to compare who is lonelier, we all have our individual worries and they are all of equal importance,” she said softly, and he made a mental note that those were wise words to live by. Then, she leant a little closer. “Will you let me visit you?”
“I would hate to incur the wrath of your mother if she were to catch you sneaking away,” Hades admitted. “Yet, if that were to please you, you may very well visit. It would please me too. I never get visits from the other gods.”
She gazed up at him, and he had to look away to stop their eyes from meeting. He was unsure of why meeting her gaze was a bad thing, perhaps because she was so alluring, and he was the opposite.
Perhaps it was simply because he was shy.
“Just make sure you don’t eat any of the food,” he warned her. “If you eat food from the Underworld, you remain trapped there. It’s a shame, you’d probably enjoy the cake.”
“I always enjoy cake,” she sang as she checked her watch, then reluctantly stood up from her chair. “I should be heading back to work now. How about I visit tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes, it’s Friday tomorrow and mother never visits on Fridays,” she replied, and she leant down to tuck a loose strand of hair behind his ear.
The colour rose to his cheeks once again. “Tomorrow sounds like an excellent idea.”
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow. Now, drink your hot chocolate before it goes cold,” Persephone said, before trotting away. Just before she headed back inside, she turned around and called out one final thing. “Maybe I will try that cake tomorrow. I’m sure it’s delicious.”
She blew him a kiss before disappearing, and Hades was left sitting there with his eyebrows raised. Cerberus barked up at him, and it was only then Hades raised a hand to his head and realised that when she had tucked a hair back behind his ear, she had left a flower there too.
He held it in his palm for a moment, then smiled and tucked it back behind his ear before returning to his drink, already eager for the day to end and the next to start anew.
