a/n: this is for an au i’m working on called “the way it is” !! more content will hopefully come out soon, but just so you know this is post-turn and eurydice and seph’s relationship makes me soft. enjoy!
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eurydice was no stranger to dust and dirt. after all, with years of experience of being a runaway under her belt, a little soot didn’t hurt. no–what did hurt was something she had grown accustomed to for the majority of her life: being alone.
she wasn’t alone in the literal sense, of course. eurydice had the sea of laborers that were in hadestown. she had miss persephone. she had the heat, the lights. she had her work. but she still would rather have a different heat wrapping her, another noise besides the blaring metallic sounds of the factories, a gentle smell. she wanted her lover.
but he had abandoned her. eurydice shouldn’t have been surprised, everyone abandoned her. but he was supposed to be different. no, he was different.
a sharp repeated ring of a bell snapped eurydice back into reality, and she realized the rock that she had been chipping away at with her pickaxe had broken into far more pieces than necessary.
the sweat-covered girl let out a shaky breath. the tool she had been holding let out a loud ring as it fell to the ground, but no embarrassment filled her.
the workers around eurydice let small smiles fill their faces and quiet chatter started to arise as they all slowly walked away from their work. it was something new in the underground. an hour break from work in the middle of the day. a time to look up.
there was so much emotion in the people of hadestown. eurydice felt out of place. she kept her eyes glued to the floor as she walked, quickly separating from the crowd. the songbird flew to the person she always returned to when upset.
“miss persephone!”
a woman with tied up dark curls and old yet kind eyes turned around to look at her. a smile brightened her face and eurydice couldn’t help but to let a small smirk slip out in return.
“if it isn’t the songbird herself? come here,” she said, reaching her arms out for an embrace which the girl accepted.
as they let go of each other the goddess spoke again, “now, why’ve you come to me?”
“i have nowhere else to spend my break.” not entirely the truth, but not a lie. “can we just…talk? i need to distract myself.”
“of course, dear.”
so they talked. the conversation floated from topic to topic. stories were shared; laughs were let loose; and advice was given. for a moment, the world didn’t seem all that loud, and the world didn’t seem all that lonely.
further into their conversation persephone asked the young girl, “now, what did you need distracting from for you to come to me?”
“i-i don’t want to talk about it right now. tell me more about your mo-”
the patroness cut her off, “take it from a person who loves to not confront her problems, communicating is incredibly important.”
eurydice averted her gaze from persephone and stared at her thumbs spinning around each other.
“i miss-” his name caught in her throat. “i miss him.”
she lifted her head to look right in front of her. “the worst part is that i feel like i’m forgetting him. well, not forgetting him. not like the- the first time. the little things.”
the girl took a moment to catch her breath. had her heart been beating this rapidly the entire time?
“i can’t remember his fucking eye color anymore. i can’t remember which shirt meant the most to him. i can’t remember where he held me every time we kissed.” she looked at persephone and laughed sadly. “he was such a brat about that last thing too. always insisted that he had his hands there. everything else about those times he said could be whatever i’d like, but he had to have his hands in that same damn spot and now i can’t remember where.”
eurydice wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. she hated being vulnerable. she hated crying. she hated looking soft. soft meant getting yelled at. soft meant leaving. soft meant hurt.
persephone wiped a tear cascading down the young girl’s face.
“hey, hey, it’s okay. you’re okay. there’s something important that i’m sure you still remember, though,” she said as she drew her close and kissed her forehead. “how’d he make you feel?”
just hearing how he made her feel made her smile. “he made me feel like i could do or be whatever i’d like, and it’d be okay. because he was right beside me. he let me feel whatever i’d like to feel with no judgment.”
“see that’s the important things.” persephone held her tighter. “now your break is almost up and i don’t want ya getting yelled at. have some whiskey and then i’ll let you head back.”
eurydice gladly accepted the flask and took a swing. “thank you mom.”
shit.
the young girl quickly gave the flask back and put her hands up in defense.
“i didn’t mean to-uh-like you don’t have-i mean you do mean a lot-it’s not like-you’re really nice-and i-i understand if you don’t want-i can lea-”
“you can relax, eurydice. i may not be him, but i can be whatever you’d like: a friend, a sister, an advisor, a parent. and you can call me whatever you’d like: miss persephone, persephone, seph, percy, mom.” she paused for a moment leaving eurydice nervous. “well, actually, not percy, but you get it.”
they shared a small laugh.
“now go run off before we both get in trouble.” she looked off into the distance with a bittersweetness in her eyes. “men, am i right?”
the young girl smiled. “men.”
eurydice walked away, head up. maybe she wasn’t completely alone.
welcome to me realizing that i’ve legitimately never written any fics besides one shots and have no iDEA HOW TO WRITE A SERIOUS MULTI CHAPTER FIC SOMEONE HELP
Prompt: Orpheus having (trying) to extract Eurydice from a fight before she kills someone.
ack im so sorry this is late but i hope you enjoy the children !!! they are very soft !! ur awesome
reminder that i am always taking prompts unless specified otherwise. i might take a while though, i am so sorry !!
edit: forgot tags and read more whoops !!
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guitar strings pressed against orpheus’s already calloused hands like razor blades. it was a feeling he was used to and even welcomed. the vibration of his strings, the feeling of letting his voice loose, the welcoming aura of the bar, his lover smiling at him from across the room: it was his own little paradise. he didn’t have to focus on anything besides how he was doing in that moment, and he liked to keep it that way. Because in that moment, he felt nothing but bliss.
the last note of the song he was performing rang out, followed by brief applause from the patrons at the bar. a familiar pair of brown eyes met his, and a smile swept across his face. he took a few moments too long staring at her before speaking into the mic.
“um, yeah. that was my first song of the night. it’s, uh, title is in progress but yeah. um-” he scratched the back of his neck. it would be an understatement to say that he was much better at singing to crowds then to speaking to them. it was a much more daunting task when the words weren’t pre-written for him.
then, a rush of cold air blew through the little dingy place and a man walked through the door. from the second that he entered the bar, orpheus got an unsettling feeling. he had swoopy hair that bordered between brown and blonde, a tall, muscular figure, and a smug smile on his face. but it wasn’t his appearance that made him feel anxious, it was the way he held himself with such a judgmental and arrogant air.
“sorry guys. little nervous. uh, anyway, i’m orpheus, i usually tend the bar over there. and, yeah. i’ll be here till we close up so enjoy this next song: intention.”
he drew a breath and began to sing the song, occasionally taking glances at the man. a pit in his stomach grew the more alcohol he watched him consume.
about halfway into the next song in his set, orpheus noticed the man talking to eurydice. a little odd, but he gave the man the benefit of the doubt and assumed himself he was just asking for another drink. but his lover seemed…angry. she shook her head no at the stranger, and from what he could see, she was clutching her fist. the young girl pointed up at the stage where orpheus was singing, and the man turned to look around. of course, as if right on cue, the commotion caused his voice to waiver and crack, and he didn’t press the string hard enough so it came out as a pathetic muted tone. heat rushed up to his face, but he tried his best to at least finish the song. the patrons deserved a good show.
but right before the last line something else caught him off guard even more than before: a voice, though quieted by the noise of the bar, still barely loud enough to hear.
“pfft, him sweetie? what has he ever done for you? let’s be real here, did you hear him just now? i’m sure i can do much better than that.” he crept his hand up her arm.
a wave of embarrassment, anger, and worry overcame the singer. the stranger’s words stung in his heart, but what worried him most was the look in his lover’s eyes which he didn’t see too often. she was about to punch someone.
he strummed the last chord, looked around, and caught the eye of one of his friends. the poor boy mouthed a quick “please” and pointed at the mic. to his relief, his friend nodded and made his way up the stairs.
orpheus uttered a smushed, “i’m-so-sorry-folks-i-need-to-step-off-for-a-sec-in-the-meantime-my-good-friend-mr-brian-drye-will-play-a-wonderful-trombone-solo-for-you-all-thank-you-i’ll-be-one-sec”
he carefully placed his guitar on its stand, and jumped off the stage, neglecting the stairs entirely. all he worried about was rushing over to his wife before she got hurt.
right as eurydice’s feet landed on the ground after jumping the bar, the young man rushed to her side, and gripped her hand tightly. it was his attempt to calm her down, make sure she couldn’t use it to punch the man, and a gentle reminder to him of whose wife she was.
staring into the man’s cold blue eyes, he felt his pulse quicken, and his face gathered more heat. orpheus was much scrawnier than he was and if he were to hit him, the poor boy would definitely be knocked out cold after one go-around.
“um, sir. excuse me for interrupting, but seeing as though you have dis-” his hands shook more. had he been shaking this entire time? he drew another breath and began talking again. “seeing as you have disrespected me and my wife, i’m going to have you to leave the establishment.” the stranger opened his mouth to speak, but orpheus was already going, and he had no intention of stopping there. “i would like to say that i do have the authority to that because i am the manager for this bar, if you didn’t know. and if you even think about assaulting one of us i will press charges.” that was a lie. orpheus could barely afford fork, let alone a lawyer. “so please leave the bar, or i will have to let my beautiful wife, who i would do anything in this world for, loose on you.”
the man squinted at him and the poet squeezed his lover’s hand tighter. much to his relief, all he did was scoff at him, turn around, and leave the bar.
the young lovers looked at each other intently. they embraced, until orpheus piped up for a moment.
“may i-”
“of course.”
they shared an uncharacteristically chaste kiss on the lips, soaking in each other’s presence for a moment. the poet made sure to hold her in the exact same spot as always: his right hand on her lower back, and his left right below her neck.
“i love you so much, eurydice.”
“i love you too. don’t listen to him. you’re the best singer in the world.” she grabbed his face. “now go finish your show, lover boy.”
Alibi and Accomplice (5211 words) by kizkhalifa
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Characters: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter
Additional Tags: thief!Draco, Auror Harry Potter, Blood, Christmas, murderer!draco
Summary:
Draco Malfoy invited Harry Potter out for Christmas Eve, since they were both going to be alone. Potter never imagined his holiday was going to take the turn it did.
One of my many works dedicated to my bestie, in the nestie. I go against my better judgement, admittedly this one was unplanned, and create a world where Potter tops Malfoy. So, now this is one of many gifts (in work) for: @klinefelterrible <3 Much love, bubs.
