#rico.pdf

[hotephobie]

Love-struck Heartthrob

Summary: Catherine has a crush and despite being the “local heartthrob” her whole, she’s never experienced real love before.

A/N: this is just a lil somethin to break my writing funk since the last fic i remeber writing was the most recent part of the Hades and Persephone thingy (which i might add to/revamp) Anyways, stan Cathy with emotional stupidity.  

Word count: 1245

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Love was a strange word and even stranger language. So strange in fact, Catherine Parr could never wrap her head around it. It was frustrating. All her life Catherine had a number of terrible names attached to her. "Playgirl", "heart throb", "vixen", "a tease", and most simply "a flirt". It simply wasn't fair to the poor girl. Years worth of ruined relationships and non stop name calling simply because she didn't like saying words she didn't understand.

This followed Catherine for years.

Hence being laid out in the middle of her bedroom (or the attic as anyone else would call it) floor surrounded by a mountain of books. Some closed, others filled to the brim with self made book marks, some even open and filled with annotations in a mix of messy scrawl and neat script. It was shocking to see-- Catherine had a strict "no books on the floor" policy and "no writing in old classical books" code as well-- However, in times of emotional distress, she had to let her own mistakes slide.

"Hey kid… wow are you okay?" Catalina peeked up through the attic entrance and flinched at the sight of her daughter's emotional drainage.

She entered the attic and maneuvered around the countless old classics littered on the floor. Catalina neatly stacked some unused notebooks and doodle pads and moved them to the side so she could sit down. "Come on, tell momma what's wrong." She pulled Catherine's head into her lap and gently ran her fingers through the dark brown curls.

"Niente è sbagliato." Catherine said softly and nuzzled into her mom's lap and tapped against her knee. "Just because I impulse bought a buncha books and I'm blasting my sad song playlist doesn't mean anything." She chuckled softly causing her mother to roll her eyes.

"Well that's what you said with Zoey, then again with that Ruby girl, also that Juno girl." Catalina raised her hand before her daughter could interject. "The first time." She sighed and shook her head. "So. Are you gonna tell me who's the girl and why you're so worked up about?"

Catherine shot up and turned towards her mother. "I- there is no girl! I may repeat a lot of things, but I meant it when I said I was done with all those little flings and heartbreaking shit! It's not the real me!" She huffed out and crossed her arms.

"Yeah I know, but no one mass buys a bunch of old classics such as 'Divine Comedy' and 'The Iliad' alongside books such as 'Jealousy' and 'Master your Emotions'." She squinted at Catherine's computer and chuckled. "How desperate do you have to be to go so far as to look at Apollo's love life?"

Catherine deflated and leaned against her mom. "I think..I get it now." She sighed softly. "Like this time feels different. I don't know what to do...what if I break her heart?"

"If you really do love her, you won't actually worry about that, dear." Catalina placed a gentle kiss on Catherine's forehead. "I know you may be feeling apprehensive about pursuing this person, considering your past relationships and all, but if you truly do love her, then I honestly don't see anything that's stopping you from pursuing her. I know you have a good heart and you're afraid to show it, but if you love her, I know that you'll trust her enough to let a little bit of your walls down around her. You care for her, and she cares for you too. So, nothing's stopping you, conejito. I just hope this girl makes you happy."

Catherine sniffled and wiped her eyes. "I just..I'm scared. She's just so nice and sweet a-and I really do love her. What if she hates me for having so many exes or like, I don't know, what if she isn't into nerds!" She nervously chewed on her knuckle only for her mom to pull her hand away. "Sorry…"

Catalina shook her head. "C'mon, you need to do something other than read a bunch of books and take notes." She stood and pulled Cathy up with her. "We're gonna make cookies." She chuckled as Catherine's face lit up. "See? Already feeling better."

They both climbed down the stairs and headed to the kitchen. Thankfully it was empty and clean. Catalina raised an eyebrow and looked at her daughter who nervously glanced away.

"Anyways, go and get the dry ingredients." Catalina pushed her daughter toward the cabinets and headed towards. She quickly grabbed two small bottles with 'AE' and 'VE' on them, eggs, sugar, brown sugar, chocolate chips, and butter. She placed everything onto the kitchen island and sighed, thankful she had not dropped anything. "If only I held you like that." She chuckled softly.

"What?!" Catherine turned around and furrowed her eyebrows. She placed the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon on the kitchen island and glared at her mother. "So you're directly responsible for my shitty love life? I'll be seeing you court." She giggled playfully, then pulled open the drawer in front of her and took out two wooden spoons and a sieve. "Here you can do the yucky- are those almonds?"

Catalina looked at the jar in her hand and back to her then nodded slowly. "Yeah, for the cookies. Hey don't make that face, they're good!" She rolled her eyes and put the jar to the side. "Fine no almonds, but we have to put something else in these cookies. No one likes plain cookies."

Catherine shrugged and began measuring out all of the ingredients. "Well, we can add marshmallows." She hummed softly while sifting the dry ingredients as her mother mixed in the wet ingredients. "I really hope these marshmallows don't catch fire in the span of 10 minutes." She snickered and slowly added both mixtures to one bowl and mixed them together.

Catalina shrugged and sprinkled some flour on the counter and dumped the cookie dough onto the counter. "Here roll it out and cut it up. My old lady arms can't roll that damn thing out." She handed the rolling pin and went to the sink.

Catherine shook her head and laughed as she began rolling down the mountain of cookie dough. She glanced out the side of her eye and smiled. "Oh, hey Kitty! Do you got any cookie shape requests?" Her cheeks heated up the longer she stared at the shorter girl.

Kitty smiled softly. "Oh yeah! Do you think you can make some little heart ones for me?" She looked up at the taller woman. Kitty had her usual twinkle in her eye. Granted, it only ever showed up when she did something she enjoyed, but Kitty enjoyed a lot of things. "Hey stay still." She stood up on her tiptoes and wiped a smudge of flour off of Catherine's cheek. "Well that's all, I'd love to help but I got homework to do!"

Catherine stood there in awe, watching the other girl walk away happily. She shook her head and turned around and squinted at her mother. "I don't wanna hear!" She blushed deeply and covered her ears before Catalina could start gushing. "Lalalala! I'm not listening, lalala!"

Catalina rolled her eyes and pulled her daughter into a hug. "You're such an idiot but you're my idiot." She kissed the top of her daughter's head and ruffled her dreadlocks. "Now it's time to get to cutting."

[hotephobie]

The Beauty Of Death

A/N: if you find this concept/fic to be interesting. Ignore all the other fic under the tag "hades and persephone" because this is the first part of the rewrite. Also Hades is Anne, Persephone is Cathy P, and Hermes is Kitty. Just ignore the fact that my casting choices place them in weird relationships biologically 💀 Also props to Megan for helping me write this

Episkyros: A game for kids to play in Ancient Greece; which was something of a cross between rugby and American football.

Ostrakinda: A game in which a shell was painted black one side. The black side was “night,” and the unpainted side was “day.” Children divided into two teams, one for “night” and one for “day.” The shell was thrown and the team whose color came up had to chase the other team.

Part 1 Part 2

TW: uhh,, scars ig? I really don't know

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The underworld was a cold place. It was a barren wasteland filled with nothing but souls of the dead and desolate.

Or at least, that's what mortals told Persephone. They told her it was empty and that she'd die the second she stepped foot in the underworld. She'd been told of the horrible things Hades did to mortals who entered the underworld. Granted, Persephone was no mortal, she wasn't exactly the strongest of goddesses and most confused her for a simple forest nymph.

However that's not what Persephone saw.

She saw life, but something was off about it. Small children ran around, playing games like Ostrakinda and Episkyros, but the children were all bruised and cut. Women grouped together in circles, weaving baskets and chatting amongst themselves, but many of them were pale and sickly. Young women walked the streets with babies strapped to their backs and small children holding their hands, but the children had large bite marks and some babies having nubs where there should be fingers, feet, or hands.

The people Persephone looked at were dead, yet there was something about them that made them seem alive.

On top of the citizens lively appearances, the city's structural layout seemed no different compared to the few big cities Persephone had been allowed to visit. The buildings had all been laid out in a neatly organized manner, with the most important ones being placed on some kind of natural elevation, such as a hill or mountain top. The only difference being that for some reason, it wasn't a temple that was at the highest point, but a castle.

Persephone simply assumed it was for the more important government officials or maybe even Hades themself. Either way, she took note of the fact that if she wanted to hide out here, she'd best avoid going near it.

After staring for what felt like forever, Persephone stood up straight and began wandering the streets. She took a deep breath and inhaled the many scents of the underworld. It was strange. The aroma of freshly baked bread and fresh fruit filled the air, but was contrasted by the harsh smell of metals and silver. Persephone found a strange sense of comfort in it. The underworld was the one thing she craved the most.

Change.

The underworld wasn't perfect. Far from it, really. It showed the pain of society, it exposed everything about mortals that made them, well, mortals.

Persephone had wandered across a stadium. She expected to see lions and gladiators going at each other's throats. Instead she was met with a rather quiet, peaceful aura. Instead of bloodshed and gore, a play was taking place in the central ring. Which one she couldn't really tell, but it was interesting enough for her to sit down and watch the rest of it.

"Hey lady?"

Persephone tore her gaze from the play and looked to her left. She saw a small child with a face covered in cuts and scratches.

The young boy cleared his throat and held up a small wilted flower. "I saw you bring some grass back to life when you stepped on it and then flowers grew from it, so I wanted to see if you could do the same thing with this flower.." He looked away nervously.

Persephone chuckled softly and tapped her finger against the flower. "There you go, but you're gonna have to water it every day if you want to keep it alive." She ruffled the small boy's hair and stood up. "Our little secret, okay?"

The little boy nodded and ran back towards his seat leaving Persephone alone.

Persephone stood up and quickly left the arena, not wanting to cause more of possible ruckus than she probably just did.

She quickly ran down the pathway and turned whenever she possibly could. Until she couldn't. Persephone felt on edge. Every bone in her body screamed at her to run, but she couldn't. She knew what the feeling was, or at least, what it meant.

Something was coming and it was something entirely out of her domain. It was fast, faster than the poor girl could even think.

"Persephone?"

The young woman flinched and slowly turned around. "Oh...Hermes?" She let out a sigh of relief. "I thought there was some big dead thing coming for you or with you." She swallowed nervously.

Hermes looked over her shoulder and shook her head. "No, it's just me and Cerberus. Nothing you need to worry about."

Persephone tilted her head to the side and furrowed her eyebrows. "What is Cerberus?"

"You know, the big three headed dog at the other end of the beach." Hermes shook her head and grabbed Persephone's wrist. "Doesn't matter, I need to get you out of here before my aunt finds you."

Persephone tugged back. "No! I don't want to go back just yet! It's not like I've done anything wrong." She crossed her arms and looked up at Hermes.

"Well for starters, you're in the underworld despite being very much alive," Hermes poked at the smaller woman's shoulder. "Two, you brought life to the underworld which is a big no-no if you don't have clearance," She stepped closer to Persephone. "Lastly, you know how your mother gets when you go too far without her! I don't wanna be held responsible for you doing something stupid and dying!"

Persephone flinched and covered her ears. "Okay, okay! I'll leave, just don't tell mom! Please, I really don't wanna deal with another talking to." She looked up slowly and froze in place. "H-hello ma'am.."

Hermes knitted her eyebrows together and sighed. "I hate to break it to you, but I'm not as stupid as Apollo and you can't-" She was suddenly aware of the presence of another person as she straightened her posture and gripped onto to the messenger bag and her caduceus. Hermes slowly turned around and looked up at the towering figure looking down at her. "Hey auntie." She stammered out.

Hades glared at her niece. "Go to the castle and stay in your room." She moved her hand and watched as Hermes sped off down the alleyway.

Persephone kept her eyes glued on the same path that Hermes had taken. She was nowhere near as fast as Hermes was, but there was a small chance she'd make it.

"Don't do it, you'll tear up your sandals," Hades said, eyes following Persephone's gaze. "Look, just follow me and don't try anything stupid. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am."

[hotephobie]

Precious Little Spirit

A/N: This is damn near a collab with my mutual who's a butt and doesn't wanna take credit other than being named dropped as Megan 😤. Anyways, reblog > likes and ideas/critique is welcome!

Part 1 Part 2

Word Count: 1490 words of pure simping

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Persephone had never been so nervous before in her life. Or was she embarrassed?

She wasn't quite sure.

The souls parted like the sea as she trudged down the brick path. Which was nerve wracking, to say the least. She'd almost tripped over her own sandal straps in front of Zeus knows how many souls. Definitely embarrassing. All of this happening in front (technically behind) the goddess of the dead and the queen of the underworld.

Check that off the bucket list for embarrassing moments.

Would said goddess end up contacting her mum and cause a whole slew of problems on Persephone's end?

Probably.

And another check for the list.

Someone please save her from the mess she got herself into.

Their final destination of the one place Persephone had promised herself to avoid definitely wasn't picking off any points for her either.

In a desperate attempt to calm herself down, Persephone began taking in the smaller details of the castle and the things inside.

The walls were charcoal black, suits of armor brandishing weapons like halberds and deadly looking scythes lined the hallway, guarding the castle's lonely inhabitants.

The torches on the walls certainly did not seem to help either, casting shadows on the wall, the flickering of the flames making them look like prowling demons, ready to pounce and rip the nature goddess to pieces.

The red carpet below their feet was so close to the color of blood, it resembled a river of the foul liquid. For a brief moment, it seemed like if Persephone closed her eyes, she could almost imagine the warm liquid lapping at her feet, the souls of thousands screaming in anguish with every further step she took into the castle.

When they came to an intersection in the castle hallways, Persephone couldn't help but be drawn to the chandelier hanging above their heads. The torches illuminating it while precious gems cast spots of silver and gold onto the walls, making the castle seem warmer, more welcoming; a stark contrast to the hallway before.

It was a strange but fitting contrast for Hades. Despite clearly being frustrated, it was never physically shown in her grip on Persephone's wrist. She slowed down if she thought Persephone had tripped or stumbled behind her.

Persephone was starting to think Hades was a lot nicer than the many rumors being circulated by the mortals

"Don't run around telling anyone that isn't a god what you see in here. Understood?" Hades' voice was curt, yet calm as it sent a shiver down the spine of the nature goddess.

Persephone nodded and avoided Hades' freezing cold gaze. "Yes ma'am."

Persephone wasn't sure what to expect on the other side of the door. Maybe some big bad book of evil, a weapon that would be the end of ends, or even some terrible creature of destruction, to be released into the world above.

What she did not expect was three small puppies to come bounding out of the office.

Hades quickly swooped down and picked two of them and chased after the third. It was a surreal sight to see, honestly.

The goddess of the underworld bent over chasing after one, no two, well now three puppies around a castle. The speedy little balls of fur knocking into chairs and sofas, yet still managing to evade their owner.

Hades sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "They'll be fine…" She mumbled to herself and turned to Persephone. "Um, have a seat in my office. We need to talk."

Making its reappearance just as quick as it disappeared, the icy stare and blank face made its way back onto Hades' face.

Persephone nervously entered the office and took a seat. She bounced her leg up and down and avoided making eye contact with the older woman.

She reverted back to her previous tactic of focusing on everything but her current situation. However there was a problem.

Everything in the room was foreign to her.

Technology she'd only seen maybe once or twice on Mount Olympus, but wasn't quite sure of it's purpose. Which meant her only option was to focus on Hades herself.

Which didn't seem so bad after all. Hades was a beautiful woman. To Persephone at least.

For starters, Hades was tall. Much, much taller than her, and her arms were toned with years of fighting monsters. Persephone wondered if Hades would be able to pick her off the ground in one fell swoop.

The next thing she noted were the scars on Hades' face. The one below her lip, on her cheek, the ones riddling her hands like little holes pierced into the pale skin, the horrible one snaking from her temple to her nose, as if some monstrous creature had raked into her flesh and the one that started from her collarbone and ended in who knew where. She heard the stories of the fight between Kronos and his children and knew of the scars, both physical and mental that had been left behind, but she could not have imagined that they would have been so damaging, especially to the cold, lonesome goddess of the underworld.

Persephone pitied her. If anything, those scars only served to cement her fearsome reputation as a death God.

The last thing she noted were Hades' eyes. Her gaze was mesmerising. Even if she wanted to, Persephone couldn't tear her eyes away. It was magnetic, holding her in place, stripping her soul down to its rawest layers. She could see fire raging in Hades' eyes, it felt as though if she looked hard enough, she would be able to feel the heat radiating from her gaze; yet there was something cold, almost icy about it, as if the goddess has something to hide and was merely shielding it with a wall of ice and glacier. Nevertheless, Persephone felt herself drowning within the dark ocean that was Hades herself.

And she was terrified.

Hades cleared her throat and waved her hand to catch Persephone's attention, startling her out of her reverie.

"Care to explain why you're here?"

Persephone sunk into her seat and looked away. "I'm..well... I was bored. My mother is unbelievably overbearing and won't take me anywhere!" She sighed. "I'm aware of how childish it sounds, but promise to keep this between us?" She nervously nibbled on her knuckles as she spokes which made it hard to understand.

Hades furrowed her eyebrows and took a moment to decipher Persephone's obscured speaking. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose before speaking. "I'm aware of how overbearing your mother can be and I can only imagine the things she's told you."

"How do you know my mother?" Persephone perked up.

"The Oracle does live here. I can't expect them to not want to talk to someone every once and awhile." Hades' features softened for a split second before going back to its normal stoic expression. "As I was saying before, I'll allow you to visit but please keep your little magic tricks at a limit." She chuckled softly.

At that moment, Persephone felt her heart stop for the briefest of seconds. Hades' laugh was so soft and adorable, completely the opposite of what she imagined for a God of death. She couldn't help but crack the smallest of grins as she felt a small laugh begin to bubble up in her own throat as well.

"Persephone?"

Persephone relished in the smoothness of the older woman's voice before snapping out of her reverie completely. "Oh, yeah. I promise to keep the random flowers and trees growing to a minimum."

Hades stood up from her desk and walked around it, towards Persephone. "Sadly, I think it's getting too late for a young lady like you to be walking alone by herself. I have to ask you to leave." She extended her hand and offered it to Persephone. "I'll at least walk you to the exit."

Accepting Hades' hand, Persephone stood up and followed the death goddess out of the office and back into the hallways of the castle. The route Hades seemed to be taking her on was different from the rest of the castle. In contrast to the cold black stones of the castle, the bricks here were studded with all manner of precious gems and metal, the fire from the brackets of torches in the walls illuminating the immediate area around them, casting spots of blues, reds and greens all over the walls and floor.

"You're enjoying it, are you?"

Persephone didn't respond, too entranced by the gems as Hades let out a mellow chuckle, the laughter like music to Persephone's ears as she allowed Hades to tug her down the bejeweled corridor, her heart as light as a feather. She looked to Hades and grinned to herself as the death goddess looked away.

Hades had been caught looking at her.

And looking at her with a smile, nonetheless.