[CLOSED | COMPLETE ] When I was just a little girl Characters: Demeter (grainsandfruits) & Persephone (anironqueen) Date/Time: October 20th...ish Location: Turkey, in the middle of a pool Rating: Low Warnings: none. Summary: Demeter remembers herself!
Brie had been enjoying herself in Turkey. The weather was lovely, the area around her was lovely, and her new friend was actually the perfect companion. For whatever reason, her mind was more calm. Even the fairies they'd had to deal with weren't that bad. They'd been messy, but for some reason she'd felt more at ease and more...complete? Was it that? It didn't make sense, but then nothing had really made much sense.
Turkey was a lovely place. It was the first time she'd been, but she hoped not the last. She was smiling to herself as she swum around the pool. This was much better than being in New York for the fall. So much better. "It's so hard to think about leaving...even though I know it's still a while off. If only we could stay for the rest of fall and winter." She let out a sigh. "But that's really asking a bit much considering we have jobs and lives to pay attention to. I don't think Aidan would forgive me if I never came back."
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The faeries had been a surprise but, as neither of them lashed out, Persephone only was left with minor issues such as a few tiny bites, a broken hairbrush and some of her make-up missing.
Perched on the edge of the pool, legs in as the sun warmed her back, she smiled at her new friend. "Your friend sounds very needy," she teased. "I'm sure he'd survive without you a few more months." Staying until spring sounded so good. There was nothing in New York but her business which slowed dramatically during the colder months and relations she could catch up with in the spring and summer. Rosier would well survive without her, no doubt.
It wasn't as if her husband was there. Or her mother. If she had to be honest, they were reasons why she would stay anywhere but, so far, she had neither to give her direction. A flash of pain came then went and to jar herself from a sobering mood, she allowed herself to slip into the water. Swimming was, if anything, a distraction. "We could do it, though. Arrange something for our work, tell everyone we're taking a long vacation and stay here. It isn't as if we couldn't find a place to stay. We could even just travel around. We don't have to let this go."
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Smiling, Brie nodded. "A little. He's like having a child..." Which, in its own way was oddly comforting, but...she tried not to think about that. "He probably would...but I don't trust him to leave me a collection of frogs as punishment." She laughed a little. "He's terrible." She paddled around in the pool, letting her thoughts wander for a bit.
When Leyla joined her in the water, she turned to smile at her. "It would be nice." She let out a sigh. But how was she going to justify it? "I don't know if I could, but it would be nice." She frowned a little at the idea. It wasn't like she could help the fact that things needed to be done. Her parents couldn't pay for things for her. Not just off of the farm. "If we stayed, where would you want to go?"
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Menelaus would have lifted a brow at the child line before quipping that he was a very, very big child and that 'Mommy' needed to feed him more. That was how he rolled.
"I'll never understand some men but he sounds like he needs to be trained a bit," Persephone said with a small laugh. Then she mused over the question, wondering where it would be ideal to go. "Everywhere. To the south of France and Italy. To Croatia, Romania and Malta. To Macedonia just because." Turning herself over on her back to float, Persephone closed her eyes. "Maybe even Greece." Not that it would feel like home but it was right there. It couldn't hurt her.
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"It's possible, but he has a wife for that." One that she was pretty sure wanted to give her the evil eye. She would try to avoid that interaction if at all possible. She had no interest in stealing Aidan...or Menelaus...or whatever he went by. They were friends and that was it.
She hmmed thoughtfully as she listened to the places listed. It wasn't until Greece was mentioned that she stilled. "Greece..." She was Greek. The filters said so. She'd avoided it like it was the plague and tried to ignore it. She didn't want to think about it, but the less she wanted to talk about it, the more it found her.
And there were the visions again. Only this time they were more clear and the information was impossible to ignore. She closed her eyes tight, opening them them shortly after. "Oh." It was all she could say.
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"Ahh. The wife." If she recalled the man named Aidan was Menelaus. And his wife was, of course, Helen who she had not gotten heavily involved with despite being her sister. The other woman was only half-god anyway and tended to go her own way. All fine and well. Persephone found that she felt closer to Athena and Artemis regardless.
To avoid getting water in her ears, she righted herself to peer at her friend, curious about the little 'oh'. "Greece isn't suitable then? It's fine, we can skip it. I've always wanted to see Macedonia a little more anyway."
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"Yes. Aidan and I were...married in Zurvan. I..." She frowned a touch. "Well, it was a lot more awkward after I remembered myself..." And even then, she hadn't really remembered at all. It was a little more awkward now. At least growing up on a farm made considerably more sense.
Oddly enough, Aidan's never going to let me hear the end of this was the first thought to enter her mind. She'd been fighting so much. Her next thought was trying to find out if her daughter was around...and perhaps her siblings. She hoped the latter were missing..."Oh! No..no, darling. That isn't what I meant. I was just..." She paused a moment before finishing was, "Remembering something I'd forgotten."
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"Sometimes marriages made suddenly can be fun." Her mind was far from Aidan and Brie when she murmured that, thinking of a man who lived in the darkness and whose cool hands she dearly missed. "But I'm sorry if you suffered because of it."
Remembering among those on the community usually meant reincarnation business and the Underworld queen's curiosity bloomed. "About what if I may ask?"
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Smiling slightly, she shook her head. "I didn't suffer. He was a difficult man sometimes, but we were happy...It's just that others minded." She shrugged. "But I suppose that's because they thought I would serve some sort of...interference, which isn't what I do."
"Myself..." She frowned a little before shaking it off. This wasn't something one should be unhappy discovering. "Demeter." Curious how she could have forgotten. "Now I just have to figure out who is here and who isn't..." so I can be prepared with a bat in case my brothers should decide to come around. They always caused trouble before, they were likely to cause it again.
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A soft hum was offered in a way to suggest she was dwelling on the matter. "You're too sweet to be a problem for someone's marriage. At least from the couple of weeks I've known you. The man in question just has a history. But marriages of Zurvan are not something you can blame yourself for."
Yet if she knew Hades had married another, she would have been deeply stung and uncertain of where to go from there. Her husband was not Menelaus, no prone to needing or wanting concubines. Where as Helen was used to her husband's other women, Persephone was not.
It was an ugly, distasteful thought, one that she wouldn't encourage any longer. Especially not when she caught the name Brie spoke. It stilled her motions all the while her heart raced and she thought she could hear it thudding away in her chest.
"Demeter. Mother."
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Mother. It was the only word that she caught. But that meant...
"Persephone?" The laugh that followed it was both her amusement at having flown all the way to Turkey with her daughter without having known it and the actual happiness that came with the knowledge that she'd not had to search for her after all.
There was only one thing that still needed to happen. She moved as fast as she could through the water before wrapping her arms around her. "How wonderful it is that we should find ourselves together."
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The discovered daughter let out a squeak of surprise and joy, her arms going around her mother to instantly squeeze her and never let her go. "No wonder you disliked the colder months! I should have taken it for a clue but..." A slight shake of her head came and went and she pressed her face to her Brie's - to her mother's wet shoulder.
"I've longed for nearly two years to see you again. I'm thankful all the same to have you back." Her mother, the first among two who only wanted the best for her. She who protected her and kept her safe. Granted, it had inspired innocence that had not prepared her but there was a genuine and heartfelt love in Demeter's actions. Persephone would not have wanted things another way as they also lead to Hades. "It's the most wonderful thing to have happened to me in a very, very long time!"
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"I was being stubborn," she said, laughing again. Which was true enough, but stubbornness was in her nature. It was that and the love of her daughter that had driven her to search for Persephone after her disappearance.
"Two years is an awfully long time." Her voice was soft as she spoke. "I am here now. We'll make up for those two years." She pulled back to look her daughter over with new eyes...or old ones. Either way. She was even more beautiful now. "And I won't let any harm come to you if I have the power to stop it."
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Fingertips pressed to her own cheeks, she beamed from the compliment, the joy of having her mother with her (even if all of this was happening in a pool but it could be weirder). "Your stubbornness is something I hope you never lose. Something I hope I have even just half of.
"We'll never lose one another again, Mother. I will do my damned best to make sure of that."