Who: Hades/Dante & Persephone/Dahlia What: Conversation Where: Their House When: After the Hestia/Hera/Hades scene Warnings: None
Dante returned to the home he and Dahlia shared a jumble of emotions. Happy to find and see his two sons and yet angry he had only done so now... Happy he clearly had family who cared about him and angry that they all, in different levels, decided keeping his life from him was how they should show it. His soul was both bristled and overjoyed in his body, but it was focused now... Focused on answers. Tonight.... Today?
He looked out the door before he closed it behind him. It was clearly sunny. It was clearly day.
Today was the day of answers and he wanted the next grouping from Dahlia.... Persephone.
But as he entered the house and as he was ready to call out for her to find her, his focus temporarily broke. He caught something from the corner of his eyes, a phone with a note . It made him sigh as he flicked through the apps and photos...
Persephone was awake and in the kitchen, going through the process of feeding her small, demanding children. Delaney was the more stubborn of the two, to be sure, but Dasha could be unexpectedly fussy when it came to meal times. All the Iron Queen wanted was a hug and a big cup of coffee, but she had to forgo both as she breastfed one girl and supervised the other. She glanced over her shoulder when she heard the door. “H--Dante?”
At hearing the beginning of one name and then the totality of his normal one, Dante tucked the iPhone into his pocket to follow the sound of her voice. He stood in the doorway, leaned against the door jam, forced to take a moment to regain himself. She really was beautiful and somehow breastfeeding the child he felt most strongly connected to only heightened that for him. He took a breath and decided to reply to her much in the same she had done him. It would help the conversation begin, “Per-Dahlia. Good morning.”
Dahlia blinked at the odd greeting, casting her eyes over to him. “Good morning. Did your nephew tell you something?” Good for him, if he had. It had taken long enough. Delaney was squirming for attention from the moment she saw her father. She could be patient enough if there was one adult around, but with two, there was no reason she needed to split share with her sister.
“He told me a lot of things,” Dante said as he swept the older of the two girls up into his arms, but knew that with her in his arms, he would have to speak in subtle code. That was fine with him. He was good at subtle code talking, he found. However, what Vadimas said wasn’t what he wanted to talk about, “And I found the phone you left. Looks like you were going to tell me a lot of things whether he did or not...”
“I didn’t think you deserved to have your independence taken away from you,” Persephone said with a little shrug. Dasha seemed done for the moment. She rearranged her blouse, holding her littlest girl close. “Any more than it already had been. You’re not a hazard to yourself. I just needed to see that for myself first.”
“Delaney, your mother wasn’t sure if I was a hazard to myself. What do you think?” Dante asked the bigger and much more talkative of the two girls as he boosted her up more in his grip so she could wrap her arms around his shoulders to steady herself.
Her little face scrunched in thought, “Well, you told me you yer own worst ene... enem...” She shook her head, the word not agreeing with her young tongue and resorted to “...bad guy. Is that the same thing?”
Hmm, that did sound like something a Hades, any Hades really would tell his daughter, which just struck him as sad, “Not exactly. But anyroad, your mum gave me the stamp of approval.” Dante brought his eyes back to his fiancee, “Which I do appreciate, love. More subtle than the threats June gave me”
“Threats? That does sound like her,” Dahlia murmured thoughtfully, cracking a smile in spite of her morning mood. She glanced at the girls. “Maybe play pen time is in order?” He did seem to want to talk about things, and Delaney was so damn perceptive when it came to adult conversations. (Which made swearing a nigh impossibility.) It was best to count the girls out of it.
“Does play pen mean Quackers?” Delaney inquired with bright hopeful eyes, looking to both her parents. “Is he wake now?”
“If he’s awake and yer mum says so, “ Dante replied in turn, keeping his eyes on Dahlia. He would follow her lead for now but when the children were away, he would take that lead back for the conversation, “Part of me is pretty sure June met it mostly in warmth... if that makes sense.”
“Makes perfect sense,” Dahlia replied with a shrug. She carried Dasha to her play area, making sure the girl was comfortable before retrieving Quackers for Delaney. The little automated duck came to life, and she set him down in Delaney’s play pen. “There we go. All set.” Quackers time was a bribe, but one easily given.
Dante didn't quite know why they even bothered putting Delaney in a playpen as he was certain could climb to freedom but he shrugged and motioned for Dahlia to follow him back into the kitchen. He was tired, it had been a long night and a busy morning and so he rummaged in the fridge, mixing one of the Red Bulls in the back with some Pom juice so it wouldn't be horrible before sitting, "I know who you are and I am, you know..."
“Yes, I thought that was rather dumb...but Hephaestus asked me not to tell you at first, and then--how do you slip that truth in?” Dahlia sat herself down near him, running her fingers over the back of his hand. “How are you taking it? I’m sorry. I’m sure it’s overwhelming.”
Dante didn’t move even though he did glance down at her fingers running over his skin before lifting his eyes back to her, “Got a question. Why weren’t you the one to tell me that, especially if you thought it was dumb?”
“Because he asked me not to,” Persephone said simply. “I guess if I had to dig for a more meaningful answer a part of me thought if I cooperated a bit maybe he would cooperate with my wishes and stop encouraging the crime fighting hobby.” She glanced away from Hades. If he had spoken to Hera, he had probably heard about his sons, hadn’t he? “My first priority has been keeping my family in tact.” And were Hades in his right mind, he could probably draw a correlation between Persephone and her mother at that moment.
It may have been better he wasn't so that he didn't draw that kind of correlation. Dante tapped the table with his fingers, his thumping as loud as he could possibly manage at the angle. "Now, don't misquote me out of context if you do speak to Vadimas because I respect him sincerely but..." She had glanced away but he certainly hadn't. He continued to stare right to him, "Assuming, I understand everything even remotely correctly, who is Hephaestus to us that you're making deals with him about our life together?"
“When you went missing, I was out of my depth. I didn’t want to get the entire family up in arms because...well because most of them can be insane and hinder the process of a thing,” Dahlia gave a wry smile, glancing back at her fiance. “And he found you and he seemed to have an understanding of the situation so I went on with his first wishes. You and he have had a good relationship. And then you got hurt and started crusading in the night and he was helping you. I assumed at some point he would explain everything to you when he thought you could handle it, and I had my own realities to ease you into. But Hephaestus...I suppose he sees all of this as my responsibility. The fact is you’re doing a thing you never did before and you’re doing it with him and it’s consuming a whole huge portion of your life. You’ve wrapped your identity around it, and you seem so different to me. I just wanted to focus on preserving the part of you I could still recognize.” It was clear that this thought pained her and filled her with dread and fatigue. She felt like a single parent some days, and on others, she wished she was--that she could just enjoy her daughters and mourn the man who was missing from her life, who echoed in this stranger she was living with. She didn’t dare voice her thoughts to Hades, though. She felt as though if she breathed too hard on him, even the distant whispers of the man she loved would disappear.
“I’m sure you are furious I didn’t tell you about Hestia.” A piece of her wanted him to be--wanted him to rage with a shadow of the old fire that he had--but the rest of her felt nothing but fear of his judgment. She had been condemned in his eyes before, and it hadn’t been one bit pleasant. “Part of that was selfishness and putting my family first. There are betrayals between us over those children that you do not understand, and I am too soul-tired to explain. Put simply, I begrudge what she has. However, another part of it was Hestia’s own desires--you may think you can be the same man you were, but as you are not, we mothers decide what is best for our children.”
Dante narrowed his eyes at her final sentence. He had started a whole little, almost funny speech in his head about how he had been furious at Hestia... furious that she didn’t tell him herself that she or their children together existed, but almost understood that the little hearth goddess probably didn’t know how to start a conversation where she confessed he was Hades, she was Hestia and they had two children. It sounded absurd. It still did regardless of the two little boys as proof.
But his good mood faded from him and his calmness was feigned as he placed his glass down on the table. Mother decide what was best....? Like he wasn’t here. Like he wasn’t their father. He couldn’t remember, he wasn’t some mentally crippled invalid. What he wanted to do was slam the table but not with the children in the next room... He got up and circled the table to be by her side, taking one of her hands within his own and tipping her chin up to make sure she looked at him with the other. “I ask about us and you mention others...” he said in a whisper, “When I made my way back here I tried to figure out why you didn’t tell me. Know that if roles were reversed, it would be me telling you regardless of what other people or even common sense may dictate. So I wondered... was it either you hoped to put off telling me, worried that what I would remember would be terrible thus to spare me or did you want to recreate your world as you saw fit.... “
It was a quiet accusation that left his lips as he released her, “What you confess is neither and yet more terrible for me to hear. You sound like you’re giving up and preparing yourself for it.”
Persephone didn’t dare move, her large blue eyes swiveled up to Hades’s face. Tears started to drip unbidden from her lashes. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Maybe that was the truth. Maybe that was why she had given him the phone back, a concession that it was no longer worth the effort to try and keep this new Hades contained or try to bring him back to himself.
Something deep inside of him cringed at the sight of her tears slipping down her cheeks. It clutched at his very soul and knowing who he was, he could guess it was living centuries dreaming of her smile and dreading her tears. He couldn’t stop himself from trying to brush them away, “Wish I didn’t have to take that as a yes, love...” His fingertips wet with her tears, he sighed. Her tears quenched his anger, but did little to his own frustrations, “Do you think I like to be this way? People keeping secrets from me, acting like I’m made of glass. Ironically acting like I’m a ghost?”
“I asked you to stop--what do you want from me?” Persephone croaked the words out through the lump in her throat. “The things you like so much about how you are now are the things that hurt me the most. I think I’ve been behaving very generously all things considered. You don’t want us to treat you like glass, but you’re not very firm, are you? You...” She pursed her lips together, knowing her words were descending into a frantic ramble. “You want me to be better to you, and I can’t. Maybe if it were just the two of us, but it isn’t. And they need me more than you.”
“Want you to actually start answering my questions and not sound like you are reciting some speech you practiced while I was out. It’s disconcerting.” He could hear that frantic ramble as much as he could see it in her face and her distressed eyes. She was lucky it was. It was the only thing keeping himself calm, not bubbling over in anxious, paranoid rage... But he would call her out on it. “I want you to treat me as an adult, if you can’t treat me as the man you love. Not like the children in the next room. Don’t take this tone with me and don’t start claiming you have more intrinsic value than me toward them... Quite frankly, at the moment, I should be the one asking you if you’re very firm...”
He sighed and rubbed his face with his hand before raking it through his hair in frustration. “And I am so sorry that the only thing that truly feels real to me besides my love for you and Dasha hurts you so much. But you never asked me to explain.... Its me not knowing what you want from me.” Turning, he looked passed the doorway, letting his gaze drift to his children, captivated by their own little activities... Perhaps there was a kernel of truth in her hysteria though - what purpose did he have here?
“Fine. What do you want to know? I’ve covered why I let Hephaestus take point on revealing your godhood,” Persephone sniffled, standing to get a paper towel to clean up her face. She drew up whatever composure she could as she leaned against the kitchen counter, dabbing her face. “And I well covered the unspoken question of the reasons why I refrained from speaking of your sons.”
Dante shook his head and waved the question away, not even turning to face her as he did so. In that moment, he was lost in thought and had a better question to pose: What was he going to do? “This isn’t going to work,” he murmured.
That was it. They were cursed. Persephone was sure of it. She felt herself go cold all over, her mind already going over what to do with the ring and the dress and if she wanted to tell the children anything at all. She turned away from him, glancing out at the sunlight. She wished for a moment that her mother were here.
It was almost like he could feel that cold that went all over her go right down his own spine and the sensation drove him to wheel around and catch her by the wrist, spinning her to bring her back to him... her body, her presence and her attention. Caught in the moment, he couldn’t stop himself and brought his lips to hers. Their feel at least steeled his resolve, reviving it from the whole conversation with her... “You’ve given up on me but I haven’t... “
Persephone pressed her lips to his, clinging onto him. Maybe there was still some of him in there if he could still leave her breathless. “I don’t want to give up on us. I really don’t. I love you...so much...”
I don’t want to... Sighing, he wrapped an arm around her waist, keeping her close to his frame. No, his pleasant mood wasn’t coming back today it seemed. She couldn’t manage to say she hadn’t... just that she didn’t want to. He ran his fingers through her hair, stroking it softly to try to console her. “How about this? You let me decide when we give up...”
“No!” Persephone protested, her face making it clear that that she was ready to start a big huff. (Nobody questioned where Delaney got it from). “Because even if you don’t remember it, you’ve done that before and I hated it. Hated it, hated it.” If that wasn’t a clear sign that she hadn’t entirely given up yet, then nothing else would be.
Dante couldn’t help but start to snicker. Maybe it had been too early to write off his pleasant mood after all. Once more, he pressed his lips to her, partly to prevent her huff and partly to relish that she was had been about to throw one. “Stay like this. Like you better this way. Remember, I’m Hades, if anyone is going to get emotional breakdowns, shouldn’t it be me?”
Persephone pouted but relented from her huff, resting her cheek against his chest. “Yeah. Well. When we’re married I’m going to make you sign a pre-nup that entitles me to 20% of your emotional breakdown rights. It’s only fair.”
“You would have to make me sign it before we got married,” Dante murmured into her ear as he returned to stroking her hair. She hadn’t disagreed with him that he should be the one with the majority of the breakdown - part of him had been worried about that. But he couldn’t especially care about it with her rested against him. “But I guess we could work with that.... Want to try to relax with me? We can lay on the couch and watch the children play and try to put the fighting behind us for the moment?”
“That would be nice,” Dahlia nodded, taking his hand and leading him into the living room.
Dante took a deep breath. It was all he could do to continue to swallow down the remnants of his anger and his bubbling frustration. He just wanted a moment to relax with his pretty fiancee and watch his daughters right now... After that he would think more about all of this... assuming he didn’t fall asleep on the couch.
It had been a long night into day.
Summary: Dante returns from Hestia and Hera’s house and from seeing his sons and has some words for Persephone. It really only gives him more to think about.