#The only thing ill confirm is that Robin is Demeter

[matchingbatbites]

Part 1

Steve visits Eddie often. He loves being around the other man, loves how kind Eddie is, how funny he is for someone who rules the dead. He seems to love making Steve laugh and is always cracking jokes that send the goddess into giggles.

Honestly, Steve spends more time than he should in the Underworld, but Eddie has so many duties to tend to, it makes more sense for Steve to come to him than the other way around.

It’s nearly a year since he met Eddie that his joy is brought to an end. Steve is summoned to Olympus, is told that his visits are sending the world into chaos.

He didn’t know that traveling to the Underworld would cut the human world off from his magic, that the plants that bloomed with his presence would die off when the connection is severed.

Zeus bans him from visiting Hades, and Steve ignores the smug look on Ares’ face, the pitying looks from Hera and Aphrodite. Not all of the gods are here to witness his humiliation, but there are enough to make him flush with shame, to have him leaving as soon as he's able to.

Aphrodite catches him before he gets too far, her hair and robes both immaculate even as tears stream down her face. “Ares told them where you were going. I tried to stop him, but he’s… bitter. Jealous.”

She takes his hand, holds it between her own. “I can tell that your feelings are true, and that Hades feels the same for you. I wish I could help you, Persephone. You both deserve happiness.”

And like a stroke of lightning, Steve knows what must be done.

He thanks her and leaves Olympus, finds the nearest gate and descends into the Underworld. Cerberus is given three loving pets as Steve passes by, heading to the garden behind Eddie’s home.

The plants have been thriving thanks to Steve’s frequent visits, the flowers are in full bloom and the plants that can fruit are full and heavy with produce. He plucks a pomegranate from its branch, and stares at it as he remembers.

The goddess had found Eddie eating one on his third or fourth visit, and the older had stopped him when he’d gone to grab a few of the seeds for himself.

“You can’t eat anything grown in this realm. You’ll be stuck here if you do.”

Eddie had looked almost sad as he’d said it, and Steve had tipped his head to the side.

“Are you saying you don’t want me around?”

“No! I mean, I would-” Eddie stopped himself, took a breath. “You don’t belong down here. This place is far too dark, too bleak. It doesn’t deserve you.”

And Steve could read between the lines, could hear what Eddie wasn’t saying. He had ignored it at the time, let Eddie be right, but now? Now Steve knows that Eddie is the only one who deserves him.

Call him selfish, but no one has ever treated Steve the way Eddie does, has cared for him so, and he wants nothing more than to spend the rest of his days in the Underworld, side by side with the man he loves.

He tears open the pomegranate as a voice comes from the house.

“Steve? I didn’t realize you were here.”

Steve turns to face him, and Eddie’s eyes drop to Steve’s hands, dripping with red as he holds the fruit in his hands. His face pales and his eyes jump back to Steve’s.

“What are you doing?” he asks, taking a cautious step forward.

“Do you love me?” Steve asks in return. Just seeing Eddie has firmed his decision, and he stands, unwavering as he watches the other man pause at the question.

“I do. More than anything.” Eddie seems nervous, but his voice is steady, and Steve knows he's telling the truth.

“If I asked it, would you let me stay? Let me stand by your side for the rest of time itself?”

Eddie steps closer, now in arms reach. “I would. I would not turn you away, even if it meant my life.”

Steve’s eyes don’t waver from Eddie’s as he scrapes a handful of seeds from the fruit and shoves them in his mouth.

The juice is tart at first, but is followed by a delicious sweetness, something that reminds Steve of Eddie himself, and as he swallows, Steve can feel the shift within him.

Hands grab his face and the fruit falls to the ground as Steve grabs Eddie in return, both meeting in a desperate kiss. Magic flows between them, invisible threads tying them together in a bond so concrete, even the Fates themselves could not cut them.

They pull back after a moment, and Steve’s eyes drop to the red smear across Eddie’s mouth, something that is surely mirrored across his own.

“My wonderful little goddess,” Eddie mutters, awestruck as he places another kiss to Steve’s lips, more tender than the last.

“You're stuck with me now,” the goddess responds, sending them both into giggles, and yeah. It feels good to be selfish.

(Later, Steve will cut a deal with the rest of the gods. He will come back for half a year at a time and tend to his duties, leaving his beloved twin Demeter in charge while he’s gone, in exchange for Zeus’ blessing to have children. Zeus will have no choice but to agree.)

-

Tagging @stardustonpages because they respectfully asked for more <3

#Im not specifying other gods but i did have characters in mind while writing them #The only thing ill confirm is that Robin is Demeter #Dustin is Zagreus and Max is Melinoe #I’m not joking when I say I think they grow them in the garden in the Underworld #They just grow two babies like plants and they’re fucking cherished #They come into the world screaming and covered in dirt #and Hades and Persephone experience love at first sight all over again but different #hades and persephone au #steddie fic #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #steve x eddie #stranger things #joey writes #listen i know i posted the first part yesterday #but yall #the muses have me tight in their grip #ficlet

[dracox-serdriel]

Lament of the Asphodels - Epilogue: The Cornucopia of Demeter

Lament of the Asphodels

Title: The Munificence of Demeter Author: Dracox Serdriel Artist: @liamjcnes Artwork: Post 1 | Post 2 Word count: 1,400 Rating: NC-17/Explicit (except on FF) Warnings: Graphic descriptions of violence, Graphic sexual content, Declaration/threats of sexual violence, Minor character death, Social stigmatization/abuse, Detailed descriptions of hopelessness/depression/inner turmoil, Descriptions of the effects of extreme phobias/social anxiety, including anthropophobia, thalassophobia/hydrophobia, and hylophobia/dendrophobia, Descriptions of shipwrecks and storms at sea

Read Lament of the Asphodels on FF, AO3, LJ, or start at the beginning on Tumblr. Written as part of @captainswanbigbang.

Epilogue: The Munificence of Demeter

To avoid Manticore-inspired panic from each new arrival, Emma and Killian abandoned the sidewalk - and Pegasus and the Manticore - for the interior of the Library. By the circulation desk, they all gathered together: Henry, Snow, Charming, Baby Neal, Regina, Robin Hood, Belle, Mr. Gold, Granny, Red, Doctor Whale, Ashley, Sean, Jefferson, Zelena, Blue, Doctor Hopper, August, Ariel, Eric, Abigail, Frederick, Mr. Smee, and dozens of other faces they thought they'd never see again.

After much jubilation and far too many embraces to number, Killian inquired after the state of the town, and Emma, the cause for the entirety of the town collecting in the Library.

And with many voices they answered.

No one agreed on exactly when it began. A few said it was as soon as Emma made her leave. Others insisted it was the day after, when Mr. Gold and the rest of the rescue party returned without the Savior. And a handful - by far the loudest and most willing to interrupt, given that Grump was among them - claimed that it was several weeks before anything went truly amiss.

Despite the discrepancy of when it started, not one person argued how it began, for a consensus had long ago been reached in that regard. It was when the enchantment that kept a Land without Magic at bay fell with neither warning nor report.

At first this led to nothing more than a rise in belligerent fauna. (And, to this day, many residents of the town will insist that, despite its name, a Land without Magic has its dragons, which, for some reason, are called moose.)

Many attempts were made to restore the barrier, but they all failed. As it seemed more of a nuisance than a true ill, the dwarves took action, setting up deterrents around the town line and shooing away whatever they could with their pick axes.

But then people - confused and ornery people - found their way into Storybrooke. Most departed as quickly as they arrived, scowling at their out-of-date maps and devices, but some did not go so quietly. They became enamored of the town - either from its charm or its mystery - and only relented when Regina and Blue resorted to a memory spell.

Again, attempts at re-enchanting the town line - this time countless in number - failed, lingering at best for a few hours before fading away.

As the weeks turned to months, increasingly drastic measures were taken to avoid the onslaught of tourists. At first, stores locked their front doors and hoisted "CLOSED" signs in their windows, but this only resulted in angry visitors pounding on the doors. (Granny admitted that they might've done better had they considered that resident shoppers were clearly visible to anyone outside the door, but, of course, hindsight is twenty-twenty.)

So then they boarded up windows and abandoned their shops during the day, hoping a ghost town would deter traffic and visitors alike. They set up fake detours and roadblocks, which were quite effective until an official from the Maine Department of Transportation showed up to investigate a shockingly high volume of complaints.

That was when truly drastic measures had been taken.

As the plan required unlawful deception, Snow yielded her mayoral seat to Regina, who, beyond having no qualms with lying, also had twenty-eight years to familiarize herself with the complex government of this land and was at far less of a loss than anyone else. Everything went according to plan, save for a bit of poorly timed desperation and bad paper work.

Thus, Storybrooke was declared a quarantine zone for a deadly outbreak of an unnamed weaponized biological agent in the same month as it was declared a critical habitat for the northern long-eared bat. As of yet, no one from the government has seemed any the wiser, and after confirming the town's abandonment, promptly sealed off the three major roads leading into it.

But, of course, the town was not abandoned. The residents had merely hidden away in the catacombs beneath the Library. And their oddly achieved success was well-timed, for that was when the weather soured, becoming thrice as bitter as any winter they'd ever had. Each day brought punishing storms that uprooted trees and tore at roofs and windows before vanishing abruptly.

Only the bravest dared to venture outside during the lull between storms, and those who did discovered that the weather was not the only danger awaiting them.

Monsters of every shape and size roamed the streets and woods, often incited by the whims of the tempests, rampaging with the winds and hail.

Even the most stubborn of residents finally took refuge in the Library, for Mr. Gold (and - though he would never admit it - Blue) cast layers of charms and spells and enchantments, for only the most intricate of magicks provided protection from monsters and storms alike.

But Storybrooke was far from defeated.

Hunting parties set out each morning to drive the creatures into the woods, where portals that led to the Enchanted Forest were cleverly hidden to transfer as many as they could catch. Those that could not hunt crafted countermeasures to keep the beasts at bay. It was a crawling but steady pace, gradually turning the tides in their favor. Until at last - just one week previous - the most vicious tempest to ever touch Storybrooke descended on the town and drove the last of the monsters away.

And then the storm broke.

With hope and trepidation, they began to repair and rebuild the town, though they always returned to the Library at nightfall - or at any hint of a coming storm - for fear of being caught in an even more powerful tempest, though a storm had not so much as brewed on the horizon in the past seven days.

Once the many voices finished their tale, Henry asked, "But what about you? Were you in the Underworld for all six months? How did you escape?"

"That's actually a much longer story," Emma replied.

"Aye, lad," Killian added. "And, as to our escape, we had help."

A chorus of voices asked, "From who?"

"You," Emma replied. "All of you. Everyone here helped us get home."

"Everyone here," Killian repeated. "And many who are no longer with us."

"No longer with us?" Henry asked. "You mean... you mean like Graham?"

"Yeah, kid, Graham," she responded. "And my grandparents, Eva and Leopold, and the Apprentice, Greg and Tamara, Killian's brother Liam."

"And Milah," he said. "And, though he didn't mean to, Peter Pan helped us a little. Even Cora did."

"My mother?" Regina asked skeptically.

"More your father than she," Killian replied. "But, it's true, without her we might never had made it home."

"Before we get into all of that," Emma suggested as she intertwined her hand in his. "Maybe we should see if we can't seal off the town again, huh?"

------

From the moment the Fates weaved two golden threads into one, a wail of bitter beauty sounded from the deep, equal parts mourning and ecstasy cast about by the wind. And those that heard it knew it was the tears of the asphodels.

These were not the flowers of Elysium, the incorruptible isles deeply stirred from joy, where the righteous dead reside free from toil and virtuous heroes rested evermore, untouched by sorrows. Nor were they the flowers of Tartarus, where gloom and fire enveloped mortals, deities, and titans alike with unending torments as punishment for their wickedness.

No, neither monsters no heroes - the mighty nor the feeble - took their final rest in the Asphodel Fields. It was a place for those whose work was complete, and so, the flowers there knew neither torment and fire nor bliss and glory. They discerned two things, and two things only: peace and beauty.

So when the asphodels wept in elation and grief, it was not for loss or for freedom, but instead for two shattered souls healed into one, the most impossibly beautiful thing to exist in any realm.

And when the asphodels weep, the world is changed.

-----------

The last of the winter came down from the north in wailing waves that corrupted spring's fine morning dew, cruelly cutting down anything that dared to grow before the last of its savage, slackening grasp.

And yet, not too far from the Library, an entire field bloomed in open defiance of the frost, spared by the power of someone who had not set foot in this realm - nor any other like it - for a very, very, very long time.

Persephone hadn't meant to linger, but her curiosity outmatched both her caution and her manners. Why would her husband let a mortal free from his realm? In all her years, he had never once allowed such a thing, not for gift nor service nor threat nor promise. And yet he relented, and not just for any man, but a man who already cheated his mortal's fare for centuries.

Had she been gone for so long that those rules were gone? Or had her husband been the one to change in their time apart.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" someone asked.

Persephone recognized the voice, but she couldn't believe it. She turned with deliberation, her breath held and her eyes downcast for fear that, somehow, the truth might yet rob her of this, the one joy she'd coveted - the one she herself had prayed for - since her wedding day. Even after she caught sight of his boots - dragon hide and wrought iron with accents crafted from a Harpy's feather - she dared not look up.

Hades reached out to her, letting his knuckle sit just below her chin. Then, ever so carefully and ever so gently, he lifted until her eyes met his own.

"How... how are you here?" she asked.

"Can't a husband surprise his wife?"

Did it matter how he came to be here? He was here now. And at once, Persephone's mind began to race with possibilities, with all the places she could share with him now that he could walk in the realms of the living at her side.

As if he'd read her thoughts - and, after a fashion, he had done something akin to that - he smiled with the brilliance of ivory dreams clinging to his every feature and loosed a lighthearted laugh.

Unwilling to waste another moment, Persephone took hold of Hades and kissed him soundly under the glowing ebb of the springtime sun.

---------

As was written before, there are some truths that no living mortal may remember, be they Killian Jones, Emma Swan, or any of the countless number who have since heard their adventures.

Perhaps that is why no one can say with true authority what part of that which follows is truth or legend or pure and wild invention.

It is said that Killian Jones and Emma Swan lived seventy five years with a shared heart before Atropos cut the golden thread that bound them as one soul. They defeated villains, tamed monsters, and protected their home while raising their family in Storybrooke. Their children - and their children's children - all tell the story of the man who sacrificed himself to rid the world of darkness and the woman who refused to surrender him even to death. She disappeared into the earth to find him again, and six months later, they rose like the first sprigs of green in the spring's thaw.

And on that magnificent day, so joyous was the occasion, that every realm had a reprieve: not even a single soul passed to the Underworld from that sunup to the next.

But like so many of the tales mortal tell of the hereafter, the truth of it remains a mystery, or, as the saying remains, only the asphodels know.

End-of-chapter notes: Demeter was the goddess of the harvest and agriculture in Greek mythology. One of her symbols was the cornucopia, the horn of plenty, which represented abundant nourishment.

For next and previous chapters, proceed to the Lament of the Asphodels main Tumblr page.

#lament of the asphodels #captain swan big bang #csbb #csbb 2016 #cs ff #captain swan fanfic #once upon a time #ouat #once upon a time fanfic #ouat ff #captain swan #fanfic #killian jones #emma swan #storybrooke