Hades and Persephone

Family Meetings and Family Dinners

The worst part of Hades' month was always the work call with his brothers. Currently, he was leaning back in his seat as he scowled at his screen. Both Zeus and Poseidon were also leaning back in their seats. Zeus was in his typical white suit. Poseidon was shirtless as always, and he was using a knife to open to pry open a plate of mussels.

"Come on, don't be shy," Poseidon said as he popped a mussel into his mouth, and so the next part of his sentence was said whilst chewing. "Tell us about the human you were with."

Hades held back a grimace as Poseidon pried open another mussel. Hades had never particularly been one for seafood—it was mostly the smell that bothered him—so watching Poseidon chew away on the mussels was not something Hades had ever been fond of.

"I do not know what you are talking about," Hades said as he crossed his arms.

"Oh, sure you don't," Poseidon said, and he rolled his eyes. "Almost all of Olympus is talking about it. Rather, whispering about it. To be frank, no one wants to get on your bad side, so they like to speak quietly, lest they incur your oh so terrible wrath."

And Hades' wrath was terrible, when he desired it to be so, but rarely did that come to be. He much preferred to deal with issues in a civil manner, and down in the Underworld he typically did just that. Yet, still he was somehow the 'scary' one of the three brothers.

"It has been spreading amongst the humans for a while now that you were spotted with one of them," Zeus said, his voice rather mellow at the moment. Judging by how his suit was still white, and had not darkened, he had yet to be put in a bad mood.

"Something about a dog park," Poseidon said. "Sounds like an exciting place to be."

Hades remained quiet for a moment, and his jaw clenched as he attempted to piece together the most sensible reply to give. Eventually, he said, "Cerberus grows tired of the Underground's environments, so I commonly take him to Neo-Macedonia for a change in scenery. I simple met a young, attractive person whilst I was out and invited them to join me on my walk."

"I'm sure they were willing," Poseidon said as he cracked open another mussel. Hades was unable to hold back his grimace that time. He was not the one that pestered innocent women against their wills, unlike his brothers.

"I must admit, I am curious about who they are," Zeus said, his voice still mellow. He barely sounded interested in Hades' affairs, but yet he asked anyway.

"I am not about to tell you their identity," Hades said. "There is a reason I deliberately hid it from others' perceptions. I won't have you stalk some poor, innocent human."

"At least tell us their gender," Poseidon said. "What do you think, Zeus? Man or woman?"

Zeus paused before saying, "Man."

"Really? I think women," Poseidon said as he reached for another mussel, but then he frowned when he saw he had cracked open his last one.

"You are gods; learn to think outside the binary choices," Hades said, but his brothers did not appear bothered by this. "And enough of my apparent romantic affairs. I am sure there are more important things we should be discussing."

As soon as he said this, Hades' office door flung open and Hecate strutted in, though she did not look up from whoever she was texting. Before he could scold her for not knocking, she said, "I came at the right time. I do have more important things to discuss."

"Hecate, I am on call with my brothers," Hades said, and Hecate smiled wickedly, but not in the joyous wicked way she tended to do. She tucked her phone into her pocket, placed her clipboard on his desk, then stood behind his chair. When she leant down, so she was eye level with his laptop's camera, a few strands of her always perfectly straight hair fell loose.