Chapter Fourteen:

6 months later...

"Mom, you need to move a little more to the righ-"

"Can you see me now?" Mom giggled at the joke as her face flip-flopped between backgrounds; beach, space, forest and back to space.

"Mo-mom, just choose one, okay? I don't have a ton of time to chat."

"You called us, remember?" Dad said, his face swimming eerily into view through a myriad of stars and planets and I sighed, eyes flicking to the wall clock and back again.

"That was twenty minutes ago! Okay, look, I just wanted to check in with you guy-"

"Is that a suit of armor behind your head?" Dad asked, squinting as he leaned closer to the camera and I automatically shifted, propping my head in my hands to block their view of the very large, very ancient metal man standing guard.

"What? Pssh, no, that's...uh...a new poster I bought recently. Cool, right? So lifelike. Anyway, I know you haven't heard from me in a bit, and I'm sorry, but everything is fine here, honestly. So, you can stop the hundred texts and calls per day, because I only have so much cell da-"

"Richard, look!" Mom said, laughing again as her head bobbed through the dark sky. "Can you set this thing to music?"

"I don't know why you'd want to," I mumbled as Hades' form materialized in the doorway. "Right, so, back to the check-in. I don't have great reception here, so if I don't answer for a couple of days, please don't send a neighbor to my place again, okay? Plus, I'm not there a lot right now, so all it'll do is worry you more."

"You should consider switching Internet providers, honey," dad said as mom continued to bob and weave her way through the cosmos. "If you'd like, I can give you the contact info for a buddy of mine who works-"

"That's okay," I interrupted, watching as a slow grin split Hades' face.

"If you've got a new boyfriend, sweetie, you should've just told us," mom said. "We would've understood, and left you alone."

I massaged my brow, keenly aware of Hades watching me. "I don't have time for a boyfriend right now, mom. My neighbors are nosy and noisy, so I've been doing some writing at a friend's place, that's all."

"A boy friend, or a girl friend?" Mom asked as I fought the urge to groan aloud. She was like a dog to a freaking bone.

"It doesn't matter, mom, but if it makes you feel better, it's my friend...Gabriel."

"The guy from the barbeque? The one with the sick wife?"

Sick...right... "That's the one."

"Oh, sweetie, maybe you shouldn't be bothering him, since he's already got a lot on his plate and all."

"Trust me, he's fine. I'm alive, happy, and in one piece, and I promise I'll try to check in more with you."

"Maybe next time, just try a phone call, okay? You know your mom and I aren't so great with new technology. It took us a solid hour to figure out how to set up this Vroom chat."

"It's Zoom, dad. Zoom. And anyway, I don't know when I'll see you in person, so this is the next best thing."

Hades held up a thick roster, gaze sliding to the clock and back.

"Hey, guys, I've got to get going, but I'll call you again on Saturday, k? Love you."

"Love you too, honey, Don't be a stranger."

I disconnected the call, sliding my laptop into the desk drawer as Hades stepped further into the room.

"I apologize for the interruption, Emma, but it's almost time to head down to-"

"The docks, I know. I just figured mom and dad deserved to know why I've been avoiding their calls and text messages, even if I can't tell them the whole truth. At least you finally caved and installed Internet service here, though I'm not entirely sure how."

"Jasper spent all night last night playing something called Stardew Valley. I don't think he'll ever be the same again," he said with mock sadness.

I smiled, grabbing my coat."How you've managed to survive the twenty-first century without it until now is honestly a bit baffling to me. You know, sorting the souls would go a lot faster if you jumped on board and, I don't know, upgraded to tablets or an iPad."

"Sure, I'll just download the Soul Sorting app and upload everything to the Cloud," Hades said, rolling his eyes as I joined him in the hallway. "There's a reason it's all done old-school, Emma, and that's accuracy - precision. What if the tablets crashed, stalled or froze? You know what would happen if someone slipped through the cracks."

"Because that's so much better than if your scrolls got wet, ripped or destroyed."

"Technology is useful for many things, just not this," he said as we stepped onto the black sand beach. "We've been just fine for millennia, and I really don't see that changing anytime soon."

"Okay, at the very least, invest in some pens that never run dry, change colors depending on the soul you're consulting...etcetera. Something cooler than ballpoint. I'm pretty sure my grandpa used ballpoint pens."

He smiled - a slow smolder - as we approached the lines of souls. One for Elysium, one for Tartarus, and it hadn't surprised me at all to realize that the line for Tartarus was always twice as long. "Are you, by any chance, calling me old?"

"You've been alive since the dawn of time, and often act like it, too."

"Meaning...?"

"No one wears socks with sandals, Hades."

He shrugged, nonplussed. "I saw your dad doing it at the barbeque. I thought it was appropriate."

I snorted as Amanda Bynes stepped forward. "Yeah, because he's my dad, and old. Tartarus."

"Smoking hot," Amanda said, licking her lips as she passed us, sizing Hades up like a hunk of meat.

"Just so we're clear, you're not talking about my dad, right?" I asked, whirling to face her.

She leveled her gaze with mine, blood oozing down the right side of her face. "He's not your dad, is he?" She pointed at Hades.

"Eww. No."

"Then you can wear anything you want around me." Her eyes swept him again with a hungry sort of glint in their dark depths. "Or not wear."

"You're literally going to Hell," I snapped, crossing her name off the list. "Buh-bye."

She shrugged, sauntering her way to the docks as I sighed heavily, brushing the hair away from my forehead before returning to my list.

"You sounded...jealous," Hades mused, sending Craig Deeds to Elysium.

"Of that skank? Uh-uh. Nope."

"If you were, though, I wouldn't judge you for it."

I snorted softly. "If there was any reason to be jealous, it wouldn't be because of some shameless flirt with a piece of glass embedded in her skull."

"You don't like other women hitting on me."

I rolled my eyes, turning to him. "It interferes with work."

"Uh-huh. And...?" He asked, crossing his arms...waiting.

"And nothing. Stop trying to get me to admit to something that's not there. Thomas Fulkner, Elysium."

"Your actions tell a different story, Emma."

"What do you want from me?" I said, patience finally at an end as I tossed my list to the sand, Thomas edging nervously past me. "I can't say anything without you trying to find some hidden meaning behind it, and ninety-nine percent of the time, it doesn't exist."

"I want you to tell me, right now, that your instantaneous reaction to what that girl just said to me doesn't mean anything," he said, stepping closer to me, invading my personal bubble.

I set my jaw as I stared back up at him. "It meant nothing."

"I don't believe you."

"I don't care if you don't believe me, Hades. I'm giving you an answer, dammit!" I was pitifully close to stomping, throwing sand in his face, or maybe even both. Why was he going here? Why now?

"Try again." He was so close to me that I had to crane my neck back to see the wild light that entered his endless eyes.

"It meant nothing."

"Do you want to know what I think?" He asked, reaching out to cup my chin in one hand as I shivered at the contact. "I think you're a terrible liar." He paused a nanosecond before his warm lips covered mine, fingers reaching up to tangle themselves through my hair as he held me close, and everything disappeared; the beach, the souls and even how mad I wanted to feel towards him, vanished between one breath and the next as I relaxed into the embrace.

"We - we can't-" I said when he let me up for air and he shushed me in response, brushing a curl behind my ear.

"Do you want this?"

"Yes, and no. I want to stop feeling the way I do about you, because it complicates everything, but I'm also tired of trying to shove it all aside like it doesn't matter. If it were just the two of us in the picture, things might be different."

"Hey," he tilted my face to his again, concern evident. "What happened between you and Sam was unfortunate, and I'm not going to pretend that I don't feel guilty about your breakup, but you can't wallow in it forever."

"I wasn't talking about him."

"Hey, are you two going to get a room, or what? Cuz if you're not, maybe you could, I dunno, sort us?" A man from the Tartarus line said, raising a hand in the air to get our attention, and I frowned at him a little, lips pressed to a thin line.

"In a hurry to go to Hell? Mind your own business, m'kay? We'll sort you when we want to."

"Have dinner with me tonight," Hades said, bending down to retrieve my list, brushing bits of sand off the parchment.

"Don't we do that every night?"

"Yes well, tonight will be...special."

I smirked. "Does that mean you'll actually cook for once?"

"We'll see. Becky Harding."

***

I followed the warm glow of candlelight to the dining room, standing just outside as Hades moved around the table, laying forks and napkins in place.

"Did you give the cooks a night off?"

He glanced up, smiling when he caught sight of me. "I figured it would be less formal this way." He beckoned me over, holding out a glass of deep red wine for me to take.

"Are you sure you can cook? You didn't cave and order take-out?" I asked, taking a sip.

"Well, I can't promise it'll be five-star restaurant quality, but it's not grilled cheese, either. I figured I'd give lemon chicken and rice pilaf a try."

"You remembered my favorite dinner. I don't know whether to be impressed or skeptical," I said as I slid into my seat, Hades taking his own at the head of the table.

"I do listen sometimes, though if it's edible, I'll be surprised."

I laughed softly, taking another sip of wine as I stared down at the table, and heard him clear his throat pointedly. "You're someplace else tonight, aren't you?"

"It's that obvious, huh?"

"Well, it's either that, or I'm already boring you. What's on your mind?"

"If I told you, it might ruin an otherwise lovely night."

"Emma," he said, reaching out to lay a hand over mine as I glanced up at him again. "I'm not easily scared off, alright? You know you can ask me anything and tell me anything."

"It's actually something you said to me in my apartment - about how I won't be able to find anyone else, aside from you, who will understand me and what I can do. You're not wrong, Hades," I said as he opened his mouth to speak. "I just didn't want to admit it at the time. I thought Sean was going to be the one, especially since he seemed so open-minded about my gifts, but..."

"I wanted you to be happy with him, too, for what it's worth," he said as I looked back at him in disbelief. "No, really. He seemed like he genuinely cared. But people like us don't have the luxury of opening up our entire lives to the outside world; even talking to your parents is a risk, though I wouldn't ask you to give them up, too."

I ran a single fingertip around the rim of my wine glass, staring into the flame of the candle in the center of the table. "If you'd approached me twelve years ago and said 'hey, I'm Hades, Lord of the Underworld, and you're my soulmate', I probably would've smacked you upside the head and run the opposite direction but now," I paused a moment. "The problem isn't that I know who we're supposed to be to each other. It's that I know, and can't get past other important factors."

"Like Persephone."

"Yup," I said, drawing the word out, and he smiled slightly in response, sitting back in his chair.

"I won't rehash your reasons for not wanting to be with me, because I'll admit there's validity in what you're saying, but I want you to allow yourself to feel, just for a split second, what it might be like to stop looking for comfort and understanding in people who will never understand. I thought I had that with Persephone," he said, drumming his fingertips on the table. "I'd been alone here with the souls for so long, and then there she was, showing an interest in my work - in me - that I acted on impulse, never thinking about the consequences. She fought and resented me for what I did to her, and I can't say that I blame her for it. If I had a chance to redo things, I wouldn't've done what I did."

"Have you ever told her this?"

"No. And I doubt I'll get the chance to now. We can't change the past, and we can't control what happens in the future, just the present."

"So, we're, what? Friends with benefits?" The term was strange - alien - for what we were and could potentially be as he tilted his head to the side in thought. "In the loosest sense possible, of course."

"Friends..."

"Or not," I muttered into my glass, and glanced up in time to see the tail end of a broad smile.

"We could try, I suppose, if that's what you want."

"Until we know how permanent Persephone's situation is, I think that's best, don't you? She could break the curse tomorrow."

"Dates?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Affection?"

"As long as it's not done around my family or friends, sure."

"Intimacy?"

I blushed like a schoolgirl and ducked my head. "I don't think that's a great idea. Not yet, anyway."

"Well then," he said, raising his glass towards me in salute. "To the start of something new. Excuse me for a minute; I think the chicken is burning."