“Fuck,” Dionysus said.
A high-pitched laugh sounded from the dark nearby, followed by the whine of a cat as the Kallikantzaros galloped away.
“Fuck,” Dionysus said again.
He was surprised by the silence coming from Hades who sat opposite him.
“Don’t you have anything to say?”
But all he heard was Hades’s heavy breathing and suddenly, he realized this situation was likely triggering his time in the labyrinth.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Does it sound like I’m all right?” Hades asked, his voice was gruff and strained.
“I was trying to be considerate,” Dionysus said. It put him on edge to hear the usually composed Hades in distress.
“I like it better when you aren’t,” Hades replied, though Dionysus noticed his breathing didn’t seem so heavy now that he was talking. He decided to do something he wasn’t exactly comfortable with—chat.
“I was going to propose to Ariadne tonight,” he admitted. “The thing I lost, it was her ring.”
Hades was quiet for a moment and then said, “You can always propose tomorrow.”
“Except I just told you, I don’t have her ring,” he said. “And I doubt I will have it back from these fucking gremlins by then.”
“You don’t need a ring,” said Hades.
“You had a ring for Persephone,” Dionysus countered.
“The third time I asked,” he said.
“What do you mean the third time you asked?”
He heard Hades chuckle which was a bit of a relief given how he’d sounded a few minutes earlier.
“I asked Persephone to marry me twice before she said yes,” Hades said.
“How did that…how did that make you feel?” he asked, cringing as the words came out of his mouth. He wasn’t exactly interested in feelings, except where Ariadne was concerned, but he was curious, wondering if his own worries were valid.
“Are you asking if I was upset?”
“Were you?”
“I wasn’t upset with her,” he said. “I knew she had her reasons for waiting, fear mostly. I think I was most upset by that, the doubt her mother had planted and grown within her.”
“Did you ever doubt she would say yes?”
“No,” said Hades, his voice was soft and warm as he reflected. “I knew it wasn’t about love or her devotion to me. I think she had to decide what marriage would mean for her…for us, which was fair. She’d imagined her life evolving so differently. I don’t think she ever considered someone would fall in love with her.”
Dionysus was quiet as he considered what marriage meant to him. He’d just woken up one day and realized how badly he wanted Ariadne to be his wife. It had come on so suddenly, like a primal need. They had built something beautiful together in the aftermath of something terrible, and he wanted to honor that by committing his future to worshipping her.
Dionysus had the urge to rub the back of his neck, except that he couldn’t move. The tingle grew into an itch.
“I guess I just want to give her everything.”
“If you want the ring, then get the ring,” said Hades. “But if all you want is a yes, a promise, then just ask. Everything else can wait.”
There was silence between them, and Dionysus could hear the change in Hades’s breathing again, like he couldn’t quite breathe deep enough.
