Edited by Hall1990 :)

WHERE THE ROSES BLOSSOM

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PROLOGOS

Things haven't been looking good for Greek Gods for centuries. The times when Greek religion ruled the civilized world, were long gone. Romans invaded Hellas and absorbed Greek believes into their religion. Now as Roman Gods they were worshipped everywhere. It was their time of glory.

But then, everything has ended.

There were no new worshippers, the temples were empty, destroyed or changed into churches. No new offerings were burning in the holy fires; no souls were ferried by Charon across the Styx. Their immortal world was slowly crumbling around them.

His fellow gods were whining and complaining but he didn't mind. Hidden in his kingdom with his beloved wife by his side, he feared nothing.

Sometimes, watching how Persephone was taking care of their garden, he wondered how a simple, fragile man who died on a cross managed to crumble their reign. They crushed Cronus, they defeated titans and yet, they were thrown into oblivion by a single act of a simple mortal man.

"Where do Gods go after they die dear husband of mine?" Persephone asked once playfully, lying beside him.

He chuckled. "Nowhere." He answered caressing her hair. "We are immortals. We don't die."

Oh, how wrong he was.

It's started with the minor Gods. Phanes, Elpis, Euthenia, Tyche, Zelos. All of them fell asleep only to never open their eyes again. Then some of the Gods just… disappeared without a trace.

And he still didn't really care, even when Demeter became one of the missing Gods. He felt sorry for his wife, but on the other hand, his mother-in-law was never a fan of him and always accused him of abducting Persephone. Seriously, a man who could abduct his fiery flower if she didn't want it? No God or a man like that was ever born.

But he understood why Demeter detested him. After all, he took her beloved daughter away from her.

Still, he didn't care.

He was always a lone wolf among his family, the silent one, the boring God who didn't know how to have fun. Hades was not bothered by it. All he needed was his wife, his rules and his whole family staying away from his kingdom – preferably on Olympus with their loud parties and annoying drama.

And then she died.

One night, she just smiled, kissed him goodnight and closed her eyes, falling into an eternal dream, where he couldn't follow. No matter how long he called her name, she didn't wake up, leaving him behind, crushing his perfect world into pieces.

He didn't know how long he mourned her. Time didn't matter for the Gods. Years for mortals felt like a blink of an eye for the Gods. But for him, the seventeen years after Persephone's death, felt like millennia. Deep in his misery, he waited for death.

But it didn't come.

When he saw how withered petals of the last, still blossoming rose in Persephone's garden, were slowly falling to the ground, the God of the Underworld realized something.

He whistled to Cerberus, who appeared and walked beside him. He walked through the empty halls of his castle, full of dust, spiders' webs and slowly crumbling walls. He walked through empty Elysium and Fields of Punishments, he walked near silent Tartarus. He passed snoring and drunken Charon in his useless ferry. He crossed Styx, once a wide river that was shrinking into a narrow stream. He went through the gates, no longer guarded by beasts.

His ties to the Underworld were gone when the last of Persephone's rose withered. This was not his place anymore.

Hades, The Unseen One, The Janitor, The God of Underworld had abandoned his domain, searching for a place where he could die.

PARADOS

He chose his final place far away from Greece. Far away from memories, far from the overwhelming smell of history and his slowly, rotting family.

America. California. Beacon Hills.

A drowsy town, perfect for a dying God. A small house on the end of a street, surrounded by trees, unkempt bushes and overgrown grass. It was not surprising that mortals left him alone. He didn't lose his ability of being unseen and distant. What was the perfect word to describe him nowadays?

An outsider. Good. He didn't need anyone.

Mortals were… strange. And they were more advanced than he remembered. They could do things like Gods now. Electricity, strange boxes full of noise and moving pictures, metal birds, idiotic clothes, awful food, shitty wine, more rules and pointless laws than he could count.

But rules he could learn, rules he could follow. Rules were the last thing he was familiar with.

After a year among the mortals, with a fake identity (it looked like even a God needed an ID in this strange world), job and living in an unkempt house - you wouldn't be recognized as a God.

He didn't exactly know why he was keeping up appearances; he was there to die after all. But he needed a job to feed Cerberus and the dog was eating a lot. He paid the bills and taxes, because rules were important. And he kinda… enjoyed the music. And Star Wars. And he had some figurine on the shelf above his bed. And television was not bad. Probably, Apollo would love it too.

Watching documentaries from the Middle East, he kept wondering. How did it happen? How did these fragile creatures gain power equal to Gods?

But looking at the ruins of Baalshamin Temple in Palmyra destroyed by terrorists (he didn't know that Semitic god, but damn, he felt sorry for him, it was a beautiful temple), he concluded that one thing hasn't changed – the mortals' lust for destruction.

For a second, on a screen flashed a face of a young soldier, covered with dust and sweat. Hades blinked. That face was familiar. Was that… Ares?

His musings were interrupted by a loud banging on the door. He furrowed his brows and turned off the TV set. He was not popular and people avoided his house like the plague. Partially thanks to his distant and cold behavior that he'd mastered for centuries, and glare that would freeze dead souls into frightened statutes. Partially thanks to Cerberus. The big, black gate keeper looked like a typical Labrador, but still was scary enough to be baptized as a "dog from hell" by his neighbors and kept intruders away from the house.

He sighed, opened the front door and frowned. He hasn't seen Cerberus for the whole day, maybe that was the reason why someone dared to visit? He needed to have a "talk" with the damned dog.

"YOU."

Hades blinked when a pair of green, blazing like fire eyes pierced him with an angry glare.

"Umm." He said dumbly, feeling more like an idiot than the ancient God he was.

"Yes, you!" The owner of the angry eyes cried. "And your damned dog!" The girl growled, grabbed the front of his shirt and started to drag him behind her.

"Erm, child?" He asked confused, when they crossed the street.

"I'm not a child." She growled again, without looking at him. "I'm 18 years old, I'm a freaking legal adult and I don't care if they put me in prison for 25 damned years after I rip your spine out!"

Hades blinked. 18? Compared to him she was practically a baby. And the thought of this little, fragile girl killing a God was… amusing. He almost chuckled. Almost.

Strange feeling, he didn't feel like that since… well.

They passed her house and finally stopped in the middle of a garden. A beautiful garden at that. Full of birds sitting on blossoming trees; flowers, buzzing bees, mowed lawn and a big, black dog happily digging a hole in a… vegetable patch.

Oh, for Zeus' fucking thunders!

"Cerberus! Heel!" He shouted.

The black beast rose his covered with mud head, barked and ran to his master.

"Sit!" The dog obeyed and waved his tail. "Umm…" Hades peeked at the girl who was watching them with angry eyes and clenched fists on her hips.

"Bad boy." He said hesitantly to the dog.

Cerberus barked. Happily.

"That's it?" The girl's voice snapped.

She was clearly pissed off, with her green eyes slightly squinted, hair shining in the sun and red lips thinned angrily. She looked like… his sister Hera, seconds before throwing one of her infamous tantrums.

Suddenly he felt really, really small.

Which was ridiculous.

"I… apologize." He said simply. He was the freaking God after all, Gods didn't say sorry to mortals.

Then he nodded awkwardly and turned away.

"Oh, no you don't, mister."

She caught his arm and poked his chest with an iron finger armored with a manicured nail.

"You have no idea how much time and effort my mother and I have put into this garden!" She kept poking his chest. "I don't care if you are a damned murderer hiding in your freak house! You will pay up for you dog's wrongdoings or I'll call the sheriff!"

What was wrong with this woman? Such spirit in a tiny and young body. On the other hand, Persephone was the same. She was young when they met and yet, he always wondered who the real man in their relationship was.

He sighed and looked at the disaster that his dog caused. There were a few patches completely destroyed. It looked like his dog was talented in digging holes.

"Carrots?" He guessed.

"Yes. Also, radishes, parsleys and onions. Plus, he pissed on the lettuce." The girl growled. She had freckles on her nose.

He was the rightful and fair janitor and judge of the ancient world. Being righteous toward humans, even if they were only an uncivilized baby girl, was his freaking duty. His honor and morals were the last things he held onto after his wife's death. And he didn't intend to change it.

"Do you have a spade?"

"You're not that bad at this." The red haired girl said two hours later, sipping her coffee and watching how he was clipping the roses.

He grunted and she chuckled.

"Not a talker, huh?"

Hades said nothing, just shrugged his shoulders. He was stripped to a gray T-shirt and sweating under summer sun. His back was hurting, his face was hot and he had dirt under his nails. But he felt… good.

"My wife loved gardening." He said without thinking, lost in the memories. "I liked helping her."

"Oh, you have a wife?" The girl sounded surprised.

He blinked, silently cursing himself. "Had. She died."

Before she could say how sorry she was, he accidentally cut his hand.

"What are you doing?" She gasped, and grabbed his shirt. Again she started dragging him. This was not his freaking day.

"I'm fine." He said, when the girl started washing his hand in the kitchen.

How he was going to explain to her, that his wound magically heal in a second?

"No, you're not, you idiot." She hissed, while taking a band-aid from a cupboard. "You're bleeding."

Hades blinked surprised. Indeed, he was. The fresh wound didn't heal and he was bleeding like a… mortal.

"Thank you, miss." He said a few minutes later, awkwardly standing on her porch.

"Hmm…" She tapped her manicured finger on her lips. "I think, you should repay me with helping in the garden tomorrow."

"But…"

"You haven't finished repaying me. And I dressed your wound."

"But…"

She lifted her perfect brows and she looked like Hera again, damn her.

"I'm not coming." He tried to restore some of his Godly pride.

"Sure." She smiled as he turned and slowly walked in the direction of his house, Cerberus on his heel.

"Hey, what's your name?" She shouted after him.

"Jordan." He sighed. Maybe using his true name would not be so strange in this crazy country, but it didn't fit him anymore.

"I'm Lydia!"

He wanted to say he didn't ask but instead he threw her a curious glance.

"Lydia, a noble one and beautiful." He murmured.

It was a Greek name. What an irony.

When he entered his house, she was still standing on the porch, watching him.

He swore he was not going to meet her the next day.

EPEISODIA

Hades, who was known as Jordan Parrish now, had been kidnapped and assaulted. One second he was eating his cereal, in the next he was dragged by a little mortal and shoved into her garden.

"Shouldn't you be in school or something?" He grumped angrily, weeding the strawberry patch.

"I have one class."

"How can you only have one class?"

"I had enough credits to graduate last year. I only have Latin now."

Hades slowly turned his head and looked at the weeding girl in front of him. Her name was Lydia. She knew Latin. She was not afraid of him or Cerberus.

He was getting suspicious.

"Are you a Greek Goddess I haven't met or something? Or a Nymph?" He asked with squeezed eyes.

What was surprising, Lydia blinked and looked at him, her cheeks slowly coloring. Then she cleared her throat.

"Nymph? No, I'm just a simple high school student, but thank you for your compliment."

Hades blinked, confused. A compliment? But he didn't praise her… Didn't she know what nymphs could do with mortals? Cursing them with dumbness, madness or giving them strokes were only a few, nicer examples. He has never understood what Zeus saw in them and why he bedded some. Ok, they were very beautiful and Lydia was beautiful woman too but…

Wait. Did he just admit that...?

"You have that look on your face." She interrupted his musings.

"Come again?"

"You make that face when you stare at something intensely, with furrowed brows, like you just uncovered the secret of life or discovered a cure for cancer." Lydia smiled at him and scratched her cheek, leaving a mud stain on her skin.

"Right." He muttered and returned to the weeding, trying to hide his flushing face. Gods did not blush because of mortals, for Zeus' sake.

"Your ears are red." Her voice was smug.

"Because of the sun." Hades grumped.

"Sure, Jordan." She chuckled and started humming, which was horribly unnerving.

Surprised, he realized he was thinking of where he would put her after her death and what kind of punishment he would chose for this little, annoying, fragile, cute…

"By the way, you asked if I was a nymph, what an interesting question for a guy who named his dog Cerberus."

Hades took a glimpse of his monstrous dog that was… chasing butterflies. What the hell was wrong with his hellhound? He was behaving like a normal, stupid dog.

When Cerberus heard Lydia saying his name, he run to her, sat and put his big head on her shoulder. His tail was waving like crazy, creating small clouds of dust.

"Aww, you're not that bad, are you?" She smiled at patted his head.

Hades squeezed his eyes and looked angrily at the dog. Traitor.

"So, if he's Cerberus then you have to be Hades." She smiled at him, eyes full of life and sparkling with mischief, a stain of mud still on her rosy cheek.

Hades stared at her for few seconds and then coughed and returned to the damned strawberries, saying nothing.

She had NO idea.

"Breaking into a house is a criminal offence." He said flatly.

He just entered his kitchen to prepare breakfast but instead was greeted by a view of Lydia's ass sticking out from his fridge.

"Please, don't be such a boy scout. Besides, the door was unlocked." She finally straightened, closed the fridge and he made a mental note to start locking the freaking door.

"More importantly, do you only eat cereal, instant soup and canned food?" Lydia asked with her Hera frown.

"Yes." He answered simply and it was a wrong answer.

He was dragged, what a surprise, shoved into her tiny Toyota and kidnapped. Starring angrily through the window, he wondered if Persephone felt the same when he kidnapped her. She always repeated, she didn't mind, her eyes sparkling with hidden humor. When she looked like that, he often had a nasty suspicion that their meeting was not as accidental as he thought. He always used the same road, when he was visiting the mortal land in his chariot. Always. All she needed to do was…

"Oh, that look again. You're killing poor pomegranates with your intense glare. What is it this time?"

They were in the supermarket and she was using him to carry her shopping bag. It had to be some crazy twist of fate that he ended up in the grocery section, near the box full of pomegranates. Persephone would have laughed her ass off, if she had seen him now.

"I just think they taste like shit these days, much worse than in ancient Greece." He said seriously.

Lydia blinked and burst out laughing.

"Was that supposed to be a joke?" She smiled at him.

Well, no, it was a sad truth. But before he could answer, he was interrupted.

"Lydia? What are you doing here?" The guy was tall, athletic and handsome. Basically, Hercules reincarnated.

Wait a minute.

The strawberry blonde rolled her eyes and turned to the guy.

"Jackson, what an unpleasant surprise."

"You don't answer my calls and then I meet you with some old, perverted creep?" He said and pointed to Hades, who was watching him with furrowed brows, because seriously, the guy somehow looked like the hero he remembered.

"Creep?" He asked confused. He guessed he should have felt offended or something but he had no freaking idea what "creep" supposed to mean.

"Hold it." Lydia said suddenly and shoved her purse into his arms and then…

Then she simply trashed that Jackson guy, like a gladiator in an arena. She literally floored him with some super high voice, intelligent insults and that kind of sarcasm he hasn't heard since the last time he met Hermes.

She was simply… breathtaking.

And then she dragged him from the store, crushing his hand in an iron grip.

"So, who was he?"

They were back at his place and she was preparing pasta.

"My ex." Lydia said simply and put a plate full of food in front of him. "We broke up few days ago." She added and sat.

Immediately Cerberus put his big head on her knees and looked at her like she was the most precious thing on the planet.

Flea-bitten bastard.

Wait, what did she just say? The ex? Like, ex-boyfriend?

Hades almost chocked on his food. She was a beautiful, young woman; it was obvious that she had a lot of admirers, right?

Lydia lifted her perfect brow. "Are you ok?" She asked, looking at his still choking self.

"Perfectly fine." He was finally able to say. "Why did you break up?" He asked before he bit his tongue.

The girl munched food thoughtfully for few seconds. "We weren't meant to be." She said simply and looked him straight in the eye.

Hades gulped. He was not here for spending time with a mortal girl. He was not here to feel again. He was not here to cheat on his late wife.

He was here to die.

But watching how she happily smiled at him and returned to eating, with a spot of sauce on her lip…

He was almost sure she was going to be the death of him.

Sitting on his porch, sipping Americano Black that Lydia forced him to drink; he wondered if he was missing an obvious pattern.

Hades was sure that he was turning into a mortal. He needed food, he needed sleep, he felt cold chill during the nights, he sweat under the summer sun. He bled. He was getting tired and sometimes didn't want to get up from the bed. Especially, when he looked at the piles of archaic Greek texts to translate or thinking about the articles about mythology he needed to write.

And he was slowly forgetting his past life. Things he has done; things he has accomplished, faces of his brothers, sisters and fellow Gods. The worst thing was that he didn't really care.

He didn't really care that Persephone's face was slowly fading from his memories. That he couldn't recall the sound of her laugh; the feeling of her touch; the taste of her lips. Things he was sure some time ago he was never going to forget or stop missing.

And here he was, forgetting. Maybe forgetting was like dying? The Gods, abandoned by the worshippers, treated like a myth, like a story you can read to your kids before their sleep. Forgotten. Wasn't it worse than death? Maybe because he was forgetting the past he was turning into a mortal man. Was it happening to the other Gods?

Gods. Where do they go after they die?

Persephone had asked him once, some time before she died. Did she know? Did she foresee her death? She wasn't scared, he was sure of that. Maybe because…

He looked ahead, watching how Allison was teaching Lydia how to use a bow. Allison, with long dark hair; the strength of a warrior and the speed of a deer. He swore that sometimes he saw a glimpse of Artemis in her.

Did it mean Gods could be reborn as mortals?

Lydia laughed and his heart clenched painfully.

The way she moved, the way she smiled, the way she flipped her hair, the way she tipped her head. The way she cared for her garden and talked to the roses, when she thought nobody was listening. The way she pretended she didn't like sweet things, but was eating them in her room, hiding wrappings in the most ridiculous places. That look she would give him sometimes. One look and he would break any rule just to make her happy. The way she could be scary and impossibly beautiful in one moment and incredibly sweet on the second. Or the fact that Cerberus almost immediately fell in love with her. Did that four legged bastard know the whole time?

Or the simple fact that Lydia's mother absolutely loathed him, for no logical reason.

The fact he was slowly forgetting his wife, could it mean he simply was discovering her in a mortal woman?

Often, he really wanted to show his middle finger to the fate. Moirai were three bitches sometimes.

Wait, not sometimes, fucking always.

STASIMON

It was 3 AM and he was woken up by a loud banging on his front door.

"What are you doing here?" He blinked sleepily.

"Standing?" Lydia said slowly, then took a step, tripped and fell into his arms.

"You're drunk." He said matter-of-factly.

"Yup." She giggled into his chest. "Got into a fight with my mom, went for a drink…. Or maybe for ten, got wasted and heeeere I am!"

Hades sighed, kicked the door closed and gently gathered her into his arms.

"Why did you fight?"

"Over you! She doesn't like you. And she doesn't like the fact I like you." Lydia's eyes widened and she gasped dramatically. "Did I just say I like you?"

"Yes." He sighed, because it wasn't such surprising declaration after all. A girl doesn't spend half of her free time with a guy, if she doesn't like him, right?

"Good!" She smiled and caressed his face clumsily. "And do you like me, Jordan?" Lydia asked watching him intensely, like his answer was the most important thing for her.

"Of course I do." He said sincerely, because he couldn't lie to her, not now, not in the past. "But it doesn't matter; it's not going to work."

She furrowed her brows. "Why?"

She didn't remember her past life. She was Lydia Martin, a mortal and amazing woman, who owned her life and future. She was not his wife. She was going to leave for college and conquer the world. Because he was not a part of her world anymore. That's why.

But the most important reason was:

"Because I'm going to die." He said simply.

He was going to die but he was grateful he got the chance to meet her again and say goodbye. Even if she didn't remember their past.

Lydia's eyes widened and then she started to laugh.

"You dumbass." She said and hiccupped. "Everybody dies."

Hades looked at her, shocked. Everybody dies? Just like that?

What a simple truth, he couldn't really grasp, until now. He had to wait for a drunken girl to open his eyes.

And then Lydia leaned to kiss him.

But he dropped her to his bed. He was not going to take advantage of a drunken girl.

She landed on the mattress with a squeak.

"Ouch! You could do it gentler, you know." She whined and he smiled, because she looked like a little, pissed off girl.

"No, I couldn't. Now sleep, we will talk tomorrow." He said warmly and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Jordan?" She said sleepily and grabbed his hand that was resting now on her cheek. "Tempus fugit, carpe diem et memento mori… or something like that." Lydia yawned and fell asleep a second later, softly snoring into his pillow.

He kissed her brow and smiled. "Time flies, seize the day and remember your mortality, huh? I'll try."

When he woke up, she was gone.

"What are you doing?" He asked confused, a few hours later, finding her in front of his house. She was digging a hole. Cerberus was on her side, helping her happily, a fountain of dirt gushing from under his paws.

"Baking a cake, obviously." She said sarcastically and turned her head to look at him. "The "what are you doing" should be your pick up line, you say it every damned time you see me."

Her eyes were bloodshot, she was pale and obviously pissed off. Someone had a killer hangover

"Stop being useless and fetch me the cutting." Lydia pointed to a plant on the stairs.

"What's this?" He asked confused and gave it to her.

"Well, I noticed you often stare at the roses in my garden, you know, the yellow ones?"

Hades slowly nodded his head. They were… Persephone's beloved roses. The last rose that had withered, before he left the Underworld, was the same like the roses growing in Lydia's garden.

"I don't remember a lot from yesterday night." She said while planting the cutting. "But I got the impression, you worry too much or think too much about things like death." She stood up and looked straight into his eyes. "So, this rose should start to blossom in few years, exactly when I'll come back from college."

He opened his mouth but no sound came from it. Did she…?

Lydia cleared her throat. "Because I also got an impression, if I remember correctly, that you like me too and I intend to explore it."

"Lydia!" Hades winced and looked at Natalie Martin, who was standing on her porch, with her hands on her hips, looking annoyed.

Lydia rolled her eyes. "And yes, my mom still doesn't like you."

Hades blinked. "Well, maybe she thinks that I will sweep you off your feet and kidnap you?"

"Will you?" She asked mockingly.

"No." It was not an ancient Greece and unfortunately he didn't have his freaking chariot. "But I'm going to force her to dislike me more."

He kissed her.

He kissed her agonizingly slow, silencing a surprised gasp that escaped her mouth. Her lips were familiar, yet so different. They erased every memory of his past kisses.

Kissing her was like being born again. Kissing her was like existing again. Kissing her was like returning from the dead. Kissing her was like learning how to live again.

During the kiss he felt like Jordan Parrish for the first time.

EXODOS

The yellow roses were blossoming; he could smell their heavy scent lingering in the hot, summer air.

She just got out of the car and Cerberus was greeting her, pouncing like a little pup when she patted his head and finally managed to hug the excited black beast.

Then their eyes met as he slowly approached her.

She was not Persephone. She was less and much, much more.

He was not Hades. He was less and much, much more.

During the past years, he has forgotten more and more from his old life of the Underworld's God. He was losing all his powers, becoming the simple, fragile mortal. He wondered if he really was Hades or if the past images that occasionally popped in his head, were just figments of his imagination or dreams.

But it didn't matter.

When their hands touched and lips met the last memory of his past life - a withered petal of a yellow rose falling to the ground - faded and disappeared forever, leaving him with his new memories and mortal life.

He was Jordan Parrish and she was Lydia Martin.

And it was enough.

THE END

And yes, Natalie still doesn't like him :P

So, few facts about the myth. There are many versions, but in the most popular Hades kidnaps Persephone when she gathers flowers and takes her to the Underworld. Demeter - her mother and goddess of corn, grain and harvest – searches for her and mourn her loss. Because of it, plants are slowly dying. That's why Zeus orders Hades to bring Persephone back to her mother. But before she lefts, she eats few seeds of pomegranate. Eating food from the Underworld means she has to spend autumn and winter months with her husband. Aside of that, Hades and Persephone were faithful and loved each other. Comparing to other godly couples their relationship was very healthy and happy.

Moirai known as Fates, were incarnations of destiny. In Rome they were called Parcae.

Apollo was god of music, Ares a god of war, Artemis was a goddess of the hunt (among others). Sorry for making Jackson a jealous asshole but at least he is Hercules :P

Titles of paragraphs are names of parts in a typical Greek play.

Inspired by the song Roses, Poets of the Fall.

Thanks for reading! :)