Persephone's Prison

Chapter 6

Hephaestus awaits Persephone's arrival nervously in the front so he can see her car coming. He paces back and forth and wonders if she'll like the arrows. He also questions who they are for. She never specified. He sees headlights and rushes to unlock the door for the Goddess. She smiles at him in greeting, and he looks down bashfully.

"Hello Persephone, how was your trip?"

"Good, Hephaestus thank you for asking." He leads her to his office where the arrows are hidden.

They get into the room and Hephaestus hears the door click shut behind him as he works on opening the small safe under the desk. Once he has the arrows, held in a metal box, he places them on his desk and looks up to see Persephone standing on the other side of his desk cradling the most beautiful purple flower he had ever been in the presence of. It reminds him of a rose but with a lot more petals. It fit perfectly in her palm.

"Do you want to hold it?" Hephaestus couldn't speak he just nods in awe.

He cradles his hands together like she is, and she places her hands on top of his, Hephaestus gets goosebumps touching her soft skin. Persephone slowly pulls her hands apart and the flower is placed in his hands. Hephaestus is mesmerized and the petals feel soft and wrong on his callous palms and blushes thinking how Persephone's rose petal-like skin touches his rocklike hands and hopes he didn't scratch or hurt her.

"Do you want an empty bowl? I need water too." She explains and he motions his head towards a clear plastic bowl her keeps random junk like keys, metal pieces, and nails.

It was a salad bowl, but Hephaestus never eats salad.

"You can just dump the stuff on the table there, and that small fridge beside you has water bottles," Hephaestus explains without taking his eyes off the flower.

Persephone empty's the bowl and opens one of the water bottles and pours the entire thing in the bowl and carries it to Hephaestus' desk and places the bowl under him and goes to stand beside him.

"It's called a Ranunculus flower," Persephone explains, and Hephaestus finally tears his eyes away and looks to his right where Persephone is standing right beside him.

She's so close her chest is touching the blacksmith's shoulder. Persephone places her hands on top of his and guilds him to the water bowl. Slowly they lower the flower into the water. Once it touches the water the petals open more so than they already were, and it starts to glow. Soft purple light shines in the bowl and floats in the water and Hephaestus gasps in astonishment.

"It'll live forever... You can leave it in the water, and it'll glow, but you can take it out and it'll go back to a normal Ranunculus flower like before. You don't need to water it or show it sunlight. I made sure it'll survive."

"It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen," Hephaestus says honestly.

"It's nothing like you create; the power of your weapons is the true beauty," Persephone explains and Hephaestus blushes again before handing her the box the arrows are being kept in.

He watches as the goddess opens it and gasps at the arrows. She takes them out and inspects them. She turns each in her hands slowly and smiles at Hephaestus.

"They are perfect, thank you," he shrugs off her comment and looks down at his flower again. "Have you eaten yet?" Persephone asks.

"No..." he answers.

"Will you like to join me for dinner?" she asks with a smirk.

"I don't... I don't think that is such a good idea..."