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The Immortal Heart	By : amandalee Category: 1 through F > Clash of the Titans (2010) > Clash of the Titans (2010) Views: 7819 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: We do not own Clash of the Titans or the characters portrayed in this story, and we make no money from writing this.

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Chapter 39

Hades endured Hera’s spiteful remarks about his gloomy appearance and silence during breakfast, but he could not wait to get as far from his eldest sister as possible once he was finished eating. Demeter tried to coax him to eat more, but Hades longed to get out of the house and did not stay to listen to the goddess’ pleas.

He was about to resume his seat on the chair in their wildly overgrown garden when he realized Demeter had followed him and did not look the least bit happy.

“You are not going to sit in that chair for hours upon hours again today,” she said almost angrily. “I will not stand for it.”

“Then what should I do?” Hades asked. “Watching the sky makes me feel closer to Zeus. The sun shines upon him as well, and that connects us even though we are apart.”

“Hades, I have an idea,” Demeter said on a whim. “I’m going into the woods to gather herbs and plants. Come with me, brother. You could help me, and it would keep your mind occupied with something else besides Zeus.”

Hades considered the proposal for a brief moment. “I don’t know much about herbs, sister,” he said. “I doubt I would be much help to you.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Demeter quickly replied, pleased that he had not outright rejected her idea. “The company will be more than enough.” She hooked her arm into his and tugged her still hesitant brother along with her.

“Where do you think our brothers are now?” Hades asked while following his sister along a small path into the forest. Demeter carried a collecting basket on her shoulder and had already stopped a few times to add her findings to it.

“They could be several places,” the goddess admitted, brushing the dirt off of some moss to easier identify it. Deciding it was not the right moss she was searching for, she moved on.
“But it is very likely that they are no longer on the sea anymore.”

“I hope not,” Hades said worriedly. “That thing in the mists… it could still be out there somewhere…” He looked around at the vegetation, shrugging. “So should I just pick things up and ask you if they are things you need?”

Demeter held up her own basket so that her brother could see what she had picked already.

“If you see anything that looks like any of these, put them in your basket. That should help. I would think that Poseidon’s new ability with the ocean and wind currents would have sent them through quickly enough to avoid such a confrontation. And Zeus’ thunderbolts would also keep it at bay. Monsters may not fear such small adversaries but I am certain they would know better than to confront the elements.”’

“Maybe you’re right,” Hades said with a half-smile as he followed his sister. She turned to face him and pinched his cheek.

“I am always right. Do you not know that I am brilliant?”

Hades laughed and helped his fellow Olympian in her search. Within seconds he found a pink blossom, tiny thorns making it difficult to pluck from the ground until he removed it with his hand wrapped in a sleeve.

“Is this one?” he asked, holding the flower up.

Demeter smiled. “Excellent, brother.”

The goddess was pleased that her brother seemed to have come out of his gloomy brooding at least momentarily, and she tried to think of something else to occupy Hades with once their little excursion was over.

I must keep his thoughts away from Zeus, she thought. If I don’t, he will worry himself sick, I know it.

“You’ve been a big help,” Demeter assured her fellow Olympian on their way home. “I should bring you along more often.”

Hades gave her a weak smile. “I know you’re only saying that to make me feel better, sister,” he said. “To make me feel… useful.”

“Hades, you are useful,” Demeter objected, tired of her brother’s belittling himself. “You must not think otherwise.”

I am no warrior, and I know nothing about the art of healing, the god thought. The only thing I was good for was providing Zeus pleasure, and now that he’s gone, I cannot even do that.

Hades did not speak the words out loud. He did not want to upset his sister by sharing his thoughts freely, but he had a feeling that Demeter could read him well enough even without words.

“You are more useful than Hera,” she said, unsuccessfully trying to hide the contempt in her voice. “All our sister does is sit in her room and sulk. It is all she has done since we arrived here.”

The thought of Hera made Hades’ chest constrict in an almost threatening way. He hated to admit that he feared her, but there was no denying it. With Zeus and Poseidon gone, he was more at her mercy than ever.

“She is also good at threatening me,” he finally stated.

“Our sister is good at threatening everyone, with the exception of Zeus,” Demeter said, although she felt foolish mentioning their youngest sibling. This was the exact opposite of her intentions. “I have an idea,” she said. “Perhaps we should train Hera to be our guard dog. Nothing will want to attack us if she stands in their way.”

This brought a small snicker from her brother and she placed an arm around his shoulders as they returned home.

Hades helped his sister reorganize the herbs and other ingredients they had found that day, and he felt as though he had made some sort of difference in their newfound home, but he still could not drive away his thoughts of Zeus. At night, as he retired earlier than the others, he found he could not fall asleep and instead lay there thinking about his brother. Was Zeus thinking of him too? Was he in danger?

By the time Demeter had joined him in bed his eyes were shut but he was still awake. The goddess had asked him what was keeping him wakeful, but he muttered that it was nothing new. A few more minutes and Hades finally made a decision.

“Where are you going?” Demeter asked with concern as he rose from bed.

“To Zeus’ bed,” he replied. “I need his presence if I am to get any sleep tonight. His scent on his bedclothes should do.”
Hades walked down the hallway and opened the door to the empty bedroom, ready to fall asleep in the familiar smell of his much missed brother.

He had not bothered to light a lamp, as his eyes had adjusted well enough to the darkness that he could find his way around without one. Weary to the point of collapsing, he allowed himself to fall onto the bed, expecting to land on the lumpy but soft mattress he had lain on so many times. What he least expected to feel was the body colliding with his own.

Two shocked cries echoed in the night, the former several pitches higher than the latter. Hades tried desperately to scramble off the bed but got his legs tangled up in the sheets and fell flat on his stomach.

A hand soon connected with his back, delivering a slap followed by more screams.

“What are you doing in here, you disgusting wretch?!” Hera cried, and though he could not see her clearly, Hades was not slow to realize that the bed had not been unoccupied after all. Hera had gotten there before him.

“I… I…”

The goddess did not wait for her brother to explain himself. Instead she gave him a shove hard enough to push him off the bed and make him land on the floor with a thump. Though Hera could not see better in the dark than Hades, she could tell that Hades was undressed, and the sight of his naked body made her lips pull back in a snarl.

“You sicken me!” she spat out, sheets gathered to her chest. “What were you going to do? Hoping to catch me unawares so that you could rape me?”

Hades, quite in shock to be attacked and genuinely confused, could hardly understand the reason for Hera’s shouting. “What are you doing here?!” he finally exclaimed.

“What on earth are YOU doing here?!” Hera demanded in return. “Now that you don’t have someone like Poseidon or your precious Zeus to stop you, you think you can take advantage of poor little me? Well, I do not need their protection to overpower you!”

She quickly removed herself from the bed and grabbed her brother by the shoulders, turning him over as though she might strike a blow to him she had missed out on in the hallway several days ago. “Perhaps you did not learn your lesson the first time that I am much stronger than you!” she hissed.

“What is going on??” another voice shouted. Both god and goddess looked up to see Hestia standing in the frame of the door, lamp in hand. She hurried into the room, quickly joined by Demeter.

Hera immediately stood up, grabbing a sheet to wrap her body with. Hades’ eyes filled with tears at the thought of Zeus’ scent grabbed away from the sheet by his horrible sister’s flesh.

“Thank goodness someone else is here,” Hera was quickly saying. “I was trying to sleep when our brother decided to attack me, likely exploiting the absence of—”

“Oh stop it, Hera,” Hestia interrupted her. “Why on earth would Hades want to attack you when he is constantly reminded how you treat him?”

“Look at him!” Hera shouted, gesturing at the naked god, now with his arms wrapped protectively around himself and looking as though he wanted the floor to swallow him whole. “He came in here unclothed and tried to touch me in my sleep! How can you doubt me, sisters? Looking at him should be proof enough!”

“I didn’t know you were in here!” Hades yelled back, his voice wracked by sobs. “I didn’t!”

Demeter took her distraught brother in her arms, both to provide comfort and to shield him from Hera’s predatory gaze.

“Hades speaks the truth,” she said in a controlled voice. “He went here because he thought doing so would ease his heartache and help him sleep more peacefully. This was a small misunderstanding, that is all.”

“Why are you in this chamber, Hera?” Hades asked, his voice muffled. “This is Zeus’ bed. Who gave you the right to use it?”

“Well, Zeus isn’t here to use it himself, is he?” Hera replied venomously. “I hate this house, and I hate having no privacy. This is the largest room with the largest bed. It would be folly letting it stay unused during our brothers’ absence.”

Hestia wanted to argue that if anyone was entitled to use Zeus’ bed, it was Hades, considering that their brother was to be the leader’s consort. However, she did not look forward to having Hera back in their joint bedchamber, especially in the mood their sister was in now, so she chose not to press the matter.

“Why don’t we compromise?” Demeter asked the eldest goddess. “You could trade a sheet from Zeus’ bed with another from ours…”

“No,” Hades interrupted her offer. “No, she does not need to.”

“I should say so,” Hera said with an indignant sniff, hands on her hips. “Now if you will excuse me, I think we all need some sleep. In our respective rooms.”

An angry glare in his eyes, Hades ignored Demeter and stood, walking out of the room and back to his own bed. Both Demeter and Hestia followed him and took seats next to him on the mattress.

“Sweet brother, please do not be so sad,” Hestia begged, patting his hair as he curled up on his side, seemingly refusing to notice her.

“We could have gotten one of Zeus’ bedcovers for you, dearest,” Demeter said.

“She would not allow that,” Hades finally said, staring at the wall miserably. “Even if she did, it would not be the same. Her stink would be all over it. I just wanted to be able to smell Zeus’ presence. I thought it might help…”

“We could try to find something he often used,” Hestia said, desperate for a solution. Anything to stop her brother’s misery… “Perhaps that could help…”

“No, that won’t work,” Hades muttered. “But thank you for trying to help. I just need to try and sleep now. The two of you should share a bed now that Hera has left Hestia’s room.”

Hestia looked at her brother sadly. “Don’t you want us to stay here, brother?”

“No, I will be fine. I just need to sleep. And I want the two of you to do the same.”

Maybe I can still find Zeus’ scent in these sheets, Hades thought to himself, remembering that night when he and Demeter made love to Zeus in this very bed. That was many weeks ago, and Hades soon realized that he could only smell himself in the sheets. Accepting the situation as it was and trying to convince himself that at least his own scent was preferable to that of Hera, he closed his eyes, holding the blanket close to his chest.

Demeter exchanged a concerned glance with Hestia once they had both tried to assess his emotional state. Hades was clearly trying to keep himself contained, not wanting his sisters to see how upset he truly was.

Demeter looked briefly at her brother’s flushed face, currently stiff as a mask, and then turned to look at Hestia again. “I can’t leave him like this,” she said. “He needs someone to stay with him, to feel that he’s not alone.”

“I know,” Hestia replied, smiling. She glanced at Hades as well and could only agree with her sister. Unassumingly finding Hera in his beloved’s bed had to have been traumatic for Hades and made even worse by the outrageous accusations the goddess threw at him. Did Hera truly believe that anyone would take her seriously when claiming that Hades had tried to rape her? Not only was their brother completely and utterly devoted to Zeus, but he had also never shown such an interest in goddesses.

“You don’t have to stay…” Hades murmured in response to his younger sister’s promise to remain with him. “I’ll be fine. If I can just get some sleep…”

“Would you like something to help you sleep?” Demeter inquired, gently laying her hand over his.

“If you think it would help…” Hades would not willingly say that he wanted anything from his sister. He did not wish to be a bother to anyone, especially her.

“It might just be what you need, dear,” she replied with a smile. “Hestia, would you stay with him for a moment while I retrieve some herbs?”

“Of course.” Hestia edged closer to Hades, hand stroking at his hair. Hades did not want to think
about how the contact reminded him of the way Zeus would touch him, but he also did not want to tell his sister to stop.

A few minutes later Demeter had returned with a small mug. Hades was still awake, although the time which passed felt like nothing, as though Demeter had simply stepped out of the room and back in again.

“Here you are, brother,” Demeter said, taking a seat on the bed opposite to Hestia. She handed the mug of herbs to Hades, who stared at the contents within.

“What is it?” he asked warily. “Opium?”

“Klamath weed,” Demeter corrected him. “Do not worry. It will help soothe your mind.”

Hades slowly brought the cup to his lips, but he gulped the herbs down quickly, fighting past the taste. Demeter had avoided using opium deliberately. Her brother did not need it when he only required a means to relax. And even now he was nowhere near the state of distress he had experienced in the past.

Hestia held back a yawn, but the sight of her was clear that she needed sleep. So did Demeter and Hades. Though the ingestion of the weed had calmed his racing thoughts, it did not sedate him, and so he had to rely on himself to fall asleep.

“I think I may be too tired to walk to my own bed,” Hestia finally said. Demeter, warming to the idea, smiled.

“The same could be said for me,” she said. “I feel like I could fall asleep in this very bed.”

Hades did not object to the idea of Hestia joining him and Demeter in bed, even though he knew that their small bed would be overcrowded with one god and two goddesses occupying it. His eyes remained closed when his sisters crawled over to join him underneath the blankets, and he welcomed the warmth of Demeter’s form against his own. A soft kiss was pressed to the nape of his neck, and Hades gave a small murmur, notifying that he appreciated the gesture.

Not knowing whether it was Demeter’s potion or something else that eventually brought relative peace to his mind, Hades was soon able to join his two siblings in the world of dreams.

TBC...
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The Immortal Heart