We stared at each other for a long time after I found him there. He stood very still, very straight, as he watched me. Years later he told me he was afraid to move, to even breathe, for fear that I would run. All I thought then was that he looked powerful. That moment when he knelt before me, begging me with his eyes to stay, seemed years away.

He was darkness in the moonlight, and I could not have run from him if I tried.

"What are you doing here?" I asked at last, breaking the silence after it had gone on too long.

He snapped his gaze away, looking over the field. There had been flowers growing here, before he took me. Now they were beginning to return slowly, very slowly. "I come here often." He said, his voice so quiet I had to strain to hear. "I have been hoping to find you here again, since you left me."

"Since I went home." I snapped back. I folded my arms, trying to guard myself against the sadness in his face.

He took a step closer to me, and then another when I did not back away. "You don't remember, do you. When we first met."

I scowled. "It was shortly after you kidnapped me."

He smiled, continuing to walk slowly toward me. "You were a very young child. Perhaps you were four years old? You were making flowers. I told you nothing grew in the Underworld, and you gave me the first Asphodel flower."

I didn't remember.

"I suppose that is when you decided you were in love with me?" I asked dryly.

He stopped, now just a few inches in front of me. I resisted the urge to back away. "No." He said. "I thought you were a sweet child, but that is all." He reached out and tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. "I fell in love with you much later."

I slapped his hand away. "What you feel for me isn't love, Hades."

"Perhaps." He grabbed the hand that had slapped his, and kissed it gently. I pulled my hand away, uncomfortable. He sighed, and turned away. "Go back to your mother, Persephone."

"Wait, I..." I grabbed at his hand as he turned away, and he froze before turning back to me. I opened my mouth to say something, but something in his face made the words die in my throat. I closed my mouth, and swallowed. Before I knew what was happening he had closed the distance between us, and covered my mouth with his.

Once, twice, three times he kissed me. One hand held mine gently, and the other caressed my cheek lightly as he pulled away. "Goodnight. Until next we meet, my wife."

And then he was gone.