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[HADES]
She signed the deal herself.
And now she –
[ORPHEUS]
It isn’t true.
[HADES]
– belongs to me.
[ORPHEUS]
It isn’t true! Eurydice?
[EURYDICE]
It is. I do.
[HERMES]
Now Orpheus was a poor boy,
and Hades a mighty king.
But the poor boy raised up – no –
he’s – he sinks down to his knees?
[EURYDICE]
No! Orpheus, you should go!
[ORPHEUS]
What can I do, mighty king,
to win her freedom?
[HADES]
Well, well, well.
Never let it be said
the man who has everything
can’t want a little extra in his bed.
Come into my office, boy,
and we’ll… open negotiations.
[HERMES]
I am filled with consternation.
A lot can happen behind closed doors.
That poor boy – this is no pretext.
I’ve no idea what happens next.
Hades ushered Orpheus into his office, closed the door, and then shoved the boy up against it.
“Son of a Muse,” he sneered. “I know your kind. Stole the girl’s heart with a song and called it done, but you failed to close the deal, son. There’s no ring on her finger, and now she’s mine.”
“You can’t own people,” Orpheus insisted.
Hades laughed. “Well, maybe you can’t.”
“All you can do is give yourself to them.”
“Hmm,” Hades rumbled. “Really, boy, is that your desire, or are you trying to set me on fire?” Hades turned away, tugged his vest straight, and went to the sideboard to pour himself a drink. When he turned back around, he found Orpheus struggling out of his shirt and suspenders with shaking hands. It was a pretty picture, but not what Hades was looking for.
“What do you think you’re doing, son?”
The boy gaped, a crack in his determination showing the fear underneath. “I-Isn’t this what you want?”
Hades looked the boy up and down, real slow, inspecting an untested piece of equipment. “Virgin sacrifice was never my style.”
The boy flushed as red as his bandana, the flush reaching all the way down his chest. He shrugged back into his shirt and crossed his arms, huddling like he was cold. It was hot as Hell in Hades’ office. He liked it that way.
Once that little show was done, Hades swirled his whiskey and sipped it. “The last thing I want right now is another barely-willing body in my bed.”
“I’ll do anything. Please,” the boy begged. “Just tell me what you want.”
Hades sighed and took a seat in his plush armchair. “Now that’s the way to start a negotiation. You tell me what you want, and what you’ve got to offer, then I tell you what I want, and we’ll see if we can make a deal. Oh, where are my manners? Have a seat.”
Orpheus looked uncertainly around the office. The only other chairs were at a desk on the far side of the room. Hades pointed wordlessly to the plush carpet on the floor at his feet. Orpheus sank to his knees between the snakeskin boots with a shiver.
“That’s better. So, what is it you want, young man?”
“Eurydice. Her freedom. I want her free to come home with me and, and to be with me. To marry me, and be my wife. If she wants.”
“I see. You want my songbird for yourself. Unfortunately, I’m quite enjoying watching her settle into her gilded cage. She’d almost forgotten her own name before you arrived – though not quite. You’d best have something fine to offer in return.” Hades drained his tumbler and set it down on the side table.
“You said you didn’t want m-me, and I don’t have anything else,” Orpheus protested. “You have everything! We have nothing. All I have is my love for her.”
“Ah,” Hades interrupted, leaning forward eagerly. “There, you see? I knew you’d have something I want.”
“What?”
“Your love for her.”
“You can’t take that,” Orpheus said, falling backwards in his haste to get away.
“Of course not! Well, I could,” Hades mused as he watched the boy scramble for the door, “but what would be the point? Like a nightingale stuffed and mounted on the wall, it’s not just cruel; it’s inefficient. No, I think I’d enjoy my lovebirds more free-range. I won’t take your love, boy. You’ll share it with me.”
Orpheus tried the door. It was locked. He leaned his forehead against the cool steel of the door for a minute. When he turned around, Hades could see the raw courage that was all the boy had left. “You want to share my love. How would that work?”
“You’re a poet, aren’t you? A musician? You share your love, your joy, your passion with the world with every note. What I’m asking for is a little more… intimate, but it’s a small price to pay for the woman you love. When you’re with her, I’ll be there. Every loving glance, every longing look, every song, every touch, every thrust, I’ll feel it too. I’ll be there, inside of you.”
Orpheus looked Hades in the eye and took a deep breath, as if preparing to sing. Hades expected a rant, a wail at the unfairness of it all.
Instead, Orpheus said, “I’ll do it.”
Hades lived for this moment, when the proud ones bent their necks and accepted their fate. “I like this deal already. All you need to do is sign the papers,” Hades said, gesturing to the long document that had appeared on his desk.
Orpheus walked across the room, flipped to the document’s end, and picked up the pen. He let out a quick gasp of pain as he signed, his life’s blood red on the page.
“You didn’t even read the contract,” Hades said, a laugh buried deep in his voice.
“It’s not like I had any choice,” Orpheus retorted.
“Oh, there’s always a choice,” Hades answered him soberly. “And you’ve made yours. Come here, boy. Let’s seal the deal properly, with a kiss.”
“I uh, yes, sir,” Orpheus said, sinking to his knees in front of Hades and looking up at him, nervously licking his lips.
Hades sat back, raised an eyebrow and crooked his finger, beckoning Orpheus up onto his lap. Orpheus sat up and leaned forward awkwardly, his long torso tilting towards Hades, lips puckered, eyes closed. Hades chuckled and pounced.
Hades’ legs bracketed the boy’s body, leaning him back at the perfect angle, pinned and lifted up by a god’s strength. He waited out the boy’s instinctive, useless struggle, then brushed his tight-puckered lips lightly, again, and again. Orpheus’ body slowly relaxed against him, lips gentling and opening to his probing tongue. Hades explored this new territory, feeling the boy lose himself to the sensations until he clumsily tried to suck on the god’s tongue. Hades groaned, grabbed the boy’s ragged mop of hair and plundered his mouth, pushing a spark of his own divine essence to take root in the boy’s soul.
When he finally relented and released the boy, Orpheus let out a quiet whine, eyelids fluttering.
“You’re trembling,” Hades gloated, pleased he still had it. “What an eager little whelp.”
Orpheus sank back down to the floor, face blank. “That was my first kiss,” he said quietly.
Hades’ reaction of fierce, possessive glee was tempered by the boy’s sorrow singing down the connection he had forged between them. Orpheus was slumped, his musician’s fingers playing over the nap of the priceless carpet bought with a river of black gold. His hair was mussed, nape bared in defeat. Hades forgot, sometimes, how fragile mortals were. It was so easy to break his toys.
“Look at me,” Hades ordered.
Orpheus shook his head.
“Look at me, son,” Hades said gently, and waited until he saw the boy’s dark eyes. “There’s no shame in using what you’ve got, to get what you need. Not for her, and not for you. That’s what it takes to survive in this world. Do you understand?”
Orpheus nodded, then dropped his eyes, perplexed, to his lap, where his own left hand had begun absently rubbing his prick through his trousers.
Hades smirked. “Inside you,” he whispered in the boy’s mind, enjoying the prickle of shock and arousal the boy felt in response.
“You said – when I was with her,” Orpheus said, eyes wide.
“Ah, but you’re always with her in your heart, aren’t you? You really should have read that contract, young man.”
Orpheus clenched his hand into a fist. “Don’t you use me to hurt her.”
Hades controlled his first instinct to crush his Nightingale’s little rebellion. “Of course not. Why would I want another miserable woman in my life? If anything, I can show you a few tricks that’ll help you keep that young love sweet for a few more years, before you taste the bitter dregs.”
“Eurydice and I will love each other until the end of time,” Orpheus said, and oh, his love for her really was rich and addictively sweet.
“You’ll learn,” Hades said with all the certainty of eternity in his voice.
“Maybe,” Orpheus said, head held high, and Hades thought he saw a bit of his own fire in the boy’s eyes. “Or maybe you’ll learn how to love your Queen again. My entire life, I’ve heard the dissonant song of your broken love in my head, breaking the world apart. At least neither of us will be alone anymore. I’m not afraid of love.”
The absurd thing was, Hades could feel that he meant it. “I’ll have a bedroom made up for the two of you,” he said gruffly.
“What?” Orpheus said, jerking to his feet. “You said she was free to leave!”
“Anytime she likes, but I thought you two might want to wait for a few days. Persephone will be returning to the surface soon, on the train. And in the meantime, I figured you might want a bed – to celebrate.”
The boy’s blush, and the pulse of clean desire across their bond, was answer enough. Hades stood up, crowding the gangly young man out of his path, unlocked the door, and bellowed out onto the floor.
“Oh songbird,” he called out into the foundry’s glare. “Loverboy wants a word.”
She rushed past him. “Orpheus! What did he do to you? What did you sign?”
“Nothing much, Eurydice. Don’t worry. I’m fine.”
Hades stepped out into the neon night and shut the door. The silence of the hammers was deafening. The Workers watched, they waited, looking for any sign of weakness.
“We’ve come to an arrangement,” Hades announced. “The boy’s gainfully employed.” A surge of happiness from his boy put a smile on Hades’ face; he twisted it into a leer, spreading his legs and tucking his thumbs into his vest pockets. “I declare a fifteen-minute… smoke break. Enjoy it while my good mood lasts.”
Hades sat on his throne, alone in the spot lit glare. His sleeves were rolled back, revealing forearms corded with muscle, the tattoo a reminder of all he had built. His collar was open, head tipped back.
Almost lost in the shadows of the room was an abandoned jar of petroleum jelly, missing its lid and a greedy handful of lubricant. His slick hand was slowly pumping the massive cock protruding from his open fly.
Once he would have stopped to admire it glistening in his hand, thick, strong, and hungry; tonight Hades had something better to watch.
“That’s right, boy. Slip her some tongue, just like I taught you. She likes it, doesn’t she? She can have all the rest of your kisses; I’ll always have your first. Try that down below, and she’ll go wild.”
Eyes staring blindly into the dark, Hades licked his lips.
“Yeeeees. Slow at first, gentle, coax out her pearl. She’ll let you know when she’s ready for more. Mmmm. Long, flat licks now. Tease her with more, but don’t give it to her. Not yet. Not yet. She tastes glorious, doesn’t she? Yes, fingers now, and the heel of your hand right… there. That’s it. Good boy. Just like that. That’s what she needs. Let her ride it, set the pace. She’ll teach you everything you need to know.”
Hades’ hand had sped to a punishing pace. The wet, sloppy sound of it, of his racing breaths, filled the silent chamber. Hades was deaf to everything but the sounds of his lovebirds’ pleasure.
“Oh, that’s how you make a songbird sing. Up now, boy. Slide into her while she’s still slick and sensitive. Don’t you dare come yet! You’ll bring her off a second time with your prick. I want you to feel how good that is, when she squeezes tight around you. She’s close, so close. Faster, boy. Yes, that, that. Love you, love, oh, yes, Persephone!”
With a sobbing gasp the god came, his cock pulsing and spurting like an oil geyser.
Silence. Hades was alone – and never alone.
“Cherish her, my son,” Hades whispered into the night.
He looked down at the wreck of his pinstripe suit, chuckled, and wiped his hand down the front. “Worth it,” Hades muttered. “I’m gonna name that boy employee of the month.”
He never noticed the tears running down his cheeks.
[HERMES]
In a railway station, two couples stand on opposite ends of the platform.
[PERSEPHONE]
Are you really letting them go?
[HADES]
I am.
[PERSEPHONE]
So they’re free.
[HADES]
More free than you and me.
My Queen - may I kiss you?
[PERSEPHONE]
… yes.
[HERMES]
In a railway station, two couples embrace on opposite ends of the platform.
[EURYDICE]
What was that for?
[ORPHEUS]
For all the times I couldn’t.
[PERSEPHONE]
You haven’t kissed me like that in a very long time.
[HADES]
I’ve wanted to.
When you return, in the fall,
can we try again?
[HERMES]
In a railway station, two lovers embark on a train
with a goddess who is learning to love again.
When that train emerges from the tunnel into the cool night air,
Persephone lifts her face into the first fresh, raw breath of spring.
Eurydice whoops with victory and cries tears of joy.
Orpheus holds her in his arms.
He watches with the ancient eyes of a god
and the wonder of a child as the sun
paints the first hint of sunrise on the horizon.
[ORPHEUS]
La la la la la la la...
[HADES]
La la la la la la la...
[BOTH]
La la la la la la la…
[HERMES]
It’s an old song,
and he’s written a new verse.
It’s a sad song – a tragedy –
but it’s played out in reverse.
It’s a love song,
and love done broke the curse!
On the road from Hell there was a railroad line.
And a boy singing our world back into time.
You might say that boy was touched.
Cause he was touched by Hades himself.
Give it up for Orpheus!