Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:27:39 -0400
From: gay/encounters/blue-collar/
Subject: Eros in Love

Notes: This was originally part of another story, but it can pretty much
stand on its own. I've taken liberties with the myth of Demeter and
Persephone. (this is something new?) According to Aristophanes, Eros was
the son of Erebus -- himself the son of Chaos -- and Nyx, the goddess of
Night, and according to Hesiod, Nemesis was their daughter. Thanks as
always to Gail for the beta.

Eros in Love
By Tinnean

It was a foolish accident that started it all.

I had never fallen in love. I had seen what my arrows did to god and mortal
alike, and I vowed silently that it would never happen to me. I took my
pleasure where I found it, but had a care never to endanger my heart.

I was in my palace of alabaster and gold and abalone, seated cross-legged
on a pillow on the floor, my wings folded neatly at my back, separating my
arrows, lead for disinterest, gold for love, into their proper quivers. I
looked up to see the Lord of the Underworld swagger in.

"Eros."

"Hades." I rose gracefully to greet him, for was the god of love nothing if
not graceful?

The warm expression in his eyes told me the sight pleased him, and that
pleased me; I had always found him easy to look upon, the tight black curls
that covered his head, the eyes like ebony...

A slight pain startled me, and I stared in shock at the tiny drop of blood
that beaded in the center of my palm, caused by a golden arrow gripped
carelessly.

It did not occur to me to be cautious of where I next let my gaze fall. I
raised my eyes and beheld the dark, muscular god before me, and I fell
helplessly in love.

Not hopelessly. As the god of love, I had no doubt I could make him love me
in turn. "What may I do for you?"

But at that moment, Demeter arrived. With her was her daughter Kore, the
maiden.

"Greetings, Eros." Her voice grew chill, "Hades," and she turned, pointed,
from him. "Eros, I come at Aphrodite's request."

"That is odd. She is not here."

"Strange." Her foot tapped impatiently. "Perhaps I misunderstood. Come,
sweetling." Her expression as she gazed upon her daughter was beyond
loving. "You said you wished to gather flowers with your friends?"

"Yes, please, Mother." She gave a small smile, and they were gone.

"I want her." Hades' face was flushed with lust. The black eyes he turned
to me burned with his passion. He did not love her, but he wanted her. "You
will see to it, will you not, Eros?"

My heart bled, but I nodded. "Of course."

There would be no 'of course'. Instead, when the maiden wearied of
gathering flowers on the plain of Enna and sat beside the pool of the naiad
Cyane, trailing her fingers in the cool water, almost as if she were
stroking the soft flesh of a lover, I shot her with a golden arrow, and she
fell in love with Cyane.

I watched as the two embraced, their lips but a breath apart.

Abruptly, the earth split apart, and Hades emerged in his chariot, as black
as the six steeds that drew it. Flames shot forth each time a hoof struck
the ground, and the ground itself trembled.

Hades seized the maiden and pulled her to him, while Cyane cried out in
horror. To stop her cries, he struck the waters with his sword, and the
young naiad, dissolved in tears of despair, sank to the bottom of the pool.

And I? Unable to do anything but watch in helpless dismay.

"Cyane! You brute!" Kore beat at his chest with her small fists, crying,
"Mother! Mother!" But it was to no avail. He silenced her with a kiss, and
in the blink of an eye they vanished.

Zeus materialized out of the air. Since there were no females for him to
try to lure to his bed, he was in his usual guise of king of the
heavens. "That was well done, think you not?" He rubbed his hands in glee.

"What have you done?"

"You were too slow in acting. Hades came to me."

"And you gave him what he wanted." I could not curse the king of the
Olympians, but, oh, how great was my desire.

"Yes." He preened.

"Demeter will not be pleased to learn her daughter has been abducted."

"Nonsense. Kore is my daughter too. And after all, all mothers want their
daughters wed to kings." He ran a hand over my golden feathers, tugged one
loose, and used it to caress my lips.

I felt soiled. "I must go." And with no more than that, I left him standing
there, gloating over the success of his scheme.

I spent my nights at the River Cocytus, the river of lamentation, lamenting
a love I could never have.

And my days...

My days were spent standing on the balcony of my palace, gazing down toward
the Underworld.

"This must cease!" Zeus appeared in my great hall, his mien
harassed. "Demeter bewails her daughter's loss, and you ... "

"I thought all mothers wanted a king for their daughters." All of Olympus
knew of Demeter's anguish, and all on Earth felt it.

He scowled at me. "Things are getting out of control!"

True. The land withered, became sere, and bore no fruit.

As for I? Mortals had to fall in love - or not - without my intervention.

I shrugged and walked away from him, out onto the balcony, where I stared
down into the clouds that circled the crown of Mount Olympus, and he
stormed away, shouting for Night.

A soft breeze wafted through my feathers, like a lover's touch, and I
arched into it.

Behind me, someone approached. I did not need to turn to know it was Nyx,
my mother. Her step was soundless; she could have been treading on air. But
then, she probably was. The goddesses of the pantheon had no need to set
their dainty feet upon common soil.

Petty. My thoughts shamed me.

She came to stand beside me, slid an arm around my waist, and rested her
head upon my shoulder.

"My son."

I said nothing, did not meet her eyes.

"You are sad."

"That surprises you?"

"You are the god of love."

For all the good it did me. "The one I love is pining for someone who is
pining for someone else."

"Zeus has spoken to Demeter, has spoken to Hades. Persephone will be
returned to her mother."

Of course, Persephone. She was no longer a maiden. "Hades wants her
still. He will bide his time until she returns to him."

"But he will be lonely. It is not good to be alone, my son." With that, she
pressed her fingertips to my cheek and left me to ponder her words.

It was not good to be alone. I went to visit Hades in his kingdom.

His palace was ebon - onyx and obsidian and jet - the surfaces so polished
I could see myself reflected back in the torchlight.

"What do you want?" he snarled when he saw me standing before him. "What
good is the love I bear Persephone, when I can only have her with me for
part of the year?"

"Have me for the other part of the year," I said in low tones.

"You?"

I found myself pressed up against a rough stone wall, feathers of my wings
broken, and yet I was so aroused I felt nothing but the need to be
possessed by the one I loved.

His teeth grazed my throat, and he inhaled deeply. "You smell of musk."
There was a tearing sound and my linen tunic fell to the ground,
shredded. "Your skin is soft, but beneath it I can feel sleek muscles." His
hands wandered over my body, stroked over my chest to rouse nipples that
pleaded for his lips, his teeth, his tongue. His fingers flexed over my
hips and pulled me close against the hardness of his body, and he took my
mouth with ferocity, biting and sucking.

"I want you," I whispered. I knew better than to speak of love. I dug my
nails into his back and blindly sought his lips.

"Yes!" he growled, his breath warm and sweet as wine against my
mouth. "Show me your tricks, pretty god."

My head was spinning as if I were in a whirlwind, and when the whirlwind
stopped, I was on my back on a bed that no matter how soft, was painful
against my broken feathers. I sat up enough to free my wings, the broken
feathers healing even as my wings unfurled, and Hades caught his breath at
the sight of my golden wings extended. He pushed me back down, pushed my
thighs back and apart, and touched roughened fingertips to my cock, over my
balls, and teased the sensitive skin behind them to dip shallowly into my
hole. He pressed a kiss to a bottom cheek, then spread them, and his cock,
thick and hard, breached my opening, thrust deep into me, and his mouth
swallowed my moans.

There was no pain - with immortals there never was - but I had never been
taken like this before. The sounds that spilled from my mouth were like
those made by my acolytes, male or female, as I made love to them, but I
cared not. I arched up to meet each thrust and begged him for more.

Hades caressed the blond curls that covered my head, that covered my groin,
gave a hoarse laugh, and bit down on my earlobe. He rolled us over, and I
was above him, impaled on his cock, and I whimpered and shivered.

"Such wide blue eyes. Fly for me, pretty god." He gripped my hips with
powerful hands, and had I been mortal, bruises would have decorated the
pale flesh.

My extended wings gave me balance. I leaned back and braced my hands on his
thighs, flexing my fingers to knead the hard muscles. I closed my eyes and
concentrated on the rise and fall, and whimpered when I felt his palm close
around my cock, and he began to pull, all the while his cock, deep inside
me, brushed against a spot of which I had been completely unaware.

How could I, the god of love and sexual desire, not have known of this
wonder?

"Eros."

I opened my eyes.

His eyes dark and hot and snaring mine, my lover pressed his thumb on the
crown of my cock and rubbed in circles, spreading the fluid that beaded at
the tip, and with a startled gasp, I flew as I had never flown. Hades
pulled me down as he surged up, and heat flooded me as he joined me on that
flight.

My wings enfolded us, shielding us from any who might come in search of the
dark lord. I placed the palm that had been pricked by the golden arrow over
his heart, and we slept.

****

Time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

I lay on my stomach on our bed, while my lover stroked the pinions and
vanes of my unfurled wings, making sure each golden feather lay just so.

"I love your wings," he murmured, and nuzzled the spot where they joined my
spine. I wriggled in voluptuous pleasure.

"My Lord, my Lord!" One of his minions hovered in the doorway, its cloven
hoof pawing the tiled floor, the grimace that passed as a smile on its
face. "Your Lady is here!"

"Persephone!" He was gone before I realized it, a feather drifting to the
floor. That tiny hurt was nothing compared to the pain that tore at my
heart; that would have brought me to my knees had I been standing.

How could mortals bear it?

I gave myself a shake, rose and dressed in my tunic and sandals, and
returned to my palace on Mount Olympus.

****

Time passed, although not so quickly. Finally, with the approach of spring,
Persephone returned to her mother once more, and I returned to my lover.

Hades was pleased to see me, so pleased that he had me on his bed before I
realized it, and as he entered me, he took my hand, brought it to his
mouth, and, eyes fastened to mine, caressed the tiny scar with lips and
tongue.

And so it went, year after decade after century. Until...

"Eros."

"Nemesis. Welcome, Sister." It was once again Persephone's time to be with
Hades, and I was in my own palace. I went to her and kissed her on first
one cheek and then the other. "I have not seen you in quite some time."

"I have been busy, dispensing divine justice, little brother. How do I find
you?"

"I am well."

"You do not look well." She frowned at me. "You would not tell untruths to
your sister, would you?"

I sighed. "This is my affair," and I flushed as I realized the truth of my
words.

"You are hurting. I do not like to see this."

"This is my choice, Nemesis. You will not hurt him, promise me!"

"'Him'?" Her dark eyes narrowed. How odd that I of all the family should be
so fair. One would have thought Aphrodite had given birth to me.

"Hades. The Lord of the Underworld is my lover."

"Hades, who is wed to Persephone? Oh, little brother, this is not well
done."

"He needs someone during those months when his queen is with her
mother. Who better than the god of ... of sexual desire?"

"But then he sends you away when she returns."

"Sister, it is my choice."

"Is it? One might think you pricked by one of your own arrows." Her eyes
narrowed again at the flush that ran from my torso to my forehead. "Is
there an antidote?" I shook my head, and she studied me thoughtfully. "You
could shoot him with a golden arrow."

"I cannot." I raised my hand to forestall her protest. "I would an I
could... But I love him so much... I want what is best for him, what makes
him happy. I ... I cannot."

"You are a fool." I flinched, and she took me in her arms and rocked
me. "Nevertheless, I love you, and that is without the aid of an arrow. I
will make things well for you, little brother."

"You will not hurt him!" I commanded.

She murmured something I did not understand.

"What was that, Nemesis?"

"I will not hurt...  him. This I promise you." She embraced me and left,
and when nothing seemed to happen, I thought, not that she had forgotten
her vow, for she did love me, but that her duties as goddess of vengeance
occupied her time.

Spring approached, and Persephone went joyous to her mother and I, even
more joyous, to the god I loved.

My time with Hades flowed on and on. During the day I visited my temples,
which were filled with tokens of gratitude, for there were fewer and fewer
mortals who found their love returned with indifference. And the nights
were spent with my lover.

I awoke one morning with a start. Hades was pacing the sleeping chamber.

"What is it, my lo ... lord?"

"It is mid-summer."

"Yes?"

"It is mid-summer."

"I do not understand." But abruptly I did understand, and I felt myself
turn cold. "Persephone... " Of course she knew of us, that during the
months when Spring walked the Earth, I was in her husband's bed. A secret
could not be kept on Mount Olympus. "Why has she not returned?"

"I do not know."

"I will leave." I got out of bed and began to dress. I would not bathe and
wash his scent from my body, not now, perhaps not for a long time to come.

"Why?"

"Pardon?"

"Why do you leave, my pretty blue-eyed god? I have not asked you to go."

"But surely... "

"Eros." His eyes were warm, warmer than when he had looked upon Persephone
when she was still Kore. He took my hand and turned it over, revealing the
small scar on my palm, and brought it to his mouth. Then he turned over his
hand, to reveal the golden arrow, and beside it, on his heartline, a drop
of blood. He stroked my blond curls, and drew me into his
embrace. "Persephone may be my Queen, but you, my pretty god," he tipped my
chin up and kissed me, "you are my own."

Epilogue

I never learned how Nemesis managed to do what she did, or what promise she
exacted from Demeter to prevent the Earth from once again suffering
perpetual Winter.

All I knew was that Demeter gave over her duties to Hestia, goddess of the
hearth. There was some discontent among the gods who remembered Demeter's
reaction the first time she lost her daughter, but Zeus permitted it, and
so Demeter left Mount Olympus, once more to search the Earth for her
beloved daughter.

But that, as they say, is another story.

"Eros."

I gazed over my shoulder. "Yes, my love?"

Hades smiled and took my hand, raising it to his mouth. "Come," he murmured
against the small scar on my palm." And he led me to our sleeping chamber.

~End~