Title: Kiss of Frost and a Budding Rose
Fandom: Ninefinite
Pairing: Minha/Sungjong
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Sungjong is Hades, Minha is Persephone. I think it's pretty self explanatory.
A/N: The title comes from
this poem based on Persephone and Hades. The ending scene was completely inspired the tags on
this post.
i.
Minha refuses to weep- refuses to. She will not give him the satisfaction of seeing her tears. Instead she claws at his face, strikes him and kicks, she tries desperately to get him off. His grip on her waist only tightens, his jaw is set and his hair is a mess from the air that whips past them. She looks up, trying desperately to find her mother back above where her plants and trees are calling for her, where her mother is weeping for her, but all she sees before the ground closes up above her is the earth dying, and flecks of white falling down from the sky.
She goes limp once the ground is closed up once again, and he tugs her up so that she is leaned against him, “no…” she mumbles trying to get him to release his hold on her. I will never see my plants and trees again. I will never see my mother again. The last thought is what nearly causes her to sob. She barely manages to hold it back.
Once the chariot comes to a halt, his grip around her waist finally loosens and Minha is quick to get off the chariot and away from him. She looks around, she looks everywhere but not at him, it’s dark and it’s full of death. So different from her home, where flowers sprout from her beneath her feet, and birds sing and the tree whisper their secrets to her in their own ancient language. Here there was nothing but cold, dark stones and the souls of dead mortals.
She looks down and wants to weep. No flowers are sprouting from beneath her feet.
ii.
“Why would you force me here?” she whispers, days after he took her away. She hasn’t moved from where the chariot had left her.
“I only took what was meant to be mine.” he says back. Minha can feel his gaze on her, but she refuses to look at him.
“I am not yours, I will never be yours.”
“You already are mine.”
At that she laughs, a cruel sound unlike anything she has ever uttered, “how can the goddess of life ever come to love the god of death?”
“You will come to love me, I know you will.”
“No, I can never love someone like you.” then the ground shakes violently below her feet, she quickly falls to her knees and scrambles to find purchase.
“You are never leaving here!” He roars, “and you will love me! Maybe not now but you will in time!” The ground abruptly stops shaking once he takes in a deep breath.
When he is gone Minha allows herself to weep for the first time.
iii.
Minha wanders through his kingdom aimlessly, with her fingers grazing against the stone walls, her bare feet pressing against cold stone. When she presses an ear against the walls she can hear their soft whispers; it seems that they are eager to spill their secrets. Its in the middle of one of these secrets that he comes with a bright red fruit in one of his hands.
“You must be hungry, Minha.” he says, he doesn’t look at her, instead he looks over her shoulder, as if he can’t meet her eyes.
“No, no I am not.” she says while moving away from the walls. He’s very beautiful, she will never admit it out loud, but like many gods he is beautiful. But he looks lonely. He took you from your home, from your mother. You will not pity him.
He grumbles softly to himself before speaking up, “eat, please.”
“I said, I am not hungry.”
Anger flashes across his face before he places the fruit on a nearby stone table, “fine,” and with that he’s gone with both his fists at his sides. Minha waits a moment before walking up to the stone that holds the fruit, “pomegranate…” she says softly. She peels open the fruit, some of the red juice flows from the fruit onto her pale hands. She gently picks a red seed from the fruit and takes a bite. Her eyes widen and she smiles down at the fruit, “you are very delicious.”
She eats six seeds in total.
iv.
She stands before the other gods at Olympus, wrapped in her mothers arms, she’s hasn’t felt so content in days. The plants and trees are singing, flowers are blooming from below her feet. I am home, I am home, I am home.
Until he holds up the pomegranate she ate from, for the gods to see, “Minha ate food from the underworld, she cannot leave.”
It takes a moment for that to settle in,“no!” Minha shrieks, “I did not know! I only ate six seeds!”
Her father looks at her with a look of pity, her mother tightens her arms around her before exclaiming, “No, I will not allow her to go back! She just returned!”
“Six months- in six months Sungjong will be allowed to come back for her. She shall spends six months in the underworld and six months here.” her father says. Minha bites down on the inside of her cheek to keep herself from sobbing. Her mother is shaking, she has tears in her eyes.
When he leaves back to his underworld kingdom, her mother takes her to a meadow, not the meadow she was taken from (Minha thinks her mother will not allow her to step foot on that meadow until it is her time to leave). They weave flower crowns, and play with the woodland creatures, Minha dances with the nymphs and accepts all the gifts they give her. Minha listens to the trees, listens to the secrets they have to offer her.
It isn’t until months later, days before she must return to the underworld, while she is laying in a bed of flowers with bees buzzing around her, and flowers woven into her hair that she realizes that she misses the feeling of stone beneath her feet. It’s fleeting, because then her mother lays next to her and and Minha can’t help but embrace her.
When the earth opens up, and he and his chariot drawn by four beautiful stallions arrive, Minha is waiting for him with her mother by her side. The leaves from the trees are already changing color, and the flowers are starting to wilt. When he holds out his hand for her, Minha embraces her mother and takes in her sweet scent, committing it to memory.
“Goodbye, I’ll miss you.” She whispers.
Her mother tightens her arms around Minha and whispers a soft, “I love you.” And then Minha is letting go and turning back to the king of the underworld. Sungjong, you should refer to him as Sungjong, she thinks to herself. She gently take hold of Sungjong’s hand (his hand is soft and smooth, gentle yet strong, Minha doesn’t know what to think of it) and allows him to help her onto his chariot.
She hears her mother start to weep, don’t look back, if you look back you will be lost.
v.
She’s welcomed back to the underworld by the stone walls, they whisper how overjoyed they are that she is back.
Sungjong has learned to leave her be, though sometimes he’s anger gets the better of him, and the stone walls shake with his rage . Minha usually watches him with a look of pity.
It’s one day while she’s walking through one of the kingdoms many halls that she find it. The stones whisper for her to turn around, they urge her to go back. Minha ignores them. When she finds them she’s both terrified and fascinated. It’s huge with three heads, it’s located at the gate that allows passage to the underworld. Cerberus.
Before she can even think, Minha reaches for it, the three heads are snapping at her, before she could touch them a hand grabs her and wrenches her back. She stumbles and lands on the floor with Sungjong in front of her, reprimanding his guard dog.
“You are not to bring harm to her! You are not to so much as snap at her again! Do you understand?” Sungjong looks livid, Cerberus cowers down to its master, a whine escaping all three heads. Minha stands and dusts herself off before walking up to the hound, and placing a hand to the middle head of the hound. Sungjong moves to stop her, but she turns and looks him in the eyes,
“Let me pet, Cerberus, Sungjong.”
Sungjong’s eyes widen, it is the first time she called him by his name. He nods after a moment, but stands by her side protectively.
“I thought I was the queen of the underworld,” Minha says softly, “you should have introduced me to your three headed dog sooner. Then maybe Cerberus would not have snapped at me.”
Minha continued to pet the beast, the other two heads of Cerberus are looking at her hopefully, it seems that they haven’t been pet in quite sometime. Sungjong looks speechless, “I- I would have, if you would only talk to me.”
She moves to pet the other two heads of the beast, “You took me from my home, from my mother. You took me against my will.”
Sungjong’s eyebrows furrow, “I took what was meant to be mine.” He says that a lot, Minha has noticed, as if to try and convince himself that what he did was right.
“I will not love you if I do not feel that you deserve it. I am the queen of the underworld, and you should treat me as such. I am not a prize to be won, I am now your queen, your counterpart. I will only respect you once you learn to respect me.”
Sungjong says nothing.
vi.
It seems that Sungjong understands, he sits with her and talks, talks about himself and his life before she was taken from her home to live here. He talks about how much time he spent watching her before she came to the underworld.
“I saw you and I could not help but want you. I was lonely and you were the spark of light among an immense pool of darkness.” He’s looking down at his hands, one on top of the other, his grip so tight that his knuckles turn white.
“So you took me.” Minha says softly.
“...yes… I thought- I kept telling myself that you were made for me. That you were mine… but I know now that I was wrong to take you.” He still isn’t looking at her.
Minha smiles before placing one of her hands over his, “You are learning.”
vii.
When it’s time for her to spend six months above the ground again, Sungjong holds his hand out for Minha from his place on the chariot. Minha smiles and grasps his hand, letting him help her onto the chariot. When he opens up the earth and brings her back to the meadow he took her from, the flowers are vibrant, the birds are singing and there is a gentle breeze. Before getting off the chariot Minha caresses Sungjong’s face and turns his head towards her, and kisses him lightly on his cheek, “I will see you in six months, Sungjong.”
Before he can react, she steps off the chariot and welcomes her earth with a wide smile.
viii.
The next time she sees Sungjong, bright vibrant flowers are woven into her hair, she’s wearing a flower crown that he mother placed on her head seconds before Sungjong’s arrival. She also has a bright smile. She has missed Sungjong, more than she will admit.
Once they arrive back to the underworld Minha waits for Sungjong to let the stallions free of their straps, and then grabs his hand and guides him down to where Cerberus resides.
“It seems that I have missed our pups.” she says with a bright smile. Sungjong beams.
It becomes a routine, a routine that goes on for years. Minha spends her time teaching Sungjong how to talk with his stone walls, and telling Sungjong about her time with her mother. And when she is not in the underworld she’s on earth, in her element. She never talks about Sungjong to her mother, Minh doesn’t think her mother would appreciate it.
Soon she trades in her plain white dresses for something more fit for the queen of the underworld.
“Are you happy here, now?” Sungjong asks her one night many years later, his fingers are threaded in her long hair, his lips to her temple.
“Yes, I am.” she says, and then she’s kissing him, really kissing him. She smiles into the kiss when she feels his fingers tighten in her hair.
“I’ve come to a conclusion Sungjong,” Minha says, a month before she must go again. They are both in Sungjong’s bed chambers- our bed chambers she reminds herself. She sitting on one of the plush cushions next to a warm fire place. Sungjong is standing with a scroll in his hands, reading over what ever it is her father sent him.
Sungjong hums, and looks up at her with a fond smile on his face, “And what conclusion is that, Minha?”
Minha watches his for a moment, he’s looking at her with a look of pure adoration, and a forgotten scroll in his hand, “the conclusion is that we were made for each other.”
Sungjong’s face is breaking into a grin, she has never seen him so happy. I made him happy. Is her only thought in that moment. Then he’s walking towards her, kneeling down so that he is at eye level with her. His eyes are shining, “is that so?” he asks before cupping her face with one of his soft hands, his thumb is stroking her cheek bone.
“Yes.” she whispers and gives him a chaste kiss on the lips, “it seems I was wrong, those many years ago. It seems that the goddess of life can love the god of death.”
It’s then that all of Sungjong’s self control shatters, he surges forward, kisses her with purpose. It is in between kisses that he lets out a broken sob, “Minha-”
“I love you, Sungjong.” she says and that only lets out another sob from Sungjong.
“And I love you, Minha.”
xi.
The next time Minha must leave, she kisses Sungjong hard and long, with her hands cupping his face, “I’ll be counting down the days until I see you again.” she says. And then she’s climbing out the chariot.
On a hot summer day, Minha sits alone in a hidden meadow, the sun’s rays are blazing down onto the earth. Minha’s eyes are closed, when she feels something cool against her skin. She opens her eyes and seeing the shadow of her king of the underworld, reaching down and caressing her. Minha smiles, this is the closest she will be with him for the next six months.
“I love you,” she whispers, hoping the air will carry her voice to him.
“And I love you.” the air whispers back, in the voice of her Sungjong.