16 When Life Meets Death...And they talk about Flowers?

Hades POV:

Despite my initial beliefs, it wasn't Hera who was the next of my siblings to complete the transformation from incorporeal to corporeal. This wasn't because Hera was struggling with the creation process. Nope, it was because every time it looked like Hera had finally decided what she would look like, she would suddenly wipe it clean and start again. And, while I may not be able to speak about being a narcist, considering I made my form as handsome as I could be based on my previous life's beauty standards, spending that amount of time deciding on a physical form that could be changed or altered any time seemed a bit too much, even for me.

Especially when you consider attraction between Immortals came from their Divinities rather than physical attraction, and as the Goddess of Marriage and future Patron of Women, It was all completely unnecessary; out of all my sisters, Hera's Divinity was the most seductive and desirable, it tugged on your being playfully and called to you, So wasting so much time deciding which color hair you wanted and in what style just seemed a bit pointless.

Demeter, on the other hand, had finally gotten over all the nature everywhere and was putting the finishing touches upon her physical form; it looked like the time she took soaking in her surroundings may have helped her with her design as she painted her lustrous blond hair the color of gold wheat with dried grass, woven between each strand of hair like a wicker basket, Skin slightly tanned like she was out in the sun all day, her form was busty and filled out in all the right places a firm reminder that she was also a Goddess of Fertility while still holding to an impressive eight feet tall, her features contained a soft and almost motherly appearance. At the same time, her eyes were warm dirt brown that flared with green light whenever she would gaze upon the surrounding flora. Overall, I could tell she took heavy inspiration from our mother and her Domains, which contain the same motherly and fertile appearance as the mother Titan, while also creating a flair of her own. 

Once she had finally taken on her physical shell, she conjured a long green dress made up of different bits of flora leaves gathering around her bosom like a bra and various vines and flowers, creating woven designs that ended just before her feet. In conclusion, where Hestia had tried to make herself as innocent and sisterly as possible, Demeter acknowledged her beauty and weaponized it, unafraid of the consequences. I could see why both Zeus and Poseidon desired her so much. Her aura was bright and Earthly and buzzed with excitement. Instead, that was just its natural state, or because of all the surrounding nature, I don't know. Still, the way it livened all the surrounding vegetation caused flowers to bloom at her feet and vines to stretch towards the cave's floor as if to be closer to her; it made me believe that she must be going through a state of empowerment from being so close to her Domain.

Despite being a few feet away from her, I could feel the strong smell of fresh-cut grass spreading through my being; unfortunately, this had some unintended consequences. Demeter, being a life-giver, AKA my complete opposite, upset my Divinity, giving me a feeling of unjustified irritation. The best way I could describe it was having an unfair negative opinion of someone you've never met before but being too stubborn to admit you might be wrong. She hadn't even acknowledged my and Hestia's presence yet and was spending her time running back and smelling different flora instead, which only fueled my unreasonable feelings.

If not for the calming hand of Hestia on my shoulder, I truly believe I would have blown up in a string of profanities that would not yet be invented for the next few thousand years and would have thus looked like I'd gone insane as none of them would have been able to understand me. Grabbing hold of Hestia's essence and making use of it to purge any unwanted feelings, I decided that it was probably time I introduced myself because the way she was going, I would have sat there for years waiting for her to get over all the nature.

It took only a quick few strides for me to cover the distance between my green thumb sister, who was currently crouched over a lovely flower, and me, palm faced down towards it, releasing a mist of green sparks that seemed to cause the already full bloom flower to grow to an unnatural height, being as tall as the average human with each petal being the size of a man's head. Demeter seemed fascinated with what she had just done, eyes filled with glee and awe, gazing at the flower like it was the finest piece of jewelry in the world. 

Deciding that waiting for her to get over her glee with the flower to turn around and acknowledge me would take far too long, I outstretch my hand towards her shoulder while clearing my throat. I didn't account for sparks of orange light between my palm and her shoulder, causing a singeing sensation upon my palm; her high-pitched "OOWWEE!" allowed me to realize the pain was a two-way street.

Shaking my hand a few times to rid it of the uncomfortable sensation, I look back at my sister only to see glassy brown eyes and trembling lips glaring up at me before a sharp, stinging sensation spreads across my shin. Gazing downwards to see a foot hastily retreating behind the safety of a dress. Lifting my eyes back to the owner of said foot, the grimacing look of pain gave me the idea that the kick may have hurt her more than me, but her stubborn pride wouldn't allow that to show genuinely.

Thinking that I should probably apologize to get rid of any misconceptions, my grave voice, unused to speaking such a long sentence, released "Apologies, I should have probably realized our Domains being antithesis would affect each other" turns out to be the God of the Dead and King of The Underworld affected my presence that Demeter as a being of Life couldn't handle without ample warning. 

She was still sniffling but looking calmer and less like she wanted to smite me for daring to touch her. She gazed into my eyes, head tilting in curiosity and eyes alight with a question, which looked far too much like a puppy for me to contain my amusement. Demeter, however, didn't seem to find my amusement acceptable, lips pursing and eyes gaining a little bit of sharpness, her voice that sounded like soft summer rain released a scathing reply, "Yeah, I mean, who would think a God of the Dead would hurt life, like imagine that" despite the reply coming out harsh and uncaring I could see a quick twitch of her lips, letting me know that while she was probably annoyed it was a lot lighter and not as harsh as her reply would make one belief.

They decided the only appropriate reply would be to tease her, "Yeah, I know, strange. Huh! Of course, if someone was more aware of her surroundings and spent less time gawking at grass, they may have noticed that they have company." My lips holding what to me felt like a cheeky smirk, but it probably looked like a hellish smile to others. In reaction to my cheeky reply, Demeter's cheeks and nose gained a golden flush while her eyes began to come to life with green light, and her lips once more turned into a downturned pout.

Despite our rocky start, Demeter and I got on far better than our canon counterparts anyway. And seen as though I had no interest in kidnapping her favored daughter and forcing her to marry me, nor following in Poseidon's or Zeus's footsteps, I felt we would remain relatively warm to one another.

My like for flora combined with her obsession for it allowed for good communication between us, I would have probably continued to speak to her for longer but saw Hestia gazing at us with a warm smile from her Hearth, Like a proud mother. Amusing, considering our forms towered over her childlike looks, convincing Demeter to go and introduce herself, which took far longer than it should have, but it turns out that despite enjoying our conversation, Demeter still preferred the company of flowers to her actual siblings.

Only the promise of not bothering her again got her to make her way over to the Hearth finally. However, from the delighted giggles that left Hestia and the beaming smile of Demeter that came only a mere few seconds after their introduction, it looked like Demeter had found someone she could talk the head of about nature with who wouldn't complain.

With two of my siblings introduced, I felt more uncertain rather than lighter. After all, Hestia was pretty much guaranteed to be loving and familial. While Demeter was a surprise, she was far too absent-minded to be capable of being outright cruel for no reason. My other siblings, however, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hera were notorious for their cruelty and wrath, so waiting for them gave me an ominous feeling...