When he woke up from his nap, Crista was still concentrated on writing.

He sat down next to her and took a glance at her writings. It seemed to be a diary and she hinted at him that he could read it. It was a poem about their time in the Underworld.

"We took the ferry of the boatman Charon,

To descend to the land of the dead,

And here we are, on the Underworld riverbed.

In this strange place we are stuck,

The darkness, however, was uncooperative,

Yet we were in luck,

To be greeted by my relative,

She took us to the king,

Regal and authoritative,

He sung of wanting to bring,

His queen, goddess of the evergreen."

'It's pretty.' Alex noted in his head. He noticed it was a very freestyle poem, and didn't include any of the specific rhyme or verse structures and other such rules he knew about in the classical poetry of his world. Although those rules did indeed make for some beautiful poetry, they were often restrictive and even the number of syllables in the verses was paramount to the expected quality of the work(1)

"What do you think? This will be my opening to this poem." Crista asked him with eager eyes.

"It's great. I like it." He said honestly. He wasn't exactly a knowledgeable expert on poetry, nor had he ever written it, but this sounded good to the ear and made sense.

Crista smiled but she then asked him an unexpected question, with a serious expression.

"We are going to ascend back soon, right?"

Alex was dumbstruck because he somewhat knew what would unfold now. He was afraid of this question, afraid of the outcome, afraid of her decisions, and afraid of his own reaction.

But now he had to face it.

He clenched his fists and hid the cold sweat that started to pool around his neck and spoke "Yes. We can't stay here for very long as I promised Athena I would watch the eclipse in two weeks' time."

Now came the hard part, her answer.

"I understand, but....is it possible that I stay here for longer?"

"Yes, it is possible."

...

And thus was their last conversation before the two started avoiding each other.

The two of them felt guilty, Crista for deciding to stay and Alex for almost refusing.

In a sense, if they took the time to communicate properly after that, this could have all been solved, but here they were, awkward with each other because none of them would take the first step in the discussion.

Hence, 5 days passed by fast and the only time they would see each other was when they would sleep.

Alex killed time with Dionysus, and they played card games together and he even drank some of his wine.

It was said that the wine from Dionysus had to be diluted before being drunk as it could be a deadly poison and kill any mortal upon drinking a few drops.

He was no mortal, however, and although the wine felt more like burning alcohol than a mild red wine as it went down his throat in large gulps and burned his esophagus.

As one of the only alcohols that could make a god drunk, he felt tipsy and lost his sense of judgement and responsibility.

In hindsight, Dionysus should have never let him, a total lightweight, anywhere near alcohol, but as the god of wine and everything-hedonism, he was accordingly irresponsible and careless.

In his past life, he had too many responsibilities and no time to get drunk.

When he was a minor, well, he was a minor.

When he was in college, they were administered regular blood tests and to avoid any problems, he never consumed a drop of alcohol.

When he moved out, he avoided drinking since he would get hungover and having no income security, not being able to work for a whole day was a disastrous situation.

Even when he found himself in Olympus, he never really felt the need to consume any stimulant but just like the straw that broke the camel's back and the curiosity that killed the cat, he was now consuming an alcoholic's amount of alcohol daily, albeit without any of the accompanying addiction, fortunately.

Under that sort of state, he gambled and gambled with no sense of loss and no sense of accomplishment.

But just like spilling water onto sand, he would soon be back to normal, and remember the short conversation he had with her, and like a coward, he would go to the Leisure Hall and watch her shows and when they ended, the two of them would stare at each other, awaiting the other to loudly scream the words they wanted to say so that they could scream them back.

But there was none and even the sound of their thoughts were muffled by the loud applause.

The rest of the time, he would attend to the meeting room with Persephone and Hades, and listlessly look on as hordes and hordes of people came in to try their chance with the two rulers.

Persephone once asked him how he was and he responded "I'm fine, I am really happy!"

'I AM fine! I am happy! Alex tried to convince himself like a child, as if his current lifestyle indicated he was joyful...

Whereas Crista seemed cheerful, as she spent every waking moment of hers in the company of the other nymphs, and even forged a sturdy friendship with Persephone, in those moments before sleep, or on the road alone to somewhere, when the silence could make your heartbeat sound like deafening music, she would also contemplate.

The two were not even writing anymore since they had gotten so used to receiving feedback from each other that they didn't feel there was much use to doing it still.

By the 'eve' of the 5th day, Crista came back to their shared guest house and noticed the room was unusually empty, lacking the luggage Alex brought for himself.

"Sh*t!" She cursed out loud for the first time.

She ran out of the room and followed the way to the Inner House, where she was allowed passage to on account of being a friend of the queen and she therefore ran to the throne room, and the door was partly opened although she failed to decelerate fast enough and crashed into the door, opening it fully and showing her the current events inside, and diverting the attention of the people in the room towards her

There he was, Alex, standing next to Achilles, with his bag on his back and his front facing Persephone and Hades, who were shifting their eyes from her to him continuously.

The deep voice of Hades rang out in the large room "Finally leaving my domain, are you?"

Persephone then exclaimed "Crista, you're here."

Alex, who still had his back facing her, turned to an angle where she could barely see his side profile.

She stood up and said "Why...didn't you tell me you were going?"

They both gulped at the same time, and Alex looked at her before staring up towards what should have been the sky, but is instead just the ceiling.

"I thought you'd hate me for being so hesitant to go back alone, despite you being so happy and cheerful around your family..."

"Alex.....you're now f**king part of my family. Come on, we spend almost all day together, and I think I'm the one to blame her since not only did I insist to come here with you, but I...feel like I manipulated you just to see my family and now I wish to stay here...." She said regretfully with red eyes, though Alex's eyes were equally red.

"You cursed out loud....hahahaha...you're wrong! You haven't seen them ever since you were the nymph equivalent of an infant!"

"..."

"..."

The two kept diverting the blame from each other while the two rulers of the Underworld and the other onlookers stared dumbfounded, except Achilles who didn't have any reaction to the current phenomenon.

After a while, they both seemed tired from talking and their faces turned bright.

Crista then signaled something to Alex and whispered in his ear.

'There should be about 9 days until the eclipse you spoke about, right?'

Alex murmured back 'Yes.'

She then proceeded to state "I'll be f**king there, for sure!"

The two were satisfied with the outcome and with him not feeling like bidding any farewells to her, they just fist-bumped each other.

"Oh, and show me the completed poem!" Alex told her.

She nodded fervently and giggled.

By now, Alex said goodbye to everyone in here, including Dionysus, Persephone and Hades, Elana and Crista.

He didn't find Nyx and Thanatos anywhere, but he presumed she would come find him considering what she said the first time they met.

Achilles was now waiting for him outside of the room.

And so, he stepped out, ready for the adventure back home.

There was a second exit to the House in the back corner to the Inner House, as per the words of Persephone "Usually, Cerberus guards both the 2nd entrance to the Underworld and exit to the House. But crossing him would be impossibly hard even with Achilles on your side so he is on vacation under my orders. Have a safe crossing!"

Even without the threat of Cerberus, passing through Tartarus, an inevitable step in his journey back home, would be difficult and fraught with danger.