Hades looked up slowly, pen still pressed against a piece of paper which appeared to be a legal document of some sort. The look on his face carried annoyance, surprise, and a sprinkling of arrogance. He set his pen down, straightened his back and listened as what looked like a two legged pair of talking flower baskets chattered incessantly with an non ending stream of pleasantries, about all sorts of problems that were not his. He raised his hands momentarily in surprise as she placed a basket on his desk with what to him amounted to an invasion of his personal space but in that moment as their eyes met for the first time he froze. No sarcastic quip, no pompous pretense, not even and cocky smile. It all happened in an instance, a fraction of a millisecond, a crackling boom in his head and a flash like lighting behind his eyes as his mouth dropped open slightly and his eyes widened. He shook his head and regained his composure, taking a deep breath before managing a smile, “Ahhh, Ms. Xanthos, your late.”, he said with silky smooth voice. Hades was a hard man, but he did not remain annoyed for long as long as he got what he wanted with little compromise. “Harrison, that was the boys name, perhaps you are working him too hard? I must say the flowers look beautiful, despite the fact that they are sitting on my desk and not already in the parlour as they should be. But I digress. Give me a moment please.”. He stood up quickly, straightened his suit looking down at Kore, and walked around his desk, past her, and poked his head out into the grand entrance way of the home shouting, “Mrs Baker, the flowers have arrived! Have someone unload them from the truck!”. He returned to his seat resting his forearms on his desk and clasped his hands in front of him finally taking the time to examine the woman in front of him.<br/><br/>Hades wasn’t normally this patient or rather he was not used to being thrown off like he had been, if only for a moment, when their eyes had met; and being intelligent and mature enough to recognize when something was amiss, he smiled at Kore and began to examine her with some interest. She was certainly pretty, her red hair accenting her rather stunning green eyes, with the pink and rose coloured floral dress highlighting her fair skin and her petite stature Hades found her cute and enchanting. Uncharacteristically he relaxed his shoulders dropping them slightly as he leaned back in his chair. He motioned to the chair beside her and said, “Please Ms. Xanthos, have a seat, and put that basket down just outside the door, someone will come and collect it. These ones can stay here”, he said as he lifted the basket off of his desk and placed it on the floor beside him. He did not wait for her to carry out his simple demands, just assuming that she would as most people did when he asked, “It really is a pleasure to meet you, I only wish that it was under better circumstances for the both of us. As you can see we are hosting a funeral today, a rather large one at that. However, it certainly wont hurt now that the flowers have arrived, that I take a moment to get to know one of my, until today, most trusted suppliers, am I right?”. As he finished talking he reached in his desk drawer and pulled out a cheque in the original agree upon price of two thousand dollars and handed it to Kore with a smile, “There, let’s discuss discounts another time hmm?”. If his employees had seen him now, they would never have believed it. Hades, never stopped, ever.<br/><br/>It wasn’t like he couldn’t stop, he certainly had enough money and staff, it was that he wouldn’t. Most people that got to know him thought that he was hiding something, but no one had ever found anything on him ever. They joked about his name often among themselves, calling him the Dark Lord and other such names that alluded to demons and devils, and this only fuelled the speculation further. He was used to that kind of thing however, and rather enjoyed the mystique that it created. He was adopted, or so he thought, when he was just a baby, raising him until he was 18 years old before dying in a tragic holiday accident in Greece, when their cruise ship sunk suddenly in a mysterious accident on the Mediterranean. Hades took their deaths hard, and with the money they had left him, had built up Five Rivers Funeral Home, into what it was today. In private he did think often of them, including why they had chosen his name, it was something that he had always wished he had asked before they died. Today was somehow different for him however, Kore had thrown him off, tripped him up, and he wanted to know why despite himself. It was not just the fact that she was attractive, there had been many attractive woman in and out of his funeral home over the years, there was something intangible about her, something that he had to know.