Part 3
Archive: Yes
Pairings: We’ll see
Rating: I don’t know how to judge these things. The ratings part of my brain has gone on a long journey.
Part 3
Archive: Yes
Pairings: We’ll see
Rating: I don’t know how to judge these things. The
ratings part of my brain has gone on a long journey.
Joxer and Cupid lay exhausted in the bushes.
Cupid’s wings were folded around the pseudo-warrior
and Joxer just kept sighing happily.
“I don’t know how this happened but I love you Joxer,”
Cupid said sleepily, “Even though it feels like a bolt
from the blue.”
Joxer buried his face in the gods’ wings and fell
asleep.
****************************
Iolaus was throwing stones into a stream. It was
somehow satisfying to make them splash into the water.
And if they hit a few fish then that was too bad. At
least he’d have something to eat.
The first few times he’d met Joxer the man had driven
him mad. But he’d changed.
Well one of them had changed - Iolaus wasn’t sure if
it was Joxer or himself.
“Ares!” the hunter said, sending a stone crashing into
the water, “ Cupid!” he continued throwing a larger
pebble against a tree, “Joxer,” he said forlornly. He
stroked the large rock in his hand absent-mindedly.
Then he stood up and threw it forcefully into the
woods.
“Ow!” A voice said. Iolaus rushed to find out who’d
been hit. He was ready to feel guilty, but then he
found the injured party.
“Strife. What do you want?” Not more gods. Why didn’t
they just leave him alone?
“Well that’s rich. You just hit me with a rock.”
“Well you shouldn’t have got in my way.”
“It hurt.”
“You’re a god. Get over it.”
Strife pouted, “I’ve never done anything to hurt you.”
Iolaus snorted. Why did gods have such short memories?
“Aren’t you going to kiss it better?” Coquettish did
not suit the god. It just made him look slightly
concussed.
Iolaus started to laugh. It was not a happy, pleasant
laugh, more a desperate, despairing rattle.
Strife looked at him, bewildered. Well this wasn’t
working.
****************************
Hephaestus hadn’t gone back to his work. He sat down
with the half-formed lump of metal in his hand and
pondered.
Ares?
It was surprising enough when Aphrodite had shown an
interest in him. But Ares?
Ares.
Heph was still in the same position an hour later when
Aphrodite decided to return.
She was determined to come up with an explanation.
Although she still wasn’t sure what that explanation
would entail.
“Heph,” She said quietly.
Hephaestus was startled. He jumped up and looked at
Aphrodite and smiled.
“Ares. I’ve been thinking about you.”
Aphrodite stared at Heph for several seconds.
Oops. She thought.
Hephaestus look was as close to lust as Aphrodite had
ever seen.
She held up her hand to stop him coming any closer.
“Uh...Hephaestus... you were expecting me? Ares - god
of war - great big beardy leatherboy” She wanted to
make
sure she’d got this right before getting mad.
Hephaestus laughed. “Ah Ares, when you kissed me
earlier I felt something. It was amazing. Don’t tell
me you
didn’t feel it too?”
Aphrodite had to admit she’d felt it too. But that
wasn’t the point.
“What about Aphrodite?” She said. Getting to the real
point as far as she was concerned.
Heph shrugged. “Well if you don’t tell her.”
Aphrodite let out a yell of rage. She grabbed Hades
and stared at him. “You have got a lot of explaining
to do. “
To her consternation, Heph grinned, “ All right - S
and M - I can deal with that.”
Aphrodite bit her lip. She was a lady - she wasn’t
going to rise to this. But ooh she was mad.
**************************
Strife’s smile was looking goofy and lopsided. He
wasn’t looking at all right. Iolaus was starting to
feel a bit guilty
about hitting him with that rock.
“Are you sure you’re Ok?” He asked. He had bound the
god’s head with a makeshift bandage, made from a few
leaves and a woven strip of reeds. But it seemed to be
making Strife worse.
“I’m a god. Rock can’t hurt me. I ok. no problem.
Fine. No hurt. Feel goo.”
The rock that had been hurled at the unfortunate god
was lying close by. Iolaus decided to retrieve it. It
was
obviously not a normal rock.
His suspicions were not exactly confirmed. It looked
like a normal rock. What was going on?
Unless Strife was faking.
Well Iolaus wasn’t going to fall for it. You might be
able to fool a bear by playing dead - but the bear had
better not
try the same trick. Hunters were always alert to
danger. And Strife was definitely dangerous.
***********************
“So what next ‘Fro? I say we waste Ares. He deserves
it. “
Ares narrowed his eyes. Discord couldn’t see how mad
he was. She was walking way ahead of him.
“You don’t like Ares do you?” He managed to keep the
tension from creeping too far into his sweet-Aphrodite
voice.
“Nope. He’s a bit too feral for my tastes. I like
someone a bit softer.”
“So you can walk all over them?” Ares asked bitterly.
He was desperately trying not to shoot Discord with a
great
big pink thunderbolt. That’d show her.
“No. Chill babe. I don’t want to walk all over you. I
like you. Always liked you - in fact I was thinking of
dumping
Ar and coming over to your side. But now you’ve
decided to get all tough and cool I don’t have to
bother. It’s great.”
“What about Ares - isn’t he going to be upset?”
Discord snorted. “Yeah sure. Anyway, if you ask me
he’s never been comfortable being god of war . God of
hair
styling - now that’s a role he’d really love.” Discord
started laughing uncontrollable. Her laughter was
slightly
interrupted by a kick in the face from the angry ‘god
of hair ’.
“Ow - what was that for?” she said rubbing her nose.
Ares stomped off without answering.
**************
Joxer woke up with Cupid's wings surrounding him. He
wriggled, trying to get free of the mass of feathers,
which were tickling. Chafing even.
What had happened was all starting to seem like a
really bad mistake.
Cupid opened his eyes and looked longingly at Joxer.
"Hey - missing you. Come back here."
"Uh... no... I'm not sleepy anymore thanks."
"Who said anything about sleep?" The winged god said
as he stretched his wings out to their full span.
"I'd rather not thanks," Cupid was handsome yeah sure,
and it was kinda flattering that he wanted to be with
him - but even if it did seem like true love a few
hours ago... no. Joxer couldn't see it being a long
term thing. At all.
Cupid looked upset. "Don't you love me?"
There was no answer to that.
Cupid narrowed his eyes and stared at Joxer, “Come
here now.” he demanded.
“No - I need to stretch my legs. Anyway I have to find
Iolaus - he’ll be worrying about where I went.”
“Iolaus? Iolaus?” Cupid shouted. “What about me?”
Joxer jumped backwards in shock as the god transformed
into a huge green monster.
“Aaaargh!” he screamed, as he ran away as fast as he
could.
***************
Strife and Iolaus heard the scream from the riverbank.
“Sounds like Joxer’s having fun,” Strife said
bitterly.
****************
Ares was going to kill Discord. Absolutely no doubt
about it.
“Hair styling. I’ll give her hairstyling!” he said, to
no one in particular.
“Hey’Fro, wait up. I’m sure we can sort it out -
whatever it is you think I’ve done. I never realized
you and Ar were so close - I wouldn’t have said
anything if I’d known.”
Ares span around to face the goddess, altering his
expression of hatred to one of sweetness, “Oh Dis’ do
ya mean it? How you going to make it up to me eh? Tell
me, tell me.”
Discord smiled slowly. Aphrodite was putty, “Oh I
don’t know. I’m sure I can think of something.” The
godess reached out her hand and gently stroked Ares’
shoulder. Ares shivered slightly, in spite of himself.
Discord was really going to pay for this when
everything was back to normal.
*************************
“So,” Aphrodite said through gritted teeth, “How long
have you felt this way about ...me.”
“Well I’ve probably always wondered what it would be
like Ares,” Heph said, “But I never really thought it
was going to happen until you visited earlier. It
made me think. A lot.”
“Really.”
“I was so flattered when Aphrodite wanted me - but
you. You were always the one.”
“Oh Heph,” Aphrodite said with a sigh, “Why didn’t you
just let me know?” Some love goddess she was turning
out to be. Looks like Ares might have had a point
after all.
Heph smiled and leaned forward.
'Oh well, when in Thebes' Dite thought, meeting the
fire god half way.
On to the next part
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