"That's it!" the young goddess (in a form of a 20-year-old) who was currently polishing her precious bow was startled to a sudden stop as the usual vibrant and carefree god of travellers and thieves exploded in pure rage and impatience.
"I'm tired of following you around Artemis! Just say no already if you don't want me. I'm not a push-over!" He blurted out in anger, his usually lazy and laid back voice, far from reality now.
"But I do tell you no, more often than not. What are you complaining about? You're the only one pushing yourself." Artemis replied indifferently, continuing with her polishing.
Hermes stopped dumbfounded. Damn it! Operation "be-frustrated-at-her-to-make-her-fall-in-love" fell short. Thanks a lot Apollo!
The ever so alluring messenger of the gods had been pursuing the huntress for over a decade now and he isn't succeeding at all, truth be told, he's merely on a quarter of progress. It's just so hard to make Artemis break her vows—or even tolerate men for that matter.
Hermes slumped back down under a huge maple tree and sighed in defeat, ruffling his far-from-pristine sandy blonde hair, "What do I have to friggin' do to make you like me or maybe even just look at me? I'd shave off Zeus' beard, I swear I would!" and after that statement dark clouds rolled in, clumping with one another followed by a thunder bellowing from the heavens making Hermes cringe to himself for a little while.
Artemis gave him an unnerving silence. A long one at that.
It was then that Hermes knew that maybe he should just give up. Anyway she made it clear that she's nowhere near the terms of 'friendship' with the young god.
He stood up and grabbed hold of his caduceus and started getting ready to leave before it rains completely.
And as he was starting to apparate away, he was stopped dead from his tracks when Artemis' dull mellow voice spoke, "Do you like Shakespeare?"
Hermes arched an eyebrow in confusion turning his heels to look at the moon goddess who was now polishing her favourite bronze arrow.
"What?" he asked utterly puzzled; making sure he heard her right.
"One of my brother's son. He's a demigod, don't you know? I absolutely love his sonnets and plays. The mortals don't have bad taste, actually—most of the time"
Hermes knew him. Once when 'Romeo and Juliet' came out he bragged senseless in Olympus for months pissing off half of the Olympian guardians who wanted to throw him in Tartarus.
"Yeah, who would forget about the Great 'William Shakespeare'?" he said, air quoting the name for emphasis, "Apollo wouldn't let anyone sleep ever since he started making a name in English Literature."
"I for one," Artemis started, standing up, her full attention on Hermes, something he died to get this past couple of years, "like him. How about Jeff Buckley?"
At this point, Hermes totally forgot that he is about to leave ready to forever forget about the young goddess whom he spent so much time trying to pursue.
"The mortals aren't all bad with some of their music and literature. I actually enjoy them. Sometimes I prefer them more over the muses"
Hermes couldn't believe that the goddess was actually talking to him; everything he always wished for was happening so fast and all at once that he was too overwhelmed to speak. He spent years racking up his brain to try to find intelligible replies to the possible questions or topics the goddess might throw at him so in time when she does ACTUALLY talk to him she will surely be melted into a conversation with him.
"And the thing they call mo-vies" she added, a little slow on the pronunciation, trying to get it right. "I like watching them on Sundays, I find it quite satisfactory."
The young god felt that his heart would explode any minute now. He was a little to busy avoiding that unfortunate fate to muster up a reply.
Artemis smiled; she knew that the boy would be stunned with her sudden change of behaviour especially since she hardly gives the boy a second glance even with a godly body and face, but she didn't know that she had that much of an effect on him that he'd be weighed down like this.
Rain started pouring really hard but both deities didn't seem to mind, they stood there in silence for a while, Hermes completely forgetting movement and breathing and Artemis smiling innocently up at him.
"I..." was the only bright answer he could give,
Artemis shook her head in a request to not continue with what he was going to say.
"Last question before you leave 'forever'" Artemis air quoted, seemingly reading the other one's mind earlier on about finally giving up. Hermes nodded slightly with a bit of hesitation. As long as she was talking to him, a million questions is no big deal, "Do you like kissing when it's raining?"
He smiled, he couldn't believe his luck.
He leaned down, taking her chin and slowly kissed her soft chaste lips.
Mental note to self: Thank Zeus for raining.
A/N: Technically, Zeus is the Greek god of Raining. Awesome right?