Disclaimer: Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: the Legendary Journeys don not belong to me. Copyright is not intended.

A/N: Ages: 90 = 9. Enyo is 90, nearly 100. Strife, Cupid and Seph are in the 120/130 range (12 to 13). So when she's 140 they'll be 170/180 (Cupid the oldest). Antares is less than a decade younger than Cupid, about three years actually. When she's 170 they'll be 200 – 17 and 20, basically. Phobos and Deimos are 70.

Summary: "Let them think me a monster." She knows she's not… most days. Enyo had no one, so she raised herself. AU.

Paper Blood

***

"Damn hot stuff, who are you?" Apollo asked.

She'd be offended that he didn't know her, except she was quiet and it was rare that she got complements. People generally didn't notice her.

"Enyo," she said softly.

It wasn't a dangerous sort of soft, but apparently he took it that way. He stepped back, a scared look on his face.

"What? I'm not gonna tell Dad you hit on me. And I'm not Eris; I'm not gonna fry ya for a compliment."

He laughed, relieved.

"Sorry, it's just –"

"Bad rep, I know. Don't worry about it."

She figured this was about when he made his excuses and left, and was sort of disappointed even if she was used to it. Who wanted to talk to a Goddess of Violence? It was the usual. Well, Strife might have, but she was banned from her own House by Eos' edict, so they'd never really had time to get to know each other. She wasn't allowed to talk to anyone in the House of Aggression, even her own father. To enforce it, Eos had put a Hephaestian bracelet on her that acted like a child monitor, letting Eos know when she was somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. Unlike with most children, Eos didn't take it off when she was older, and banned places included Hephaestus' realm so she couldn't get him to take it off. It would take too long and Eos would flip out and drag her away before it even got close to being off.

Aphrodite and Cupid were always too busy. She wasn't really fond of Demeter, and Persephone was always with Cupid and Strife. Asphodel was off limits too, so she couldn't see Hades or any of the others down there, and Poseidon was generally busy too – though he seemed to like her – while Amphitrite hated her guts. But Amphitrite hated a lot of people, so it wasn't so bad on that end. Triton was just a sleaze. Athena was cold to her (more so than her usual) and Artemis was basically her little follower, so she could visit only Asclepius, Anteros, and Hestia. Not that they weren't nice – they were –, but Anteros was a loner, Ace could be called away at any time, and Hestia was fairly busy in her own right. Generally only Hestia made time for her. Hebe was scared of her; another product of her reputation. It was mainly her and her alone most days, except when her mother was in.

She mostly spent her days in the Halls of Time, Muses' Library or stables. She'd seen 'Pol walk away with one of the Muses trailing behind and giggling, even walked in on them a time or two – not that she didn't leave before she was noticed.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"Ninety-eight. Why, do you want to know if I'm old enough? I've gotten it on with Ganymede a time or two, and I wouldn't mind a tumble."

He smiled. "Interesting, but a bit too much like veal for me yet. Look me up when you're one-forty and we'll talk." One hundred and forty was technically the legal age, although obviously sex often happened sooner. She was surprised, but pleasantly so; it was nice to see that people were wrong about him not having standards. "Here on your own?"

"Yeah. Eos – uh, mom – is busy, and I don't get much interaction otherwise."

"That's right; she got custody. How is Eos? We don't talk much anymore."

"She's fine," Enyo said, not a facial expression to be seen. "Kissing ass to Demeter and Amphitrite, mostly. She's with Helios now. I think Astraeus was last week."

"Sounds like her," Apollo nodded. "You hang around with Thalia and Calliope, don't you? Come visit me sometime."

"Sure," she smiled, certain he'd have forgotten her by morning.

"Look, I gotta catch up with 'Dite before the party's over. See you later?"

"Yeah."

Except that he probably wouldn't notice her again. She came to these mandatory official functions – and nobody would notice if she didn't show up; she wasn't exactly a major God – to talk to people, except that she usually went home all the more depressed because people looked right through her. The only reason Apollo had noticed was 'cause he flirted with anything with legs, and she had a damn nice set of 'em. Granted, her breasts were only average and her ass, though nicely rounded, was rather small, but 'Pol was a leg man, though few ever noticed. When nobody saw you, though, it was natural to just watch, and she saw a lot.

"I see more than anyone realizes, because nobody's watching me."

She rather liked watching Xander Harris; mistakes and all, he still had a way with words. The Halls of Time were a wonderful thing, and she felt rather connected to him in certain ways. Besides, he was good friends with Donella – or, in his time Dawn, the Key of Time and Dimension, the Halls of Time in sentience. Few spent the time to know that she would someday be a Goddess in her own right – not that time meant anything if she didn't want it to. She was very powerful, which was why she hid, and only sort of semi-sentient at the moment. Still, she was one of the few Enyo could call friend.

She'd still prefer a flash and blood body that she'd be able to hug.

"Strife," she murmured as he passed. He paused, looking for all the world like he was just taking in the scenery. "Pass this note to Dad, would you?"

He nodded discretely.

"You look beautiful tonight, by the way."

"Thanks," she smiled. And he carried on. She was also banned from Hermes' place, since she could have passed notes to Ares or others that way, so she had to leave messages at these official functions. Eos hadn't exactly taught her materialization, so she couldn't just pop a note to him either. Ares knew that she wasn't allowed to see him or be in the Halls of Aggression – this being part of the custody battle – but he wasn't aware of just how many places her mother didn't allow her to go. Why bother? There wasn't anything that he could do about it. He figured that Eos was like Demeter; scarily overprotective.

Eos didn't care about her. She didn't want her daughter, but didn't want anyone else to have her either. What few times she noticed Enyo was usually to use her like a pretty dress-up doll and show her off at parties, that or to punish her for something that she wasn't normally there to notice anyway. Of course, Eos was always the victim "of Ares' lusts" to other pantheons, keeping her daughter away from "that brutish boar". Like she cared; she just didn't want anyone else to have control of Enyo.

She snagged a running kid, who she belatedly recognized as Deimos. It wasn't like she was allowed to talk to her dad's side of the family, and the twins weren't out that often, so it could be excused somewhat. She vowed to pay more attention to them in the Halls of Time.

"You and your brother stop running and I'll sneak you some nectar later." Enyo may not have been allowed to be around her siblings at all, but she knew exactly how to handle them; bribery. "Run this to Uncle Hades for me, will ya?"

Nectar was a mildly alcoholic honey drink. She would, of course, water it down to near nothing, but she had always been allowed to drink – even when Eos wasn't too busy to pay attention to her – and didn't see the problem with letting the twins have some. The brats, as she affectionately called anyone younger than her, would still get the taste with no more alcohol than what was in Ace's cough syrups. They'd probably pretend at being drunk and then fall asleep when the high of rebellion wore off.

The boy nodded quickly and was off.

"Enyo! There you are. Girls, this is my daughter. Doesn't she look lovely tonight?"

Mother calls. Mentally, she sighed.

***