New one shot! This is based after Chosen, when Aphrodite becomes human and runs out of the school; Stevie Rae close behind. Enjoy!
Aphrodite hated the tunnels. Spending her time down in them with some animalistic freaks who wanted to suck her dry and a newly transformed bumpkin as their leader was definitely on the list of 'things she would prefer to kill herself than do.' But, alas, Stevie Rae just had to follow her as she ran from the school, newly changed human.
Christ, she was human. She was no better than her God-forsaken parents. Humans were dull, needy, and in Aphrodite's opinion, a waste of space. It was a simple fact of life. The fact that she was now one of those terrible things shook Aphrodite to her core. She already felt weaker, more vulnerable, and the greedy little beady eyed monsters staring at her at every turn didn't offer much confidence. So, after Aphrodite had spruced the place up a bit with her Gold card, she hid in her room. She exited only to collect food or drink, but spent most of the time sulking and wishing she could have her life back.
Eventually Stevie Rae had grew sick of Aphrodite's hostile, morbid attitude. And now she was confronting the beast herself. "Come on, Aphrodite. Don't you wanna come watch Judge Judy with us?"
"Don't you mean: 'don't you want to come watch petty humans deal with shitty problems in front of a fake ass judge with a bad haircut'? Aphrodite turned the page in her magazine. She had already read it Goddess knows how many times, but it kept her somewhat entertained and made her look uninterested in Stevie Rae's offer. Secretly, she wanted to watch a fake ass judge with a bad hair cut judge people on their pitiful lives, but she wouldn't admit it. "Either way, my answer is no."
Stevie Rae moved across the floor, her legs carrying her over to Aphrodite's bed. She took a seat and looked at the blonde girl in front of her. She knew how Aphrodite felt. She knew that she was hurting. Stevie Rae had felt that very same pain when she had been turned into a smelly, mindless monster with a lust for the homeless. "If you don't want to watch Judge Judy, we can watch something else. It can be your choice."
"Oh, as a walking lunchbox, do I get special treatment now?" Aphrodite licked her finger before flicking another page of the magazine. "Fucking fantastic." she muttered.
Stevie Rae sighed. She could have quite the temper when it came to Aphrodite - the girl was annoyingly stubborn and aggressive. She was bitchy and persistent and hateful and down right gorgeous and sexy. Stevie Rae hated that she loved Aphrodite. She hated that she had any amount of feelings for such a witch. But she did. She really, really liked Aphrodite, and her quick wit was one of the many things Stevie Rae found so damn attractive about her. "You're not a lunchbox, Aphrodite." Stevie Rae said. "And you're not a human. I mean, dammit, your vision yesterday proves it. You're a hybrid - just like me. You're not a human. You're a Prophetess."
The idea of being a Prophetess and not just some mangy human warmed Aphrodite's insides. Maybe Nyx didn't hate her. Aphrodite closed the magazine and looked at Stevie Rae, whose eyes seemed to light up. The idea of being just like Stevie Rae however..."Oh, great." Aphrodite replied, her tone taking aggression when really she wanted to hug Stevie Rae and thank her for cheering her up. "I get to be just like you, country bumpkin."
Stevie Rae groaned and stood, her blonde curls bouncing as she did. "I didn't ask for this, Aphrodite. I don't wanna have to console you for not being a fledgling anymore because you're clearly just as powerful and just as incredible. You're just as gifted, witty, and damn right arrogant so why I'm here trying to convince Miss Perfect that she is, in fact, perfect is beyond me. I just wanna curl up with a bowl of Lucky Charms, watch Judge Judy and enjoy the fact that I don't wanna take a chomp at every human I see. Can't I enjoy that? Can't you enjoy the fact that you're special?"
That was when Aphrodite's wall crumbled before her - a sight no one but Zoey had seen before. "I'm not special."
Now, that, Stevie Rae had not expected. Did Aphrodite really not believe she was special? Stevie Rae thought Aphrodite was special when she had just arrived at the school, she had thought she was special before she changed, and she was definitely just as exquisite afterwards. "You are special." Stevie Rae whispered, slumping back down onto the bed and staring at the blonde. The blonde stared right back, tears in her eyes.
Aphrodite snorted and averted her gaze. Looking at the bumpkin for too long gave her a weird feeling in her stomach. "No, I'm not. Nyx doesn't think so. My parents don't think so. I'm not special. I'm just a refrigerator."
Hearing Aphrodite refer to herself as nothing but a low-life snack - a term she used for the lowest valued fledglings - hurt Stevie Rae. Now, Aphrodite wasn't perfect. But she was definitely perfect for Stevie Rae. She didn't deserve to feel otherwise. Instinctively, Stevie Rae grabbed a hold of Aphrodite's hands, her country lovin' side taking full swing. "You're not a refrigerator." she stated. "You're a Prophetess. You are the Goddess' chosen Prophetess. You're gorgeous and talented and smart, and you should never let yourself be convinced that you're not good enough. You are good enough. More than that - you're the perfect Prophetess."
Aphrodite gently dabbed at her eyes with a tissue, wiping the tears away. "I am?" she mumbled, looking at Stevie Rae.
Stevie Rae nodded, releasing one of her hands and cupping Aphrodite's face, wiping away the stray tears with a thumb. "You are. You're everything a Prophetess needs to be - brutally honest, logical and aware. You're the perfect -"
Aphrodite, her face wet with tears, leaned forward, spontaneously joining their lips and catching Stevie Rae completely off guard. Stevie Rae gave a muffled gasp of surprised, but immediately responded. She linked her arms around the slim girl's back, Aphrodite grabbing the hem of Stevie Rae's shirt and pulling her closer. Stevie Rae fell ontop of the other blonde, but it only seemed to propel the one beneath. Aphrodite wrapped her legs around Stevie Rae's body, her tongue slipping into Stevie Rae's mouth as she moaned. Stevie Rae, still slightly in shock as to what was happening, pulled back and looked down at the blonde. "Aphrodite," she panted, "if we're going to do this, you gotta know something."
"You have feelings for me, yeah, I know."
Aphrodite said it so nonchalantly, her icy eyes staring back into Stevie Rae's, her hands pressed against the girl's shoulders. "I - you know?" Stevie Rae said, her voice small.
"Of course I know, bumpkin. I'm not an idiot." she replied. Her voice was quiet and contained no hint of mockery or strain. Her eyes held a softness Stevie Rae had seen only few times before.
"Right. No, yeah - yeah of course you know. I'm the idiot who made it too obvious." Stevie Rae said, her gaze faltering.
"Hey, no, don't be like that." Aphrodite said, two fingers on the girl's chin as she lifted her gaze back to her eye level. "You're making me feel better, don't get all sad and disconnected now." At Stevie Rae's ambiguous look, Aphrodite covered her tracks. "What I mean to say is... I have feelings for you too."
Now, whether Aphrodite meant it or not, in that moment of weakness she simply wanted someone to hold and said what she knew would work. It would only be after the two had finished making out and began talking for hours on end afterwards, about pointless, irrelevant things, that Aphrodite would know just how much she meant what she said. The fluttery feeling in her chest as Stevie Rae joined their lips once more was not because she was beginning to cheer up. It wasn't because she was happy to feel contact again - nor was it because she had opened up about her feelings. It was because she felt something for Stevie Rae that she had denied and neglected for too long. But eventually everything bubbles to the surface, and they were definitely no exception.
Stevie Rae pulled their lips apart. "Really?" she asked. "'Cause you kinda seem to hate me."
Aphrodite wrapped her arms around Stevie Rae's neck, pulling her in close before she said: "No, I don't hate you. I just hate when you're not around me." and then she joined their lips again, starting a chain of events that neither girl knew how to stop.
Not that they'd ever want to.