AN: Bonjour! Hola! So, this is our new Happy Birthday! series. We were thinking: the Olympians have birthdays too, right? And each month sorta resembles each person. So here you are! Every month for the year of 2012, we'll be updating this story to give you a new Olympian's birthday. Exciting, right? And If you want to review, feel free to guess who's next!
~HiddenSea
What really happened regarding the fried birthday cake? It's somewhat of a long story...
Zeus was wandering around Olympus, rather bored. The other gods had all gone missing this morning. And some of them he didn't really miss.
On the other side of Olympus, said gods were gathered together. Normally this would result in fighting and wars and maiming, but they had gathered for a very special reason. And Hestia and Hera had threatened them, so here they were. You see, it was Zeus's birthday. They had wanted to make their dad/brother/uncle/husband's birthday the best ever!
"Aphrodite? Did you get the balloons?" Hera yelled, looking down at her clip board checklist.
"Yes!"
"And Dionysus? Is all the food here?" the god snapped his fingers and a few more refreshment tables sprouted from the ground. "Yes."
"Ares?"
"I have the knives! To... uh... cut the cake, yeah!"
"Poseidon? Are you doing anything?"
"I'll take that as a no! Demeter, sister, we might like to eat some thing other than Chex Mix!"
"Fine!" she waved her hand. "Cheerios." The Olympians groaned. Hera continued down her list.
"And Hades is a no show. Ah, Hephaestus! Please, what are you doing?"
"Putting fireworks in the cake, it's too boring. And too pink."
"Hey! I personally designed that!" Aphrodite pouted.
"And I made it!" Demeter chimed in.
"Yes of course." he continued tinkering with the little sparklers.
"Hestia, are the braziers set?"
"Of course, Lady Hera." Hestia said calmly. She seemed to be the only one who wasn't freaking out.
"Hermes, the decorations?" Hera continued, checking off everyone and everything on the list.
Hermes glanced around one last time. "As good as it's gonna get."
"I'm ok with that! Apollo,"
"Yes, dearest stepmother, the music will play at the right time." he answered, ducking as Hera glared at his comments.
"Artemis! Where is that blasted girl?" A silver arrow embedded itself in Hera's clipboard between her fingers.
"Yes?" Artemis appeared in front of her.
"What are you contributing to your father's celebration?"
"I-"
She was cut off by Persephone and Hades who walked into the party at that moment.
"You aren't supposed to be here."
"I couldn't miss my brother's birthday." Hades said with false enthusiasm. "Actually..."
"What are you contributing?" Hera asked.
"News." Persephone flicked her hand and flower bouquets appeared on all of the snack stands.
"What news?" Hestia stepped toward him.
Hades smiled and replied in a whisper. "He's coming."
"But we're not near ready! Why didn't you stop him?" Hera shrieked.
"As you said, I'm not supposed to be here. How would it look if Persephone and I just strolled up to him? We wouldn't want another World War, now would we?" he answered.
"Hera," Hestia called. "Calm down. Everything is perfect."
Hera took a moment to look up from her clipboard to see that, in fact, everything was in place. "Well then. Places! He should be here in-" she glanced at Hades.
"About thirty seconds or so."
"About thirty seconds or so! Everyone ready? Good!" Hera straightened her dress as everyone looked towards the door.
She heard footsteps outside. "Now!" she hissed and all of the gods turned invisible.
Zeus walked into the room. It was clearly set for a party: multi-coloured fires burned in braziers, there were snack-stands everywhere, overflowing with every kind of food, Apollo's speaker system in the back and flower arrangements all over the tables. But the room was completely empty. Zeus walked over to the biggest table that held a giant and very pink cake. The words 'Happy Birthday' were written on the side in curly font. So they had remembered his birthday. Or, just his luck, it was a birthday bash for some demigod or minor god and it had nothing to do with him. He groaned and reached out to take some icing off of the edge.
"Hey! No touching!" the voice came out of nowhere and startled him. He zapped the pretty little cake with about a thousand volts of electricity. It exploded, cake flying everywhere and multi-coloured sparks from some kind of fireworks inside shot up. Aphrodite materialised behind the table, covered in icing and bits of fried birthday cake.
"Oh my gods Zeus. You ruined my dress!"
Zeus winced. Even the king of the gods was not immune to Aphrodite's whiny anger. Suddenly, fireworks went off. "What the Tartarus was that?" Zeus shouted.
"Those were supposed to come out of the cake." Hephaestus explained, showing himself along with the other Olympians.
"Surprise!" Apollo shouted. "Happy Birthday!"
"Way to be two minutes too late." Artemis teased.
"Hey, it was sooner than you, little sister."
Aphrodite flicked her hand and the cake disappeared off of her dress and it morphed into a deep violet. "Happy birthday, you owe me a dress for mine..." she said without enthusiasm. Hades melted out of the shadows with Persephone who rearranged the flowers.
"Brother, happy birthday!" Hades said.
"You aren't supposed to be here!" Zeus noted.
"That hurts my feelings." Hades put on an expression of mock hurt and put his hand on his heart. Demeter smirked and put her hands on Persephone's shoulders protectively.
"Go away Hades, no one wants you here."
"You all know you love me. And I suppose you don't want my present, then?" he asked, knowing that Zeus's curiousity would get the best of him.
"Fine, stay." Zeus said, knowing exactly what Hades was doing.
"Joy." he replied dryly, taking Persephone's hand, knowing he shouldn't get in a fight with Demeter for his wife's sake.
"What do we do about the cake?" Apollo asked, looking depressed about the lack of such a birthday necessity.
"Oh!" Aphrodite exclaimed. "Here."
Soon, there was a new cake. "Taa-daa!" she said, happy with her work.
They cut the cake with Ares' knives and, thankfully, there were no explosions or ruined dresses. Apollo started singing and everyone groaned.
"Happy Olympian birthday to you! Happy Olympian birthday to you," Reluctantly, a few other gods joined in, while the rest just tried to keep from laughing at Apollo. "Happy Olympian birthday dear Zeus! Happy Olympian birthday to you!"