Hello!

So this is an attempt at being funny, so please tell me if it works! It takes place after the Giant War, throughout about a week or so. It doesn't really matter in this one-shot.

It should be noted that there is OOC, but that's explained in the story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus. All rights go to Rick Riordan. I also do not own "Once Upon a Dream" or "A Thousand Years", nor the movie they are found in. All rights to their respective owners.

And just to be clear, due to POV, the attitude to the lovely song "A Thousand Years" isn't exactly nice, but I, personally, love it! However, Will Solace wouldn't (most likely).

Enjoy!

Aphrodite's Curse

"Do you really believe that you could embarrass my children?" Ares asked, shocked to say the least.

"Sweetie, you know that love is universal," Aphrodite countered, smiling. "Even you love." She wasn't very involved in the argument, as usual; most of her attention was on what Ares assumed was a mirror behind his back. As annoying as this tendency was, Ares was glad he wasn't holding the mirror this time.

"Yeah, but it isn't powerful or anything," Ares argued.

"One of the greatest wars started because of love."

"If I remember correctly, the Trojan War started because of a beauty contest."

"And if Paris hadn't chosen me, there wouldn't have been a war."

"Uh-huh."

"Besides, what does powerful have to do with anything? That's not what keeps you sitting here."

"What does me sitting here have to do with anything?"

"If you weren't sitting here, we wouldn't be having this conversation. How does my hair look?" Her hair, as it always did to Ares, looked like the cheesiest romantic description possible. Her eyes were a bright blue, which went along with that description perfectly, and her black dress was about as supermodel as clothing went.

"It looks fine, whatever. This conversation that has no effect what-so-ever on the ability for you to embarrass my children."

"Really?" Aphrodite tilted her head to the side and started to fix her earrings – to Ares, they looked like golden guns.

"Really." Ares was getting aggravated, and Aphrodite's carelessness wasn't helping. When he became aggravated, the people around him were supposed to, too.

"Then you wouldn't mind if I tried?" For the first time in the conversation, Aphrodite actually looked at him. Ares grinned; he loved a challenge.

"Not at all."

"Clovis," a voice called, pulling Clovis from his sleep. "Clovis, don't make me slap you." He groggily opened his eyes to find bright blue eyes staring right back at him. It took him a second to recognize whose eyes they were, though.

"Aoife! What brings you to my cabin?" Clovis replied nervously. Aoife was one of the toughest of the children of Ares, right behind Mark and Clarisse. Her presence normally foreshadowed an infirmary visit.

"Table," Aoife corrected.

"What?"

"Your table, we're at dinner." Laughter echoed, which told Clovis that he was, in fact, at dinner. He could feel the heat rush to his cheek.

"I knew that… I was just making sure you were paying attention." Clovis lied.

"Sure." Somebody, probably somebody with the last name Stoll, said.

"So, what bring you to my table?" Clovis asked. Aoife didn't answer verbally; instead, she grabbed his hand and pulled him up. "What are you doing?"

Aoife pulled his other hand to her waist before putting her own hand on his shoulder. Then she started to waltz.

The only person who wasn't instantly slack-jawed was Mr. D. Everybody else's eyes had gone wider than the moon – even Chiron, who had seen almost everything. Clovis tried to wrestle out of Aoife's grasp, but she was too strong for him.

The dancing, however, seemed mild once she started to hum. It was a slow waltz, one that Clovis instantly recognized – "Once Upon a Dream"from Sleeping Beauty. Aoife, the brave and ruthless warrior, was humming Disney!

This waltz continued until Clarisse and Mark finally came to their senses and pulled her away from Clovis.

"But he's so cute," Aoife protested.

"No he's not," Clarisse replied.

"You're a life-saver, man," Percy stated, giving Will his tie back.

"No problem," Will replied, walking out the door. It wasn't like the tie was his, anyways – he had borrowed it from a brother for his own prom. Nobody had expected it to come back in the shape it did, so Will didn't see any risk in loaning it out to somebody else. However, after a long lecture about brotherly love and orchestra dress codes, Will was glad Percy managed to pull the same feat.

He had just started back towards his cabin when he heard the music. It was one of those terribly slow love songs – "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri, he believed. It took him a minute to figure out that the music was coming from the Ares cabin.

Everybody knew that the Ares cabin owned a very loud speaker system, since Clarisse loved to blast heavy metal; but Will never imagined that it would ever be used to play a song from Twilight, of all things.

Will would have shaken his head had he not heard a deeper, male voice that sounded like it was trying to sing. He knew that spying on Ares' kids was a free ticket to the infirmary, but the door was already cracked. There was no way he could resist.

The only other person in the cabin was Mark, which was very lucky for the said son of Ares. He was dancing around the room, singing – or at least trying to sing – while hugging a pillow. He was a decent dancer, even if the same couldn't be said about his singing. Will had the feeling he'd been practicing. It was so hilarious Will had to laugh, and that's what caught Mark's attention.

It's also what made Mark's face turn the same color as an apple.

Joanna snorted. Again.

Clarisse sent a glare over her shoulder. Again.

The snort-and-glare routine was what usually went on when the two sisters practiced archery with Chris. Joanna snorted every single time something even remotely romantic happened, and it annoyed Clarisse to no end. The only reason she was only here was to keep the stupid rumors at a minimum. While at a local level Clarisse didn't mind them that much, once her dad heard them…

Well, it was never quiet when hunting, either.

"Smooth," Clarisse commented along her glare as Joanna's arrow missed the target completely.

"This is pointless." Joanna stated. "I can use a sword perfectly fine."

"No you can't," Clarisse countered, "Besides, what are you doing to do when there's a cliff between you and you're target?" To be honest, Clarisse would have the same opinion had her mom not been as involved in archery as she was. Ms. La Rue loved to go hunting the "old-fashion way" with her bow – which was so high-tech it wasn't even allowed in the Olympics – and Clarisse had picked that hobby up from her.

Clarisse turned back to nock another arrow when she heard a screech, followed by her boyfriend's laughter. She spun around to see Joanna looking shocked, her hair suddenly down from the messy top-knot it had been a minute ago and her face slightly red.

Clarisse turned away with a roll of her eyes.

"Hey," Mark said casually. Will and Nyssa looked up, and the former burst into laughter.

"Hey," Nyssa replied, giving Will a weird look. "Sword dull again?"

"No," Mark answered.

"Did your pillow rip?" Will added, grinning. "Or did your stereo break?"

"How about I break your nose?" Mark asked. Despite the threat, and the weird look from Nyssa, Will kept laughing.

"If you must, do it outside," Nyssa commanded. "No fighting in the forge."

"I was just wondering if you had plans this Friday," Mark stated.

"Yeah, Malcolm and I were going… to do something," Nyssa answered.

"Oh, right," Mark replied, turning away disappointed.

"Why do you look so disappointed?" Nyssa asked sympathetically.

"No reason," Mark muttered.

"Wait, you weren't actually going to…" Nyssa started. "You weren't actually going to ask me out, were you?" That idea alone seemed enough to make her crack, and soon she was laughing along with Will.

Mark turned away, red for the second time this week.

Clovis was adorable when he slept, but he was downright handsome when he was awake.

As the demigod ate, food accumulated around his lips. When he drank, water spilled onto his shirt. He was too tired to care, and Aoife found it cute, anyways.

It was so cute that she didn't eat as much as she used to, and spent a lot of the dinner period staring intently at the son of Hypnos. Something about the drooping eyes and slumped shoulders made her twirl her finger around a strand of hair.

"Hey, Aoife, you awake?" Clarisse asked, waving her hand in front of her sister's face.

"I think she's staring at Clovis again," Joanna added, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. There were a couple of snickers.

"She looks like… one of those… girls from one… of those stupid… love movies." Mark grunted between licking his fingers.

"Yeah, one of those girls who don't eat a lot," Rex added, sneaking Aoife's steak off of her place.

"Oh look, he's wiping his mouth," Clarisse observed.

"And now he's drinking lemonade," Joanna added.

"It's so special," Mark commented.

"Yeah, it is," Aoife said, almost like she was in a daze. She picked up her cup, whispered something, and the blue Gatorade changed to lemonade.

While the resulting roaring laughter was barely noticed by the other cabins, it was enough to make Aoife put her head in her arms.

Even though it was her idea, Aphrodite barely glanced at the recording Hephaustus was playing; she was too busy watching Ares' facing turn red. Even if embarrassment normally didn't please her, something about the fact that she embarressed the god of war made her feel triumphant.

It was very rare that Ares, the toughest of the gods, was laughed from the throne room.

I hoped you enjoyed!