Chapter One: Aphrodite's Birthday
Athena looked around the empty council hall, frowning. "Where is everyone?" she wondered aloud.
There was a happy squeal from behind her, and Aphrodite sprinted in, hugging Athena. "Zeus gave everyone the day off, silly!" she replied.
Athena pushed the love goddess off of her. "Um... am I missing something? My father wouldn't randomly give us the day off..."
"It's not random! Don't you know what today is?"
"Monday?"
"No! Well, yes, but-do you know what else today? What's the date?" Aphrodite was hopping up and down excitedly.
"February 14th, but... what's so special about it?" Athena had a nagging thought in the back of her mind. She should know what day it was. She was supposed to know everything. Oddly, her memory was failing her, and she couldn't figure out what it was...
Aphrodite waited, the happy smile on her face fading as Athena chewed her lip, deep in thought.
"It's MY BIRTHDAY! How could you forget?"
"Oh!" Athena shook her head, wondering how she could forget with Aphrodite going on and on about it for weeks. "Right. I knew that. I was just testing you."
"Of course you were," Aphrodite said happily. "Come on!"
"Isn't there something else today?"
"It's Aphrodite day!" Aphrodite replied. "Also known as Valentine's day, I guess."
"Valentine... a completely different person," Athena said.
"Yes, well... it's also my birthday!" Aphrodite grumbled. "And wait... how many times have we had this conversation?"
Athena sighed. "Ever since the first Valentine's day."
"Is it a coincidence?"
Athena rubbed her temple. She was getting the headache she always got when she talked to Aphrodite for too long. Aphrodite squealed and shrieked. A lot. And she never stopped talking.
In fact, it was that very thing that snapped Athena out of her thoughts.
"...so you and Poseidon can spend the whole day together!" Aphrodite was saying.
"What?" Athena sputtered. Her cheeks felt hot. "Me and that Kelp Head? Ha ha! That's funny!" she laughed nervously. "Anyway, Aph, Happy birthday, go and pair people up and stuff, Eros is waiting outside for you... I'll be in my library." The wisdom goddess turned around to leave.
"Wait!" Aphrodite said. "It's the day of love! You are not going to spend it with those dusty old books!"
"Dusty old-I love my books," Athena replied sulkily.
"Not the kind of love I have planned for you today," Aphrodite replied smugly.
"No," was the response. "No, no, no, no. Not a chance. I took an oath. I'm not breaking it."
"You don't have to! You can just date Poseidon! Zeus finally let everyone take on the more modern rules, like divorce!"
"And this is important because..."
"Amphitrite is gone!"
Athena muttered something about stupid Barnacle Beard and his stuck up wife-sorry, ex-wife.
Aphrodite grinned. "See? You're jealous!" She grabbed Athena's arm and flashed them off Mount Olympus to New York.
For Athena, the rest of the afternoon was spent avoiding Aphrodite, who was trying to pair her up with Poseidon. For some reason, though, she couldn't get back into Olympus. So as Aphrodite had the time of her life doing her love magic to other people who she thought would be cute to pair up. Whenever the two ran into each other, which was oddly often, Aphrodite would try to get Athena to come with her to find Poseidon.
Athena always fled, ducking out of Aphrodite's sight, through alleys, into buildings, anywhere to escape. For some reason, Eternal Maiden just didn't register with the love goddess.
Around noon-time, she found herself wandering into a favored cafe of hers. It had a whole wall full of books, so she could read while she ate.
She sat down at a table, going through the menu.
"Athena?"
She recognized that voice. With a sigh, she looked up, to meet a tan guy who looked to be around seventeen, with blond hair and blue eyes, and a grin that made you want to slap him.
"Apollo. What are you doing here?" Athena asked, frowning at her annoying half-brother.
"I came to get some breakfast," Apollo replied, giving her a sunny smile.
"And it had to be here? I mean... you don't even read," was the response.
"Uh... I can read. But, what does that have to do with anything?" Apollo asked. "I mean, it's not like there's books here."
"Uh... Apollo... there's books right there." Athena gesture to the wall of books.
Apollo followed her gaze. "Oh, those are really books? I thought they were just decorations! Wait! I think I have a Haiku coming!"
"Oh no..." Athena buried her face in her hands.
Apollo grinned.
"The sun shines from me
I run into Athena
She's reading a book "
Athena groaned. "Why don't you just go sit somewhere else?" she said.
"Nah." Apollo dropped into a chair across from her. "We never really hang out much anyway."
"I wonder why," Athena muttered.
Apollo just grinned.
The two of them were just finishing the meal, Athena was ready to dive headfirst into Tartarus to get away from Apollo, when the door to the cafe opened, and Apollo waved to the person who entered. Athena looked over her shoulder to see who was entering, and wondered if her day could get any worse.
Her millenia-long rival stepped inside, sea green eyes examining the room. His expression turned grumpy when he spotted her, and the two exchanged glares.
Talk about Mr. Moody, Athena thought.
Apollo finally convinced Poseidon to come to the table. He and Athena just glared at each other as Apollo chattered on about things neither of them even heard.
Finally, she stood up abruptly. "I should go," she said, giving up on trying to read her book, and she turned around and left before Apollo could say anything to stop her. Instead, he followed, starting a conversation with Poseidon, and so that Kelp Head decided to follow as well. At some point, Apollo dragged her into the conversation, and she and Poseidon started to fight. Just as usual.
The rest of the morning actually turned out to be rather entertaining. Apollo kept getting turned down by numerous girls, as did Poseidon as they tried to hit on girls they thought were pretty, much to Athena's amusement.
She also whacked Poseidon a couple of times when she thought he did something especially stupid (even for Poseidon), and the way Apollo kept calling her "sis", she began to feel very sorry for Artemis who was the usual victim of Apollo's terrible nicknames.
Athena also noticed that she didn't run into Aphrodite once, which, in a way, was a relief, but it made her suspicious, and a little concerned. That's when Aphrodite sent her an Iris Message. It only lasted for a few seconds, in which Aphrodite yelled, "Help, I-" and it was ended.
"Guys, did you just see that?" Athena asked Apollo and Poseidon. They both looked up at her.
"What?"
"Did you just see-oh, forget it. Apparently you didn't. Aphrodite's in trouble. We have to go help her."
Poseidon frowned. "She is?"
"Yes, you moron! Get me a rainbow with your water powers, I need to contact her again," Athena snapped. Poseidon rolled his eyes, but listened.
She pulled out a drachma and tossed it into the rainbow, asking for Aphrodite. Iris replied by telling her she couldn't contact Aphrodite.
"That does it, we have to find her," Athena insisted.
"But how?" Poseidon asked.
"Do we have time to find demigods?" Apollo added.
Athena looked thoughtful. "We'll see," she replied.
ooc: This is chapter one! I hope you like it! Don't forget to review, and thank you until next time. As for my other two stories, well... I'll get back to them. I just happen to be obsessed with Greek Mythology at the moment.