At one point someone tells him that when you love someone you never really stop.
He dismisses the idea. He's hardly what anyone could call romantic. Then he meets her.
She glimmered with the light of a million stars when she wanted, but she shone with the subtle glow of a full moon. He's under her spell just as much as everyone else in the room.
Its all superficial in the beginning, but he's happy. She's not.
She stays faithful for longer than anyone could have expected, but they're immortal. Their time together passes in what seems little more than a second. Then she's gone like a butterfly in the wind.
After he finds her with his brother, all he knows is that he sees red. He wants them to burn in Tartarus together and alone. In the end he accepts defeat and lets her get away.
Still he sees her and still he loves.
She walks into rooms with all the confidence in the world and might flash a smile to someone and blind the whole room. Arm in arm with his brother, she'd look every bit the goddess she was and nearly overpowering the room with her glorious beauty.
Now and then he sees Ares whisper things in her ears. At first he knows them to be words of love and affection, but as the centuries pass he sees the strain in her smile and pain in her eyes.
He sees as her gleaming smile less and less until she stops even trying to keep up the gruesome facade.
He knows he should step in. He remembers the pain he feels every moment of every day. He thinks he is too good a person.
She agrees with him. She says that she and her lover are like fire and ice. That he can never hurt her with his words. Not really.
But he sees the tears that aren't shed. And he sees the words unsaid on her lips.
One day he will do more. One day he will be brave. One day he will be her hero.
But for now, he is weak. But for now he is the one she holds closest. And for now he can keep her safe.