It wasn't very odd to see a pair of the Olympians arguing over one thing or another, in fact, it was quite common. One such argument was happening right now, Demeter and Hephaestus were arguing over a certain demigod.

"It's just not possible for YOU to be his father Hephaestus," Demeter declared angrily, pointing her finger at the god of blacksmiths. "I should be the one saying that Demeter, his skills and inventions are proof of his parentage," Hephaestus retorted.

"What is going on here?" Hera inquired as she walked down the hall, already irritated with Zeus for some reason or another. "We're arguing," Demeter answered shortly, not breaking her glare at Hephaestus. "About what may I ask?" Hera continued, even more upset at being brushed off like a pest. "Eli Whitney," Hephaestus quickly replied, too attentive to his aunt to spare even a glance at his mother.

This had Hera even more irritated than before. "You're arguing over a DEMIGOD?" she snarled, then turned away and headed off to her chambers to sleep off the headache she had coming.

Athena had heard the entire exchange between the queen of the gods and the arguing pair, and knew for a fact that sometimes, the gods would forget the godly parentage of certain demigods, and Whitney was apparently one such case. Athena approached the arguing pair and said, "Arguing over Whitney's parentage I see, perhaps I can help you."

Demeter and Hephaestus turned their attentions to the wisdom goddess. "What do you mean Athena?" Hephaestus asked nicely. "I mean, I know how I can solve this little spat of yours," Athena replied smartly. "How?" Demeter queried, to which Athena merely smirked.

SOME TIME LATER

Zeus wondered how he could be having such a bad day. First, he had woken up with a stiff neck, then he had to do an absolute MOUNTAIN of paperwork, then he had somehow managed to tick off Hera, and now he was being forced by Athena to judge whether Eli Whitney, a demigod from the 1800s or something, was the son of either Demeter or Hephaestus.

He had already heard their reasons for claiming him as their own. "He knows his way around plants, he knew how to make something that could remove the seeds from cotton balls after all," was Demeter's reason. "He invented interchangeable parts, he invented the cotton GIN, and he was basically everything that my children are," was what Hephaestus had said.

Zeus knew that Whitney sounded more like a son of Hephaestus than a son of Demeter, and thus decided that Hephaestus was Whitney's godly parent, causing Demeter to fly into a rage. "HOW COULD THAT... THAT... THING BE WHITNEY'S PARENT RATHER THAN ME?" Demeter shrieked, and not even waiting for an answer, stormed out of the room they were in. Leaving the other three gods to stare after her, Hephaestus smirking all the while.

WITH DEMETER

Demeter rampaged down the stone pathways of Olympus, looking for the other Olympians. She soon sighted Apollo playing on his lyre, and strode up to him. "Apollo!" she barked out, making the sun god jump. "Oh, Demeter, it's you," Apollo said, realizing who had yelled at him. "Eli Whitney is MY son, isn't he?" the goddess of harvest demanded fiercely.

Apollo, not knowing who Whitney was, stupidly asked, "Who?" causing Demeter to growl in frustration. "Demeter, may I ask why you are harassing my brother?" Artemis asked, calmly walking up to them. "It's true that Whitney's my son, right Artemis?" Demeter queried, turning on the moon goddess. Artemis simply gave an innocent smile and replied with, "Sorry Demeter, but I don't recall much about male demigods, especially blacksmiths."

Demeter got even more frustrated at this and quickly left the twins to their business, deciding to run around Olympus and harass any other poor immortal soul about the matter, and the only thing she received in return was a good amount of answers similar to the ones that the Olympian twins had given her. Questions as to who Eli Whitney was, and indications that he was not her son.

Exhausted, Demeter returned to her chambers and flopped down onto her bed with her face in her pillow. She lay there resting for a few minutes until she finally decided to get up.

She picked her head up from her pillow to come face-to-face with a triumphant-looking Hephaestus. Before Demeter could order him to leave her chambers, Hephaestus simply said, "I win."

Finally past her breaking point, Demeter screamed and buried her face into her pillow once more, sobbing as Hephaestus left.

Author's Note: Only those who know the history of the Eli Whitney in this story and have visited Demeter's page on the Camp Half-Blood wiki will get this. The wiki page that I'm talking about calls Whitney Demeter's son, but his history suggests that he would be better suited as a son of Hephaestus.