A/N: This is mostly about the thoughts of Hephaestus and Athena towards Aphrodite and Ares, I get that Athena and Ares are not lovers but I ship them and also I want to write about them soooo-...here it is.
Hephaestus
After a long meeting, they were dismissed by Zeus, their father their almighty king of olympus.
He and the other gods and goddesses started to leave to go back in minding their own businesses, he was working on making a new bow for Artemis since hers were old and worn out, he knows that the goddess of the hunt and archery can't perform well without a good bow so she had requested him to make her a new one and tomorrow is when he was to give it to her.
"Ares, stop it! You can't do this here!"
"This is what you get for teasing me during the meeting!"
He heard the squeal of someone as he went out of the palace of Zeus and Hera, when he turned to see who it was, it was Aphrodite the goddess of love and beauty and his wife - well, former wife. And she was being kissed by the neck and tickled by Ares the god of war and his half brother, the one who stole his wife.
He looked at them with disgust as he stopped in his tracks when he looked at them, he could feel anger starting to boil inside him.
Ares who noticed him and glared at him, he saw how Hephaestus was staring at them in disgust and this angered the war god. "What are you looking at, ugly?" Ares said and Aphrodite turned to look at Hephaestus and looked at him with hatred mixed with disgust before turning to her lover.
"Let's go do this somewhere else, darling before someone ruins our fun" Aphrodite said as she led Ares away not without him giving the "I-am-watching-you" look to Hephaestus before they disappeared to who knows where, leaving him.
Hephaestus sighed as he too left, he went back to his temple where he did his forges. He started working on Artemis' bow and after a few hours of working he finally put the finishing touches to the bow.
The bow was marvelous, it was made of unbreakable crystal and was decorated with blue diamonds that shined as bright as the moon like the moon goddess herself. Once he finished he put his finished product aside and decided that he would go give it to Artemis the first thing in the morning tomorrow.
As he puts the bow to hang, he accidentally knocked off a box in the shelf near the place where he hanged the bow while he went down from the ladder, He sighs and goes down to pick it up.
When he picks it up he noticed that the box had been opened due to being knocked over from the shelf, he picked the box up and was about to close it but then he saw something that shined and when he looked it inside , he saw a necklace.
He took it out and inspected it, it was the necklace he had wanted to give Aphrodite as a gift to her. But he couldn't sadly, he couldn't give it to her the night where he had discovered her infidelity with Ares, it made him mad and he kept the necklace, keeping it in a box and putting it away.
Hephaestus chuckled bitterly as he remembered that night, though it didn't surprise him at all, he knew Aphrodite had hated every single thing about him and all she cared about was the finest jewelries he had given to her.
When he had first met Aphrodite he felt attracted to her the moment he laid his eyes on her beauty and he fell in love instantly, when Zeus had given her to him to be his betrothed he was happy and when they got married he had spoiled her with lots of jewelry and luxuries he could give, heck, he even made her famous girdle that attracted men, mortal and deity alike.
But ofcourse, he knew that Aphrodite had hated him the first time she had met him. He was ugly compared to her, a beautiful goddess and he had no one to blame except for his own mother, Hera, that threw him off of Mount Olympus after giving birth to him and saw that he was imperfect and threw him off of Olympus and the cause of his fall made him a cripple.
He only had Thetis to thank, for the nereid had cared for him deeply and acted like his real mother to him. He still felt neglected when he arrived at Mount Olympus, everyone hated him because of his looks but when he met Aphrodite he became in love and he did his best to try pleasing her but he knew it did not work for she committed infidelity and with Ares, his half brother of all gods.
He knew Aphrodite could not love her the same as he does with her, she could never understand him, she could never know anytimg about him or how much he had genuinely loved her. He was full of effort and he strived his very best in everything that he does, he made the strongest weapons of the gods and goddesses of Olympus, he was the god of forges and fire and he was smart enough to design the most destructive weapons of the gods.
But he was weak when it comes to giving love or atleast that's what he had thought so, he could do anything but he could not make Aphrodite, the love of his immortal life and his wife to fall in love with him.
He doesn't know why, but he knew he can't win her heart even if he did anything to please her, she wouldn't return his feelings.
And even now he still feels attracted to her, he still loved her but it was hopeless.
He couldn't win for it was a hopeless love.
Athena
Taking off her helmet, she gazed around the battlefield that were filled with fresh corpses. Another war had finished yet again, she didn't even know how numerous of times she had been to the battlefield, she had lost count of it.
She looks at the troops that have survived the war and she smiled upon them, giving them the blessing as a gratitude for fighting during the war.
"And so the athenians had won yet again, they are truly blessed aren't they?"
Athena turned to look for the one that spoke in a mocking tone and she wasn't surprised to find Ares, her fellow god of war and her half brother.
"Your troops have retreated much early in the battle as expected and here I was sure they got the blessing of war from you, they did but they lost"
Ares glared at her,"My men had killed half of your troops and if it wasn't for that sneaky tricks you did then it would have been a fair war!"
"Save your excuses, I did not cheated nor did anything wrong to your troops. You and your men simply lacked in your strategy, what do I expect though? You are the God of bloody wars, you don't even make strategies, before you accuse me of cheating make sure you have thought of a good strategy in bringing my troops down" She said in a stern voice, her stormy grey eyes stared back into Ares' own blood red eyes.
"Whatever, I'll make sure I win the next war. I'll make sure you and your men suffer my wrath along with my men's, Athens will fall and the Spartans will rule" Ares walked pass Athena shoving her by the shoulder.
Athena went back to Mount Olympus in her own temple and bathed. Her armor was neatly put away by the nymphs that served under her, she washed her hair first that smelled of blood and then her body that had stains of blood, after that she proceeded to her temple's own hot springs.
Dipping her body into the hot water, she had felt relaxed.
That damned Ares had made her infuriated again, but she knew not to give in to his silly act of making her angry and make her charge her spear at him then and there.
She knew that the bastard would always find ways to anger her but she being the clever one out of them both as war gods did not pay heed to his childish acts of angering her, she was angry, yes but she never gave in to one of his thirst for battle with her, she doesn't want to spend her time on something like him who is not worth it at all.
Oh how she hated the god of war, she had hated him from the start, that stupid oaf.
Well, she never hated him at all in the beginning. In fact, he had been by her side training during their childhood. He had shown her the art of battle while she at the time was only but a goddess of wisdom only.
He had trained with her and she felt happy spending her time away with him during those days, he would always be sparring with her and then sharing tips on different ways to wield a sword and spear.
She at some point had developed strange feelings for him, at first she questioned it. But her mind got confused with a single passionate kiss she had received from him during those times they had finished finished sparring.
His lips melted into hers, he pressed his warm body to her own and touching every part of her body starting from her thighs to her hips and finally to the swell of her bosom, she had became lustful with him that day but she stopped him as she was not ready to give in to him.
After what had happened between them, they met in secret and had heated kisses after sparring. And then she had realized that she had fallen for the idiotic god of war, the one who taught her the art of war and battle himself.
She believed at that time that she would be ready to confess her love to him but her heart had been shattered to have heard of his affair with Hephaestus' wife, Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty herself. She had heard numerous rumors, Ares had fallen in love with her beauty and had bedded with her when she had charmed him and together they both had an infidelity that caused anger to hephaestus.
She too was angered for what the god of war has done but she herself was foolish enough to believe that she had been in love with a stupid mindless brute like him.
Her heart became cold and she took on the title as Athena the goddess of wisdom, war and strategic warfare, the known virgin goddess of war.
She became cold and calculating, she had buried herself to creating strategies for armies and she continued on to battlefield and coming across Ares was never surprising and they fought until they shed ichor.
But she did not get why her heart had still fluttered at the harsh approaches Ares has made to her and the way he looks at Aphrodite had made her heart clench in questionable pain. Maybe she did loved him still but she will not act the same before, she will not be foolish to trust in him again.
She was the goddess of war and wisdom, a virgin at that and love was not an option to her as a war goddess.
She had got out of the hot springs and had put on her new chiton.
"My lady"
Athena glanced at her servant,"What is it?"
"Your father has requested you immediately, a war is being expected by two neighboring states and he calls upon you to discuss this matter"
"Very well, I will get to father soon"
Athena puts on her helmet, carrying her shield and spear, exiting her temple she headed towards Zeus' palace.
It was yet another day to plan for a war, after a few days she is expected to meet raging men and sea of corpses yet again
And she will come across Ares again.
The man who angered her greatly, the man who mocked her in battles, the man who had once stolen her heart, the man who put her in this state.
The man that gave her hopeless love.