Title: All's Fair - Prequel to In Love and War
Author: fadingtales
Fandom: TVD, Greek Gods AU
Ship: Klaus/Caroline Forbes, with hints of Stefan/Caroline, Damon/Katherine
Rating: M
Character/Gods Counterpart Reference List:
Ares - Klaus
Athena - Caroline
Aphrodite - Katherine
Dionysus - Damon
Hermes - Matt
Diomedes - Stefan
Poseidon - Elijah
Persephone - Bonnie
Hades – Alaric
A/N: Special thanks to skerdypants for being a wonderful beta! I apologize for the length of time it took for this chapter to get posted. I was having a difficult time keeping everyone in character while still taking creative liberties with their greek gods counterpart. After a lot of work and once again from the help of the awesome skerdypants, I am proud to present you with Part II. Enjoy and let me know what you think!
Part II:
Sitting up abruptly and carelessly winding the sheets around his waist, he dashes in the direction of which she disappeared. He runs through the deserted hallways, passing several passed out guests, but it was too late. He waited too long and she was gone. That's when he sees it. The flash of golden locks in the moonlight.
xxx
Her head was pounding; a pulse at her temples hammers away, making her migraine worse. She shouldn't have indulged in so much wine.
She reaches her hand up to rub her temples when another hand grabs her wrist, pulling her into an abrupt stop.
She lets out a small gasp and whips around to see the God of War holding onto her wrist. His other hand is barely holding up the sheets wrapped carelessly around his hips. Not that she's noticing particularly.
"What's your hurry?"
She yanks her hand out of his, thankful that she still had her mask on. It wouldn't do if after all this work, she reveals her identity now.
"The party is over. I'm going home," she answers frigidly.
"You took my mask off while I was asleep."
She quirks an eyebrow behind the mask.
"It... fell off," she answers carefully.
He snorts. "You're a horrible liar. Has anyone told you that?"
He's haughty and it grates her nerves. She's not in the mood for dealing with temperamental males.
"I'm tired," she complains. "Will you just... go away?"
The night is slowly brightening into dawn, and she's quite ready to forget its follies. She tries making a run for it, but he's quick to block her path.
"Not so fast."
She's almost impressed by how he manages to be so agile, what with all those sheets about his legs. He catches her staring and she quickly averts her eyes. It wouldn't do for her to stroke his vanity.
Too late, she realizes, when she sees the mischief dancing in his eyes.
"You've suddenly grown cold. I don't recall this coldness earlier in the bedroom."
Again, she has to train her voice to have no emotion.
"That's before I knew who you were."
He raises a quizzical eyebrow at her.
"Well, that's not fair. You know who I am, but I don't get to know who you are."
"Whoever said I had to be fair?" she shoots back.
He ignores her, seemingly lost in his own musings. "Well, I'm not being completely truthful. I'm not entirely ignorant as to be unable to guess who you are..."
He watches her expectantly. A small smile plays at his lips, and she has to work extra hard to hide her emotions this time. Any indication otherwise could goad him on, and she needs this little guessing game to stop.
"Alas, you will never know!"
"Why so mysterious? I already know you... in the most carnal of manners." He says, contemplating her with amusement. "Are you afraid of me?"
"I am not," she protests. "You're just being incredibly annoying."
She turns a little too quickly and the edge of her skirt snags, sending her tumbling. If it weren't for his quick reflexes, she would have been taking a dip in the icy cold pond out in Dionysus's backyard. His strong arms wrapped themselves around her waist, pulling her towards his muscular chest.
If he was a gentleman, it would've ended there. But he wasn't. He's the God of War and when he sees an opportunity, he takes it.
He uses her momentary shock as his opening. Without preamble, he rips off her mask and kisses her.
xxx
Athena tosses her mask carelessly beside her as she falls backwards into her bed. Closing her eyes, she still feels his touch against her skin. And then those green eyes. Like leaves of pine in the winter. A dark, frosty green that chills her. She shakes her head to clear the image.
He was Ares,for goodness sake! She hated him. Loathed him with a passion greater than Hera's wrath.
And still, he continues to occupy her thoughts. She even finds herself smiling in memory of his little snore.
She reckons that she must still be drunk off Dionysus's wine.
She turns so that she would be on her side and picks up her formerly discarded mask. It had provided a good buffer for her. A good excuse to let herself do what her heart wished and not be caged by the mental restraints of her head. In other words, allowed her to not be herself.
A surge of jealousy rises in her chest. Sometimes she wishes that she was not the goddess of reason. How much more liberating it would be to be free from her inhibitions. To stop the bloody battle between her heart and her mind.
She shuts her eyes and wills herself to sleep. There were still a few hours before daylight and there is no point in wishing the impossible.
Come the dawn, everything will be illuminated and she can leave behind the follies of one night's abandon.
Yet still in her dreams, she dreams of masks and green eyes.
xxx
He pulls back, opening his eyes to gaze down upon her. He had been brash and had caved in to his urge to kiss her before he had taken a good look at her face.
She opens her eyes to meet his. Dark wood brown. Perhaps it was the lighting, but he could've sworn they had been blue. Blue like clear, cloudless skies.
She backs a little away from him and runs a hand through her hair. As she does, the blonde curls turn to mahogany.
He watches as the transformation completes. Watches as her flaxen hair finishes darkening and her pale skin turns olive. The rising sun has dispelled all the magic of the evening.
"I guess the charade is over," she sighs. She had stalled enough for Athena to make her way home at least.
Athena had nearly tackled her down in her haste to get away. She had begged Aphrodite to forget that she saw her and to distract anyone who came looking for her. Before she could even agree her younger sibling had made a mad dash away. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? Athena was supposed to draw the unwanted suitors away from her.
Only once she saw Ares in all his naked glory did Aphrodite realize exactly what it was that set Athena off in such a hasty fashion. It must have been quite a surprise to find herself in bed with her most despised rival. It was the stuff comedic plays were made of. Aphrodite will be holding this one of her sister's head for a long while.
She wanders over to the water's edge to glance down at her reflection. She runs a hand through her hair once more and smiles at the image reflected in the water's surface.
"It's so nice to be back in my own body. I don't think I prefer blonde," she comments over her shoulder.
"Who... are you?" he asks in wonderment.
She turns to him and smiles a beguiling smile. "I thought you knew."
He continues to stare at her, this stranger that has replaced his golden goddess.
"My name is Aphrodite, but you'll know me as the Goddess of Love and Beauty."
xxx
In the morning, Athena tucks the ivory mask into the bottom of a chest, covering it with a pile of silk for good measure. With the rise of the sun, the spells of the night have dissipated, and the goddess of reason sheds her disguise and becomes herself once more.
Just like the mask, she will tuck away the memories of the night's revelry into the recesses of her mind where it can collect dust and be forgotten amongst the relics of other past foolishness. Although she doubts Aphrodite will be doing the same. She should be bracing herself for some torture for sure. Nevertheless she was thankful to Aphrodite for her interference. She would not have made it home unrevealed otherwise.
She preoccupies herself with dressing and trying to put thoughts of the previous night behind her. She was nearly successful in the endeavor when a familiar guest shows up on her door steps.
Before her stood one of the mighty Olympian gods. His sand colored hair in disarray from his frantic haste to find her.
She blinks at him for a moment, her mouth open in utter surprise.
"Hermes! What are you doing here?"
She takes his hand to lead him into her home, warning him to be a bit discreet in his volume. Aphrodite was still slumbering away after having come back in the wee hours of the morning.
"And you know how she gets when she doesn't get her beauty sleep," Athena jokes.
Hermes's somber expression holds and it makes her nervous. When she offers him a drink, he declines. For all of his hurry to get here, he has yet to speak more than a few words to her.
"What's the matter, Hermes? You're worrying me."
"I have a message to deliver. From Argos."
She feels her heart leap to her throat. Two messages from Argos in such a short span of time set off the warning bells in her head. He hands her the message solemnly and waits as she takes it from him, unrolls the scroll, and begins reading.
"It's Diomedes this time...He says that he needs to see me," Athena reads aloud. "He doesn't say why."
"There is a second part to the message that perhaps young Diomedes left out, but I think you should be aware before you go to see him."
"What is it?"
Hermes stares at her for a moment before answering. "Tydeus has passed into the Underworld last night. Diomedes shall be crowned king in a fortnight."
Athena stares back at him in silent shock. The King of Argos was very much in health the last time she saw him.
Hermes watches her. Watches how the gears are turning in her head as the implications of Tydeus's death dawns on her.
It is always with the passing of one king and the crowning of the next that the mortal world becomes most chaotic.
"I must go to him. Immediately. The new king-to-be will be in need of the strength of good counsel to guide him through these dark times. Will you help me?"
The suddenness of Tydeus's death is suspicious and she worries for his heir's safety.
Hermes nods in agreement and offers her his wings. They are much swifter than any chariot and she would require speed to reach Argos. She takes them from him and presses her lips to his cheek in thanks before taking off.
In her haste, she doesn't notice the God of War marching up the stone steps.
xxx
He lifts his head from his arms; pain prickles his idle limbs. He had fallen asleep at his desk and now he's paying for it. There had been too much to do. The advisers had not even waited a moment before they pounced on him like hungry falcons the moment his father, his king, had breathed his last. They assailed him with a million different things, each trying to whisper things in his ear. Their tongues leaden with honey and sweet promises.
He hates them all.
It was cowardly, he knows, but he locked himself up in his room, refusing any and all callers. He wished to see no one. Not a single soul.
Except for maybe one.
He spent the night writing and rewriting his letter only to end up writing the most idiotic and cryptic message possible: "I need to see you. Please."
He had burned the letter at Hermes's altar, sure that the messenger of the gods would get his message delivered without fail.
Once done with his task, he had fallen asleep trying to make sense of the mountain of paperwork that lay before him. Rest eluded him. Already the weight of the crown is too much, he feels, for his young mortal shoulders to bear.
It is with weariness to the very bone that he awakes to the feeling of a presence in his room.
"Who's there? Show yourself!"
He draws his sword from the sheath at his waist, his eyes swiftly scanning the room. It would not be the first time assassins have been sent to murder to-be-kings. But if they think he'd be easy prey, his assailants would have another thing coming.
"Put down your sword, Diomedes. Mortal instruments won't hurt me," she calls out. She lets her cloak slip from her shoulders, letting the spell of invisibility fade.
"Athena," he breathes. He goes down on one knee. She rolls her eyes and lifts him to his feet.
"I didn't know that kings bowed to anyone," she chides.
"I am not king yet," he replies. "And you are a goddess."
"I thought I was a friend."
He smiles at that. She reaches out to stroke his cheek and he raises his hand to cover it. He closes his eyes for a moment and leans into her touch.
He looks weary, oh so very weary and her heart cries for him.
"I suppose you've heard already? About my father?"
Their smiles simultaneously vanish, replaced with somber expressions.
"Yes," she replies solemnly. "I've heard about Tydeus. I'm here to offer you guidance."
"You mean you're here to talk me out of doing anything foolish. Like revenge."
"So you suspect foul play?"
"He was healthy, Athena. He kept trying to tell me something. Something had been bothering him; he had been so frantic and nervous in the last few days, but he was always cryptic. I thought he was just paranoid and I didn't pay any attention to him. And now he is dead. This is my fault."
Diomedes breaks away from her and begins his pacing. She frowns as she notices that his bed looks unslept in while his desk bore the mark of a late night; the candle beside his scrolls has burned down to a mere nub.
"It's not your fault, Diomedes."
He stops in his pacing and turns to her, his face the look of devastation.
"What kind of son neglects his father? Even worse... what sort of son could fail his father so miserably?"
She shakes her head and marches towards him, gathering his hands into hers.
"You did not neglect your father," she says sternly. "And you have not failed him. Tydeus had never been more proud. You must know that."
"I feel like I'm drowning, Athena. I cannot be king. I am not strong enough."
She closes her eyes and presses his forehead to hers.
"You are," she urges. "I have never met another man more suitable to be king."
"Your faith in me is astounding," he whispers. "But I fear it only adds to my burden that I might disappoint you as well as him."
She pulls back, her eyebrows knitted together in an expression of frustration. With one quick movement, she connects her open palm with his cheek.
He blinks back at her with wide eyes, his hand touching his face. "You hit me!"
She expels a huff and puts her hands on her hips.
"Since talking sense into you wasn't working, I thought slapping it into you might be a better option."
She has the most stern expression on her face, her eyes all ablaze. It reminds him of a memory when he was younger when she had taken on the form of a village girl to accompany him.
His lips curl into a smile of their own volition and he starts laughing. Just when he thought he was never going to be able to laugh again.
"I've missed you, Athena."
She smiles back at him. "And I you."
His hand reaches for her face as if to caress it, but he catches himself. He cannot be so forward with an immortal, even if he's slipped several times in the past already. He was not a boy anymore. He can no longer blame ignorance for his impropriety.
She notices his sudden stiffness and frowns. Disappointed that he's suddenly taking a turn for the formal with her.
"You show favoritism for me. Why is that?" he asks.
The question was simple. It was the answer that was complicated.
She shakes her head, unsure of how to even begin.
"You are my friend," she says finally. "And you are kind and courageous."
"Other men are kind and courageous."
Yes, but none was Diomedes. None made her smile as easily, none understood her so well. It was a dangerous thing, this attraction of hers to this mortal. How many times had Aphrodite told her this?
"You dally with mortals all the time," Athena had pointed out.
"Dangerous not for us," Aphrodite corrects. "Dangerous for them. And you are not like me, Athena. You take everything all too seriously. It will break your heart when he dies. And they always do."
She raises her hand to his face to cup his cheek and places a kiss on his forehead, not heeding the memory of Aphrodite's warning.
"Because I care about you, Diomedes," She answers, rubbing her thumbs over the place where she had hit him earlier.
He opens his mouth as if to protest but changes his mind. To pretend to not care for her like he does would be unnatural. They had grown up together, trained together. Even if she was a god and he a mere human, it doesn't change the fact that he will always love Athena. Perhaps more than he should.
"I've been blessed by the gods, it seems, to have somehow earned your affections. I would be foolish to question it."
"Oh, very foolish to question the logic of the Goddess of Wisdom," Athena agrees with a smile.
She drops her hands and turns her back on him. She wanders over to his overflowing desk, piled ceiling high with scrolls and quills.
"Enough of the matters of the heart. There is business of the state to attend to. You have a throne to think of, my young king."
He nods in agreement and walks over to stand beside her. They spend the rest of the day discussing political strategies and pouring over the mountain of legal documents and decrees that his father's advisers had showered him with.
xxx
Aphrodite wakes up to the sounds of Hermes' and Athena's voices. With a groan, she rolls over and presses a pillow over her ears. Their voices soon fade away, and she drifts off once more to blissful slumber when angry shouting awakens her once again.
With an angry growl, she climbs out of bed and wraps a silky robe over her night gown before marching out to see what all the fuss is about.
Arriving at the top of the staircase that led into the Olympian home she shared with Athena, Aphrodite was bombarded by a most unruly of scenes. Two Olympians caught in the middle of a shouting match. She recognized one as Hermes, messenger of the gods and one of Athena's good friends. They rarely see each other, but she's often curt with him since he had snubbed several of her advances in the past.
The two males look ready to start an all-out brawl in front of her home, so she tightens her sash around her robe and makes her descent towards them.
"If you are going to fight, do you mind taking your little squabble somewhere other than my front porch?" she calls out.
They both lift their heads at the sound of her voice. She is startled to realize that she recognized the other man besides Hermes as the rather delectable male specimen who had rather thoroughly kissed her earlier that morning.
"You..."
She sighs a little woefully as she notices that since she's fled his presence, he'd gone to dress himself in something more substantial than mere bed sheets.
"You know him?" Hermes frowns.
"Yes..." She replies carefully. "We've met... briefly."
Hermes raises his eyebrows but takes a step back so that Ares can approach her.
"So you really are Aphrodite," the God of War mutters, his eyes raking her body.
She does not shy away from his gaze. In fact, she positions herself in the most flattering pose possible; and she does it with such natural grace, it doesn't come off as deliberate at all.
"Did you think I was a liar?" She replies, quirking one eyebrow upwards in a perfect arch. "What were you two doing screaming your heads off in front of my house? A girl needs her beauty sleep, don't you know?"
"I had come to see Athena regarding important news," Hermes answers her. "I was on my way out when I saw him marching up the stairs. I was trying to prevent him from bursting in and disturbing you... but I had not realized you two were acquainted."
"I didn't realize that the great messenger, Hermes, was also a pet guard dog," Ares drawls condescendingly.
"And I'm surprised you're capable of any thought greater than contemplation of what to pummel next with your fists," Hermes replies coolly.
Before Ares can raise his fists, Aphrodite places a hand on his shoulder.
"Hermes, thank you for your considerate thoughts, but I will be fine. You should hurry on back home."
Hermes grits his teeth but nods a curt good bye to the goddess before making his descent. Only once his figure had disappeared from view does Aphrodite turn to her remaining guest.
"Do you cause torrents wherever you go?"
He laughs. "It is the nature of war to be thus. As I assume as the goddess of love and beauty, your nature is to be..."
He trails off and gestures to her provocative posture with his eyes to complete his sentence for him.
She smiles, pleased that he's noticed. Not that it was terribly difficult to notice. She was Aphrodite, she oozed seduction.
"You're different..." he says. "From last night."
"Yes, my hair was blonde then," she points out.
He shakes his head and is about to say something else but stops. He reaches into his cloak, procures her ivory mask from its folds, and extends it towards her.
"You dropped this after you fled Dionysus's residence."
She thanks him and reaches for it. His hand closes over hers as she does so.
"Hermes is very protective of you, you know," he comments. "Who would've thought that the young herald would prove more effective in guarding than a Phalanx formation."
"A what formation?"
He frowns at her answer, his eyebrows knitting together above his clear green eyes. "You were the one going on at length about the difference between the Spartan and the Macedonian forms..."
She has long since realized that he had mistaken her for Athena, but if she needed any further convincing, this was it. Leave it to Athena to go on and on about military formations and what not, even when she has a perfectly handsome god in her bed.
"Oh, of course. I'm still a little groggy from lack of sleep."
"Yes, you did not do much of that last night," he smirks at her suggestively.
She grins back at him, enjoying the dirt she was gathering on beloved Athena. Suddenly, a deliciously mischievous idea pops in her head.
"Thank you again for the mask… I assume you've been invited to the dinner party Zeus is holding in a fortnight," she smiles.
"I have," he answers.
"Then I'll look forward to seeing you there."
She casts him one beguiling glance over her shoulder, making sure to add some extra sway to her hips as she made her way back inside.
"And so you shall," he promises.
His answer widens the smirk on her face as she places her hand against the door. The sound of retreating footsteps marks his departure. She goes back inside and glances down at the ivory mask he had returned to her. It was identical to the one she had given to Athena.
The horrible dinner party she had been dreading was finally starting to look up.
Placing the mask over her face, she admires her reflection in the mirror.
"Let the games begin."
She presses a kiss on the mirror before tossing the mask carelessly aside.