Hello everyone!

Its ITOR again, with the next chapter. I don't have much to say, except I've been out since the past few days and I need to quickly write this chapter, the next chapter for my other stories:

-Your Guide to The Titan War II: The Last Olympian (I promised a fast update if I get 65 reviews, I got 79 and its been so many days since I updated!)

-Love:Laughter:Change (its been friggin 10 days!)

-So close, Yet so far (I finally got rid of the writer's block!)

For people who do read the other stories, I am so very sorry. I swear on the River Styx I'll update very soon! (Now you know I'll follow THAT through since I don't want Zeus' master bolt to incinerate me to nothingness)

Thanks bonifaco16 for adding this story to your Favourite Stories list!

Thank you reviewers:

LovelyWickedDescet: Thank you very much for all your constructive criticism. I hope you continue reading this. Could you please point out what all made the characters OOC for my benefit? And right, that's true. Details are important. I've tried to incorporate them here. Also, thank you so much for informing Tempest Cain and me about the FanFiction guidelines!

HermesPotter: Thank you! Ooh I know how hard all that is. I've had many such withdrawals, stuff like I will not go online and chat with my boyfriend even if that's the only contact I have with him for the whole day unless I've finished my homework. Never worked, lol. Jokes aside, I hope your academic life gets back on track ASAP so you can enjoy FanFiction again! Best of luck with that :)

Sabine8195: Thanks! I know :(

HermesPotter (again): You know, its that one simple review of yours that got this story up before every other story even though this has been given the least interest. Well, I was going to post this story on this account without a new chapter at first, but then I remembered your review and I was like, "No way, I can't disappoint her again!" And here the chapter is!

bonifaco16: Yeah well, when we started writing this, this was the only Hephaestus/Aphrodite romance story in English. The other romantic one-shot was in Portuguese, if I'm not mistaken, and another story had no romance (and was on hiatus/discontinued). I suppose that's why this hasn't been received too warmly, not too many people read Hephastodite! But we plan on changing that =)

Sabine1895 (again): Yeah, you're right. I haven't portrayed it clearly, but why she did that was because she wanted to bargain a good deal for herself. I guess I'll try showing that in the coming chapters.

Thank you HermesPotter, Ronnie R15 and Godoftheseas for adding us (this account) to your Author Alert lists!

And last, but not the least, thank you HermesPotter for adding this account to your Favourite Author's list!

Now, without further delay, here's the story!


~Aphrodite~


I scurried into my room, fighting back the despair of going on a mission with stupid Hephaestus by thinking about the challenge in front of me and the fruits of going through this torture.

Well, room probably isn't the right word to use. It was more like my personalized suite.

It was huge and splendidly decorated. It consisted of three rooms - my bedroom, my dressing room, living room and a small kitchen.

I entered through the front door to the living room. The living room, with its high ceiling and pillars decorated with intricate carvings of famous lovers was beautiful. The royal red walls were majestic as was the white marble floor. A white velvet loveseat with silken cushions sat surrounded by soft, comfortable and splendid throne like chairs for any guests who visited me. A statue of Eros – or Cupid, as he is more commonly known, poured crystal clear and ice cold water down the Venus de Milo, which stood gracefully in a corner. The base of the fountain had delicate designs studded with diamonds and rubies.

I didn't stop to admire the Venus de Milo – my favourite statue of me. It was the Venus de Milo, complete with the arms and everything. Mortals thought that the one in the Louvre was the original but of course the actual one was in my possession. If they'd see the original, they'd know without a doubt that it's a statue of me, and not Amphitrite or worse still, Artemis. Ugh.

I passed the kitchen with its dim, romantic lighting and walked into my bedroom, gratefully lying down on my bed. The hot pink walls and white furniture and curtains made the room so…sexy. There was no other word for it.

I snapped my fingers and the door to the dressing room opened. I flipped the air with my hand as though I was flipping through the clothes, so the round rack turned, showing me every piece of clothing I owned. I lay on my stomach, ankles crossed in the air, brooding over what to wear.

I knew I'd better wear something black. Black was good camouflage, especially for some place like Mount Othrys, which was made of black marble. It was also elegant. But I needed something to catch Kronos' eye too. I needed to look extra good so that I could charm our way in even with Hephaestus' ugliness. I sighed and got up. Might as well start with a perfumed bath.

I walked through the dressing room and the doors closed behind me. I scurried to the very end of the room – it was a hall with mirrors, really. I had had floor to ceiling mirrors installed on every wall, so that everywhere I turned, I could see myself.

Even now, I paused to admire my beauty. I had to admit, it was a foolproof plan. With the way I looked – which was different for everyone, I could totally get anyone in. See, beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Beauty is also about perspective, while person A may not find person B beautiful, person C may find B to be the most beautiful person alive. Which is why, I look different to everyone. So you can't say if I'm blonde or a brunette, or if I have blue eyes or black, its all up to who's looking at me.

Now you'd wonder, what did I see myself as? Well, I had eyes the colour of lapis lazuli, and by that I don't mean the cheap blue eyes people talk about, my eyes were the exact shade of the deep blue gemstone that my walls were studded with. Oh, right, I suppose I forgot to mention that. The dressing room, wherever the walls were visible, was studded with the finest lapis lazuli there are. And you don't find those in the mortal world. I had blonde hair that naturally waved down my back. My lips were a pale, luscious pink and my lashes long and dark.

So, what did I look like to Ares? What was his idea of 'beautiful'? To him, I was a brunette with impeccably straight hair and bangs that covered my brown eyes, huge… assets and a slim frame. I usually wore figure-hugging clothes around him because that's how he liked it. Yeah, the changes could be drastic.

I shook myself out of my train of thought and walked into the bathroom made completely of white marble and precious gems and ran a hot bath for myself. I added some perfume and quickly but thoroughly bathed, letting the scent envelop me. When I got out, I pulled my hair into a slightly messy French twist with a few strands of my hair twisting down the sides of my face. That was Kronos' favourite hairstyle for Rhea, and I had copied it exactly, the only difference being Rhea had brown hair.

"Well, that will be easily fixed," I thought to myself. After all, Kronos would see me as a brunette. And all this dressing up would only strengthen my natural magical beauty in front of his eyes.

I finally got down to the tedious task of selecting my clothing after doing my makeup. I decided that something modern and provocative wasn't Rhea's style, she was more of a dress person, and anyway the hairstyle would only go with something like that.

I ended up in a long black halter neck dress that hugged my figure and had a slit all the way through to the middle of my thigh. The perfect mix of beautiful woman and secretive spy, sweet and sour.

I took one last look at myself in the mirror and took a deep breath.

I can do this, even with Hephaestus there.

My reflection scowled at me. Hephaestus. Ugh. Pretending to be in love with him. Yuck! Disgusting! Its impossible for that to happen.

"Maybe not," said a voice in my mind.

"Oh shut up," I told it.

"You're wrong."

"About what?"

"Love and lust are not the same. They're different, and you know it. Lust may accompany love but love doesn't accompany lust."

"You don't make sense."

"You'll realize someday."

I shook my head suddenly. I was having a conversation with myself. It just showed how I was going mad at even the thought of working with Hephaestus. Well, I'd wasted enough time. I snapped my fingers and disappeared from my vanity room in a poof of pink and perfume.


"Aphrodite," Ares breathed, staring at me, his jaw almost dropping down to the floor and eyes wide.

"Hi," I giggled. I loved stunning people like this. Their expressions were so amusing!

The time I'd taken to dress up really was working. I could see myself from Ares' eyes, and the look was exactly what I'd desired, except Ares' idea of a perfect body was a little different from Kronos'.

He wrapped his arm around my waist and whispered in my ear, his hot breath tickling me. "You look beautiful. As always."

I turned my face, searching for his lips when a voice interrupted me.

"Oh no you don't!" Hera exclaimed. She pulled Ares away from me.

"Aphrodite needs time to get used to being a couple with Hephaestus," she grinned.

"To pretend to be dating him," I said through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, same thing," she chuckled.

"Is not."

"Oh come on here," she said, waving me off. She pulled me to where Hephaestus was standing. He was wearing a tight black t-shirt that clung to his well-muscled body and slightly baggy jeans. They must've been new because they had no signs of grease or paint anywhere. I'd never admit it out loud, but if you ignored his face, he looked hot. He had a better body than Ares, which was saying a lot.

I chuckled when I saw him. He was staring at my face with an expression full of awe, admiration and wonder. The one thing that surprised me was he saw me as I saw myself. And in fact, he was the only one who did. Weird…

He scowled at me when he realized I was laughing at him.

"Now, now," Hera cooed. "Don't do that, Hephaestus. Doesn't she look beautiful?"

Hephaestus grunted. "Whatever," he muttered.

Any positive opinion I may have had of him was shattered after that. I gave him my standard disdainful look.

"Listen, you two," said Athena firmly. "This is a mission which you know will save all of our lives. Put your differences aside for once and work together."

"Yeah, don't get in each other's faces," said Hera. "Unless you're going to kiss," she finished, just about choking with happiness at that prospect.

For once, the expression of disgust at two people kissing was worse on mine than on Artemis'.

"Fine," was all I said. I held out a hand for Hephaestus to shake. He looked at me incredulously.

"Hey, I'm not that childish, you know. I understand the dangers we'd have to face if we mess this up and let our problems with each other intervene with this mission. So, we're partners." I said, smiling a small smile.

"In saving Zeus' sorry butt," he added in a low voice as he shook my hand. I giggled.

"I heard that," said Zeus, giving Hephaestus his famous I'm-the-king-of-gods-don't-mess-with-me glare, but he did nothing. I suspected Hera was behind that.

"Go now," said Artemis irritably.

"You're a couple! Remember!" her brother called out, grinning and Ares growled threateningly, but Hephaestus didn't look bothered.

I sighed. This would be tough.

"Not really," the irritating, nagging voice in my mind persisted.

"It will."

"Well, if body is all that matters to you, it shouldn't be hard. After all, you said that Hephaestus has a better body than Ares."

That had me quiet and thoughtful as Hephaestus took my hand and we disappeared in a brilliant flash of light.


Done! How was it? Tempest Cain will do the next chapter soon. I would've written more but I decided to keep the chapter length around the same. After the next chapter, the real fun will kick in.

Since I'll be busy in the upcoming week(s), I'll try writing the next chapter beforehand,but no promises because I have three pending stories to be updated before this weekend as I'm going out (maybe for the whole of next week).

Keep the reviews coming!

-CainMeetsReality