A/N: I'll give ya'll this one, but seriously, if you want more chapters, please review. If you don't review, I don't now how I'm doing, and then I don't update... Hope you like this one, and remember to review!
There is a reception after the trial's end. How familiar this all seems, yet I do not wander around, for now everyone looks down pityingly at me. I move through the hallway to go back to the guest room where my mother and I are allowed to stay whenever we wish, I just want to be alone. I stop at the hallway where we first met, and walk down the hall, my feet make the only sound, a soft pat, pat, pat of skin on marble. I reach the mahogany door at the end of the hall and turn the handle. The room is dark, but my light brightens the darkness to a dim shadow. I freeze. He's here. I don't move at all as he steps into view out from a side room.
I want to run from him, from all thoughts of being touched by anyone in anyway avoiding physical contact. But I can't, I can't do that to him, to us. I take a step forward, and sensing my struggle, he is there. Pulling me to him like a lost doll, clinging like a predator to it's prey, holding as if to comfort a pet. I know not how long he holds me, but soon we are sitting on a reddish brown settee, I am sitting sideways in his lap, held to his chest by two powerful arms. The rest of the room is dark, and the only things visible are us, illuminated by our combined light. My head is nestled in against his neck, he slowly pulls his head back and presses his lips to my forehead, leaving them there in a prolonged caress. I sigh and shudder, I'm safe, so safe that its scary, so at peace that I never want to move. But I do, I shift to break the kiss he has left on my forehead and move to allow him my lips.
At first he is desperately gentle searching for something... silent forgiveness. I pull his head closer and we crash together. Although we had kissed before several times in the meadow, I consider this kiss our first and I swear to always remember it. This kiss doesn't end so much as trail off in to softer kisses slowly until I close my eyes, and safe against his chest, sleep.
Hours later, he brushes the hair from my face possessively lingering on a few stray locks and murmurs that they are beginning to look for me. I mutter incoherently and snuggle closer, only a few choice curses are heard. His chest seems to vibrate and there is a low rumble almost evil sounding, he is chuckling. The Lord of the Underworld, God of Punishment, is laughing at me! I frown, but in my sleepy state this seems to be humorous for he continues to laugh and soon I begin to giggle. Two tears slip from my eyes, with a small smile he kisses them away and lifts me up to stand on the red carpet. He pulls my chin up and tells me to smile, how can I do anything but comply softly. He nods, then kisses my forehead and promises to find me in the meadow and soon we will talk. I am too calm to fret over what we will talk about, so I nod and he disappears. I exit the room and find my mother and we return home.
Two days pass and Hermes flies down with an invitation to a banquet on Olympus. We accept. We live only part time up at Olympus my mother prefers to live down on earth with the trees and the grass in our cottage. Dressed accordingly, we arrive at Mount Olympus being the last ones to arrive, we enter the dining hall and sit down in the reserved seats.
Dinner consists of several courses brought to us by disembodied, floating golden arms. Through the first course, ambrosia, I talk with Artemis who engages me from the moment I sit down so that I don't even have time to look around. She starts talking as if nothing were ever wrong; I love her so much for that. The recent gossip apparently is that Athena and Apollo are betting that they can each send a group to hunt and bring back the Golden Boar of Zeus, who is unaware about this hunt... After the second course arrives, Eros, who is to my left, engages me in conversation.
After a few minutes of Eros and I chatting about some apparently very attractive virgins who threw themselves in the ocean because they couldn't have him, the third course starts, wine-tasting. After a while he begins to talk less and drink more, silly boys. His mother, my Aunt Aphrodite, who is sitting diagonally across from me stirs out of wine goblet and looks at me, "So darling niece, have you found anyone to throw your fancy to? Eros can't help you fall in love, but if there's anyone you want... let us know, by all means." There is a snort of derision from the other end of the table to my right, my mother is very happy with the wine and addresses Aphrodite.
"Hahaha! You know very well she can't fall in love, it's the maiden's job to flutter about without finding true love."
"My dear Demeter, the maiden is part of, but not the entirety of youth and Persephone is the goddess of just that. She can have secret little fancies as well as true love."
"It's not possible." I flushed, He sat at the end on the table, opposite the head where Zeus sat.
"I am the Goddess of Love and I tell you that it's so! Do you question me?" Aphrodite was very, very passionate and didn't like to be insulted and detected possibly intended insult in everything.
"In knowledge, no. But in common sense, yes." My mother smirked, she dearly enjoyed being right and even if she wasn't she thought she should be. Everyone was watching this exchange.
"And what, pray tell, do you mean by that!" Aphrodite stood up and gritted her beautiful teeth.
My mother stood up. "You know exactly what I mean! Getting caught with your lover," she jerked her thumb at the God of War sitting across from Aphrodite, "by your husband!" Indicating the man who sat on Aphrodite's right. "You have no sense of discretion!"
Ares and Hephaestus each had clenched fists and were glaring at each other, enraged at the reminder. Aphrodite reared up, her beautiful face becoming clouded with dangerous passion. "I have no sense of discretion! Who's the one who begins an argument over her own daughter's personality in front of the girl? Your own flesh and blood, true. But you do not rule her, nor know everything about her." Everyone stared at me, my mother's face looked pained as if she didn't want to believe this. "Everyone has secrets." Aphrodite finished and sat, knowing that she had won, she continued to eat. Everyone else was still for several moments, but then, people began to eat and talk again, although considerably softer. Eventually my mother, still furious and taken aback sat and stared at her plate. I stood and, furiously stalked out of the room, Eros followed seconds later. I sat outside the palace in one of the gardens on a little rose colored bench and eventually Eros found me.
"How could she do that to me?" Eros frowned.
"Yours or mine?"
"MY mother! She acts as is she owns me, as if I'm not capable of even existing on my own." I growled in anger and stood pacing, kicking a flower pot out of my way. Eros tried to calm me. "No! Why should I calm down? Tell her to calm down, better yet tell her to leave me alone!"
"Dearest cousin, you aren't thinking clearly, she is your mother."
I spun around and hissed, "You know very well you feel similar about your mother, those "virgins" weren't really virgins were they? Even though your mother thinks that you too should stay pure?" I stopped pacing. "So why should I? Why shouldn't I do something drastic and get back at her?" I stomped my foot and demanded the magic of Olympus to send me to my meadow, my sanctuary. It took a second but I shimmered and disappeared, ignoring Eros' calls after me. It was very rare that I lost my temper, because bad things happened when I did, for example, earthquakes or thunder storms.
I dropped about five feet in the air to the ground, Olympus didn't like being told to do something. I stood up, closed my eyes and called him. He was there, no grand entrance today, just there. I jumped on him, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck, kissing him fiercely. He chuckled once he got over his surprise. "Are you well, my darling?" I simply continued to kiss him in the twilight, he held me up, massaging my back and kissed my neck.
"Take me." He froze. "Please." I whispered into then kissed his ear, his jaw, his lips, anything I could find. "What's the matter? Don't you want to?" He growled loud enough for me to here and nipped and sucked on my neck, I gasped at the feeling and wriggled against him intentionally.
"I can't." He pulled back slowly. I frowned angrily and shoved him away.
"I thought you wanted me, I guess I was wrong. Someone else should then." I started to walk away furious at the rejection. A fierce grip latched to my arm and spun me around, pinning me against the rock wall, my feet inches above the ground.
"You do not know what I long to do to you. You have no idea what I resist every time I see you. The way you move, the way you smell, everything about you drives me mad." He furiously pushed his body against me, so that I could feel everything on our skins separating our souls, he demanded entrance to my mouth. The pressure hurt, there was so much power emanating from him. Then he stepped back and I slumped down to my feet. He stepped away and turned his back on me. "I apologize, I should not have–" I stood still, then stepped forward, touching his arm.
"No, please forgive me, I should not have used you to prove so trivial an issue to my mother." At this confession he didn't say anything and didn't turn around at first, but when he did, the furious power I had seen in those eyes was gone and there was only my reflection. I sighed in relief and he held me gently to him. With a promise to wait for any major next moves until I visited his home, we lay in the grass watching the stars and eventually I fell asleep.
A/N: Like it, hate it? See that little button right there? No, over a little, yes that one, click on it and then review! Remember, a few minutes from you, is most likely going to make my day! hearts