A/N: Hello, everyone!

Not too much to say today, other than HAPPY NATIONAL PIG DAY and PEANUT BUTTER LOVERS' DAY (MARCH 1)!

Hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Peace out,

~silentwolf111

ARTEMIS'S POV

"Jesus freaking Christ!" my brother loudly exclaimed, catching my attention.

I raised an eyebrow.

"You invoke the name of a non-Greek god?" I mused playfully, causing my brother to shoot me a look of irritation.

"No, never mind that, it's just – well, look!"

Apollo thrust the small red heart-shaped box he was holding toward me, his expression encouraging me to open it.

I did so, and immediately found myself very confused… for it seemed that my brother had gotten himself all worked up over what appeared to be an innocent box of chocolates.

"I don't see what the big deal is," I said, eyeing the chocolates curiously. "It appears you have received yet another gift from another one of your insane admirers."

Apollo glared at me annoyingly.

"Okay, first off, my admirers aren't insane. They're quite sensible people who happen to have very good taste in men, thank you very much."

I took this moment to scoff and roll my eyes.

"Second, look at the tag attached to the box."

He pointed to a small ivory-colored card that I had just now noticed was dangling from the lid of the box. I flipped the card over and squinted at the golden script.

"To Apollo, from Aphrodite," I read aloud. "Just thought I'd give you a little something to reward you for all the hard work you've done. P.S… Make sure your sister eats one, too. Don't ask."

I looked up from the words, my eyes meeting those of my brother's.

"Well, that seems a bit suspicious," I said.

"You think?" Apollo replied, taking the box back from my grasp. "The second I picked this thing up, I knew there was something wrong with it. You know, 'God of Prophecy' senses and all. I'll bet you anything she filled this stuff with some sort of twisted potion to make us… you know…"

He didn't even have to finish his sentence, for I did know exactly what he meant. The two of us simultaneously cringed at just the thought of it actually happening.

"All right, so Aphrodite has unsurprisingly attempted – and failed – to make us fall in love," I said. "Why does this matter so much to you?"

My brother set the box of chocolates down and looked back at me.

"Well, you see, sis, I'm annoyed. And I'm annoyed because this isn't the first time this has happened."

Now, that caught my attention.

"Oh?" I questioned. "She's tried something like this before?"

Apollo chuckled, hints of irritation still showing on his face.

"You have no idea," he said. "She's been sending me tons of stuff for a couple of months now. First there was the golden apple; as if I'd fall for something like that. Then she sent a bouquet of enchanted flowers. And they just kept coming and coming…"

He paused for a second and let out a small laugh.

"Do you know what she sent me this one time?" he questioned, and I shook my head no. "She sent me a small bottle of perfume with a label that said 'Make sure Artemis is around when you use this'."

I rolled my eyes in response, and Apollo took this as a sign to continue.

"Anyway," he said, "the 'gifts' have been getting more and more frequent this past week. As soon as I manage to get rid of one package, another immediately arrives! It's nothing but an endless cycle, and it's driving me out of my mind!"

He huffed in frustration as I patted his shoulder comfortingly.

"I suppose the best thing to do is just wait it out," I said. "Hopefully she'll take it as a sign that her intentions to get us together are never going to happen, no matter what she dreams of in that twisted mind of hers."

"I hope you're right," Apollo sighed, getting up to leave. "For both your sake and mine."

With that, he vanished in a puff of smoke, and I took this as my cue to leave as well.

I flashed out of the room, my last thoughts being those of hope that Aphrodite would quit pestering my brother and get rid of her silly motives once and for all.

But, in the back of my mind, I knew that this was Aphrodite we were talking about. So I figured that this most likely wasn't going to be the case.

And, gods above, was I right.

.oOo.

"Well done, ladies, you're doing a wonderful job," I remarked as I strolled down the line of hunters currently practicing their aim.

I studied each girl's gaze as I walked past, noting their determined eyes set on the target and the beads of sweat forming on their faces as they focused intently on driving their arrows through the bullseye with as much sheer force as possible.

They were able to execute this flawlessly, of course, having practiced their archery skills countless times over the past several hundred years.

So, to be fair, this session of target practice was nothing out of the ordinary.

I nodded in satisfaction, happy that the huntresses' skills were as sharp as ever and everything was going smoothly.

Well, almost everything.

As I neared the end of the line, I noticed one particular huntress struggling with the routine a bit more than usual. Though she concealed it well, it appeared as though her thoughts were not centered around the target practice, but rather around something else instead. Her blue eyes were constantly shifting, and it seemed that she was having trouble focusing on the task at hand.

I frowned, for this was very unusual of her.

I approached the huntress in question, and she immediately lowered her bow when she realized I wished to speak with her.

"Thalia," I acknowledged.

"Lady Artemis," said huntress replied with a respectful bow.

It was then that she seemed to take in the look of concern I wore, for her expression quickly morphed into one of worry.

"I-Is something wrong?" Thalia inquired, eyes slightly widened.

"You tell me," I said. "Are you alright? You seem less… attentive as usual. Is something on your mind?"

Thalia blushed and averted her eyes, shaking her head persistently.

"No, no, it's nothing," she said quickly, "I'm fine, my lady. I was just, uh… thinking."

I raised an eyebrow.

"Might I ask of what?" I questioned.

"Well..." Thalia hesitated for a bit, "Of you, Lady Artemis."

"Of me?"

"More specifically, your brother," the huntress quickly added before I could further inquire. "I was just thinking about how he hasn't visited for a while, that's all."

I pondered on this for a moment.

"Yes," I said thoughtfully. "It has been a while since Apollo has uninvitingly dropped in, hasn't it? The last I saw of him was about a week ago. "

As I stood there facing the huntress, a thought suddenly hit me.

"Thalia…" I slowly questioned, an eyebrow raised. "You wouldn't happen to be worried about him, would you?"

The girl's eyes widened immediately with disgust.

"N-NO!" Thalia half-shouted, ignoring the slight glances from the other hunters. "Ah, I mean, no, my lady. I'm not worried at all; he's a god, so surely he knows how to take care of himself. If anything, the week without flirting or singing or terrible poetry has been rather relaxi-"

It was then that Thalia's gaze shifted to something behind me, and the huntress let out a sudden groan.

I didn't have to look to know what she was groaning at; I had felt the presence, and quite frankly I was trying not to groan myself.

"Speak of the devil…" I muttered under my breath as I turned around to greet our visitor. "What in Hades do you want, Brother? Make it quick, and don't-"

My voice died mid-sentence, for it had dawned upon me that something was wrong.

Apollo leapt out of his chariot, swiftly walking past the line of glaring hunters with not so much as a glance in their direction. His lips were pressed together in a thin line, and the look on his face was one of complete seriousness as he made his way toward me.

"…Apollo?" I said, concerned that my brother not only appeared surprisingly serious but had also overlooked the opportunity to make a pass at the hunters.

By now, even the hunters had noticed this change in attitude, and they regarded him with curiosity.

My brother came to a stop in front of me and cleared his throat.

"Ladies, I'm going to have to borrow my sister for a while," he said sternly, eyes still fixed on me. "I need to speak with her. Alone."

Wordlessly, I took my brother by the hand and led him to a clearing in the nearby woods, far enough away that the hunters wouldn't be able to hear our conversation.

The two of us stopped walking, and Apollo let out a breath.

"That's it," he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in frustration. "I'm done!"

In a sudden fit of rage, he punched a fist into a nearby tree, causing it to burst into flames. I extinguished it with a swift wave of my hand and turned onto my brother with a hard gaze.

"Brother," I said sternly. "Calm yourself. Do not take your anger out on innocent life forms that did no wrong to you."

Apollo bit his lip and blinked hardly, obviously trying his best to control his barely-contained anger.

"Yeah, um, sorry 'bout that, sis," he muttered, running a hand through his blonde locks. "Forgot you were sensitive about that sort of thing."

I inclined my head.

"Very well," I said. "Now, would you care to explain the reason for your visit? I would very much like to know what exactly you are 'done' with."

"I'm done with her," Apollo said. "Aphrodite! It happened again!"

"For the love of Zeus, Brother," I said, mildly frustrated by this point. "Need I keep questioning you to kindly explain the entire situation? What is the 'it' you are speaking of?"

"You know, the whole 'let's try to get the twins to fall in love by drowning Apollo in endless but completely useless gifts' scheme?" my brother said, doing a terrible job at hiding the irritation in his voice. "I'm sick of it! I've had enough! I'm done!"

He paused, obviously waiting for my reaction, but all I could do was breathe a sigh of relief.

"Oh, is that it?" I said. "For a moment, I was genuinely concerned something was wrong."

Apollo blinked, staring at me with his mouth slightly agape.

"Are you kidding me?" he said. "Something is wrong, sis! You're not the one being swamped with useless junk!"

He walked over to a nearby tree and sat down, his back leaning against the trunk.

"Just today, not even an hour ago, I received a letter in the mail," Apollo continued. "Want to know what it was?"

"Enlighten me."

"It was a love spell. I don't even know where she got it from, but thank the gods I had the sense not to read it aloud," my brother said. "And, gods dang it, she even wrote it in the form of a haiku! And it's not even a good one!"

I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, and you would certainly know all about that, now wouldn't you?" I mused. "Now, Apollo, if this is all you came to see me about, my advice to you remains the same: ignore her, and just keep your patience until the gifts die down."

"Artemis, you don't get it, do you?" Apollo said, looking at me with an unreadable expression. "It never ends! And it probably never will! You see, she's just doing this to make me go crazy, and then sooner or later I'll just snap, and then, while my guard is let down, she'll find a way for one of her plans to actually work and then we'll fall in love with each other and then it will turn into another one of those crazy love stories where we both go insane and possibly die in the end, but that would be impossible since gods can't die, but still, it'd be about as close as we can get, and, and – "

He choked out a sob, cradling his head in his hands.

"Apollo!" I half-shouted at the pathetic form before me. "Get a grip."

He looked up at me and let out a soft whimper, causing me to roll my eyes once more.

"And, for the gods' sake, stop being so overly dramatic."

"I'm not overly dramatic," my brother pouted as he pushed himself into a standing position.

"Right," I said, not even trying to hide the sarcasm in my voice.

"You know what, sis?" Apollo asked as he started to pace back and forth across the clearing. "We've gotta… We've gotta do something…"

"Oh? And just what do you suppose?"

"We could get Hephaestus to build a huge catapult to throw her into Tartarus and put her in one of those golden nets so she can't escape… Or we could cover her in gravy and feed her to the hellhounds. Or, better yet, we could gouge out her eyes and vomit in her empty sockets – wait, no, that's too overrated, not to mention it would be super gross… Oh, I know, we could-"

I stared at him while he continued muttering to himself, unsure whether to feel amused or utterly disgusted.

In the end, I settled for annoyance.

"Brother," I snapped, causing him to stop in his tracks and shift his gaze toward me. "Get a hold of yourself. We will be doing nothing of the sort."

"Fine," he shot me a look. "Then what do you suggest we do?"

"We could possibly talk to Hecate and convince her to take away Aphrodite's love-making powers for one week," I said. "Hopefully it would teach her a lesson or two."

Apollo thought about this for a brief moment, then nodded.

"All right," he agreed. "Sounds like a plan. Do you really think it would work?"

"Well, seeing as it sounds more sensible than any of your bright ideas," I said, causing my brother to scowl at me, "yes, I believe it's worth a shot."

I glanced back at my hunters, who were completely oblivious to the situation as they continued to practice their archery.

I suppose I can leave them alone for a little while… After all, they know how to care for themselves.

I turned back to Apollo and heaved a sigh.

"We'd better make this quick, Brother," I said. "We have a lot of explaining to do."