Years after the war, Prometheus constantly visited Hestia as she played and nurtured the Flame. Now that the Flame was in the hands of the gods, she had become much calmer, more beautiful, and much more graceful, though she still flickered and constantly changed forms. She maintained a bit of a temper, but she loved everything and longed to learn more.

As Prometheus gave Hestia an update on how the world of the mortals fared, he gazed at the young little flame. She excitedly played with some of the cruder creatures that Prometheus kept creating for her out of mud-a goat, a chicken, and a duck. The Flame found them fascinating though they weren't fully living creatures. Just imitations.

Zeus had forbidden the child from meeting any creatures other than those of their allies. Hestia had gotten special dispensation to have Prometheus help since he'd been such a useful ally in the war. Besides, he was one of Hestia's closest friends outside of her immediate family.

"How is she doing?" Prometheus asked after the Flame.

"Just as curious as always. Excited to learn whatever I share with her."

"He still doesn't let her get out much?" Prometheus asked. He reached into his bucket of mud and formed the image of a ceramic donkey in the rapidly hardening material. Hestia smiled at the tiny little creature.

Hestia shook her head. "My brother just wants to keep her safe."

They both knew what she'd been referring to. It hadn't taken a few hours of the Flame coming with Hestia before all the Olympians (that was what they called themselves now that Mount Olympus had become their home) had gotten a massive surge in strength. Zeus had immediately demanded that the Eternal Flame be kept safe and happy. He also demanded that she be locked up. Hestia had volunteered to watch the little goddess. She rarely left the hearth where the Flame burned chipperly.

"You know that's exactly how your father put it."

Hestia frowned. She never liked the comparison to that side of her family. Days? Decades? Centuries? later, she still hurt from her father's betrayal. Unlike her siblings, she'd actually known him to be a caring parent. Leastwise until he swallowed her.

"She's such a free spirit," Prometheus murmured. "But stuck like this… she'll never get to grow bigger."

The Flame cooed at him.

"You want to grow up, don't you?"

The Flame giggled and did a somersault.

Prometheus shook his head with amused delight but stood up. He constantly rushed from place to place trying to help as best as he could. "I must be off. I shall return as soon as I get the chance." He turned a warm smile towards Hestia.

Hestia smiled back. "See if you can sneak in one of your mortals when you come back. I'm sure she would love to meet one of them."

Prometheus winked at her; they often smuggled little creations from the world to introduce the Flame to. "I'll see what I can do."

Prometheus showed up next about a week later. Hestia nearly missed him because of council meetings. Apparently, Poseidon and Demeter had just had a 'fling' together and a magic horse had resulted. They were both arguing over who would get to raise it. As Hestia entered in the middle of an argument involving a lot of swearing, she caught sight of her sister, Hera, who gave the goddess one of her typical slightly sarcastic smiles. It seemed that their siblings were all planning on getting settled down soon. At least it looked that way with all the romances and dalliances they had with each other. Hera and Hestia had both secretly promised each other that they wouldn't get dragged into the ridiculous rabble-rousing. Hestia had never had any urge to follow her siblings' examples and have a fling. Besides, this way she could always be there for them without anything to make the relationship awkward.

"Believe it or not," Hera muttered as Hestia had taken her seat next to her. "Zeus had the nerve to try and court me. I finally got him off my back. I promised him that I would marry him if I let him into my room." Hera giggled. "But that'll never happen." Then Hera seemed to blink and blush slightly. "But what if he does? That would be so romantic." It appeared Hestia was the only one of her siblings with her head on straight in the end. Well, other than Hades, but he always claimed that he was holding out until he found someone perfect. Someone so perfect that they'd consent to living in his underground domain.

Hades constantly wrote her many letters (sent by ravens) telling her how busy he was in his new kingdom. He constantly explored it as well as gathered the gems and natural wonders he found there. He also constantly turned down Hestia's invitations to come and visit Olympus.

Finally, the meeting ended when Demeter suddenly demanded custody rights of the child she had in her stomach. It wasn't clear who she'd had a kid with this time, but she seemed most insistent that Zeus be the one to make a vow that her child was hers, and hers alone. She also declared that she wasn't going to give birth before everyone agreed that this baby belonged to her.

"When I'm busy, you can watch her, though. I trust you not to run off with my little Kore," Demeter secretly told Hestia as they left. "You did a fine job with all of us. Now excuse me, I have a baby to deliver."

Hestia returned wearily to her spot at the hearth to find Prometheus distracting the little Flame with a few pieces of tinder that he had given her. The Flame kept trying to swallow them whole but finally figured out how to just lick the wood. The Flame looked rather pleased with herself at this discovery.

"You look exhausted."

Hestia nodded. "My siblings are all going crazy and having children with just about everything they come across."

Prometheus nodded. "That makes sense. They're young and you just won a victory. They're just busy celebrating. They'll calm down eventually and get married. I'm sure at that point they'll beat us at companionship and matrimony as well. Though that was something we were good at, for the most part."

Hestia nodded. "Whatever else he struggled with, my father was completely devoted to my mother." She smiled at the memory of the two of them just smiling down at her and counting each of her toes and fingers with joy. A better memory than staring down her father's maw as it grew larger and larger.

"Anyhow, you look like you need a distraction," Prometheus told her. "I listened to you last time and brought a friend." He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a little figure. It had two heads and four arms.

"They're so cute," Hestia exclaimed. "I love them. What are you calling them?"

"Humans," Prometheus told her. "This one's name is Bob."

"They have their own names!?"

Hestia looked at the little figure on Prometheus' palm. It looked at her and gave a deep bow.

"I love them!"

Prometheus blushed.

"I'd hoped you would say that. Part of why I joined your side was for them. During your parents' time, they didn't quite understand them. I fashioned them out of clay, and you know that clay creations don't always last so long." Hestia nodded. "Your father's favorite thing to do was to catch one of them in a time loop and to speed it up just to see them turn to dirt again." Hestia shuddered. That did sound like her father. "The other Titans ignored them or hunted them because they didn't recognize them as living beings."

Hestia gazed at the being in Prometheus' palm. It certainly looked real to her. She caught Prometheus' gaze and they smiled at each other. It was the knowing smile of two good friends sharing a secret.

"If I'm being honest, I brought Bob here, because he's the bravest-"

"-The bravest!" Bob peeped up. His voice sounded slightly pitchy but proud. Hestia jumped a bit. She hadn't expected the creature to be able to talk, but Prometheus never did things by halves. Unless doing things by halves was the best plan of action.

Prometheus smiled at his creation.

"And besides for letting our very own friend, the Flame of Olympus-" The Flame giggled at this title "-meet them and learn about them. I was hoping to maybe get you to sponsor them."

He put down Bob, who scurried over to introduce himself to the Flame.

Hestia blushed. "I'm honored and I would love to, but I'm not sure my siblings would see how they fall under my domain."

"I thought about that," Prometheus told her. "You're the goddess of hearth, home, and family, right?"

Hestia nodded. She shared the latter position with her sister, Hera.

"These amazing beings," he gestured to Bob, "do just that. They create families. They have children. They create homes. All by themselves."

He gazed at Hestia beseechingly.

"I'll do what I can," she promised. Already she knew she wanted to care more for these little beings.

Prometheus smiled then gasped. Bob and the Flame had begun playing together. The Flame clearly loved the little creature. She kept watching him intently. The creature, in return, busied itself with creating some sort of tool.

Hestia gasped as she recognized it. Bob had just created a little hammer and started using it to make little homes out of the logs that the Flame had given Bob to play. They seemed to build on each other. Then Bob took a sharp pebble and started to use it to carve the image of a flower out of the log he held.

The Flame watched Bob carve with a focus Hestia had never seen from the Flame before. She seemed more content than Hestia had witnessed before. If Hestia had harbored any doubts before, this completely sold her on humans.

About a month later, Prometheus brought up the idea to give the Flame to humanity. The gods had turned down Hestia when she'd asked to take the little humans under her wings. Even Hera, now happily married to Zeus, had just laughed.

"Listen, sister, you've got the sweetest heart of all of us, but what use can those little mortals have? They're only temporary and I know you find them endearing now, but they'll fade eventually."

Zeus, still mostly in his honeymoon phase, agreed with his wife. He looked happier than he'd been, particularly since Hera was now pregnant with his first (hopefully of many) child.

So, Hestia and Prometheus had to come up with a new plan. They had to find a way to make Hestia's family realize just how precious the little beings were. However, revealing how well humanity and the Flame had interacted had only led Zeus to crack down on the little slips of fire they'd let slip to warm humanity. The worst bit was that it had occurred just as they'd (Prometheus mostly) managed to convince the gods to give humanity the more edible part of the sacrifices.

When Prometheus had first offered the idea to steal the Flame to Hestia, she laughed. He couldn't be serious. But he was.

"I've been doing a lot of thinking. You saw how well the Flame and Bob worked together. He made her happy and she gave him inspiration and knowledge." Prometheus smiled fondly at the memory. "I've thought about that a lot. I've concluded this means that they belong together. You can't tell me that the Flame will be perfectly happy cooped up here."

Hestia shook her head. The Flame constantly asked after Bob. She longed to see him and to see the world. She longed to explore, to grow, and to give. Hestia had given her far more safety and freedom than the Titans had, but her curiosity remained unsated. Hestia guessed that she was the only reason the Flame hadn't already tried to sneak in the cracks they'd let her peek out of. The Flame saw Hestia as a mother, and she clung to her. Hestia, in turn, saw the Flame as yet another one of her children (she kind of saw her siblings that she'd raised in her father's stomach and their extended family as her adopted children).

Hestia nodded. "We need to be careful. Zeus won't be too pleased about this plan."

Every day he seemed more paranoid about losing the Flame, and every day seemed more insistent that Hestia not let anyone else near the Flame. Any questions were met with threats to have the Flame taken from her purview.

"Then we just can't get caught until we've done it. Once we succeed there will be nothing he can do about it. Once she's free, there'll be no cage that could hold her."

He reached out and stroked the Flame's little head. She leaned, relaxed, against Prometheus. She saw him as a father figure too. Hestia saw the same joy in his eyes that was reflected in her own when he was around her.

"We're going to let you out to see the world, dear," Hestia told the child. The Flame smiled gently and seemed to fall asleep.

It took them a year to finally come up with a plan. They probably would have been able to get it done earlier if Hera and Zeus hadn't immediately gotten into some marriage trouble. Apparently about a month after the wedding, Zeus had enjoyed an affair with the Titaness, Leto, and fathered some kids. Hera had found out and naturally felt betrayed.

"I think I might have gone a bit overboard though," Hera admitted. "The woman was supposed to have twins."

She sat with her knees clutched to her chest rocking in front of the Flame who presently tried to dance, something that Prometheus had taught her.

"Supposed to?" Hestia asked.

"You didn't kill them, did you?" Prometheus asked, worriedly.

"I know all about you and your friendship with Leto," Hera coldly told Prometheus. Not all of Hestia's family were too pleased about all the time she and Prometheus spent together, planning. Though Hestia had assured her sister multiple times that they were just friends, Hera constantly told her that she should marry much higher than a Titan. "And no, I didn't kill them. I'm not my father. I don't murder babies."

Prometheus looked relieved. "At least the babies are alright."

Hera scowled. "Define alright. They don't exist."

When Prometheus pressed her to explain herself Hera finally told them what she'd done. She looked a bit bashful and more than a little bit guilty as she did so.

"I might have prevented them from being born."

Hestia gasped, quietly. Though it wasn't exactly the same, she imagined never being saved from her father. Never seeing the sun again. Never truly existing. Spending the rest of eternity fighting her father to protect her little siblings' essences.

"I went a tad bit overboard, didn't I?"

Hestia did her best to hide how bad she shook, wanting to find something that she could say to both help her sister and ensure she never did something like that again. Prometheus seemed to notice how unnerved Hestia was. He gently grabbed and pulled her towards him, trying his best to steady her. He helped her keep the nausea down that came from her thinking about her nieces or nephews that she'd never meet.

"How in the world did you manage that?" Prometheus demanded.

"It was simple. I got a bit worked up and ran around demanding every piece of land that I could see not to let Leto go into labor there. I told my daughter that in no circumstance whatsoever was she allowed to let the Titanness go into labor, and I even tied her up just to be sure. Oh, and I sent Python to chase them just to really make sure she wouldn't find any safety." Hera looked a bit flushed and more than a little annoyed. Her lower lip also trembled a bit just like she used to when she got upset as a little girl in her father's stomach. As much as she disliked what Hera had done, Hestia couldn't help but wonder how much pain her sister must be in.

Her urge to tell off her sister faded. Her sister clearly already felt guilty about what she'd done. She didn't need Hestia to hammer the lesson in. Besides, hopefully now Zeus would learn his lesson about having dalliances without first making sure his new wife felt comfortable with them.

Hestia gently pushed Prometheus' arms away and gazed at her sister.

"When did you find out?"

"Yesterday when she showed up to tell my spouse that she was pregnant." Hera scowled at the memory.

"That must have really hurt," Hestia sympathized as best she could. She couldn't imagine how betrayed she would have been to have been cheated on. Particularly in her own domain. She also couldn't imagine how much guilt Hera felt at her reaction.

"I forgot Delos, though," Hera mumbled to herself. "Styx, I forgot Delos. I forgot to make that stupid floating island promise as well."

"Then it's alright," Hestia told her, feeling relieved, and pulled her sister into a hug. "She can give birth there and you can stop feeling so guilty. Prometheus, you'll free her daughter?"

Prometheus nodded and ran off.

Hera burst into tears. "I just feel so useless. I can't even keep my husband happy."

Hestia shook her head. "It isn't you. That isn't on you. How is little Ares doing, by the way? And Enyo?"

Hera gave a hurt little laugh.

"You always know how to cheer me up," she told her sister. "He's become quite the fierce fighter. His sister Enyo keeps him at it, though. They've become quite a handful, at times."

Hestia smiled; she knew what her sister meant. Enyo and Ares always quarreled when they'd been left by her, though Hestia had always been able to calm them down with a few words.

"You know what," Hera told Hestia. "I'll try to talk to Zeus about this tonight. Maybe we can come to a compromise to smooth over our marriage or something. Maybe we'll get lucky?"

A week later Hera gave birth to the adorable little Hebe. The newest goddess was sweet and kind and loved visiting Hestia.

A month later Hestia found herself comforting Hera about her husband again. Apparently, he had just revealed to her that he'd swallowed his first wife. Apparently, somewhere in their relationship he'd gotten word that they would sire an offspring wiser than himself and, in a panic, swallowed her. In fact, he'd only told Hera because of his recent migraines…

"I really messed up that time," Hera admitted. "I figured I'd show my husband to swallow women," Hera told Hestia. "I got myself pregnant, all by myself. To show I didn't need him. Only when I gave birth, the baby was so hideous I just reflexively tossed him off Olympus."

Hera shuddered. "I don't know where he is now, and I just want him back."

Naturally, Hestia and Prometheus had to take the next month to search for the child. They recruited Poseidon and he helped them find the young god. The missing baby had apparently gone on to become a very successful blacksmith in the world below.

They took Hephaestus, that was the name of the child, back with them back to Olympus only to find Zeus in a state of pure agony, clutching his head. His migraines had apparently gotten worse.

Hestia rushed over to try and ease her brother's pain.

"I'm dying!" Zeus wailed. Hera looked on at her spouse nervously. "Get Eileithyia." Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, was another one of Zeus' kids with Hera. Hestia wasn't sure why she was important to headaches, but Hermes (yet another of Zeus' kids and a sweet kid) disappeared and quickly returned with her.

Hephaestus turned confused to Hestia. "What's going on?"

Hephaestus held the Minoan ax he'd been working on in one hand. Hestia glanced at the gathered collection of gods. Prometheus glanced around beside her. All of them stared nervously at the screaming god in the center. "This is coming from Metis?" Prometheus asked Zeus. Zeus nodded.

"I've seen this before," Prometheus said calmly. "Hold still." He grabbed the ax out of Hephaestus' hand and swung it in a swift motion. Zeus' skull split in two but in an instant, it had returned to normal. Glowing a few feet in the air was a beautiful fully grown goddess decked out in full armor.

"It's about time," the goddess greeted everyone. "Hello, my name is Athena, and I am the goddess of wisdom, crafts, and war. It is a pleasure to meet you all."

Hera blinked and held out an open hand. She seemed a bit taken aback. "Welcome to the family, my daughter?"

"Thanks," Athena smiled. "Anyone have some olives? I'm famished."

As she was led off to the kitchens with Hera explaining that no one had ever heard of olives, Hestia overheard a whisper conversation between Zeus and Prometheus.

"Don't worry, she will be your strongest ally. This child will not be a threat to you," Prometheus seemed to be assuring Zeus of something.

Zeus nodded then looked nervous. "Does that mean you know which of my children will attempt to overthrow me?"

Prometheus' silence answered the question well enough.

A/N: Hi all! Thank you for reading.