A Kite in the Iliad

LapisAthena

Lover's Talk, Among other things

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Puck and Briar, however Homer does own stuff and so does Joss. Lucky bastards.

Briar sat down on a chair across from Hector. His cold eyes met hers and she flinched.

"I supposed you wouldn't want the cliff notes?" she asked hopefully.

"I want the whole story."

"I'll take that as a no." He shot her a glare that clearly said 'Get on with the story'. She winced; Hector seemed too gentle to be an angry person. She didn't like having his anger directed toward her. "When I was 22 I was happily married and I was with a child, two months along." She started, (A/N: for the purpose of this story Willow made all potentials fully endowed Slayers that were 16-26 while anyone under are just potentials and over are normal.) "On the day Willow, the woman who made everyone Slayers, worked her spell, I lost my child. I suppose now it was the new overload of powers rushing through my veins. My husband left me. I went into a depression. I couldn't eat, nor sleep. Things were happening to me I didn't understand, dreams that frightened me and at the same time gave me a sense of longing. I found strength I didn't know I possessed, hard tasks suddenly ridiculously simple. Then Buffy came to me, the original Slayer of our time."

"What is a Slayer?"

"Into each generation a Slayer is born, one girl in all of the world. One born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to find where they gather and stop the spread of their evil and swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer." She recited to him. "Slayers have strength of 20 men, or so. They have speed unmatched. Their sensory so acute they could hear a mile away. All of the knowledge before them is in this blood. And the best, they are all women." She said with a small smile.

"So you are one of these Slayers?"

"Yes."

"Tell me the rest." He demanded.

"One night, I walked though dark alleyways, hoping to met my death. There I met a man. He turned on me. Vicious and snarling, his face mutated into that of a demon. He lunged at me. Before he could even react I broke off a piece of wood from a crate and stabbed him in his heart. He burst into dust and floated away in the wind. He was a vampire. Scared out of my wits I ran as fast as I could, but Buffy found me. She tried to convince me to join their army. I refused. Telling her how she ruined my life, how she had ruined others lives. Eventually they found me, huddled up in my apartment. I screamed, I yelled, trying to refute my destiny. Eventually I gave up. This wasn't something I could stop. This was something I was born to do. The reason I was created. I was blessed and cursed." She bowed her head as the tears filled in her eyes. Immediately a thought came to her mind, 'Slayers are mindless killing machines, they don't cry.' Oh, who had said that? She wondered this with anguish. A gentle hand on her shoulder brought her to the real world.

"Don't think of it that way. Think of it as a circumstance."

"Some circumstance." She muttered bitterly.

"Now, now… don't say that…" he wiped an escaped tear from her cheek. "Be grateful that the gods choose you."

"I don't want to be chosen anymore. I want to be normal." She whispered as she dropped her head. His hand cupped her chin and he forced her head up. Violet clashed with chocolate as her eyes met his soft brown ones.

"You can have it back." He whispered. "You could be normal once more. Insist on not training."

"I can't, it's in my blood. I can't stop, not ever."

"But you can deaden it. You can muffle it."

"I don't want to."

"Then you can't be normal."

"I can try."

"Tell me how you got here." He said abruptly. It startled her, and it took a moment for her to collect her thoughts.

"Dawn, our other friend, has a power to create a portal between dimensions and time. There were demons trying to open a hell dimension, Dawn was doing a spell, trying to close it. She was too close. She started to get sucked into the portal. Thalia and I went to grab her but we both got sucked in. Next thing I knew I was laying beneath the statue of Apollo and his temple had already been sacked. We waited for a day but got bored. I went scouting and Thalia came after me. I don't know what happened to Dawn." She tossed her hair out of the way and for the first time he seemed to notice her lack of proper clothing. His jaw went slack as he gave her a once over.

"You should get to your room. We'll discuss your… predicament later." She nodded and hurried to her room.

"So you came here for glory?" Dawn asked Achilles as he was cleaning his sword.

"Yes. I had two choices, stay and be forgotten. Or leave and become a legend."

"Isn't it a bit well… depressing?"

"How so?" Dawn liked conversing with him; he really wasn't a stupid Neanderthal as she pictured him to be.

"You know, you don't get to have kids or have a spouse or anything because you're busy fighting and trying to make yourself unforgettable."

"Isn't that the way it is with Slayers?" he asked, leveling his sky blue gaze with her stormy blue one.

"Yes and no. We do it because it's our job. We don't have a choice. You, however, do. I'm never going to find a husband who understands. I'll probably be dead by the time I'm 24 so that rules out having kids, and people will never know about me, so there's nothing to forget." He reached for her and tilted her chin up to meet his gaze.

"I'll know about you, those people who you saved know about you. You do have a choice. Always, Dawn." His voice was husky and his face barely two inches from her own. His hot breath puffed in her face. "And… who says you have to be wedded to have children…" within seconds he closed the distance between them and captured her lips in a gentle kiss. He broke away within moments, he was breathing heavily with desire and Dawn groaned as his lips left hers.

"Don't stop…" she whispered.

"Never…" he murmured into her ear as he nibbled lightly on her ear. He moved to her neck and she groaned again.

"Achilles…" He toyed with a stand of her silk hair. Her fingers were splayed across his chest as if to push him away. "May what big muscles you have…" she purred out. He smirked and pulled her to the mess of sheets and padding that passed for a bed. She pulled away slightly and curled in his arms.

"You wouldn't without my permission?" She asked sleepily.

"Never." Oh, but he wanted to… so badly.

Puck blearily opened her eyes. Too bright. She snuggled deeper into her bed partner, and then froze. She glanced under the sheets and gave a groan of exasperation as she realized that all of their clothes were missing. 'Oh, thank you…' she thought sarcastically as she looked to the heavens. And that's when her bed partner woke up. He shifted up onto his elbows and smiled at her.

"Good morning." He practically chirped out. She got out of bed without answering, keeping her eyes firmly planted on the floor, and the sheet firmly wrapped around her body while he was left with a thicker sheet, perhaps a quilt.

"I have to get going." She said and went to the door. He stumbled from the bed sadly without much grace. Paris caught her arm and pulled her close to him.

"Didn't any of last night mean anything to you." He breathed out.

"No. Paris you're a grieving man… and I don't how long I'll be here… it will be better if we didn't get involved…" she said gently pushing him away. Instead of backing off he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Tell me you don't feel something…" he whispered in her ear as he laid gentle kisses on her neck and shoulder. She groaned as he did so.

"N-no…" she panted out, "I don't…" as she said so his grip tightened.

"Don't do this to me…" he whimpered as his hand curled around the sheet. He pulled it from her and tugged her to the bed while she insisted that she didn't feel anything. Their tan bodies pressed against as she kissed him so soundly.

"Not again… we can't…" she moaned even as they did.

They met in the training yard. Both held swords. "I want you to watch my movement." He commanded. She nodded and watched him as he deftly moved the sword in a swoop. She followed him movement. They went through series of moves, he occasionally adjusted her movement. They were taking a short break when she smiled up at him.

"Hector-." She said but was cut off by his gentle hand on her mouth.

"Shh." He cocked his head to the left, as if listening to something. "Do you hear that?" his eyebrows furrowed. She also cocked her head.

"It sounds like…" their wide eyes met. And then they were laughing. Laughing so hard they fell to the ground. Grinning at the moaned of names from Lovers mouths. When they were done they both stood.

"I haven't laughed like that since…" he trailed off and averted his eyes.

"Andromeche died?"

"Yes." He said quietly. "I think we are done here."

"After my bath I'll bring you dinner, and then retire. If that's okay with you?"

"It's fine." He said, he had foolishly bonded with his servant. A stupid thing to do. He watched her leave, her slim hips swaying ever so slightly as she moved to the door. Without looking back she went inside.

A/N: so that's the second chapter. Next one will have a lot more Dawn/Achilles in it. And mayhap a little Hector/Briar. Of course in the next few chapters Paris and Puck have to sort this relationship out.

Kathy- Yeah Dawn is my female character too, next to Willow of course, Buffy isn't the type of person I would like very much.

ShvrMeTmbrs05- Shank ya very much. Ummm, thanks for not kissing me literally. Now I'm freezing! But that's a yay because its really friggin' humid in my house, the A/C broke! And yes this will be a Dawn/Achilles, I love the pairing!

Queen of the Myrmidon- Hi to you too! And I've joined as you can see!