Happiness' End Chapter 6: The Trials of Pain, an oh my goddess! fanfic

A/N: This is my first shot at an AMG related fic. Although the story line follows fairly closely to the manga at the beginning, that is all that will be related to it.

Further notes that should be noted are that if you HAVE NOT read the manga past volume 19, you should NOT read this story, as it is a tangent off a major plot line in volumes 19 and 20, but involve different situations that didn't happen in the manga.

I honestly have no idea how long this fic will be, it depends on whether or not I believe it's finished.

I also took inspiration from this next part from one of Slayer6's fiction crossovers known as "Neon Genesis: Goddess – Return of the Red Haired Devil" as well as the AMG TV series from an episode based off of Hasegawa's trials.

Happiness' End

End of Chapter 5:

After her morning bath, she moved into the kitchen to prepare breakfast for her sisters. She noticed the thermos on the counter and smiled, Keiichi had made her Darjeeling tea again before he had left.

She went and prepared herself a cup of tea and slowly drank it. It tasted a bit bitter that morning, perhaps Keiichi was in a bit of a hurry.

As she finished off her second cup and got to work on breakfast, things were set in motion.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Belldandy's mood began to change from bright and cheery to something else.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6: The Trials of Pain

As the day progressed, things seemed normal around the temple. Belldandy spent some alone time in the forest around the temple and in her little garden that she kept off to the side. Urd and Skuld were in their ever present mood of constant bickering about certain privileges.

The day passed quickly and a little quietly, as Belldandy had implored help from her siblings doing various chores and just relaxing. Everything was clean and orderly and Belldandy had dinner already prepared for the four of them. She kept getting a strange feeling while doing her chores and what she loved and she couldn't quite place it.

A little after 5 pm, a voice rang through the temple as usual.

"I'm home!" Keiichi called as he removed his soiled work shoes. 'I need to get another pair soon, those are wearing out,' he thought to himself as he heard the usual footsteps. He turned and looked at Belldandy, who was wearing a smile with her hand against the doorway staring at him.

Belldandy was watching him with a rather intense look on her face, as well as a strange and almost primal feeling that was building in her. She slowly walked to Keiichi and embraced him and sighed. He grinned and returned the embrace, but before he could say anything, Belldandy had caught him in a rather odd kiss. She kissed him with an unusual aggression, which made him a little startled, but he soon returned her affection. What surprised him even more was when he could feel a bit of tongue enter the kiss, which he immediately pulled away from. He looked at her in confusion as she smiled rather seductively.

"Welcome home, Keiichi-san," she said rather lustfully.

Almost immediately, he looked to Urd and asked, "Alright Urd, what'd you do to or give her now?"

Urd looked at him rather indignantly, "Why? Surprised you got a little more than you bargained for? It's not my fault, so don't go pointing fingers at me."

Skuld just sat there and stared at what her favorite sister had done with a mortal. She was still in denial about their feelings for each other and still tried to break them up as often as possible. A few times she had interrupted certain special moments between the two, and to her surprise received displeased looks from her sister.

"Dinner will be ready shortly ok?" Belldandy said gently as she walked away with a slight spring in her step. All three room occupants just stared at where she walked off to. To them it was a bit of a surprise, albeit a welcome one in Keiichi's case.

Soon, all four sat down to the usual wonderful dinner prepared by Belldandy. Numerous times Keiichi had joked with her saying she was also the Goddess of Good Food in addition to her status as a Norn. She just shook her head and smiled, saying it would look bad for her if she tried to take someone else's job.

The usual dinner talk prompted the usual arguments between the eldest and the youngest of the three sisters with the middle trying to calm them both down. Keiichi usually watched these skirmishes with amusement, but tonight was different. Instead of her immediately stopping it, Belldandy was looking at him rather oddly for a while before turning her attention to her sisters. The fight was all but stopped and things continued on the course of the evening.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once again, Keiichi was seen sitting on the back porch looking at the stars. Although tonight, he had different thoughts on his mind. His mind wandering back to what Belldandy had done that day; the kiss, the looks and probably more to come.

As he was deep in thought a figure slowly and quietly walked outside and watched him for a while, as she always did. A small smile that looked more like a mischievous grin graced her countenance. She slowly floated over behind Keiichi as to gain the element of surprise, something she rarely did. He was disturbed from his thoughts as a pair of small, silky arms wrapped around his chest and he felt warmth on his neck.

He turned his head slightly to see Belldandy starting to kneel behind him with her head on his shoulder and smiling. He grinned back and stated to stroke her hair gently. He was surprised how open she'd been, and now it seemed she was a bit more aggressive, and dare he say it, passionate towards him.

Both stayed in the position for a while without saying anything. He soon noticed that she was kissing and somewhat licking his neck. It almost made him jump, but he also noticed how good it felt. Things continued on this pattern before he turned around and things progressed to further stages of kissing.

After about a minute of 'making out,' Keiichi broke their actions and looked at Belldandy rather surprised.

"What happened to taking it a little slow?" he asked in curiosity. What she did next surprised him even further. She sort of got a hurt look in her eyes and pouted. Normally, he would've been helpless against that look, but he thought it was strange she would use it now.

Keiichi leaned over and felt her forehead with his hand and shook his head. She didn't have a fever and didn't seem to feel clammy, so what was going on?

"Is everything alright Belldandy? I mean, do you feel well?"

She nodded curtly and looked over at him, "Why would you ask Keiichi-san?"

"Well…It just seems surprising that you would try to do this after we had agreed to take it a little slowly last night," he said thoughtfully.

She hugged him tightly and whispered, "I want to be as close as I can get with my Keiichi-san."

He grinned a little and thought of something slightly fun he could do to her. He'd only done it once, but he could see the look in Belldandy's eyes when it was all said and done, and she had enjoyed it.

He slowly wrapped his arm around her waist again and waited to see if she suspected anything. After a few seconds, he realized she wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary, so he continued with his plot. He slowly started to rub her side and then tickle it lightly.

Almost immediately, Belldandy's eyes snapped open and she giggled and looked at him, "Keiichi-san?"

Her response was another vault of tickling, except a little bit heavier and with both hands. She cried softly in surprised and started laughing harder. This only encouraged Keiichi to press his attack forward. After a few minutes of this, he had stopped and looked at Belldandy with a sly grin. She looked rather tired and was breathing heavily from their little encounter. She smiled back at him and seemed to blush a little.

Keiichi helped her up and started walking into the temple. She looked at him in confusion.

"Keiichi-san? What's wrong?"

"Oh, it's nothing Belldandy. It is getting rather late though, so we should turn in, don't you think?" he replied casually. She nodded and followed him.

Both were still smiling and parted their separate ways to get some sleep.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mara watched and smiled. She hadn't expected this from her concoction, but it was quite interesting. She knew what it contained, but it was interesting that that specific part came out first. Perhaps it went in order of her traits she showed the most.

The next few days would be wonderful moments. The potion worked each night when Belldandy would go to sleep, in addition to whom she concentrated on most.

Soon, very soon Mara would try to take advantage of the situation and have them break the contract.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next two days passed with no real incident, although Keiichi did notice a few things, but nothing major. Each time he left and came home, the kiss his beloved Belldandy would give him would be short and almost hold no emotion in it.

He thought it was paying him back for tickling her the other night so he shrugged it off and passed it off as nothing.

What really seemed to worry him was that Belldandy would rarely look at him and seemed to be avoiding him recently. He'd confronted Urd about it but she told him she had nothing to do with it.

He only hoped it would end soon, he enjoyed spending time with her and it made him sad to see her avoiding him.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the third morning approached, Keiichi awoke to the smell of usual breakfast. He smiled and realized what day it was and decided he would ask Belldandy if she would like to go on a short walk on this lovely Saturday morning. It was still in the middle of spring and Belldandy usually enjoyed looking at the beautiful scenery around the parks near the city.

He rose from his slumber feeling a little refreshed. He always felt a little better after good nights sleep. He'd gotten used to the schedule he kept repeating day after day.

He slowly walked to the kitchen after washing his face off with cold water to wake him up a bit more.

Belldandy turned around smiling to the kitchen door as it opened, only to see Keiichi. The smile quickly faded and she seemed to scowl at him. He looked back at her and backed away a little, "Is anything wrong Belldandy?"

"Not really, nothing important," she replied briskly to the question and moved to set everything on the table. After setting everything on the table, Keiichi began to eat, as was the ritual on Saturday. Both the other goddesses were still asleep, and they usually slept a good two hours longer than Keiichi. As he ate, he noticed Belldandy was still avoiding his gaze and seemed a bit upset.

As he finished and cleaned his area, he came back and sat next to Belldandy. To his shock and dismay, she moved further away as he was about to put a hand on her shoulder.

"I was wondering…would you like to take a walk before the others wake up, and before I have to go to work, and talk a little about what's bothering you?" Keiichi knew something was wrong, but he didn't know why. She'd never reacted this way before.

"No thank you, I'd prefer to spend some time talking to my sisters," she replied and finished her cup of Darjeeling tea.

As she cleared her area she noticed Keiichi looking at her in confusion. She frowned slightly and continued her work. As she was about to leave the kitchen to check on her sisters, Keiichi grabbed her hand and pulled her toward him.

"What's wrong Belldandy? Why won't you talk about anything with me? Why won't you even look at me?"

Belldandy looked away and pushed herself away from Keiichi again, "It's nothing really, I just want to be alone right now, please."

She started to move away again, but Keiichi grabbed her hand again. What happened next was a total shock. Belldandy quickly turned and slapped him, which made him release her hand and back away.

"I told you I want to be alone, quit trying to stop me and acting like you care," she said venomously as she glared at him and walked out of the room.

Keiichi could only watch in utter shock and fear as she left. He moved his hand to the right side of his face, which was where she had slapped him. Something definitely was not right, and he was determined to find out what was wrong when he got home from work.

As he left, a third figure that had watched the entire exchange smiled evilly. It was working at last.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Belldandy had spent the majority of the day with her sisters. They had to admit it was a bit of a shock that she was suddenly so one sided when it came to them. She was even pushing Keiichi away to be with them. Urd was suspicious of something happening, but didn't say anything. She didn't want to upset Belldandy in any way.

Skuld, on the other hand, enjoyed spending the time with her sister and was completely oblivious to what was happening. She had noticed that Belldandy seemed to be a little bit less inclined to do chores and care for the house, but otherwise she was the same loving sister she knew as her own. Skuld had just figured Belldandy was getting tired of doing them and would pick up in a few days. In the mean time, she would enjoy herself with whatever would happen.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keiichi cursed his lousy luck as he pulled into the temple area almost at midnight. He had called ahead and told them that he'd be late, but it didn't seem to bother Belldandy, who had answered the phone.

In addition to the one he loved now all but avoiding him completely; his rotten luck seemed to return at the worst time. He was caught in the crossfire in a joint project with another company. They had wanted him to stay and help them finish as much of the project that was their part as they could, which resulted in his coming home late.

Everybody seemed to be asleep, so he silently ate a quick dinner made of leftovers and went to bed. He would have to talk to Belldandy tomorrow.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keiichi woke up a bit late on that Sunday morning, almost the same time Skuld and Urd. He hated working six days a week, but it was still rather fun. Sunday was his only day off, but he usually used it to spend the day with Belldandy.

His mind immediately shifted to what had happened yesterday and what he wanted to talk to her about. He slowly rose and walked to the bathroom. He prepared himself for what was about to happen, or so he thought. In reality, nothing could prepare him for what was about to take place.