"Are we going to throw him off our cliffs this night, Father?" Hermes asked with put-upon levity as he trotted alongside him, as if he were oblivious to just how viciously this might unfold.
Zeus didn't answer, but Hermes was not surprised by this. He had often been the one to deal with his father when he was in one of these moods. Mitigating the damage was the wisest course at this point... and cleaning up the mess afterward.
The halls stretched on, empty. It was far too early for there to be no one roaming about, so Hermes supposed that the King's rage had been felt by more than just he and Hera… Far better to hear about Divine Punishment over breakfast than to partake in it or to be standing within range. Ixion, however, would be none-the-wiser, having only a mortal sense of danger.
Hermes didn't know whether he wished the man such a luxury of ignorance.
The Messenger god was surprised when Zeus abruptly stopped in a shadowed stretch of hall, and the lesser god quickly side-stepped to avoid colliding with his father's wall of a back. Zeus' gaze was on the sky, ponderous and intent. His son could see nothing but what was black and brewing, but he knew the King—he was planning an approach, and the quiet sadism in his eyes spoke to nothing well.
The quiet stretched to an almost unbearable limit. Zeus' rage seemed to have chilled, but there was still a choking pressure in the air that indicated the exact opposite. It was like that dreadful calm before the wind started to howl. Hermes opened his mouth to say something(he didn't know what), when the King lifted his arm, elbow bent and fingers slightly curled, as if he was beckoning above.
At first, Hermes saw no cause in this—nothing had happened. But then he saw them—the tufts of clouds drifting downward—immediately to Zeus' waiting hand, clearly ready to execute his whim. Hermes jaw fell, his mind blank of all witty repartee. Zeus could form almost anything out of clouds (he was ruler of the sky, after all). But what had this to do with a lustful fool? What punishment could he craft Ixion out of clouds? Hermes had been imagining pointy, sharp, crackling, searing weapons… but no, only clouds?
Zeus paused a moment as they gathered to him, and after an interminable moment, the King stroked one hand slowly, caressingly downward and it began to take shape. Long, to the floor, but shorter than them both. Slight, soft curves and flowing, elaborate dress that set it off to perfection.
It even smells like a woman… Hermes thought, as it became clear that the figure was to be a girl. A gorgeous girl, he corrected himself as he saw large, dewy eyes and delectable lips and high cheekbones and… Hermes blinked, dazed out of dreamy musings.
It was his stepmother. Almost a perfect replica …of his stepmother.
Hermes took in a sharp breath at the realization that he was openly ogling this creature and averted his eyes. It was only "almost" a perfect model because there were slight differences, enough to make Hermes extremely uncomfortable. Hera would have never dressed so… provocatively. Her eyes never glittered with such seductive, wily purpose that looked so deceptive in their doe-like splendor.
Hermes gulped as it took a step toward them—toward Zeus, he meant. Hermes' eyes were resolutely on the floor, but he could see his father in his periphery, stroking a finger down the supple cheek of his not-wife.
"Go to him," he murmured to it. In opposition to his son, he hadn't torn his eyes from the cloud-Hera the entire time. But this—this seemed too much!
"Your Magesty," Hermes croaked, almost hoarse with shock. "What do you mean to do?!"
The cloud-made Queen had already set off to obey, walking the length of the hall and turning to the closed door of Ixion's temporary lodgings, knocking lightly. Even the way that it moved…
The Messenger god and the King were too far down to be noticed by the visiting king, and Zeus' creation did not reveal them. In fact, she spoke no word and apparently did not need to; for the door opened and she was eagerly invited in. Hermes side-eyed Zeus as she disappeared into the room; the King's eyes were an awful sight, bloodshot and terrifying. Hermes licked his dry lips, already having an inordinately bad feeling about Zeus' "idea", but unable to say much against it without losing his own head.
"So… uh, what are we to do now?"
Zeus didn't answer, only twitched his hand before him. Hermes hadn't noticed that Zeus still had a small lump of cloud remaining with him, but then the King spread his fingers and Hermes watched, aghast, as the little thing spread and brightened, reflecting a moving picture.
Ixion's face shined back at immortal father and son, trembling with anticipation. It was as if his wildest dreams were manifesting before his eyes.
It took Hermes the space of a moment to understand what it was: a scene …shown through the eyes of the cloud-woman. Hermes blinked, truly fearful about what had already begun. Surely… his father wouldn't… allow this to continue while they watched?!
"Your husband is a fearsome god, Lady. But I would be willing to risk it for only a night with you! All mortals know of his philandering ways—"
"Perhaps we should—" Hermes began.
"—quiet!" Zeus cut across his son in a deadly boom that somehow managed to be delivered in undertone. Hermes pressed his lips together, feeling himself beginning to perspire.
"—I'm sure that it causes you deep pain, but this night you would know that there is no woman, mortal or immortal that could ever compare to your beauty!" Ixion proclaimed eagerly, taking her hand in his.
There was no lie in his words, which was the most galling feature of all; to use such a thing to convince the Queen of the gods to commit adultery against the god who purified him—a god who was a flagrant adulterer himself and was laid open to such criticisms. Hermes, in his panicked state, was halfway impressed at the audacity of it all!
Of course, had the man known Hera's character, he would have never believed to see the Queen in his rooms. And while Zeus was on Mount Olympus... How did he think that he would get away with such a thing? But Hermes supposed that lust made men blindingly foolish at times: no consequence was too great, until one was sated. He had met that feeling before a time or two…
The cloud still never uttered a word, but that didn't dissuade Ixion. He was initially worshipful of her, his words begging for just a touch, but it didn't take long for the image to become obscene and Hermes again averted his eyes, knowingwho the likeness of the woman was and balking at the horror of standing next to her husband while this went on. He rather thought he'd wish to be anywhere else at this moment.
When this was over, he would snatch one of Aphrodite's sandals again… old tricks worked well on her, and above all, it would piss Ares off in a way that promised no retaliation… no physical retaliation, in any case. Or one of Apollo's little seers… that might be more fun! Apollo was cerebral, and the reward angering that brother off was more substantial for his pride. Hephaestus and Dionysus were boring, no rise to be had with them!
"OH, my Divine Lady! Oh!"
Hermes cringed violently, wondering if it were possible to die of embarrassment that wasn't your own? When was Zeus going to stop this?! He cast another glance at his father, who was watching the vision intently, sounds and all as the pair were surely coming to climax. His eyes were taking on a red hue that made him look nearly identical to Ares.
As uncomfortable as Hermes was and unable to leave the King until dismissed, he watched his father instead with some amazement. Zeus' eyes were unmoving, seeming to drink it in, to catalogue every detail—Hermes couldn't understand why he hadn't stopped it yet. All signs of the terrible rage in his father had also seemed to disappear, until he looked down and saw that his hands were twitching and crackling with deadly energy, distilled in that one place.
He's going to smite him, Hermes thought with resignation. The King had put Lord Ixion in this position, derelict that the man was, and now, he was going to send him to Tartarus for the crime. Perhaps deserved… or perhaps that could be a subject of debate between Zeus and Hades.
But there was no true debate with Zeus' judgement…
A flash ripped out of the Messenger god's vision and Zeus was gone, the door down the hall repelling open and a horrified, womanly shriek careening into the sky and ringing around the corridor. Hermes hurried after his father, not looking forward to whatever the scene was within but moving as he knew the King would have him do.
Zeus must have re-clothed his cloud creation immediately, because the Hera look-alike was garbed as if she had never romped on the thoroughly disheveled bed. She was staring composedly at the two figures at the other end, no recognition sparking in her face. So it hadn't been she who had screamed… Ixion was panting with fear, his eyes locked onto Zeus', who held him by the throat, purpling the man's face.
"I would say it was a pity that you spent and condemned yourself on an imitation, but I see now that 'pity' you don't deserve," Zeus snarled.
"W—wh—" Ixion gargled as the King pressed harder on his windpipe.
"Did you THINK that my wife, the Queen of the gods, would SEEK YOU OUT? You, not fit to wipe the dirt from where we walk?" The sky cracked with an ominous wail, a wind picking up the sound and swallowing it, yet still the King's voice could be heard. "Know one last thing before you die: that was not my wife. It would never have been, and you've wasted your second chance on nothing. So remember my face, and enjoy your fool's prize!" And Zeus drew back, the lightning bolt screaming to his hand from the sky and Zeus flung it brutally, a high-pitched bray of agony cut short by the man's death. Hermes trembled, but the cloud next to him only watched curiously, with no visible alarm at the sound or the scene.
Zeus nudged his sandal at the charred heap pitilessly. "'Benefactors should be honored', you will exclaim it all the days of your torment. Take him to my brother in the Underworld. I want him …tied to a flaming wheel for all eternity and scourged besides."
Zeus rarely dictated the punishment of choice for those condemned, but when he did, it was carried out. Zeus stormed away from the wreckage, presumably back to the comfort of his bed, and Hermes sighed, frowning at the burned husk of this person before retrieving the soiled sheet to wrap it up. "I swear that there are times when my job is the most undignified…"
GXGXGXGXGXGXGXGXGX
While Zeus had gone, Hera had worked herself into a fine temper. The sky was telling the whole story of this confrontation. Nothing about it had been discreet as she wished, and her husband's reaction was wholly disproportionate to the crime, as he suited. As always, the action itself mattered little.
While he was gone, she had entertained herself with the fantasy of throwing a crystal goblet of wine at his head. So when he finally made his appearance, she acted on the impulse and let it fly. But he ducked it with the expertise of someone who fully-expected it, to her disappointment. The glass shattering against the wall behind him.
His chest was heaving unnaturally as he stared at her, laughed at her with his eyes aflame.
"Well?" she spat.
His smirk widened and he took some steps toward her. It made her heart begin to work faster, her anger further incensed. Swiftly, he grabbed her just as she raised her hands to hit him and crushed the offending limbs against his chest, putting his lips to her forehead and breathing there, breathing her in like some intoxication, ignoring her struggle entirely until she tired of it and waited for his next move, infuriated.
A finger came up under her chin and tilted her head to meet his cruel, hot eyes. "What do you think I did to him?"
She shoved him away from her and waved her hand, so the pieces of crystal she had fired at his head re-formed and returned to the table. She had already known that he had killed Ixion—the sound of Zeus throwing his bolt was never forgotten, once heard. It shook the foundations of Olympus, Ouranos forbid that her husband do anything except in the most public way possible!
He watched her as she poured herself another glass with stiff movements, she could feel him still grinning with vicious energy underneath. Whatever had happened was twisted, surely… something that caused him to concoct lust, mindlessness, and violence into a storm.
"I told you what I would do. Did you think me a liar?" he said at her deliberate ignoring of him, but she had been waiting for the confirmation and she shoved the glass back down to the table, turning on him.
"Why did you do it? You punished him for thought!"
"Oh, it was more than a thought, darling," Zeus responded darkly.
Hera was about to object, when another figure shadowed the doorway of their chambers and she turned toward the presence. When she saw it, her eyes widened and her lips parted in disbelief.
"You inconceivable bastard."
Zeus came up behind her and drank deep of the glass before she could protest. He shook his head, pinning her with a look. "No. Your husband… bound by vow forever."
"More's the pity," she answered, because she was so unexplainably angry now that she didn't know what to do with herself. He had done something twisted, and he had killed someone in their home only minutes before! Worse, it had put him in a careless mood that would make nothing she said matter. She could call him any number of vile names and it would bounce off of him… amuse him, even. There was no point to this.
In that moment that she moved to quit the room and return to her own chambers, Zeus, so attune to her, predicted it. He seized her and pulled her back against his front, so they stood facing his creation of her—that beautiful, blank-eyed, empty fluff.
"Ah-ah," Zeus tutted. "We aren't done here…"
Her cloud form hadn't moved and hadn't spoken. It watched them with no affectation. Hera finally truly looked at the creature. It was her… and it was very much not. Her eyes trailed down the more sensual appearance, that more inviting tilt of the mouth…
"That is how you see me?"
"No." Zeus said with feeling, hands roaming her. "It's how he saw you."
Hera laughed, her cheeks burning and her control all but disappearing at his passion and his hypocrisy. The words were out of her mouth long before she could think better of it. "Oh, and you think that you're very different, do you?"
His hold on her tightened a little, and she knew he had taken her meaning. She relaxed into the grip and her head rested back against his shoulder, soaking in the offense he had taken at the suggestion. This line could go quite dangerously for her, but she had lost all care. So she went on, wounding him with the truth while he held her there before him, dropping her volume so he would have to listen closely, knowing he would mark every word.
"You know what that fool reminded me tonight? …of your eyes, before you made me your Queen." His grip slackened enough for her to shift toward his ear, whispering the words there. "His lack of control—all yours. So don't pretend you have some higher, nobler ideals, my lord."
He chuckled, in a vain attempt at playing it off, but heard the rippling rage in it. "Oh, and so you wanted him?"
She hadn't wanted the man. At all. But there was only one answer she would give him to a question like that. "Why shouldn't I?!"
His face reddened and his voice shook with indignation. "Because you are my wife!"
"And you're my husband!" She rounded to face him now that he had lost his hold. "That doesn't seem to stop you, does it?!"
"You didn't desire him," Zeus denied with a furious snarl, ignoring her accusation.
"No more than you want all of your conquests, I'm sure," she shot back. He was right, she hadn't wanted him but it was because it wasn't truly in her nature to want anyone else. And that also made her angry… because why did HE get to do this? She knew why.
"I just don't want to be near you right now," Hera decided, wriggling away from him and straightening her gown from his grip. "Perhaps you can play with your cloud instead, my lord. But do be careful …because unfortunately for her, I believe your inglorious schemes have left her pregnant…"
This time, she almost was able to flee, her words catching Zeus momentarily off-guard. Almost.
But as she had observed from the moment he had strode into the room, he hadn't abated. Had she been more accepting, they would have probably already been on the bed, unmaking it.
He was on her before she even made it past his creature, his nose pressed to her temple from behind, hand encircling her upper arm. "Only you," he swore desperately.
She tilted her neck toward him, not unaffected, but letting him suffocate and move her even as her words belied it. "For tonight. So you can stake your claim."
"I have nothing to stake, Hera. We are for always, for eternity."
She wasn't leaving… it was an intoxicating force—him, and her feeling his desire as the goddess of Marriage, and as the object of that desire. But then still, the need to exert it and distill it into something even more powerful overcame her… She held out a shaking hand, sapping away the immortal appearance of the cloud, reducing its resemblance of her before sending it away from them.
Zeus was ignoring her motions, pressing his face against the side of hers more insistently, his hand coming up to cup her jaw. "You only desire me, ever," he told himself, pretending it to be a demand of her.
"Ha! He was so like you, Zeus, that it hardly matters."
She couldn't keep the smirk from her face, so he knew what she was doing, especially from his intentness on her. Yet he seemed powerless under her punishment. Since he had entered the room and dodged what she had thrown, he had wanted to slake his lust, expel on her what had been built up in him by his awful trick. He said nothing, but his eyes got blacker and his grip tightened, his hands bringing her face closer to his, a dare to continue. Continue she did.
"That's why you gave him forgiveness, is it not? Come, don't you remember, my love? The way that you wouldn't let me escape your eye, wouldn't let me breathe without feeling your gaze whenever I was in your presence?" She put her own hand to her throat and he squeezed her in the cage of his arms. "It took all that I had to stay in any room with you and not run to some corner of the universe where you couldn't find me..."
He shook his head, at a loss for speech, it seemed. But she knew what his denial meant: no corner of the universe would have been safe for her back then. And like then, she was now bringing him to a rise that she wasn't sure she could handle, and it made her heart race. One last thing…
Slowly, she raised herself on her toes, stretching her mouth to his ear as he tensed motionlessly. "If someone had laid such a trap for you…" she breathed, "you would have fallen right into it. That's what vexes you. The only difference between you and that mortal is no one could send you to Tartarus for it."
It wasn't so much what she said as the bitein her tone, but he finally broke, crashing against her like a wave against a rock. Unlike the rock, she let him break her. She wanted him to.
"Shall I imagine you're him?" she edged out cruelly, her teeth closing against jaw, under his ear, when he threw them both back across the room, against the wall, and she cried at his roughness and strength. He growled at her and his hand went to her neck, pulling her back where she couldn't bite him. Swiftly, without thought, he lifted her and her legs automatically wrapped around his waist, her hands steadying themselves on his shoulders as he brought up one arm and grasped her chin, forcing her to look at him.
She released all of the breath she had left, expecting what would come next—the familiarity of their position; the embattled, furious, heated mess of their coupling. But her eyes still met his, blazing and defiant.
And then he stopped.
Hera blinked as he froze, suspending them both. She didn't look away, uncertainty bringing her marginally out of the haze. His eyes didn't immediately change under her stare, but darkened with a quiet, intense heat that didn't make sense to her.
The hand on her jaw loosened and drifted lower, causing her breath to hitch again in anticipation as he neared her breast. His fingers skated past her neck and rested against her chest, for a moment, before he pushed the cloth of her gown slightly aside.
"What?" Hera wondered breathlessly, lifting one of her hands from his shoulder to cup his cheek instead, hoping to gain his attention toward her perplexity. But he didn't want to stop what he was doing.
Rather, he bent his head lower and kissed where he had laid her bare: where her heart beat.
She threaded through his hair reflexively and as the sigh of his kiss burned her skin and he stayed resting there. She didn't know exactly what he was doing, but it wasn't unpleasant. It wasn't bitter or hurried and there was no harmony of pain or madness in it, like had been moments ago.
Languidly, he drew back and looked up at her, his hair tousled and soft from her hands, causing her heart to stop to look at him. She tried to claw back onto the previous feelings, but all the anger and fight drained out of her with that one look. All there was… was him. All she could see was his love for her, naked and unrelenting.
"Damn you," she muttered, when he smiled and crept his face toward her, their noses brushing. His kiss was unhurried and warm, one arm still supporting her weight, pressing her so close against him that she wouldn't have been surprised if she sank into his skin and remained there forever.
"Damn you." He took advantage of the mouth she opened, groaning. The next moment, there was softness of bedding beneath her and he was above her, worshipping her without end.
The sky had lightened again before Zeus huffed suddenly, and shifted towards the cradle of his arms, swiping his wife's hair gently from her face to catch her too-beautiful eyes. "Your silence is to be my reward, then?" he groused. "For how long?"
She did slightly open her eyes at his words, stretching against him before settling back into his embrace, cuddled up and unconcerned. Zeus nuzzled her impatiently when she didn't answer. "Hera."
She didn't open her eyes this time. "I'll be silent until I have something sweet to say, my lord. Satisfy yourself with that."
From his arms, in an eternity where she was, he could happily satisfy himself with that.
GXGXGXGXGX
"A mortal made advances toward your sister and it was not well-received."
"Demeter," Hades guessed grimly. "Or Hera?" Hestia wouldn't find that such a bone to pick over… his other two sister-goddesses had all of the temper.
Hermes shifted the wrapped body off of his back and it dropped to the cold, stone floor with a dry thwack, revealing some of what was under the sheet. Hades caught the sight of the singed remains of electrocution and wrinkled his nose in disgust. Injuries from Zeus' thunderbolts were always slow to regenerate, even upon death.
"Ah, it was Hera… and Zeus did that." Hades blinked. "How far did this man go?" If someone had taken it upon themselves to flirt with Hera, it was usually not in view of his brother and Hera would deal with it herself, not report it to her husband. But this explained why Hermes came himself to deliver the baggage.
"My father set up a scenario that only a saint could surmount," Hermes groused, slumped with annoyance at the night's events. "No one could fault him for a lack of imagination, I suppose. He orders that this body be strapped to a flaming wheel and scourged in Tartarus, due to his violation of guest-host rights."
"So he goes to Tartarus," Hades said. "Not for his crime of kin-slaying …but for making a nuisance of himself by wanting to sleep with my sister?"
"That is quite correct."
"My brother always did imagine that I had more servants at my beck-and-call than I truly do," Hades said dryly. "So now I'll have to find a shade who will scourge this lump of flesh until the end of time!"
"Right," Hermes responded, not eager to hear the challenges of ruling the Dead and desiring to make his escape before his uncle thought to expand on those complaints. "Well, I must be off! I look forward to seeing you at the next Council, Uncle."
Hermes had doffed his cap and flown off before Hades could even deliver the customary dismissal. He glanced again at the broken body beneath the throne and decided he could spend all of his life in the Underworld if it meant never having to worry over men with such intentions towards his Queen.
"Demeter may be the mother-in-law from Tartarus, but at least she fends off suitors…"
A/N:This was a strangely difficult story, mostly because Ixion couldn't really be all that sleazy in the beginning (or forget about Zeus, Hera would have taken care of things!). Also, the cloud-thing ...very weird. Hermes' reactions were basically my own, minus the musings about pissing people off. I had another idea for a myth-based work and the final scene of this fic may give you a slight hint as to what would be involved... but that's all I'm going to say. Thanks for reading and let me know what you thought!