Chapter 14

Now one would have thought that portraying Katsuki would be easy for him, seeing that he was aware of his love for the little goddess of music; however, that was not the case. He had never really put much thought into being denied the woman he loved. Their love had never really been forbidden, in the past. At this particular moment in human history though, any relationship with a young woman under the age of 17 or, 18 was looked down upon considering his age. She was still a child and this bothered him the more thought he put into it. When they were around others that didn't know their origins, he realized that he would have to control himself. He couldn't touch her, kiss her or, make love to her. For all intent and purpose, she was still a child at 16 and she was off limits, at least until her birthday. They had to limit their contact after the incident at the club to minimize Lory's intrusion on their lives and not garner the attention of Hera, Hermes or, any of the other gods that would report on them. If they didn't want him micromanaging their current lives, they would have to be very secretive and discrete. It brought many a memory back to the brothers of their teen years and they had both winced at the thought, even if they weren't aware of their origins at the time, they still felt guilty for ever even considering having another female in their lives.

Most would think that this frame of mind was ridiculous, but considering that both couples were more than familiar with his meddling, it became easy to fall into a "forbidden fruit" frame of mind. This was a certain situation that Phobos and Deimos became intimately familiar with and it frustrated them more that they thought it would.

As for the girls, they had to limit their conversations about their men when they were in public or, at work. They had to keep that aspect of their lives strictly professional and most certainly not use their issued cell phones for anything personal, which is why they two couples made the decision to buy cell phones that they could use for their conversations. It was perfect, Ruto/Hermes couldn't spy on the messages and Lory/Zeus couldn't access their phone records because he wasn't paying the bills. If they had been able to access any of the conversations or, text messages they would have discovered literally hundreds each week.

It was because of her new phone and the text message that she was reading, that had her too distracted to notice a troublesome hand that would pull her into his dressing room after her interview.

"What the hell are you doing here? Are they getting desperate for people to interview they had to scrape from the bottom of the barrel?" He asked arrogantly and his manager just shook her head silently as he berated his former friend.

"I'm working, you idiot. Unlike you, I actually have things to do. I can't just sit back and copy off of others without anyone noticing the difference." She spat out.

Her accusation was like sand in a wound. "How dare you say I've copied off of anyone!" He slapped her.

She looked at him in shock and Shoko's jaw dropped. "You will regret that..." Her voice was low and sinister and both singer and manager could see her shimmer and glow. She was truly terrifying and both froze. Then suddenly she stopped as if she had heard something, turned and walked away.

~xoxo~

The strange, platinum-haired musician knelt in his dressing room in quiet prayer before his interview. He had always believed in the gods and there was one in particular that he wished to gain favor with.

"Oh goddess of song and music, please hear my prayer." He murmured quietly. "Help me to overcome my weaknesses. Give me the strength to make you proud."

He felt a soft caress on his hair. "Thank you, Reino." Her soft voice caressed his ears and he opened his eyes to see what his patron goddess looked like.

"Are you..." He started.

She nodded. "Aoidḗ... " She smiled.

He was stunned. He fought to catch his breath and nodded to her. "You shouldn't thank me. I'm the one whose grateful. You've given me so much."

She giggled. "I've given you nothing. You already have the talent, I only give you inspiration to use it. You honor me by sharing it with the world." She kissed his forehead. "Now, stand. I have a gift for you." He did as he was told.

"I have heard your prayer." She stood, glowing with a golden aura in her purple silk with gold braiding, her long silken raven hair flowing behind her with small blue spirit resting in her palm. She kissed it and whispered. "Go with him. Help him. Inspire him little one. Make me proud."

The little blue spirit nodded with a shy smile, jumped from her palm and landed softly on Reino's shoulder, then curtsied.

"Reino, this is Euterpe. Cherish her and she will help you with your dream." She instructed him then left in a shower of gold.

He was irritated and upset. It was her fault he hit her. He didn't mean to do it. He wouldn't have if she had never said those things to him. What made it even worse is when he heard the staff of Japonet Scoop rave about the new VK group, Vie Ghoul. If that wasn't enough, the idiot lead singer took none of the credit. He told the interviewer that the goddess of song and music had blessed him personally. What the hell kind of idiot/freak says something like that on national television?

Sho scoffed. "Hmph, jackass..." He turned the channel to something a bit more entertaining and decided to forget everything that happened today. He would try to make it up to Kyoko some other time.

It was vexing. Had she not heard that powerful, heartfelt prayer from Reino so close by, she would have turned Sho into a crow or, a bullfrog in front of Shoko and her father would have been very angry with her. Possibly even punish her. She sighed as she examined the small cut on her face.

"MO! What happened?" Mnḗmē stepped next to her and turned her so she could see the cut.

Kyoko looked down at the floor in shame. "He slapped me." She murmured.

Kanae's eyes went wide. "Deimos did this?!"

"NO! He would never do something like that! It was that stupid singer Sho Fuwa." She explained hastily.

"He... Did this?" She hissed. "He, did this?! Sister, he needs to be punished. You need to tell Father. No one hits a goddess and gets away with it!" She ranted.

Kyoko hugged her tightly. "No Sister. He will be punished. I have revoked my influence on him. He will never again find favor with me. He will be on his own from this moment on." She announced.

Kanae nodded. "Good because he is going to have a hell of a time with anything in my realm of influence also."

Kyoko nodded. "At least this way Father won't get involved. We don't want the mortals finding out about us because Father turns him into a pillar of salt." She smirked. "Although, the image is somewhat satisfying."

Kanae agreed.

Lory laughed at his folly for not realizing it sooner as he watched the little imp scowl at the bottled blond male mortal, standing at the reception desk demanding to see Kyoko. He watched as she wiggled her tiny fingers and little spiders repelled down thin gossamer threads above the male, then surrounded him. She giggled mischievously.

Lory shook his head and cleared his throat to get her attention.

Maria startled. "Grandfather! I didn't see you there." She announced sheepishly.

He raised an eyebrow and glanced toward the freaked out teen as he danced the dance of spidery goodness. Lory fought back a proud smile. He knew about Sho and what he had done. He was surprised that Kyoko didn't turn him to stone or, into a toad. "So... Atë, how long have you known? And how long have you been doing this?"

{Screams rang out throughout the halls of Olympus and a horde of spiders could be seen chasing after Pheme, the goddess of fame and scandalous rumors.

Zeus shook his head. "Atë, you shouldn't do that to her. She could ruin you."

"I don't care Grandfather. She said mean things about Iddy. I don't like her, she hangs all over Deimos." She turned and flounced off after her prey.

Zeus shook his head. "Perhaps I should warn Eris about this. She's too young to realize what the consequences are to her actions right now." Then again, perhaps it will be quite entertaining.}

"I don't like him grandfather. He's not nice and he's mean to Iddy." She stomped her little foot and flounced off in her usual manner, to cause more trouble for the unsuspecting mortal.

Lory chuckled. It seemed as though the sisters were some sort of catalyst for the others. He supposed it would only be a matter of time before others awakened and flocked to her, as they seemed to be doing. It was amusing how they had decided to hide it from him. He smirked mischievously and left for his office.