Chapter 10

Shortly after their little chit chat, Ares and Aphrodite appeared in Athena's temple in Athens. Aphrodite hooked her arm through Ares' and smiled widely as he gave her a stern glare for having once again plastered herself to him. She didn't seem to mind his reaction though. They soon began walking around… the party was in full swing. Ares grabbed a goblet of wine from a passing tray and began drinking it slowly. He let his eyes scan the room searching for one particular person.

"We are going to have so much fun." she stated on her usual, bubbly tone. She then looked up at Ares with a huge grin on her face , just to see that he was once again, terribly distracted. She sighed, noticing that he pretty much looked like he did before when they were at his temple. 'What has gotten into him?' she questioned herself.

"So do you want to mingle around a bit, dance?" she asked excitedly as she looked out at the festivities. Not getting an answer she turned her gaze back up at him and saw he still had his eyes on the crowd as if he had been searching for something specific. She cast a discreet glance around in the direction that he was looking to see if she could find what had managed to preoccupy his mind to that extent.

She furrowed her brow as she came up short. She sighed heavily not really seeing how a few drunken worshippers could keep him distracted like that. A devious grin began to form on her face though as she thought up a way to capture his attention.

"You know Ares, considering the amount of wine running around this place, you might be able to persuade some of Athena's priestesses to let you have your way with them."

She smiled big, thinking that if anything would capture the War God's attention that had to be it. Her smart smile quickly faded nonetheless, when she saw that he was still too engrossed on finding whatever it was that was eluding him at the moment.

She kept trying to solve the puzzle , when, all of the sudden, everything seemed to snap into place for her. His reaction back at his temple when she questioned him about his distraction, the battle with Athena, his unexpected change in attitude and willingness to come with her to the party only after he had learned who was going to attend it. …She couldn't help the smile on her face as the puzzle was finally solved.

'He might be in denial but there is definitely a she.' she thought to herself.

She quickly began to realize that the woman in question had to be one of Athena's warrior's. 'No wonder she was able to capture his attention like that. She's a lethal beauty.' She couldn't wait to finally meet her.

Despite having heard his sister's questions , he was way too busy with scanning the crowd to give her an answer. As for her snide comment about having to persuade the priestesses….he just felt the need to chuckle at it's naivety… as if those bimbos needed much persuading in the first place. It wasn't until he heard his name get called with anger that he stopped his scanning and turned in the direction that the voice came from. He rolled his eyes slightly seeing Athena approaching them.

'Here we go.' he thought as he mentally prepared himself to go a few rounds with her.

The Goddess of Wisdom was obviously furious that Ares had dared showed up to her party. She certainly did not put him on the guest list.

"Ares did you not get your butt whipped enough earlier?" she asked with a sly grin. "I thought for sure you would be in one of your temples somewhere licking your wounds after the defeat your army suffered at the hands of my warrior's."

"Gee it's great to see you too sis." he bit back sarcastically, rolling his eyes and shaking his head with disgust and looking away the following second.

Not wanting the situation to escalate, the Love Goddess tried to ease the tension between them.

"He's with me Athena. I invited him."

Suddenly, Athena turned her attention to Aphrodite. "Why would you do that?" she asked in surprise, not having expected for her to actually bring him there.

"Well.." she started in a happy tone "you did say I could bring anyone I wanted to the party so I said to myself 'self who do you want to bring?'" she turned and moved her hand up and down Ares' back.

Athena let out an annoyed sigh not entirely pleased with the situation.

"Fine! But if he causes any trouble it will be on you, Dite."

Aphrodite nodded her head in agreement. Athena gave Ares one last glare before she turned and left them.

"I do enjoy heart to heart talks." Ares said to Athena's retreating back.

Aphrodite shook her head at him. "Be nice, I don't think I could survive the punishment if you did something wrong." she said.

"Relax Dite, what's the worse she could do to you ? Cancel a hair appointment? It's not the end of the world."

Aphrodite gasped at this realization. "Oh Gaia I didn't even think of that." she said on a depressed tone , as if that would have been the death of her.

Ares just shook his head at her, refusing to believe that she could be so air headed at times.

Snapping out of her depression, she finally saw someone in the crowd that caught her eye.

"Oh look there's Heph. I'm going over to say hi."

As she walked away, Ares couldn't help the slight chuckle. One moment she acted like her world was falling apart and the next she was as right as rain.

He then returned his gaze back to the crowd, once again searching the faces amongst it.

'She must be here somewhere.' he thought as he furrowed his brow. He began to get a little disappointed and annoyed. He came all this way and put up with Athena for longer than he was willing to, for nothing. He was beginning to count his loses and leave when a small pocket in the crowd opened up, finally revealing to him what he had been looking for. A small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he finally caught a glimpse of her. She seemed to be deep in thought about something.

Ares watched her carefully for a couple of seconds. She looked bored and irritated. He looked on as a hand appeared and started to caress her on the shoulder, breaking her from her thoughts. His smile immediately dropped at this new turn of events. He could see the look of disgust on her face as she shrugged it off. The crowd opened up more now, revealing Apollo sitting next to her, practically leering at her. He didn't like the way he was slowly inching his way closer to her.

He began to feel his rage build in him at the sight of Apollo and his unwelcome advances towards her. He scowled as he watched him attempting to touch her again, but was met with the same reaction as before. He could see that she was getting fed up with him.

'I think it's time we finally meet.' he thought to himself. He disappeared from where he was standing to appear beside the pair on the couch. He stayed hidden from view so he could listen to what Apollo was ranting about.